Align

Align (pronounced a-line)

(1) To arrange in a straight line; adjust according to a line.

(2) To bring into a line or alignment.

(3) To bring into cooperation or agreement with a particular group, party, cause etc; to identify with or match the behavior, thoughts etc of another person.

(4) In radio transceiving, to adjust two or more components of an electronic circuit to improve the response over a frequency band, as to align the tuned circuits of a radio receiver for proper tracking throughout its frequency range, or a television receiver for appropriate wide-band responses.

(5) To join with others in a cause.

(6) In computing, to store data in a way consistent with the memory architecture ie by beginning each item at an offset equal to some multiple of the word size.

(7) In bioinformatics, to organize a linear arrangement of DNA, RNA or protein sequences which have regions of similarity.

Circa 1690: From the Middle English alynen & alinen (copulate (of wolves & dogs)), from the Middle French aligner, from Old French alignier (set, lay in line (sources of the Modern French aligner)).  The construct à (to) + lignier (to line) was from the Latin lineare (reduce to a straight line) from linea (line).  The French spelling with the -g- is un-etymological, and aline, the early alternative spelling in English is long obsolete and was never revived as US English.

The transitive or reflexive sense of "to fall into line" is attested from 1853 with the use in international relations first noted in 1923 in the sense of (return to previously aligned positions) in reference to European international relations and use spiked after 1933 in the League of Nations in discussions about the disputes which would from then only worsen.  The noun alignment (arrangement in a line) dates from 1790 and misaligned (faulty or incorrect arrangement in line) was originally used in engineering, documented from 1903 although, curiously, realign (align again or anew), a back-formation of realignment was in common use in railway construction by the mid 1800s.  References to the Non-Aligned Movement (formalized in 1961), appeared in documents in 1960 although the concept of geopolitical non-alignment was much discussed after 1934 in debates in the noble but doomed League of Nations (1920-1946 (although a moribund relic after 1940)).

The Non-Aligned Movement

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states with some one-hundred and twenty members.  It began during the cold war as a loose organization of countries, not formally aligned either with Washington or Moscow, the centres of the two major power blocs.  The NAM was formed in Belgrade in 1961, the project of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964; Prime-minister of India 1947-1964), Sukarno (1901–1970; president of Indonesia 1945-1967), Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970; president of Egypt 1954-1970) and comrade Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980; prime-minister or president of Yugoslavia 1944-1980).  The cross-cutting cleavages of the cold war meant the NAM was never wholly synonymous with the third world but those nations provided the bulk of the organization’s membership.  Nor was the NAM politically monolithic, the organization doing little to reduce tensions between members Iran & Iraq or India & Pakistan (NATO notably more successful in suppressing things between squabbling members), its most noted fracture over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979; while some Soviet allies supported the invasion, others (particularly Islamic states) condemned it.

The NAM: members in dark blue, those enjoying observer status in light blue.

Quite what role the NAM has fulfilled since the end of the Cold War is not clear.  Its ongoing survival may be nothing more than bureaucratic inertia or the tendency for political structures to live on beyond the existence of the purpose for which they were created, a phenomenon noted in academic literature in both political science and organisational studies.  So, sixty years on, it still exists, even conducting virtual summits during the COVID-19 pandemic although it’s been many years since anything said in its forums attracted much attention.  Of late however, as the building blocks of the New Cold War have taken shape, there’s been much speculation about the future composition of the NAM as a bi-polar arrangement consisting of (1) the West and (2) the BRICS seems to be coalescing.  The origin of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China (South Africa added later)) was in an economist’s paper (2001) discussing the high-growth economies which showed the greatest potential and the organisation has recently added Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  The claims by the BRICS secretariat that what is envisaged is a “multi-polar world” are interesting in as much as they’re being made rather than for their credibility but there are many not unhappy at prospect of a bi-polar planet being formalized and the form in which this emerges will be dependent on how certain nations in the NAM decide to re-align.  While there’s still a degree of medium-term predictability about Russia, China and other usual suspects, players like India and Brazil (which can be open to temptation and civilizing influences) and may emerge as a political dynamic, either as horse-traders or fence-sitters.

The overlay: the first, second & third worlds

First World Blue: Essentially the anti-communist bloc of the cold war.  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the definition has shifted to include any country with stable (ie non-violent) political systems, some degree of democracy, a legal system which at least pretends to adhere to the rule of law, a market-based economy and a high standard of living.  Best thought of as the rich world, these are the countries in which it’s (usually) safe to drink the tap water.

Second World Red: The Second World referred to the nominally communist or socialist states mostly under the influence of the Soviet Union.  Soviet control varied from actual satellite states to those merely in degrees of sympathy with Moscow.  Relationships were often fractious, the most celebrated tiff being the Sino-Soviet split.

Third World Green: Originally, the term was a political construct to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist Bloc but, even among scholars of political economy, there never emerged a consensus about just which countries constituted the third world.  The most used, but least defined of the three worlds, it’s essentially now a less politically correct way of referring to what economists now call the developing world.

The multi-polar school in Mean Girls (2004) lacked a NAM

The discipline of behavioralism is not as fashionable as once it was but its tools and methods remain in use in fields as diverse (or similar according to some) as political science, marketing, crowd control and zoology, much of the work exploring group dynamics, both internally and the interactions between factions.  Although it wasn’t intended to be taken too seriously, one structuralist did make the point that the sheer number of cliques (20-odd) in the Mean Girls high school meant it was unlikely a “non-aligned” grouping would emerge because the extent of the multi-polarity was such that the concept made no sense; even in the dynamic system of ever-shifting alliances between small numbers of cliques, in a sense all simultaneously were non-aligned with the majority of others.

