redshirt

Meanings

1. A supporter of the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, especially a member of his thousand-man army which conquered Sicily.
2. A revolutionary or anarchist.
3. A college athlete who spends a year not participating in official athletic activities, but does not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.
4. An unimportant character introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril to the important characters; an expendable character.
5. A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.
6. Alternative form of Red Shirt (“member of the UDD”).

1. To place an athlete in a status wherein the athlete will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities, but will not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.
2. To take on a status wherein one will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities.
3. To hold a child out of kindergarten for one year in the hope that the child will do better academically and socially.

1. Alternative form of Red Shirt.

Etymology

Calque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red + shirt. In later senses with reference to the uniforms or outfits worn by such people. The fandom slang sense emerged from the tendency of red-uniformed Starfleet officers to die in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.