# redshirt
## English
### 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: /ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Noun

redshirt (plural redshirts)
* (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.
* (now chiefly historical) A revolutionary or anarchist. [from 19th c.]
* (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.]
* (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!
* (US, military) A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.
* 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: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)
* (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.
* (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.
* (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