Tube

Tube (pronounced toob or tyoob)

(1) A hollow (usually cylindrical or oval) body of metal, glass, rubber or other material, used especially for conveying or containing liquids or gases.

(2) A small, collapsible, cylinder of metal or plastic sealed at one end and having a capped opening at the other from which paint, toothpaste, or some other semi-fluid substance may be squeezed or pumped.

(3) In anatomy & zoology, any hollow, cylindrical vessel or organ:

(4) In botany, the lower part of a gamopetalous corolla or gamosepalous calyx, below the lobes but used generally of any other hollow structure in a plant

(5) As “inner tube” a rubber, synthetic or composite construction in the form of a torus (doughnut-shaped) which sits inside the tyres of bicycles, motorcycles and certain other vehicles for the purpose of sustaining inflation (now rare on passenger vehicles which tend to use “tubeless” tyres.

(6) In semi-formal use (originally UK colloquial but now trademarked), the London RTS (rapid transit system) railway system (should use initial upper case).  The name comes from the tube-like tunnels drilled for most on the original underground sections but “The Tube” is used of the whole network (which does extend beyond London) including the above-ground sectors.  “Tube” is used variously of (1) the service, (2) of the cylindrical tunnels and (3) the rolling stock (the trains and carriages).  The term is also used in other places to describe underground railways.

(7) In electronics as “electron tube” (clipped usually to “tube”); as the “vacuum tube”, the predecessor of the transistor.

(8) In materials, as “nanotube”, small carbon constructions some 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

(9) In fashion variously as (1) “tube top” (a tight-fitting, sleeveless garment extening from the armpits to the waist or hips, (2) “boob tube” a shorter type of tube top which covers only the breasts (often labeled as “bandeau tube top”) and (3) “tube skirt” (a close fitting skirt which differs from the similar “pencil skirt” which is tapered).

(10) In slang, a television set (also used as “boob tube” with “boob” used in the sense of “someone stupid or foolish”, an allusion either to the inanity of much of what was broadcast or slur upon the audience).  Historically, television screens (like pre-modern computer monitors) used a “cathode-ray tube” and this was the original source of the idea of televisions as “on the tube”.

(11) In the slang of surfers, the curled hollow space formed when a cresting wave pitches forward when breaking.

(12) In the slang of clinical medicine, to intubate.

(13) In Australian Slang, a can of beer.

(14) In slang, a telescope (now rare and used usually as a deliberate archaism).

(15) To furnish with a tube or tubes.

(16) To convey or enclose in a tube.

(17) To form or render into the shape of a tube; to make tubular.

1590-1600: From the Middle French tube, from the Latin tubus (tube, pipe), related to tuba (long trumpet; war-trumpet), of obscure origin, but possibly connected to tībia (shinbone, reed-pipe).  The idiomatic for “down the tube(s)” (into a ruined, wasted, or abandoned state or condition; lost, finished) dates from the early 1960s and carries the same meaning as “down the drain”.  Despite the similarity of the words and the shapes of the structures, etymologists believe tub (open vessel used for liquids or other substances) was unrelated to tube.  Tub was from the late fourteenth century Middle English tubbe & tobbe, from a continental Germanic source such as the Middle Dutch tubbe, the Middle Low German tubbe & tobbe or the Middle Flemish tubbe, all of uncertain origin.  Tube, tubage & tubing are nouns & verbs, tubulure is a noun, tubed is a verb, tubular, tubey, tubiform, tubesque, tubeless, tubelike, tubish, tuboid & tuboidal are adjectives; the noun plural is tubes.

Squeezed from a tube: The toothpaste one squeezes onto a toothbrush is called a "nurdle".

The original use in the 1590s was of the observed structures in anatomy and zoology (a hollow organ or passage in the body) and this was extended by the 1650s to mean “pipe or hollow cylinder” (especially a small one used as a conduit for liquids).  The use to describe a “sealed container in tubular form” began in 1859 with the vacuum tube, later extended in electronics to a sealed tube containing electrodes (in wide use until the 1950s when transistors achieved mass-production).  The use to describe televisions dates from 1959 and seems to have been as clipping of “cathode ray tube” (CRT, the technology use of pre-modern screens) or “picture tube”.  “The Tube” was also late nineteenth century for wired telephones, the use derived from ships where voice traffic between places was sometimes carried by “speaking tube”, the same technology also used in horse-drawn carriages and early motor vehicles where the passenger compartment was sealed and separated from the drive or chauffeur.  In limousines (with a glass partition or divider), speaking-tubes were still sometimes fitted as late as the 1960s because it was simple, reliable technology and over such short distances an electronic apparatus offer little advantage.  London’s underground railway (an early London RTS (rapid transit system)) came to be known as “the Tube” in 1847, based on the tubular tunnels drilled to created the network; in 1900, in the press, it was dubbed the “Twopenny Tube” (a reference to the basic fare).  “Tube” has come to be a slang for RTS systems in various places, even those with no tubular tunnels (a similar linguistic process to “wire” or “cable” for electronic transmission).

Tube maps (sort of):  The London Underground maps, 1908 (left), 1933 (centre) and 2014 (right).

