Repent

Repent (pronounced ri-pent (U) or re-pent (non-U))

(1) To feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite for past conduct; regret or be conscience-stricken about past actions or thoughts (historically often followed by of).

(2) In theology, to be sorry for sin as morally evil, and to seek forgiveness; to cease to practice sin and to love; to be penitent.

(3) To remember or regard with self-reproach or contrition.

(4) To feel sorry for; regret (obsolete).

(5) In botany, plants lying or creeping along the ground.

1290–1300: From the Middle English repenten (be grieved over one's past and seek forgiveness; feel such regret for sins, crimes, or omissions as produces amendment of life) from the eleventh century Old French repentir, the construct being re- (used here probably as an intensive prefix) + the Vulgar Latin penitir(e) (to regret) or pentir (to feel sorrow) from the Latin paenitēre (to regret, be sorry) or poenitire (make sorry), from poena (from which English gained penal).  The meaning in the sense of “crawl”, later borrowed by botany, emerged in 1660-1670 and is from the Latin rēpent (stem of rēpēns), present participle of rēpere (to crawl, creep).  The Old French repentir is from the Vulgar Latin repoenitere, the construct being re- + a late derivative of poenitere (be penitent), an alteration of Latin paenitere.  The Latin prefix rĕ- is from Proto-Italic wre (again), which has a parallel in Umbrian re-, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes its further etymology is uncertain.  While it carries a general sense of "back" or "backwards", its precise sense is not always clear, and its great productivity in classical Latin has the tendency to obscure its original meaning.  Interestingly, in Middle English and after, a common form was as an impersonal reflexive sense, especially as “it repenteth (me, him etc)”.

The distinction between regret and repent exists in many modern languages but there's no evidence any differentiation was maintained during older periods. To repent is to regret so deeply as to change the mind or course of conduct in consequence and develop new mental and spiritual habits but when the King James Bible (1611) was issued in the then current English, repent still could mean regret: Genesis 6:6-7 (KJV (1611)).

(6) And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

(7) And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

In more modern editions, translators ensured that repentance was understood to go beyond mere feelings of regret to express distinct purposes of turning from sin to righteousness, implying a change of mental and spiritual attitude toward sin and wickedness.  The adjective repentant (penitent, contrite, sorry for past sins, words, or deeds) was from the early thirteenth century repentaunt, from the twelfth century Old French repentant (penitent), the present participle of repentir.  The circa 1300 noun repentance (state of being penitent, sorrow and contrition for sin or wrongdoing resulting in vigorous abandonment of it in one's life) was from the twelfth century Old French repentance (penitence), from the present-participle stem of repentir.

The only path to salvation

Repentance through ballistics: Lindsay Lohan with Smith & Wesson S&W500 Magnum as nun in Machete (2010).

Etymologists have noted the convoluted path the modern understanding of repent took from the original Biblical Hebrew.  The Old Testament notion of repentance is represented by two verbs: שוב (shuv) (to return) and נחם (nacham) (to feel sorrow).  In the New Testament, the word translated as “repentance” is the Greek μετάνοια (metanoia) (after or behind one's mind), the construct being meta (after; with) + noeo (to perceive; to think; the result of perceiving or observing).  Metanoia is thus an after-thought; a change of mind.  The Biblical texts however were written not to assist those in lives of quiet contemplation but as a moral code to persuade sinners to turn away from that life to something better.  The reward was eternal life for one’s spirit; the price an unconditional surrender to God as sovereign.  In case readers didn’t get it, the Bible uses the words repent, repentance and repented over one-hundred times.

Repentance through faith: Saint Augustine between Christ and the Virgin (1664), oil on canvas by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (circa 1617-1682).

