Exordium

Exordium (pronounced ig-zawr-dee-uhm or ik-sawr-dee-uhm)

(1) The beginning of anything.

(2) The introductory part of an oration, treatise etc.

(3) In formal rhetoric, the introductory section of a discourse in Western classical rhetoric.

(4) In legal drafting (probate), as an exordium clause, the first paragraph or sentence in a will and testament

1525–1535: From the Latin exōrdium (beginning, commencement), from exōrdīrī (I begin, commence) the construct being ex- (out of; from) + ōrd(īrī) (to begin) + -ium.  The ex- prefix was from the Middle English, from words borrowed from the Middle French, from the Latin ex (out of, from), from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs- (out).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex) (out of, 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).  The “x” in “ex-“, sometimes is elided before certain constants, reduced to e- (eg ejaculate).  The –ium suffix (used most often to form adjectives) was applied as (1) a nominal suffix (2) a substantivisation of its neuter forms and (3) as an adjectival suffix.  It was associated with the formation of abstract nouns, sometimes denoting offices and groups, a linguistic practice which has long fallen from fashion.  In the New Latin, it was the standard suffix appended when forming names for chemical elements.  Exordium and exord are nouns, exordior is a verb, exordial is an adjective; the noun plural is exordiums or exordia, the choice dictated by consistency of use within a document, either the Latin or English being used in all cases where both exist.

The original meaning of the Latin exōrdium was “the warp laid on a loom before the web is begun” which entered general use as “starting point” and used liberally of physical objects, processes or abstractions.  The term came to assume a specific technical meaning when it was applied to the first of the traditional divisions of a speech established by classical rhetoricians, this later extended to many forms of literature to describe introductions, especially the opening section of a discourse or composition.  In English law, this was formalized in the law of probate as the exordium clause in wills, an opening statement of (more or less) standardized facts. In English, there are many words used to convey the same meaning including introduction, forward, preamble, abstract, (executive) summary, preface, prologue, preliminary, prelude, opening, presentation, proposition, signal, overture, preliminary, prolegomenon, prelusion & proem.  However, although English is notorious for accumulating synonyms (often with other or overlapping meanings), the language is not unique in that, the synonyms of the Latin verb exōrdior (I begin) (present infinitive exōrdīrī, perfect active exōrsus sum) including incohō, occipiō, incipiō, coepiō, ōrdior, initiō, ineō, moveō & mōlior.

The exordium clause

In common law jurisdictions a will need not contain an exordium clause, indeed, an English court once held to be valid a will which consisted of the words “All to mum” scratched on the paint of the overturned tractor which would crush to death the writer.  It was a document of interest too because the judge ruled the “mum” referred not to the deceased’s mother (as would be the prima facie assumption under the usual principles of interpretation) but instead his wife, the decision based on evidence of the man’s use of the term.  It’s said to be the shortest legitimate will in the English language although a Czech court trumped it for brevity by accepting the linguistically unambiguous Vše ženě (everything to wife) scrawled on a bedroom wall.  One might be tempted to ponder the circumstances in which that transpired.

Extract from Adolf Hitler’s last will & testament (with English translation, held by US National Archives).

Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) will contained an exordium which was unlike the prosaic list of facts familiar in English law but, in the circumstances prevailing in the Führerbunker on 29 April 1945, it was probably thought redundant to bother with things like name, address or an assertion of one’s soundness of mind although he did mention his upcoming marriage, though without naming the lucky woman.

As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people.

He went on to the brief business of what he was leaving to his beneficiaries:

What I possess belongs - in so far as it has any value - to the Party. Should this no longer exist, to the State; should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary.  My pictures, in the collections which I have bought in the course of years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the extension of a gallery in my home town of Linz on Donau.  It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed.

I nominate as my Executor my most faithful Party comrade, Martin Bormann.  He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life, for my brothers and sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife and my faithful co-workers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau Winter etc. who have for many years aided me by their work.

Saving others the trouble, he thoughtfully then made the funeral and cremation arrangements.

I myself and my wife - in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation - choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years' service to my people.

Page 1 of Adolf Hitler’s political testament.

As a will, Hitler’s document was valid at the time of its execution and remained so even after the dissolution German state.  Hitler’s sister Paula (1896-1960) attempted in 1952 to enforce the will in a FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany) court but was denied on the technical grounds that he’d not yet been declared legally dead and it wasn’t until 1960, some six months after her death, that a Federal Court in Berchtesgaden awarded her a portion of the estate.  The companion document, Hitler’s political testament, has bothered legal theorists and political scientists ever since.  Arbitrarily, Hitler reverted to the constitutional model to that which had last existed in 1934, splitting the roles of head of state (president) and government (chancellor), appointing two different people although the title of Führer remained unique to him.  He also named a new cabinet (although not all of these offices were so-filled) and the consensus among historians is that in the circumstances of the time and given the nature of the führerstaat (the leadership practices and principles in the Nazi state), the appointments were lawful between Hitler’s death and the dissolution of the German state on 8 May 1945.  It was thus a continuation of the existing entity, not a "Fourth Reich" as the last few weeks are sometimes called and certainly, there was after the dissolution no legal basis for the so-call “cabinet” which continued to meet until the members were arrested on 23 May 1945. 

