Witenagemot

Witenagemot (pronounced wit-n-uh-guh-moht)

(1) The Anglo-Saxon parliament, the assembly of the witan; the national council attended by the king, aldermen, bishops, and nobles which assembled on several occasions between the sixth and eleventh centuries, initially as a number of bodies which claimed only regional authority, later (and with representative membership), assuming a national jurisdiction.

(2) Any one session of any of these assemblies.

(3) In casual use, other deliberative bodies (obsolete since the late nineteenth centuries).

1585–1595: From the Old English, the construct being witena, (genitive plural of wita (councillor; man of knowledge) + gemōt (assembly, meeting, council), gemōt the source of the Modern English moot.  A learned borrowing the from Old English witena ġemōt, the literal translation was “assembly of the wise”).  The spelling (and capitalization) of Witenagemot was never standardised.  In Modern English, witenagemot was the most common form but historically, more frequently used (in order) were wittenagemot, wittenagemote, wittena-gemote and wittena-gemot, but all of those variations had declined by the early twentieth century and, except in historic citation, are now extinct.  Also long obsolete is the (always rare) use of Witenagemot to describe any institution other than the Anglo-Saxon assembly.  Witenagemot is a noun; the plural is witenagemots.

Anglo-Saxon England.

The Witenaġemot, often in casual conversation spoken of as “the Witan” (which, technically was title granted to the membership), was an embryonic parliament which assembled periodically in England between the late sixth and mid-eleventh centuries.  As an aggregation, it formed by a process of gradual absorption of earlier assemblies with purely regional jurisdiction (Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex and Wessex) before eventually asserting national jurisdiction.  The closest modern counterparts of its composition and function were probably the colonial legislative councils; political institutions devoted to the deliberative and empowered to advise the executive (the king and his court).  The Witenagemot’s membership reflected the practice many such assemblies and was restricted to the nobility, the landed gentry and senior clergy.  Historians consider the Witenagemot a particularly English development and adaptation of the old (and more widely representative) Germanic assemblies or folkmoots.  In late sixth century England, these folkmoots had assumed a more aristocratic identity as convocations of the most important, influential and powerful in the land.  Although local, regional and local matters were discussed when the Witenagemot convened, it was a body without legislative authority; it was empowered only to “warn, counsel and advise” the king.

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, stabbing King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings while fighting on horseback.  Painting held by the British Library Board, Cotton Vitellius A. XIII.

One of the Witenagemot’s final acts concerned the royal succession in 1066.  Because Edward the Confessor (circa 1003-1066; King of England 1042-1066) died without an heir, it was a resolution of Witenagemot which confirmed Edward's successor to be his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson (circa 1022-1066; King Harold II of England, Jan-Oct 1066) as king.  With no royal blood and fearing rival claims from the Duke of Normandy and the King of Norway, Harold had himself crowned in Westminster Abbey on 6 January 1066, the day after Edward's death.  In September, a Norwegian army, aided by Harold's alienated brother Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, did invade but at the Battle of Stamford Bridge his force was routed so decisively by Harold that barely two-dozen vessels of the invasion fleet of three-hundred were required to ferry home the survivors.  Meanwhile, the Duke of Normandy, claiming Harold had two years earlier acknowledged him as Edward's successor, landed in Sussex.  Harold rushed his seven-thousand strong army south where, on 14 October 1066, he was defeated by the Normans, falling in battle on the field of Senlac near Hastings; after being struck in the eye by an arrow, he was cut down by Norman swords.  Harold was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.

Trumpery

Trumpery (pronounced truhm-puh-ree)

(1) Something without use or value; rubbish; trash; worthless stuff.

(2) Nonsense; twaddle; foolish talk or actions.

(3) Worthless finery; a mere trinket (archaic).

(4) Deceit; fraud (obsolete).

1425–1475: From the late Middle English trompery (deceit) from the Middle French tromperie from tromper (to cheat).  The construct of tromperie was tromper ((from the Middle & Old French tromper (to tramp, delude; literally “to play on the trumpet”), from trompe (trump, trumpet), from the Frankish trumpa (trump, trumpet), from a common Germanic word akin to the Old High German trumba & trumpa (trump, trumpet); ultimately an imitative form) +‎ -erie (from the Old French -erie, inherited the from Latin -arius & -ator; the suffix denoting, inter alia, nouns describing qualities or properties).  The plural is trumperies.