Although referred to almost universally as the “London Underground Map”, pedants like to point out (1) it’s a schematic (or diagram) rather than a map and (2) over half the “Underground” is above ground.  The now familiar concept of the “map” was in 1931 devised by Henry Beck (1902–1974), then a 29 year old electrical draftsman, who envisaged the rail lines as wires, the stations as connectors and the whole network as an integrated and interconnected diagrammatic system, much like the electrical circuit boards he was accustomed to drawing.  What was revolutionary about Mr Beck’s concept was he understood the purpose was different from a conventional map where scale mattered, rail lines had to be drawn in exactly the shape the assumed and topographic features were included.  What people wanted in a map of “The Tube” was a navigation aid, something which made as simple as possible the task of working out the matter of getting from station-to-station. 

The verb “to tube” (receive, enclose, or dispatch in a (pneumatic) tube) was in use by at least 1870 and was a clipping of pneumatic-dispatch tube (PDT), tubes first installed in 1859 in buildings for the rapid delivery of documents between floors or offices and propelled by air pressure; for dispatch, the documents were rolled and inserted in a small cylinder, the external diameter of which was slightly less than the internal diameter of the tube infrastructure.  The noun tubage (insertion of a tube into a cavity or canal) dates from 1880 and by 1896 it was being used as a collective nouns for tubes.  The adjective tubular (having the form of a tube or pipe) was from the Latin tubulus (a small pipe) and was in the early 1960s adopted in California’s surfing culture to describe the hollow, curling waves, most ideal for riding.

Lindsay Lohan in green-hooped tube top (left) and Coco Avenue's range of boob tubes in designer colors (right).

In pneumatic tyres, although still common on bicycles and motor-bikes, inner tubes are now rare in passenger vehicle use but they are still produced for a variety of commercial application and they have been re-purposed for the recreational pastime of “tubing” (riding on the inflated inner tube of a large (truck, tractor etc) tyre), undertaken both as a water-sport and on ski-slopes.  The jocular slang noun “tube-steak” emerged in 1962 to described “a frankfurter” (ie hotdog sausage), the term obviously a reference to the shape and given that, it’s remarkable it seems not to have been used as a slang for “penis” until the mid-1980s.  The test-tube (cylinder of thin glass closed in rounded form at one end) was so named in 1909 because it was used to test the properties of liquids.  Surprisingly, “test-tube baby” predates by decades modern IVF (In vitro fertilization) and was first used in 1935 in reference to artificial insemination.  In the 1980s, “test tube baby” became the popular descriptor of IVF, “test tube” used as a synecdoche of the process rather than any suggestion of the use of the glass receptacles.  The name “tube-top” (a women's close-fitting elastic top) made its debut in 1972 (although the style had been seen before); the “tube skirt” appeared the next season (again, a re-labeling) while the first “boob tubes” (a truncated version of the “tube top” which wraps only around the breasts) were advertized in 1977.  Being elasticized, some wear boob tubes without a bra but they're available also with a "built-in" bra (like all forms of structural engineering, physics does limit what's possible) and some are made with a thicker material so a strapless bra unobtrusively can be worn underneath.  

YouTube content.  

YouTube is a US social media and online video sharing platform now owned by Google.  It first appeared in 2005 and is now the planet's second most visited internet site, only Google search generating more traffic (as expressed in volumes of unique visits per day).  YouTube was emblematic of the way the internet evolved in a manner somewhat different to that futurists had in preceding decades predicted.  Although it was clear it would be an inter-connected world of databases with content from “content providers” available for download, few predicted the extent to which the terms “viewer”, “user” and “content provider” would overlap; the upload phenomenon generally was not predicted.  Substantially, this was technologically deterministic: with a high percentage of the world’s population carrying cameras able to produce HD (high definition) photographs and films which easily can be uploaded to a global distribution platform at only marginal cost, a new industry emerged and others were disrupted or destroyed.

OSCA S187 (750S, the tubo di dentifricio).  The Italians dubbed these tubo di dentifricio (toothpaste tube), illustrating yet again why everything sounds better in Italian.

In 1937, facing bankruptcy, the three surviving Maserati brothers (Bindo (1883-1980), Ettore (1894-1990) & Ernesto (1898-1975)) sold their eponymous company to the Orsi Group in Modena, the arrangement including a decade-long consultancy for the trio.  It’s not known if there was “no compete” clause in place but the brothers waited until 1947 when the contract expired before returning to San Lazzaro di Savena (near Bologna) where they founded Officine Specializzate per la Costruzione Automobili Fratelli Maserati S.p.A. (O.S.C.A.), the intention being to build small runs of racing cars for customers and for more than a decade production continued.  Most of the machines built used small displacement engines to contest the various series for such things (then popular in Italy) although in 1951 there was a one-off, 4.5 litre (273 cubic inch) V12, soon rendered an orphan when the Formula One rules were changed. 

Accordingly, subsequent OSCAs were smaller and one of the most exquisite was the S187 which made its debut in 1956.  Built to contest the well-supported 750 cm³ (46 cubic inch) racing class, the name was derived from the displacement of each of the engine’s four cylinders, a convention used for years also by Ferrari.  The smallest engine O.S.C.A. ever made, it was of “square” configuration (the bore & stroke both 62 mm (2.44 inch)) with double overhead camshafts (DOHC) and a pair of twin-choke, side-draft Weber carburetors.  Modest the displacement may have been but the package generated an impressive 70 horsepower which, combined with low weight (a svelte 450 kg (990 lb)) and effective aerodynamics, delivered class-leading performance.  That was despite the S187 being a little heavier than had been envisaged because constraints in time & cash meant the planned multi-tubular space frame had to be abandoned, replaced with a more conventional ladder frame chassis.

