Treasure

Treasure (pronounced trezh-er)

(1) Wealth or riches stored or accumulated, especially in the form of precious metals, money, jewels, or plate; wealth, rich materials, or valuable things.

(2) A thing, beast or person greatly valued or highly prized.

(3) As the verbs treasured & treasuring, carefully to retain or keep in store, as in the mind; to regard or treat as precious; cherish; to put away for security or future use, as money.

(4) A term of endearment in the sense of “cherish” (archaic).

1125–1175: From the Middle English tresor, (displacing the native schat) from the Old French tresor (treasury, hoard, treasure (trésor in Modern French)), from the Gallo-Roman tresaurus, from the Latin thēsaurus (storehouse, hoard; anything hoarded (source also of Spanish & Italian tesoro)), from the Ancient Greek θησαυρός thēsauros (store, treasure, treasure house) (related to tithenai (to put, to place), from a reduplicated form of the primitive Indo-European root dhe- (to set, put).  In Middle English there was also the spelling thresur, the modern spelling is from the sixteenth century.  It replaced the Old English goldhord & maðm and the meaning extended from hoards of precious metals etc to a general sense of "anything valued" from circa 1200.  The verb emerged in late fourteenth century Middle English, a derivative of the noun.  It meant literally "to amass treasure; to store up for the future" but was used also in the figurative sense as "regard as precious, retain carefully in the mind" from treasure.  The first recorded treasure hunt happened in 1913 a relatively modern alternative spelling was the now almost extinct treasuer.  Treasure is a noun & verb, treasurable & treasureless are adjectives, treasury, treasurership, treasuress & treasurer are nouns, treasuring is a verb and treasured is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is treaures.

The noun treasurer was from the late thirteenth century, from the Old North French & Anglo-French tresorer & and the Old French tresorier, from tresor.  The noun treasury (a room or vault in which to store and safeguard treasure) dates from circa 1300, from the eleventh century Old French tresorie (treasury), from tresor.  The meaning "department of state that controls public revenue" was recorded from late the late fourteenth century and the first treasury bill was issued in 1797.  An Old English word for "room for treasure" was maðm-hus and for "treasury", it was feo-hus (connected to the modern fee).  There is a connection with the noun hoard, from the Old English hord (a treasure, valuable stock or store, an accumulation of something for preservation or future use and hence "any mass of things preserved by being deposited together," from the Proto-Germanic huzdam (source also of Old Saxon hord (treasure, hidden or inmost place)).  It was cognate with the Old Norse hodd, the German Hort and the Gothic huzd (treasure; literally "hidden treasure"), from the primitive Indo-European root (s)keu- (to cover, conceal).

T-Paper

US Treasury Building, Washington DC.

T-paper (Treasury-paper) is the collective term for securities issued by United States Treasury.  The US Treasury Department sells bills, notes, and bonds at auction with a fixed interest rate.  When demand is high, bidders pay higher than face value to receive the interest rate.  When demand is low, they pay less, thus the yield declines as the price rises; at times of crisis, yield drops as investors seek security at the expense of income.  T-paper gained the name from being once issued on physical paper or cardboard) but are exist in now digital form and are also referred to as “Treasurys”.

1864 US $100 three-year treasury note (6% annual interest rate, compounded semi-annually, payable at maturity); a bearer-bond, paid over-the-counter, to whomever held the physical paper.  

Although physical paper is no longer much associated with T-paper, a linguistic legacy persists in the “coupon stripping” market.  There’s long been a secondary market for T-paper, one flavor of which is where the interest and principal components have been separated, or "stripped" so they may be re-sold as separate products.  The name is derived from the days of paper and cardboard when traders literally would separate the paper interest coupons from the paper securities.  In the secondary market, the two pieces of paper than became independent retail items, one yielding interest, the principal re-sold as a zero-coupon bond.  The correct name in the digital age is Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal Securities (STRIPS).  STRIPS, more than some other products, reflects the dual role of the Treasury as both regulator and participant in the financial gambling market, not itself an issuer of STRIPS (that part of the market reserved for brokers and the non-retail arms of banks), instead the maintaining the transaction and ownership register.