Macro

Macro (pronounced mak-roh)

(1) Anything large in scale, scope, or capability.

(2) In the colloquial language of economics, of or relating to macroeconomics.

(3) In computing, an instruction that represents a sequence of instructions in abbreviated form (also rarely called macroinstruction) or a statement, typically for an assembler, that invokes a macro definition to generate a sequence of instructions or other outputs.

(4) In photography, producing larger than life images, often a type of close-up photography or as image macro, a picture with text superimposed.

(5) As the acronym MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma).

1933: A word-forming element from the Ancient Greek μακρός (macros), a combining form of makrós (long), cognate with the Latin macer (lean; meagre) and from the primitive Indo-European root mak (long, thin); now a general purpose prefix meaning large.  The English borrowing from French appears to date from 1933 with the upsurge in writings on economics during the great depression.  It subsequently became a combining form meaning large, long, great, excessive et al, used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with those prefixed with micro-.  In computing, it covers a wide vista but describes mostly relatively short sets of instructions used within programs, often as a time-saving device for the handling of repetitive tasks, one of the few senses in which macro (although originally a clipping in 1959  of macroinstruction) has become a stand-alone word rather than a contraction.  Other examples of use vis-a-vis include macrophotography (photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens (1863)), macrospore (in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others (1859)), macroeconomics (pertaining to the economy as a whole (1938), macrobiotic (a type of diet (1961)), macroscopic (visible to the naked eye (1841)), macropaedia (the part of an encyclopaedia Britannica where entries appear as full essays (1974)), macrophage (in pathology "type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms" (1890)).

Dieting and the macro fad

In the faddish world of dieting, the macrobiotic (macro- +‎ -biotic (from the Ancient Greek βιωτικός (biōtikós) (of life), from βίος (bios) (life)) diet is based on the precepts of Zen Buddhism.  It’s said to seek to balance what are described as the yin & yang elements of food and even the cookware used in its preparation.  The regime, first popularised by George Ohsawa san (1893-1966) in the 1930s, suggests ten food plans which, if followed, will achieve what is said to be the ideal yin:yang ratio of 5:1.  Controversial, there’s no acceptance the diet has any of the anti-cancer properties its proponents often claim beyond that expected if one follows the generally recommended balanced diets which differ little from the macrobiotic.  It was Ohsawa san's 1961 book Zen Macrobiotic which introduced the word to a wider audience although he acknowledged the system had been practiced in Germany in the late eighteenth century.

A later fad, macronutrients, is distinct from macrobiotics and describes another form of a balanced diet, the three classes of macronutrients being the familiar proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.  The macro diet puts a premium on whole rather than processed foods and requires calorie counting because of the need to track intake and maintain the metrics within a certain range.  Where the macro diet differs is that the metrics vary between individuals rather than requiring conformity to the unchanging yin:yang ratio .  Depending on factors such as body type, life-style, age and health, a nutritionist will construct a target macro ratio (eg 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein and 20% fat) although that may change depending upon outcomes achieved.

The pro ana community seems to view the macrobiotic diet with uninterest rather than scepticism, noting it’s optimised around a concept of balance rather than weight-loss and, while perhaps useful in some aspects, is just another fad diet and that’s fine because, if followed, all diets probably work but for pro ana purposes there are better, faster, more extreme ways.

Macrophotography (also known as photomacrography, macrography or macro-photography) is a specialised niche in imagery, usually in the form of close-up photographs of small subjects, typically living organisms like insects, the object being to create an image greater than life size.  The word is used also by processing technicians to refer to the creation of physically large photographs regardless of the size of the subject or the relation between subject size and finished photograph.

When macro photography depended on a camera with a macro lens committing images to film stock, it was a genuinely specialised skill.  Now, advances in the sensor technology used in small, general purpose digital cameras mean anyone can produce raw images very close to those attainable using a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) or SLR (single-lens reflex) with a true macro lens and editing software exists to enhance the images.  The emergence of very high definition (8K+) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) televisions in sizes larger than human beings has introduced a new subset to macrophotography for home use.  The 8K devices are currently available in sizes up to 150" (3.8m) and the technology exists to join together edgeless screens to create one vast panel, the size limited only by the software support.

Macrophotography of Lindsay Lohan's eyes, Venice Film Festival, 2006.

Embezzle

Embezzle (pronounced em-bez-uhl)

In law, fraudulently to appropriate or convert (money or property entrusted to one's care) for one's own use (applied especially to fraud committed by an employee).

