🏰 A military base 🕵️ The NSA

Fort George G. Meade

8.3

The National Security Agency of the United States or its work

proper noun

Literature

: Fort George G. Meade

Critics argued that Fort George G. Meade should be more transparent about NSA surveillance.

Examples

Leaked documents suggested Fort George G. Meade coordinated the intelligence-sharing program with allied agencies.
When asked about the cybersecurity operation, the spokesperson said responsibility lay with Fort George G. Meade.
Many employees at Fort George G. Meade work on cybersecurity projects.
Is the information from Fort George G. Meade reliable?
Critics argued that Fort George G. Meade should be more transparent about NSA surveillance activities.
Leaked documents suggested that Fort George G. Meade played a key role in the intelligence-sharing initiatives with allied nations.
When asked about the recent cybersecurity breach, the spokesperson stated that accountability rested with Fort George G. Meade.

Synonyms

No Such Agency

vsFort George G. Meade

Informal

7.9

A joking name for the US spy agency used to say it is secret or not real

uses a location name to mean the National Security Agency neutrally

Surface Forms

Fort George G. Meade main

Morphology

fort + George + G. + Meade

Although the constituents ('fort' + a personal/place name) transparently denote a military base, the MWE's use to mean the NSA or its activities is a metonymic, culture-specific extension that cannot be predicted from the words themselves. Understanding this sense requires specific world knowledge about US institutions and their locations, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not infer the metonymic meaning.

Etymology

Because the National Security Agency has its main offices at Fort George G. Meade, people sometimes use Fort George G. Meade to mean 'the NSA' or its actions. So the place name is also a short way to talk about the agency and its operations.