rafale
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French rafale. [usage 1]
Noun
rafale (plural rafales)
- (military) A short, intense burst of artillery fire from a number of weapons fired with the intention of overwhelming resistance or routing an attacking force.
- Captain Andrew Hero Jr.
- […] a salvo is […] a succession of shots […] with the same elevation... a single shot for each piece. By a "rafale" is meant all the shots of a battery fired with the same elevation, without any determined order, at the rate of more than one shot per gun. According to circumstances, three different kinds of fire are employed ... first, progressive fire; second, fire with a single elevation; third, fire by salvos or by "rafales"...[1]
- Captain Andrew Hero Jr.
Usage notes
- ^ In the military context the term may well be obsolete in English; it had been been introduced into French military usage by General Hippolyte Langlois in the late nineteenth century, and adopted into English and American usage not long after, but the usage seems to have petered out in English by the end of World War I
References
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Origin uncertain. Possibly related to Italian raffica influenced by affaler.[1]
Pronunciation
Noun
rafale f (plural rafales)
- (meteorology) gust (strong, abrupt rush of wind)
- Synonym: bourrasque
- (meteorology) sudden shower, flurry
- (by extension, military) burst (series of shots fired from an automatic firearm)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “rafale”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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References
- ^ Etymology and history of “rafale”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Norman
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
rafale f (plural rafales)
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Military
- French terms with unknown etymologies
- French terms derived from Italian
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Meteorology
- fr:Military
- fr:Weather
- Norman lemmas
- Norman nouns
- Norman feminine nouns
- Jersey Norman
- nrf:Wind