In English, the original meaning of the mid-fifteenth century noun trumpery was deception & trickery and as late as 1847, British statesman and novelist Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881; prime-minister Feb-Dec 1868 & 1874-1880) wrote of a political movement being condemned as “…fraud and trumpery”.  The French original (tromperie from the verb tromper) also meant “to deceive” but its original, literal meaning was “to blow a trumpet” so tromper quelque chose (literally “to trump something”) meant to announce something to the sound of a trumpet, and tromper quelqu’un, (literally “to trump someone”), meant “to announce something to someone to the sound of a trumpet.  Etymologists believe the figurative sense of tromper (“to deceive”) emerged because the perception evolved that such announcements were often false, truth thought likely to be in inverse proportion to the volume of the advertising.

The English noun trump is now obsolete in the senses related to trumpets except in the Biblical expression “the last trump” (Revelation 11:15), denoting the trumpet blast that will wake the dead on Judgment Day.  Trump continues in English in card games in the sense a playing card of a suit that ranks higher than any other suit but that meaning developed separately and is a variant of triumph, once used in card games in the same sense; the French and Italian masculine nouns triomphe and trionfo were used in the same way.  The first known user of trump in the sense of a winning card was the English Protestant prelate and martyr Hugh Latimer (circa 1485-1555) in the first of his Sermons on the Card (circa 1529): “We must say to ourselves, “What requireth Christ of a christian man?” Now turn up your trump, your heart (hearts is trump, as I said before), and cast your trump, your heart, on this card; and upon this card you shall learn what Christ requireth of a christian man.”

At the GOP Shop, every card was once a Trump.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the GOP Shop seems to have removed all Donald Trump merchandise from its catalogue but the decks of waterproof Donald Trump 24k gold plated playing cards have been off-loaded and are available on Amazon at US$7.88, only a little more than when last advertised by the GOP Shop when they listed at US$6.25 (reduced from US$19.95).

A deck of waterproof Donald Trump 24k gold plated playing cards for US$7.88 would seem good value because a 54 card (52 + 2 jokers) Lindsay Lohan deck costs US$36.

Duplicity

Duplicity (pronounced doo-plis-i-tee or dyoo-plis-i-tee)

(1) Deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter; double-dealing.

(2) An act or instance of such deceitfulness.

(3) In law, the act or fact of including two or more offenses in one count, or charge, as part of an indictment, thus violating the requirement that each count contain only a single offense.

1400–1450: From the Late Middle English, from the Old French duplicite, from the Late Latin duplicitatem (nominative duplicitas (doubleness)).  Technically, the word wa borrowed from Latin duplicāre (double), present active infinitive of duplicō and the Medieval Latin duplicitās differed with ite replacing itās.  The notion is of being "double" in one's conduct ultimately is derived from the Ancient Greek diploos (treacherous, double-minded) which translates literally as "twofold, double".  Related in Medieval Latin was ambiguity, noun of quality from duplex, genitive (duplicis (two-fold)).

Duplicity good and bad

Because such conduct is inherent to human interaction, there are many words either similar in meaning or a synonym of duplicity.  Duplicity is the form of deceitfulness that leads one to give two impressions, either or both of which may be false.  Deceit is the quality that prompts intentional concealment or perversion of truth for the purpose of misleading.  The quality of guile leads to craftiness in the use of deceit; one uses guile and trickery to attain one's ends. Hypocrisy is the pretence of possessing virtuous qualities such as sincerity, goodness or devotion.  Fraud refers usually to the practice of subtle deceit or duplicity by which one may derive benefit at another's expense.  Trickery is the quality that leads to the use of tricks and habitual deception.  In modern English usage, the most common sense of duplicity is “deceitfulness.”  The roots of this meaning are in the initial dupl from the Latin duplex (twofold, or double).  We do seem a duplicitous lot.

