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countervalue

The English word “countervalue” has 3 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To target an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.
  2. To make a counter estimate of something's value.

adjective

  1. Targeting an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.

Etymology

From counter- + value. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., records the first use of the word in 1660 and the first use in the modern sense in 1965, where it is described as a "euphemism for attacking cities".

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.