Jane Austen’s (1775–1817) last will & testament.

However it’s recommended a will include an exordium clause in something like its standard form though it need not be described as such and what the clause does is list the document’s key elements including (1) the name of the person making the will (including any other names by which they may then or in the past have been known), (2) the person’s normal place of residence (expressed in full including street or flat numbers, the locality and province etc), (3) a declaration revoking any earlier wills and (4) a declaration the document is the will belonging to the named person.  The historical practice (still often seen in fiction) of (5) including a phrase like “being sound of mind and body” seems now used with less frequency but some still feature this.  In long or complex wills, all other matters may be handled in other clauses but if the matters are simple, (6) beneficiaries can be included in the exordium clause, as can (7) any other parties who may in some way be involved including issues dealing with the guardianship of minors.

What an exordium clause thus does is set out basic facts and it’s important they are written in such a way that there can be no misinterpretation or ambiguity, beneficiaries for example identified where necessary with some collateral information such as a date of birth or some other information unique to them.  A well-written exordium clause can ensure there can be no contesting of a will on the basis of factual error and seeking legal advice is recommended, even Warren Burger (1907–1995 US Chief Justice 1969-1986) causing his executor problems because the judge was a bit sloppy in his drafting.  A model example might be:

I, Lindsay Dee Lohan, born July 2, 1986, residing at 10585 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90025, being sound of mind and body, declare this to be my will and I revoke any and all wills and codicils previously made.

Although not allowed in all jurisdictions, the exordium clause can work in conjunction with other clauses including (1) the residuary clause which deals with any assets which remain after the specifics of the will have been executed, (2) the in terrorem (in fear) clause which states that should a beneficiary challenge the will, they will be denied any benefits of that will, (3) the testamentary trust clause which, for various purposes, passes the estate into a trust prior to any distribution of assets and (4) a no-contest clause, a variation of the in terrorem clause in that it denies benefits to any beneficiary who challenges the will and loses, the purpose being to discourage vexatious actions or those with no prospect of success.

Satyriasis & Nymphomania

Satyriasis (pronounced sey-tuh-rahy-uh-sis or sat-uh-rahy-uh-sis)

(1) In psychology & psychiatry, a neurotic condition in men in which the symptoms are an excessive and unrestrainable venereal desire, manifesting as a compulsion to have sexual intercourse with as many women as possible.  In modern clinical use, it’s linked also to an inability to sustain lasting relationships.

(2) A disease involving swelling around the temples, causing the victim to resemble a satyr, based on the depiction in Hellenic art of satyriatic men as horned goats.

1650s: A creation of Medical Latin, from the Late Latin satyriasis, from the Ancient Greek στυρ́ησς (saturíēsis) (excessively great venereal desire in the male), from satyros, accusative plural of satyrus, from the Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos) (satyr-like).  The construct was στράω (saturiáō) +‎ -σις (-sis).  The –sis suffix was from the Ancient Greek -σις (-sis) and was used to forms noun of action), often via Latin but increasingly also from French; it had exactly the same effect as the Latin –entia and the English -ing.  Historically, the use in terms borrowed from Ancient Greek was comparatively rare but there are many modern coinages based on Ancient Greek roots, reflecting to ongoing reverence for the ancient languages.  Satyriasis, satyriasist, satyromaniac, satyrization & satyr are nouns, satyriatic is an adjective; the common noun plural is satyriasist.

In Greek mythology, a satyr was a deity or demigod, male companion of Pan or Dionysus, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness, depicted sometimes with a perpetual erection.  Although that’s the same symptom as the condition of priapism (morbidly persistent erection of the penis), a sufferer is not of necessity also satyriatic.  The noun priapism was from the Late Latin priapismus, from the Greek priapismos (lewdness), from priapizein (to be lewd), from Priapos (the god of male reproductive power).  In Roman mythology satyr was a synonym of faun and, by extension, a lecherous man.  In modern casual use, it’s referred to also as Don Juanism, an allusion to the fictional fourteenth century Spanish nobleman Don Juan, whose sexual exploits became a thing of legend.  The term satyriasis (if not the condition) is largely archaic although still used in literature and by clinicians with a sense of history, the more popular form being satyromania, a coining in Modern Latin from 1759 which first appeared in dictionaries of English in 1889.

Don Juan (circa 1911), oil on canvas by Charles Ricketts (1866–1931).

Nymphomania (pronounced nim-fuh-mey-nee-uh or nim-fuh-meyn-yuh)

In psychology & psychiatry, a neurotic condition in women in which the symptoms are an excessive and unrestrainable venereal desire, manifesting as a compulsion to have sexual intercourse with as many men as possible.  In modern clinical use, it’s linked also to an inability to sustain lasting relationships.

