Spider (pronounced spahy-der)
(1) Any predatory silk-producing arachnid of the order
Araneae, having four pairs of legs and a rounded un-segmented body consisting
of abdomen and cephalothorax, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and
as traps for prey.
(2) In non technical use, any of various other arachnids
resembling or suggesting these.
(3) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs or feet once
common in open-hearth cookery (now rare and applied more loosely; still used by
chefs).
(4) A trivet or tripod, as for supporting a pot or pan on
a hearth.
(5) In digital technology. digitally to survey websites,
following and cataloging their links in order to index web pages for a search
engine.
(6) In engineering, a skeleton or frame with radiating
arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the
hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the
body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.
(7) In agriculture, an instrument used with a cultivator
to pulverize soil.
(8) Any implement, tool or other device which is some (even
if vague) was resembles or is suggestive of a spider (sometimes as spider-like
or spideresque).
(9) In nautical use, a metal frame fitted at the base of
a mast to which halyards are tied when not in use.
(10) A drink made by mixing ice-cream and a soda (a fizzy
drink such as lemonade) (mostly Australia & New Zealand).
(11) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or
ginger beer (mostly Australia & New Zealand and probably extinct although
it still appears in some anthologies of cocktails).
(12) In slang, a person spindly in appearance (dated); also
a popular nickname for those with the surname Webb.
(13) In slang, a man who persistently approaches or
accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar (also as bar
spider).
(14) In snooker & billiards, a stick with a convex
arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of
reach at normal extension; a bridge.
(15) In bicycle design, the part of a crank to which the
chain-rings are attached.
(16) In drug slang, one of the many terms for heroin (an allusion
to the web-like patterns on the arms of addicts into which the needle is poked.
(17) In music, part of a resonator instrument that
transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple
points.
(18) In fly fishing, a soft-hackle fly (mostly southern
England).
(19) In the sport of darts, the network of wires
separating the areas of a dartboard.
(20) In mathematics, a type of graph or tree.
(21) In passenger transport, a early type of light
phaeton (obsolete) and latterly a descriptor for a roadster (also as spyder).
(22) In photography and film-making, a support for a
camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.
1380s: From the Middle English spydyr, spydyr & spither (the forms from mid-century were
spiþre, spiþur & spiþer), from the Old English spīþra & spīthra (spider), from the Proto-West Germanic spinþrijō, from the Proto-Germanic spinnaną & spin-thon (“to
spin”). The Old English forms were akin
to spinnan (to spin) and cognate with
the Danish spinder (literally “spinner”)
and the German Spinne and (mostly)
displaced attercop (spider,
unpleasant person) which was relegated to a dialectal term. The root of the European form was the
primitive Indo-European spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + the formative
or agential -thro. The connection with
the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates such as the Middle Low
German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German & German spinne and the Dutch spin
(spider). The loss of -n- before
spirants is familiar in Old English (such as goose or tooth). Spider is a noun, spidery and spideresque are
adjectives, spidering is a verb and spidered is a verb & adjective; the
noun plural is spiders.
Despite the ancient lineage, in the Old &
Middle English there were more common words used when speaking of arachnids
including lobbe (or loppe as Geoffrey Chaucer (circa
1344-1400) would have it, atorcoppe (the
Middle English attercop translates
literally as “poison-head”), and (from the Latin aranea), renge. Middle English also had araine (spider) which was picked up, via the Old French from the Latin
word with the same spelling and, more poetically, in the Old English there was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes). In literature, the spider was often a figure
of cunning, skill, and industry as well as venomous predation. In the seventeenth century, the spider figuratively
represented venomousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity to vibrations
and the habit of solitary lurking, waiting for prey to fall into the web; quintessentially,
the spider was an independent character.
The two-pack game of solitaire (patience) called spider dates from 1890
(still available in software), the choice of name thought owed to the
resemblance of the layout of the decks in the original form of the game. In zoology, the spider crab was first
identified in 1710 (an applied to various species) while the spider monkey, so
called for its long limbs, dates from is from 1764. The noun spider-web in the 1640s replaced the
more cumbersome spider's web from a century-odd earlier and the adjective spidery
(long and thin) was first noted in 1823.
