Fug

Fug (pronounced fuhg)

(1) Stale air, especially the humid, warm, ill-smelling air of a crowded room, kitchen etc; a hot, stale or suffocating atmosphere (mainly British).

(2) A type of flying boot (fug boot) worn by World War One British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) aviators.

1885–1890: Of obscure origin although there was the earlier English slang fogo (stench) and links have been suggested to both fog and ugly, fug perhaps a blend which emerged from these sources.  The adjective is fuggy.

Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Fug boots, 1918.

The aviator boots were officially known as “Boots, Thigh”, based upon the item’s listing in retail catalogues and first appeared in December 1916.  Devised to replace earlier attempts at equipping flying personnel with footwear was suitable for the conditions they encountered at altitude, fug boots were fleece-lined, brown suede boots with outer adjustable straps at the top and other straps and buckles at the foot and lower calves.  Sold originally with buff leather toe caps and heels with orange-coloured rubber soles, they were made by by Harrods, which labeled them the Charfor boot, they soon became universally known as “fug boots”, the military legend being the name came from the description pilots gave to any room in which recently worn pair was left.  The more recent suggestion that fug was a shortened version of “flying ugg boots” is thought commercial opportunism.  It received no scholarly support although etymologists note “ugh” (a commonly used interjection of disgust or dislike) dates from 1837 but add there’s no evidence to suggest any connection.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) in Ugg Boots and puffer vest with faux fur-edged hoodie.

The origin of the term "ugg" is also unclear. The trademark "Ugh-Boots" was registered in Australia in 1971 but others claimed to have named them “Ugg” as long ago as 1958, literally as something suggestive of “ugly” and the original may even have been the contraction “ug”.  By the 1990s, "ugg boot" was a generic term for sheepskin boots and the source of trademark disputes with contradictory rights granted in several jurisdictions.  There are recorded accounts of sheepskin boots recognizably uggish since the late nineteenth century but the ubiquity of the sheep in many places suggests doubtlessly the warmth offered by the fleece for thousands of years been thought something good for clothing and footwear.  The earliest documented commercial manufacturing of the boot was in 1933 by the Blue Mountains Ugg Boot Company in Australia, followed by the Mortel’s Sheepskin Company in the 1950s which operates still today.  Mortel’s claim that the name “Ugg Boot” was chosen because the company founder’s wife suggested they were “"ugly" isn’t supported by the evidence.

Britney Spears (b 1981) in Ugg boots with Fanta.

In 1971, noting their popularity with Australian surfers, one of their number applied for and was granted a local trademark for “Ugh-Boot”.  The product spread world-wide, firstly through surfing communities and later to the general market.  In the way of such things, in 1995 the US registration of the trademark ended up, after many twists and turns, in the hands of a US holding company which, beginning in 1999, secured registration in many countries and began asserting claims of right through cease and desist letters to manufacturers in many jurisdictions including Australia.  Thus began the dispute which would drag on until 2006 when the Federal Court of Australia ruled against the US rights holder in their action against a local manufacturer, based on the trademark’s history of ownership.  The US producer continues to enjoy an exclusivity of rights in many other countries but can no longer challenge use of the term within Australia.  However, in 2021 the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a lower court which ruled that the Australian manufacturer must pay a fine of some millions on the basis of a half-dozen Australian Uggs being purchased by US customers.

Pamela Anderson (b 1967) in Ugg boots with Baywatch script.

Its waterproof relative, the wellington (or gumboot), because of the association with the smart set on country jaunts, had long been classless but the ugg boot never enjoyed the same critical leeway, labelled helpfully by some detractors as the “slag wellie”, the reputation probably not enhanced by recent commercial success said to have been prompted by Pamela Anderson’s imprimatur in 1994.  Despite that, they endure with an appeal across classes, retailers happy to service every price-point.  Neither a status symbol nor conventionally attractive, the ugg survives (and thrives) because it offers a comfort which must seem blissful to someone just liberated from a day in stiletto heels.

Paris Hilton (b 1981) in Ugg Boots with Louis Vuitton Marie cloth travel bag, Heathrow Airport, London, February 2006.

It's presumably a trick of shadow and light but the bag does look well-used.  Interestingly, a secondary market does exist for obviously worn, high priced accessories such as bags because there are those who wish to convey the impression of long-term ownership of such assets.  Such segmentation of markets is familiar in many fields including among car collectors, some of who will buy "driver quality" cars with higher mileage and some wear & tear because such machines can actually regularly be driven, unlike a low-mileage original or something immaculately restored to as-new-condition, both of which need to be pampered and stored if their value is not to diminish.  In the snobby (and still extant) world of the English class system, "buying old" (houses, furniture etc) can be an attempt not to appear "recently rich" but it rarely fools the people the buyer is attempting to ape who use the phrase "the sort of fellow who has to buy his own chairs".  The establishment of course inherit their chairs.  

Sometimes however, the recently rich start to believe their own publicity.  Alan Clark (1928–1999) was a military historian and Conservative MP now best remembered for his acerbic diaries (covering 1972-1999 and published in three volumes (1993, 2000 & 2003)) and in one entry noted a Tory of bourgeois background saying of then deputy prime-minister Michael Heseltine (Baron Heseltine, b 1933): "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture".  Such views of those in the Tory party not of quite the "right" background are still known but one of Clark's enemies (and there were a few) enjoyed pointing out with some glee that that Clark's father (Kenneth Clark (Baron Clark 1903–1983, the art historian remembered for the TV series and book Civilisation (1969)) "had to buy his own castle".

