Word of the Day -- Putsch

An apt word for all the Castles & Crusaders out there... Today's word is putsch, which means a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.  Granted, most campaigns in RPGs involve some form of troll, elf, goblin, etc. they word doesn't seem to have any limitations that mean we can't use it.  The history of it is intriguing:


In its native Swiss German, "putsch" originally meant "knock" or "thrust," but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a "coup d'état." "Putsch" debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler himself even attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.  --- Posted by Tim Burns