Convocation

Convocation (pronounced kon-vuh-key-shuhn)

(1) The act of convoking.

(2) The state of being convoked.

(3) A group of people gathered in answer to a summons; an assembly.

(4) In the Church of England, either of the synods of the provinces of Canterbury or York.

(5) In the Protestant Episcopal Church, an assembly of the clergy and part of the laity of a diocese.

(6) The area represented at such an assembly.

(7) A formal assembly at a college or university, especially for a graduation ceremony.

(8) In universities, a term used generally to describe the group (of the institution’s graduates and others) entitled to elect governing bodies such as their senate.

(9) In Indian institutions of learning, a degree-awarding ceremony.

(10) The collective noun for eagles.

(11) In historic Freemasonry, a meeting of companions of a Holy Royal Arch chapter of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.

1350–1400: From the Middle English convocacio(u)n (assembly of persons) from the Middle French convocation from the Latin convocātiōn (stem of convocātiō).  Old French picked up convocation directly from the Latin convocationem (nominative convocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of convocare (to call together), the construct being com (together) + vocare (to call).  Vocare was derived from vox (voice).  The form exists in many modern European languages; as well as the English and French convocation, there’s convocació in Catalan, convocazione in Italian, convocação in Portuguese and convocación in Spanish.  Convocation and convoker are nouns and convoked & convoking are verbs; the common noun plural is convocations.

The Holy Royal Arch

A Masonic faction, within Freemasonry the Holy Royal Arch is described as a degree.  The origins of Royal Arch Masonry and the Holy Royal Arch are murky and it’s known only that it dates back to the mid eighteenth century although fragments of Royal Arch rituals exist in Masonic literature from the 1720s.  The first historically verified appearance of was in 1743 when a “Royal Arch” was carried in a Dublin by “two excellent Masons”.  The appearance of the arch provoked controversy and attracted the disapprobation of Dr Dassigny in his critique “A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland” (1744).

Royal Arch Masonry was the subject of a long factional battle within Freemasonry and by 1751 the factions had coalesced into two, the older body paradoxically known as the Moderns, the newer the Antients (an even then archaic spelling of ancient).  Their disputes became increasingly circular and by 1813, Antients and Moderns agreed on an act of union and formed the United Grand Lodge of England.  The compromise became possible by the creation of a protocol under which the union would recognise the Royal Arch (to placate the Antients) but create it as a separate order (to appease the Moderns).

The recognition can be seen as a pyrrhic victory for the Antients.  By 1817, the faction had faded away and, although never formerly dissolved, the membership was soon absorbed into what had previously been the grand chapter of the Moderns with all forming as a group when members attend a grand chapter convocation.  The Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or has never denied being a faction of the Freemasons.

Grit

Grit (pronounced grit)

(1) Abrasive particles or granules, as of sand or other small, coarse impurities found in the air, food, water etc.

(2) Firmness of character; indomitable spirit; pluck.

(3) A coarse-grained siliceous rock, usually with sharp, angular grains.

(4) To cause to grind or grate together.

(5) To make a scratchy or slightly grating sound, as of sand being walked on; grate.

Pre-1000; From the Middle English gret, griet and grit, from the Old English grēot (sand, dust, earth, gravel), cognate with the German Griess and the Old Norse grjōt (pebble, boulder), the Germanic forms all derived from the Old High German grioz.  The Proto-Germanic was greutan (tiny particles of crushed rock) which was the root for the Old Saxon griot, the Old Frisian gret, the Old Norse grjot (rock, stone) and the German Grieß (grit, sand).  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European ghreu (rub, grind), a fork of which begat the Lithuanian grudas (corn, kernel), the Old Church Slavonic gruda (clod) and the Serbo-Croatian grȕda (lump).  An interesting variation is the specifically wintertime use as the Lithuanian grúodas (frost; frozen street dirt).  The sense of an indomitable spirit, a display of pluck, spirit, firmness of mind, was first recorded in American English in 1808 and the meaning “make a grating sound" is attested from 1762.  The change in pronunciation happened during the era of Middle English when grete & griet were subject to the early modern vowel shortening to become grit.  Grit is a noun & verb, gritted is a verb & adjective, gritting is a verb & noun, gritter is a noun and gritty is an adjective; the noun plural is grittings.

