redshirt
A supporter of the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, especially a member…A supporter of the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, especially a member of his thousand-man army which conquered Sicily.
Meaning
5 senses(historical)A supporter of the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi, especially a member of his thousand-man army which conquered Sicily.
(historical)A revolutionary or anarchist.
(US)A college athlete who spends a year not participating in official athletic activities, but does not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.
(slang)An unimportant character introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril to the important characters; an expendable character.
Sensing danger, Captain Kirk decided to beam down to the surface with Spock, McCoy, and a couple of redshirts.
(US)A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.
Origin
Calque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red + shirt. In later senses with referenceCalque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red + shirt. In later senses with reference to the uniforms or outfits worn by such people. The fandom slang sense emerged from the tendency of red-uniformed Starfleet officers to die in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.