no man's land · noun1
- Middle English · inherited fromNomanneslond“an area of land outside of London utilised for executions; a swath of unowned or undesirable land; land that is subject to legal dispute”
- English todayno man's land
Originally from Middle English Nomanneslond (“an area of land outside of London utilised for executions; a swath of unowned or undesirable land; land that is subject to legal dispute”), which is first attested c. 1350 and equivalent to no man (“no one, nobody”) + -'s + land. Revived with new senses in a short story in Blackwood's Magazine in 1908 by the British Army officer Ernest Swinton (1868–1951), writing as "Ole Luk-Oie" (see the quotation), but only came into common use in the context of the Anglo-German Christmas truce of 1914, and thereafter appeared frequently in official communiqués, newspaper reports, and personnel correspondences of the members of the British Expeditionary Force.
No Man's Land · proper noun2
See no man's land.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.