OSCA 750S NART (North American Racing Team), one of four with a clamshell body.

The delicate aerodynamic body was by the coachbuilder Morelli and the S-187 (referred to usually as the 750S) was immediately successful, gaining a class victory at the 1956 Mille Miglia, followed the next year with a class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring.  Although in 1959 still competitive in the 750 cm³ class, the brothers produced a new cylinder head which raised the output by 5 horsepower which may sound slight but it was a 7% lift (it would be like adding some 30 hp to a 400 hp engine) and despite in competition being regularly run for sustained periods at the 7700 rpm redline, reliability continued to be outstanding and the 750S remained competitive until well into the 1960s.  Nineteen were built.

End of the line: 1963 OSCA 1600 GT2

Unfortunately, age caught up with the Maserati brothers and in 1963 they sold O.S.C.A. to Count Domenico Agusta (1907–1971) who, in 1945, founded the MV Agusta motorcycle company, a move necessitated by the post-war peace treaty which included a ban on Italian aircraft production which obviously rendered unviable the aviation business Costruzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta S.A. (formed in 1923 by Count Giovanni Agusta (1879–1927)).  The O.S.C.A. operation was closed in 1967.

Choke & Choker

Choke (pronounced chohk)

(1) To be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe (solid & semi-solid objects such as food or fumes or particles in the air which cause the throat to constrict); asphyxiate, strangle, suffocate, throttle.

(2) Full to the point of obstruction (usually as “choked with”); block up, bung up, clog, congest, jam, obstruct, stop up.

(3) In forestry, to seize a log, felled tree etc with a chain, cable, or the like, so as to facilitate removal.

(4) In engineering, any mechanism which, by narrowing or blocking a passage, regulates the flow of air, gas etc.

(5) In fluid mechanics (of a duct), to reach a condition of maximum flow-rate (immediately before the choke-point), due to the flow at the narrowest point of the duct becoming sonic.

(6) In electronics, an inductor having a relatively high impedance, used to prevent the passage of high frequencies or to smooth the output of a rectifier (also called the choke-coil.

(7) In combat sports (wrestling, karate etc), a type of hold (of the throat) which can result in strangulation.

(8) A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which varies the spread of the shot.

(9) To enrich the fuel mixture of an ICE (internal-combustion engine) by diminishing the air supply to the carburetor (a choke a specific component of a carburetor althouh the term is used loosely).

(10) To make or install a choke in a device.

(11) To stop by or as if by strangling or stifling:

(12) To stop by filling; obstruct; clog

(13) To suppress a feeling, emotion, etc (often as “choke up”, choke down” or “choke back”).

(14) In sport, to grip a bat, racket, club etc) farther than usual from the end of the handle (to shorten the grip).

(15) To suffer from or as from strangling or suffocating.

(16) To become obstructed, clogged, or otherwise stopped.

(17) To become too tense or nervous to perform well (used most often in competitive sport, specifically in the sense losing by performing badly at a critical point, when in a winning position).

(18) In slang, the inedible centre of the head of an artichoke.

1150–1200: From the Middle English choken & cheken, a variant of achoken & acheken, from the Old English ācēocian (to suffocate), from the Old English ċēoce & ċēace (jaw, cheek) and cognate with the Old Norse kōk (gullet) and the Icelandic kok (throat) & koka (to gulp).  The transitive verb emerged in the late thirteenth century and by the late 1300s was being used in the sense of “to stop the breath by preventing air from entering the windpipe”; “to make to suffocate, deprive of the power of drawing breath” and that was used of persons as well as swallowed objects.  In that. It was a shortened form of the twelfth century acheken, from Old English ācēocian, probably from the root of ċēoce & ċēace (the spelling ceoke was also used).  In the narrow technical sense “choking” has been the cause of death of a number of rock stars including the guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham (1948-1980) and AC/DC’s vocalist Bon Scott (1946-1980) although in all cases the critical “inhalation of vomit” which induced them to choke to death was caused by substance abuse.  In the same vein, the singer Janis Joplin suffered a fatal head injury in a fall while affected by drugs and alcohol; all these deaths may be regarded as “death by misadventure”.  The alternative forms choak & choake are obsolete; chock is dialectal.  Choke is a noun & verb, chokage & choker are nouns, choking is a noun & verb, chokeable is an adjective and choked is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is chokes.

The intransitive verb dates from the early fifteenth century when it was used to mean “gasp for breath”, in line with the figurative use in agriculture & horticulture (the Biblical notion of weeds stifling the growth of useful plants a Biblical image).  The term “choked up” (overcome with emotion and unable to speak) seems first to have been documented in 1896, the use possibly related to the earlier use of the word (choke-pear (1530s), crab-apple (1610s), choke-cherry (1785)) of fruits with an untypical degree of astringency and it’s thought the botanical link inspired Dr Johnson (Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)) to define the figurative use as “any aspersion or sarcasm, by which another person is put to silence”.  The noun chokage emerged in the 1840s while the term chokehold (tight grip around a person's neck to restrict breathing) was first used in 1962. The idea of a “choke” in sport in the sense of “losing by performing badly at a critical point, when in a winning position” dates from 1907 and comes from baseball where it referred to a “clutch hitter” (the hitter at the plate upon whom winning depended) “choking up” and failing to perform; the phrase “to fail in the clutch” similar in meaning.

