词汇 | million-dollar wound |
词源 | million-dollar wound. A war wound, suffered in combat or self-inflicted, that is bad enough to send a soldier home or at least behind the lines out of the combat zone. The term million- dollar wound dates back to World War II, while the practice of self-inflicted wounds is as old as the “art of war.” In the Ameri- can Civil War, for example, minor self-inflicted wounds were common, and the reaction to them was often harsh. One Union soldier at Cold Harbor shot himself in the foot. Sure by the powder burn that the wound was self-inflicted, a surgeon chlo- roformed the soldier and sawed off his leg. “I shall never forget the look of horror that fastened on his face when he found his leg was cut off,” an observer wrote. |
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