1375–1425: From the late Middle English embesilen, from the fourteenth century Anglo-French embesiler, embesillier & embeseillier (to destroy, make away with; to steal, cause to disappear), the construct being em- + beseiller, from the Old French beseiller (to torment, destroy, gouge) of uncertain origin.  The sense of “dispose of fraudulently to one's own use” dates from the 1580s.  The earliest known use of the noun embezzler (one who embezzles) was in the 1660s but it may pre-date that because the noun embezzlement was known in the 1540s while the noun embezzling dates from the early fifteenth century.  The em- prefix (used before certain consonants, most often the labials b and p) was a variant of the Middle English en-.  It was originally from the Old French en- (and an-), from the Latin in- (in, into) but was also from an alteration of in-, from the Middle English in-, from the Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in (in).  Both the Latin and Germanic forms were from the primitive Indo-European en (in, into).  The intensive use of the Old French en- & an- is due to confluence with the Frankish an- (the intensive prefix), related to Old English intensive prefix on-.  It was used to impart the sense of (1) in, into, (2) on, onto, (3) covered, (4) caused or (5) as an intensifier.  Embezzle, embezzles, embezzled & embezzling are verbs, embezzlement & embezzler are nouns

In English law, embezzle was a special class of theft or fraud which was distinguished by two characteristics: (1) the act was committed by a person employed by the owner of the misappropriated property and (2) the property misappropriated was in the (legal) possession of the employee.  The fine distinctions arose early in the development of common law because of the practical difficulties caused by the long-established legal doctrine that to constitute a larceny, the property must be removed from the possession of the owner.  Servants and others were thus able to steal with impunity goods entrusted to them by their masters and a stature of 1529 was enacted, providing that it would be a felony were employees to convert to their own use jewels, money, goods or chattels delivered to them by their employers (masters in the terminology of the time).

The idea that “theft as a servant” was an offense which deserved a greater punishment that theft by a stranger remains a doctrine in common law jurisdictions, the rationale being that such crime is also a violation of trust.  In Australia, the concept has attracted interest of late because of the increasing frequency of “wage-theft” cases in which employers have been found to have been engaged in deliberately under-paying their staff, sometimes in a manner which is so carefully constructed as to have been held to have been systemic.  In most jurisdictions, the penalties available remain civil but two states have recently passed laws permitting criminal prosecutions of both corporations and individuals.  Legal commentators have generally welcomed the development, noting the frequently cited defense that organizations lacked the resources to deal with the complexity of the award wage system didn’t appear to constrain them when engaging in the tax minimization exercises made possible by the intricacies of tax law.  The law reform does nothing to alter the notion of “theft as a servant” being higher order of offending that done by a stranger but it does slightly redress the injustice of embezzlement by employees being by definition a criminal act yet embezzlement by employers was only ever a matter redressed by civil action and, in a practical sense, usually claimed to be “an error” rather than a “deliberate act”, a defense rarely tolerated if raised by an employee (an in this judges were doubtlessly usually correct).  The first case under a criminal code is now before the Victorian courts.

In idiomatic use, someone with their “fingers in the till” is committing embezzlement.  Synonyms exist but because of precise definitions in law, not all are interchangeable in a legal context.  In general use they include filch, loot, misappropriate, misuse, pilfer, purloin, skim, abstract, defalcate, forge, misapply, peculate, thieve, defalcate, flog, pinch and peculate.  Most tempting because of the rarity is probably the verb peculate (embezzle, pilfer, appropriate to one's own use public money or goods entrusted to one's care) from 1749, from the Latin peculatus, past participle of peculari (to embezzle), from peculum (private property (and originally "cattle"), the related forms being peculated, peculating & peculator.

Bezzle

Bezzle was a back-formation from embezzle, coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) in his 1955 book The Great Crash, 1929.  In the technical language of economics, bezzle is the temporary gap between the perceived value of a portfolio of assets and its long-term economic value.  The actions and forces which operate in economies over time create bezzle which unleash consequences understood usually only in retrospect.  The significance of the derivation from embezzlement was that Galbraith called it “the most interesting of crimes”, noting: Alone among the various forms of larceny [embezzlement] has a time parameter. Weeks, months or years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss. There is a net increase in psychic wealth.) At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in—or more precisely not in—the country’s business and banks.

The conditions which exist at certain times Galbraith observed, are especially conducive to the creation of bezzle, and “…at particular times this inflated sense of value is more likely to be unleashed, giving it a systematic quality”.  Those times tend to be defined by the business cycle in that “…in good times, people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful.  But even though money is plentiful, there are always many people who need more.  Under these circumstances, the rate of embezzlement grows, the rate of discovery falls off, and the bezzle increases rapidly. In depression, all this is reversed.  Money is watched with a narrow, suspicious eye. The man who handles it is assumed to be dishonest until he proves himself otherwise. Audits are penetrating and meticulous.  Commercial morality is enormously improved and the bezzle shrinks."

Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994) with the elongated Ken Galbraith who was serving as US ambassador to India.

In other words, there can exist a temporary (and not necessarily short) difference between the actual economic value of a portfolio of assets and its reported market value, especially during periods of irrational exuberance.  At these times, there is “…a net increase in psychic wealth” because (1) the embezzler both feels and is richer while the original owners of the portfolio do not realize that they are poorer.  The classic case studies of the phenomenon are those duped in Ponzi schemes, a mechanism of deception in that two people simultaneously can enjoy the same wealth but the effect is similar when accounting fraud is involved, companies like Enron and WorldCom booking overvalued assets and excessively high stock valuations.   Until accounting frauds are uncovered, there is a collective increase in psychic wealth as the value of the bezzle rises.  Bezzle is of course temporary and when the truth emerges perceived wealth decreases until it once again approximates real wealth but this is not an abstract measure of value, the perceptions greatly influencing patterns of consumption with obvious effects upon the real economy.  Many recessions have followed the unwinding of a bezzle and of course, Galbraith’s 1955 book was about the worst of them, the Great Depression of 1929.

