Noose (pronounced noos)
(1) A loop with a running knot, as in a snare, lasso, or
hangman's halter, that tightens as the rope is pulled; a device to restrain,
bind, or trap.
(2) A tie or bond; snare.
(3) To secure by or as by a noose.
(4) To make a noose with or in (a rope or the like).
1400-1450: From the late Middle English nose (noose, loop), of unclear origin. Etymologists have speculated it may be from
the Old French nos or Old Occitan nous & nos (both forms known also in the descendent Provençal), the nominative
singular or accusative plural of nou
(knot), with the meaning shifting from the knot to the loop created by the knot,
the French forms from the Latin nōdus
(knot; node), from the primitive Indo-European root ned (to bind; to tie). If
that’s true, it was cognate with the French nœud
(knot), the Portuguese nó (knot) and the
Spanish nudo (knot). The alternative etymology (which most
authorities appear to find more convincing) is it was borrowed from Middle Low
German nȫse (loop, noose, snare), also
of obscure origin although it may have been derived from an incorrect division
of ēn' ȫse (literally “a loop”), from the
Middle Low German ȫse, from the Old Saxon ōsia,
from the Proto-West Germanic ansiju (eyelet,
loop). It’s possible the Saterland
Frisian Noose (loop, eyelet) & Oose (eyelet, loop) may have emerged
from the same process. In English, use of noose was rare prior to
the early seventeenth century. Although
it’s a popular tale, it’s a myth a hangman’s noose always has 13 coils. The old spelling nooze is long obsolete. Noose
is a noun & verb; nooser is a verb, nooselike & nooseless are
adjectives and noosed & noosing are verbs; the noun plural is nooses.
The Nazis and the noose
Soviet cartoon Caricature of the defendants and the anticipated Nuremberg judgment (1946) by the Soviet artists known as the Kukryniksy: Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990), Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903-1991) & Nikolai Sokolov (1903-2000). As the trial wore on, at least two of the defendants were recorded as requesting shirts with "larger collars" and one once removed his tie, explaining it was "suddenly feeling tight".
As a prelude to the main Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) of
the most notable or representative Nazis, the list of two-dozen-odd defendants was
assembled to be indicted variously for (1) conspiracy to commit a crime against
peace, (2) planning or waging wars of aggression, (3) war crimes and (4) crimes
against humanity. Even before the trial
started it was known the International Military Tribunal (IMT) enjoyed capital
jurisdiction (although in his opening remarks the president of the tribunal
took care to explain the legal basis of their right to impose death sentences) and
the court-appointed psychologist noted from his interviews with the accused
that all expected the proceedings to be nothing more than a Stalinesque “show
trial” with the death penalty inevitable for all, something the assurances of
their (German) defense council seemed little to assuage. As representatives from the world’s press (not
yet called “the media”) began to arrive they were reported as mostly sharing
the assumption and even as the trial unfolded and the defendants came to realize
that for at least some of them there was the prospect of avoiding the noose or
perhaps even securing an acquittal, the straw polls among the journalists still
thought the death sentence likely for the majority.
Soviet cartoon The twelfth hour of the Hitlerites by Boris Efimov (1900-2008), from the series Fascist Menagerie, Izvestiia, 1 January 1946.
The strangest case in so many ways was that of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941). Before the proceedings formerly commenced, the tribunal had been about to discharge Hess because it seemed clear there was sufficient doubt his mental state was adequate to ensure a fair trial and it was only an extraordinary admission from Hess himself that his display of amnesia had to that point been merely “tactical” and he was quite lucid and able to understand all that was going on. He’d actually achieved the very thing sought by yet denied to so many defendants yet he chose instead to be tried. His conduct thereon was just as bizarre, declining to enter a plea (the court recorded “not guilty” as a formality), often preferring to read novels rather than follow the proceedings and when his sentence was announced, he claimed not to have listened, saying, apparently without much concern he assumed it was death. Actually, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life and with six others entered Berlin’s Spandau Prison where he would remain until 1987 when, aged 93, he hanged himself, having fashioned a noose from a length of electrical cable. For the last two decades, he was the sole inmate of the huge facility designed to accommodate hundreds and, having entered captivity in 1941 after his bizarre “peace mission” to Scotland, had by the time of his death been locked-up for 46 years.
Burberry’s hoodie with noose, 2019, (left) and Kylie Jenner wearing a Givenchy Noose Necklace, 2023.
Because of the association with suicide, slavery and the
history of lynching in the century after the US Civil War (1861-1865), the
noose can be a controversial thing if invoked in an insensitive way. Controversy though is just another technique
to be weaponized when there’s the need to generate publicity and in the fashion
business, it’s no longer enough to just to design something elegant or otherwise
pleasing to the eye because it will barely be noticed on the catwalk and
probably won’t make the magazines or become clickbait. Thus the temptation to try to shock which
will guarantee the desired publicity, the added attraction being the certainty
the will do its job then quickly subside.
The Givenchy Noose Necklace model Kylie Jenner (b 1997) wore in January
2023 at Paris Fashion Week had been see before, causing a bit of a stir on the
catwalk in 2021 when it was used in the fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2022 show. Then, on cue, The Guardian called it out as “blatantly
offensive”, guaranteeing even wider coverage although Givenchy solved the
short-term problem by responding to the paper’s request for a comment with an Élysée-like
“The house does not have an official
response on this”. They may have
learned that in such matters apologies probably make things worse from Burberry’s
"We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by one of the products that
featured in our Autumn/Winter 2019 collection”, issued after being condemned
for showing a hoodie with a noose.
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