An early long-form tale of repentance was Saint Augustine’s (354-430) autobiographical Confessiones (Confessions (397-400)) in which (over thirteen volumes) he documented the regenerative effects of true and sincere repentance, which, by God's grace, sets him upon his new journey of life:  "Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new. Too late have I loved Thee.  For behold Thou wert within, and I without, and there did I seek Thee. I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty which Thou madest."  Augustine’s point was that it was only repentance which allowed him fully to understand the implications of the life lived previously outside of God's grace for it was only the sudden embrace of God’s love which could reveal his lowliness and sinfulness.  Augustine saw the gift of repentance as the finest gift of God’s mercy but later he would caution those who, knowing they have sinned, thought their penitence might be put-off: “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”

Alarum

Alarum (pronounced uh-lar-uhm or uh-lahr-uhm)

(1) An archaic variant of alarm, especially as a call to arms.

(2) In literary classification, a work written in the form of a warning.

(3) In the form “alarums and excursions”, a stage direction used in Elizabethan theatre (used only in the plural).

1585–1595: From the Middle English alarme & alarom, from the fourteenth century Old French alarme, from the Old Italian all'arme (a call to arms (literally “to the arms”) and understood in translation as “arm yourselves and prepare for battle!”), from the Latin arma & armorum (arms, weapons) (from which English ultimately gained armory).  The Old Italian all'arme was a contraction of the phrase alle arme, alle a contraction of a "to" (from the Latin ad) + le, from the Latin illas, the feminine accusative plural of ille (the) coupled with arme, from the Latin arma (weapons (including armor), literally "the tools or implements (of war)”), from the primitive Indo-European root ar- (to fit together).  Beyond purely military use, the interjection (which had once also been spelt all-arm) came by the late sixteenth century to be a general to be both a “warning of any danger or need to arouse” and the device generating the sound.  From the mid-fifteenth century it had conveyed a “state of fearful surprise" while the weakened sense of “apprehension or unease” dates from 1833.  In England, alarm clocks were first available in the 1690s and they were described as A Larum Clocks.  Alarum is a noun, the present participle is alaruming, the past participle alarumed; the noun plural is alarums.

The phrase alarums and excursions (used only in the plural) was a stage direction used in Elizabethan theatre drama.  It instructed the actors to create a scene suggesting military action, either by having them march across the stage, blowing bugles and beating drums or, as the script directed, performing fragments of a battle or other engagement.  In idiomatic use, it came to be used to allude to (1) the sounds and activities associated with the preparations for war and (2) by extension, any noisy, frantic, or disorganized activity.  Alarum is the old spelling of the modern alarm (as a noun or a verb) which has in literary classification retained a niche as a deliberate archaism, probably because it’s one of those words (like aroint) which endures because it appears in the works of Shakespeare.  There’s also some history of alarum as a poetic device where it’s deployed when the cadence requires “alarm” to be pronounced with a rolling "r" (although it’s not known if this was the practice in Middle English (and Shakespeare’s placement gives no clue).  Other than the technical uses describe, alarum has no use in modern English and if used as a substitute for alarm it will either confuse or be treated as a spelling mistake (which of course it is).  In the classification of non-fiction, an alarum is a work written as a warning.  It can be in the form of a polemic, a history or any other form and the label alarum is thus both a category and a sub-category applied to other classifications.  In this the label works the same way as something like apologia which is typically applied (not always with the agreement of the author) to memoirs and the like.

A classic example of the alarum is Friedrich von Hayek’s (1899–1992) Der Weg zur Knechtschaft (The Road to Serfdom (1944)), a book which warns that the inevitable consequence of governments controlling an economy through central planning is a tyrannical dictatorship and the sacrifice of individual freedom.  His thesis was widely read but gained renewed attention in the 1980s when an interpretation of the neo-liberal economic model he advocated was implemented in both developed and emerging economies with results good and bad.  What was unfortunate however was the impression that many politicians seemed to be acquainted only with the simplified edition issued in 1945 by the US magazine Reader's Digest, a version designed for those without formal training in economics which was easier to read but lacked some of the nuances of argument and the political subtleties which had so captivated certain intellectuals.  Hayek was in his views an elitist who seemed not to have a high opinion of the powers of most people abstractly to reason but he certainly defended their right to pursue what they perceived as their economic advantage.  In many ways the book seems at its best (for non-economists anyway) if read not as advocacy for a particular structure for an economy but as a work of political philosophy and digested this way, Hayek’s discussion of the language of politics is of special interest; his explanation of the way labels like “left” and “right” have become distorted both as descriptors and in the consequences of use remains influential.