Alexander Haig (1924–2010; US Secretary of State 1981-1982) & Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; US President 1981-1989) (left) and Lord Carrington (1919–2018; UK Foreign Secretary 1979-1982) & Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013; UK Prime Minister 1979-1990) (right).

To accuse someone duplicity is usually to allege or suggest something negative, the idea that someone has acted in a manner perhaps not dishonest but certainly misleading or dishonorable.  However there are fields of endeavor where the successfully duplicitous are often admired and the most Machiavellian can be held in awe.  In international relations, it’s true in the upper reaches of diplomacy.

Duplicity, art and science: Haig and Carrington, the White House, 26 February 1981.

More than General Colin Powell (b 1937; US Secretary of State 2001-2005) and more even than General Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969; US President 1953-1961), General Alexander Haig (1924-2010) was an exemplar of that uniquely Washington DC creature, the political soldier, whose career shuttled between the military, diplomacy and politics.  After a meeting in 1981, Haig was heard to remark the UK Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, was a "duplicitous bastard".  Beyond the beltway, that would be a disparaging comment, but, in the world of international diplomacy, it’s more an expression of admiration of professional skill.

Mean Girls (2004), a story of duplicity, low skulduggery, Machiavellian manipulation, lies & deceit.  As a morality tale, the message can be reduced to: “Women would rather hear brilliant lies than honest truths”.

Shaker

Shaker (pronounced shey-ker)

(1) A person or thing that shakes or the means by which something is shaken.

(2) A container with a perforated top from which a seasoning, condiment, sugar, flour, or the like is shaken onto food.

(3) Any of various containers for shaking beverages to mix the ingredients (eg cocktail shaker).

(4) A dredger or caster.

(5) A member of the Millennial Church, originating in England in the middle of the eighteenth century (initial capital letter).

(6) Noting or pertaining to a style of something produced by Shakers and characterized by simplicity of form, lack of ornamentation, fine craftsmanship, and functionality (initial capital letter).

(7) As the later component in mover and shaker, one who is important, influential or a dynamic forced in some field or generally.

(8) An exposed air-intake system for internal combustion engines, attached directly to the induction and thus intended to shake as the engine vibrates.

(9) A variety of pigeon.

(10) In railway line construction, one who holds spikes while they are hammered.

(11) In music, a musical percussion instrument filled with granular solids which produce a rhythmic sound when shaken.

(12) A kind of straight-sided, stackable glass.

1400-1450: From the late Middle English, the construct being shake +‎ -er.  Shake is from the Middle English schaken, from the Old English sċeacan & sċacan (to shake), from the Proto-West Germanic skakan, from the Proto-Germanic skakaną (to shake, swing, escape), from the primitive Indo-European (s)keg- & (s)kek- (to jump, move).  It was cognate with the Scots schake & schack (to shake), the West Frisian schaekje (to shake), the Dutch schaken (to elope, make clean, shake), the Low German schaken (to move, shift, push, shake) & schacken (to shake, shock), the Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (to shake), the Swedish skaka (to shake), the Dutch schokken (to shake, shock) and the Russian скака́ть (skakát) (to jump).  The –er suffix is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius and reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (The Anglo-Norman variant was -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  Added to verbs (typically a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb) and forms an agent noun.  The plural is shakers.

The Shakers

The Millennial Church later called the Shakers, dates from 1747, the name shaker first casually applied circa 1750 although it had been used to describe similar practices in other sects since the 1640s and, as an adjective, shaker was first applied to their stark furniture in 1866.  The first cocktail shaker was mentioned in 1868 (the ancient Greeks had seison (a kind of vase) which translated literally as “shaker".  The modern-sounding “movers and shakers” is attested as early as 1874.  The Shakers began as a sect of the English Quakers, the movement founded in 1747 by Jane and James Wardley.  Correctly styled as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, the Shakers were a celibate, millenarian group that established a number of communal settlements in the United States during the eighteenth century.  The early movement was based on the revelations of Ann Lee (1736–1784; addressed within as Mother Ann Lee) who had been active in the English church for almost twenty years after becoming a devotee of the preaching of the Wardleys to whom she confessed her sins; central to her vision was the necessity of repentance and the forsaking of sin as the pathway to redemption.

