Sandbag

Sandbag (pronounced sand-bag)

(1) A bag filled with sand, used in water-proofing, fortification, as ballast etc.

(2) Such a bag used as a weapon.

(3) Violently to set upon or attack from or as if from ambush (archaic).

(4) To coerce or intimidate, to make threats (archaic).

(5) Sometimes by metaphor, by virtue of added weight, to reduce performance in competitive sport; a form of cheating.

(6) To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage.

(7) In commerce, to obstruct an unwelcome takeover bid by prolonging talks in the hope an acceptable bidder will appear.

1580-1590: A compound of the nouns sand + bag.  Sand was from the Middle English sand, from the Old English sand, from the Proto-Germanic samdaz.  In other European languages there was the West Frisian sân, Dutch zand, German Sand, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sand, thought all related to the primitive sámh₂dhos.  Bag was from the Middle English bagge, borrowed from the Old Norse baggi (bag, pack, satchel, bundle), from the primitive bhak and thought related are the Welsh baich (load, bundle) and the Ancient Greek βάσταγμα (bástagma) (load)).  In Latin there was sabulum, and in Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos) from sem (to pour).  English root is hinted at by The Old English dialectal samel (sand bottom), the Old Irish to-ess-sem (to pour out), the Latin sentina (bilge water), the Lithuanian sémti (to scoop) and the Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō) (to gather) & ἄμη (ámē) (water bucket)).  The verb was first noted in 1860 with the simple meaning “provide someone with sandbags".  The meaning "pretend weakness" apparently first used in 1950s motor racing appears not to have been in common use until the 1970s, with most sources linking use to the poker-playing sense of "refrain from raising at the first opportunity in hopes of raising more steeply later", a use first documented in 1940.  The idea of the sandbag as a weapon (used by a sandbagger) dates from 1882 with the resultant “sandbagged” emerging in 1887.

Sandbagging

Lindsay Lohan in Chief Sandbagger tank top.

Sandbagging is a form of cheating, usually in sport but also in commerce.  It involves deliberately under-performing at certain stages to maximise the benefits gained when later performing to full-potential.  The metaphor is based on the notion of being impeded by the extra weight of carrying a sandbag, analogous with the old “lead in the saddle” from horse racing when unscrupulous owners would add to a well-priced mount’s weight if they were betting on a longer-odds starter.  In motor racing, sandbagging described drivers who, in handicapped events, deliberately recorded slow times in qualifying to gain a more advantageous starting position or a less onerous handicap in the event proper.  The authorities responded with penalties or disqualification if race-day performance improved on the qualifying mark by more than a defined measure.  Literal sandbagging proved useful as a stabilizing device in many of the big-engine machines during the (1964-1974) US muscle car era during which some of the things generated close up to five-hundred horsepower, delivered to the road through primitive drive systems with over sixty percent of their weight sitting over the front wheels.  On street, strip and track, two or more bags of sand in the trunk (boot) greatly improved traction and balance.  A specialised need for the bag in the boot is in the stunt car business for those times when there’s a need to have a vehicle fly through the air, landing safely on four wheels at the end of descent.  To do that, object will fly best if its weight-distribution is a close as possible to 50-50 but, most cars being front-heavy, there’s a tendency to nosedive, the traditional fix being sandbags in the boot.  Cement is sometimes used instead of sand and the need for such tricks is diminishing with advances in CGI.

Before sandbagging: A tendency to nosedive.

The CBS comedy TV series The Dukes of Hazzard was aired between 1979-1985.  The show did feature actors and plot lines (analysts have suggested there were either five or six plots and these, with tweaks and variations on the themes, were recycled in all the 147 episodes shot) but for many the most memorable character was the 1969 Dodge Charger.  Introduced as a 1968 model, it replaced its rather slab-sided predecessor which, after an encouraging debut in 1966, had suffered a precipitous drop in sales the next season.  The re-styling for 1968 transformed not only the appearance but also its popularity and sales more than quadrupled even though some of the extravagant interior appointments (the eye-catching electroluminescent instrument lighting and the four bucket seats with a full-length centre console) which two years earlier had attracted such interest were no longer offered.  The sleek new lines however more than made up for the cost-cutting although belying the wind-cheating appearance, the shape wasn’t that aerodynamically efficient, something the corporation would twice seek to rectify in the quest for success on the circuits.  The first attempt was relatively modest and proved inadequate but the second worked so for the one season it was used the sanctioning body outlawed the entire concept.  Known as the first of the "aero cars", it was the most radical a manufacturer had ever attempted.  It still is.

After sandbagging: Perfect weight distribution.

In the course of production, over 300 Dodge Chargers were used in the series, the rate of attrition as one might expect from the number of car-jumping stunts involved.  Early in the show’s life, when 1968-1969 (the 1968 cars were easily modified to appear as next year’s model for filming purposes) Dodge Chargers were just cheap used cars and readily available, the supply-line of replacements wasn’t a significant part of the budget but by the early 1980s, the cars were becoming scarce and increasingly expensive, something at least partly attributable to the impact of the TV series.  There was in the early 1980s also a sudden drop in the cost of gas as the (somewhat misleadingly named) “oil glut” depressed the price of oil and gas-guzzlers like the Chargers, with their satisfying, if rather primitive characteristics, enjoyed a renaissance.  In response, the producers responded with the tricks used in the pre CGI (computer-generated imagery) era, re-using old footage and staging some of the more distant scenes with scale models.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Perfect weight distribution: Jessica Simpson (b 1980) in promotional shot for The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), said to be among the worst films ever made.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Joe Biden, sandbagged in Colorado.

In June 2023, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) told reporters he'd "been sandbagged" after tripping over “a sandbag” after handing out diplomas on a stage at the US Air Force (USAF) Academy’s Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The footage of the event was all from one camera angle and on that no sandbag was evident but some quickly observed even if there wasn’t really a sandbag, the president clearly believes there was one and under some theories of cognition, that means the same thing.  The eighty year old president was quickly picked up by an air force officer and two members of the Secret Service, the White House later issuing a statement saying he was “fine after the fall” and USAF sources confirmed “two small black sandbags were used to support the teleprompter”.

Joe Biden has suffered repeated difficulties in trying to board Air Force One using the red-carpeted stairs, once infamously tripping over three times during one ascent (left).  He now uses the "baby stairs" in the nose.  Note the Secret Service officer at the bottom of the stairs: he is the "designated catcher".

So sandbags have been added to the checklist his Secret Service detail goes through before he’s allowed to make any public appearances.  Apparently surfaces on which the president will walk (or stumble or shuffle depending on the time of day) have to be as free from obstacles and obstructions as is possible and not be at all slippery.  A roll-up mat is now part of the inventory carried in the presidential motorcade, un-rolled whenever surfaces appear “potentially challenging”.  Anything other than sitting down is obvious fraught with danger and it’s not clear if he’ll again be allowed to ride a bike after tumbling to the ground when his feet somehow got “tangled in the pedals”.  His difficulties with stairs have been well documented and it’s of note he now uses only a rarely used forward exit when boarding or alighting from Air Force One.  Even that doesn’t guarantee he won’t trip up but from these stairs it’s a shorter fall to the tarmac so there’s that.