vopo · noun — A member of the Volkspolizei. It carries an Arena rating of 1287, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, vopo ranks #3,252 of 17,159 for Most Exacting Words, #4,297 of 17,147 for Scariest Words, #7,759 of 17,175 for Funniest Words, #7,821 of 17,148 for Most Vivid Words.
vopo is pronounced /ˈfəʊpəʊ/.
Why “vopo” is a great word
A member of the uniformed public police force of the former German Democratic Republic. From the German abbreviation Vopo, clipped from Volkspolizist ("people's policeman") or its parent Volkspolizei ("people's police"). Unlike "Stasi" (which denotes the shadowy apparatus of state security and secret terror) or the generic "Polizist" (which carries no inherent political geography), Vopo is a relic of a bifurcated world, a term fixed in the amber of the Cold War. It is the click of boots on wet cobblestones at a checkpoint, the drab green of a stiff woolen uniform, and the impassive face behind the windshield of a Warburg patrol car—the ordinary, visible arm of an extraordinary state, now preserved only in memory and archive.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From German Vopo m, abbreviation of Volkspolizist m (but see also Vopo f, also VoPo f, short for Volkspolizei f).
noun
- A member of the Volkspolizei.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.