Movers and shakers: Shakers shaking in worship, New York, 1858.

Promising a vision of a heavenly kingdom to come, Shaker teaching emphasized simplicity, celibacy, & work and communities were flourishing by the mid-nineteenth century, contributing to American culture the style of architecture, furniture, and handicraft for which the movement is today best remembered.  The distinctive feature of their form of worship was the ecstatic dancing or "shaking", which led to them being dubbed “the Shaking Quakers”, later generally shorted to “Shakers”.  The physicality of their practices was neither novel or unique, nor anything particularly associated with Christianity, many religions or sects within, noted for rituals involving shaking, shouting, dancing, whirling, and singing, sometimes in intelligible words, often called “in tongues” (the idea often being what was spoken coming directly from God).

The much-admired Shaker furniture.

Austere though they may have appeared, the Shakers were genuinely innovative in agriculture and industry, their farms prosperous and their ingenuity produced a large number of (usually unpatented) inventions including, the screw propeller, babbitt metal, a rotary harrow, an automatic spring, a turbine waterwheel, a threshing machine and the circular saw.  In agri-business, they were the first in the world to package and market seeds and were once the US’s largest producers of medicinal herbs.  Shaker dance and music is now regarded as a fork in American folk art as well as its religious tradition and the simplicity, functionality and fine craftsmanship of their architecture, furniture and artefacts have had a lasting influence on design.

Although intellectually primitive, Mother Ann’s theology was elaborate but with celibacy as the cardinal principle, the continuity of the communities depended on a constant flow of converts rather than the organic regeneration planned by other sects but the numbers attracted were never sufficient to maintain a critical mass and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the movement went into decline.  From its height in the 1840s, when some six-thousand members were active, by 1905 there were barely a thousand, compelling the shakers to resort to advertising for members, emphasizing physical comfort of the lifestyle as well as spiritual values.  It became and increasing hard sell in an era of increasing urbanisation and materialism and the convulsion of the twentieth century did little to arrest the trend.  In 1957, the leaders met and voted to close the Shaker Covenant, the document which all new members need to sign to become members.  Membership was thus closed forever and by the turn of the century, there was but one working Shaker village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine; it had fewer than ten members and, in 2023, there appear to be only one or two left alive.

The concept of the cocktail shaker is ancient and ceramic versions dating back some 10,000 years have been found in the Middle East and South & Central America.  The use to which they were put seems in all places to have been essentially the same: a means of mixing fermented fluids with herbs and spices added for flavor, after which a gauze-like fabric could be stretched over the opening so the unwanted residue could be strained off.  Innkeepers for centuries doubtlessly improvised (presumably using two suitably shaped & sized glasses or goblets) their own shakers but it was in cities of the north-east US (New York & Boston factions both claiming the credit) during the early nineteenth century the first commercially produced units were advertised.  By mid-century they were widely used, their functionality and convenience cited by some as one of the reasons there was in the era such an upsurge in the number of recipes publish for mixed drinks.  One of the earliest innovations was the integration of a strainer mechanism although bartenders apparently preferred the detachable devices (said to be much better when working with crushed or shaved ice) and the volume of patent applications for variations on the design of strainers hints at their popularity.  Now, most cocktail shakers are either two-piece (sold with and without a fitted shaker) or (and aimed at the home market) three-piece with a built in shaker, the additional component being a fitted cap which can be used as a measure for spirits or other ingredients.

The shaker and the induction system

1969 Ford Mustang 428 CobraJet.

Shakers were air intakes bolted directly to the induction path of an internal combustion engine’s carburetor(s), the advantage being a measurable increase in power using cool, dense air rather than the inherently warmer under-bonnet air.  Cold-air induction systems weren’t uncommon in the 1960s and 1970s but the shaker’s novelty was that being attached to the engine and protruding through a carefully shaped lacuna in the hood (bonnet), the things shook as the engine vibrated on its mounts.  Men still are excited by such things.

1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda.

