the.com/minesweeper

means A military vessel or device designed to detect and clear naval mines, and also the classic computer puzzle game where you deduce the location of hidden mines from numbered clues.

from A transparent compound of 'mine' plus 'sweep.' The 'mine' here is the explosive kind — from a French 'mine,' originally a tunnel dug under enemy fortifications to plant explosives, itself from Medieval Latin and possibly a Celtic root for ore or digging. To 'sweep' for mines is to clear them as one sweeps a floor, the everyday Old English 'swæpan' (to sweep) doing heavy military duty. The naval term came first; the puzzle game borrowed it wholesale in the late 20th century, trading warships for a grid of dread on your desktop.