Through gritted teeth

ESL (English as a second language) teachers report the phrase “through gritted teeth” is one of those most readily understood by those new to the language; it seems a universal concept.  Although it can be used in the literal sense to mean “clench one's teeth together tightly because of pain”, it’s more common in the idiomatic to mean “to confront a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with one’s negative feelings by adopting a superficial display of acceptance”.  Best explained by the companion phrase “grin and bear it”, the essential nuance is it carries the implication of a passive display of disapproval while not overtly raising objection, honor thus satisfied on both sides.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Prime Minister of Australian 2013-2015), celebrating the marriage of his sister, Christine Forster to wife Virginia Flitcroft, Sydney, February 2018.  This photograph encapsulates the concept of "confronting a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with one’s negative feelings by adopting a superficial display of acceptance".

A gritter truck, spreading grit.

Gritter trucks are a type of winter service vehicle (WSV) used in areas where sustained conditions of sub-zero temperatures cause icy roads.  Usually called "gritters", they're known also as "salters", "salt spreaders" or "salt shakers" and are used to spread grit (usually rock salt, sometimes mixed with sand) onto roads.  The salt lowers the melting point of ice and the sand improves traction, the resulting liquid water flowing to the road's edge by virtue of the slight slopes from the centre-line engineers include as a part of roadway design.  In earlier times when prevention techniques were less comprehensive, cars in areas where salt was widely used sometimes needed to be scrapped in as little as 2-3 years, such was the extent of their rust.  Even now, cars in such places have a notably shorter life.

Sinew

Sinew (pronounced sin-you)

(1) In anatomy, the classical name for a tendon.

(2) Figuratively, that which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting factor or member; mainstay the source or an expression of strength, power or vigor (usually as in the plural).

(3) In literature, an alternative name for muscle.

(4) A string or chord, as of a musical instrument (now rare except poetically).

Pre 900: From the Middle English sinu, from the Old English seonowe, an oblique form of the nominative sionu (sinew) from the Proto-Germanic senawo.  It’s the root also of the Old Saxon sinewa. the Old Norse sina, the Old Frisian sine, the Middle Dutch senuwe, the Dutch zenuw, the Old High German senawa and the German sehne.  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European sai- (to tie, bind), source also of the Sanskrit snavah (sinew) and syati & sinati (to bind), the Avestan snavar and the Irish sin (chain); related was the Hittite ishai- & ishi- (to bind).  By the late fourteenth century, sinewy meant “made of sinews, and by 1570 the sense had extended to "tough and stringy.  Sinew is a noun and verb and sinewy, sinewed & sinewous are adjectives; the noun plural is sinews.

Lindsay Lohan Boxer by solidwheel02 on Deviantart, a little artistic licence taken with the sinews.  Still, either way, she looks good.

Cenotaph

Cenotaph (pronounced sen-uh-taf or sen-uh-tahf)

A sepulchral monument in memory of and honoring a dead person or persons buried elsewhere; erected especially as military monuments.

1595–1605: From the French cénotaphe (empty tomb erected in honor of a dead person who is buried elsewhere or whose body is lost), from the Classical Latin cenotaphium from the Ancient Greek kenotáphion, the construct being κενός (kenós) (empty) + τάφος (táphos) (tomb) + -ion (the diminutive suffix) of uncertain origin.  Until well into the twentieth century it was thought ultimately derived (like the Armenian damban (tomb)) from the primitive Indo-European root dhembh- (to dig, bury) the the evidence is scant and some etymologists suspect both the Armenian and Greek could well be borrowings from other places.  Cenotaph is a noun and cenotaphic is an adjective; the noun plural is cenotaphs.

The Cenotaph to Reynold's Memory, Coleorton (circa 1833), oil on canvas by John Constable (1776-1837).

Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822), The Cloud (1820)

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
 
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning my pilot sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
 
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the light of its golden wings.
And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardours of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,
As still as a brooding dove.
 
That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
 
I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the million-coloured bow;
The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
 
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.

Athwart

Athwart (pronounced uh-thwawrt)

(1) From side to side; crosswise, transversely.

(2) In admiralty use, at right angles to the fore-and-aft line; across.

(3) Perversely; awry; wrongly.