Dunce

Dunce (pronounced duhns)

(1) A dull-witted, stupid, or ignorant person; a dolt.

(2) In educational systems, a person slow to learn (obsolete).

(3) As dunce’s cap, a conical hat once used as a form of shaming and punishment in some educational systems.

1520–1530: Named after the Dunses, Dunites or Dunsmen, term of ridicule applied to the devotees of Scottish Franciscan friar, John Duns Scotus (circa 1265-1308).  The use of SCotUS as the initialism of Supreme Court of the United States is wholly coincidental; cool people anyway prefer “the supremes”.  The many synonyms of dunce include clodpoll, ass, birdbrain, blockhead, bonehead, buffoon, dimwit, dolt, donkey, dope, dork, dullard, dunderhead, fool, goof, half-wit, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, jerk, numbskull, ignoramus, simpleton, nincompoop & ninny but dunce has a special place because of the historic association with schoolrooms and the utility of the dunce’s cap for cartoonists and, latterly meme-makers.   Dunce is a noun, duncical, duncelike & duncish are adjectives and duncishly is an adverb; the noun plural is dunces.

The first dunces

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1648), oil on canvas by Antoine Nicolas (circa 1606-1661).

The shock of the Reformation, the sixteenth century movement within Western Christianity that mounted a theological and political challenge to the Roman Catholic Church and especially papal authority seems to have colored the popular view of the era and it’s often not appreciated that early in the century, both Church and papacy were in good shape and enjoyed popular support.  Far from being a rigid, unchanging institution, the Medieval Church was inventive and energetic and while it couldn’t be said to be tolerant of dissent, it certainly welcomed regional diversity and after the end of the papal schism (between 1378-1417 popes in France and Italy both asserted their authority over the Church) and the centralization of the institution in Rome, things really were looking good.  It was in this atmosphere that the Church played a part in the great cultural movement which began in Europe in the fifteenth century: The Renaissance (rebirth).

Print by Valentine Green following Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and reputedly inspired by William of Ockham.

The Renaissance re-energized fields as diverse as literature, history, linguistics, mathematics, art, political theory and architecture.  One far-reaching effect (which would take centuries to unfold) was the re-discovery of the works and histories of the Greco-Roman world of antiquity, pursued with a method which resonates still in the modern academic method: Ad fontes (back to the sources).  Those sources (Galen, Cicero, Seneca, Plato et al), transformed study in western Europe, something made possible largely because of the wealth of documents arrived from the libraries, monasteries and palaces of the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople fell to Islamic conquest in 1453.  The scholars and scribes who immersed themselves in these texts came to be known as “the humanists” (from studia humanitatis (the classic curriculum of the academy and related not at all to the modern use of humanist to describe the particularly chauvinistic sect within secular, western intellectual life)).  What the Renaissance humanists did however was uncover the Greek texts of the original Bible and detected in them words a phrases which imparted meanings with theological implications at variance with what had come to be regarded as orthodoxy, based on the Vulgate, translation in Latin of the Bible dating from the late fourth century.

John Duns Scotus (circa 1475), oil on panel by Justus van Gent (1460-1480) & Pedro Berruguete (1450-1504).

The differences imparted by those variations were essentially about whether an individual’s relationships with Christ and God required only that they followed what was written in scripture or whether it depended on the institution of the Church, its ritual, its rules, its priests and of course its taxes and its pope.  In that debate lies the root of so many of the disputes which exist in Christianity still and, interestingly, are not dissimilar to the core of the theological dispute between the Sunni and Shi'a in Islam.  What the humanists did was lay siege to the old dominance in theology of the “scholastics”, themselves divided by an intellectual schism between the via antiqua (the old way) school and the via moderna (the new way), something which must seem familiar to anyone who has cast a glance at the squabbles which have disfigured the Lambeth Conferences since 1968.  Those who thought the old ways were still the best traced their lineage from Italian Dominican friar Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) & Scottish Franciscan friar John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) while the modernists were inspired by English Franciscan friar William of Ockham (circa 1287-1347; he of "Ockham's razor").  It was the still influential Aquinas who in Summa Theologica (1265–1274) created what came to called the “medieval synthesis of faith and reason”, a reconciliation of the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) with scripture and for that he was canonized.  Ockham dismantled the great synthesis and the Church condemned him as a heretic, excommunicating and exiling him although, in an example of having two theological bob each way, never declared his work a heresy.

Those of the via moderna faction however wanted more than ever for the synthesis to be realized but wanted it based on the understanding of scripture (and thus the word of Christ) that their study of the documents from Constantinople had revealed.  Those tied to the old ways of Aquinis and John Duns Scotus (who had for some time been derisively dismissed as the “Dunses”, “Dunites” or “Dunsmen”) they decided deserved the collective “dunce”, those well-schooled and expert in orthodox philosophy but wholly ignorant of the authentic message of Christianity.

