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Glite Dictionary
Brigate Rosse

Brigate Rosse

9.9
An Italian group in the 1970s and 1980s that used violence to try to change politics
  • proper noun
  • NSFW
: Brigadas Rojas
  • The Brigate Rosse were responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Italian statesman Aldo Moro in 1978.

Examples

  • During the 1970s, the Brigate Rosse carried out numerous attacks against government officials and industrialists.

  • The Brigate Rosse was involved in numerous high-profile kidnappings.

  • Reports in the media described renewed investigations into the legacy of the Brigate Rosse throughout Italy.

  • Many historians study the tactics used by the Brigate Rosse.

  • The Brigate Rosse was notorious for its violent campaigns aimed at destabilizing the Italian government during the 1970s.

  • Numerous documentaries have been produced to explore the activities of the Brigate Rosse in Italy's turbulent history.

  • Historians frequently discuss the impact of the Brigate Rosse on Italy's political landscape during the late 20th century.

Synonyms

Red Brigades
vsBrigate Rosse
  • Offensive
2 9.9

A group in Italy that uses violence, like kidnappings and killings, to try to remove the government by force

is the Italian-language name used for the same group
BR
vsBrigate Rosse
1 9.9

A short name for a violent political group in Italy that carried out attacks

is the full formal name rather than a shortened form

Surface Forms

Brigate Rosse main

Morphology

Brigate + Rosse

The Italian constituents literally mean 'red brigades' (brigate = brigades, rosse = red), so a learner who knows those words would transparently infer a group/brigade associated with 'red' (often signalling leftist/political affiliation). However, the specific sense as a named historical Marxist–Leninist terrorist organization and its violent activities is world-knowledge and not derivable from the literal words alone, so the expression is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Brigate Rosse may come from the Italian words brigate and rosse, meaning 'brigades' and 'red'. The image of small armed 'brigades' using the color 'red' for 'communism' helps explain why the name came to mean a violent left-wing group in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.