1976 US $5000 ten-year treasury note with 8% rate.

The difference in types of T-Paper are defined by the length of the term: the time until the bond the matures at which point it is repaid.  All T-paper are really bonds, the nomenclature just part of the jargon of the industry.  Treasury Bills are issued for less than a year, Treasury Notes for 2, 3, 5, and 10 years and Treasury Bonds for 30 years.  Still unconfirmed is whether recent discussions by Treasury about longer-term bonds will be pursued although demand seemingly exists, fifty and even hundred-year bonds mentioned.  There has been speculation about the demand which, given the amount of money said now to be “sloshing around” the system, wasn’t unexpected and the large holdings of various sovereign wealth funds may also find the longer terms attractive, for reasons political as well as fiscal.  It anyway represents one school of thought on what to do about the money supply. 

A more recent creation is the Treasury Inflation-Protected Security (TIPS), bond, the principal of which is indexed against inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  As the CPI rises, the principal is adjusted upward; if the index falls, the principal is adjusted downwards, the coupon rate remaining constant, but generating a different amount of interest when multiplied by the inflation-adjusted principal.  This has the effect of protecting the holder against the inflation rate as measured by the CPI.  The current version of TIPS was created in 1997 and is offered with five, ten and thirty year maturities.

Spikes and waves:  US T-Note yield against inflation projections and outcomes with events noted, 2000-2020.

Inflation-indexed bonds became common in government bond markets in the late twentieth century, many emerging in the inflationary environment which followed (1) the distortions in US government spending the 1960s, (2) the structural changes to the Bretton-Woods system in the 1970s  and (3) the consequences of the oil shocks in the same decade; they’re essentially a form of hedging.  In the orthodox bond market, even those issued for long terms promise the holder a fixed dollar (or whatever currency) income flow for the term of issue.  That contrasts with the outgoings of an individual or corporation because prices tend quickly to adjust to external changes and unexpected changes can increase the general level of prices, altering the real purchasing power of money which is a risk to both holders and issuers of orthodox bonds.  The indexed bond substantially reduces this risk in that the lender’s receipts and the borrower’s payments become linked to movements in the general price level.

Lindsay Lohan attending the LA premiere of Treasure Planet, Cenerama Dome, Hollywood, California, November 2002.

Again, while used as a hedge, it is still a gambling market, the incentive for governments, beyond the political attractions of being able to offer the product, being the ability substantially to reduce borrowing costs  The UK government first issued indexed bonds in 1981 as a part of an attempt to reduce (it was actually an attempt to kill) inflation.  The markets however had noted the post-war performance of successive governments and were sceptical, holders of orthodox bonds, in effect, charging the government on the basis of an inflation rate substantially higher than the government intended the outcome to be.  This is how gambling works.  In issuing indexed bonds, simultaneously the government flagged a new seriousness in monetary policy and an intent to reduce funding costs by promising to compensate investors for high inflation only if inflation did not fall.  Unexpectedly, the government’s strategy proved successful and substantial savings in borrowing costs were realised.  The effect of the increase in the money supply induced by the COVID-19 responses will ultimately produce higher inflation because, unlike the restorative measures in the wake of the global financial crisis (2008-2011) which essentially gave money only to the rich, greater disposable income was gained more widely.  If the inflation is sustained or (in response to new, unexpected events) spikes, New Zealand's approach (which included products actually marketed as "inflation-proof bonds") might be re-visited.   

The New Zealand experience was different but the small size of the market, while making it an interesting and manageable thing for modelers and analysts, does mean caution must be taken if attempting to apply that experience at scale.  The NZ government issued inflation-adjusted government securities between 1977-1985 and, in a period of historically high inflation, they were popular, eventually accounting for some 15% of domestic debt on issue.  Post-war NZ had evolved into what is possibly the West’s most extreme example of an open political system being combined with a highly regulated economy and that did tend to work until the convulsions of the 1970s to which the NZ hybrid proved unable to adjust.  The adjustments were made after a change of government in 1984 and the inflation adjusted bonds offered by tender in 1983-1984 entered a market where the official inflation target was considerably lower than the buyer’s expectation.

New Zealand Consumer Price Index (CPI) 1970-2015.

