Co-op mix

English

Etymology

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Relates to the Co-op brand of stores and supermarkets; but some sources say it's because of the everyday ingredients, and others because first used to blow up a Co-op store.”

Noun

Co-op mix (uncountable)

1. (UK, Ireland) A mixture of sodium chlorate and nitrobenzene used in making improvised bombs during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
   • 1985, Desmond Hamill, Pig in the Middle: The Army in Northern Ireland, 1969-1984, page 198:

     We found one once, 550lbs of Co-Op mix — and we found the firing position, on our side of the border. So I stood on this bloody thing […]

   • 2008, A. R. Oppenheimer, IRA, The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity:

     Disrupting Co-op mix devices by burning off the mixture by the use of low-velocity bullets proved ineffective […]