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C2  ·  32 words

Arms control

Treaties that can be checked, treaties that cannot, and the words that tell them apart.

The verb ächten is older than any treaty on this page. It is built on die Acht, the outlawry of medieval law, which survives in the pairing in Acht und Bann: whoever was placed under it lost the protection of the law, and nobody was allowed to give them shelter. Modern German keeps the verb for people and practices a society refuses to tolerate, and arms control applies it to a whole category of weapon. To say that a convention ächtet cluster munitions is to say it puts them outside the law altogether, not that it caps their number with an Obergrenze. Keep the umlaut in view: achten without it means to respect or to heed, so geächtet and geachtet sit one pair of dots apart and mean very nearly the opposite.

The words

Verb (4)

aufrüstento build up arms, to step up armamentVerbC1
Nach dem Scheitern der Gespräche rüsteten beide Seiten auf.Once the talks had failed, both sides began building up their arsenals.

Separable. Opposite: abrüsten.

aufkündigento renounce, to pull out of (a treaty)VerbC2
Die Regierung kündigte den Vertrag mit sechsmonatiger Frist auf.The government gave six months’ notice and pulled out of the treaty.

Separable. More solemn than kündigen; also die Gefolgschaft aufkündigen, to withdraw one’s loyalty.

stationierento station, to deployVerbC1
Die Raketen wurden nahe der Grenze stationiert.The missiles were deployed close to the border.

No ge- in the participle: stationiert. Noun: die Stationierung.

ächtento outlaw, to ban outrightVerbC2
Die Konvention ächtet eine ganze Waffenart, statt ihren Einsatz nur zu begrenzen.The convention outlaws an entire class of weapon instead of merely restricting its use.

Regular: geächtet. Not achten, to respect.

This list belongs to Politics, society and history — 19 lists and 694 words that can also be practised as a whole.

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Multiple choice and gaps, drawn from exactly these 32 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.