Others have since refined the idea of bezzle, noted investor Charles Munger (b 1924) explaining the net effect of a bezzle doesn’t actually demand that there be some form of constructive embezzlement as described by Galbraith.  It needs only that when the reported market value of an asset or portfolio temporarily exceeds its real economic value (which he defined as the value of future returns on that asset), the economy goes through the same cycle of increase and decrease in psychic wealth.  Munger tracked the way rising asset prices, disconnected from their underlying long-term economic value, can contribute to what he called the febezzle.  The word didn’t linger in the language as bezzle has but his insight certainly has, his point being that rising stock or real estate prices can generate income and wealth effects whether or not these rising prices reflect real increases in the earning capacity of these assets.  When asset prices rise for reasons other an increases in actual productive capacity, the overall economy doesn’t benefit because there will be no corresponding increase in the productive capacity of that economy.  The owners of the over-valued assets so of course feel richer but only temporarily because prices eventually converge to a value that represents their real contribution to the production of goods and services, thus the concern some express during periods of irrational exuberance in markets such as fashionable equities, real estate, cryptocurrencies or tulip bulbs.

Interestingly, Munger was discussing things in the distant world of the 1990s when commentators were expressing concern about the economic pattern in Western economies simultaneously to drive up asset prices while restricting the money supply.  Some of the range of possible consequences of that had unfolded since the early 1980s but those events provided little guidance to what might happen were the same forces to be unleashed when the money supply was allowed rapidly to expand and sold at marginal cost.  In the twenty-first century, the successive reactions of central banks to (1) the “tech wreck” of 2000-2001, (2) the global financial crisis (2008-2011) and (3) the COVID-19 pandemic mean the implications can be explored.

The photograph used on the cover of some editions of Galbraith's book was not staged.  It was taken on 30 October 1929, shortly after the Wall Street crash and shows investor Walter Clarence Thornton (1903–1990) offering his 1928 Chrysler Imperial 75 Roadster for US$100, the car at the time typically costing between US$1550-2000 depending on options.  The Imperial name was used by Chrysler for its upper range models between 1926-1954 after which it was the corporation's stand-alone marque designed to compete with Cadillac, Lincoln and Packard, an approach abandoned in 1975 and few care to recall the abortive revival of 1990-1993.  A former model, he's remembered also for founding the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency which would be one of the most successful in the industry until the mid-1950s when he was the victim of a malicious prosecution.  All charges were dismissed before going to court but the trial-by-tabloid had so damaged his reputation he retired to Mexico.

Cheque

Cheque (pronounced chek)

(1) A bill, debenture, coupon, IOU, receipt, warrant, order or bond (all now rare).

(2) A bill of exchange drawn on a bank by the holder of a current account; payable into a bank account, if crossed, or on demand, if uncrossed.

(3) In agricultural jargon (Australian and NZ), the total sum of money received for contract work or a crop; a slang term for wages.

1828: From the Middle English chek & chekke, borrowed from the Old French eschek, eschec & eschac, from the Medieval Latin scaccus, a borrowing from the Arabic شَاه‎ (šāh), from the Persian شاه‎ (šâh) (king) from the primitive-Indo-Iranian kšáyati (he rules, he has power over), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European tek- (to gain power over, gain control over).  The first cheque book was issued in England in 1872, the first checking account in the US offered in 1897.  The meaning as a negotiable instrument for the transfer of money comes from check in the sense of a means of verification (ie a check against forgery or fraud) and was influenced by exchequer, from Old French eschequier.  Chèque is the French spelling, chequé the Spanish.

Crooked Hillary Clinton summing up her campaign strategy.

Check is the original spelling, cheque coming into use in 1828 when James William Gilbart (1794-1863) published his Practical Treatise on Banking.  The spellings check, checque, and cheque were used interchangeably between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries but cheque became the standard form for the financial instrument in the Commonwealth and Ireland, while check is used only for other meanings, thus distinguishing the two definitions in writing.  The Americans, preferring the spelling check for all purposes lost this; one of the rare examples where the American spelling of English words incurs a disadvantage.

Lindsay Lohan with novelty check (cheque), part of a protest on Billy Eichner’s “Billy on the Street” piece about about a television show being cancelled, New York, 2014.  The piece didn't result in the show returning for another season but did succeed in the demolition of a Volvo so there's that.

Soccer

Soccer (pronounced sok-er)

(1) A form of 11-a-side football played between two teams, in which the spherical ball may be advanced by kicking or by bouncing it off any part of the body (excluding the arms and hands unless re-starting the game by throwing in the ball from the sideline), the object being to score points by putting the ball in the opponent’s goal-net. The special position of goalkeeper may, within certain positional limitations, use their arms and hands to catch, carry, throw, or stop the ball.

(2) In the slang of Australian Rules Football (AFL, the old VFL), to kick the football directly off the ground, without use of the hands.

1888 A coining in British English, a colloquial abbreviation for association football, the construct being (As)soc(iation football) + -er.  The other forms were socker (1885) & socca (1889), the first known instance of soccer noted in 1888, the word coming into general use between 1890-1895 and it evolved from slang to a standard form.

