Tiger (pronounced tahy-ger)
(1) A
large, carnivorous, tawny-colored and black-striped feline, Panthera tigris, of
Asia, ranging in several subspecies from India and the Malay Peninsula to
Siberia.
(2) In
non-technical use, the cougar, jaguar, thylacine, or other animal resembling
the tiger (in wide use in southern Africa of leopards).
(3) A
person of some fierceness, noted for courage or a ferocious, bloodthirsty and
audacious person.
(4) In
heraldry, a representation of a large mythological cat, used on a coat of arms, often with the spelling tyger or tygre (to distinguish the mythological beast
from the natural tiger (also blazoned Bengal tiger), also used in heraldry).
(5) A
pneumatic box or pan used in refining sugar.
(6) Any
of several strong, voracious fishes, as a sand shark.
(7) Any
of numerous animals with stripes similar to a tiger's.
(8) A
servant in livery who rides with his master or mistress, especially a page or
groom (archaic).
(9) In
entomology & historic aviation, a clipping of tiger moth (in the family
Arctiidae), tiger beetle or tiger butterfly (in tribe Danaini, especially
subtribe Danaina).
(10) Any
of the three Australian species of black-and-yellow striped dragonflies of the
genus Ictinogomphus.
(11) In
US, slang, someone noted for their athleticism or endurance during sexual
intercourse.
(12) In
southern African slang, a ten-rand note.
(13) As TIGR (pronounced as for “tiger”), the abbreviation for Treasury Investment Growth Receipts: a bond denominated in dollars and linked to US treasury bonds, the yield on which is taxed in the UK as income when it is cashed or redeemed.
Pre 1000:
From the Middle English tygre & tigre, from the Old English tīgras (plural) and the Anglo-Norman tigre (plural), from the Latin tīgris, from the Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from an Iranian source akin to the
Old Persian tigra- (sharp, pointed) and
related to the Avestan tighri & tigri (arrow) and tiγra (pointed),
the reference being to the big cats “springing” on to their prey but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes no
application of either word (or any derivative) to the tiger is known in Zend. It was used of “tiger-like” people since the
early sixteenth century and that could be complementary or pejorative although the
female form (tigress) seems only to have been used in zoology since the 1610s
and was never applied to women. The tiger's-eye
(yellowish-brown quartz) was first documented in 1886. The word “liger”, like the creature it
described, was a forced mating of lion and tiger. As a modifier, tiger is widely used including
the forms: American tiger, Amur tiger, Asian Tiger, Mexican tiger, Siberian
tiger, tiger barb, tiger beetle, tiger bench, tiger-lily, tiger lily, tiger's
eye, tiger shark & tiger's milk. The
alternative spellings tigre & tyger are both obsolete. Tiger & tigerishness are nouns, tigerly,
tigerish & tigerlike are adjectives and tigerishly is an adverb; the noun
plural is tigers (feminine tigress).
Lindsay Lohan with tiger in Kult Magazine (Italy), January 2012, photograph by Vijat Mohindra, makeup by Joyce Bonelli.
In idiomatic use, a country said to have a “tiger economy” (rapid and sustained economic growth), especially if disproportionate to population or other conventional measures. “Tiger parent” (and especially “tiger mother”) refers to a strict parenting style demanding academic excellence and obedience from children; it’s associated especially with East Asian societies. The “tiger cheer” dates from 1845 and originated in Princeton University, based on the institution’s mascot and involved the cheerleaders calling out "Tiger" at the end of a cheer accompanied by a jump or outstretched arms. Beyond Princeton, a “tiger cheer” is any “shriek or howl at the end of a cheer”. The phrase "paper tiger" was apparently first used by comrade Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976) when discussing his thoughts about the imperialist powers. A calque of the Chinese 紙老虎/纸老虎 (zhǐlǎohǔ), it referred to an ostensibly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; imposing but ineffectual. Phrases in the same vein include "sheep in wolf's clothing" and "a bark worse than their bite". To be said to “have a tiger by the tail” suggests one has found one’s self in a situation (1) that has turned out to be much more difficult to control than one had expected and (2) difficult to extricate one’s self from, the idea being that while holding the tiger’s tail, things are not good but if one lets go, things will likely become much worse.
Men in frock coats: The “Big Four” at the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), outside the Foreign Ministry headquarters, Quai d'Orsay, Paris. Left to right: David Lloyd George (1863–1945; UK prime-minister 1916-1922), Vittorio Orlando (1860–1952; Italian prime minister 1917-1919), Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929; French prime minister 1906-1909 & 1917-1920) and Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; US president 1913-1921).
Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929; Prime Minister of France 1906-1909 & 1917-1920) was a physician who turned to politics via journalism, a not unfamiliar trajectory for many; at a time of national crisis, he undertook his second term as premier, providing the country’s politics with the stiffness needed to endure what was by then World War I (1914-1918); he was nick-named le tigre (the tiger) in honor of his ferociously combative political demeanour. In February 1919, while travelling from his apartment a meeting associated with the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), he was shot several times, his assailant an anarchist carpenter & joiner, Émile Cottin (1896-1937) and two decades on, another leader would learn carpenters can be assassins. Le tigre was lucky, the bullets missing his vital organs although one which passed through the ribcage ending up lodged close to his heart; too close to that vital organ to risk surgery, there it remained until his death (from unrelated causes) ten years later. Cottin’s death sentence was later commuted to a ten year sentence and he would die in battle, serving with the anarchist Durruti Column during the early days of the Spanish Civil War. The Tiger’s response to his survival was to observe: “We have just won the most terrible war in history, yet here is a Frenchman who misses his target six out of seven times at point-blank range. Of course this fellow must be punished for the careless use of a dangerous weapon and for poor marksmanship. I suggest that he be locked up for eight years, with intensive training in a shooting gallery.” In the circumstances, deploring the state of French marksmanship displayed a certain French sang froid.
The
Sunbeam Tigers
Sunbeam Tiger, LSR run, Southport Beach, March 1926.
There
have been three Sunbeam Tigers, the first illustrious, the second fondly
remembered and the last so anti-climatic it’s all but forgotten. The first was a dedicated racing car, built
between 1923-1925 and, those being times when there was less specialization, it
was used both in circuit racing and, most famously, in setting the world Land
Speed Record (LSR). Although aerodynamic
by the standards of the time (the techniques of streamlining learned in World
War I (1914-1918) military aviation applied), there was little innovation in
the platform except for the engine, the nature of which ensured the Tiger’s
place in history. For Grand Prix events
conducted for cars with a maximum displacement of 2.0 litres (122 cubic
inches), Sunbeam had earlier built a two litre straight-six, the limitations
imposed by the relatively small size being offset by the use of the then still
novel double overhead camshafts (DOHC) which allowed both more efficient
combustion chambers and much higher engine speeds, thereby increasing
power. It was a robust, reliable power-plant
and when contemplating an attempt on the LSR, instead of developing anything
new or using the then popular expedient of installing a big & powerful but
heavy and low-revving aero engine, the engineers paired two of the blocks and
heads on a single crankcase, creating a 75° 3,976 cm3 (243 cubic
inch) V12. When supercharged, power
outputs as high as 312 hp (233 kW) were registered.
1960 Sunbeam Alpine with the original tail fins.
Although
successful in competition and the manufacturer of some much admired road cars,
financial stability for Sunbeam was marginal for most of the 1920s and the Great
Depression of the early 1930s proved its nemesis, the bankrupt company in 1934 purchased
by the Rootes Group which was attracted by Sunbeam’s production facilities
and their well-regarded line of commercial chassis for bus & truck
operators. Rootes over the years used the
Sunbeam name in a desultory way, the vehicles little more than “badge
engineered” versions of their Hillman, Singer, Humber & Talbot lines but one aberration
was the Sunbeam Alpine, a small sports car (1959-1968). Rootes had used the Alpine name before,
adopted to take advantage of the success enjoyed in the 1953 Alpine Rally but the
new roadster was very different.
Although the platform was taken, unpromisingly, from a small van and the
rest of the structure was a mash up of components from the Rootes parts bin, as
a package it worked very well and the body was modern and attractive, owing
more to small Italian sports cars than the often rather agricultural British competition from MG and Triumph. The rakish fins drew the
eye (not always uncritically) but they were very much of their time (and soon pruned), taller even than
those on the Daimler SP250 released the same year. The Alpine was also pleasingly civilized with a heater which
actually worked, a soft-top which didn’t leak (at least as much as others), external
door handles and wind-up windows, none of which were guaranteed to exist on
most of the local competition. It was
also commendably quiet, conversations possible and the radio able to be listened to even at cruising
speed, then something novel in little roadsters.