1775: From the New (Medical) Latin as nymphomania (morbid and uncontrollable sexual desire in women), from the Classical Latin nympha (labia minora), the construct thus nympho- +‎ -mania.  The first known instance of publication in English was in a translation of Nymphomania, or a Dissertation Concerning the Furor Uterinus (1771) by French physician Jean Baptiste Louis de Thesacq de Bienville (1726-1813) on the model of the Ancient Greek nymphē (bride, young wife, young lady) + -mania (madness) and may have been influenced by the earlier French nymphomanie (a frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something or someone unattainable).  The adjective nymphomaniac was used first in 1861 in the sense “characterized by or suffering from nymphomania”, the specific reference to “a woman who is afflicted with nymphomania” first noted in medical literature in 1867.  In pre-modern medicine, the synonyms were the now obsolete furor uterinus and œstromania which, curiously, is said still to be mentioned in some textbooks.

Nymph was from the Middle English nimphe, from the Old French nimphe, from the Latin nympha (nymph, bride), from the Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē) (bride) and a doublet of nympha.  The alternative spelling nymphe is archaic except as a poetic device.  In Greek & Roman mythology, a nymph was any female nature spirit associated with waterways, forests, grottos, the breezes etc and is common use was applied to beautiful or graceful young girls (often as nymphet or nymphette) although the specialized use in entomology to refer to (1) the larva of certain insects and (2) any of various butterflies of the family Nymphalidae is analogous with the nymphs of antiquity only in relation to fragility and gracefulness rather than anything specifically female.  The modern equivalent (Lolita & lolita) is decidedly “of youthful femininity”).  The suffix –mania was from the Latin mania, from the Ancient Greek μανία (mania) (madness).  In modern use in psychiatry it is used to describe a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels and as a suffix appended as required.  In general use, under the influence of the historic meaning (violent derangement of mind; madness; insanity), it’s applied to describe any “excessive or unreasonable desire; a passion or fanaticism” which can us used even of unthreatening behaviors such as “a mania for flower arranging, crochet etc”.  As a suffix, it’s often appended with the interfix -o- make pronunciation more natural.  Nymphomania is a noun, nymphomaniac is a noun & adjective and nymphomaniacal is an adjective; the usual noun plural is nymphomaniacs.

Fairly or not, Lindsay Lohan may in 2013 have cemented a reputation as a nymphomaniac when, in a Beverley Hills hotel room, she complied a list of three dozen "conquests" although it wasn't clear if the list was selective or exhaustive and it produced reactions among those mentioned ranging from "no comment" to a Clintonesque "I did not have sex with that woman".  In partially redacted form, the list was in 2014 published by In Touch magazine and points of interest included Ms Lohan's apparently intact short & long-term memory and her commendably neat handwriting.  She seems to favor the "first letter bigger" style in which the style is "all capitals" but the first letter (in each word in the case of proper nouns such as names) is larger.  In typography, the idea is derived from the "drop cap", a centuries-old tradition in publishing where the opening letter of a sentence is many times the size of the rest, the text wrapping around the big letter.  In many cases, a drop cap was an elaborate or stylized version of the letter.

Sex doesn't appear in the annals of psychiatry with quite the frequency suggested by the volume of material published for popular consumption but it's certainly a significant part of the development of the discipline and Sigmund Freud's (1856-1939) thoughts on sex are better known even than his dream analysis.  Few would doubt that sexual behaviours are integral to some psychiatric diseases and while women are thought not ordinarily prone to nymphomania, it has been treated as expression of delusional disorder (which some, controversially, call late-onset paranoia, a rare condition which may be under-diagnosed because research suggests sufferers seem to avoid treatment.  It's of particular interest because while women with delusional disorder appear often develop a powerful sexual fixation, men's fixations arise usually in the absence of anything which could be diagnosed as a delusional disorder.  Such caveats aside, the profession has always been interested in the phenomenon of persistent, socially deviant sexual behavior accompanied by an excessive sexual appetite that may be maladaptive for the individual and the terms “compulsive sexual behavior”, “sex addiction”, “Don Juanism”, “satyriasis” & “nymphomania” are all expressions of “hypersexuality”.  Despite the long and well-documented history, when the editorial committee of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) met to discuss amendments and additions to the fifth edition (DSM-5, 2013), the members decided not to introduce hypersexual disorder as a distinct diagnostic category, apparently because of what was said to be a paucity of research on valid diagnostic criteria.

Nymphomaniacs, hysteria and steam-induced parosysm

The gender-neutral form of satyriasis and nymphomania is erotomania (abnormal exaltation of the sexual appetite which, perhaps surprisingly, predates the modern culture wars, noted in the medical literature since 1875.  The construct of erotomania was eroto- +‎ -mania, eroto from the Ancient Greek ἐρωτικός (erōtikós) (related to love), from ἔρως (érōs) (passionate or sexual love).  There were however in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, echoes of the culture wars because physicians were known to diagnose nymphomania in women they deemed “to enjoy sex too much”.  Some physicians however were sympathetic practical as well as sympathetic.  While they might diagnose women as “hysterical” (then an orthodox part of medicine without the exclusively “loaded” meaning of today, some were prepared to stimulate the vagina until "parosysm" (the then preferred terminology for orgasm) was achieved.   For the doctor however, it could be a tiring business, some taking longer to climax than others although (officially) the treatment was offered only to unmarried women, reducing the patient load, so there was that.

