Baader–Meinhofn.
/ˌbɑːdəˈmʌɪnhɒf/, U.S. /ˌbɑdərˈmaɪnˌ(h)ɔf/, /ˌbɑdərˈmaɪnˌ(h)ɑf/ I. Compounds.
1. attributive. Designating an extreme left-wing terrorist organization operating in West Germany (and later Germany) between 1970 and 1998. Chiefly in Baader–Meinhof gang (also group) (cf. Red Army Faction n. 2, Red Army Fraction n.).
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1971 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 21 Nov. 6 b/8 The ‘Baader-Meinhof group’, as it has come to be known, is an anarchist gang.
1971 Los Angeles Times 2 Dec. i. 1/1 In the past 18 months, the Baader-Meinhof gang has spread terror and violence throughout West Germany.
1986 C. Boggs Social Movements & Polit. Power 172 This milieu was ideal for the vanguardist posturing of tiny Marxist-Leninist sects and the terrorism of the Baader-Meinhof ‘urban guerillas’.
1992 Economist 18 Apr. 56/1 Most of the original Baader–Meinhof gang (which called itself the Red Army Faction) was rounded up in the 1970s, only to be followed by a still more sophisticated terrorist generation.
2001 D. J. Whittaker Terrorism Reader (2002) xiii. 183 The subject of this case-study is the Red Army Faction.., once known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
2. attributive. Designating a quirk of perception whereby a phenomenon to which one is newly alert suddenly seems ubiquitous. Chiefly in Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.Also called the frequency illusion (see frequency illusion n. at frequency n. Additions).
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1994 ‘Gigetto on Lincoln’ in Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota) 16 Oct. (Express section) 12/2 Many years ago, I identified a phenomenon so startling and so broad in its application that it encompasses..many..forms of eerie coincidence. I have dubbed it The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon... The phenomenon goes like this: The first time you learn a new word, phrase or idea, you will see that word, phrase or idea again in print within 24 hours.
2012 Sun (Nexis) 9 Dec. 14 Whether it was the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or mere synchronicity, we noticed an awful lot of pheasants on the way to the Pheasant Inn near Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria.
2015 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 5 June (Books section) c10 I am in the early, still-raw-and-reeling stages of De-wife-ification, a.k.a. divorce. So I see the word Wife everywhere. It's Baader Meinhof Syndrome.
II. Simple uses.
3. Without article: = Baader–Meinhof gang at sense 1.
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1975 Acta Sociologica 18 354/1 Tupamaros, Weathermen, Black Panthers, Baader-Meinhof,..is your reaction curiosity but also a certain aversion?
1986 D. Gethin Dane's Testam. xvi. 103 Back in the very early Seventies in Germany he was involved with some group on the fringes of Baader–Meinhof.
1999 W. Z. Laqueur New Terrorism 93 The slogan of the second generation of Baader Meinhof..was ‘the system had made us kaput, we shall destroy the system’.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1971