Burger

Burger (pronounced bur-ger or bur-gha)

(1) A clipping of hamburger.

(2) A disc-shaped food patty (or patty on a bun), sometimes containing ingredients other than beef including vegetarian concoctions.

(3) In Pakistani slang (usually derogatory), as burger or hamburger, a stereotypically well-off Pakistani aspiring to a westernized lifestyle.

(4) In Internet slang (apparently beginning on 4chan), an American (as in a white, US citizen); of or relating to Americans.

(5) In computer graphical user interfaces (GUIs), as hamburger button, an icon with three horizontal lines (the resemblance being to the stacked ingredients of a burger).  The hamburger label was applied retrospectively, the original idea being to represent a list, the icon’s purpose being to open up a list of options; it’s thus also known as the “collapsed menu icon”.

1939: An invention of US English, extracted from hamburger by misunderstanding (ham + burger).  Use of the noun hamburger is not exclusive to fast food.  As early as 1616 it was noted as being the standard description both of someone “a native of the city of Hamburg" and also of ships “registered with Hamburg as their home port").  From 1838 it was the name of a black grape indigenous to Tyrolia and after 1857, a variety of hen.  Technically the meat product is a specific variation of shaped, ground beef (minced meat); as a meatball is a sphere and meatloaf is a rectangular cuboid, hamburgers (and burgers) are discs.  Burger, burgeria & burgery are nouns; the noun plural is burgers.

Co-incidence of names: Earl Warren (1891–1974; Chief Justice of the US 1953-1969 (right)), Richard Nixon (1913-1994; President of the US 1969-1974 (centre)) & Warren Earl Burger (1907–1995; Chief Justice of the US 1969-1986 (right), Washington DC, June 1969: Official photo released after the formal ceremony making Burger the fifteenth chief justice.  Neither judge, both appointed by Republican presidents, much pleased the conservatives and the state of the court today is the consequence of decades of pressure and some fortuitous timing in judicial expiry. 

Not that the burger is even exclusively fast food.  Some very expensive burgers have been created although, compared to their availability, there’s considerably less publicity about their sales.  As pieces of conspicuous consumption they must have a niche but Netherlands diner De Daltons‘ (Hoofdstraat 151, 3781AD, Voorthuizen) opted to couple indulgence with a good cause, the proceeds of their Golden Boy burger donated to the local food bank.  Emphasizing quality rather than sheer bulk, the Golden Boy was actually a good deal less hefty than some of the huge constructions burger chains in the US have offered to satisfy the gulosity of some (burgers with names like Heart Attack, XXXL, 55 oz Challenge, One Pound of Elk, Sky-high Scrum, Monster Thickburger & Killer hardly subtle hints at the target market).

Golden Boy.

By comparison, the price tag of €5,000 (US$5,100) aside, the Golden Boy seems almost restrained, though hardly modest, presented on a platter of whiskey-infused smoke, its ingredients including Wagyu beef, king crab, beluga caviar, vintage Iberico Jamon, smoked duck egg mayo, white truffle, Kopi Luwak coffee BBQ sauce, pickled tiger tomato in Japanese matcha tea, all assembled on two Dom Perignon infused gold-coated buns.  The chef insists it still just a burger and should be eaten using the hands, a nice touch being that because the buns are covered in gold leaf, fingers will be golden-tinted when the meal is finished.  A Golden Boy must be ordered two weeks in advance and a deposit of €750 (US$765) is required.

People around the world had no doubt for centuries been creating meatloaves, meatballs and meat patties before they gained the names associated with them in Western cuisine.  The idea is simply to grind-up leftover or otherwise unusable cuts, add diced vegetables & spices to taste and then blend with a thickening agent (flour, breadcrumbs, eggs etc) to permit the mix to be rendered into whatever shape is desired.  The hamburger is no more an invention of American commerce that the sandwich was of the English aristocracy.

Lindsay Lohan masticating burger, Blank Magazine, May 2011.