Interchangeable choke for shotgun.

Although (except in the odd, curious niche), rendered obsolete by fuel injection, the carburetor is a device which continues to exert a fascination in those with a fondness for mechanical intricacy and an inclination to tinker.  Carburetors are devices used on ICEs (internal combustion engine) to produce the mix of fuel (typically petrol (gas)) & air required for combustion and in mainstream use they lasted into the twenty-first century.  Most carburetor were fitted with a choke, an instrument controlled by the driver and what the choke did was provide an enriched mixture (ie more fuel, less air) to make starting easier from cold.  The term “choke” was already known in engineering but the most direct comparison was probably from ballistics, chokes (some types described as “adjustable chokes”) fitted to shotguns as early as 1875.  A shotgun’s choke is a device (or constriction) at the muzzle end of the barrel which controls the spread (or pattern) of the shot as it exits the barrel.  By altering the spread, chokes allow shooters to customize their gun's performance for different purposes (ie hunting, target shooting, home defense et al).  When a shotgun cartridge is discharged, the begin to spread out immediately upon leaving the barrel (in slang they’re sometimes called “scatter guns” and a choke modifies this spread by narrowing or widening the diameter of the barrel at the muzzle.  This affects the density and size of the shot pattern at different distances.

Pellet field streams using various chokes.

In the industry, the classification of chokes is determined by the extent to which they narrow the barrel and the most common types are: (1) Cylinder: these are not fitted with a choke and thus there’s no constriction; they’re most suitable for short-range shooting. (2) Improved Cylinder: These have a slight constriction, thereby offering a moderately wide spread suitable for short and medium range targets. (3) Modified: A variation of the Improved with more constriction, lengthening the effective range.  (4) Full: Thos provides a narrow bore, creating a tight pattern for long-range accuracy, (5) Extra full: As the name implies, an even smaller bore, popular for turkey hunting or precision shooting.  There are also (1) fixed chokes (integral with the barrel and thus unchangeable) and (2) interchangeable chokes which are detachable inserts a shooter can swap according to the shooting to be done.

1971 Chrysler Charger E38 (choke knob arrowed).

Confusingly, although it was almost always the case a choke would be part of a carburetor (cable activated by a control in the driver’s cabin), the word “choke” was also used of carburetors in a different context and potentially more confusingly still, when used thus, it was often synonymous (and sometimes used interchangeably) with “throat”, “barrel” and “venturi”.  In the now arcane world of carburetors inhabited by those familiar with the things, this casual use isn’t a problem because the four words are known to refer to different components, although even experts rarely dwell on the details: (1) The throat is the main passage (there can be as many as four in a single carburetor, not necessarily all of the same bore (although if there are four they are usually sized in pairs)) through which air flows and a throat encompasses the entire internal air pathway.  (2) The barrel is the cylindrical tube that houses the throat, venturi and in many cases the throttle valve; the barrel is the structural element through which the air and fuel are mixed and delivered.

Weber-style IDF twin choke downdraft carburettor with chrome ram tubes (left), pair of Weber 40 IDA triple barrel carburetors (centre) and Holley Dominator 4500 1150 CFM Square Bore four barrel carburetor with fitting kit.

In US use, “barrel” is the most common way of describing carburetors (two barrel, four barrel) and the standard abbreviation is “bbl”.  That seems inexplicable by the usual conventions of English but is a historic legacy from the petroleum industry where it was used to denote a barrel of oil.  The specification and paint scheme of early oil barrels were standardized by Standard Oil, and the abbreviation “bbl” became widely used to signify a “standardized blue barrel”, hence the apparently superfluous “b”; over time, “bbl”, became the universal shorthand for barrel, even outside the oil industry. (3) The venturi is a specific narrowing of a carburetor's throat or barrel, the primary purpose of which is to create a pressure drop due to the “venturi effect” (a phenomenon of fluid dynamics) in which as air flows through the narrowed section, its velocity increases and its pressure decreases (surface friction at this scale not significant).  The pressure drop induced by the venturi effect draws fuel from the fuel bowl into the air stream for mixing and atomization.  (4) Choke in this context is simply another way of saying “barrel” and the choice is dictated by local conventions of use; In Europe it was common to speak of a “two choke” carburetor whereas if used by a US manufacturer this would be a “two barrel”.  There was trans-Atlantic respect for this tradition and in both communities tend to use the correct terminology of each other’s devices although hot-rodders in the US did like slang such as the evocative “four-holer”.  Despite that, Ford did for a while muddy the waters by using the terms to 2V and 4V (ie 2 venturi & 4 venturi) to refer both to two & four barrel carburetors but also the two different cylinder heads designed for each.  People got used to that but it did latter induce confusion elsewhere when 2V & 4V came to be understood as “two valve” & “four valve” (ie per cylinder).

Model Tessa Fowler (b 1992) wearing fabric chokers.

Choker (pronounced choh-ker)

(1) In fashion, a piece of jewelry or ornamental fabric, worn as a necklace or neckerchief, snug around the throat (use based on the “choker chain” used to restrain dogs).

(2) One who, or that which, chokes or strangles.

(3) A person administering a choking device (depending on context, either a class or machine operator or a murderous strangler).

(4) A neckcloth or high collar.

(5) As choker chain, a dog collar designed to pinch or squeeze the dog or other animal when the leash is pulled.