Early advertising material from Chrysler referred to the device as the Incredible Quivering Exposed Cold Air Grabber but buyers called must have thought that a bit much (IQECAG one of history's less mnemonic initializms) and they’ve only ever been referred to as shakers.  The IQECAG was undeniably a sexy scoop and much admired by the males aged 17-39 to whom it was designed to appeal.  Sometimes less is more.  Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) suggested a good title for his book might be Viereinhalb Jahre [des Kampfes] gegen Lüge, Dummheit und Feigheit (Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice) but his publisher thought that a bit ponderous and preferred the more succinct Mein Kampf: Eine Abrechnung and even that was clipped to Mein Kampf for publication.  Unfortunately, the revised title was the best thing about it, the style and contents truly ghastly and it's long and repetitious, the ideas within able easily to be reduced to a few dozen pages (some suggest fewer but the historical examples cited for context do require some space).

1974 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am SD-455.

The reverse facing shakers (and air intakes generally) were designed, like cowl-induction, to take advantage of the properties of fluid dynamics which, at speed, produced an accumulation of cold, high-pressure air in the space at the bottom of the windscreen.  Their use created an urban myth that Holly certain makes of carburetor (the Holly and the Rochester among those mentioned) didn't like being "force-fed" which (if done badly) was sort of true but nothing to do with the low-pressure bonnet-mounted devices.  Engineers had long understood the principle and cowl-induction systems were first seen on racing cars in 1910.

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 (LS6).

A genuine problem with the external induction systems was rain.  In torrential rain, including when the car was parked, moisture entry could cause problems.  Some manufacturers included a flap, providing a protective seal.  The early ones were manually activated but later versions were vacuum-controlled, the extent of opening cognizant of the pressure being applied to the throttle so it opened and closed and engine speed rose and fell.  As a means of getting cold air, this was of course thought most cool.

1964 Ford Fairlane 427 Thunderbolt.

Actually, the bonnet mounted intakes, regardless of which way they faced, weren’t the optimal way to deliver cold air to the induction system but they were the most–admired and something for which buyers were prepared to pay extra so, although they were the most expensive system to produce, they were also the most profitable. Simple ducting from within the wheel-wells delivered most of the benefits but the most efficient harvest of high-pressure air which gained also a “ram-air” effect which, helpfully, increased as speeds rose, was to duct from a forward-facing inlet in the front bumper bar or grill.  Enjoying a much higher pressure than the area around the cowl, with well-designed ducting, a ram-air tube can operate at up to 125% the efficiency of a cowl intake, able to generate a pressure of 2-3 psi (14-20 pascals) at high speed.  Ford in 1936 & 1964 found that by happy coincidence, the inside set of headlights on their Galaxies and Fairlanes were positioned to suit such ducting almost as if they'd been placed there by design so on the limited production "Lightweight" Galaxie and the Fairlane "Thunderbolt", the lens were removed and the apertures re-purposed.  Only 100 of the Thunderbolts were produced, all intended for use in drag racing and this machine secured the 1964 NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) championship in the Super Stock class.

Unguent

Unguent (pronounced uhng-gwuhnt)

(1) An ointment or salve, usually liquid or semi-liquid, for application to wounds, sores etc (mostly archaic except as a deliberate anachronism for literary or poetic purposes).

(2) Any ointment-like preparation for the skin, use largely restricted to the advertising of high-end cosmetic houses.

1400–1450: From the late Middle English unguent (ointment), from the Latin unguentum, an alteration (probably by association with the suffixes –men, -menta & -mentum (the Latin collective noun suffix)) of unguen (fat, grease) and a derivative of unguere (to anoint or smear with ointment), from the primitive Indo-European root hseng & ongw- (to salve, anoint), the source also of the Sanskrit anakti (anoints, smears), the Armenian aucanem (I anoint), the Old Prussian anctan (butter), the Old High German ancho, the German anke (butter), the Old Irish imb (butter) and the Welsh ymenyn (butter).  The alternative spelling onguent is extinct and technically, synonyms include balm, ointment, lotion, emollient, lubricant, cream & cerate but by virtue of use, the word is mostly obsolete except as a deliberate anachronism for literary or poetic purposes although it persists in the niche of expensive cosmetics where it functions to denote "expensive".  Unguent is a noun and unguentary is an adjective; the noun plural is unguents.

