Burma Road

English edit

Etymology edit

From the name of a road in Burma which ran to the frontier with China, built in 1937–1938 by the British in order to circumvent the Japanese blockade of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) during World War II.^[1]

Noun edit

Burma Road (plural Burma Roads)

(figuratively) An important military supply route.
- 1942 March 9, “New Allied Life Line Across Africa”, in Geographic School Bulletin‎^[1], volume 21, number 3:
  A “Burma Road” for Africa, or, in fact, a pair of “Burma Roads,” may develop from the current improvement of British and Free French roads across Central Africa.
- 1947, Raj Narain Gupta, Iran: An Economic Study‎^[2], page 145:
  Between January 1, 1943, and June 1, 1945, an average of slightly more than 17 trains plied daily between the two termini of the railway. During all this period, it served as the super-Burma Road to Russia.
- 2007, Michael Rydelnik, Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict: What the Headlines Haven’t Told You, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 102:
  The Israelis were able to break the stranglehold by bypassing the normal route to Jerusalem through building a “Burma Road” to resupply the city.

References edit

^ See, for example, F. S. Bond (1941 March) “The Railway Section of the Burma Trade Route”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 120: “The international trade route known as the Burma Road has assumed a world-wide political significance and has been much in the limelight during the past few months.”

Further reading edit

Dwight L. Bolinger (1942 December) “Among the New Words”, in American Speech; republished as John Algeo, editor, Fifty Years Among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941–1991, Cambridge University Press, 1991, →ISBN, page 93: “Burma Road. The road from Burma to China, used as a military supply-route. +fig. A supply-route of similar nature or importance.”
“Burma Road”, in Collins English Dictionary.
“Burma Road”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

[1] See, for example, F. S. Bond (1941 March) “The Railway Section of the Burma Trade Route”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 120: “The international trade route known as the Burma Road has assumed a world-wide political significance and has been much in the limelight during the past few months.”

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