Agent Orangen.
/ˌeɪdʒ(ə)nt ˈɒrᵻn(d)ʒ/, U.S. /ˌeɪdʒ(ə)nt ˈɔr(ə)ndʒ/, /ˌeɪdʒ(ə)nt ˈɑr(ə)ndʒ/ A defoliant and herbicide used by the United States during the Vietnam War to remove forest cover and destroy crops. Cf. agent n.1 and adj. Compounds 1.Agent Orange is a 50:50 mixture of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and 2,4-dicholorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D).It was one of a number of herbicides used by the U.S. military in South-East Asia between 1962 and 1971, and became notorious for causing death and injury on a wide scale and for giving rise to birth defects. Its extreme toxicity was attributed to contamination of the 2,4,5-T component with a dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin).
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the world > life > death > killing > killer of nature > [noun] > herbicide > defoliant
defoliant1943
agent1966
Agent Orange1966
1964 C. L. Flynn Test & Eval. A/A 45Y-2 Pressurized Defoliant Dispenser (AD 453073) iv. 24 Grid tests with the defoliant agent, orange, were conducted to determine the capability of the..system to deliver approximately three gallons of defoliant agent per acre.]
1966 N.Y. Times 21 Sept. 10/1 They stressed that the defoliation and crop destruction chemicals were not lethal. One chemical, whose code name is Agent Orange, consists of a 50-50 mixture of butyl esters.
1979 Nature 8 Mar. 108/3 Although it was subsequently shown that it was the dioxin contaminant..which was teratogenic and not 2,4,5,-T itself, the Bionetics study led the US Government to withdraw Agent Orange from Vietnam.
1985 New Scientist 7 Feb. 6/1 The defoliant Agent Orange could be the major cause of cancer among veterans of the Vietnam war.
2003 Daily Mirror 29 Jan. 4/4 Returning to Vietnam, I often came upon terribly deformed children in villages where American aircraft had sprayed a herbicide called Agent Orange.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1966