(6) In forestry, a chain or cable used to haul logs to a transportation point.

(7) In slang, any disappointing or upsetting circumstance.

(8) In slang, the traditional clerical collar worn by Christian clergy.

(9) In slang, a cigarette.

(10) A person who pratices autoerotic asphyxiation or paraphilia, a practice where someone temporarily cuts off their own air supply by means of a ligature or some other sort of self-asphyxiation device during sex or masturbation.

(11) In sport, one who “chokes” (losing by performing badly at a critical point, when in a winning position).

1550s: The construct was choke + -er.  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.  The noun emerged in the 1550s in the sense of “one who chokes” an agent noun from the verb and from 1848 it was used to mean “large neckerchief”.  The use to mean “a kind of necklace worn against the throat” dates from 1928.  Choker is a noun; the noun plural is chokers.

Lindsay Lohan with choker at Moschino Fashion Show, London, June 2014.  A choker is a decorative accessory worn around the neck and differs from a necklace in that it sits higher (typically mid-way up the neck) and fits snugly.

In fashion, choker is a clipping of “choker chain”, a dog collar designed to pinch or squeeze the dog or other animal when the leash is pulled.  Chokers can be for any material (fabric, leather (studded varieties popular), metal etc), and are sometimes adorned with jewels or logos.  There are also chokers with LED (light-emitting diodes) displays in a variety of colors which are powered by a small button-battery, rechargeable via a USB (universal serial bus) port.  According to a normally reliable source (Urban Dictionary), a choker is (1) a symbol used by emos to convey a desire to engage in self-harm or even suicide or (2) a way certain young ladies advertize their especial fondness for and skill in performing fellatio (this should be treated as a gaboso (Generalized Association Based On Single-Observation).  In the BDSM (Bondage, Discipline (or Dominance) & Submission (or Sadomasochism) community, chokers are sometimes used as the “submissive collar”, given by dominants as a symbol of possession and sometimes augmented with a leash for purpose of public display.

Anna Teshu (b 1994, right), in choker and on leash with ex-boyfriend Nathan Riely (b 1988. left) while role-playing as a dog and handler.  If consensual, the "leashed partner" thing is a kink and a genuine ALC (alternative lifestyle choice), albeit one which has attracted some criticism, some suggesting the "leashed" are suffering from "false consciousness", an idea explored in other contexts by both Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).

Bourse

Bourse (pronounced boors)

(1) A stock exchange, the term used variously (depending on context): (1) as a synecdoche for “stock exchange”, (2) collectively of the stock exchanges of continental Europe and (3) specifically the Paris stock exchange (the Bourse de Paris, known usually in English as the “Paris Bourse”).

(2) Figuratively, any place, real, virtual or imaginary where (1) something of value is traded or (2) the value of something tradable is set or settled.

(3) In philately, a meeting of stamp collectors and or dealers where stamps and covers are sold or exchanged.

(4) In botany, the swollen basal part of an inflorescence axis at the onset of fruit development; it bears leaves whose axillary buds differentiate and may grow out as shoots.

1590s: From the mid sixteenth century French burse (meeting place of merchants), from the French bourse (meeting place of merchants (literally “purse”)), from the twelfth century Old French borse (money bag, purse), from the Medieval Latin bursa (a bag), from the Late Latin bursa (oxhide, animal skin and a variant of variant of byrsa (hide)), from the Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa or býrsa), (hide, wine-skin) of unknown origin.  Linked terms are used for other European stock exchanges including the Danish børs, the Swedish börs and the German Börse with the roots evident in Modern English words including bursar and reimburse.  Bursa in Late Latin meant “oxhide, animal skin” (reflecting the origins in the Greek) but, by association with use, in Medieval Latin came to mean “purse made of leather” and that meant it came also to mean “supply of money, cash, funds”, extending later to “pension”.  The modern sense of “exchange where stocks are registered and exchanged” dates from 1845, taken directly from the Bourse de Paris (Paris stock exchange).  In one legend, the use of the word “bourse” for such places was said to be derived from the House of Van der Buerse, a family in Bruges, Belgium.  There, merchants and bankers would gather to conduct financial transactions and the a variant of the name “Buerse” came to be used.  The alternative history relates how there was a sign on the front of the Buerse’s house adorned with a painting of three burses (purses).  Bourse is a noun; the noun plural is bourses.

A modern bull scrotum purse.

In French, bourse is also a slang term (usually in the plural) for the scrotum and from gift-shops and street markets around the world, one can buy coin purses (various with clasps, zips and tie-strings) made from the scrotums of various slaughtered creatures.  It appears also in the (usually affectionate) French vulgarity: “Ça remonte à quand, la dernière fois que tu t’es vidé les bourses?” (When was the last time you emptied your balls?  In more polite use, there the bourse d’études (educational scholarship, stipend, student allowance), bourse d’excellence (merit scholarship; fellowship) and boursicaut (small coin purse (mostly archaic though still a favorite among antique dealers).

A bull scrotum purse in a traditional style.

One linguistic development in French might explain something about why the fluctuations in financial markets came increasingly to send ripples throughout economies: In the sixteenth century the verb boursicoter meant “to set money aside” (ie keep it in one’s purse) but by the mid-nineteenth century (under the influence of bourse coming to mean “stock exchange”, it had shifted to mean “having a flutter on the markets; dabbling in the stock market”.  In a similar vein, a boursier (feminine boursière, masculine plural boursiers, feminine plural boursières) could be (1) a scholarship beneficiary, a recipient of a bursary or grant, (2) a stockbroker or trader or (3) one who makes purses and handbags.  In idiomatic use (which survives as a literary device there was sans bourse délier (literally “without opening one's purse”) which is English aligns with “without spending a penny” or “not spending a dime”.

