the.com/confederate
An ally when lowercase, a lost cause when capitalized.
means A person who conspires or cooperates with another, especially in something secret or illicit — or, capitalized, a supporter of the breakaway American South during the Civil War.
from From Latin confoederatus, 'bound together by a treaty' — com- ('together') plus foederare ('to league together'), itself rooted in foedus, meaning 'league' or 'covenant.' The word entered English in the 1400s simply meaning allies joined by agreement. Its darker capitalized sense arrived only in 1861, when the seceding Southern states named themselves the Confederate States of America — borrowing the old word of mutual bond for a union built, bitterly, around division.
- root meaning
- from Latin for bound together by treaty
- dual use
- noun for accomplice, adjective for Civil War rebellion
- flag irony
- never the official flag of the Confederacy
- short lifespan
- the nation existed barely four years