Centrifugal

Centrifugal (pronounced sen-trif-yuh-guhl or sen-trif-fugh-guhl)

(1) Moving or directed outward from the centre (as opposed to centripetal); tending, or causing, to recede from the centre.

(2) Pertaining to or operated by centrifugal force

(3) In botany, especially as applied to certain inflorescences, developing or progressing outward from a centre or axis, as in the growth of plant structures, usually to describe where the flowers in the centre or tip open first while those on the edge open last.

(4) In botany, having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos.

(5) In physiology, an alternative word for efferent, the process of transmitting nerve impulses away from the central nervous system.

(6) A machine for separating different materials by centrifugal force (now almost universally called a centrifuge).

(7) A rotating perforated drum holding the materials to be separated in such a machine.

(8) In the plural (as centrifugals), the crystals separated from the syrup in centrifugals, often then sent to second carbonatation tanks and mixed with juices being treated.

1687: From the New Latin centrifugālis (literally “center-fleeing”), the construct being the Latin centri- (an alternative combining form of centrum (center) + fugiō (to flee; escape) or fugō (to chase away, put to flight), from fugere (to flee) + al (the Latin adjectival suffix).  The -al suffix was from the Middle English -al, from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al.  It was use to denote the sense "of or pertaining to", an adjectival suffix appended (most often to nouns) originally most frequently to words of Latin origin, but since used variously and also was used to form nouns, especially of verbal action.  The alternative form in English remains -ual (-all being obsolete).  The word was coined by Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) in Principia Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)), following the Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who created the new Latin centrifugālis.  In Newton’s words the original construction was vis centrifuga.  The noun centrifuge dates from 1887 (although the “centrifuge machine had been first described in 1765) and the first versions were designed to separate cream from milk, the word a noun use of the adjective centrifugal dating from 1801, from the Modern Latin centrifugus.  Centrifugal is a noun & adjective, centrifugalism is a noun, centrifuge & centrifugate are nouns & verbs, centrifugalize is a verb and centrifugally is an adverb; the noun plural is centrifugals.

The effect of centrifugal force, preserved by frozen water: 1972 AMC Matador.As the wheel rotates, centrifugal force moves moisture outwards from the centre.  In sub-zero temperatures, ice forms in the shape of the direction.

Building on René Descartes' (1596–1650) theories of linear inertia, Newton’s description of centrifugal force emerged from his work in the 1660s studying the movement of planets; what is now known as centrifugal force he then termed an “endeavour to recede” and calculated the equation showing an inverse-square relation with distance from the centre.  In what was at the time thought by some counter-intuitive, Newton demonstrated the mathematics for calculating centrifugal and centripetal forces are identical.

1929 4½ Litre “Blower” Bentley raced in the 1930 Le Mans by Tim Birkin (1896–1933).  The Roots-type supercharger is mounted at base of the radiator, between the headlamps.

The physics of centrifugal force offered immediate possibilities to engineers, even before fuel-powered machines which creating reciprocating motion became widely used.  One of the best known applications (still in use today) was the supercharger, a device which “force-feeds” the fuel-air mixture in internal combustion engines (ICE).  As a general principle, all else being equal, to gain more power from an ICE, what is needed is a greater throughput of the fuel-air fixture from which energy can be extracted, the two most obvious solutions being to increase internal displacement or to increase the pressure with which the mixture is fed.

Principle of a “Roots Blower”, the Roots-type supercharger.

In the mid 1850s, brothers Philander Higley Roots (1813-1879) and Francis Marion Roots (1824-1889) of Indiana’s Roots Blower Company developed a strikingly efficient air pump with lobed rotors to provide a feed of pressurized air into the blast furnaces used in steel-making, an idea picked up in Germany by Daimler-Benz which patented a version intended for the ICE; at this point was born what came to be known as the “Roots-type supercharger”, a system which meshed two-lobed rotors in an 8-shaped chamber, the rotors capturing air at the inlet, trapping it for delivery it to the outlet.  In a Roots blower, there is no compression of air, just acceleration, making it ideal for low RPM ((crankshaft) revolutions per minute) applications including diesels and the big aero-engines developed during World War II (1939-1945).

Principle of a centrifugal supercharger.

The centrifugal supercharger differs in that it uses impellers, a type of fan which siphons air from its centre and directs it outwards.  Analysis of sketches from Antiquity have suggested the idea of an impeller may be truly old but one of the first to produce a workable design was Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) and they came widely to be employed in the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries to ventilate mine-shafts.  Very simple in principle, in a centrifugal supercharger an impeller is located in a round housing with an inlet & outlet, the impeller as it rotates siphoning and circulating air from one point to another.  Under this system, air slows down as it is expelled but it can gather vast quantities, thus greatly increasing the pressure, something achieved by spinning at tens or even hundreds of thousands of RPM.

Principle of a centrifugal governor.

A centrifugal governor is a mechanical device which is used to control the speed of an engine by regulating the flow of fuel so a constant speed can be maintained, engineers calling this "proportional control".  Known also as "centrifugal regulators" and "fly-ball governors", centrifugal governors were invented by Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) for the purpose of regulating the distance and pressure between millstones in seventeenth century windmills.  From here they were adapted for use in steam engines where their simplicity and reliability proved ideal for controlling the aperture through which steam entered a cylinder.  Doing reliably mechanically what could also be done unreliably using electronics, centrifugal governors remain in use on stationary ICEs and turbines but are seen also on decorative clocks, implemented often in a more deliberately intricate form that the starkly functional mechanisms designed by engineers.