Peter Thomas Roth's Eye-Conic Eye Patches

Unguents can be peel-off:  Lindsay Lohan in May 2023 appeared in a campaign promoting the cult Eye-Conic Eye Patch patches by Peter Thomas Roth.  Actually (very) pregnant during filming, she wore the contoured hydra-gel patches for most of the clip, working-in lines from both Mean Girls (2004) and The Parent Trap (1998).

According to Ms Lohan, although over the years she’s tried “countless” unguents, those by Peter Thomas Roth have “become my staples” and helpfully, the three: (1) hydrating Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Eye Patches (targeting fine lines and under-eye darkness), (2) the rejuvenating Cucumber De-Tox Eye Patches (which help to smooth and de-puff) and (3) the luxe-feeling, skin-firming 24K Gold Pure Luxury Lift & Firm Eye Patches are color-coded.

Aldi's Lacura's Caviar skincare range

Aldi's Lacura Caviar skincare range is a another cult favorite and although among the more expensive of the unguents on sale in supermarkets, it's long attracted rave reviews and users frequently and favorably compare the Caviar products those offered by "prestige" brands costing sometimes literally a hundred-fold more.  Among the mafia-like cohorts of the Caviar cult, there are said to be WhatsApps groups passing on intelligence about which Aldi store has stock because frequently the range is unavailable and re-supply is said to be unpredictable.  If the usual rules of supply & demand are working, there may be a black market.

Guerrilla or Guerilla

Guerrilla or Guerilla (pronounced guh-ril-uh)

(1) A member of an irregular, usually politically motivated, armed force that combats stronger regular forces, such as the army or police.

(2) Pertaining to such fighters or their technique of warfare.

(3) In modern commercial practice, a form of marketing whereby the products of one company are promoted in a way which exploits the advertising of others.

(4) In botany, a form of vegetative spread in which the advance is from several individual rhizomes or stolons growing rapidly away from the centre, as in some clovers.

1809: From the Spanish, originally a reference to the Spanish resistance against the French.  The Spanish guerrilla (body of skirmishers, skirmishing warfare (literally "little war")) was a diminutive of guerra (war) from a Germanic source (derived from Old High German werra (strife, conflict, war)).  Guerrilla was acquired by English during the Peninsular War (1808-1814), the figurative use first noted in 1861, having been an adjective since 1811.  A survey by the New York Review of Books found guerrilla one of the words most frequently confused with another (gorilla).  The spelling guerilla has become so common it’s perhaps now established as a variant.  The attachment of guerrilla war to that conducted by civilian irregulars dates from the Peninsular War when those opposing Napoleon’s occupying forces were mostly peasants and shepherds annoyed the occupying French.  It was military historians rather than linguistic purists who for so long tried to keep the word restricted to "irregular warfare" and prevent it taking on the sense properly belonging to guerrillero "guerrilla fighter" but all anyway failed.

A guerrilla.  Note the guerrilla’s fine choice of AK47.  If buying AK47, always get Russian made original and insist it’s supplied with factory cleaning-kit.  Beware of imitations.

Guerrillas should not be confused with gorillas.  Lindsay Lohan at the King Kong premiere, Loews E-Walk and AMC Empire 25 Theaters, New York City, December 2005.

Sabbatical

Sabbatical (pronounced suh-bat-i-kuhl)

(1) Of or pertaining or appropriate to the Sabbath (initial uppercase).

(2) Of or relating to a sabbatical year which can be formal or informal (initial lowercase).

(3) Bringing a period of rest (initial lowercase).

(4) As sabbatical leave, an extended period of leave from one's customary work (initial lowercase).

(5) In academia, denoting a post that renders the holder eligible for such leave (initial lowercase).