Lindsay Lohan, a poem by Amber Tambling, from the collection Dark Sparkler (2015).

It varies according to the language and formatting but prints of von Hayek’s alarum contain some 58,000-60,000 words, printed over 250-320 pages (the widely used “classic edition” by the University of Chicago Press edition is typically 274 pages) but some, bulked-up with introductions, commentaries and appendices have been close to 500.  Hayek had much to say but an alarum can be sid with fewer words, actress and author Amber Tamblyn (b 1983) composing one with no text at all.  The publisher HarperCollins described her third collection Dark Sparkler (2015) as a “…hybrid of poetry and art exploring the lives and deaths of actresses who began their careers as child stars.”  The book, which included original artwork by a number of artists, was well received, critically and commercially.  The title was well-chosen because Dark Sparkler was a catalogue of murder and suicide but what attracted much comment was the inclusion of one living soul: Lindsay Lohan, her entry (on page 47) blank but for her name as the title.  An author’s relationship ultimately is with their readers but first it’s with their critics and the response to that one proved it’s possible to deconstruct text even when it doesn’t appear.  The critical reaction was something in vein taken by those who approached John Cage’s (1912–1992) 4:33 (1952) in that, without much with which to work, the only obvious question seemed to be “What did you mean?”  Ms Tamblyn did say she found it “upsetting” when, after reading several of the poems dedicated to starlets who died young, she spoke the words “Lindsay Lohan” and the audience laughed; perhaps in the age of TikTok she’d not now be surprised.  She claimed the inclusion of the work in its unusual form was not to say “you’re next” but explicitly to avoid writing anything about a life in progress, the idea being Ms Lohan’s life was her own story to write.  Like any work of prose or poetry, page 47 was there for people to take from it what they found.

Brigade

Brigade (pronounced bri-geyd)

(1) In army organisation, a military unit having its own headquarters and consisting of two or more regiments; the army formation immediately larger than a regiment, smaller than a division.

(2) In casual use, sometimes used to describe a large body of troops.

(3) A group of individuals organized for a particular purpose (used sometimes in a derogatory sense).

(4) A historical term for a convoy of canoes, sleds, wagons, or pack animals, especially as used to supply trappers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Canadian and US fur trade.

(5) To form or unite into a brigade; to group together.

(6) In the slang of Internet trollers, to harass an individual or community online in a coordinated manner.

1630–1640: From the French brigade (body of soldiers) from the Old Italian brigata (troop, crowd, gang) derived from the Old Italian brigare (to fight, brawl) from briga (strife, quarrel), perhaps of Celtic (and related to the Gaelic brigh and Welsh bri (power) or Germanic origin.  The French brigand (foot soldier) which later adopted the meaning “outlaw or bandit” is also related.  Brigade is a noun & verb and brigaded & brigading are verbs; the noun plural is brigade.

The word endures in describing one of the standard (though numerically various) units of army organisation but was used also by the International Brigades as a general description of the volunteer forces which assembled during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1940) to assist the doomed Spanish Republic.  Despite the use of the term, the formations in which members of the International Brigades fought were of varied size and there was no real relationship to the traditional use of "brigade" by armies.  Specialized formations (intelligence corps, medical corps et al) exist in all branches of the military with no rules or consistency in the numbers of their establishment but whereas the structures of navies (squadrons, flotillas, fleets etc) and air forces (flights, squadrons, wings, groups etc) are based on the number of vessels or airframes attached, the army (mostly) defines its organization by the number of personnel allocated, the numbers listed below generally indicative based on historic formations.  