Intelligence is famously difficult to measure and even standardized intelligence tests, while they can provide a comparative index of performance of the sub-set taking the test, ultimately measure only a proficiency in answering certain question at a certain time, in a certain place and even then need to be understood in terms of the bias selection in both content and participation.  Based on conventional measures however, the consensus view probably would hold George W Bush (b 1946; US president 2001-2009) was (1) of somewhere above average intelligence and (2) one of the less intelligent US presidents.  However, his halting delivery (except in informal settings), deliciously mangled syntax and frequent malapropisms certainly made him appear a bit of a dunce and he was a gift to the meme-makers in the early days of the form.  The one from 2002 showing him in an elementary school, holding a book upside down circulated widely but was a fake as analysis of some of the detail revealed; book and dunce’s cap both photoshopped.  The book was America: A Patriotic Primer, by Dr Lynne Cheney (b 1941), wife of Dick Cheney (b 1941; US vice-president 2001-2009).  The first evidence of the dunce’s cap seems to date from the early eighteenth century although the earliest known use of the term appears to be 1791 and by the middle of the next century it was used in English literature and appeared in the work of cartoonists.  Actually used in many educational systems as a device both to assist pedagogy and inflict punishment, they had substantially been abandoned by the 1960s but in some of the more remote regions of the British Isles, dunce’s caps were said still to be in use early in the twenty-first century.

Spider

Spider (pronounced spahy-der)

(1) Any predatory silk-producing arachnid of the order Araneae, having four pairs of legs and a rounded un-segmented body consisting of abdomen and cephalothorax, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and as traps for prey.

(2) In non technical use, any of various other arachnids resembling or suggesting these.

(3) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs or feet once common in open-hearth cookery (now rare and applied more loosely; still used by chefs).

(4) A trivet or tripod, as for supporting a pot or pan on a hearth.

(5) In digital technology. digitally to survey websites, following and cataloging their links in order to index web pages for a search engine.

(6) In engineering, a skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.

(7) In agriculture, an instrument used with a cultivator to pulverize soil.

(8) Any implement, tool or other device which is some (even if vague) was resembles or is suggestive of a spider (sometimes as spider-like or spideresque).

(9) In nautical use, a metal frame fitted at the base of a mast to which halyards are tied when not in use.

(10) A drink made by mixing ice-cream and a soda (a fizzy drink such as lemonade) (mostly Australia & New Zealand).

(11) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer (mostly Australia & New Zealand and probably extinct although it still appears in some anthologies of cocktails).

(12) In slang, a person spindly in appearance (dated); also a popular nickname for those with the surname Webb.

(13) In slang, a man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar (also as bar spider).

(14) In snooker & billiards, a stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension; a bridge.

(15) In bicycle design, the part of a crank to which the chain-rings are attached.

(16) In drug slang, one of the many terms for heroin (an allusion to the web-like patterns on the arms of addicts into which the needle is poked).

(17) In music, part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.

(18) In fly fishing, a soft-hackle fly (mostly southern England).

(19) In the sport of darts, the network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.

(20) In mathematics, a type of graph or tree.

(21) In passenger transport, a early type of light phaeton (obsolete) and latterly a descriptor for a roadster (also as spyder).

(22) In photography and film-making, a support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.

1380s: From the Middle English spydyr, spydyr & spither (the forms from mid-century were spiþre, spiþur & spiþer), from the Old English spīþra & spīthra (spider), from the Proto-West Germanic spinþrijō, from the Proto-Germanic spinnaną & spin-thon (“to spin”).  The Old English forms were akin to spinnan (to spin) and cognate with the Danish spinder (literally “spinner”) and the German Spinne and (mostly) displaced attercop (spider, unpleasant person) which was relegated to a dialectal term.  The root of the European form was the primitive Indo-European spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + the formative or agential -thro.  The connection with the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates such as the Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German & German spinne and the Dutch spin (spider).  The loss of -n- before spirants is familiar in Old English (such as goose or tooth).  Spider is a noun, spidery and spideresque are adjectives, spidering is a verb and spidered is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spiders.

Lindsay Lohan with Spiderman and spideresque offspring, Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot, Los Angeles, 2007.

Despite the ancient lineage, in the Old & Middle English there were more common words used when speaking of arachnids including lobbe (or loppe as Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400) would have it), atorcoppe (the Middle English attercop translates literally as “poison-head”), and (from the Latin aranea), renge.  Middle English also had araine (spider) which was picked up, via the Old French from the Latin word with the same spelling and, more poetically, in the Old English there was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes).  In literature, the spider was often a figure of cunning, skill, and industry as well as venomous predation.  In the seventeenth century, the spider figuratively represented venomousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity to vibrations and the habit of solitary lurking, waiting for prey to fall into the web; quintessentially, the spider was an independent character.  The two-pack game of solitaire (patience) called spider dates from 1890 (still available in software), the choice of name thought owed to the resemblance of the layout of the decks in the original form of the game.  In zoology, the spider crab was first identified in 1710 (an applied to various species) while the spider monkey, so called for its long limbs, dates from is from 1764.  The noun spider-web in the 1640s replaced the more cumbersome spider's web from a century-odd earlier and the adjective spidery (long and thin) was first noted in 1823.

The Exorcist’s “spider walk” scene.

Based on the William Peter Blatty (1928-2017) novel The Exorcist (1971), the film version (1973) was directed by William Friedkin (1935-2023) and that it did not win the Best Picture Academy Award is a mystery explained only by the prejudices held at the time by those members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who cast ballots for The Sting (1973) a well-made but formulaic piece and hardly the a landmark like The Exorcist.  The “spider walk” scene was long the subject of speculation.  Not included in the original theatrical release, the director for years claimed it had never been shot and it was only when copies of the takes were found in the archives he admitted it had been done but that it couldn’t be used because the technology didn’t at the time exist to edit out the wires attached to a rail above which made the performance possible.  Subsequently it was revealed the scene had been shot without use of the harness designed for the purpose because it was performed by an experienced stunt double with gymnastic training.  Apparently the director didn’t include it because he thought it appeared too early and disrupted the sequence which is interesting because structurally, The Exorcist is far from perfect.  The spider walk scene was included in the “director’s cut” editions released the next century.

