Co-op mix

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English

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Etymology

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This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “Relates to the Co-op brand of stores and supermarkets; but some sources say it's because of the everyday ingredients, and others because first used to blow up a Co-op store.”

Noun

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Co-op mix (uncountable)

  1. (UK, Ireland) A mixture of sodium chlorate and nitrobenzene used in making improvised bombs during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
    • 1985, Desmond Hamill, Pig in the Middle: The Army in Northern Ireland, 1969-1984, page 198:
      We found one once, 550lbs of Co-Op mix — and we found the firing position, on our side of the border. So I stood on this bloody thing []
    • 2008, A. R. Oppenheimer, IRA, The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity:
      Disrupting Co-op mix devices by burning off the mixture by the use of low-velocity bullets proved ineffective []