List of terms (RDM)

This is a listing of terms in the Re-imagined Series. For terms used in the Original Series, see List of terms (TOS).

Acronyms

AAU: Anti-aircraft Unit, a weapon emplacement used to destroy aerial units (Fragged)
BSG: Battlestar Group (Water)
CAG: Commander Air Group, i.e. the senior pilot
CAP: Combat Air Patrol
CBDR: Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range, i.e. a collision course (Final Cut, Pegasus)
CF: Colonial Fleet (Final Cut)
CFR: Colonial Fleet Reserve (Final Cut)
CIC: Combat Information Center
CMC: Colonial Marine Corps (Final Cut)
CMCR: Colonial Marine Corps Reserve (Final Cut)
CMO: Chief Medical Officer
CNP: Command Navigation Program. Central computer program used on Colonial Fleet vessels (Miniseries)
CO: Commanding Officer
DC: Damage Control
DRADIS: "Direction, Range, and Distance". Colonial equivalent of radar.
ECO: Electronic Countermeasures Officer
EMI: Electro-Magnetic Interference; such interference was thrown off by binary stars and interferes with DRADIS (The Captain's Hand)
EMP: Electro-Magnetic Pulse; typically accompanies a nuclear explosion
FTL: Faster Than Light
IFF: Identification Friend Foe (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II)
KIA: Killed in Action (Sacrifice)
LSO: Landing Signal Officer
OOD: Officer of the Deck (Scattered)
RFN: Right Frakking Now (Scattered, Valley of Darkness)
SAR: Search and Rescue (Fragged)
SU: Solar Unit. Distance measurement similar to "astronomical unit" (The Captain's Hand)
XO: Executive Officer

Military Jargon

Actual: the commanding officer. Used in wireless transmissions
ball: visual indicator used in a battlestar's Instrument Landing System (Miniseries, Act of Contrition, Final Cut, Black Market)
bandit: confirmed hostile contact. Usually in reference to fighter and shuttle sized craft (Final Cut)
bingo fuel: having no fuel left or just enough fuel to return to the mothership (You Can't Go Home Again, Scar)
bird farm: Colonial pilot jargon for a battlestar (Final Cut)
code blue: a term used by an officer who has identified a Cylon agent (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
command authority: the senior person/persons in command of a military unit, such as an Admiral (Pegasus, Precipice)
conn: literally the navigation controls, but also used to refer to command in general (The Captain's Hand)
"dress and cover": military term for personnel to form an ordered rank-and-file formation during ceremonies. Derived from "dress right" and "cover down" (Pegasus)
ell-tee: phonetic pronounciation of "Lt.", i.e. Lieutenant (Valley of Darkness, Fragged)
fire team: a small unit of military personnel, typically Marines or soldiers (Valley of Darkness)
five-'graph order: five paragraph operation order. A basic command tool taught to officer candidates (Fragged)
genny: power generator. Tyrol asked Cally to "find the genny" to power up the lights on Ragnar Anchorage (Miniseries)
klick: one kilometer
knuckle dragger: inoffensive slang for a mechanic
nugget: a pilot in training (Act of Contrition, Scar)
Mark One Eyeball: the unaided eye (You Can't Go Home Again, Scar)
Old Man: slang for the commanding officer
recovery line: the point at which it becomes unlikely that a fighter will be able to safely return to base (33)
rook: "rookie" (Miniseries)
Sierra Alpha: "suspicious activity" (Scattered)
sitrep: "situation report"
skosh (ammo): radio code meaning "out of ammunition", analagous to modern-day NATO brevity code "winchester". Skosh is also a real NATO brevity term meaning "Aircraft is out of or unable to employ active radar missiles" (The Captain's Hand)
spinner: engineering component of a battlestar's FTL drive (The Captain's Hand)
swallow: decoy drone deployed by Raptors (Miniseries)
snipe: engineer (The Captain's Hand)
trap: mechanism on a battlestar's landing bay which arrests the forward motion of either a Viper, Raptor or other small craft (Final Cut)
Two Alpha: designation for an extremely risky and voluntary mission (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I)
unrep: short for Underway Replenishment. In today's navies, the act of resupplying military vessels at sea, usually from dedicated ships while in motion (Water)
weapons free: command authorizing disengaging safeties and arming of weapons. Usually given to Viper pilots (Resurrection Ship, Part I)
weapons hot: synonym for "weapons free" (Final Cut)

Other Colloquialisms

The Beast: nickname for Pegasus (The Captain's Hand)
Big G: nickname for Galactica
The Bucket: nickname for Galactica (The Captain's Hand)
bullet-head: slang for a Cylon Centurion (Downloaded)
clanker: slang for a Cylon Centurion
chrome job: slang for a Cylon Centurion (The Resistance)
frak: Colonial version of "fuck"
freight monkey: term for crewmen on Colonial freighters (Scattered, deleted scene)
hard six: taking large risks; literally, rolling 2 threes with a pair of dice
Heavy: used to signify a civilian transport vessel over a certain gross weight/mass, i.e. Colonial Heavy 798
no joy: Being unsuccessful in an endeavor. For example, in reference to attempted visual or communications contact (The Hand of God)
skin job: derogatory term for humanoid Cylons. Homage to the movie Blade Runner (Downloaded)
stump: derogatory term for a prisoner in a labor camp (Bastille Day)
toaster: derogatory term for Cylons in general
toaster shopping: searching and destroying Cylons (Valley of Darkness)
"Go Panthers!" and "C-Bucs Rule": Used as a passphrase between Sharon Agathon and Samuel Anders (Exodus, Part I)

Battlestar Galactica Specific Terms

ambrosia: a type of alcoholic beverage
carom: term used in conjunction with a Dradis Contact read; analogous to the term "mark"
chamalla: hallucinogenic plant used in religious ceremonies and medical treatments
cubit: unit of currency
Dradis: Colonial equivalent of radar. Technically an acronym for "Direction, Range, and Distance"
fumarella leaf: tobacco or a type of tobacco (Water)
G-4: a type of explosive similar to modern C-4 (Water)
krypter: Colonial version of "mayday" (Miniseries, Hero)
morpha: Colonial equivalent of morphine (Valley of Darkness, Epiphanies)
Pyramid: popular Colonial ball game
Red Line: a point in space behind which an accumulative error creeps into FTL jump calculations (Miniseries, Pegasus (Extended Version))
stims: stimulants or a type of stimulants (33, Final Cut)
Triad: card game similar to Poker
tylium: mineral that can be refined to a powerful fuel
wireless: Colonial equivalent of radio