Almost immediately, the new government ceased issuing indexed debt.  Perhaps paradoxically, the same credibility gap confronted the government in its own use of more orthodox methods to cut inflation.  Because it was expected the costs of selling long-term nominal bonds would be high, in 1986, issues longer than five years were suspended, the government making clear that would prevail until their inflation target had been met or exceeded.  The approach, while textbook correct, wasn’t without risk because, although shortening the term of a government’s nominal debt can be an appropriate response where inflation outcomes are uncertain, it does heighten the risk of higher costs when rolling-over maturing debt.  As it turned out, for one reason and another, some fairly brutal, inflation was tamed and in 1995, the government returned to the index-linked market.  Many countries created markets, Finland and some of the Nordic zone as early as 1945 and Israel ten year later.  A cluster of Latin American countries issued between 1964-1972 and a number of OECD nations followed the New Zealand and UK in the 1980s although the US Treasury wasn’t active until 1997.

Corporal

Corporal (pronounced kawr-per-uhl or kaw-pruhl)

(1) Of the human body; bodily; physical

(2) In zoology, of the body proper, as distinguished from the head and limbs.

(3) As corporeal, belonging to the material world (mostly obsolete except for historic references although still used as a technical term in philosophy).

(4) In ecclesiastical accoutrements, a fine cloth, usually of linen, on which the consecrated elements are placed or with which they are covered during the Eucharist (also called the communion cloth).

(5) In Christian theology, as the seven Corporal Works of Mercy, the practical acts of compassion, as distinct from the seven Spiritual Works (the contemplative acts).

(6) In military use, a non-commissioned officer ranking above lance corporal (private first class (PFC) in US Army) and below a sergeant; in the Royal Navy, a petty officer who assists the master-at-arms; similar use in the armed services of many countries.

1350–1400: From the Middle English corporall, from the Anglo-French corporall, from the Latin corporālis (bodily, of the body) from corpus (body), the construct being corpor- (stem of corpuscorpus) + -ālis (the third-declension two-termination suffix (neuter -āle), used to form adjectives of relationship from nouns or numerals, from the primitive Indo-European -li-, which later dissimilated into an early version of -aris).  The use describing alter cloths was derived from the Medieval Latin corporāle pallium eucharistic (altar cloth) and replaced corporas, itself inherited from Classical Latin under the influence of Old French.  The pronunciation is kaw-pruhl in military use and kawr-per-uhl for all other purposes.  The adoption by the military dates from 1570–1580 but the origin is uncertain.  It may have come from the Old French (via Italian) into Middle French as a variant of caporal, from the Italian caporale, apparently a contraction of phrase capo corporale (corporal head) in the sense of the head of a body (of soldiers).  Source was the Latin caput (head), perhaps influenced also by the Old French corps (body (of men)).  Corporal is a noun & adjective, corporality, corporalcy & corporalship are nouns and corporally is an adverb; the noun plural is corporals.

The strategic corporal

The idea of the “strategic corporal” was first explained in a paper published in 1999 by USMC (US Marine Corps) General Charles Krulak (b 1942).  Based on both practical experience and his analysis of the likely evolution of conflicts into localized, small-scale but intense theatres of operation, he described what he called the “three block war” in which the Marines could be involved in conventional fire-fights, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid, all conduced in a geographical area no bigger than three city blocks and undertaken either sequentially or, more challengingly, simultaneously and in an environment in which hostile, friendly & neutral forces are intermeshed.  The reference to the “three city blocks” was included for didactic purposes to illustrate his point that the training of military personnel needed to be refined better to encompass those required to make independent decisions, including the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) & junior officers actually commanding small numbers of troops on the ground.  Just as the term “three blocks” wasn’t a literal limitation but a way of illustrating a change of mindset from the traditional focus on divisional & brigade level deployment, the phrase “strategic corporal” was chosen because in the military that is the lowest rank at which a soldier is in command of others and thus in a position to make decisions which could have some strategic significance.  Typically, a “strategic corporal” might be a lieutenant who in modern warfare, must be trained to make major decisions without the benefit of direction from the chain of command.

The concept has been influential in many militaries and has been compared with the idea of the “man on the ground” doctrine which emerged in the nineteenth century when the early technologies of long-distance communication meant that for the first time it was practical for military commanders in remote locations to seek and receive instructions from perhaps thousands of miles away.  It would however be decades before those interactions habitually became real-time so the idea of the “strategic corporal” would not then have been unfamiliar and there was an at least tacit acknowledgement that the man on the ground would often be the one making critical decisions rather than anyone in the high command or even the headquarters staff in theatre.  This could of course mean a bad decision could theoretically trigger a war but as "the Fashoda Incident" (1898 and the retrospective re-naming of what was at the time in Paris and London thought of as “the Fashoda Crisis”) illustrated, the man on the ground having the necessary background and training to make a decision based on factors beyond what was militarily possible could have far-reaching consequences.