Short clip of a centrifugal governor in operation by the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation.

Encyclopedist

Encyclopedist (pronounced en-sahy-kluh-pee-dist)

(1) A compiler of or contributor to an encyclopedia.

(2) One of the collaborators fn the French Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers (now almost always used with initial capital letter).

(3) A dismissive term applied by KGB specialists to generalists.

1645–1655: The construct was encycloped(ia) + -ist.  Encyclopedia was attested from the 1530s, from the New Latin encyclopaedia (general education), from the Renaissance Ancient Greek ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία (enkuklopaideía) (education in the circle of arts and sciences (literally “training in a circle”)), a mistaken univerbated form of the Koine Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ (enkúklios paideíā) (education in the circle of arts and sciences, the construct being ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios) (circular (also “general”)) + παιδείᾱ (paideíā) (child-rearing, education), from pais (genitive paidos (child).  The modern sense of a "reference work arranged alphabetically" is from 1640s, the origin most associated with the French Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers (Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts (1751-1772)).  Encyclopedism (or encyclopaedism) is the related noun and encyclopaedist the alternative spelling, the Latin form surviving as a variant because many of the most famous printed volumes had Latin names; as the printed editions fade from use, except in historic references, encyclopedia is now by far the prevalent spelling.  The adjective encyclopedic dates from 1816 while the truncation cyclopaedia is attested from 1728.  Encyclopedist is a noun; the noun plural is encyclopedists.

The -ist suffix was from the Middle English -ist & -iste, from the Old French -iste and the Latin -ista, from the Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs), from -ίζω (-ízō) (the -ize & -ise verbal suffix) and -τής (-tḗs) (the agent-noun suffix).  It was added to nouns to denote various senses of association such as (1) a person who studies or practices a particular discipline, (2), one who uses a device of some kind, (3) one who engages in a particular type of activity, (4) one who suffers from a specific condition or syndrome, (5) one who subscribes to a particular theological doctrine or religious denomination, (6) one who has a certain ideology or set of beliefs, (7) one who owns or manages something and (8), a person who holds very particular views (often applied to those thought most offensive).

The original Encyclopedists (encyclopaedists in historic British use) were the French Encyclopédistes, members of the Société des gens de lettres (a literary association) who between 1751-1765 contributed entries for the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers, published between 1751-1772, edited by noted art critic Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and (until 1759 when one of his entries triggered an amusing ecclesiastical turf-war), mathematician & musicologist Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783)

KGB identity card, issued in 1982 for British SIS defector Kim Philby (1912–1988).

The Soviet Union’s (USSR) KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti), which translates literally at the “Committee for State Security” is better understood as “political police”.  It was the last of an alphabet-soup of similar agencies (Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD, SMERSH & MGB) which, building on the models of the many secret-police forces maintained by Tsarist Russia (1547-1917), was responsible for the USSR’s internal security and beyond its borders, espionage, counter espionage and a range of activities conducted in support of Soviet foreign policy (including that not disclosed and that sometimes denied).  In post-Soviet Russia, the KGB evolved into the Federal Security Service (FSB), comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (b 1952; president or prime minister of Russia since 1999) honing his skills in the institution he apparently joined in 1975.

"Lubyanka building" on Lubyanka Square, Meshchansky, Moscow, headquarters of various organs of the Soviet and Russian security services since 1918, most infamously the KGB, 1954-1991.  In Soviet times, it was referred to as "the Lubyanka", and noted especially for the basement cells where interrogations, torture and executions were conducted.  In synecdochic use, "the Lubyanka" was a phrase often used to refer to the KGB.

As an internal security agency, the KGB (like its predecessors) was always formidable and usually effective in the suppression of dissent but in espionage and counter-espionage, the record was patchy and increasingly so as the Cold War (1947-1991) drew to its (anti-) climax.  Most of the celebrated successes happened either before the Cold War began or in its early years, the number and usefulness of ideologically motivated defectors and traitors from the West sharply declining after Comrade Khruschev’s (Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964) “Secret Speech” at the 1956 Communist Party Congress in which he denounced Comrade Stalin's (Joseph Stalin 1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) repressions and purges, laying bare the nature of the his regime.  The speech didn’t long stay secret, the transcripts leaked to the West convincing all but the few most devoted of the “useful idiots” their faith had been misplaced.  After the interventions in Hungary that same year and Czechoslovakia in 1968, idea of a Soviet-like future became still less appealing, not only in the West but also among the disillusioned in the USSR and its satellite states.

