putsch

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The Word of the Day for July 20 is: 

putsch   \PUCH ("U" is as in "butcher")\   noun
     : a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to 
overthrow a government

Example sentence:
     German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was 
executed for his role in an intricate putsch aimed at 
assassinating Adolf Hitler that occurred on July 20, 1944.

Did you know?
     In its native Swiss German, "putsch" originally 
meant "knock," or "thrust," but these days both German and 
English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government 
overthrow also known as a "coup d'etat." "Putsch" debuted in 
English in June of 1920, just three months after the tumultuous 
Kapp Putsch, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing 
supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. 
Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word 
appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who 
described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler himself even attempted 
a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately 
gained control of the German government via other means.