BRITISH Bestow Term Of Terror

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Kathleen Megan)

You've heard of THE TUBE, of LORRIES and BOBBIES, but CLEANSKINS?

It's a word that has emerged from LONDON after last week's bombings. THE ENGLISH POLICE believe the suspects in the case are CLEANSKINS -- young operatives with no background of terrorism or crime. It's more difficult to investigate CLEANSKINS because they have no criminal records.

While the word is new to us, it's certainly not to THE BRITS and those of other COMMONWEALTH NATIONS, particularly AUSSIES.

According to GRANT BARRETT, project editor for THE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, CLEANSKIN goes back to 1881 in THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY -- CLEANSKINS were unbranded cattle.

In 1941, Barrett said, THE AUSTRALIAN OXFORD DICTIONARY gave four meanings for the word -- an unbranded animal; a person free from blame or without police record; a person who is new to an activity or lacking experience; and an unlabeled bottle of wine. Another AUSTRALIAN reference offers this definition -- a person with political integrity.

Barrett checked AMERICAN DICTIONARIES and found no mention of the word.

Will CLEANSKIN become one of our own? It's too soon to say. As terrorists, CLEANSKINS may offer more challenge to police, but we could probably use some CLEANSKINS in the political world.