The KGB however continued to grow, reflecting the need to increase the surveillance and internal control in order for the party to maintain its authority over a system in decline.  By the mid-1970s, in the Moscow region alone the KGB establishment stood at some 50,000 (greater than the combined workforce of their Cold War opponent’s CIA & FBI although other Western nations also maintained large security establishments) and of the total force of half a million-odd, some 220,000 guarded the USSR’s borders, not from fear of invasion by a foreign power but to discourage escape attempts.  Once an organization with a relatively simple structure which, as late as the early 1960s was administered through three directorates, the KGB grew to encompass a dozen, the geographical division of the country by 1980 in twenty-one departments when once there had been eight.  Once consequence of this was a burgeoning bureaucracy, the upper echelons staffed increasingly by party apparatchiks with little knowledge of intelligence or espionage, the USSR’s equivalent of the MBA-CEO class in the West.  These the experienced operators disparagingly called “encyclopedists”, the idea being they knew just a little bit about many things and, being empire-builders as industrious as their imperialist lackey counterparts, fiefdoms proliferated.  Apart from the documented decrease in efficiency, the growth of the KGB, like that of the armed forces, the party and the military-industrial complex, absorbed (unproductively), a rising share of the USSR’s diminishing financial resources at a time of failing health care, food shortages and a general decline in living standards, one former KGB general (Oleg Kalugin (b 1934)) later telling the joke which circulated within the organization: The USSR was “the Congo with rockets”.  The flagship of the second-world was tending towards the third and the structural imbalances fed off themselves, an economic viscous circle which led to the economic and moral bankruptcy which doomed the USSR.  Late in 1991, the KGB was dissolved, having out-lasted the party by just weeks although, in the years since, the successor organizations in both Russia and the states within its sphere of influence have sometimes devolved towards the past.

Comrade Andropov.

General Kalugin did however give credit where it was due.  The KGB in 1979 had spies well-placed inside the intelligence apparatuses of a number of countries and one of these agents provided the intelligence the wife of a Soviet diplomat had with some frequency been observed enjoying sex with the family’s large pet (male) dog.  The KGB agents were a worldly lot and might have had a chuckle before turning a blind eye but the source advised there were plans to obtain video evidence with which the diplomat could be blackmailed.  So sensitive was the matter that discussions involved the head of KGB himself, Yuri Andropov (1914–1984; head of KGB 1967-1982, Soviet leader 1982-1984).  Unable simply to recall the couple lest it compromise the source and, in a nice touch, not wishing to burden the husband with the knowledge of his wife’s unusual predilection for canine-intimacy, no solution seemed immediately obvious until, after for some time sitting in silence, comrade Andropov suggested: “Kill the dog”.  All agreed this was a good idea so it was arranged for a KGB technician to visit the house on some pretext to slip the hound some poisoned meat.  The dose turned out to be wrong so instead of killing the beast, just its hind quarters became paralyzed although that obviously solved the problem; a tactical failure but a strategic success.  It was a minor event in a long career and it's believed it played no part in comrade Andropov being the last leader of the USSR but one.

Opening pages of Lindsay Lohan's entry at encyclopedia.com.

Trivia

Trivia (pronounced triv-ee-uh)

(1) Matters or things that are very unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential; trifles; petty details, trifles, trivialities (functions as both singular & plural).

(2) In the religion of Ancient Rome, (used as the epithet Trivia) a name for the deity Diana: so called because she was trivius dea (goddess of three ways) and also because she was regarded as a deity with three personae (Selene/Diana/Proserpine).  In Greek mythology, the role (though not the epithet, which is from the Latin) is associated with Artemis (the Greek equivalent of Diana) and also with Hecate.

(3) A quiz game involving knowledge of (sometimes obscure) facts, the best known of which is the commercially available Trivial Pursuit (and its forks).

1700–1710: From the Latin trivia, feminine plural of trivius, from trivium (place where three roads meet; junction of three roads), the construct being tri-(three) + -vium, from via (way, road).  Tri- was from the Ancient Greek τρεῖς (treîs), from the Proto-Hellenic tréyes, from the primitive Indo-European tréyes.  The Latin adjective triviālis was from trivium and thus came to mean “appropriate to the street corner, commonplace, vulgar”.  In English trivial seems first to have appeared (in the same sense as triviālis) in 1589 and within decades was in common use in the modern sense: “Matters of little importance or significance” and thus far removed from the original Medieval scholastic triumvirate of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.  The adjective trivial meant “ordinary" in the 1580s but by the turn of the century the sense had shifted to “insignificant, trifling” and was from the Latin trivialis (common, commonplace, vulgar (and literally “of or belonging to the crossroads”)).  The verb trivialize dates from 1836 while the noun triviality was known as early as the 1590s in the sense of “quality of being trivial” and was at least influenced by the French trivialite or else from trivial, the phrases “a trivial thing” & “a trivial affair” emerged during the 1610s.  There is also the idea that because the trivium was an introductory-level course, it became associated with things at their most basic and simple but this notion came later and is thought by etymologists to be a grasp at linguistic straws.  Trivia is a noun (and proper noun), trivial is a noun & adjective, triviality is a noun and trivialize, trivialized; trivializing are verbs; the noun plural is trivias.

Trivial was picked up by Middle English (in the usual haphazard way) but was used in senses different from the familiar modern meaning.  In the mid-fifteenth century there was the phrase arte triviall an allusion to the three liberal arts that comprised the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), the lower division of the seven (the advanced four (or quadrivium) being arithmetic, geometry, astronomy & music.) taught in medieval universities, the link between pedagogy and the Latin trivium (place where three roads meet; junction of three roads) presumably the tradition of use in Antiquity that the point at which the roads met was “a place of public resort”.  Some etymologists also connect the very publicness of such places with the pejorative association attached to “trivia”.