The Modern English purse was from the Middle English purse, from Old English pursa (little bag or pouch made of leather, especially for carrying money), partly from pusa (wallet, bag, scrip) and partly from burse.  The Old English pusa was from the Proto-West Germanic pusō, from the Proto-Germanic pusô (bag, sack, scrip), from the primitive Indo-European būs- (to swell, stuff) and was cognate with the Old High German pfoso (pouch, purse), the Low German pūse (purse, bag), the Old Norse posi (purse, bag), the Danish pose (purse, bag) and the Dutch beurs (purse, bag).  The Old English burse was from the same source as the French bourse.  “Purse” (as a synecdoche for “financial matters generally” is widely used in idiomatic English and persists in the UK persists in the office of Keeper of the Privy Purse, a member of the royal household who manages the financial affairs of the sovereign.  The office dates from the early sixteenth century (things in the palace don’t often change) and can be understood as something like a CFO (chief financial officer) or FC (financial controller (comptroller the historic use)).  Purse had been used in the sense of “the royal treasury” as early as the late thirteenth century and the figurative sense of “money, means, resources, funds” emerged by the mid-1300s, this extending to specific defined instances (such as “prize for winning a horse race etc”) by the 1640s.  The thirteenth century use in Middle English to mean “scrotum” was indicative of the shape and size of the leather pouches used to carry coins.

Lindsay Lohan illustrates the purse and the handbag: The clutch purse (left) would everywhere be understood as “a purse” but in the US such a thing commonly would be called “a clutch” because “purse” is used also of larger items.  The red one (centre) would often be called a purse in the US but elsewhere in the English-speaking world it is certainly a handbag.  By the time something assumes the dimensions of a Louis Vuitton Doctor's Bag (right), it is definitely a handbag, tote or something beyond a purse.

Purse was first used of a “woman's handbag” in the late 1870s.  Originally a purse was “a small bag for carrying money” and that use persisted even after purses became less scrotum-like but in the US it came to be used also of what would in the UK be called a “handbag” (a small bag carried usually by women and typically containing personal items (lipsticks, other makeup and often a “purse” (in the original sense)).  Not infrequently, in trans-Atlantic use, the terms “purse” and “handbag” are used interchangeably, but confusion can arise if there’s no accompanying visual clue which is why the term “clutch purse” has proved so useful.  A clutch purse is a small, often rectangular bag designed conveniently to be carried in one hand (although many are supplied with an (often detachable) chain or strap which can be slung over the shoulder or used in cross-body style.  In the industry, not only is there no set of parameters which defines where a purse ends and a handbag begins and shamelessly manufacturers will use the labels indiscriminately if they suspect it will stimulate sales.  The US usage has infected the rest of the world including places like the UK where once there was a clear distinction and now it’s something really in the eye of the beholder, perhaps recalling the judgment Potter Stewart (1915–1985; associate justice of the US Supreme Court 1958-1981) handed down (in another context) in Jacobellis v Ohio (378 U.S. 184 (1964)): “I shall not today attempt further to define… and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.  But I know it when I see it…”

Bear & bull statues outside the Börse Frankfurt (Frankfurt Stock Exchange, formerly known as the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse), the world's third oldest stock exchange.  Located in the German state of Hesse, Frankfurt is the country's financial centre.

About the only thing which can be guaranteed of a stock market is it will fluctuate and the most famous terms used of bourses are “bear market” & “bull market”, describing respectively the market conditions as they respond to the central dynamics of the business: fear & greed, both of which tend to manifest in waves because of what is known as the “herd mentality” of investors (gamblers as some prefer to describe themselves).  The collective noun for a group of bulls is a herd (less commonly a gang while bears assemble (a less common behavior for them) in a sloth (or sleuth).  The bull & bear metaphors have been in use since the early eighteenth century and the origin of the “bull” is uncontested and refers to the habit aggressive bulls display in pushing forward and tossing their heads upward, the idea being a herd of “bullish investors” will drive up the prices of the stocks they’re pursuing, thus creating a “bull market”.  The math of these terms is not precisely defined but, as a general principle, the view seems to be they are used of a market in which prices rise (bull) of fall (bear) 20% or more from a recent trough or peak, usually over a period or weeks or months depending on the state of an economy.  The labels can be applied to a single asset, an asset class, a group of securities, or a market as a whole and if the trends are mild or seem tentative, things can be called “bullish” or “bearish”.

One of several bull statues, DPRR (Democratic People's Republic of Rockhampton), Queensland, Australia.

The origin of the bestial analogy of the bear is contested.  The oldest story concerns the London trader who sold a shipment of Canadian bearskins sometime before they had come into his possession, his strategy being a gamble the market would fall and he’d just have to pay less for something he’s already sold at a higher price, thus gaining from “the spread” (the difference between the cost and selling prices and a variation on the mechanism used today by the “short sellers”).  These traders came to be known as “bearskin jobbers”.  The alternative history is more directly from behavioral zoology: the way bears with their powerful limbs and big, sharp claws will, if in the mood “claw stuff down”.