Spider Phaeton, circa 1875, US.

There are cars called spider and spyder although, unlike many other natural or engineered creations which in some way resemble arachnids, these cars are almost always small roadsters which in appearance don’t look anything like their eight-legged namesakes.  The origin of the name lies in the horse & buggy era when a spider phaeton was a lightweight horse-drawn carriage intended for short-distance journeys and the design was intended to impress so there was often little protection from the elements beyond perhaps something to shade ladies from the sun.  Unlike some true “convertible” or “cabriolet” carriages, there were no side windows and the spider name was gained from the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called to mind an arachnid’s legs.  Quite where this style of coachwork was first seen isn’t known but they were certainly in use on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1860s and it’s not impossible the invention was both simultaneous and independent although there are sources which insist it was first seen in the ante-bellum US.  Historians of early transportation note also the similarity of the small seat with the "jump seat" and the later "rumble" or dicky (also as dickie or dickey) seats.

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Monza.

As engines (steam, electric and predominately internal combustion) made possible horseless carriages, in the earliest days the body-styles were carried over as were the designations which is why berlinas, cabriolets and phaetons appeared in the catalogues of the early automotive coach-builders.  However, the spider nomenclature seems to have for decades been forgotten, because although the ancillary seats still existed, the terms “dicky”, “rumble” and “jump” came to be preferred, each with its own etymological tale.  The revival of the name had to await the interwar years, Alfa Romeo in 1931 introducing the 8C, powered by 2.3, 2.6 & 2.9 litre stright-8s, the line continuing until 1939.  Many were touring cars but the Spider version was a sports car built for road and track, and 8C 2300 Spiders won the 1931 & 1932 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily and it was victory in the 1931 Italian Grand Prix which the factory honored with the "Monza", the GP car a shortened, lightweight version of the Spider.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, one of the few times the factory preferred Spyder to Spider.  To date, Ferrari's only Spyders have bee the 250 GT California (1957–1963), the 365 California (1966) and the 365 GTS/4 (Daytona, 1971–1973).  Other than those, its been Spiders or Cabriolets all the way.

Encouraged by the image Alfa-Romeo gained from the illustrious 8C Spiders, a few other cars emerged from Europe in the 1930s but it was in the post-war years the name became really fashionable, the economic boom and the availability of chassis suitable to carry the imagination of carrozzerias meant there was a concurrence of supply and demand for stylish roadsters, many of which carried the magic of the spider name.  Seemingly more glamorous still must have been “Spyder” because it was in the 1950s that roadsters called Spyder began to appear.  Quite why the “y” sometimes was preferred to the “i” has over the years attracted comment and speculation but the reason for the adoption remain obscure.  The idea it was to avoid legal action from Alfa-Romeo was soon discounted because, spider being a historic generic from coach-building (like sedan, limousine, cabriolet etc), it couldn’t be trade-marked or otherwise protected and Alfa-Romeo seems anyway never to have tried.  There was however a quasi-legal status granted to the spelling “spider” because in 1924, the (the apparently now forgotten) Milan-based National Federation of Body makers declared that was how it should be written, the speculation being that Il Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945; Duce (Leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) wanted to make everything as Italian as possible and, there being no "y" in the alphabet, spider it was.  Of whether such matters much occupied the fascist mind, there seems no documentation and it does seem dubious; X, Y, W, J not appearing in the Italian alphabet either although many words in the languages include them.

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder Coupe.  Although it looks frumpy compared with the most accomplished re-styling of 1965, the original Corvair (1990-1965) was a modernist take on the US design language of the late 1950s and was restrained compared with some of what came off the drawing boards in the era.

In 1962 Chevrolet chose “Spyder” as the name for the high-performance version of the rear-engined Corvair, introduced in 1960 as a compact car with an emphasis on economy of operation with no pretentions of sportiness (although drivers would soon discover the sometimes quirky handling characteristics could make the things feel rather like certain racing cars).  Adopting the name for the turbocharged Spyder made sense because GM (General Motors) had from the state positioned the Corvair as a more “European” type of car although the irony was it made its debut at a time when across the Atlantic many manufacturers were for their next generation of mass-market machines pondering a switch from RE-RWD (rear engine-rear wheel drive) to FE-FWD (front engine, front wheel drive).  In the way Detroit was rather loose in the handling of nomenclature, the “Spider” package was available for the Monza versions both as a coupe and convertible; notably, it made the Corvair only the second passenger vehicle in series production to have been fitted with a turbo-charger, Oldsmobile F-85 Turbo Jetfire having been released a few months earlier.  The Oldsmobile venture was brief because the early implementation of the technology demanded rather more of drivers than US buyers had become accustomed to giving and anyway, despite the specification (turbocharged, all aluminium, 215 cubic inch (3.5 litre) V8) sounding tempting, on the road it was less than exciting and GM soon abandoned the engine (whether with forced aspiration or not).  The corporation came to regret that decision because the light, compact V8 would have proved a useful augmentation to their ranges in the troubled decades to follow.  As it was, in 1965 it sold the rights and tooling to Rover and the V8 would until 2006 provide stellar service to the UK industry.  Chevrolet in 1965 retired the “Spyder” name from the Corvair and replaced it with “Corsa”.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa Coupe (left) and 1967 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Sport Sedan (right).  The almost Italianesque lines of the second generation Corvair (1965-1967) were as fine as anything from Detroit in the 1960s but the damane to the car's reputation was done.  The four-door version was notable for being the only compact four-door hardtop the industry produced and uniquely, there was no companion model with a B-pillar. 