As a packaged commodity, trivia had long existed but it began to labeled as such early in the twentieth century, the US-born British essayist (and a genuine authority on the language) Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) in 1902 publishing Trivia which was initially a commercial failure, his own mother’s critique of the text that it “began nowhere, ended nowhere and led to nothing” but for whatever reason it became so popular immediately after the World War I (1914-1918) that in 1921 he released More Trivia, the two combined in a best-selling edition (with annotations) in 1933.  Whether so named or not, books and later television series devoted to trivia (some quite specialized) became an established niche in these industries and the most celebrated product of all, the game Trivial Pursuit, was released in 1981 and it begat literally dozens of thematically-specific editions such as the “Horror Movie Edition” and “X”, a version described as “edgy” and “For Adults” which Amazon recommends for, inter alia, “family games nights & kids parties”.

Trivia by its nature attracted comic coinings.  Administrivia (the construct being adminis(trative) +‎ trivia) was created in 1922 by a US academic lawyer to refer to the administrative load (of mostly minor, procedural matters) carried by a head of department or dean in a law school.  A triviaphile (the construct being trivia +‎ -phile) is a person excessively fond of trivia, often boring others by reciting (obscure or unimportant facts) and the word for practical purposes may be synonymous with triviaholic (trivia +‎ -holic on the model of alcoholic) and both can also refer to those obsessed with the game Trivial Pursuit.  Although of concern only to a learned few (including one supposes, triviaphiles & triviaholics) there is a technical point about the use of administrivia.  In formal use, trivia, as a derivative of a Latin plural, required a plural verb but modern authorities ten now to be more permissive, extending the same tolerance enjoyed by Latin plurals such as data; the “game” sense has always been thought of as a singular noun.

Long a staple of tabloid newspapers and trashy magazines, trivia pages are among the oldest clickbait on the internet and uselessdaily.com, cleveland.com, tvtropes.org, triviaplaying.com, diply.com, absurdtrivia.com and funtrivia.com all have Lindsay Lohan trivia pages, some interactive and some mere lists.

Bolter

Bolter (pronounced bol-tah)

(1) A person or animal (most especially a horse) that bolts or is prone to running away.  The phrase (applied to horses, wives and girlfriends) is usually “a bit of a bolter” and historically was never applied to unreliable men; for them, women have many other epithets.

(2) In Australian colonial slang, an escaped convict or absconder.

(3) In botany and horticulture, a plant that grows larger and more rapidly than usual.

(4) In flour milling, a machine or mechanism that automatically sifts milled flour; a person who sifts flour or meal; to sift or filter through a sieve or bolter.

(5) In petroleum refining, a filter mechanism.

(6) In the slang of engine builders, to distinguish between the means used to secure the main bearings supporting a crankshaft (2-bolter, 4-bolter, cross-bolter) which is rare except in the US, where it's most common south of the Mason-Dixon line.

(7) In sport, an obscure athlete who wins an unexpected victory or is a surprise selection in a team (Australia & New Zealand).

(8) In horse racing, a horse which wins at long odds (Australia & New Zealand).

(9) In politics, a member of a political party who does not support the party's nominee or (US archaic).

(10) In naval aviation, a missed landing on an aircraft carrier; an aircraft that has made a missed landing.

(11) As the homophone boulter, a kind of fishing line.

(12) In archaic dialectal use, to smear or become smeared with a grimy substance (later by blood).

(13) In zoology (cetology; the study of whales), to swim or turn sideways while eating.

(14) In the design of retail haberdashery outlets, the shafts supporting bolts of fabric for purposes of display and facilitation of cutting (UK).

From the Middle English bolt (verb) and the Old English (noun); it was cognate with the Dutch bout and the German Boltz.  The Old English bolt (short, stout arrow with a heavy head; crossbow for throwing bolts) was from the Proto-Germanic bultas, source also of the Old Norse bolti, the Danish bolt, the Dutch bout & the German Bolzen.  The original meaning may have been or connected in some sense with "arrow, missile" and therefore derived from the primitive Indo-European bheld- (to knock, strike), source also of the Lithuanian beldžiu (I knock) & baldas (pole for striking).  The word has since Middle English been applied to short metal rods (especially those with knobbed ends) meaning variously "stout pin for fastening objects together" and "part of a lock which springs out" both from circa 1400. A bolt of canvas or (circa 1400 and later applied to other fabrics) was so called for its shape.  The adverbial phrase bolt upright (like a bolt or arrow) is from the late fourteenth century.  The sense of a "sliding metal rod that thrusts the cartridge into the chamber of a firearm" is from 1859.  From the notion of an arrow's flight comes the bolt of lightning (1530s) and the sense of "a sudden spring or start" is attested from the 1540s.