1605–1615: From the Ancient Greek sabbatikós (sábbat(on)), the construct being Sabbath + -ikos or -ic).  Sabbath is from the Middle English sabat, sabbat & sabath, from the Old English Sabat, from the Old French sabat & sabbat and its etymon Latin sabbatum, from the Ancient Greek σάββατον (sábbaton) (Sabbath), from the Hebrew שַׁבָּת‎ (shabát) (Sabbath).  That the spelling ended -th was probably influenced by the traditional transliteration of the Hebrew as shabbāth, being attested since the fourteenth century and in widespread use since the sixteenth.  sabbatical is a noun & adjective and sabbatically is an adverb (only in the context of the sabbath); the noun plural is sabbaticals.  Some sources list the noun sabbaticalness but it's treated by others as non-standard.  

The Middle English suffix –ik, like the Old French –ique and the –icus is from the primitive Indo-European -ikos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i and the adjectival suffix -ko.  Related are the Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), the Sanskrit श (śa), क (ka) and the Old Church Slavonic -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); doublet of -y.  The suffix on noun stems carried the meaning “characteristic of, like, pertaining to” and on adjectival stems it acted emphatically.  The –al suffix of the adjectival (and most familiar) form is from the Latin -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al  It’s thought likely the Latin suffix was formed from the Etruscan genitive suffix -l (as in Etruscan ati (mother) / atial (mother's)) + adjectival suffix -is (as in fortis, dēbilis, etc).  The origins of the sabbatical lie in the Biblical practice of shmita, a practice of agriculture which defined (Leviticus 25) when productive lands must lie fallow.  It stipulated the Jews in the Land of Israel must take a year-long break from working the fields every seven years.  The practice still exists in some types of modern agriculture although typically not on seven year-cycles

Lindsay Lohan enjoying a sabbatical, Los Angeles, August 2012.

Until recent decades, the sabbatical was most associated with a period of leave granted to senior tenured academics, traditionally every seven years.  Until the re-structuring of universities in the 1980s, the sabbatical was essentially the private right of the professor concerned and could be used for composition, calculation or convenience.  By convention, it was thought bad form to ask a professor how he spent his sabbatical; politeness demanded one had to wait for him to raise the matter.  Of late however, institutions offer fewer sabbaticals and those which do have tended increasingly to create structured programmes, sometimes exchange schemes with other universities and it's not unknown for institutions to expect some tangible outcome from a sabbatical.  The word has also entered commerce and some corporations offer (and sometimes compel) extended periods of leave under various terms and conditions.  Popular reasons for these corporate "holidays" include (1) being under investigation for sexual harassment, (2) being charged with some crime, (3) being suspected of insider trading and (4) being someone the corporation would like for some reason to sack but fear exists about the consequences.

Minimalism

Minimalism (pronounced min-uh-muh-liz-uhm)

(1) In music, a reductive style or school of modern music utilizing only simple sonorities, rhythms, and patterns, with minimal embellishment or complexity, and characterized by protracted repetition of figurations, obsessive structural rigor, and often a pulsing, hypnotic effect.

(2) In art or architecture, a style which features spare, austere lines and avoids elaboration or embellishment.  Traditional design elements may be retained but in simplified form.

(3) In engineering and design, a non-aesthetic ethos which tends towards lightness and simplicity.

1965-1967: The construct was minimal + -ism.  Minimal is from the Latin minimum, neuter form of minimus (least, smallest), suppletive superlative of parvus, comparative minor from the primitive Indo-European smey (small, little) from which Latin also gained minuō; related to the Gothic minniza (smaller). Related also was īnfimus (lowest), but etymologists are divided on the history.  It was related also to the Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós) (little, small) and, ultimately, the English smicker.  The –ism suffix was from either the Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine; from stem of verbs in -ίζειν (-ízein) (from which English gained-ize), or from the related Ancient Greek suffix -ισμα (-isma) which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done.  Aspects of the style(s) in modern art, literature, design etc long predate the emergence of the word in the 1960s.  The noun minimalist dates from 1907 in the sense of “one who advocates moderate reforms or policies" and was originally an adapted borrowing of Menshevik; as understood as "a practitioner of minimal art" it dates from 1967, the term “minimal art” being noted first in 1965.  It was an adjective from 1917 in the Russian political sense and since 1969 in reference to art.