So the idea of the strategic corporal is that training in such matters needs to extend to the layers of command where such decisions need to be made, not to the point at which formerly they’re delegated or devolved.  In a sense that of course is a mere recognition of reality but the elevation of the concept into a doctrine has been criticized as becoming “mythologized within the military culture [and] forever associated with negative consequences”, the result of the ultimate responsibility for decisions being seen through legal filters, leaders now too “…concerned with the perceived risk..” and as a means to manage that “…senior leaders have elevated decision authorities far away from anyone but themselves”.

Military analysts have noted that military operations conducted in the Gaza Strip provide the perfect example of a “three block war”, one that has the potential to unfold as a series of “three block” theatres.  In these urban environments in which a civilian population co-exists still in high-density with paramilitary forces and irregular combatants, decisions taken by a soldier in direct command of fewer than a dozen troops in the invading army can have a strategic significance well beyond the particular three blocks in which they’re operating.  Complicating this is the suspicion expressed by some that a high civilian death-toll is actually an outcome desired by the Hamas (Hamas the acronym of the Arabic  حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah) (Islamic Resistance Movement); HMS glossed in the Hamas Covenant (1998) by the Arabic word ḥamās (حماس) (which translates variously as “strength”, “zeal” or “bravery”)).  The evidence to support this is strong in that the nature of the attack staged by the Hamas on Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 was of such a nature that retaliation by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would be bound to result in civilian causalities in Gaza; there are not effective alternative military tactics available, the choices being only to retaliate or not.

The idea used by Hamas is not new.  In 1942, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile (which in 1940 had shifted from Paris to London), had become especially disturbed by the success SS-Obergruppenführer (general) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) was enjoying as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, a role in which he was effectively the Nazi’s “governor of Czechoslovak”.  Using the Nazi’s tradition method of governing conquered territories by “carrot & stick” Heydrich had not spared the stick early in his administration (1941-1942) but been remarkably successful with the inducements he offered and had achieved an unexpectedly high degree of cooperation with the local population.  With little signs of an effective resistance movement operating, the government in exile took the decision, in cooperation with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), to send an assassination squad to Prague, knowing full well the retribution against the population would be severe but the object was to use that to stimulate local resistance.  More than a thousand Czechs were killed in revenge for Heydrich’s death.

So in the awful business of war, civilian deaths can be thought of as useful political devices, something which in Islamic theology is regarded as the noble sacrifice of martyrdom.  The Hamas, having concluded (not unreasonably) that 75 years on, the leaders of many Arab states had tired of the Palestinian “problem” and were moving on, regarding the Jewish state as a permanent part of the region’s political geography with the advantages of détente greater than those of conflict, needed to be back on the agenda.  The Hamas understand a resort to diplomacy is unlikely much to influence the Arab rulers but the spilling of Muslim blood at the hands of the IDF will bring protest to the streets in the region and beyond.  This of course makes inevitable that when the strategic corporals proceed, however cautiously, through the rubble of Gaza’s blocks, they’ll be encouraged by their opponents to make decisions and these decisions can have consequences which ripple far and perhaps for a generation.  What one strategic corporal decides to do really does matter.  By comparison, most of the statements and resolutions, issued or passed by politicians, ex-politicians and other worthies around the planet will be noted with equal interest by those in Tel Aviv, the Hamas to the south, the Hezbollah to the north, the Ayatollahs to the east and the fish to the west.

Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy

The Bible reduces the New Testament’s conception of mercy to seven practical (corporal) and seven spiritual (contemplative) acts, each said to be a virtue influencing one's will to have compassion for, and, if possible, ameliorate another's misfortune.  Italian Dominican friar & philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) thought that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, it must be thought a special virtue adequately distinguishable from its effects.  Later theologians noted its motive is the misery which one discerns in another, particularly in so far as this condition is deemed to be, in some sense at least, involuntary but even if not, the necessity is to offer succor of either body or soul.

Corporal works of mercy

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To harbor the harborless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

Spiritual works of mercy

To instruct the ignorant
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offences willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead
To counsel the doubtful

The Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 25:34-41) makes clear those who offer mercy “…are righteous and their souls will be granted eternal life…” whereas those who do not “…shall be cursed, cast into everlasting fire and given over to the devil.”