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 -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  As an abbreviation (or sometimes following a number), it’s written sometimes as -'er.  The suffix was added to verbs, forming an agent noun to describe a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb.  The antonym suffix was –ee which was added to nouns to denote an occupation, hobby etc and to numbers to denote a quantified set.  The related forms were the present participle bolting and the simple past and past participle bolted.  In one sense, the use by Shakespeare in Macbeth (1623) made specific what was once more general.  In Middle English, it meant “to smear or be smeared with a grimy substance” and was applied usually to farm animals getting wet with sweat, rain etc and then "boltering" with mud, hair etc.  However, the Shakespearian purloin popularized the term as means to describe getting covered in blood and that became the most common use in that context.  Bolter is a noun; the noun plural is bolters.

Bolter entered popular culture after the publication in 1945 of Nancy Mitford’s (1904-1973) The Pursuit of Love (1945) in which one character, (the bolter) was so named because of her many marriages, a consequence of her tendency to bolt from one relationship to another; throughout the novel, the bolter is never named and is referred to by all as “the bolter”.  Love in a Cold Climate (1949) was a companion volume to The Pursuit of Love, the title a direct quotation from George Orwell's (1903-1950) Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).  The usual form of expression is: “she’s a bit of a bolter”, borrowed from the use to refer to a flighty horse and historically, was applied only to wives and girlfriends; for unreliable men, women have many other epithets.  Mitford based the character on Lady Myra Idina Sackville (1893-1955), daughter of the eighth Earl De La Warr (1869-1915) and Lady Muriel Agnes Brassey (1872-1930).  Known always by her middle name, Idina, she led what many considered a scandalous life and married and divorced five times, her other connection with unconventionality that she was the cousin of the writer Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), remembered for many things including her long marriage to the writer Harold Nicholson (1886-1968) and being the inspiration for the protagonist of Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), one of her lovers.

Prosaic

Prosaic (pronounced proh-zey-ik)

(1) Of writing or speaking, straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry.

(2) Something commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative; overly plain, simple or commonplace, to the point of being boring.

(3) Of or having the character or form of prose, the ordinary form of spoken or written language, rather than of poetry (now of technical use only).

1650-1660: From the fifteenth century Middle French prosaïque and directly from the sixteenth century Medieval Latin prōsaicus (in prose), from the Classical Latin prōsa (prose), from prorsus (straightforward, in prose), from the Old Latin provorus (straight ahead), the construct being pro- (forward) + vorsus (turned), from vertō (to turn), from the primitive Indo-European wer- (to turn, to bend).  The original meaning was technical, distinguishing text as prose rather than poetry and in this sense was usually written as prosaicus (in prose).  The first hints of literary hierarchy were first noted in French in 1746 when used to contrast the “character” of prose in contrast to the “feeling” of poetry.  The sense of describing something ordinary or mundane first seen in French in 1813, a meaning soon adopted in English.  Prosaic & prosaical are adjectives, prosify is a verb, prosified & prosifying are verbs & adjectives, prosaicness is a noun and prosaically is an adverb.

Figurative use of poetic & prosaic:  Jaguar E-Type (XK-E, 1961-1974) (left) & Jaguar XJ-S (1975-1996) (right).

Whether Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) ever called the E-Type "the most beautiful car in the world" remains uncertain but over the decades plenty have echoed the sentiment, sometimes using the phrase "poetry in motion".  By 1975, the world had changed and there were now rules with which to comply and although the XJ-S (later XJS) wasn't really a replacement for the E-Type, because of the timing, that was how it was viewed.  Dynamically, it was a better car than the E-Type on about any objective measure but it certainly wasn't better looking and in contemporary reviews, the styling was sometimes described as "proasic".  It might have been more accurate to use the word "pragmatic" and the lines have aged better than many at the time imagined, the car in continuous production for over twenty years and the platform endured until 2006, providing the underpinnings for the first generation of Jaguar's XK8 (1996-2005) and the Aston Martin DB7 (1997-2004), both of which looked better than the XJ-S although neither matched the timeless E-Type.       

Prosaic is an example of the figurative adoption of a word with a precise technical meaning assuming such popularity that the original sense was effectively lost.  Once, any text not poetic was “prosaic” (ie “written in prose”), and this description denoted nothing negative; it was just a way of distinguishing between written forms, reflecting prosaic’s origins in the Latin prosa (prose).  However, by the seventeen century, poetry had come to be regarded as a most superior form of expression, considered more beautiful, imaginative, and emotional, prose relegated to the status of the mundane and procedural.  The figurative use evolved from this and prosaic came to be used to refer to anything thought ordinary or unimaginative including music, ideas and architecture etc.  The adjective thus transformed into a synonym for "colorless, drab, lifeless, lacklustre, humdrum, dull, pedestrian, unimaginative" etc and this resulted in phrases which once would have been thought bizarre or tautological: “prosaic poetry” & “prosaic prose”.  In its original technical sense (distinguishing the style of writing used for poetry from other literature), the word is now obsolete except for historic references and indeed, it’s now challenging to use in the context of literature because of the implications of the modern meaning.  Still, for those who wish to emphasise that some bad texts are worse than others, the comparative is more prosaic and the superlative, most prosaic.