The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius and reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant was -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  Usually, the –er suffix was added to verbs to create a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb; used to form an agent noun and if added to a noun it usually denoted an occupation.  However, there was also the special case of the “slang –er”, which etymologists sometimes call the “Oxford –er” because of the association (though not the origin) of the practice with the university in the nineteenth century.  The slang –er was used as a suffix to make jocular or convenient formations from common or proper names and appears to first have been English schoolboy use in the 1860s before entering the vernacular via its introduction to Oxford University slang from Rugby School, the Oxford English Dictionary even identifying the first documented instance “at University College, in Michaelmas Term, 1875".  The first coining was probably rugger (the game of Rugby) and constructs on the same model include brekker (breakfast), fresher (freshman), leccer (lecture), footer (football), fiver (five-pound note) and tenner (ten-shilling note).  The practice continued in the twentieth century and some coinings endured in the plural such as preggers (pregnant), bonkers (behaving as if bonked on the head) and starkers (stark naked).  Given it was originally the work of schoolboys, some have expressed surprise they didn’t instead render a verbal shorthand of “Association Football” in a form using “ass” (although at Oxford it briefly was assoccer before quickly being truncated).

Football-type games have been documented for centuries and it seems likely something similar was probably played in prehistoric times on occasions when young people congregated but the point of Association Football was that in 1863 it codified a set of rules, allowing structured competitions to be formed.  Prior to that, clubs abd schools played many variations of the game and this caused difficulties when the young men met at university, finding no general agreement on the rules.  The University of Cambridge did create their own rule book but it was but one of many and it was this proliferation which lead to the formation of the association, the discussions eventually producing not only the rules of what would emerge as modern football (soccer) but also the schism which saw some schools and clubs go in another direction and play what became known first as rugby football and later simply rugby.  Later still, when it suffered its own schism and begat rugby league, the name “rugby union” emerged although “rugby” remains most common.

In most parts of the world, the game is known as football but in places where other forms of (closely or vaguely) similar ball sports had become popular and referred to either officially or casually as “football”, soccer was adopted as the preferred term for what was, at the elite level, a minority sport.  Thus in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Ireland the game came to be called soccer although, in New Zealand, beginning in the late twentieth century, “football” increasingly supplanted “soccer”, the assumption being that because the volume of overseas matches televised (with the native commentary) vastly exceeded that of local content, the word became accepted.  Additionally, because the rugby codes (historically rugby union and increasingly after the 1980s rugby league so dominated) and the common slang was “footie” rather than “football”, the latter in that sense never achieved the critical mass needed to entrench use.

It was different in Australia because of Australian Football which, while occasionally called “Aussie Rules” has long been commonly known as football (or footie) so the round-ball game became soccer and the name Socceroo (the construct being socce(r) + (kanga)roo)) was adopted as the official name for the national team.  In Japan, where the dominant influence on the language in the twentieth century was the US, the most common form is サッカー(sakkā, from soccer).  In the US, a hybrid (with a few unique innovations) of rugby and association football emerged and was soon more popular than either.  The early name was “gridiron football” but in the pragmatic American way, that quickly became simply “football” although curiously, “gridiron” has survived among many foreign audiences.  Realizing the linguistic batter was lost, the United States Football Association, which had formed in the 1910s as the official organizing body of American soccer, in 1945 changed its name to the United States Soccer Football Association before deciding the advantages of product differentiation should be pursued, deleting entirely any use of “football”.  The other great US contribution to the language was the “soccer mom”, an encapsulation of a particular (usually white), middle-class demographic describing (1) a woman who often drives her school-age children to sporting activities and (2) in a quasi-disparaging sense, a white, middle-class woman who obsessively talks of her children’s successes and achievements.  There are derivative terms such as soccer dad & ballet dad but they’ve never achieved the same cultural traction.

The well connected Sepp Blatter (b 1936; President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 1998-2015).

(1) With Silvio Berlusconi (b 1936; thrice Italian prime minister 1994-2011).

(2) With Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001).

(3) With Elizabeth II; Queen of the UK and other places, 1952-2022).

(4) With the FIFA World Cup trophy (which hasn’t actually been a cup since 1974).

(5) With Vladimir Putin (b 1952; Russian president or prime-minister since 1999).

(6) With Benjamin Netanyahu (b 1946; thrice Israeli prime-minister 1996-2022).

(7) With David Cameron (b 1966; UK prime-minister 2010-2016).

(8) With Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani (b 1988; chief of Qatar's 2022 World Cup Bid).

(9) With Nicolas Sarközy (b 1955, French president 2007-2012).

(10) With Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; Turkish president or prime-minister since 2003).

(11) With Boris Johnson (b 1964; UK prime-minister 2019-2022).

(12) With Kevin Rudd (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2007-2010 & Jun-Sep 2013).

Unlike some sports where the influence of technology or improvements in this and that are so significant that it’s verges on impossible usefully to compare players from different eras, probably few would agree that among sports administrators, Sepp Blatter has achieved extraordinary things.

In office as president of FIFA between 1998-2015, Blatter devoted much of his time (and FIFA’s money) to building his power base among Football’s influential in Asia and Africa.  This attracted some comment from the football community in places like Europe and South America but in was in May 2015 he really made the headlines when a joint operation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Swiss investigators staged a raid on the Zürich hotel where FIFA were about to conduct their annual congress.  Seven FIFA executives were arrested and charged with racketeering and money laundering while a further seven officials and sports-marketing figures were indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for offenses reaching back more than two decades.  Shortly afterwards, the DoJ revealed four other executives and two companies had already pleaded guilty in the international probe, which involved the payment of some US$150 million in what were alleged to be bribes and kickbacks.  Despite it all, two days after the arrests, Blatter was re-elected president by nearly a two-thirds majority of the 209-member FIFA voting body.  Contrary to the president’s expectations, a public outcry ensued which in just a few days escalated so rapidly that Blatter called for a special session of the FIFA congress to be convened, vowing to resign once a successor had been elected.  In October 2015, following the announcements of further investigations of Blatter’s conduct, FIFA’s ethics committee suspended him from the organization for 90 days, appointing an acting president.

