rafale

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French rafale. In the military context the term may well be obsolete in English; it had been been introduced into French military usage by General Hippolyte Langlois in the late nineteenth century, and adopted into English and American usage not long after, but the usage seems to have petered out in English by the end of World War I.

Noun

rafale (plural rafales)

1. (military) A short, intense burst of artillery fire from a number of weapons fired with the intention of overwhelming resistance or routing an attacking force.
   • 1903, Andrew Hero Jr., “Opening & Conduct of Fire”, in Antiaircraft Journal‎^[1], volume 20, page 47:

     […] a salvo is […] a succession of shots […] with the same elevation... a single shot for each piece. By a rafale is meant all the shots of a battery fired with the same elevation, without any determined order, at the rate of more than one shot per gun. According to circumstances, three different kinds of fire are employed ... first, progressive fire; second, fire with a single elevation; third, fire by salvos or by rafales...

   • 1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle:

     And then, above the hum of the roadside, rose the voice of the great guns. The shells were bursting four or five miles away, and the guns must have been as many more distant. But in that upland pocket of plain in the frosty night they sounded most intimately near. They kept up their solemn litany, with a minute's interval between each - no rafale which rumbles like a drum, but the steady persistence of artillery exactly ranged on a target.

   • 1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle:

     Then, as if a spring had been loosed, the world suddenly leaped to a hideous life. With a growl the guns opened round all the horizon. They were especially fierce to the south, where a rafale beat as I had never heard it before. The one glance I cast behind me showed the gap in the hills choked with fumes and dust.

Anagrams

• aflare

French

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Possibly related to Italian raffica influenced by affaler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.fal/

• Audio (Canada):

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Noun

rafale f (plural rafales)

1. (meteorology) gust (strong, abrupt rush of wind)

   Synonym: bourrasque

2. (meteorology) sudden shower, flurry
3. (by extension, military) burst (series of shots fired from an automatic firearm)

Derived terms

• microrafale

Further reading

• “rafale”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Rafale on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

Anagrams

• érafla

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

rafale f (plural rafales)

1. (Jersey) gust (of wind)