Dr Taylor’s steam-powered Manipulator. Still, hands and wrists must quickly have tired, thus the attraction of the vibrator, a device which pre-dates the use of electricity, crank-driven models (resembling a very specialised egg-beater) first produced in 1734 and the early, powered, vibrators of the nineteenth century were a deviation from the engineering practices of the day which were really a collection of techniques designed to optimize specific efficiencies.  By contrast, the early vibrators required inefficient motors.  While all motors have moving parts and will vibrate, engineers use precise tolerances to achieve balance, ensuring the vibrations are minimized because vibrations are just wasted energy.  However, by definition a vibrator needs to vibrate and at the time, the easy way to achieve this with an inefficient motor, thus the steam-powered Manipulator invented by US physician George Taylor (1821-1896) in 1869.  Steam-powered, it certainly vibrated as needed but was big and noisy, the steam engine installed in an room adjoining the surgery, the apparatus protruding through the wall.  However, as a proof-of-concept exercise it worked and Dr Taylor reported good results.   Since then the devices have evolved to be smaller, quieter and battery-powered and although electrical power has become ubiquitous, one innovation proved a cul-de-sac, the Electro-Spatteur (which augmented its vibrations with electric shocks) lacking sales appeal.  The un-powered devices however didn’t entirely disappear and early in the twentieth century, the Pulsocon was advertised in the Sears mail-order catalog (the amazon.com of the age) and as recent examinations (it’s not clear if the tests were practical) confirmed, it worked well as a vibrator, its promoters jailed in 1913 only because the other claims they were making for its efficacy (curing just about every ailment known) were variously unproven, unsustainable, unbelievable or simply lies.

The Pulsocon.

Fungible

Fungible (pronounced fuhn-juh-buhl)

In law, finance and commerce, being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind (especially as applied to physical goods).

1765: From the Medieval Latin fungibilis, the construct being fung(ī) (to perform the office of) + -ibilis (-ible) (a variant of -bilis, the suffix usually added to certain verbs to form an adjective denoting passive qualities).  Root was the Latin fungor (I perform; I discharge a duty), source of the Modern English function, it was originally a legal term in Medieval Latin drawn from Roman civil law, res fungibilis (replaceable things), used typically in proceedings in phrases such as fungi vice (to take the place).  The adjectival form was first used in 1818.  The synonyms are interchangeable, exchangeable & replaceable.  Of late, the word has acquired a new life in the NFT, the non-fungible token, an entry in the digital ledger the blockchain which, thus far, provides an owner with an unimpeachable, blockchain-verified proof of ownership.  Fungible is a noun and adjective, fungibility is a noun and nonfungible & unfungible are adjectives that of late have come more frequently to be used; the noun plural is fungibles.  

Fungible and non-fungible

In law, finance and commerce, the general principle of fungibility is of a thing able to be substituted for something of equal value or utility.  The classic fungible is physical cash.  If one lends $10,000 to another, it usually matters not if the loan is repaid in different banknotes than those used in the initial transaction.  However, a rare US$10,000 note is non-fungible and ten thousand one dollar notes are not a substitute in the same way that to a coin collector, a rare nickel (five cent) is not interchangeable with another whereas most nickels are in just about any transaction.  A commodity like crude oil is fungible.  When a futures trader executes a contract for 100,000 barrels of Tapas Crude six months hence, the oil may be in the ground, in a tanker or in storage tank somewhere.  Precious diamonds are often not perfectly fungible because each is unique and cannot always be substituted with another, even if of similar size and identical nominal value whereas industrial diamonds are fungible and need only conform to a specification to be an acceptable substitute.  The concept is important in criminal law.  As a general principle, when alleging theft, the state has to prove the items in position of accused are those stolen.  If the theft involves fungibles (petrol, money etc) where it may not be possible to establish the physical relationship, the state must provide other evidence.

Images associated with some of Lindsay Lohan's NFTs. 

Non-fungible tokens

A non-fungible token (NFT) is an entry on a blockchain, a digital ledger.  All the NFT does is certify the uniqueness of the token itself and it’s created usually to guarantee an exclusive (legal) ownership of some asset, typically material stored in digital format such as image and audio files.  Of themselves, NFTs don’t restrict access to a file or prevent its duplication and dissemination; they are just a proof of ownership.  Transactional volumes by 2021 had reached US$ billions; future growth will depend of (1) whether the blockchain proves as robust as it appears and (2) whether NFT prove to be actual tangible asset or bubble although there’s no reason they can’t assume a different trajectory from cryptocurrency.  Technically, a blockchain need not be associated with a cryptocurrency but to date most NFT transactions have been on the Ethereum blockchain, its infrastructure well understood and at one layer of that structure, any blockchain is just another file system, an NFT differing from a ETH coin only in that different (and additional) data are entered.  The NFT can be associated with a digital or physical asset or a license to use the asset on whatever basis may be granted and may be traded.  The underlying mechanism of the blockchain means as database entries, NFTs work like any cryptographic tokens but, unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs are not interchangeable and are thus inherently non-fungible.  However, although every bitcoin is exactly the same, inevitability, someone will work out a way to find some unique aspect of some bitcoin (such as the “first” one) and at that point, the NFT will be created.

