German 88
- noun
- Archaic
:
88 alemán
- The German 88 was so effective that Allied tanks often avoided its line of fire.
Examples
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He marveled at the engineering precision of the famous German 88.
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Military historians still study the influence of the German 88 on tank warfare.
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The German 88 was feared by Allied forces.
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Many historians discuss the impact of the German 88 in their books.
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The soldiers relied on the German 88 for effective defense against enemy aircraft.
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During the battle, the sound of the German 88 firing echoed across the battlefield.
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The museum displayed a German 88 to showcase its historical significance in World War II.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'German' and 'eighty-eight' only yields a sense of nationality plus a number (i.e., something German associated with 88) and gives no basis to infer 'powerful anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun.' The term is a historically specific model name/designation whose weapon sense is lexically non-compositional and thus unpredictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The noun German 88 comes from the gun's barrel size: it fired shells 88 mm across, so soldiers simply called it the 'eighty-eight'. It was used to shoot both planes and tanks, and because it was so powerful the name now brings to mind a very strong, deadly gun.