Army Formations: Indicative Size Ranges

Army Group: 400,000-2,000000
Army: 150,000-360,000
Corps: 45,000-90,000
Division: 10,000-30,000
Brigade: 1500-5000
Regiment: 1500-3500
Battalion: 500-1500
Company: 175-250
Platoon: 12-60
Squad: 4-24

Most armies use all or a subset of the above although the numbers vary (greatly).  A division is made up of 3-4 brigades, a corps of 3-4 divisions and so on.  In Western armies, the numbers listed above reflect the big-scale mass formations used during World War II (1939-1945); peacetime armies are a fraction of the size but the organizational framework is retained, most forces actively using only the smaller clusters.  During WWII, US army command groups tended to be up to twice the size of British units though within the same army, divisions often varied in size, an infantry division usually larger than an armored.  A corps can be assembled from the armies of more than one nation, the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) being formed in 1915 prior to deployment as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.  Other organizational tags such as squadron also exist but tend now either to be rare or, like battery, applied to specialized units based on function rather than size.  A special case is troop which generally is an alternative word for platoon but there are exceptions.

In twenty-first century wars, entire divisions are rarely committed operationally and brigade level engagements are regarded as large-scale; in the world wars of the twentieth century (uniquely big, multi-theatre affairs), the standard battlefield unit tended to be the division and by 1944 Soviet Union was fielding nearly five-hundred.  The numbers in the world wars were certainly impressive but in a sense could be deceptive, the percentage of those listed on the establishment actually committed to combat sometimes surprisingly low (though this tended to apply less to those of the USSR).  One British prime-minister, pondering this, complained to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the CIGS one of the country's leading ornithologists) that the army reminded him “…of a peacock; all tail and very little bird”.  Dryly, the field marshal responded by pointing out “the peacock would be a very poorly balanced bird without its tail”.

The military rank brigadier (Brig the standard abbreviation) has had a varied history but in UK and US (where it’s styled as brigadier general) us it sits between colonel and major-general.  The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) rank code is OF-6 which aligns it in the UK with a Royal Navy (RN) commodore and Royal Air Force (RAF) air commodore.  Historically, brigadier was originally an appointment conferred on colonels (a la the way RN captains were created commodore and captains in the US Navy were upon retirement made rear-admirals) but since 1947 it has been a substantive rank in the British Army.  In the British Army the rank of brigadier-general was abolished in 1921, that rationale being the functional role was that of a senior colonel (ie a field officer) rather than a junior general (ie a staff officer) but such changes are never popular with the officer class and in 1928 the position was gazetted as brigadier.  Curiously, for over a year after the RAF was created in April 1918, there were brigadier-generals until the title air commodore was adopted.  Many other air forces have continued to have generals.

Colonel Andrus announces to the press the suicide of Hermann Göring who used a smuggled potassium cyanide capsule, taken just hours before he was to be hanged.

In civilian life, the most familiar (and probably most valued) brigades are fire brigades and the first municipal brigade is thought to have been established in the Roman Republic by Octavian (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, 63 BC–AD 14; founder of the Roman Empire and first Roman emperor 27 BC-AD 14).  Created in 32 BC, the system was manned (in the Roman way) by slaves and organized along military lines, each of the seven “fire stations” headed by a centurion.  The structure replaced an earlier system set up by a rich individual who paid for the slaves; in gratitude, the Romans elected him a magistrate, a development which didn’t appeal to Octavian.  In the centuries which followed, things tended to be more ad hoc until the Great Fire of London (1666) made insurance companies suffer such losses that quickly it was worked out it was cheaper to fund a competent, standing fire brigade than pay for the consequences of a conflagration.  Fire brigades funded by property insurance companies were soon in operation and the idea spread with the core structure still in use today although the responsibility for funding has been assumed by governments at various levels although in many places with small populations, volunteer fire brigades are common, their physical resources (machinery, communications etc) often provided by the state.  The role of firefighter (the modern, gender-neutral, replacement for the old “fireman”) is much respected but the Nazis still managed to make it a slight.  When held in the cells of Nuremberg’s palace of Justice during the first Nuremberg trial (1945-1946), Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) contemptuously described the jail’s commandant as a “fire brigade colonel”.  Göring, a dashing fighter pilot in World War I (1914-1918) was not impressed by the immaculate uniform and strict discipline imposed by Colonel Burton C Andrus (1892–1977) who, although having served in the regular army since 1917, had never seen combat.  When the colonel in 1969 published his memoirs, of the many slights the prisoners had made of him, the only one about which he seems to have been sensitive was that he might have been a few pounds overweight.