No NFT required.  A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in silver (US$70 million) and a fine replica by Tempero of a 1963 model in rosso corsa (US$1.2 million).

NFTs address one aspect of the problem associated with anything digital: the ease of creation of perfect replicas and real world analogies are illustrative of the need.  Ferrari made only thirty-nine 250 GTOs and one has sold for US$70 million but it’s possible for experts to create an almost exact replica, indeed one often of higher quality than an original but it will only ever be worth a fraction of the real thing.  With something digital, just about anyone can create an exact duplicate, indistinguishable from the source, hence the attraction of the NFT which, thus far, can’t be forged.  NFTs have been linked to real-world objects, as a sort of proof of ownership which seems strange given that actual possession or some physical certificate is usually sufficient, certainly for those with a 250 GTO in the garage but there are implications for the property conveyancing industry, NFTs possibly a way for real-estate transactions to be handled more efficiently.  For those producing items subject to much piracy (running shoes, handbags etc), there’s interest in attaching NFTs as a method of verification.

Errant & Arrant

Errant (pronounced er-uhnt)

(1) Deviating from the regular or proper course; erring; straying outside established limits (often used in sport as “errant shot”, “errant punch” etc).

(2) Prone to error; misbehaved; moving in an aimless or lightly changing manner (often used in a non-human context: breezes, water-flows et al).

(3) Journeying or traveling, as a medieval knight in quest of adventure; roving adventurously (archaic, although it may in this sense still be a literary device).

(4) Utter, complete (obsolete, the meaning now served by “arrant”).

1300–1350: From the Middle English erraunt (traveling, roving), from the Anglo-Norman erraunt, from the Middle French, from the Old French errant, present participle of errer & edrer (to travel or wander), from the unattested Vulgar Latin iterāre (to journey) (and influenced by the Classical Latin errāre (to err)), from the Late Latin itinerārī, a derivative of iter (stem itiner-) (journey) and source of the modern English itinerary), from the root of ire (to go), from the primitive Indo-European root ei- (to go).  Understandably, in the Medieval era, the word was often confused with the Middle French errant (present participle of errer (to err)) so the use in old translations need to be read with care and the Old French errant in its two senses (1) the present participle of errer (to travel or wander) & (2) past participle of errer were often confused even before entering English.  In any event, much of the latter sense went with arrant (which was once a doublet of errant).  All the muddle is attributable to the link between the Old French errant with the Latin errāns, errāntem & errāre (to err) and the present participle of errer (to wander), which was from the Classical Latin iterō (I travel; I voyage) rather than errō, which is the ancestor of the etymology of error (to err; to make an error).  The comparative is more errant and the superlative most errant and the synonyms (depending on context) include aberrant, erratic, offending, stray, unorthodox, wayward, deviating, devious, drifting, errable, fallible, heretic, meandering, misbehaving, mischievous, miscreant, naughty, rambling, ranging & roaming.  The obsolete alternative spelling was erraunt.  Errant is a noun & adjective (often postpositive) and errantly is an adverb; the noun plural is errants.

Arrant (pronounced ar-uhnt)

(1) Downright; thorough-going; flagrant, utter, unmitigated; notorious (the latter in the non-derogatory sense).

(2) Wandering; errant (obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle English, a variant of errant (wandering, vagabond), the sense developed from its frequent use in phrases like “arrant thief” which became synonymous with “notorious thief”.  Etymologists tracking the late fourteenth century shift note that as a variant of errant, it was first merely derogatory in the sense of “a wandering vagrant” and remembered as an intensifier due to its use as an epithet because of poetic phrases such as “arrant thieves and arrant knaves” (ie “wandering bandits”).  In the 1500s the word gradually shed its opprobrious force and acquiring the meaning “thorough-going, downright and notorious (the latter in the non-derogatory sense)”.  In a limited number of specific uses, arrant can still convey a negative sense such as “arrant nonsense!” (utterly untrue) and the meaning is preserved when Shakespeare’s “arrant knaves” (from the nunnery scene in Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1) is invoked.  Remarkably, there are still dictionaries which list arrant simply as an alternative form of errant, despite in practice use having separated centuries earlier and some style guides suggest arrant should be avoided because (1) some may confuse it with errant and (2) it’s an adjective which seems used mostly in clichés.  The obsolete alternative spelling was arraunt, the obsolete comparative was arranter and the obsolete superlative, arrantest.  Arrant is an adjective and arrantly an adverb.

Errant driving: The aftermath of three Lindsay Lohan car crashes although the Maserati Quattroporte (right; borrowed from her father) suffered little more than a nudge and it's said her assistant was at the wheel at the time.

Peradventure

Peradventure (pronounced pur-uhd-ven-cher (U) or per-add-ven-chur (non-U)

(1) Chance, doubt or uncertainty (rare & archaic).

(2) Surmise (obsolete).

(3) It may be; perchance or maybe; possibly; perhaps (a definitely obsolete adverb).

