type of heavy, single-edged sword, usually slightly curved, 1670s, from French sabre "heavy, curved sword" (17c.), alteration of sable (1630s), from German Sabel, Säbel, which probably is ultimately from Hungarian szablya "saber," literally "tool to cut with," from szabni "to cut." The Balto-Slavic words (Russian sablya, Polish szabla "sword, saber," Lithuanian šoblė) perhaps also are via German, but Italian sciabla seems to be directly from Hungarian. Saber-rattling "militarism" is attested from 1922. Saber-toothed cat (originally tiger) is attested from 1849, so named for the long upper canine teeth.
EDIT: Oooh, etymonline is wrong (or at least not complete). Mirriam-Webster has earlier known uses, says that it was used in the UK first, around the late 1870s.
There is no unanimity of opinion on why we came to refer to this kind of behavior as saber-rattling. Some think that it comes from the practice of 18th-century Hungarian cavalry units had of brandishing their sabers at opponents prior to charging. Others have said that it comes from the habit that military officers had in the early 20th century of ominously shaking their scabbard when issuing orders to subordinates. Our records indicate that the two words began seeing use in fixed fashion around 1880, making it unlikely that it was directly related to either of the causes given above.
Of late it has been in some quarters impossible to mention the word patriotism without having the taunt of being a sabre-rattling BOBADIL thrown in one’s face.
— The Standard (London, Eng.), 19 Feb. 1879
The “Sabre Rattling” of M. Coumoundouros, especially his assertion that by the coming spring he will have 86,000 men in the field, and that this number of troops will have been got together by the 10th of December.
— The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, Eng.), 3 Nov. 1880
The word appears to have begun in the press in the United Kingdom first, and by the early 20th century had spread to newspapers in the United States.
I wondered who was first, too, and looked it up before. The date seems to be in dispute, but English is apparently the original language to coin the term.
said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons
That explains why they had everyone dig into the radioactive soil around Chernobyl and get radiation poisoning. Gotta simulate that nuclear fallout environment "for practice"
Ugh, don't get me started. By "American Christians" I assume you mean "Christian Nationalists" ... Christian Nationalism is about as Christian as the moon is made of cheese:
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...
Hah, if this happened nowadays you'd have to sign up for a $1000/month subscription for 100 words a month on a 5-year contract, pay a $35/word overage fee, and if you didn't use all 100 words in a particular month, you could pay $5/word to roll over up to 10 of them to the next month. And if you try to cancel your subscription after those 5 years, they put you on hold for 3 hours and then accidentally hang up on you.
This is a good development, especially considering how direct a role the UK played in the region (and thus, the laying of the foundations of the conflict that’s been going on since then) in the decades leading up to the establishment of Israel as a country.
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