La Brigade de cuisine

Portrait of Auguste Escoffier.  The decoration is the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest order of merit, awarded to both civilians and the military.  It was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; leader of the French Republic 1799-1804 & Emperor of the French from 1804-1814 & 1815)).  It’s a wholly appropriate honor for a French chef.

The Brigade de cuisine (kitchen brigade) was a hierarchical organizational chart for commercial kitchens, codified from earlier practices by French chef, Georges-Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935) who, following his service in the French army, had refined and codified the the kitchen structure which had existed since the fourteenth century.  The military-type chain-of-command became formalized but what was novel was what he dubbed the chef de partie system, an organizational model based on sections which were both geographically and functionally defined.  His design was intended to avoid duplication of effort and facilitate communication.  The economic realities of technological innovation, out-sourcing to external supply chains and the changing ratio of labour costs to revenue have meant even the largest modern kitchens now use a truncated version of the Escoffien system although the sectional chef de partie structure remains.  In the pre-modern era, Escoffier’s idealized structure was adopted only in the largest of exclusive establishments or the grandest of cruise liners and, like the Edwardian household, is a footnote in sociological, organizational and economic history.  The positions were:

Chef de cuisine or Executive Chef: The culinary and administrative head of the kitchen.

Sous-chef de cuisine:  The Executive Chef’s deputy.

Saucier or sauté cook: Prepares sauces and warm hors d'oeuvres, completes meat dishes, and in smaller restaurants, may work on fish dishes and prepare sautéed items.  One of the most technically demanding positions in the brigade.

Chef de partie: The senior chef of a particular section.

Demi Chef: An experienced chef working under a chef de partie.

Chen:  A chef allocated to particular dishes (essentially a specialist demi chef).

Cuisinier:  A generalist chef working in one or more sections.  This tends now to be a role undertaken by many commis and demi chefs rather than a stand-alone position.

Commis Chef: A junior chef, working under supervision and often responsible for maintaining the tools and fittings of the section.  The modern commis chef now often undertakes a much wider range of duties than was the traditional role.

Apprentice: Trainee or student chefs gaining theoretical and practical training while performing preparatory and cleaning work; duties become more complex as experience builds and some of the training is now often undertaken in dedicated culinary schools or other institutions.

Plongeur: Dishwasher or kitchen porter who cleans dishes and utensils, and may be entrusted with basic preparatory jobs otherwise done by apprentices.  In modern use, the role is now described usually as "kitchen hand".

Joining La Brigade de cuisine: Lindsay Lohan as sous-chef de cuisine on celebrity cooking shows. 

Marmiton: A pot and pan washer, sometimes also known as kitchen porter; again, the term "kitchen hand" has prevailed.

Rôtisseur: The roast cook who manages the team which roasts, broils, and deep fries dishes.

Charcutier: A chef who prepares pork products such as pâté, pâté en croûte, rillettes, hams, sausages and any cured meats; may coordinate with the garde manger and deliver cured meats.

Grillardin: The grill cook who, in larger kitchens, prepares grilled foods instead of the rôtisseur.

Friturier: The fry cook who, in larger kitchens, prepares fried foods instead of the rôtisseur.

Poissonnier: The fish cook who prepares fish and seafood dishes.

Entremetier: The entrée preparer who prepares soups and other dishes not involving meat or fish, including vegetable and egg dishes.

Potager: The soup cook who, in larger kitchens, reports to the entremetier and prepares the soups, often also assisting the saucier.

Legumier: The vegetable cook who, in larger kitchens, also reports to the entremetier and prepares the vegetable dishes.

Garde manger: The pantry supervisor responsible for preparation of cold hors d'oeuvres, pâtés, terrines and aspics; prepares salads; organizes large buffet displays; and prepares charcuterie items.

Tournant: The spare hand or rounds man, a utility position which exists to move about the kitchen as required, assisting as needed.  In military terms, the reserve.

Pâtissier: The pastry cook who prepares desserts and other meal-end sweets, and for locations without a boulanger, also prepares breads and other baked items; may also prepare pasta.