Two months later Blatter was found guilty of ethics violations and barred from football-related activities for eight years.  Some of the charges were pursuant to a US$2 million payment Blatter made in 2011 to Michel Platini (b 1955; president of Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA) 2007-2015), the supporting documentation associated with the payment said to be about as extensive as that attached to the receipt in the petty-cash tin for a packet of biscuits.  Platini had long been assumed to be Blatter’s successor.  Blatter appealed the decision and in February 2016 FIFA’s appeals committee reduced the ban to six years, a ruling upheld by the Tribunal arbitral du sport (Court of Arbitration for Sport in December (CAS).  Under new FIFA President Gianni Infantino (b 1970; FIFA president since 2016), further investigations were undertaken and in December 2020, FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Blatter relating to his role in the FIFA Museum project before in March 2021, citing financial wrongdoing in the payment of huge “bonuses”, imposing a fine of just over US$1 million and extending his ban from football for a further six years, beginning as soon as his original ban expired in October 2022.  That was bad enough but his life appeared to be getting worse when, in November 2021, Swiss authorities brought to trial fraud charges associated with the falsification of documents relating to the mysterious payments to Platini.  Some eight months later, Blatter and Platini were cleared of all charges.  Sepp Blatter has achieved extraordinary things.

Rubber

Rubber (pronounced ruhb-er)

(1) Also called India rubber, natural rubber, gum, gum elastic, caoutchouc, a highly elastic solid substance, light cream or dark amber in color, polymerized by the drying and coagulation of the latex or milky juice of rubber trees and plants, especially Hevea brasiliensis and Ficus species.  In pure form, it is white and consists of repeating units of C5H8.

(2) A material made by chemically treating and toughening this substance, valued for its elasticity, non-conduction of electricity, shock absorption, and resistance to moisture, used in the manufacture of erasers, electrical insulation, elastic bands, crepe soles, toys, water hoses, tires, and many other products.

(3) Any of a large variety of elastomers produced by improving the properties of natural rubber or by synthetic means

(4) Of various similar substances and materials made synthetically.

(5) A casual term for an eraser of this (or other) material, for erasing pencil marks, ink marks, etc.

(6) Slang term for a rubber tire or set of rubber tires (usually in motorsport).

(7) A term for water-resistant shoe covers, galoshes, gumboots, wellington boots or overshoes (US & Canada).

(8) An instrument or tool used for rubbing, polishing, scraping; also applied to the person using this device.

(9) Slang term for a person who gives massages; masseur or masseuse.

(10) In baseball, an oblong piece of white rubber or other material embedded in the mound at the point from which the pitcher delivers the ball.

(11) Slang term for a male contraceptive; condom.

(12) In certain card games such as bridge and whist, a series or round played until one side reaches a specific score or wins a specific number of hands.

(13) In competitive sport, a series consisting of a number of games won by the side winning the majority; the deciding game in such a series.  Also called rubber match, especially a deciding contest between two opponents who have previously won the same number of contests from each other.

(14) One employed to rub (usually rub-down) horses.

(15) In mechanical engineering, the cushion of an electric machine (obsolete).

(16) In slang, a hardship or misfortune (archaic).

1530-1540: From the Middle English rubben, possibly from the Low German rubben & rubbeling or the Saterland Frisian rubben.  The alternative etymology suggests it’s of North Germanic origin, a form such as the Swedish rubba (to move, scrub), all from the Proto-Germanic reufaną (to tear).  It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian rubje (to rub, scrape), the Low German rubben (to rub), the Low German rubblig (rough, uneven), the Dutch robben and rubben (to rub smooth; scrape; scrub), the Danish rubbe (to rub, scrub) and the Icelandic & Norwegian rubba (to scrape).  An agent-noun from the verb rub, the construct is rub + -er.  The –er suffix is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from the Latin -ārius.  It was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.

Burning rubber.  1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird, a replica of the race cars used in NASCAR’s Grand National series that year.  One of these won the 1970 Daytona 500 but the sanctioning body changed the rules for 1971, limiting the engine capacity for cars with the wild aerodynamic modifications to 305 cubic inches (5.0 litres) while allowing others to continue to use the full 430 cubic inches (7.0 litres).

The meaning "elastic substance from tropical plants" (short for India rubber) was first recorded in 1788, having been introduced into Europe 1744 by French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701–1774) and so called because it originally was used as an eraser, having proven its utility for erasing the strokes of black lead pencils; for a time it was known also as the “lead-eater”.  Use to describe the waterproof overshoe is US English from 1842, the slang sense of "condom" unknown before the 1930s.  The sense of a "deciding match" (later any match) in a game or contest is from the 1590s and and may have a wholly different etymology.  The rubber stamp in the literal (noun) sense is from 1881, the figurative use to describe and “individual or institution with formal authority but no power" was noted from 1919; the verb in this sense used first in 1934.  Rubber cement is attested from 1856 (having existed since 1823 as India-rubber cement).  The rubber check (to describe one which bounces) is from 1927.