1250–1300: From the Middle English peraventure, & per aventure, from Old French par aventure, the spelling in English modified in the seventeenth century to emulate Latin, providing a gloss of classical respectability.  The earliest form (circa 1300) was per aventure, paradventure adopted in the fourteenth and peradventure (sometimes in the old form as peraduenture) the final change.  Adventure evolved from the Middle English aventure, aunter & anter, from the Old French aventure, from the Late Latin adventurus, from the Latin advenire & adventum (to arrive), which in the Romance languages took the sense of "to happen, befall".  Aventure was from the Vulgar Latin adventura, from the Late Latin adventurus, from the Classical Latin adventus, the construct being adveniō (arrive) +‎ -tus (the action noun–forming suffix).  Peraventure is a noun & adverb, the noun plural is peradventures.

Peradventure in the sense of “chance, doubt or uncertainty” is both rare and archaic, a combination characterizing those words Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) listed as archaisms, words he suggested were “…dangerous except in the hands of an experienced writer who can trust his sense of congruity”, adding that the use of archaisms was “…more likely to irritate the reader than to please…” and the word does seem to appear when people seek either (1) variety, (2) a flourish or (3) a display of their “pride of knowledge”, one of the many linguistic habits of Henry Fowler damned.  Peradventure means “chance, doubt or uncertainty” (the other meanings wholly obsolete) and is used in the forms “beyond peradventure” & “beyond a peradventure”, the more usual ways of expressing the sentiment including “beyond question” & “without doubt”. 

The reason it should be avoided in normal discourse is that unlike some deliberate archaisms, (such as “afforce” which is sufficiently close in construction and meaning to “reinforce”), there is nothing in the word which would allow a interlocutor to pick up the meaning.  That’s because the element “adventure” id derived from a linguistic fork which evolved into extinction, the aventure in the Old French per aventure coming from the adventura, a future form of the verb advenire (to happen (ie something which may occur).  However by the time it entered the Old French, variously it could mean destiny or fate, a chance event, an accident, fortune or luck and it was the sense of “a chance or uncertain event” that attached to the word when it was adopted in the Middle English.  That eventually produced peradventure but “adventure” also came to be used in English as an event with some risk of danger or loss, that sense persisting in law (In admiralty law, marine insurers use adventure in the technical sense of ”the period during which insured goods are at risk” and there’s the technical term “medical misadventure”, used when doctors murder their patients).  The sense thus shifted from “a chance event” to “a hazardous undertaking or audacious exploit to the modern form” (which still exists in law) before assuming the modern meaning: “a novel or exciting experience”.  Thus, it’s unlikely to occur to most that “peradventure” means what it does.

It can of course be used among word nerds and others where a pride of knowledge is something admired.  John Parker (1885–1958), the US alternate judge sitting on the International Military Tribunal trying the Nazi leadership (the first Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946)), used the phrase “…conspiracy has been proved beyond peradventure” when resisting the objection from the French judges that the charge of “criminal conspiracy” (Count One: Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War) was not sustainable because it was unknown in international or continental law, too vague and a conspiracy is anyway absorbed by the crime one committed.  It was an interesting discussion which didn’t convince the French although, in the circumstances, they were inclined to compromise… a little.  The primary US judge, Francis Biddle (1886–1968), noted on hearing “peradventure” that Judge Parker “liked such old-fashioned phrases, which, when he used them, sounded like the crack of a long whip, tearing other arguments to shreds”.  He might have added Parker came from the North Carolina bar, where old-fashioned phrases are perhaps more often heard.

It does also enjoy that ultimate imprimatur of authenticity, as an adverb appearing seventeen times in the plays of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), two examples being:

Henry V, Act IV, Scene I.

Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of peradventure premeditated and contriued Murther; some, of beguiling Virgins with the broken Seales of Periurie; some, making the Warres their Bulwarke, that haue before gored the gentle Bosome of Peace with Pillage and Robberie.

Coriolanus Act II, Scene I.

…peraduenture some of the best of 'em were hereditarie hangmen.  Godden to your Worships, more of your conuersation would infect my Braine, being the Heardsmen of the Beastly Plebeans.  I will be bold to take my leaue of you.

Trend of use of peradventure, tracked by the Collins English Dictionary.

The trend however, the odd eighteenth century spike notwithstanding, is down, one of the few supporting gestures in recent years (2015) by UK Labor MP Harriet Harman (b 1950) and such was the reaction from friend and foe that, beyond peradventure, she’s unlikely to use it again.

Cutter

Cutter (pronounced kuht-er)

(1) A person employed to cut something, applied especially to one who cuts fabric for garments.

(2) A machine, tool, knife or other device for cutting.

(3) In nautical use, a single-mast sailing vessel, very similar to a sloop but having its mast set somewhat farther astern, about two-fifths of the way aft measured on the water line.

(4) In nautical use, a ship's boat having double-banked oars and one or two lugsails.

(5) In nautical use, a lightly armed government vessel used to prevent smuggling and enforce the customs regulations (known also as a revenue cutter).

(6) In psychiatry & psychology, a patient who repeatedly inflicts self-injury by cutting their flesh, a behavior traditionally associated with negative emotions.

(7) A person employed as a film editor, the titled derived from when physical film stock was physically cut with blades and re-joined.