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

***

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2013-2015) visited Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) in prison (a corporal work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) didn't visit Cardinal Pell in prison but did remember him in his prayers (a spiritual work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.

Lindsay Lohan 6126 wool blend military coat in black.

Military uniforms have long influenced fashion and in the 1960s, the counter culture adopted them with some sense of irony.  Camouflage patterns have always been popular but the dress uniforms are also used as a model, the insignia, sometimes in elaborated form added as embellishments.  The insignia of a corporal is a two-bar chevron, depicted variously upwards or downwards, depending on the service.

Tranche

Tranche (pronounced trahnch, trahnsh, or trahnsh (French))

(1) One part or division of a larger unit; a slice, section or portion.

(2) A group of securities that share a certain characteristic and form part of a larger offering.

(3) Any part, division, or instalment.

(4) In finance, to divide into parts, applied especially to loans and share issues.

(5) In insurance, a distinct subdivision of a single policyholder's benefits, typically relating to separate premium increments.

(6) In pensions, a scheme's or scheme member's benefits relating to distinct accrual periods with different rules.

1400s: From the French tranche, (a cutting (literally, “a slice”)), a form of trancher (to cut, to slice), from Old French trenchier, trancher & trancher (cut, make a cut), possibly from the Vulgar Latin trinicāre (cut in three parts). It was cognate with the English trench.  The specific uses in economics and finance didn’t emerge until 1930.  The form in Modern French is tranché (feminine tranchée, masculine plural tranchés, feminine plural tranchées), the past participle of trancher (clear-cut, marked, bold, distinct (and in heraldry: per bend)).  Tranche is a noun & verb and tranched & tranching are verbs; the noun plural is tranches.

Tranches in a collateralised debt structure.

Tranche has become so associated with matters financial that the word is now seldom used in other contexts, probably a good thing given it’s likely only to confuse.  In finance, a tranche is a portion of a security (loans, mortgages, stocks, bonds etc) that can be packaged for sale to investors; Securities are broken to be reassembled in different forms for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is to make them easier to sell.  Because investors base their decision to purchase on factors such as risk, time and the quality of asset backing, tranches prepared for sale vary in the emphasis placed on these factors to attract buyers with different priorities.

Slicing the cake.

Since the global financial crisis (GFC) began in 2008, the perception probably is that packaging is most associated with residential mortgages, the money banks and others loan to people to buy houses as homes or investments.  That’s not entirely true but it has been a big part of the market.  Typically, mortgages are repaid over fifteen to thirty years but the lenders prefer to churn, banks, rather than waiting decades to get the money, on-sell mortgages to investors, thereby gaining the funds to lend for more mortgages.  Because of the limited number of number of investors, individuals and institutional, willing to buy thirty year mortgages, banks create tranches, some including the first three years of each mortgage, some the five years while a few will run for the whole term.

This spread of products appeals to a spread-out market.  Some investors will prefer the low-risk tranche of three-year mortgages and accept the lower interest rate while others will opt for the riskier long-term tranche, attracted by the higher rate.  Tranching is thus a device which maintains the liquidity of the loan pool and provides a differentiated securities market in which investors can adjust their exposure according to their own risk versus reward calculation.

Pick your tranche; you pay your money, you take your choice.

The particular, celebrated case of the sub-prime mortgage crisis which began to manifest in 2008-2009 involved mostly tranches of CMOs (collateralized mortgage obligations) and the problems then were not a product of the structural design of tranching but the quality of what was being tranched.  Essentially, like many of the periodic crises in capitalism, the GFC was triggered by over-production.  The traditional mortgage market consisted of borrowers judged to be capable of repaying the loan but, various things having combined to mean the lenders had run out of them, they resorted to lending to people who would never be able to repay.  That required some clever contractual engineering to ensure (1) the credit-rating agencies would grant investment-grade ratings to what were junk securities so (2) the risk would be quickly on-sold.  The rationale for all of this was that the tranching was done in such a way that the spread of the risk was so diversified that whatever defaults occurred would present no systemic threat.  There are interesting stories about (1) & (2).

Lots lost lots in the GFC but there were also quite a number who made much and very quickly.  So profitable for those few in the right place at the right time was the loaning of money to those with no capacity to repay that it’s hard to believe it won’t, at scale, happen again and there are suggestions it may be happening now.  The unusual combination of borrowing at historically high multiples against static or falling incomes for assets at historically high valuations has happened in an era of historically low interest rates.  Movements downwards in asset values or upwards in interest rates will have a multiplier effect on each-other and those movements, if sufficient, will essentially render much mortgage debt functionally sub-prime and there were those who predicted the extraordinary increase in the global money-supply playing out this way.