Confiseur: In larger kitchens, prepares candies and petit fours instead of the pâtissier.

Glacier: In larger kitchens, prepares frozen and cold desserts instead of the pâtissier.

Kitchen Brigade in the New Kitchen, Café Riche, Paris, 1865 (unknown artist).

Décorateur: In larger kitchens, prepares show pieces and specialty cakes instead of the pâtissier.

Boulanger: The baker who, in larger kitchens, prepares bread, cakes, and breakfast pastries instead of the pâtissier.

Boucher: The butcher who butchers meats, poultry, and sometimes fish; often also in charge of breading meat and fish items.

Aboyeur: The announcer or expediter who takes orders from the dining room and distributes them to the various stations; this role may also be performed by a senior chef.

Communard: Prepares the meal served to the restaurant staff.

Garçon de cuisine: The “kitchen boy", a junior position who performs preparatory and auxiliary work, sometimes as a prelude to a formal apprenticeship.

Interrobang

Interrobang (pronounced in-ter-uh-bang)

A punctuation mark (‽) which merges the question mark (?) and the exclamation mark (!) to indicate a query made as an interjection.

1962: A blended word and an invention of US English, the construct being the Latin Latin interro(gātiō) (examination, inquiry, interrogation, questioning) + bang (in this context typesetters’ slang for the exclamation mark (exclamation point in US use), the glyph a ligature of these two marks (the unicode is U+203d).  The even more rare alternative spelling is interabang.  The companion term is gnaborretni (interrotbang reversed, the plural being gnaborretnis) which uses the a symbol (⸘) (an inverted interrobang) to replace the ¡¿ used in Spanish, Galician, and Leonese, just as in English the interrobang can replace !? or ?! (the unicode is U+2E18).  Interrobang is a noun, the noun plural interrobangs.  All other forms are non-standard but interrobanged, interrobanger & interrobanging will presumably be deployed as circumstances seem to dictate and UrbanDictionary users noted the possibilities with predictable suggestions.

Variations on the theme.

Now sixty years old, interrobang was coined in 1962 by US American advertising executive Martin K Speckter (1915–1988) who suggested it in an article written for the printing trade journal TYPEtalks.  As a commodity, the interrobang was an example of a slightly better mousetrap which required more effort to use and achieved exactly the same thing, thus the lack of market penetration.  A few publications did adopt it but adoption was never widespread and it was clear it was less understood than the common “!?”, “????” etc although it did find a niche in chess where an interrobang is a legal move of questionable merit.

The interrobang is used to convey in pure text those layers of meanings provided by non-verbal clues such as facial expressions or tonal variations. 

Most punctuation marks are ancient but the interrobang is novel in being relatively new.  Mr Speckter’s idea was that what was needed in pure text advertisements was a symbol which could convey the feeling implicit in a surprised rhetorical question (the classic example of which is probably (really‽).  In TV or print advertising using images this was transmitted using facial expressions or vocal intonations but in pure text, this wasn’t always immediately clear.  For centuries, people had been using work-arounds like “?!”, “!?” or “????” but what he wanted was something more elegant.  His interrobang was certainly that and some academics acknowledged its utility but adoption was patchy because it was never integrated into the standard character-set of the typewriter keyboards of the era.  There were a few supporting gestures, most notably in 1967 when ATF (American Type Founders) included it in Richard Isbell’s (1924-2009) Americana typeface (the company’s last type cut in metal) and the next year it was available on some Remington typewriters, followed some years later by Smith-Corona typewriters but generally the industry ignored the innovation.  Crucially, IBM declined to add the interrobang to the golfballs used on their then dominant Selectric range of typewriters or their then embryonic word-processing programs.

Interestingly, nor was it included when a digital version of the Americana typeface was released and nor did it make it to the standard keyboards which IBM, Apple and others began to offer from the late 1970s although for nerds who did their own keyboard mappings, such things were sometimes possible.  Adoption has been limited and will remain so until included on standard physical keyboards (which seems unlikely) and there’s no evident demand for the symbol to be added to virtual implementations.  That said, it is in a number of fonts including Amplitude Wide Bold, Fritz Robusto, Constantia and Fontesque Sans so it’s there to be used although, as any form of communication relies on both parties sharing the same understanding of what a symbol denotes, it’s useful only of the recipient knows what it means.