As an evocative name for a car, the Latin corsa (from the Ancient Greek κόρση (kórsē) (variously (1) in building, the uprights on the gate of a temple, (2) in anatomy the sides of the forehead (ie the temples) or (3) the hair on the temples)) wasn't encouraging as a noun because it meant “the outer strip in the molding about a door (a girder)”.  However, the Latin adjective corsa could (in the feminine) be used to mean “a Corsican” or “of or relating to Corsica” and that obviously was very European.  To emphasise that, “Corsa” exists in a number of Romance languages including Asturian, Catalan, French, Galician, Italian, Latin, Portuguese & Spanish.  There is nothing to suggest there was in the mid-1960s and market resistance to the name “Spyder”, the switch to “Corsa” made just to create the aura of “newness” at the time so important.  In 1965 that was a quality especially important for the second generation Corvair, the reputation of which (rightly) had suffered after the publication of Ralph Nader’s (b 1934) Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) which was a devastating critique on the safety standards of US-made automobiles, the dubiously implemented swing-axles on the very early Corvairs the emblematic case study.  Ironically, as well as being one of the loveliest designs of the era, the revised Corvair greatly was improved but by them the damage was terminal and the project doomed, the model lingering until 1969 only because GM didn’t wish it thought Nader had claimed a scalp.   

Beyond the Corvair, the exotic "spyder with a y" wasn't unknown in US commerce, the MWC (Motor Wheel Corporation (1920-1996)) of Lansing Michigan using the spelling for one of their "jellybean style" wheels, produced in the early 1970s using the then popular technique of combining a styled aluminun center with a chromed steel rim.  MWC's wheels were highly regarded for quality and the Spyder was produced for use with disc or drum brakes.  Note little Miss Muffet's strategically positioned tip of the tongue, right.

MWC may not have wanted customers to associate its products with the then recently cancelled Corvair but may have been encouraged by FoMoCo (Ford Motor Company) which as early as 1958 had borrowed the French spelling Galaxie for the top-trim option for its then full-sized Fairlane, the company in 1966 adding the 7 Litre option to the range.  Even then liters were not unknown in US English (especially among scientists and engineers) but they tended not to use the French spelling (although Pontiac used it to emphasize the distinctly "European" flavor of its short-lived (1966-1969) OHC (overhead camshaft) straight-six).  FoMoCo's marketing staff wouldn’t have deluded themselves by imagining use of “litre” would suggest to buyers there was anything remotely “French” about the Galaxie's biggest engine option (by 1966, French cars certainly weren’t built with 7 litre V8 engines) but it avoided a linguistic clash with Galaxie and anyway such things were then anyway part of the zeitgeist of commerce.  Then as now, New York City was no more representative of life in the US than were things south of the Mason-Dixon Line but cars were named for the whole country and just as wild creatures (cougar, mustang, barracuda etc) suited some segments, “Galaxie” in 1958 had been chosen because, post-Sputnik, it was the dawn of the “space age” with rockets and satellites suddenly part of the cultural milieu.  So it was a deliberate exercise in branding and not a linguistic accident, just as litre appealed because more than any other European nation, France was thought redolent with connotations of modernity and sophistication, making "Galaxie 7 Litre" a happy combination.

1971 Ford LTD Convertible with MWC's Spyder wheels.  The proliferation of smaller ranges (the pony cars and intermediates) meant the demise of the "sporty" versions of the full-size lines; among the Fords, the last big block V8 / 4-speed manual transmission combo was built in 1969 and the last LTD convertible would appear in 1972. 

A 1971 LTD is an improbable resting place for a set of MWC Spyders which presumably enjoyed an earlier life on another vehicle or perhaps several, certainly they were never a FoMoCo factory option.  The LTD began in 1965 as just another option for the Galaxie; it was a "luxury package" (ie letting the Galaxie fulfil the role for which in 1939 Mercury had been created).  Although in the 1930s & 1940s there had been various "Deluxe" & "Super Deluxe" Fords, it was when the Edsel venture played out over two and a bit seasons (1958-1960) that the real intra-corporate cannibalization began with Ford in the 1960s increasingly trespassing on what in marketing theory should have been Mercury's fenced-off turf.  Even when Mercury stumbled on its one bona fide hit (the 1967 Cougar), it wasn't long before there was a Ford emulating it and, to add insult to injury, at a lower cost.  Mercury did well to last until 2011 when FoMoCo grasped the excuse of the GFC (global financial crisis, 2008-2012) to shutter the brand.