Lindsay Lohan in wetsuits, the one in pastel blue with pops of yellow, pink & royal blue by Cynthia Rowley was worn in the short film First Point (2012); it used the motif of a stained glass window.  It was made from a 2 mm fiber-lite neoprene, a synthetic rubber of the family polychloroprene, dating from 1930 and produced by polymerization of chloroprene.  Wetsuits maintain body-heat by trapping a thin layer of water between the neoprene and the skin, the thing gaining its name from the wearer being always wet, the body's heat warming the trapped water which is why a wetsuit must be tight, otherwise the gap will be too wide and heat will dissipate.

The Dead Rubber

A dead rubber in a sports series is a game, the result of which cannot affect the outcome of a series.  Thus, if one side is 3-0 up in a five match series, the remaining two games are dead-rubbers.  The origin of rubber as descriptor of a game is unknown but consensus is it’s probably the notion from bridge that when one pair is 1-0 up, if the opposing pair win the next deal, that “rubs out” the earlier advantage and the vernacular form to emerge describing this was likely “a rubber”.  To this day, the most popular form of bridge is known as rubber bridge.

The word in its original form certainly had nothing to do with the rubber extracted from trees.  Both Dr Johnson's Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) dictionary (1755-1756) and John Kersey's earlier (1702-1708) works express no doubt the term comes from the word rub and includes the meaning “to play rubbers, or a double game at any sport”.  The sports recorded as being counted in rubbers are those where there are a number of rounds, deals or games within the one match or series such as bowls and bridge.  Both make it clear rubber in the context of sport is derived from “to rub out”.

A more speculative explanation for the etymology is from the sixteenth century English game of lawn bowling.  Somewhat similar to bocce ball, the object of lawn bowling is to roll wooden balls across a flat field toward a smaller white ball so they stop as close as possible to the smaller ball without hitting it.  Theory is that the term refers to two balls rubbing together, a game-losing mistake although it’s just as likely that, as in bridge, it references the final game's potential to "rub out" or the opposing team’s earlier score.

Martyr

Martyr (pronounced mahr-ter)

(1) A person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religious faith, most notably those saints canonized after martyrdom.

(2) A person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause.

(3) A person who undergoes severe or constant suffering (often applied informally to those subject to chronic conditions such as rheumatism or migraine headaches).

(4) A person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation (fake martyrdom) or who willingly assumes some sort of easily avoidable (self-imposed martyrdom), both usually applied in a facetious or derogatory manner.

(5) To make a martyr of someone (especially by putting to death); to persecute, to torment or torture.

Pre 900: From the Middle English noun marter, from the Old English martir & martyr, from the Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from the Doric Greek μάρτυρ (mártur (martus & mártyr)) (witness), a later form of the Ancient Greek μάρτυς (mártus (mártys & mártyros)) (witness).  The verb was from the Middle English martiren, from the Old English martyrian, from the noun.  The noun martyr referred to one who bears testimony to faith, especially one who willingly suffers death rather than deny their religious faith and specifically one of the Christians who put to death because they would not renounce their beliefs.  The verb developed in the sense of "put to death as punishment for adherence to some religious belief (especially Christianity) and was from the Middle English martiren, from Old French martiriier (and influenced by the Old English gemartyrian, from the noun martyr) and Middle English also had the mid-fifteenth century verb martyrize.  The general sense of "constant sufferer, a victim of misfortune, calamity, disease, etc" was in common use by the late sixteenth century while the Martyr complex (an exaggerated desire for self-sacrifice or assuming burdens) dates from 1916.  The noun martyrdom ("torture and execution for the sake of one's faith) emulated the use in the Old English and in the more abstract sense of "a state of suffering for the maintaining of any obnoxious cause", came to be used in the late fourteenth century.  The word has proved productive in its proliferation.  Martyr is a noun, martyrization, martyrdom, martyrology, martyry, martyrer, martyrship, martyrion, martyrium, martyrologe, martyrologue, protomartyr are nouns, martyring, martyrize & martyrizate are verbs, martyrish & martyresque are adjectives, martyred is a verb & adjective and martyrly is an adverb & adjective; the noun plural is martyrs.

Self-help for one's self.

The word was adopted directly into most Germanic languages (Old Saxon, Old Frisian Old High German et al), but fourteenth century Norse used the native formation pislarvattr (literally "torture-witness" meaning "one who suffers death or grievous loss in defense or on behalf of any belief or cause" (which could be personal, devotional or political).  Danish, French, Norwegian & Swedish all used the modern English spelling (some language groups in the old British Empire modified the spelling (notably under the Raj) while others picked it up unaltered).  Among other languages there was the Proto-Brythonic merθɨr, the Dutch martelaar, the Estonian märter, the Finnish marttyyri, the Old French martire, the Scots mairtyr, the Maori matira, the German Märtyrer, the Hungarian mártír, the Old Irish martar, the Old Italian martore, the Italian martire, the Lombard màrtul, the Neapolitan marture, the Catalan màrtir, the Occitan martir, the Galician, Spanish & Portuguese mártir, the Romanian martor, the Sardinian màrturu, the Sicilian màrtiri, the Scottish Gaelic martai and the Tagalog martir.  The origin of the Greek word is uncertain but may have been connected to mermera (care, trouble), from mermairein (be anxious or thoughtful), from the primitive Indo-European smrtu & mrtu-, source also of the Sanskrit smarati (remember) and the Latin memor (mindful).  Not all etymologists support the theory, usually because the phonetic relationships are dubious, suggesting a more likely origin lies in Archaic or Pre-Greek, perhaps even as a loan-word.  The Arabic شهيد (shaheed or shahid) (witness) in Islam refers to a martyr and appears often in the Quran (in the sense of "witness") but in only one instance can it be understood as  "martyr", the sense it acquired in the Ḥadīth, the vast body of work produced by authors which documented the words and thoughts attributed to the prophet.  The variations in the translations of these texts are legion and there has been cynical exploitation of this by the recruiters to jihadist causes who tend to seek out and merge the most punitive of the translations and the rewards to martyrs of 72 (the number varies) dark-eyed virgins appears with frequency.