Lindsay Lohan with Valentine’s Day stuffed teddy bear.

The use may also have been influenced by the unfortunate history in England of bull and bear-baiting, gruesome, fight-to-the-death contests between the beasts which seem first to have been held during the thirteenth century and reaching an apex of popularity during the reign of Elizabeth I (1533–1603; Queen of England & Ireland 1558-1603).  An audience would bet on the outcome and the link with stock exchanges is that while markets may percolate for sometimes long periods, there will always be battles between “the bears” and “the bulls” and it’s during these events that great fortunes are made and lost.  The language appealed to writers and was used by the English poet & satirist Alexander Pope (1688-1744) in Book II of The Dunciad (1728), a work mocking the greed and folly of investors (gamblers) associated with the South Sea Bubble, a financial scandal of the early eighteenth century and one of many examples of herd mentality and “irrational exuberance”:

Come fill the South Sea goblet full;
The gods shall of our stock take care:
Europa pleased accepts the Bull,
And Jove with joy puts off the Bear.

Pheasant

Pheasant (pronounced fez-uhnt)

(1) Any of various long-tailed gallinaceous birds of the family Phasianidae, esp Phasianus colchicus (ring-necked pheasant), having a brightly-coloured plumage in the male: native to Asia but now widely dispersed.

(2) Any of various other gallinaceous birds of the family Phasianidae, including the quails and partridges

(3) Any of several other gallinaceous birds, especially the ruffed grouse.

(4) The meat of such a bird, served as food.

1250–1300: From the Middle English fesaunt & fesant, from the Anglo-French fesaunt, from the Old French fesan, from the Latin phāsiānus, from the Ancient Greek φᾱσιανός (phāsiānós órnis) (Phasian bird; bird of the river Φᾶσις (Phâsis (in Colchis in the Caucauses were the birds existed in prolific number)), named after the River Phasis, in which flows into the Black Sea at Colchis in the Caucauses.  It replaced the native Old English wōrhana, a variant of mōrhana.  The ph- from the Greek was restored in English by the late fourteenth century while the wholly unetymological -t exists because of confusion with –ant (a suffix of nouns, formed from present participle of verbs in first Latin conjugation (ancient, pageant, tyrant, peasant; also talaunt, a former Middle English variant of talon, etc.).  The Latin was the source also of the Spanish faisan, the Portuguese feisão, the German Fasan and the Russian bazhantu; the Welsh was ffesant and the Cornish fesont.  In England, Pheasant was used as surname from the mid-twelfth century (and assumed occupational (pheasant farmer)).  The form in the Medieval Latin was fasianus.  A pheasantry is a place for keeping and rearing pheasants and the most common collective noun for a group of pheasants is bevy (less commonly a bouquet (when flushed), or nye.  Pheasant & pheasantry are nouns, pheasantless & pheasantlike are adjectives; the noun plural is pheasants.

The golden pheasants

Chrysolophus pictus (the golden pheasant or Chinese pheasant).

There are more than two dozen taxonomic species within the family Phasianidae (pheasants), one of which is the golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus, known also as the “Chinese pheasant”), a game bird native to the forests of mountainous areas of western China.  The plumage of the males is famously vibrant which makes it a favorite among bird watchers and photographers while the female is a duller-mottled brown plumage, something common among many avian species including the peacock & peahen, the evolutionary advantage being the fine camouflage it afforded against the forest floor.

Nazi Kreisleiter (District Leader) standard four pocket open collar tunic (circa 1940).  The party’s regulations about uniforms first appeared in 1920 and the details were often revised until things were standardized in 1939.

In the Third Reich (1933-1945) the term Goldfasane (golden pheasants) was a derisive nickname used of high-ranking members of the Nazi Party (and their wives), the name an allusion to (1) the golden hue of the fabric of the party uniform, (2) their tendency to appear well fed (al la a plump pheasant fattened for slaughter) at a time when much of the population was living under harsh food rationing and (3) their ostentation and self-importance (like a colorful and strutting pheasant).  Shades of brown actually became the part’s official color only by chance.  After Germany lost its African and tropical Pacific colonies after World War I (1914-1948), a huge stock of khaki uniforms and other kit became available and these the party purchased at low cost.  As a general principle, the more exalted the office, the more golden the shade of fabric used for the garb.

Kiji-shō (きじ章; Order of the Golden Pheasant).

There is also the Golden Pheasant Award (きじ章 (kiji-shō) or 金鳳賞 (Kinpōshō)), the highest award for adult leaders in the Scout Association of Japan and although it was first conferred in 1952, there’s no record of whether the earlier sardonic German slang was discussed when deciding on a name.  Officially awarded by the Chief Scout of Japan, recipients are chosen by a selection committee (an institution at which the Japanese excel) on the basis of their eminent achievement and meritorious service to the Association for a period of at least twenty years.  Most awards have been granted to Japanese citizens but the distinction may be granted to any member of a scout association affiliated with the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM).  The golden pheasant has symbolic significance in Japanese culture, where pheasants (particularly the green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor), Japan's national bird) have been revered for their grace and connection to nature and they convey an aura of prestige and distinction due to the majestic appearance.  The award consists of a medallion depicting a stylized golden pheasant, suspended from a white ribbon with two red stripes worn around the neck.  The attendant uniform ribbon (worn above the left breast pocket), consists of two red stripes on a white background with a 5 mm golden device of the Japanese Scout emblem.