The Tay Bridge Disaster

William Topaz McGonagall (circa 1825–1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish ancestry, now acknowledged as perhaps the worst poet ever to have been published in English, a fair achievement given the wealth of modern competition.  His best known work remains The Tay Bridge Disaster (1880), lamenting the disaster of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, the central section of Dundee's Tay Rail Bridge collapsed, sending to their deaths in the freezing water the 80-odd souls aboard the Wormit-Dundee train passing at the time.  Regarded at the time as a triumph of Victorian engineering, the Tay bridge was nearly two miles (3.2 km) long and then the longest in the world but was built with an insufficient allowance for lateral wind-load, the structure that night succumbing to the gale-force winds estimated at 80 mph (130 km/h / 70 knots).  An enquiry was conducted and the designer, Sir Thomas Bouch (1822-1880) (knighted by Queen Victoria in recognition of the quick and economic construction of the bridge) was found for primarily responsible for the disaster.  He died within a year of the collapse.

The Tay Bridge after it collapsed. Photo credit: National Library of Scotland

Whether the The Tay Bridge Disaster can be said to be prosaic is debatable because there are probably better adjectives but critics have long been united that it's a very bad piece of poetry and it's doubtful a re-rendering in prose would be much of an improvement, one writing of it that McGonagall was “deaf to poetic metaphor, employing inappropriate rhythms that resulted in unintentionally amusing poetry.”  Said to be wholly oblivious to the invective almost universally directed to his oeuvre of over two-hundred pieces of verse, his sheer awfulness and tenacity caused him to be remembered to this day for at least something while countless poets who were merely earnest and competent are long forgotten.

The Tay Bridge Disaster by William McGonagall

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
 
’Twas about seven o’clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-
“I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.”
 
When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
“I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.”
 
But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
 
So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers’ hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov’d most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.
 
So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
 
As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o’er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill’d all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav’d to tell the tale
How the disaster happen’d on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
 
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

Exquisite

Exquisite (pronounced ek-skwi-zit or ik-skwiz-it)

(1) Of special beauty or charm, or rare and appealing excellence and often associated with objects or great delicacy; of rare excellence of production or execution, as works of art or workmanship; beautiful, delicate, discriminating, perfect.

(2) Extraordinarily fine or admirable; consummate.

(3) Intense; acute, or keen, as pleasure or pain; keenly or delicately sensitive or responsive; exceeding; extreme; in a bad or a good sense (eg as exquisite pleasure or exquisite pain).

(4) Recherché; far-fetched; abstruse (a now rare early meaning which to some extent survives in surrealist’s exercise “exquisite corpse”).

(5) Of particular refinement or elegance, as taste, manners, etc or persons.

(6) A man excessively concerned about clothes, grooming etc; a dandy or coxcomb.

(7) Ingeniously devised or thought out (obsolete).

(8) Carefully adjusted; precise; accurate; exact (now less common except as an adverb.

(9) Of delicate perception or close and accurate discrimination; not easy to satisfy; exact; fastidious (related to the sense of “exquisite judgment, taste, or discernment”.

1400–1450: From the Late Middle English exquisite (carefully selected), from the Latin exquīsītus (excellent; meticulous, chosen with care (and literally “carefully sought out”)), perfect passive participle of exquīrō (to seek out), originally the past participle of exquīrere (to ask about, examine) the construct being ex- + -quīrere, a combining form of quaerere (to seek). The construct of exquīrō was ex- +‎ quaerō (seek).  The ex- prefix was applied to words in Middle English borrowed from the Middle French and was derived from the Latin ex- (out of, from) and was from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs-.  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex-, out of, from) from the Transalpine Gaulish ex- (out), the Old Irish ess- (out), the Old Church Slavonic изъ (izŭ) (out), the Russian из (iz) (from, out of).  Exquisite is a noun & adjective, exquisiteness is a noun and exquisitely an adverb; the noun plural is exquisites.

The etymology of the Latin quaerō (seek) is mysterious.  It may be from the Proto-Italic kwaizeō, from the primitive Indo-European kweh (to acquire) so cognates may include the Ancient Greek πέπαμαι (pépamai) (to get, acquire), the Old Prussian quoi (I/you want) & quāits (desire), the Lithuanian kviẽsti (to invite) and possibly the Albanian kam (I have).  Some have suggested the source being the primitive Indo-European kwoys & kweys (to see) but there has been little support for this.  The authoritative Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben (Lexicon of the Indo-European Verbs (LIV)), the standard etymological dictionary of the Proto-Indo-European languages, suggests it’s a derivation of hzeys (to seek, ask), via the form koaiseo.  "Exquisite corpse" is a calque of the French cadavre exquis (literally “exquisite cadaver”).  Dating from 1925, it was coined by French surrealists to describe a method of loosely structured constructivism on the model of the parlour game consequences; fragments of text (or images) are created by different people according to pre-set rules, then joined together to create a complete text.  The name comes from the first instance in 1925: Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau (The exquisite corpse will drink new wine).  Exquisite corpse is noted as a precursor to both post-modernism and deconstructionist techniques.

Although not infrequently it appears in the same sentence as the word “unique”, exquisite can be more nuanced, the comparative “more exquisite, the superlative most exquisite” and there has certainly been a change in the pattern of use.  In English, it originally was applied to any thing (good or bad, art or torture, diseases or good health), brought to a highly wrought condition, tending among the more puritanical to disapprobation.  The common modern meaning (of consummate and delightful excellence) dates from the late 1570s while the noun (a dandy, a foppish man) seems first to have been used in 1819.  One interesting variant which didn’t survive was exquisitous (not natural, but procured by art), appearing in dictionaries in the early eighteenth centuries but not since.  The pronunciation of exquisite has undergone a rapid change from ek-skwi-zit to ik-skwiz-it, the stress shifting to the second syllable.  The newer pronunciation attracted the inevitable criticism but is now the most common form on both sides of the Atlantic and use seems not differentiated by class. 