1425-1475: From the Late Middle English athwert & athirt and a proclitic form of preposition; the construct was a- (in the sense of "in the direction of, toward")  + thwart.  The a prefix was from the Old English an (on) which in Middle English meant “up, out, away”, both derived from the Proto-Germanic uz (out), from the primitive Indo-European uds (up, out); cognate with the Old Saxon ā which endures in Modern German as the prefix er.  Thwart was from the Middle English adverb & adjective thwert, (crosswise; (cooking) across the grain, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate, stubborn), a borrowing from Old Norse þvert (across, transverse), originally the neuter form of þverr (transverse, across), from the Proto-Germanic þwerhaz, altered or influenced by þweraną (to turn) and þerh, from the primitive Indo-European twork & twerk (to twist).  Cognates include the Old English þweorh (transverse, perverse, angry, cross), the Danish tvær, the Gothic þwaírs (angry), the West Frisian dwers (beyond, across, to the other side of), the Dutch dwars (cross-grained, contrary), the Low German dwars (cross-grained, contrary) and the German quer (crosswise; cross).  The modern English queer is related.  Although still used by poets good and bad, the word is probably otherwise obsolete for all purposes except historic admiralty documents.  Athwart is a noun & adverb, athwartship is an adjective & adverb and athwartships & athwartwise are adverb; the noun plural is athwarts.  Forms like athwartly are definitely non standard.

In nautical design, the term “athwart” is used to describe a direction or orientation that is perpendicular to the centreline of a ship or boat (ie that which runs across the vessel from side to side (port-to-starboard) at right angles to the fore-and-aft line.  In shipbuilding this can apply to various components and actions on a ship, such as beams, futtocks, bulkheads, or even the positioning of objects; as a general principle something can be said to be “athwart” if it sits perpendicular to the centreline but the term is most often applied to objects which span or crosses the vessel’s entire width.  In naval architecture specifically, athwart was used as a noun to refer to the cross-members which sat beneath the deck-mounted gun-turrets on warships.  Although they had long been a part of the supporting structures, the term “athwart” seems first to have been used on the blueprints of HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906 and a design thought so revolutionary it lent its name to the class of the biggest battleships, previous such vessels immediately re-classified as “pre-dreadnoughts” and, when even bigger ships were launched, they were dubbed “super-dreadnoughts”.

Lindsay Lohan with former special friend Samantha Roinson, athwart, TV Guide's sixth annual Emmy after party, The Kress, September 2008, Hollywood, California.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Kubla Khan (1798)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves:
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight't would win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Arachibutyrophobe

Arachibutyrophobe (pronounced a-ra-chi-bu-tyr-o-pho-be)

One who suffers from the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth.

1977: A compound word, the construct from the Latin arachis (peanut) + butyrum (butter) +‎ -phobe (fear of).  The –phobe suffix is a combining form used to form personal nouns corresponding to nouns.  It’s from the French phobe, from the Latin –phobus (fear; panic), from the Attic Greek -φόβος (-phóbos), combining form of φόβος (phóbos), ablaut variant of φέβεσθαι (phébesthai), middle infinitive of φέβομαι (phébomai), from the primitive Indo-European bhegw.  Cognates include the Slovak bežať (run), the Polish biec (run), the Lithuanian bėgti (run), the Albanian dëboj (throw out, drive away, expel, banish).  The related German form is -phob.

The –phobe suffix can cause confusion.  It’s because it can mean, depending on context, either “fear of” or “hatred of” and is often used in a political context; an Anglophobe being one with a dislike of the English while an Anglophile is an admirer.  The –phile suffix is from the Latin -phila, from Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos) (dear, beloved).

Phobias

Phobias need not be widely diagnosed conditions; they need only be specific and, even if suffered by just one soul in the world, the criteria are fulfilled.  In this sense, phobias are analogous with syndromes.  A phobia is an anxiety disorder, an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to certain objects or situations.  The phobia may be triggered either by the cause or an anticipation of the specific object or situation.

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)) made some interesting definitional changes from the earlier DSM-4 (1994).  (1) A patient no longer needs to acknowledge their anxiety is excessive or unreasonable in order to receive a diagnoses, it being required only that their anxiety must be “out of proportion” to the actual threat or danger (in its socio-cultural context).  (2) Symptoms must now, regardless of age, last at least six months.  (3) The diagnostic criteria for social phobias no longer specify that age at onset must be before eighteen, a change apparently necessitated by the substantial increase in reporting by older adults with the DSM editors noting the six-month duration threshold exists to minimize the over-diagnosis of transient fears.

Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998) introduced the culinary novelty of peanut butter spread on Oreos; an allure appalled arachibutyrophobes avoid.     

Admiralty

Admiralty (pronounced ad-mer-uhl-tee)

(1) In military use, the office or jurisdiction of an admiral.

(2) In military use, the officials or the department of state having charge of naval affairs (not all of whom needed to be admirals); it was analogous with an army's general staff and an air force's air staff.

(3) In the UK, the building in which the lords of the admiralty, in England, transact business.

(4) In law, the branch dealing with maritime law; a court dealing with maritime questions (In England, when jurisdiction was under the division of Divorce, Probate & Admiralty, the lawyers' slang was “wives, wills & wrecks”); the system of jurisprudence of admiralty courts.

(5) In (historic) architecture, a frequent descriptor (Admiralty House, Admiralty Arch etc).

1300–1350: A compound word Admiral + -ty, from the Middle English amiralty, from the French amirauté, from the older form amiralté (office of admiral), from the Late Latin admīrālitās.  The best known sense, “naval branch of the English executive" dates from the early-fifteenth century, root of the word being admiral.  Admiral emerged circa 1200 as amiral & admirail (Saracen commander or chieftain) from the Old French amiral & amirail (Saracen military commander; any military commander) ultimately from medieval Arabic amīr (military commander) probably via the Medieval Latin use of the word for "Muslim military leader".  The suffix –ty is from the Middle English -te, borrowed from the Old French -te, from the Latin -tātem, accusative masculine singular of –tās; an alternative form of –ity, it was used to form abstract nouns from adjectives.  The first English admiral to appear in the records appears to have been Admiral of the Fleet of the Cinque Ports, Gerard Allard of Winchelsea, a royal appointment in 1300.  The Arabic amīr was later Englished as emir.  In another example of Medieval error, because in Arabic use, amīr is constantly followed by -al- in all such titles, amīr-al- was assumed by Christian writers to be a substantive word and variously Latinized.  The process thus was a shortening of the Arabic أَمِير اَلبَحْر‎ (ʾamīr al-baḥr) (commander of the fleet; literally “sea commander”) and the additional -d- is probably from the influence of the otherwise unconnected Latin admirable (admīrābilis).  For those stalkers who take selfies at locations used in movies (Instagram made this niche), the The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey (listed as the only waterside hotel in Los Angeles with a Five Diamond rating from the AAA) is at 4375 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey.  It has appeared in a number of productions (film & television), notably Lindsay Lohan's remake of The Parent Trap (1998).  Admiralty & admiral are nouns; the noun plural is plural admiralties.  When used as a proper noun (thus the initial upper case), in Royal Navy use, Admiralty referred (1) the historical naval bases established in the Far East: (1) HMS Tamar (Hong Kong) and (2) HMS Sembawang (Singapore).

Admiralty Arch, London.

An island rather than a continental power and later an empire, for England, the navy assumed an importance in foreign policy standing armies never did and the Royal Navy’s high command, the Admiralty, was for centuries entangled in both military and political matters.  The Admiralty no longer exists, absorbed in 1964, like the high commands of the other services, into the newly created Ministry of Defence.  Over the centuries, the structure of the Admiralty evolved as technology changed, threats and alliances came and went, budgets waxed and waned, political vicissitudes always hovering.  As a bureaucracy, the Admiralty has been staffed by a bewildering array of offices and titles including board members, presidents, sea lords, secretaries, civil lords, controllers, comptrollers, accountants-general, directors-general, storekeepers-general, surveyors, deputy chiefs, vice chiefs & assistant chiefs but in its final incarnation, under a First Lord of the Admiralty (a minister for the navy who sat in parliament and was thus political head of the navy) there were five admirals, known as the sea lords (of which there were eight lords during World War II; things were busy then).  The sea lords each enjoyed a sphere of responsibility for naval operations:

The First Sea Lord (later First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff), directed naval strategy in wartime and was responsible for planning, operations and intelligence, for the distribution of the Fleet and for its fighting efficiency.  He was the military head of the Navy.

The Second Sea Lord (later Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel), was responsible for manning & mobilisation and all personnel questions relating to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

The Third Sea Lord (later the Controller of the Navy) was responsible primarily for ship design and construction and most material matters including the Fleet Air Arm.