The headline in the French language which in 2016 announced: Lindsay Lohan s'est tranché le doigt en deux (Lindsay Lohan sliced her finger in half).

Actually "sliced her finger in half" was a bit sensationalist (one might even say Anglo-Saxon style click-bait).  In October 2016, during an Aegean cruise, there was a nautical incident, the tip of one of her fingers severed by the boat's anchor chain but details of the circumstances are sketchy.  It may be that upon hearing the captain give the command “weigh anchor”, she decided to help but, lacking any background in admiralty terms and phrases, misunderstood the instruction.  The detached piece of digit was salvaged from the deck and ashore, soon re-attached by micro-surgery.  Digit and the rest of the patient are said to have made full recoveries, something especially significant because it was the ring finger which was “tranched” but, thanks to the surgeon’s skill in fixing the gruesome injury, she managed later to find husband and the finger now displays engagement and wedding rings.  All’s well that ends well.

Oculus

Oculus (pronounced ok-yuh-luhs)

(1) In anatomy, an eye.

(2) In architecture, a window or other circular (or oval) opening, especially one at the apex of a dome.

(3) In archaeology, a design representing an eye, as on funerary pottery found in megalithic tombs of Europe.

(4) In the mechanical engineering (associated with fluid dynamics), the central boss of a volute.

(5) In poetic and literary use, luminary of the sun and stars; eye of the soul, mind's eye; a spot resembling an eye, such as on a peacock feather; a principle ornament or the main feature of something.

(6) In botany, a bud, bulb or knob on many roots, on the reed etc.

(7) As oculist (plural oculists), one who practices the discipline of oculism (an archaic name for an ophthalmologist or optometrist).

1857: From the Latin oculus (an eye), from the Proto-Italic okwelos, from the primitive Indo-European hsokw (eye; to see).  It was cognate with the Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi), the Ancient Greek ὄσσε (ósse), the Gothic augō, the Old English ēaġe (from which Modern English would gain eye) & the Proto-Slavic oko.  Originating in antiquity, it was a widely used feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture, known in French as the œil de boeuf (bull's-eye).  The noun plural is oculi.  An impressively long word with the same root is ocularpneumoplethysmography, a non-invasive technique for detecting carotid stenosis by measurement of ophthalmic artery pressure.  Oculus & oculist are nouns; the noun plural is oculi (under the standard rules of English plural formations, the result would be oculuses by that seems to have been too awful to contemplate). 

The Pantheon

The Pantheon in Rome (from the Latin Pantheum, from the Ancient Greek Πάνθειον (Pantheion) ([temple] of all the gods) was built as a Roman temple and since the 609 has been a Roman Catholic church (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres or Basilica of Saint Mary and the Martyrs).  It was built on the site of an earlier temple constructed during the time of Christ and rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian circa 126 AD, the actual date uncertain because Hadrian retained the old inscriptions.

Cylindrical with a portico of sixteen staggered Corinthian columns, the dome has a diameter of 43.2m (142 feet) and was for over 1300 years the largest in the world and remains, after some two-thousand years, the largest unreinforced concrete dome, a feat achieved by a gradual reduction in the thickness and weight of the materials used for the upper layers.  Each of the granite columns weigh sixty tons.  Quarried in Egypt, they were dragged 100 km (60 miles), placed on barges and shipped up the Nile to Alexandria where they were transferred to boats to cross the Mediterranean to the port of Ostia.  From there, they were sent by barges, up the Tiber to Rome where they were dragged to the construction site for erection.

The dome was originally covered in bronze and there are reports from travelers of it sparkling in the sunlight, the glint playing on the surrounding skyline.  However during the middle ages most was pilfered, sometimes with official sanction, sometimes not, the shortage of building materials often acute.  The last of it, Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini, 1568–1644, pope 1623-1644) in 1631, needing ordinance for his military campaigns to expand the borders of the Papal States, stripped what bronze remained as well as that from the portico to melt down for cannons.  Romans, as cynical about their rulers then as now, were soon sharing the saying “quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini” (what was not done by the barbarians, was done by the Barberini).