An exquisite: Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (1907–1974)

Exquisite is used almost exclusively as an adjective, applied typically to objects or performances but it’s also a noun, albeit one always rare.  As a noun it was used to describe men who inhabited that grey area of being well dressed, well coiffured, well mannered and somewhat effeminate; it was a way of hinting at something without descending to the explicit.  PG Wodehouse (1881-1975) applied it thus in Sam the Sudden (1925) and historians Ann (1938-2021) & John Tusa (b 1936) in The Nuremberg Trial (1983) found no better word to apply to Hitler Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, noting his all-white bedroom and propensity to pen bad poetry.  The companion word to describe a similar chap without of necessity the same hint of effeminacy is “aesthete”.

Nazis at the Berghof: Adolf Hitler, Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, and Baldur von Schirach, Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany, 1936.  All were guilty as sin but von Schirach would survive to die in his bed at 67.  

Convicted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT, 1945-1946) for crimes against humanity, von Schirach received a twenty year sentence escaping conviction for his role as Nazi Party youth leader and head of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) between 1931-1940 (though he was a good deal more guilty than Socrates in corrupting the minds of youth), the sentence imposed for his part in deporting Viennese Jews to the death camps while Gauleiter (district party leader) and Reichsstatthalter (Governor) of Vienna (1940-1945).  Had subsequently discovered evidence against him been available at the trial, doubtlessly he’d have been hanged.

Exquisite: A style guide

Lindsay Lohan in a Gucci Porcelain Garden Print Silk Gown with an all-over Dutch toile in blue and white, high ruffled collar and bib, flared sleeves, pussy bow and a blue and red patent leather belt around a high waist, Savoy Hotel, London, June 2017.  The gown was said to have a recommended retail price (RRP) of Stg£4,040 (US$7300).  The occasion was the launch of the charitable organization One Family, dedicated to combating child trafficking.

Within the one critique, the word exquisite can appear, used as a neutral descriptor (an expression of extent), a paean to beauty and even an ironic dismissal.  A gown for example can be “exquisitely detailed” but that doesn’t of necessity imply elegance although that would be the case of something said to be an “exquisite design”.  That said, most were drawn to the gown in some way, the references to Jane Austin many (although historians of fashion might note Gucci’s creation as something evocative more of recent films made of Jane Austin novels that anything representative of what was worn in her era) and the fabric’s patterning & restraint in the use of color produced a dreamily romantic look.

Camarilla

Camarilla (pronounced kam-uh-ril-uh or kah-mah-ree-lyah (Spanish))

(1) A group of unofficial or private advisers to a person of authority, especially a group much given to intrigues and secret plots; cabal; a clique.

(2) The confidential advisers to the Spanish kings.

(3) By extension, an unelected individual in a position of influence in government.

1830-1840: From the Spanish camarilla, the construct being cámara (chamber; room) + -illa, the diminutive Latin suffix.  The Spanish cámara was from the Old Spanish camara, from the Vulgar Latin camara, from the Classical Latin camera (a vaulted building; arched roof or ceiling), from the Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára) (something with an arched cover, a vaulted chamber).  A doublet of cambra, the Latin was the source also of the Italian camera, the French chamber, the Old Church Slavonic komora, the Lithuanian kamara and the Old Irish camra.  The suffix -illa was an inflection of -illus (nominative/vocative feminine singular & nomminative/accusative/vocative neuter plural).  The suffix -illā was the ablative feminine singular of -illus, itself a misinterpretation of the diminutive suffix -lus on such nouns as sigillum (signum + -lus) and used freely.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns.  Literally translated from Spanish it means “little room” and, in English, the origins of the cabinet, the “kitchen cabinet” and Privy Council are not dissimilar.  Outside of the formal workings of the Spanish court, word tends to be used with suggestions of something secret, sinister and conspiratorial and from this Modern English picked up cabal.  In Italian, camarille is the plural of Camarilla, a feminine proper name, from the Latin, feminine of Camillus, cognomen of several members of the gens Furia, from camillus (noble youth attending at sacrifices), possibly from Etruscan.

Camarilla of renown

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) & Martin Bormann (1900–1945), the Berghof Terrace (1942).

Bormann attached himself to the Nazi Party in the 1920s and proved diligent and industrious, rewarded in 1933 by being appointed chief of staff in the office of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi Deputy Führer 1933-1941) where he first built his power base.  After Hess made his bizarre flight in 1941, Hitler abolished the post of Deputy Führer, assigning his offices to Bormann and styling him Head of the Parteikanzlei (Party Chancellery), a position of extraordinary influence, strengthened further when in 1943 he was appointed Personal Secretary to the Führer, a title he exploited to allow him to act as a kind of viceroy, exercising power in Hitler’s name.  Known within the party as the “Brown Eminence” (an allusion to an éminence grise (literally “grey eminence”) one who exercises power “behind the scenes” and the brown Nazi Party uniform), he maintained his authority by controlling access to Hitler to whom his efficiency and dutifulness proved invaluable.  He committed suicide while trying to make his escape from Berlin in 1945.