1965 Sunbeam Tiger Mark 1.
With an engine capacity initially of 1.5 litres (91 cubic inch), the Alpine was never
fast although that was hardly the point and Rootes advertising aimed at what was then known as the “ladies market”. Slightly larger engines would improve things
but the performance deficit was better addressed when in 1964, a version of the
Alpine called the Tiger was released, this time with Ford’s then new 260 cubic
inch (4.2 litre) “thinwall” Windsor V8, about to become well known from its use
in both the Ford Mustang and Shelby’s Cobra, the latter based on a much-modified AC Ace. The Windsor V8 was called a “thinwall” because genuinely it was small and light (by V8 standards) but even so it only just
fitted in the Alpine’s engine bay and so tight was the fit that a small hatch
was installed in the firewall (under the dashboard) so a mechanic could reach
in to change one otherwise inaccessible spark plug. Nevertheless, the package worked and all
those who wrote test reports seemed to enjoy the Tiger, noting the effortless
performance, fine brakes and predictable handling, all in something
conveniently sized. Even then though, more than one journalist observed that although the Ford V8 used was in the mildest
state of tune Ford offered (the ones Shelby put in the Cobra producing over 100
hp (75 kW) more), it was clear the classis was probably close to the limit of
what would be sensible.
Despite
that, in the mid 1960s there was in the US quite an appetite for cars not wholly sensible for street use and for the North American market, a revised version was released,
this time with a 289 cubic inch (4.7 litre) Windsor V8 and although there had
been some attention to the underpinnings, it was now obvious that while still
in the low-power state Ford used in station wagons, the 289's increased output exceeded the
capability of the chassis. For the
journalists of course, that was highly entertaining and so they were prepared
to forgive, one cautioning only that the Tiger:
“…doesn’t take kindly to being flung
around. It’s a car with dignity as asks
to be driven that way. That doesn’t mean
slowly, necessarily, but that there’s sufficient power on tap to embarrass the
incautious. But if you treat it right,
respecting it for what it is, the Tiger can offer driving pleasure of a very
high order.”
In the era, there were other over-powered machines which could behave worse and those
able to read between the lines would know what they were getting but there may
have been some who were surprised and tellingly, the Tigers were never advertised
to the “ladies market” although one pink 289 Tiger was in 1965 given as the
traditional pink prize to Playboy’s Playmate of the Year. Presumably she enjoyed it.
The US was a receptive market for the little hot rod and one featured in the Get Smart TV series, although it’s said that for technical reasons, a re-badged Alpine was actually used, the same swap effected for the 2008 film adaptation, a V8 exhaust burble dubbed where appropriate, a trick not uncommon in film-making. In 1967, after taking control of Rootes Group, Chrysler had intended to continue production of the Tiger, by then powered by the 289 but with Chrysler’s 273 cubic inch (4.4 litre) LA V8 substituted. Unfortunately, while 4.7 Ford litres filled it to the brim, 4.4 Chrysler litres overflowed; the Windsor truly was compact. Allowing it to remain in production until the stock of already purchased Ford engines had been exhausted, Chrysler instead changed the advertising from emphasizing the “…mighty Ford V8 power plant” to the vaguely ambiguous “…an American V-8 power train”. Still a popular car in the collector community, so easily modified are the V8s that few survive in their original form and many have been fitted with larger Windsors, the 302 (4.9 litre) the most popular and some have persuaded even the tall-deck 351 (5.8) to fit. The fate of Ms Collins' pink Tiger is not known.
1972 Hillman Avenger Tiger. The Avenger is now remembered mostly for the distinctive "boomerang (or hockey stick)" tail-lamps.
While
not quite the sublime to the ridiculous, the third and final Tiger certainly lacked the lustre of its predecessors and was actually
marketed under the Hillman and not the Sunbeam badge, the old Rootes group now owned by Chrysler. Based on the Hillman Avenger (1970-1981), a
competent if unexciting family car, the Avenger Tiger was initially a one-off built for motor shows (they used to be a thing) but such was the reaction a production run was arranged and, based on the Avenger GT, it was a genuine
improvement, fitted with twin Weber carburettors on a
high-compression cylinder head with larger valves and improved porting. The power increase was welcome but wasn’t so
dramatic as to demand any modification of the GT’s suspension beyond a
slight stiffening of the springs. On the
road, the well-sorted rear wheel drive (RWD) dynamics meant it was good to
drive and the performance was a notch above the competition although Chrysler
never devoted the resources to develop it into a machine which could have been competitive with Ford’s Escort in racing and rallying.
The first run of 200-odd early in 1972 were all in “sundance yellow”
with a black stripe (and in case that was too subtle, a “Tiger” graphic adorned
the rear panels) but red was added as an option when another 400 made to meet
demand.
Tigerish: Lindsay Lohan imagined in cara gata (cat face) by Shijing Peng.
No comments:
Post a Comment