The ass's ears, circa 1860.

Roman architect and Engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (circa 75-10 BC) wrote the influential De architectura which defined the building and aesthesis standards of Classical architecture and the design of the Pantheon follows his rules, height and width exactly match, meaning a perfect sphere would precisely fit inside the dome.  Vitruvius would not have been best pleased at the additions made in the 1600s by Urban VIII.  Sometimes wrongly blamed on Bernini, pontiff turned amateur architect added two bell towers to the sides of the façade which, although disliked by Romans who nicknamed them le orecchie del culo (the ass’s ears), it wasn’t until late in the nineteen century they were finally demolished.

The Pantheon, Rome.

The oculus in the Pantheon is the most famous of the many built by the Romans.  Open to the weather, it allows rain to enter and fall to the floor, where it is carried away through drains. A masterpiece of Roman architectural scale, though it looks small, the oculus’ diameter is 27 feet (8.2m) allowing it to light the building as the sun lights the earth and rain also keeps the building cool during the hot summer months.  A clever trick of lighting (and mathematics) was played out on every 21 April, the founding date of Rome.  At midday, the sunlight hits the metal grille above the door, filling the entrance way with light, timed to coincide with a ceremony at which the emperor appears in the space, reflecting his status as either an earthly god on one on whom the blessings of the gods shone.  Which of these applied depended on the Emperor.  In style, if not scale, the Pantheon was the inspiration for the Große Halle (Great Hall (and referred to in contemporary documents also as the Volkshalle (People's Hall or Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Glory)) which was to be the centrepiece of Germania as Berlin was to be re-named upon becoming the capital of the Third Reich.

Albert Speer's (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) post-war memoirs (1969) are not wholly truthful but on matters of architecture they are thought reliable and provide an insight not only into the grandiose plans but also the political and psychological aspects of representational buildings to which Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) attached such importance.  The monumental size alone was significant and despite Hitler being scornful of the mystical notions of some of his paladins, Speer was convinced that inherent in the awe-inspiring scale of the designs was the idea of them becoming places of worship, something which would be reinforced as they aged, unchanged, over the centuries.  Able to accommodate 150-180,000 people, the dome would have had a diameter of 250 metres (825 feet). rising in a slightly parabolic curve to a height of 221 metres (726 feet) while the oculus would be 46 metres (152 feet) in diameter, larger than the entire dome of either the Pantheon (43 metres (142 feet)) or that of St Peter's Basilica (44 metres (145 feet)).  The interior would be 16 times the volume of St Peter's.

Model of the Great Hall intended for Germania.

Speer also noted that even in the late 1930s when first he showed the architectural drawings to Hitler, the Führer suspended belief in facts when it suited him.  Because it was technically possible, Speer originally envisaged building the dome without the use of any structural steel but Hitler objected that were it to be struck by a bomb, the vaulting might be so damaged that without a supporting framework, repairs would be impossible.  Speer conceded the point but when he had questioned whether it was wise to have so tall a structure build in the very heart of the Reich's capital where it would act as a navigational aid for attacking bombers, Hitler breezily replied that Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) had assured him his Luftwaffe would ensure "no enemy plane will ever enter Germany's skies".  Infamously, the Reichsmarschall would boast to the German people: "If as much as a single enemy aircraft flies over German soil, my name is Meier!"; the Royal Air Force's (RAF) bombing raids on Berlin soon began.

Lindsay Lohan with peacock feathers. during blonde phase.

The eye-like feature on a peacock's tail-feathers are called an oculus and because the collective noun for a group of peacocks (peafowl) is "an ostentation" so these several could be styled "an ostentation of oculi".  This photograph is available as a 2024 calendar.                   

Tartan

Tartan (pronounced tahr-tn)

(1) A woolen or worsted cloth woven with stripes of different colours and widths crossing at right angles, worn chiefly by the Scottish Highlanders, many clans now having its own distinctive design.

(2) A design now often identified by the name of the clan wearing it and most associated with the kilt.

(3) A generalized descriptor for any similar (sometimes called plaid) design.

(4) A single-masted vessel used in the Mediterranean, usually with a lateen sail (also spelled as tartane).

(5) The trade name of a synthetic resin, used for surfacing tracks etc.

