Refusenik

The word refusenik entered English language as a part of the Cold War lexicon to refer to those who were refused certain human rights, notably forbidden to emigrate. Later, its usage extended to those who refuse to participate in compulsory activities, such as army service.

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• Refusenik (Soviet Union): Jewish citizens of the former Soviet Union who were refused permission to emigrate.
• Refusenik (Israel): Israeli soldiers and reservists who refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) under certain conditions.

The term refusenik has also been adopted by a controversial Muslim writer, Irshad Manji, who describes herself as a Muslim refusenik who opposes fundamentalist Islam.

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English language: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates from England and is also spoken as a native language in the other home countries of the United Kingdom, in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and numerous other countries. English is now the third...

Cold War: :For the generic term for a high-tension rivalry between countries, see cold war (war)....

Lexicon: A lexicon is a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i.e., a dictionary. Lexicon is a word of Greek origin (λεξικόν) meaning vocabulary. When linguists study the lexicon, they study such things as what words are, how the vocabulary in a...