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A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people or valued materials from falling bombs or other attacks. Bunkers are mostly underground, compared to blockhouses which are mostly above ground.〔For the difference between bunkers and blockhouses see , , 〕 They were used extensively in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War for weapons facilities, command and control centers, and storage facilities (for example, in the event of nuclear war). Bunkers can also be used as protection from tornadoes. Trench bunkers are small concrete structures, partly dug into the ground. Many artillery installations, especially for coastal artillery, have historically been protected by extensive bunker systems. Typical industrial bunkers include mining sites, food storage areas, dumps for materials, data storage, and sometimes living quarters. When a house is purpose-built with a bunker, the normal location is a reinforced below-ground bathroom with fibre-reinforced plastic shells. Bunkers deflect the blast wave from nearby explosions to prevent ear and internal injuries to people sheltering in the bunker. Nuclear bunkers must also cope with the underpressure that lasts for several seconds after the shock wave passes, and block radiation. A bunker's door must be at least as strong as the walls. In bunkers inhabited for prolonged periods, large amounts of ventilation or air conditioning must be provided. Bunkers can be destroyed with powerful explosives and bunker-busting warheads. ==Etymology== The word ''bunker'' originates as a Scots word for "bench, seat" (recorded 1758, alongside shortened ''bunk'' "sleeping berth"), perhaps cognate with ''bank'', ''bench'', and possibly by Scandinavian influence (Old Swedish ''bunke'' means "boards used to protect the cargo of a ship"). A sense of "earthen seat" is recorded 1805, from whence the technical use in golf (by 1824). The word entered Dutch and German as a loanword from English in the 19th century, in the nautical sense of "room for coal storage in a ship". In German, the word came to be applied for dug-out military shelters in the World War I period.〔Harry Horstmann, ''Der Soldat: In Sprache und Tradition'' (2010), p. 153.〕 and came to be used by the Germans to describe bombproof shelters both above ground as in ''Hochbunker'' and below ground as in the ''Führerbunker''.〔"The German term Bunker was used to denote a type of shelter which was of permanent construction. It can be distinguished from the improvised type built in cellars or by reinforcing ordinary buildings. Bunkers were of two types: underground and tower" ()〕 The military sense of the word was re-imported into English during World War II, at first in reference to specifically German dug-outs; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the sense of "military dug-out; a reinforced concrete shelter" is first recorded on 13 October 1939, in "A Nazi field gun hidden in a cemented 'bunker' on the Western front".〔''War Pictorial'', cited after 〕 All the early references to its usage in the Oxford English Dictionary are to German fortifications. By 1947 the word was familiar enough in English that Hugh Trevor-Roper in ''The Last Days of Hitler'' was describing Hitler's underground complex near the Reich Chancellery as "Hitler's own bunker" without quotes around the word bunker.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bunker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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