The alpha-numeric juxtaposition also simplified the administration of the badgework because in 1966 & 1967, FoMoCo actually offered two very different versions of their 7 litre FE V8, the 427 (a famously powerful & robust beast with a stellar reputation on the circuits which was expensive, noisy, prone to being cantankerous and an oil burner) or the 428 (mild-mannered, smooth, quiet, cheap to build and offering prodigious low-speed torque), the choice at the dealership just a tick on the box for those with the cash of credit rating to afford the 427.  The market spoke, the sales breakdown between the 427/428 in 1966/1967 being 11035/38 and 1056/12.  So the 427 was retired from the full-sized line for 1968, a run 350-odd of a curious version with hydraulic valve lifters (intended originally for the Mustang) used in the Mercury Cougar, coupled exclusively to an automatic gearbox; for the 1968 Cougars, Ford decided there were just 427s & 428s and didn't bother with litres or liters.  Strangely, by then, the corporation would have had an excuse to stick with the French because in 1968 FoMoCo had three different 7 litre V8s in the showrooms, the 427 & 428 from the FE family and the 429 from the 385 series.  Fortunately, another 7 litre (the 430 from the MEL family) had been retired in 1966 after being enlarged to 462 cubic inches (7.5 litres).            

1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider.

In Italy, the naming trend really took off in 1954 when Lancia introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider and soon Ferrari and other from Italy would follow although spyders would appear too, (including some from Ferrari & Lancia), and General Motors (GM), noted scavengers of European nomenclature (GTO, Grand Prix etc) shamelessly tacked Spyder onto the doomed Corvair, even for versions with a fixed roof.  North of the Brenner Pass, spyder has found favour, used by Porsche, Audi and BMW while in the Far-East, companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, arch-imitators in style and perfectionists in execution have rolled out their own spyders.  Alfa-Romeo and Fiat however have stuck to spider, Lancia and Ferrari too seeming to have forsaken their youthful indiscretions and only using the original.

1967 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider Duetto.

Although in continuous production between 1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the memorable Osso di Seppia (Round-tail, literally "cuttle fish") coachwork.  After 1970, the Spider gained a Kamm-tail which increased luggage capacity and apparently also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always coveted the cigar-shaped original, despite it violating a few rules in the design handbook.  The Duetto name was the winning entry in a competition Alfa Romeo in 1965 conducted and in those days that meant running advertisements in newspapers (which people actually paid for and read) to which readers responded by cutting out and filling in the coupon, writing in their suggestion, putting it in an envelope on which they wrote the address, buying and affixing a stamp and putting envelope in mailbox.  Then, entering a competition took effort and commitment.  The company's directors liked "Duetto" because it summed up the romantic essence of a machine definitely built for a couple but unfortunately, for some legal reason relating to an existing trademark, it couldn't officially be used but for decades, among the cognoscenti,  the little roadsters have always been called Duettos.  To keep the tiresome lawyers at bay, when released at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966, the car was released as the Spider 1600.

1980 (left) and 1978 (right) Lancia Beta Zagato Spiders.

Whatever its dynamic qualities, the Lancia Beta (1972–1984) tends to be remembered only for its extraordinary predilection for rusting, vying with the early Alfa Romeo Alfasuds (1971-1989) for the title of “most susceptible”.  The coupé (1973-1984) and shooting brake (1975-1984 and named HPE (High-performance Estate)) appear less affected by body-rot but the tainted reputation has meant these models have never attained the desirability of earlier Lancias like the exquisite Fulvia (1963-1976).  Tellingly, although convertibles tend in the collector market to attract a premium, not even the Beta Zagato Spider enjoys much of a following despite almost 10,000 having been produced in an era when new convertibles were becoming a rarity.  The Zagato Spider was more of a targa than a true convertible but was a clever design with both a removable targa-top atop the front seats and a folding rear-section, al la the early Porsche “soft window” Targas of the late 1960s.  The coach-building and design house Zagato has operated in Italy since 1919 and although there have been some nice creations, the operation has often been associated with the angular and the quirky, some designs simply weird.  Despite that, more than a century on, Zagato remains while others responsible for many sensuous shapes have come and gone. 

Robert the Bruce, colored engraving by an unknown artist (1797).

Robert I (Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329; King of Scots 1306-1329) was crowned King of Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English.  Earlier though, he’d had his defeats and his spirits were said to be at a low ebb when after one disastrous battle, he was forced to take refuge in a cave.  Sitting in the cold, dark space, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web and time and time again, the little creature failed.  However, each time the spider fell, it climbed back up to try again until finally, the silk took hold and the web was spun.  From this, Robert was inspired to return to the fight and was victorious in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), a triumph which turned the tide of the war and ultimately, in 1328. the independence of Scotland was won.

Bruce and the spider, by Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

FOR Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
 
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
 
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
 
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.

Brace

Brace (pronounced breys)

(1) Something that holds parts together or in place, as a clasp or clamp.

(2) Anything that imparts rigidity or steadiness (sometimes called a bitbrace or bitstock).

(3) In drilling, a hand tool for drilling holes, with a socket to hold the drill at one end and a cranked handle by which the tool can be turned in full (also called a bitstock).

(4) In building trades, a piece of timber, metal, etc., for supporting or positioning another piece or portion of a framework.

(5) In Admiralty use, on a square-rigged ship, A rope reeved through a block at the end of a yard, by which the yard is moved horizontally (also as the rudder gudgeon).

(6) In nautical use, to swing round the yards of a square rigged ship (using braces), to present a more efficient sail surface to the direction of the wind.

(7) In music, the leather loops sliding upon the tightening cords of a drum to change their tension and the drum's pitch.

(8) In dentistry, a system of wires, brackets, and elastic bands used to correct crooked or irregularly arranged teeth or to reduce overbite, placed directly against the surfaces of the teeth.

(9) In orthopaedic surgery, a device or appliance that supports or holds a movable part of the body in correct position while allowing motion of the part.