There are interrobang emojis which makes perfect sense but using the glyph is possible on most platforms if not effortless.  In Microsoft Office for example, using the TrueType font Wingdings 2 it’s invoked by pressing the key marked with a tilde.  That’s not too bad but under iOS you have to edit the keyboard so you really (really‽) have to want to make the point:

(1) Copy an interrobang symbol of choice

(2) Launch the Settings app and choose General

(3) Tap Keyboard

(4) Select Keyboard

(5) Tap Text Replacement

(6) Tap the + symbol in the upper right corner

(7) Paste the interrobang symbol in the phrase field

(8) Type ?! in shortcut field

(9) Tap Save

Mungbean

Mung bean (pronounced mung–been)

(1) A plant, Vigna radiata, of the legume family, cultivated for its edible seeds, pods, and young sprouts.

(2) The seed or pod of this plant.

1905-1910: The English form is from the earlier moong (from the Hindi mū̃g, variant of mūg and the Prakrit mugga and Sanskrit mudga).  The traditional form is mung bean, mungbean is an accepted alternative and it’s never been hyphenated.

A plant species in the legume family, the mungbean (Vigna radiata) is known also as the green gram, in Persian as maash (ماش‎), in Sanskrit as moong (मुद्ग (Romanized as mudga)) and in the Philippines as monggo, or munggo.  Technically, it’s the mung bean but mugbean emerged as an alternative form as early as the 1970s.  Used as an ingredient in both savory and sweet dishes, it’s grown in many countries but the largest areas in cultivation are in India, China, and Southeast Asia.

Vegan Mung Bean Stew

Ingredients

½ cup raw mung beans

5 potatoes, peeled and quartered

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

5 button mushrooms, sliced

4 small tomatoes, quartered

2 cups vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

(1) Preheat oven to 400^o F (200^o C).

(2) Place mung beans in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook for 10 minutes. Lower heat to medium, and simmer until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain beans into a strainer and rinse under cold water. Set aside.

(3) Meanwhile, place the potatoes in saucepan, cover with water, and stir in ¼ teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook just until potatoes begin to soften when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

(4) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion; cook and stir until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. Cook and stir until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Pour in the stock, and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook vegetable mixture 5 minutes more. Combine with the mung beans and potatoes in an oven-proof casserole. Cover with a lid.

(5) Bake in pre-heated oven until mixture bubbles which will typically take about 30 minutes.

Reverend

Reverend (pronounced rev-ruhnd (U) or rev-er-uhnd (non-U))

(1) A title of respect applied or prefixed to the name of a member of the clergy or a religious order (initial capital letter).

(2) Worthy to be revered; entitled to reverence.

(3) Pertaining to or characteristic of the clergy.

(4) In informal use, a member of the Christian clergy; a minister.

1400–1450: From the late Middle English reverend (also as reverent) (worthy of deep respect, worthy to be revered (due to age, character etc)), from the Middle French révérend, from the Old French, from the Latin future passive participle reverendus (he who is worthy of being revered; that is to be respected), gerundive of reverērī (to stand in awe of, respect, honor, fear, be afraid of), from the deponent verb revereor (I honor, revere).  The construct of reverērī was re- (in this case used probably as an intensive prefix) + vereri (stand in awe of, fear, respect) from the primitive Indo-European root wer- (perceive, watch out for).

As a courteous or respectful form of address for clergymen, it has been in use since the late fifteenth century, a variation of the earlier reverent which had been used in this sense since the later fourteenth century; it was prefixed to names by the 1640s and the abbreviation Rev. was introduced in the 1690s, becoming accepted and common by the 1720s.  One historical quirk is that the vice-chancellor of the University of University is formally styled The Reverend the Vice-Chancellor even if not a member of the clergy, a relic of the days when the appointee always held some ecclesiastical office.

