sangarn.
/ˈsaŋə/ Now chiefly Military.
A breastwork of stone. Also, a strong point or fortified look-out post.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > breastwork
foremost fight?1611
breast1624
breastwork1633
sangar1841
1841 in Sir T. Seaton Cadet to Colonel (1866) I. viii. 215 [Havelock, who was turning one of the spurs of the hill, called out] ‘Here's the sunga; come on, it's nothing.’
1862 H. W. Bellew Jrnl. Polit. Mission Afghanistan ii. i. 127 They had thrown up barricades and breastworks of wood and stone (‘murcha’ and ‘sanga’ respectively).
1879 C. R. Low Afghan War iii. 210 A stone breast-work, or sungha,..obstructed the flankers.
1892 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 94 When the red-coats crawl to the sungar wall.
1893 Edinb. Rev. July 214 Fire was opened on us from numerous sangas opposite.
1897 Ld. Roberts 41 Years in India II. xxxv. 15 The summit [of the hill] was strengthened by sangars.
1938 D. Forbes My Life in S. Afr. v. 68 Small sangers were put up at other commanding positions to hold the enemy back until the fort was finished.
1944 N.Y. Times 25 Apr. 5/5 It was about noon..when he climbed out of his own ‘sanger’,—a type of rocky foxhole characteristic of this section [of Italy].
1951 G. Wilson Brave Company vii. 135 Our sangars are much more elaborate. We have erected roofs reinforced by sandbags and screw pickets.
1962 Times 2 May 14/7 The pickets settled down in their sangars [in a wadi, W. Aden].
1974 Sunday Times 17 Feb. (Colour Suppl.) 27/3 High look-out platforms called sangars [in Northern Ireland].
1979 Observer 4 Mar. 11/1 The man on sangar duty must look out through a narrow slit and observe movements for up to four hours at a time.
1982 Times 12 June 5/4 To the commando crouching in his damp ‘sanger’, a slit trench built up with rocks, there has seemed little reason for the wait.
Derivatives
ˈsangar v. (transitive) to fortify with a sangar.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > protect or surround with rampart [verb (transitive)] > protect with breastwork
breast1569
sangar1900
1900 W. S. Churchill in Morning Post 25 July 5/7 Both infantry and guns are strongly sangared among the rocks and stones of the kopjes.
1901 ‘Linesman’ in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 758/1 The night was spent in ‘sangaring’ the position.
1905 E. Candler Unveiling of Lhasa viii. 147 At other times they [sc. the Tibetans] will forsake a strongly sangared position at the first shot.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1909; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1841