(10) In fashion, an alternative name for suspender (almost always in the plural as braces).

(11) A pair; a couple, used originally of dogs, and later of animals generally (eg a brace of grouse) and then other things, but rarely people.  Now usually used in the context of hunting or (in sport) scoring a pair of goals, tries etc (though not related to the “pair” in cricket, the unhappy record of being dismissed twice without scoring in each innings of a first class or test match.

(12) In typography, one of two characters { or } used to enclose words or lines to be considered together.  Also called a bracket, though not recommended because technically, they’re [ and ]. 

(13) In mathematics, as { or } used for connecting lines of printing or writing or as a third sign of aggregation in complex mathematical or logical expressions that already contain parentheses and brackets.

(14) In musical composition, as { or } also called accolade, a line or bracket connecting two or more staves of music

(15) A protective band covering the wrist or lower part of the arm, especially a bracer.

(16) In military parade drill, a position of attention with exaggeratedly stiff posture.

(17) Literally and figuratively, to prepare for an impact or an event.

(18) In informal slang, to become resolute; to stimulate or freshen.

(19) A form of armor for the arm, also called vambrace (obsolete).

(20) In mining, the mouth of a shaft (apparently a localism restricted to Cornwall).

(21) A medical device, a kind of compression fitting used on joints (ankles, knees etc) to provide support during the healing process.

(22) A measurement of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms (obsolete).

(23) In engineering, a piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts.  It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members.

(24) A kind of riding equipment or horse tack (in historic reference only).

(25) A peninsula; a cape or slice of land jutting into the sea (in historic reference only).

(26) A perch (unit of measure) (in historic reference only).

(27) A point of a cross or rood (in historic reference only).

1300–1350: From the Middle English brace & bracen and the Anglo-French bracier borrowed from the from the Old French brace (arm), derived from the Latin brāchia & brācchia (the nominative and accusative plural (taken as feminine singular)) of brāchium & brācchium (arm) drawn from the Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn), most influenced by the plural Latin form bracchia (two arms).  The variety of spellings from the medieval period are extinct, the usual forms now bracchium or bracchia in the plural.  The prior etymology is wholly speculative, may have come from Gothic brasa (glowing coal), Proto-Germanic brasō (crackling coal) or the primitive bhres (to crack, break, burst).  It was cognate was the French braise (embers), Swedish brasa (to roast) and Icelandic brasa (to harden by fire), all thought related to the Sanskrit भ्रज bhraja (fire).  Brace & bracing are nouns & verbs and braced is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is braces.

Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy (b 1996) wearing leather braces (without belt).

In idiomatic use, the phrase “belt and braces approach” is used to describe the inclusion of redundancy in design, ensuring mutual backups in the event of one system failing.  The phrase is from the notion of the use of either a belt or set of braces to prevent one’s trousers falling down and although both accessories are now (at least to some extent) decorative fashion items, in the era before tighter fitting clothes, they were essential and the especially cautious wore both, avoiding the dreaded SPF (single point-of-failure).  In the US, the equivalent form is “belt and suspenders approach”, “suspenders” (also as “suspender belt”) elsewhere usually understood as the device used by women to hold up their stockings, a device in US English styled as a “garter belt”. 

The original, early fourteenth century meaning was “an item of armor for the arms (and also “a thong or strap for fastening”), reflect the link to the Old French brace (arms) and it was from here that emerged brace as “a length measured by the span of a man’s two arms”.  The meaning "that which holds two or more things firmly together" (derived originally on the notion of clasping arms) emerged in the mid-fifteenth century and came to be applied to an array of fastening and tightening devices in a wide range of endeavours including art, engineering, carpentry, agriculture etc.  The specific meaning as a “prop, supporting strut” began in architecture in the 1520s and came to be applied to just about anything involving physical objects, the figurative use noted from the late sixteenth century.  The idea of things in pairs (first dogs, later game such as ducks, grouse etc) dates from circa 1400 and was later applied to various pairs (pistols, carriages etc); the use in sport to describe scoring twice in the one game (goals, tries etc) was a twentieth century coining, apparently by print journalists wanting something different from “pair” or “two”.  Braces in the sense of “straps passing over the shoulders to hold up the trousers” was from 1798, used after 1945 to describe the hardware used for wires for straightening the teeth.  In the English tradition, to say the weather is "bracing" means it's "damnably cold".

Knocking back a bracer: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a quick belt of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

Lindsay Lohan’s injured right ankle in foot-brace, Mykonos, Greece, 2018.  It’s believed she made a good recovery but may never play rugby again.

The verb brace emerged in the mid-fourteenth century meaning both “to seize, grasp, hold firmly” & “wrap, enshroud; tie up, fetter”, something gained from the Old French bracier (to embrace), again the idea of grasping by the arms.  The meaning "make tense, render firm or steady by tensing" was noted from the mid-fifteenth century although decades earlier it had been used in the figurative sense of "strengthen or comfort someone”.  From this, by the 1740s, developed the later extension to tonics which "brace" the nerves (the bracer a "stiff drink"), a throwback to the original bracer (the early fourteenth century piece of armor protecting the arm) and by 1826 a bracer had assumed the specific use as “an alcoholic drink taken early in the morning”.  From the 1580s, a bracer was also “any sort of stay or clamp which braces or makes firm”, used typically in engineering or construction.  To brace oneself (place oneself in the position of a brace in anticipation of some shock or impact) is documented by 1805 but there is peripheral evidence the phrase may have been in use as early as circa 1500, probably in relation to horse-drawn transport and now familiar to many from the safety demonstration dutifully conducted by flight attendants before every take-off.  Because braces are designed and used for many purposes, there are a large number of derived terms including angle brace, curly brace, neck brace, ankle brace, tower brace, tower brace etc.

