Dear Editor-

The obituary of Ronald Fraser, chronicler of the Spanish Civil War, cites his final book "Napoleon's Cursed War" which explored Napoleon's half-forgotten war with Spain (1808-1814). The war concluded with French forces being driven from the country "by the guerrilla tactics of a shadow army of what Mr. Fraser called rogues and troublemakers and the lawless". But giving credit where credit is due we should note that it was these rogues and troublemakers of this very war that gave rise to the expression "guerrilla" that is now in such common usage. The word is the linguistic diminutive for guerra, which in Spanish means "war".