grim-gram

English

Etymology

From grim +‎ -gram.

Noun

grim-gram (plural grim-grams)

1. (US, colloquial, historical) The "Violence Week in Review" cable sent from the US embassy in El Salvador, listing the names of killed and missing persons.
   • 1983, Time, volume 121, page 40:

     She peeks into the tallies of the weekly "grim-grams" that the U.S. embassy in San Salvador sends to Washington.

   • 1991, Clifford Krauss, Inside Central America: its people, politics, and history, page 83:

     Embassy "Grim-Grams," the weekly reports on human rights abuses, documented the systematic repression of unions […]

   • 2018, Tommie Sue Montgomery, Revolution In El Salvador:

     By mid-1983 domestic political reaction to the "grim-gram" totals forced the administration to begin pressuring the Salvadoreans.