Self-help for those with a difficult mother.

Martyrdom was of great interest to the Church, illustrated by the frequency with which martyrs to their faith were canonized (made into saints).  As a branch of theological academia, martyrology (history of the lives, sufferings, and deaths of Christian martyrs) became a district thing in the 1590s, either as a native formation from the noun martyr + -ology, or from the Ecclesiastical Latin martyrologium, from Ecclesiastical Greek martyrologicon.  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  In the Roman Catholic Church (an institution long given to making lists of stuff), an important part of martyrology was the index (or calendar) of martyrs, arranged according to their anniversaries (ie of their martyrdom).  In Middle English there was the late fourteenth century martiloge (the register of martyred saints), from the Medieval Latin martilogium; the related coining was martyrological.

Self-help for those with a difficult boyfriend.

Except where it’s unavoidable, the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), tends not to use popular forms like “martyr complex”, bundling the condition in the category of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a cluster B personality disorder considered to be one of the least identified of the class, noting NPD frequently coexists with other psychiatric disorders.  A relatively recent diagnostic category, its development reflected not a distinct set of diagnostic criteria but rather the recognition by clinicians (psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists) that to classify certain difficult (though typically not neurotic) patients as psychotic was counter-productive.  The most often noted characteristics of NPD include grandiosity, the excessive quest admiration and a lack of empathy, coupled with underlying feelings of low self esteem issues and inadequacy.  In the DSM-5-TR (2022), the symptoms of NPD are listed as:

(1) A grandiose logic of self-importance.

(2) A fixation with fantasies of infinite success, control, brilliance, beauty, or idyllic love.

(3) A credence that he or she is extraordinary and exceptional and can only be understood by, or should connect with, other extraordinary or important people or institutions.

(4) A desire for unwarranted admiration.

(5) A sense of entitlement.

(6) Interpersonally oppressive behavior.

(7) No form of empathy.

(8) Resentment of others or a conviction that others are resentful of him or her.

(9) A display of egotistical and conceited behaviors or attitudes.

The early Church celebrated particularly the example of Justin Martyr (circa 100-circa 165, who appears in some texts as Justin the Philosopher).  His name wasn’t actually Martyr but it was adopted because his conduct in the face of suffering was thought exemplary.  He was in all probability a pagan and had sought education from schools in the Peripatetic, Pythagorean and Platonic traditions but was still unsatisfied unit falling into conversation with an elderly man he met on a beach who “…convinced him of the truth as it is in Jesus”.  His conversion to Christianity led to a lifetime of teaching, writing his apologia which culminated with his martyrdom, beheaded with six others under the reign of Marcus Aurelius (121–180; Roman emperor 161-180) although there’s nothing to suggest the emperor was involved in the sentencing.  For his faith he was of course rewarded with eternal life in Heaven but Justin too achieved a kind of earthly immortality, venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern & Oriental Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican community.  Later, the legend arose that Marcus Aurelius became disposed to relax the persecution of Christians after a group of them prayed for rain and the subsequent storm was of such intensity it enabled him to avoid military defeat although, off and on, persecution continued and it wasn’t until the reign of Constantine the Great (circa 272-337; Roman emperor 306–337) began to emerge as the dominant religion of the empire.

The persecution of Christians will seem familiar to minorities living under many authoritarian regimes including the Falun Gong in China and the Baháʼí in Iran and many historians have concluded the reasons tend to be political rather than theological, structuralists summarizing things thus:

(1) Emperors in Rome were much opposed to gods their regime did not recognize, the Bible noting (1 Corinthians 8:5) “there be gods many, and lords many” but the imperial authorities did not own the God of the Christians.

(2) The Christian faith preached One who was God over all the earth, who knew no political frontiers and that pagan gods were mere idols.

(3) Christians could not join in pagan worship or the idolatrous acts which were part of the social or civic occasions of which the state approved. 

(4) Christians met as a secret society and were unsociable in their behavior, the assumption being they might be plotting against the state.

(5) Christians were seen to be threatening the financial and political interests of various powerful classes, priests, the makers & sellers of idols and those who bred and sole sacrificial animals.

(6) Christians and their ways were accused to be arousing the anger of Roman gods who proved vengeful in visiting upon the empire famines, earthquakes, military defeats and other punishments.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1653, the full title Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church) by John Foxe (1517-1587) was a review of the history of martyrdom in European Christianity with a particular focus on the suffering of the early English Protestants.

The persecution continued until the year 311 when the Emperor Galerius (circa 258–311; Roman emperor 305-311) expired, meeting his death in a manner similar to that recorded in Acts (12:3) as that suffered by Herod Agrippa: “He was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost”.  Baffled yet convinced by grace with which Christians accepted their martyrdom, on his deathbed Galerius issued the Edict of Toleration and entreated Christians to pray on his behalf.