The Roman Catholic Church

Cardinal George Pell (b 1941).  When appointed bishop and subsequently archbishop, he was styled The Most Reverend but upon becoming a cardinal, although remaining an archbishop, a cardinal's form of address prevailed and he was instead styled His Eminence.

Religious sisters can be styled Reverend Sister although this is now rare outside Italy unless the order to which the sister is attached is under the authority of the Vatican and not the local bishop.  Abbesses of convents are styled The Reverend Mother Superior.  Deacons are styled The Reverend Deacon if ordained permanently to the diaconate.  Seminiarians are styled The Reverend Mister if ordained to the diaconate and prior to being ordained presbyters.  Priests are styled variously The Reverend or The Reverend Father according to tradition whether diocesan, in an order of canon regulars, in a monastic or a mendicant order or clerics regular.  Priests appointed to grades of jurisdiction above pastor are styled The Very Reverend (there are appointments such as  vicars general, judicial vicars, ecclesiastical judges, episcopal vicars, provincials of religious orders of priests, rectors or presidents of colleges and universities, priors of monasteries, deans, vicars forane, archpriests et al).  Certain appointments such as Protonotaries Apostolic, Prelates of Honour and Chaplains of His Holiness are styled The Reverend Monsignor.  Abbots of monasteries are styled The Right Reverend.  Bishops and archbishops are styled The Most Reverend (In some countries of the British Commonwealth, only archbishops are styled The Most Reverend while bishops are styled The Right Reverend).  The word is not used in relation to cardinals or the pope.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Reverend (and its variations) appears only in writing; in oral use other titles and styles of address are used except in the rare cases of ceremonies where the entire style of an individual is recited.

The Orthodox Church

Lindsay Lohan as a Reverend Sister in Machete (2010).

Deacons are styled The Reverend Deacon (traditionally only in writing and not universally applied).  A married priest is The Reverend Father; a monastic priest is The Reverend Hieromonk; a protopresbyter is The Very Reverend Father; and an archimandrite is either The Very Reverend Father (Greek practice) or The Right Reverend Father (Russian practice).  For most purposes all may be addressed as Father and the most comprehensive (and multi-lingual) style guide is that published by the office of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.  Abbots and abbesses are styled The Very Reverend Abbot or Abbess and are addressed as Father and Mother respectively.  A bishop is referred to as The Right Reverend Bishop and addressed as Your Grace (or Your Excellency).  An archbishop or metropolitan, whether or not he is the head of an autocephalous or autonomous church, is styled The Most Reverend Archbishop or Metropolitan and addressed as Your Eminence.  Heads of autocephalous and autonomous churches with the title Patriarch are styled differently and the word reverend shouldn’t be used; the actual use varies according to the customs of their respective churches and is always Beatitude but sometimes also Holiness and, exceptionally, All-Holiness (if reverend appears by error, it’s not considered offensive).

The Anglican Communion (including the Episcopalian churches)

Deacons are styled as The Reverend, The Reverend Deacon, or The Reverend Mr, Mrs or Miss (and Ms has been added to the style guides of the more liberal branches).  Priests (vicars padres, rectors and curates et al) are usually styled as The Reverend, The Reverend Father or Mother (even if not a religious) or The Reverend Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms.  Heads of some women's religious orders are styled as The Reverend Mother (even if not ordained).  Canons are often styled as The Reverend Canon.  Deans are usually styled as The Very Reverend (although this can vary for those attached to larger cathedrals).  Archdeacons are usually styled as The Venerable.  Priors of monasteries may be styled as The Very Reverend.  Abbots of monasteries may be styled as The Right Reverend.  Bishops are styled as The Right Reverend.  Archbishops and primates and (for historical reasons) the Bishop of Meath and Kildare are styled as The Most Revered and there is no difference in the style afforded to the twenty-six bishops of the old bishoprics with seats in the House of Lords.

The first and second women in the Anglican Church to be appointed as Most Reverend Archbishops Kay Goldsworthy (b 1956; Archbishop of Perth in the Province of Western Australia since 2018) (left) & Melissa Skelton (b 1951; Metropolitan and Archbishop in the Anglican Church of Canada since 2018) (right).