Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of the rebel forces that opposed the leftist government of Nicaragua in the 1980s with the funds and support of the United States government.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun a range of rightist guerrilla groups violently opposing the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua and secretly funded by the United States government in the 1980s.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, short for contrarrevolucionario, counterrevolutionary, from contrarrevolución, counterrevolution : contra-, contra- (from Latin contrā-; see contra-) + revolución, revolution (from Late Latin revolūtiō, revolūtiōn-; see revolution).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Short for Spanish contrarrevolucionarios, "counter-revolutionaries".

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