(8) A small, light sleigh, usually single-seated and pulled by one horse.

(9) In construction, a brick suitable for cutting and rubbing, traditionally yellow and used for face-work (also called a rubber and now mostly obsolete but still use in restoration work).

(10) In industrial meat production (in the US government’s grading of beef), a lower-quality grade between utility and canner, used mostly in processed products such as hot dog sausages.

(11) In industrial meat production, a pig weighing between 68-82 kg (150-181 lb), from which fillets and larger joints are cut.

(12) In industrial meat production, an animal yielding inferior meat, with little or no external fat and marbling.

(13) In baseball, a variation of the fastball pitch.

(14) In cricket, as "leg cutter", a ball bowled by a fast bowler using finger spin to move the ball from leg to off (when delivered to a right-handed batsman); unrelated to the cut shot ("leg cut" & "off cut") except in the adjectival sense whereby a batsman might be described as “an expert cutter”, “an inept cutter” etc.  The "off cutter" is a delivery which moves in the other direction. 

(15) In dental classification, a foretooth; an incisor.

(16) In UK prison slang, a ten-pence (10p) piece, so named because it is the coin most often sharpened by prison inmates to use as a weapon.

(17) In medical slang, a surgeon (also modified to reflect specialties, neurosurgeons being “head cutters”, thoracic surgeons “chest cutter” etc).

(18) In the slang of criminology, an offender who habitually uses balded weapons to inflict injuries (also known as “slashers”).

(19) In film & television production, a flag, plate or similar instrument for blocking light.

(20) An officer in the exchequer who notes by cutting on the tallies the sums paid (obsolete).

(21) In slang, a disreputable ruffian (obsolete).

(22) As Cutter Expansive Classification (CEC), a library classification system, now obsolete although the core structure remains the basis for the system used by the US Library of Congress.

1375–1425: From the Middle English kittere & cuttere, the construct being cut(t) + -er.  Cut was from the Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten & ketten (to cut) (the Scots form was kut & kit), of North Germanic origin, from the Old Norse kytja & kutta, from the Proto-Germanic kutjaną & kuttaną (to cut), of uncertain origin, though there may be links with the Proto-Germanic kwetwą (meat, flesh) (related to the Old Norse kvett (meat)).  It was akin to the Middle Swedish kotta (to cut or carve with a knife) (the Swedish dialectal forms were kåta & kuta (to cut or chip with a knife)), the Swedish kuta & kytti (a knife), the Norwegian Bokmål kutte (to cut), the Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (to cut), the Icelandic kuta (to cut with a knife), the Old Norse kuti (small knife) and the Norwegian kyttel, kytel & kjutul (pointed slip of wood used to strip bark).  It displaced the native Middle English snithen (from the Old English snīþan) although the German schneiden survives still in some dialects as snithe or snead.  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.

A glove cutter at his bench at Omega srl Gloves (the Omega Glove Factory), Rione Sanità district, Naples, Italy.  In American Pastoral (1997), Philip Roth (1933–2018) wrote that no one was able to make gloves as well as “some small factory in Rione Sanità in Naples.”  In the 1980s, most glove production moved from Europe to the Far East and it's believed there are now fewer than a hundred master-certified glove cutters left in the world, the title formalized in seventeenth century France and conferred only after years of mentorship.

Night Suspect, a British Coast Guard Cutter in Pursuit (1958), oil on canvas by Montague Dawson (1890-1973). 

As a surname derived from occupation, Cutter emerged in the late twelfth century, based on the agent noun cutter (“one who cuts something” or “one who shapes or forms by cutting") from the verb cut From the 1630s it came to be used to describe an "instrument or tool for cutting", the use spreading as specialized tools and machines were developed.  In nautical use, beginning in 1792, it was applied to a range of small, single-mast vessels, a borrowing from the earlier use for a “double-banked boat belonging to a ship of war”, noted since 1745 and the rationale is unrecorded but it may have been either because of the similar lines of the hull or the more romantic idea of “cutting through” (moving quickly) the water.  The original ships were the “revenue cutters", lightly-armed government vessels commissioned for the prevention of smuggling and the enforcement of the customs regulations.  The use was therefore for some time restricted to vessels cutter-rigged, but the name has survived to transcend the original specification, almost all revenue ships now powered while the handful of sailed-ships are schooner-rigged.  Modifiers are used to describe various specialized tools used for cutting including biscuit cutter, cigar cutter, bolt cutter, box-cutter, gem cutter, glass cutter, leaf-cutter et al.  The original box cutters, dating from 1871, were those employees with the task of “cutting boxes” while the installed box cutters were pieces of large industrial plant, first noted in 1890; the familiar modern box cutter (hand-held bladed tool for cutting cardboard) first sold in 1944.  A cookie cutter is literally a device used to cut shapes from a sheet of pastry dough but is also used figuratively to describe to things which are un-original or un-imaginative.  Cutter is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is cutters.

Cutters: Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)

What cutters do.