The Fourth Sea Lord (later Chief of Naval Supplies) was responsible for logistics, victualling and medical departments.

The Fifth Sea Lord (later the Chief of Naval Air Services) was responsible for all naval aviation.

Comptroller

Comptroller (pronounced kuhn-troh-ler)

A variant spelling of controller, used especially as a title of some financial executives.

Circa 1500: From the late Middle English compteroller, a spelling mistake which became a variant of countreroller (from which Modern English ultimately gained controller) due to medieval folk etymology, the notion being there was a link to the Middle French compte (account); the Middle French compteroleur is attested circa 1375.  Originally the two spellings were equivalent and pronounced identically; the sometimes-used modern pronunciation (komp-troll-ah) is based on the spelling.  Controller is thus sometimes a homophone, sometimes not and there seem to be pedants on both sides of fence upon which most sit.  Comptroller and comptrollership are nouns; the noun plural is comptrollers.

Controller came from the From Middle English countreroller, from the Anglo-Norman contreroulour and the Middle French contreroleur (the Modern French contrôleur), from the Medieval Latin contrārotulātor, from contrārotulāre (from which is descended the modern control).  The original meaning in English was “an official in charge of accounts in a king's household" from the late thirteenth century Anglo-French contrerolleour, from the Old French contrerelleor, from the Medieval Latin contrarotulator.  The broader sense of one who manages the finances of a corporation or institution" emerged from circa 1450-1500; the first syllable was confused with count from the Latin comptus (an account) from computare, hence the creation of comptroller.

Comptroller & Controller

Comptroller is an example of the haphazard way mistakes sometimes made their way into English, became entrenched and then, often with some enthusiasm, were adopted throughout the British Empire and beyond.  Although adherence is not universal, the convention of use is that if employed in government service, the job is styled as comptroller (eg Comptroller-General, Household Comptroller etc) and if in the private sector, controller (eg Financial Controller) is used.  Because of its origin, the very existence of “comptroller” attracted disapproval until well into the twentieth century but the distinction between the two words must have proved useful because it has endured; that’s how English works.  The evolution of the convention was organic but unfortunately less helpful than it might have been.  More useful would have been for comptroller to apply to people and controller to electric or mechanical devices for controlling circuits or systems but the convention was a product of its time.

A legacy of empire is that the civil services of many members of the Commonwealth and the United States contain many comptrollers.  In India, for example, the civil service appointments are essentially the same as under the Raj.  The Comptroller and Auditor General of India audits all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the state governments, including QUANGOs and other authorities where funding substantially is provided by government.  The Comptroller of the President's Household is a position analogous with a similar appointment at Buckingham Palace and, by statute, is always a Navy Captain.  Similar positions of comptrollers exist in the governor's household in each state and union territory.

Set in stone: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Although it has existed since emerging in 1863 from the slew of legislation passed during the US Civil War (1861-1865), the regulator of the nation’s largest financial institutions remains one of the more obscure federal bodies, something perhaps related to its name being misleading in that it plays little direct role in currency matters, both the US Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) and the Treasury (of which the independent OCC is technically a part) being far more influential.  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an interesting case study illustration a number of the phenomena noted in organizational behavior exclusive to governmental institutions which, unlike institutions which have to justify their ongoing existence on some easily understood metric (like running at a profit).

The OCC’s notional supervisory bailiwick is the “national” banks, so-called because they are chartered under the National Bank Act which also dates from 1863.  The wartime function of all this actually had little to do with the banks; the legislation and the OCC were designed to be a way the Union armies could be financed and with the outcome of the conflict still in the balance, the advantages to be gained by creating a financing mechanism which could strengthen the Northern economy, military and industry by then obvious.  At the time, the banks operated under charters issued by the states and their core business was not attracting deposits and lending but the issuing of banknotes and because the economy ran on banknotes (gold and silver coins had a function but couldn’t support modern commerce as once they had).

Neither the administration nor the Congress really had any alternative as a mechanism to finance the war which had drained the federal coffers induced borrowing to the point where the capital markets were depleted to the extent of being a threat to both the economy and military operations.  While a fiat currency would seem a textbook solution, an acceptance of the concept was still years away so the compromise was for (1) the federal government to charter the banks, (2) to taxed the state banknotes into existence and (3), require the new “national” banks to invest their reserves in US government bonds.  Instantly it created a source of finance the South couldn’t match.  In wartime, the system worked well, perhaps even more effectively than the government had envisaged but what it meant was that when the war ended, the new, powerful, National banks remained but without the demand that they act as a conduit of money to support the needs of the state.