Lindsay Lohan with an honorary Order of the Golden Pheasant (digitally altered image) from Flaunt Issue 195, November 2024, photograph by the Morelli Brothers).

It is of course an a great honor to join the exclusive club of those with a Golden Pheasant but the evidence does suggest it’s something of a kiss of political death for those statesmen (Golden Pheasants a male thing) so dubbed, their careers ending often not well.  Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) was awarded his in 1953 during a visit to Japan while VPOTUS (vice-president of the US (an office he held 1953-1961), the brief ceremony conducted in Tokyo after his luncheon address to the America-Japan Society.  In 1974, Mr Nixon was forced to resign the presidency after revelations of his conduct during the Watergate Scandal.

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980; the last Shah of Iran 1941-1979) gained his Golden Pheasant in 1957.  In 1979 he was overthrown in the revolution which brought to power Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-1989; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979-1989) and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.  Also honored in the same year was Sir Walter Nash (1882–1968; prime-minister of New Zealand 1957-1960); he lost the 1960 general election and never regained power.  A royal recipient was Constantine II (1940–2023; the last King of Greece 1964-1973) who was honored upon assuming the throne in 1964.  Constantine was forced into exile after a military putsch in 1967 (the so-called “Colonels' Coup”) and the monarchy was abolished in 1973, something confirmed by two subsequent referenda (1973 & 1974).

A Japanese scout pack leader (left) with his pack of cub scouts, circa 1964.

Gerald Ford (1913–2006; US president 1974-1977) was in 1974 created a Golden Pheasant (while VPOTUS) and he went on to lose the 1976 presidential election.  He did however have the satisfaction of knowing not only did the man who beat him (Jimmy Carter (b 1924; US President 1977-1981)) never become a Golden Pheasant, but also turned out to be “a bit of a turkey”.  Paras Bir Bikram Shahdev (b 1971; last Crown Prince of Nepal, heir apparent to the throne 2001-2008) became a Golden Pheasant in 2005.  In 2001, there was what is now an uncommon act of regicide known as the Durbar Hatyakanda (Nepalese royal massacre) which was actually a family squabble, the assassin of nine members of the dynasty (including the king & queen) being Crown Prince Dipendra (1971-2001) who, by virtue of the constitutional arrangements, for three days reigned while in a coma before succumbing to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Subsequently, there was a peaceful transition to a republic and in 2008 the world’s last Hindu monarchy was abolished.  Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) was the last POTUS to become a recipient and his second term was tainted by Iran-Contragate affair.  Given the history, it may be the State Department has instructed the ambassador to Tokyo quietly to inform the Chief Scout presidents prefer not to become Golden Pheasants and that perhaps a gift like a ceremonial woggle would be more appropriate.

Yoshirō Mori OGP (centre) san meeting the official mascots (boy in blue, girl in pink) for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, Tokyo, 2018.  While serving as president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, an international human rights advocacy group awarded him a “gold medal” for sexism after he complained women members of the committee “talked too much” due to their “strong sense of rivalry”: “If one says something, they all end up saying something.”

Yoshirō Mori (森 喜朗, Mori Yoshirō, b 1937; prime minister of Japan 2000-2001) actually anticipated the “curse of the Golden Pheasant” leaving office after a gaff-prone two year term some time before he gained the award in 2003.  Mori san was notable for his consistently low approval ratings while prime-minister and most public opinion polls published towards the end of his tenure hovered between 7-12% of Japanese voters having a positive view of his premiership.  However, one newspaper published a poll which reported he had a zero (0%) rating, believed to be the lowest suffered by any politician since polling became (more-or-less) scientific in the 1940s.  It can’t have been much fun for Mori san at breakfast; he’d have just started to enjoy his gohan (steamed rice), misoshiru (miso soup) yakizakana (grilled fish), tsukemono (pickled vegetables), tamagoyaki (rolled omelette) and ryokucha (green tea), only to open the morning paper and find out nobody in the country liked him.  Still, as a consolation, he has his Golden Pheasant.

Pheasant Plucking

The pheasant features in a favorite schoolboy rhyme, said to have origins in an eighteenth century English village where it was composed by Elias, a wandering bard performing at one of the hamlet's “grand pheasant festivals”; he’d been much impressed by the efficient and rhythmic plucking of pheasants by champion pheasant plucker Tom Fletcher.  Whether or not that story is true isn’t known but it (and other variations) is a common tale.  In its modern form the tongue-twister appears usually as:

I'm not the pheasant plucker,
I'm only the pheasant plucker's son,
But I'll keep on plucking pheasants
'Till the pheasant plucker comes.

The verse was soon as much a part of the festivals as the pheasant plucking proper and was popular drinking game, those making a mistake during a recital having to drink a pint of ale before having another attempt.  The extended version read:

I'm not a pheasant plucker,
I'm a pheasant plucker's mate,
And I'm only plucking pheasants
'cause the pheasant plucker's late.
 
Plucking pheasants is a pleasure
when the pheasant plucker's near,
But when pheasants pluck at pheasants,
then the plucking's rather queer.
 
So, if I'm plucking pheasants,
where the pleasant pheasants roam,
I'll pluck enough for supper
till the pheasant plucker's home.
 
And when the pheasant plucker comes,
we'll pluck them side by side,
Through pleasant plains and pheasant fields
where pheasants love to hide.