General Ulysses S Grant (1822–1885; US president 1869-1877) being photographed in uniform as General of the Army (four star), a rank to which he was appointed in 1866, New York, circa 1866.

Behind the general is a “posture brace”, used by photographers to prevent their subjects moving (the projecting prongs holding the head steady), any movement during the long exposure time risking blurring of the image.  The photo session was conducted in the Huston and Kurtz studio and can properly be called a “session” because, in addition to being time-consuming, the technique in use was called “photosculpture” (developed in 1859 by French artist François Willème (1830–1905)) which involved taking up to 24 photographs of a subject from various angles, the original concept being the creation of a montage which was effectively a 360^o view to assist sculptors carving busts or creating statures.  The perpendicular lines & numbers (1-24) on the platform were references for the photographer who would use them to align the camera’s lens, ensuring an exact series of images.  The studio was a partnership between German born Wilhelm Kurz (1833–1904) and a certain Mr Huston who appears to have vanished from history.  The business was dissolved within two years and Mr Kurz reverted to operating as a sole-trader, later establishing a studio in Madison Square, New York and going on to make notable innovations in the then novel color photography.

In modern commerce the posture brace (marketed also as “posture corrector”) is a specialized form of underwear garment designed to help improve one’s posture, typically by aligning the spine and shoulders into a more upright (or “correct”) position. Advertised as devices which can counteract poor posture habits (especially those resulting from prolonged sitting or slouching), the claims include a reduction in neck, back & shoulder strain.  The designs and methods of construction vary but many of the most popular are made from elastic or neoprene, wrapping around the back & shoulders, acting gently to “pull the shoulders back”.  Others are really straps or harnesses which combine a lightweight form which can exert the required force on the shoulders without excessively restricting movement and a recent development has been the “passive brace”: wearables which buzz or vibrate when slouching is detected, acting as a reminder rather than physically forcing alignment and thus analogous with seat-belt or speed waring chimes in cars.

Brace of single-shot duelling pistols in hardwood case, featured by Hallowell, the design from England and in vogue circa 1770-1850.

Many items were produced in pairs for many reasons but with duelling pistols it was obviously culturally deterministic.  Most used either flintlock or percussion ignition, and were supplied with the cleaning and loading accessories (the cleaning kit still something to ensure is supplied when one buys (or otherwise obtains) one’s AK47).  Duelling pistols tended to be lighter than contemporary service pistols and were often made with a finer finish, reflecting the upper-class market for which they were produced.  The ballistics techniques varied and although most appear to have been smooth-bored, some were scratch-rifled and there were octagon (or octagon-to-round) barrels, all around 9-10 inches (228-254 mm) long.  Almost all were forged from some form of Damascus steel, with bores slightly larger than a half-inch (50 mm) and supplied with ramrods, rudimentary sights front and rear, single-set triggers, roller-bearing frizzens and curved grips integral with full or half-stocks.  Although usually of high quality construction (sometimes with silver furniture), unlike the boxed braces produced for display or ceremonial purposes, duelling pistols tended to be relatively plain and unembellished.

Noted pheasant plucker Boris Johnson (b 1964, UK prime-minister 2019-2022) after bagging a brace of pheasants.

DPRK’s military parades.  The 2010 event (left) during the era of the Dear Leader and the 2015 event (right) after the accession of the Supreme Leader.

Although in production for almost two decades, Mercedes-Benz built only 2677 600s and of those, 428 were the long-wheelbase Pullmans.  Of those, 59 were the Landaulets with a convertible roof extending either over the rearmost seats or the whole passenger compartment.  Just 12 of the latter were built and the only one known to have bought a brace was Kim Il-sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRD, North Korea)) who ordered two in 1968.  Just as the DPRK and its grateful population passed to his descendents, Kim Jong-il (1941–2011; Kim II, Dear Leader of the DPRK 1994-2011) and Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1983; Supreme Leader of the DPRK since 2011), they also inherited the Landaulets which for decades were a fixture at state occasions like military parades.  Buying a brace ensured an unusual distinction of rarity; the parades are said to be the only occasions when two 600 long-roof Landaulets were seen in the same place at the same time.  The Supreme Leader updated in 2015 to the new S600 Pullman Landaulets but they’re mass-produced compared with the original, lack gravitas and look something like a very big Hyundai (made in the "puppet state" of South Korea).  For this reason, the old 600s are retained for occasions when there’s a need really to impress folks and maintain the dynasty’s image of continuity which stretches back to the Great Leader.

1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger with strut brace (also called strut bar), triangulated against the firewall.  Strut braces are stiff metal bars which connect the strut towers (front or rear), the purpose being enhanced structural rigidity.  Depending on the vehicle, the difference can be anything from transformative to non-existent and manufacturers of high-end machinery are aware of their appeal.  There have in recent decades been enormous advances in structural engineering and engineers admit that on some exotic machinery, the torsional rigidity is so high that strut braces add nothing except a little additional weight but they’re installed anyway, simply for the visual effect and to meet buyer expectation.  They’re a popular retro-fit to many of the machines from the 1960s and 1970s which, frankly, were over-powered when new and more so when modified.