redshirt

See also: Redshirt, red shirt, red-shirt, and Red Shirt

English

WOTD – 27 August 2006

Etymology

Calque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red +‎ shirt. In later senses with reference to the uniforms or outfits worn by such people. The fandom slang sense emerged from the tendency of red-uninformed Starfleet officers to die in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

redshirt (plural redshirts)

1. (now historical) A supporter of the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, especially a member of his thousand-man army which conquered Sicily. [from 19th c.]
   • 2011, David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, Penguin, published 2012, page 196:

     Loyal regiments from Naples and other provinces of the mainland fought valiantly and were victorious un several skirmishes against the redshirts near Capua.

2. (now chiefly historical) A revolutionary or anarchist. [from 19th c.]
3. (US, sports) A college athlete who spends a year not participating in official athletic activities, but does not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years. [from 20th c.]
5. (fiction, science fiction, fandom slang) An unimportant character introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril to the important characters; an expendable character.

   Sensing danger, Captain Kirk decided to beam down to the surface with Spock, McCoy, and a couple of redshirts.

   • 2017, 42m, in 12 Monkeys, season 3, episode 6:

     I am not a goddamn redshirt! I have a purpose!

7. (US, military) A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.
8. Alternative form of Red Shirt (“member of the UDD”).
   • 2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     As armoured personnel carriers rumbled on to Bangkok's deserted streets, thousands of troops fanned out in a cordon across the city, surrounding the redshirts' fortified protest camp.

Derived terms

• medical redshirt

Verb

redshirt (third-person singular simple present redshirts, present participle redshirting, simple past and past participle redshirted)

1. (US, collegiate sports) To place an athlete in a status wherein the athlete will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities, but will not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.
   • 2004, George R. Mills -, A View from the Bench, →ISBN:

     Being asked whether I was going to be redshirted had some status associated with it.

   The university decided to redshirt the freshman linebacker to give him an extra year to build up his bulk.

2. (US, collegiate sports) To take on a status wherein one will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities.
   • 2012 -, John Feinstein, Season on the Brink, →ISBN, page 62:

     Hillman, who had come to Indiana without a scholarship (he now had one) from a Los Angeles suburb, wanted to redshirt so that he would have two years of eligibility left after Alford graduated. Smith didn't want to redshirt, he wanted to play.

3. (US) To hold a child out of kindergarten for one year in the hope that the child will do better academically and socially.
   • 1985, March 1, "Some Educators Oppose Redshirting 5-Year-Olds," The Omaha World-Herald

     Parents who redshirt their 5-year-olds instead of enrolling them in kindergarten are a concern to some Nebraska educators who are trying to reverse the trend of holding children back until age 6 to start school.

See also

• redskirt
• stock character on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• thirders