There are cars called
spider and spyder although, unlike many other natural or engineered creations
which in some way resemble arachnids, these cars are almost always small roadsters
which in appearance don’t look anything like their eight-legged namesakes. The origin of the name lies in the horse
& buggy era when a spider phaeton was a lightweight horse-drawn carriage
intended for short-distance journeys and the design was intended to impress so
there was often on protection from the elements beyond perhaps something to
shade ladies from the sun. Unlike some
true “convertible” or “cabriolet” carriages, there were no side windows and the
spider name was gained from the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the
use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called
to mind an arachnid’s legs. Quite where
this style of coachwork was first seen isn’t known but they were certainly in
use on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1860s and it’s not impossible the invention
was both simultaneous and independent although there are sources which insist
it was first seen in the ante-bellum US.
As engines (steam,
electric and predominately internal combustion) made possible horseless
carriages, in the earliest days the body-styles were carried over as were the
designations which is why berlinas, cabriolets and phaetons appeared in the catalogues
of the early automotive coach-builders.
However, the spider nomenclature seems to have been forgotten, because
although the ancillary seats still existed, the terms “dicky seat”, “rumble seat”
& “jump seat” came to be preferred, each with its own etymological
tale. The revival of the name had to
await the interwar years, Alfa Romeo in 1931 introducing the 8C, powered by 2.3,
2.6 & 2.9 litre stright-8s, the line continuing until 1939. Many were touring cars but the Spider version
was a sports car built for road and track, and 8C 2300 Spiders won the 1931 &
1932 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily and it was victory in the 1931 Italian
Grand Prix which the factory honored with the "Monza", the GP car a shortened, lightweight version of the Spider.
Encouraged by the image Alfa-Romeo gained
from the illustrious 8C spiders, a few other cars emerged from Europe in the
1930s but it was in the post-war years the name became really fashionable, the
economic boom and the availability of chassis suitable to carry the imagination
of carrozzerias meant there was a concurrence of supply and demand for stylish
roadsters, many of which carried the magic of the spider name. Seemingly more glamorous still must have been “spyder” because it was in the 1950s that roadsters called spyder began to
appear. Quite why the “y” sometimes was
preferred to the “i” has over the years attracted comment and speculation but
the reason for the adoption remain obscure.
The idea it was to avoid legal action from Alfa-Romeo was soon
discounted because, spider being a historic generic from coach-building (like
sedan, limousine, cabriolet etc), it couldn’t be trade-marked or otherwise
protected and Alfa-Romeo seems anyway never to have tried. There was however a quasi-legal status
granted to the spelling “spider” because in 1924, the (the apparently now
forgotten) Milan-based National Federation of Body makers declared that was how
it should be written, the speculation being that Il Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945;
Duce (Leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) wanted to make
everything as Italian as possible and, there being no "y" in the alphabet,
spider it was. Of whether such matters
much occupied the fascist mind, there seems no documentation and it does seem
dubious; X, Y, W, J not appearing in the Italian alphabet either although many
words in the languages include them.
The trend really took off in 1954 when Lancia introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider and soon Ferrari and other from Italy would follow although spyders would appear too, (including some from Ferrari & Lancia), and General Motors (GM), noted scavengers of European nomenclature (GTO, Grand Prix etc) shamelessly tacked Spyder onto the doomed Corvair, even for versions with a fixed roof. North of the Brenner Pass, spyder has found favour, used by Porsche, Audi and BMW while in the Far-East, companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, arch-imitators in style and perfectionists in execution have rolled out their own spyders. Alfa-Romeo and Fiat however have stuck to spider, Lancia and Ferrari too seeming to have forsaken their youthful indiscretions and only using the original.
1969 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce.
Although in continuous production between 1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the memorable Osso di Seppia (Round-tail, literally "cuttle fish") coachwork. After 1970, the Spider gained a Kamm-tail which increased luggage capacity and presumably also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always coveted the cigar-shaped original.
Robert
I (Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329; King of Scots 1306-1329) was crowned King of
Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish
Independence against the English. Earlier though, he’d had his defeats and his
spirits were said to be at a low ebb when after one disastrous battle, he was
forced to take refuge in a cave. Sitting
in the cold, dark space, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web
and time and time again, the little creature failed. However, each time the spider fell, it climbed
back up to try again until finally, the silk took hold and the web was spun. From this, Robert was inspired to return to
the fight and was victorious in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), a triumph which
turned the tide of the war and ultimately, in 1328 the independence of Scotland was won.
Bruce and the spider, by Bernard Barton (1784-1849)
FOR Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.
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