oilspot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: oilspots
Senses: examples: text: The introduction of a high metallic oxide may produce lustrous specks known as an oilspot glaze. This 14 inch high bottle, fired to cone 10 in an electric kiln, has oilspots on a chartreuse glaze.
ref: 1968, Thomas G. Supensky, Ceramic Art in the School Program, Worcester, Mass.: Davis Publications, →LCCN, page 84:
text: A project starts in one district, or a group of contiguous districts or communes, and expands into contiguous locales, forming either an ever-expanding circle (oilspot) or a continuous path (vector). […] There are many advantages to concentrating all rural development activities in one oilspot or vector.
ref: 1970, Earl M. Kulp, Rural Development Planning: Systems Analysis and Working Method (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development), Praeger Publishers, →LCCN, page 76:
text: "[…] In the language of the French experts, they refer to Neak Luong as the principal 'oilspot⁠' from which their troops could spread rapidly when needed." This shows why Nixon is opposed to even the most minimal congressional restriction on U.S. operations in Cambodia. The "oilspot" technique allows temporary "withdrawals," as long as firm bases or enclaves remain. But to be successful, the "oilspots" have to spread until they cover the whole country.
ref: 1970 June 29, Intercontinental Press, volume 8, number 25, page 634:
text: Some 34 ‘oilspots’ or key target areas have been identified for special attention and a further 200 townships have been earmarked for upgrading projects. […] Mamelodi, 17 kilometres east of Pretoria, is one of the 34 townships designated as ‘oilspots’ by officials of the Joint Management Centres (JMCs).
ref: 1989, Jacklyn Cock, Laurie Nathan, editors, War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa, Cape Town; Johannesburg: David Philip, →ISBN, part II (Militarisation and political power), pages 146 (Mark Swilling; Mark Phillips, “State power in the 1980s: from ‘total strategy’ to ‘counter-revolutionary warfare’”) and 159 (Andrew Boraine, “The militarisation of urban controls: the security management system in Mamelodi, 1986–1988):
text: McCuen recommended what he called an “oilspot” strategy, which meant concentrating the operation on specific spots, gaining control of these and then using them as strategic bases from which to operate outwards and pacify the surrounding region. Adopting both his idea and his term, the security managers targetted thirty-four “oilspots”—including the Vaal Triangle, Atteridgeville, the Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth townships, and Crossroads.
ref: 1990, Allister Sparks, The Mind of South Africa, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 357:
text: The South Africans have added a new term of their own to the WHAM lexicon: “oilspots.” An oilspot is a strategically chosen township where the uprisings have been suppressed and improvements begun. As this upgrading makes people more content, the theory goes, the calm from this little island will spread outward, like oil over water. Eventually, these expanding pools of calm from many oilspots will merge, and soothe the stormy waters of the whole country.
ref: 1991, Adam Hochschild, The Mirror at Midnight: A Journey to the Heart of South Africa, Fontana, →ISBN, page 200:
text: Sitting in the doorway with its tail curled neatly around its paws, watching with its beady black oilspot eyes, was the mouse. […] His fur was gray, his gait was unsteady, but the oilspots that were his eyes gleamed as brightly as ever.
ref: 1996, Stephen King, The Green Mile, BCA, published 1999, pages 95 and 452:
text: Fundamentally, the strategy for building international cooperation revolved around the notion of "oilspots"—that is, areas of cooperation (e.g., within NATO, or the OECD, depending on the specific issue at hand), here and there, that would spread and eventually link up with each other. […] The benefit of a "twin track" approach would be that the sub-global organizations would would lend credibility to the UN initiative, while the UN would help spread the "oilspots" to increase overall levels of international cooperation.
ref: 1996, Richard Hundley, Robert Anderson, John Arquilla, Roger Molander, Security in Cyberspace: Challenges for Society: Proceedings of an International Conference, RAND, →ISBN, pages 37–38:
text: A Loetz double gourd-shaped vase, with impressed oilspots on an iridescent ground, small nicks to rim, unmarked. […] A Loetz glass fan vase, with seven openings in amber oilspot, unmarked.
ref: 2003, Judith Miller, Antiques Price Guide 2004, DK Publishing, →ISBN, pages 562–563:
text: About 10,000 oilspots were collected and the oomycete strains were genotyped with the use of four specific microsatellite markers. Because P. viticola is diploid, every oilspot was characterized by a genetic profile consisting of eight microsatellite alleles.
ref: 2006, Davide Gobbin, Artemis Rumbou, Ilaria Pertot, Cesare Gessler, “First approach of Plasmopara viticola population biology: merging epidemiology and population genetics”, in I. Pertot, C. Gessler, D. Gadoury, W. Gubler, H.-H. Kassemeyer, P. Magarey, editors, Proceedings of the 5ᵗʰ International Workshop on Grapevine Downy and Powdery Mildew, Instituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige, →ISBN, page 71:
glosses: Alternative form of oil spot.