Sir John Gorton (1911-2002; Australian prime-minister 1968-1971) & Ainsley Gotto (1946–2018), Melbourne, Australia, 1970.

Aged 21, the picturesque Ainsley Gotto was appointed personal private secretary to the prime-minister, something which raised eyebrows at the time though had it been reported (the press then more restrained in their intrusions into people’s private lives), that she was at the time having an affair with the leader of the opposition’s chief of staff, that would have been a sensation.  Gorton was less conventional than his predecessors and made no secret of his fondness of sometimes having a drink with younger women so unsubstantiated rumors of course followed.  Also alleged was that she exercised undue influence, one sacked minister blaming his demise on: “It wiggles, it's shapely and its name is Ainsley Gotto.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, US president 1933-1945) & Harry Hopkins (1890–1946), Washington DC, 1941.

Harry Hopkins held a number of appointments in the Roosevelt administration (including at cabinet level) between 1933-1940 before being attached to the White House staff as the president’s personal advisor, especially in the key aspect of managing the US contribution to the British war effort at a time when the country was a non-belligerent and a substantial part of public and political opinion favoured maintaining neutrality.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, his role in foreign affairs became more overt and he functioned essentially as Roosevelt’s personal emissary to both London and Moscow.  His influence waned in the later days of the war as US preponderance in military matters in the Pacific & Atlantic theatres and the supply of materiel to the Soviet Union meant political negotiations moved to the background.  Additionally, his health was failing and he died within a year of the end of the war.  In the post-war years he was criticized for being at least naïve in his estimation of Stalin's intentions and the very nature of the Soviet state but that was something which could be said of many at the time, including Roosevelt.

Boris Johnson (b 1964; UK prime-minister 2019-2022) & Dominic Cummings (b 1971), London, 2019.

Although he had for years been circulating in populist right-wing politics, Dominic Cummings really came to nation attention for his role in supporting a yes vote in the Brexit referendum (2016) which led to the UK leaving the European Union (EU).  One reward for this success was being appointed chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson upon his assumption of the premiership.  Johnson would have had his reasons but it’s suspected Cummins rather though the prime-minister might prove “the empty vase into which I poured water” as Spike Milligan (1918-2002) once said of Peter Sellers (1925-1980).  Things didn’t quite work out like that although sections of the press were never subtle in ascribing a to disproportionate influence which some hinted verged on the improper.  In the end it was not constitutional impropriety but denials and cover-ups over COVID-19 related lockdown transgression which saw his role in government sundered.  He wasn’t the first camarilla to have squandered the extraordinary possibilities offered by occupying a position of power without responsibility.

George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) & Karl Rove (b 1950), Washington DC, 2007.

Coming out of the roughhouse of Texas politics, Karl Rove was described usually as a political strategist but his range was extraordinary, encompassing everything from data miner & analyst to campaign manager and media handler.  He masterminded a slew of Republican victories in Texas and beyond but is most associated with George W Bush’s gubernatorial and presidential successes.  Bush was generous in naming Rove the “architect” of these victories but in private also bestowed the most illustrious of all Texan terms of endearment: "Turd Blossom".  Although serving as White House Deputy Chief of Staff (2005-2007), the essence of his role was as Senior Advisor to the President and during these years he came to be described as “W’s brain”.  Historians mostly haven’t yet gone that far but do acknowledge his success in mobilizing the reticent Republicans and evangelicals and others to emerge from their basements and vote in 2004, narrowly gaining Bush his second term.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2013-2015) and Peta Credlin (b 1971), Canberra, Australia, 2014.

Peta Credlin drew interest when employed as Chief of Staff to Tony Abbott as leader of the opposition but was a lightning rod when she fulfilled the role when he was prime-minister.  Anyone who doubts misogyny exists in politics can’t have been paying attention to the treatment Ms Credlin endured, the rumors of affair between her and Abbott utterly unsupported by even a scintilla of evidence.  It was wasted effort really because her reactionary politics of hatred, division and dog-whistling surely offered sufficient scope for critics of her brand of shark-feeding populism.  The office however probably constrained her a bit because in her new role as a commentator on the Murdoch-run Sky News, there’s much more latitude, the business model to say something outrageous or in some way actionable, enjoy the reaction and then issue an apology, if need be accompanied by an out-of-court settlement.  Still, she did come up with one really good line: Her labelling of Malcolm Turnbull (b 1954; Australian prime-minister 2015-2018) as “Mr harborside mansion” was better than anything a man could think of so there’s that.

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; US president 1913-1921) & Colonel Edward House (1858–1938), New York, 1916.

Colonel (a non-military, honorary title) House was President Wilson’s closest advisor between 1914-1948 and despite lacking a background in European affairs, was the senior US diplomat at the Paris Peace Conference (1919).  Disappointed and feeling deceived by some of the decisions taken at Paris and agreed to in his absence by House, Wilson broke with him; after returning to the US, they would never meet again.  To his dying day House believed his estrangement from the president was engineered at least in part by the second Mrs Wilson.