1490-1500: Of uncertain origin, apparently a blend of the Middle English tartaryn (rich material) from the Middle French tartarin (Tartar cloth) and the Middle French tiretaine (strong coarse fabric; linsey-woolsey; cloth of mixed fibers) from the Old French tiret (kind of cloth), from tire (oriental cloth of silk) (and as the French tartane from the Italian tartana, of uncertain origin) from the Medieval Latin tyrius (material from Tyre), from the Classical Latin Tyrus (Tyre).  The origin of the name as applied to the small ship most associated with the Mediterranean, dates from seventeenth century French, probably the Provençal tartana (falcon, buzzard), it being common practice in the era to name ships after birds.  As an adjective meaning "design with a pattern of bars or stripes of color crossing one another at right angles", use began circa 1600.  The etymology of the fabric is certainly murky.  Most agree about the influence of the Old French tertaine but some trace the origin of that not to Latin via Italian but rather the Old Spanish tiritaña (a fine silk fabric) from tiritar (to rustle).  The spelling of tartan must have been influenced in Middle English by tartaryn from the Old French tartarin from Tartare (“Tartar," the people of Central Asia).  Tartan & tartanization are nouns, tartanize & tartaning are verbs and tartaned is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is tartans.

Lindsay Lohan in tartan, Freaky Friday (2003) costume test photo (Walt Disney Pictures).

Despite the perception of many (encouraged by the depictions in popular culture), tartan in the sense of specific color & pattern combinations attached to specific clans is something of recent origin.  Tartan (breacan (pɾʲɛxkən) in Scots Gaelic) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours.  The word plaid is now often used interchangeably with tartan (particularly in North America and when not associated with anything Scottish (especially kilts)), but technically (and always in Scotland), a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth, worn as a type of kilt or large shawl although it’s also used to describe a blanket.  During the disputes between England and Scotland, the wearing of tartan became a political expression and the Dress Act (1746) was part of the campaign to suppress the warrior clans north of the border; it banned tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. The law was repealed in 1782 and tartan was soon adopted as both the symbolic national dress of Scotland and in imagery more generally.  

Car seat covers in Clan Lindsay Tartan.  The Clan Lindsay motto is Endure Fort (Endure bravely).

Although there’s now an industry devoted to the tartans of the clans, the specific association of patterns with clans and families began only in the mid-nineteenth century.  This history was both technological and economic deterministic.  Unlike some fabrics, tartans were produced by local weavers for local sale, using only the natural dyes available in that geographical area and patterns were just designs chosen by the buyer.  It was only with a broader availability of synthetic dyes that many patterns were created these began (somewhat artificially) to become associated with Scottish clans, families, or institutions wishing to emphasize their Scottish heritage.  The heritage was usually real but not often specific to a particular tartan, the mid-nineteenth century interest in the fabrics a kind of manufactured nostalgia.  There are many modern tartans on sale, the color combinations and patterns of which are chosen for market appeal rather than any relationship to clan identity or any other historic link: Among the purists, these collectively are called "the clan McGarish".  The phrase "Tartan Tory" does not refer to Scottish members of the Conservative Party (a once prolific species which has for decades been listed as "threatened" and may already be functionally extinct) but to the faction of the Scottish National Party (SNP) which is associated with cultural nostalgia rather than radical nationalist politics

High-priced plaid

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198) trimmed in blue-grey plaid.

Buyers of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198 1954-1957) had the choice of seats covered in leather or plaid cloth.  In the years since, many Gullwings originally fitted with plaid upholstery were re-trimmed in leather during refurbishment or restoration, partly because the leather was thought to have more of a allure but also because for decades fabrics exactly matching what was available in the 1950s had become unobtainable ("unobtainium" thus the preferred industry term).  However, in 2018, in what was said to be a response to demand, Daimler announced bolts replicating exactly the original three designs (blue-gray, red-green and green-beige color) would again be available as a factory part-number.  Manufactured to the 1955 specification using an odor-neutral wool yarn woven into a four-ply, double weave twill, it’s claimed to be a “very robust material”.  In the era, the blue-gray fabric was the most popular, fitted to 80% of 300SLs not trimmed in leather while the red-green and green-beige combinations were requested respectively only by 14 & 6% of buyers.  The price (US$229 per yard) is indicative of the product’s niche market but for those restoring a 300 SL to its original appearance, it's a bargain.

The part-numbers:  Blue-Grey: A 000 983 44 86 / 5000, Red-Green: A 000 983 44 86 / 3000 & Green-Beige: A 000 983 44 86 / 6000.