Eye of the beholder

Much of what is described as minimalist art is, technically, representational but the concept is best understood as the abstract notion of a thing existing in and defined by its own reality with no dependencies beyond.  Literally that’s not possible but minimalist art works best if the viewer behaves as if it is.  An artist making no attempt to represent or respond to an external reality depends on the audience responding only to the object; that from which it’s created and the form it assumes.

Although strands of minimalism have been identifiable in music, painting, engineering and architecture for millennia, as a defined commodity in the art market it emerged in New York in the late 1950s and has usually been regarded as a reaction to the gestural art of earlier generations.  Minimalism ran in parallel with the forks of the conceptual art movement and produced some original work but was also burdened by some contradictions and the inherent limitation that having pursued a motif to its conclusion, all that could lie beyond were variations on the theme.  Indeed, there were critics for whom minimalism was just another phase of the abstract expressionist movement with roots in the nineteenth century.

Installation view of the exhibition Primary Structures (Younger American & British Sculptors), 27 April-12 June 1966, The Jewish Museum, New York City.

A landmark moment for the movement was the group exhibition Primary Structures, at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1966 which combined, for the first time, big spaces and pure aestheticism.  The curators didn’t use the term “minimalism” in their catalogues and it was only later the word came to be adopted to refer to an increasing number of fields, as diverse as software user interfaces and landscape architecture.  Inevitability, associated with the reductive aspects of modernism and thought something of a reaction to the exuberance of surrealism and abstract expressionism, minimalism begat the post-minimal which, being post-modernist, eschews the theories and leaves the audience to make of it what they will.

Minimalism in Engineering, the fiftieth anniversary (AC) Shelby Cobra 427: Carroll Shelby (1923-2012) defined a sports car as “a vehicle with nothing on it not designed to make it go faster”.

In 2014 Shelby announced a run of fifty Cobras to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) version in January 1965.  Offered with either fiberglass (US$120,000) or aluminum (US$180,000) bodywork and the choice of a variety of naturally aspirated big block engines with between 400 (US$50,000) and 700 horsepower (US$70,000), the greatest attraction of the Shelby-built cars was perhaps that each, despite not being “original” was eligible to be documented in the official “World Registry”, the stud book of the 365 small block (260 & 289) and 343 big block (427 & 428) Cobras built by Shelby American between 1962-1967.  As a concept, it was similar (at the engineering if not the legal level) to Jaguar “resuming production” of the XK-SS and lightweight E-Types which, for various reasons, had never been sold.  Both Jaguar and Shelby based the "resumed" production on chassis numbers allocated decades earlier but which had never reached the market (the cars either never built or destroyed prior while still in the factory).  In Jaguar's case, that was exactly what happened; Shelby had in the past been rather more inventive.

Minimalism in underwear: Lindsay Lohan in LBD (little black dress) at the General Motors Annual ten Celebrity Fashion Show, 1540 Vine Street, Hollywood, California, February 2006.

The originality issue and the cachet of having a “genuine” Shelby built car instead of a “replica” (however exact or even substantially improved on what was done in the 1960s) was well understood but Shelby himself in 1993 created a bit of a grey area by, in effect, creating “counterfeit” copies of his own cars.  What he’d done was use a loophole in the regulations of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) by sending an undocumented request for 43 “duplicate” titles for vehicles on the basis of a list of chassis numbers dating from 1965.  In fact, although the chassis numbers had in 1965 been allocated, they had never been constructed and all the titles Shelby was obtaining were for frames fabricated in 1991-1992 by a contractor.  Unfazed, Mr Shelby, despite having apparently extended his philosophy of minimalism to include legal documents, denied any of this was misleading and said he was the victim of a smear campaign by a competitor.

Minimalism in fashion.  Rita Ora, MTV Video Music Awards, August 2014 (left) & Bella Hadid, Cannes Film Festival, May 2016 (right).  The LRD (little red dress) was a pleasing design, best suited to warmer climates and thus far, the dress of the twenty-first century and therefore the third millennium.  Both wore it well and an individual partiality to one look or the other will depend on how one likes fabric to fall.