Weird Words: Irredentist

IRREDENTIST (noun) (from Italian)—Dentists aren't, as a rule, very high up anyone's list of favourite people. No wonder, then, that some dentists will go to great lengths to optimise the dental experience. My dentist tried the warmly coloured carpets, the mood lighting, baroque music and fish-tank, and it has to be said that these measures, in combination, did serve to slightly reduce the howls of pain emitted by patients as they were administered their bills. All the same, luminous dentists are surely taking things a bit far.

Oh, hang on...it seems an irredentist is actually a person who believes that his or her country should be returned any territory formerly belonging to it. So, for example, the Dalai Lama is an irredentist. Wouldn't that look good on a T-shirt?