Cutters are the best known example of self-harmers, the diagnosis of which is described in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).  NSSI is defined as the deliberate, self-inflicted destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent and for purposes not socially sanctioned; it includes behaviors such as cutting, burning, biting and scratching skin.  Behaviorally, it’s highly clustered with instances especially prevalent during adolescence and the majority of cases being female although there is some evidence the instances among males may be under-reported.  It’s a behavior which has long interested and perplexed the profession because as something which involves deliberate and intentional injury to body tissue in the absence of suicidal intent (1) it runs counter to the fundamental human instinct to avoid injury and (2) as defined the injuries are never sufficiently serious to risk death, a well-understood reason for self-harm.  Historically, such behaviors tended to be viewed as self-mutilation and were thought a form of attenuated suicide but in recent decades more attention has been devoted to the syndrome, beginning in the 1980s at a time when self-harm was regarded as a symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD) (personality disorders first entered DSM when DSM-III was published in 1980), distinguished by suicidal behavior, gestures, threats or acts of self-mutilation.  Clinicians however advanced the argument the condition should be thought a separate syndrome (deliberate self-harm syndrome (DSHS)), based on case studies which identified (1) a patient’s inability to resist the impulse to injure themselves, (2) a raised sense of tension prior to the act and (3) an experience of release or at least partial relief after the act.  That a small number of patients were noted as repeatedly self-harming was noted and it was suggested that a diagnosis called repetitive self-mutilation syndrome (RSMS) should be added to the DSM.  Important points associated with RSMS were (1) an absence of conscious suicidal intent, (2) the patient’s perpetually negative affective/cognitive which was (temporarily) relieved only after an act of self-harm and (3) a preoccupation with and repetitiveness of the behavior.  Accordingly, NSSI Disorder was added to the DSM-5 (2013) and noted as a condition in need of further study.

KEIBA Side Cutters.

Although interest in the cutters spiked in the 1990s, papers had been published as early as the 1930s and the literature suggests something of a consensus among clinicians it should be regarded a matter of self-mutilation, such acts a form of attenuated suicide.  Accordingly, all non-fatal and deliberate forms of self-injury tended to be viewed as suicide attempts, regardless of whether there was any expressed suicidal intent and it wasn’t until the 1960s that any volume of doubt emerged.  That was significant, not only because self-injury was coming to be understood as something distinct from attempted suicide but that it implied the instance of attempted suicide was significantly overstated, something of interest to many.  This led to the coining of the novel word “parasuicide”, perhaps an indication the profession still preferred to think cutting a sub-set rather than anything distinct.

Cutters' scars, fresh & fading.

For clinicians, NSSI can at the margins be a difficult diagnosis.  To fit the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5, NSSI must be intentional and deliberate but acts sometimes occurs during dissociative episodes so a judgment needs to be made determining whether an act can be held to be intentional if the patient is detached from reality.  As a definitional matter. there’s also the issue that if the motivation is to “feel something” some degree of intentionality seems at least implied but these examples do illustrate why NSSI among those suffering an episode of dissociation need even more carefully to be assessed before a diagnosis is decided.  There’s also a threshold criterion for the injury suffered, wounds needing to be “moderately intense” to qualify, thus the exclusion of such as lip-biting, scab & skin picking, hair pulling and nail-biting, even if these injuries might demand clinical care in another context (and may well be relevant in assessment measures).  Some extent of a “destruction of body tissue” is thus required and the current DSM-5 definition specifies bleeding or bruising.  However, it’s noted in cases studies that while minor and highly normative behaviors such as lip-biting, skin picking and hair pulling are excluded: (1) When severe they may be indicative of another specific condition such as trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) or excoriation (skin-picking disorder) rather than NSSI and (2) repeated and obsessional instances of behavior that might otherwise be considered mild and normative might appropriately be diagnosed as NSSI.

Case Fatality Rates by Suicide Method (8 indicative US states, 1989-1997)

Although the instances of death resulting from cutting are low, it’s clear many patients engage in NSSI behaviors while experiencing thoughts of suicide and while the evidence suggests many report being resigned to death as a consequence of cutting, actual suicidal thoughts and hopes for death are markedly higher in those exhibiting suicidal behaviors.  Intriguingly, it seems some may engage in NSSI as a way to avoid acting on thoughts of suicide; NSSI for these patients serving to regulate and reduce suicidal thoughts and intentions.  So it’s clear that in both thought and behavior, there’s some overlap between NSSI and suicidal thoughts meaning that even if a cutter’s injuries are (medically) minor, the condition should not be thought trivial although, for practical purposes, NSSI and suicidal behaviors need still to be categorized separately.  Cutting is also special in that it is so overt, unlike other forms of self-harm such as alcohol & drug abuse, risky behavior or neglecting to follow a prescribed treatment for a chronic condition.  There does however seem to be a pronounced co-morbidity between NSSI and eating disorders, the obvious link being a patient’s relationship with their body, NSSI being in some sense a compensatory behavior and form of self-punishment.  Data is clearly accumulating but the APA’s editorial committee seem not yet ready to make major structural changes: in the DSM-5-TR (Text Revision, 2022) although codes were included both suicidal behavior and NSSI, Suicidal Behavior Disorder (SBD) and NSSI Disorder remained in the section “Conditions for Further Study”.

US Coast Guard Legend Class National Security Cutter.