So the big banks proceeded to do what big banks do, the result being over the decades one bank scandal panic and crisis after another until in 1913, the Federal Reserve was created which obviated any the need private banknotes, the national currency (in the form of Federal Reserve notes), then still backed by physical gold the medium of exchange for all purposes.  The big banks adapted well to the new environment and so did the OCC which evolved into what can be understood only as the big bank’s lobbyist, an administrative layer between them and regulation, a tendency furthered by the emergence of what’s known as “regulatory arbitrage”.  Because the US system for chartering banks is a patchwork (states authorize some banks, along with the OCC, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has an authority physically to examine the records of all banks) the banks can actually choose their regulator and some have left the state-based systems and “joined” the OCC orbit where the regulatory environment is much more benign.  This regulatory arbitrage is self-reinforcing because as institutions shift their status, they also move their fees, thereby further strengthening the OCC, the implication being the banks are valued clients rather than institutions to regulate.

Currencies need to be regulated which was a relatively simple (if technically complex) business when the objects were physical paper (or plastic) and metal but the emergence of cryptocurrencies without a national identity has required a different approach. 

The OCC last had a full-time, permanent comptroller in mid-2020.  President Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) has made several attempts to have the Senate confirm an appointment but without success.  The Republicans appear to believe only white mane are qualified for such a role and even some Democrat senators have found the political positions of some of the White House’s offering just too radical an given that white men seem now to be anathema to the factions which control the Democratic Party, there seem little prospect the OCC will soon gain a new comptroller.  One suggestion has been to solve many problems by abolishing the OCC and transferring its functions to the FDIC and while that might result in a better regulated environment, as the troubles with the First Republic bank illustrate, its supervisory regime is hardly perfect and despite all that’s been revealed since 2008, the big banks still enjoy an implicit guarantee from the federal government that they’ll be bailed out in the event of another financial crisis. They are still too big to fail, regardless of which authority acts as their nominal supervisor.

Besiege

Besiege (pronounced bih-seej)

(1) In military parlance, to lay siege to (to surround a fortified area, especially a city) with military forces to bring about its surrender.

(2) To crowd around; crowd in upon; surround:

(3) To assail or ply, as with requests or demands.

1250-1300: From the Middle English besegen & bisegen, the construct being be- + siege.  The be- prefix is from the Middle English be- & bi- from the Old English be- from the Proto-Germanic bi- (be-) (near, by), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European hepi (at, near); source of the Modern English by.  Siege is from the Middle English sege from Old French sege, siege & seige (from which Modern French gained siège) from the Vulgar Latin sēdicum from the Latin sēdicŭlum & sēdēcula (small seat), from the Latin sēdēs (seat).  An alternative spelling during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was syege but it didn’t survive the evolution into Modern English.  Although not wholly synonymous, related words include encircle, beleaguer, beset, blockade, trap, harass, hound, plague, pester, invest, attack, congregate, environ, assail, encompass, confine, nag, importune, harry, trouble & harry.  Besiege, besieged & besieging are verbs, besiegement & besieger are nouns and besiegingly is an adverb.  

Historic meanings

Siege is one of the words in English which, purely by organic evolution, now has essentially one meaning (in both a military & figurative sense) but which, from time to time, enjoyed many meanings, all now obsolete.  They included:

(1) A seat, especially as used by someone of importance or authority.
(2) An ecclesiastical office’s geographical limits.
(3) The place where one has their home, residence or domain.
(4) A toilet seat.
(5) The anus; the rectum.
(6) Excrements, stool, fecal matter.
(7) Rank; grade; station; estimation.
(8) The floor of a glass-furnace.
(9) A workman's bench.
(10) A place with a toilet seat: outhouse; the loo, lavatory.

Besieged by demons: St Catherine of Siena besieged by demons, tempera and gold on panel by an anonymous artist from Lesser Poland, circa 1500.  On display in the National Museum, Warsaw since 1947.

Besieged by fan mail: Lindsay Lohan and the "Free Lindsay" campaign, Los Angeles, 2012.