The words however certainly belong to late-stage capitalism.  Hamburger is noted in the US as describing meat patties in the late nineteenth century (initially as hamburg steak), the connection apparently associative with German immigrants for whom the port of embarkation was often Hamburg although there is also a documented reference from 1809 in Iceland which referred to “meat smoked in the chimney” as Hamburg beef.  There are a dozen or more stories which speculate on the origin of the modern hamburger but, in the nature of such an ephemeral craft, there is little extant evidence of the early product and there’s no reason not to assume something so obvious wasn’t “invented” in many places at much the same time.  The earliest known references which track the progression seem to be hamburger sandwich (1902), hamburger (1909) & burger (1939) although burger was by then an element in its own right, acting as a suffix for the cheeseburger (1938).  The culinary variations are legion: baconburger; cheeseburger; fishburger; beefburger; bacon & egg burger; whale burger, dog burger & dolphin burger (those three still a thing in parts of the Far East although not now widely publicized); vege burger; vegan burger; kangaroo burger, camel burger & crocodile burger (the Australians have a surplus of all these fine forms of animal protein), lamb burger, steakburger, soyburger, porkburger etc.  Opportunistic constructions like burgerlicious are created as required.  The homophones are Berger & burgher (in English use a middle-class or bourgeois person).  The noun plural is burgers.

Blogger Dario D had noticed that visually, the Big Macs he bought from random McDonalds outlets didn’t quite live up to the advertising.  That’s probably true of much industrially produced food but what was intriguing was what was revealed when he applied a tape measure to his research.  It seems Big Macs can’t be made exactly like they look in the advertising because then they would be too big to fit in the packaging.

The Big Mac Index (BMI) was created by The Economist newspaper in 1986 and that the abbreviation is the same as for "body mass index" is presumed coincidental although the publication's caption writers often display some linguistic flair so who knows?  The currency-related BMI is a price index which provides an indicative measure of purchasing power parity (PPP) between currencies and uses movements in the burger's price to suggest whether an official exchange rate is over or under-valued.  The newspaper has never claimed the BMI is an authoritative economic tool and has always documented its limitations but many economists have found it interesting, not so much the result on any given day but as a trend which can be charted against other metrics.  It was an imaginative approach, taking a single, almost standardized commodity available in dozens of countries and indexing the price, something which should in each place be most influenced by local factors including input costs (ingredients & labour), regulatory compliance, corruption and marketing.  Even those who don’t agree it has much utility as an economic tool agree it’s fun and other have published variations on the theme, using either a product made in one place and shipped afar or one made with locally assembled, imported components.

The BMI also brought to wider attention the odd quirk.  Although its place in the lineup has been replaced by a chicken-based dish, the Big Mac used to be on the McDonald's menu in India although, in deference to Hindu sensitivities (and in some states actual proscription), it was made not with beef but with lamb; it's said to taste exactly the same which seems a reasonable achievement.  Burgers can be thematic and these are based on the seven wonders of the ancient world:

The Colossus of Rhodes (that’s a big burger with Greek lamb)

The Great Pyramid of Giza (has an Egyptian sauce)

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (vegetarian (lettuce hanging out of it))

The Lighthouse of Alexandria (a lighter (low calorie) burger)

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (a traditional, very high calorie burger)

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (has a very hot sauce)

The Temple of Artemis  (Diana) at Ephesus (made with square or rectangular bun and finished with burnt edges)

Lindsay Lohan with burger.

Vapid

Vapid (pronounced vap-id)

(1) Lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat.

(2) Without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious; flavorless, spiritless, unanimated, tiresome, prosaic.

1650s:  From the Latin vapidus (literally “that has exhaled its vapor”) and related to vappa (stale wine).  The word was used in Latin to describe anything the taste of which was thought bland, flat or insipid.  Related forms include the adverb vapidly and the noun vapidness but the most common form is the noun vapidity which dates from 1721.  The application to talk and text and music thought dull and lifeless dates from 1758.  The Latin vappa (wine without flavor) is still used figuratively in many languages (sometimes as "bit of a vapp") to refer to a man who is "a good-for-nothing" or a bit foppish.

The Koryo Burger

The Koryo Burger package.

It’s estimated that prior to Covid-19, some five-thousand Western tourists annually would visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK; North Korea), a trade it was hoped might quickly recover given it wasn't until early 2022 that the first COVID-19 outbreak of the pandemic was confirmed.  Remaining virus-free for so long was said to be an example of The Supreme Leader’s outstanding administration of the public health system, the outbreak the fault of lazy officials would have been dealt with in the DPRK way.  It’s not yet clear when the boarders will be re-opened, Pyongyang having no desire to expose its happy and grateful population to foreign diseases but one thing prospective tourists hungrily can anticipate is the national airline’s in-flight meal.  Although Air Koryo serves only the famously vapid Koryo Burger, it’s legendarily consistent, always cold and presented on a paper doily.  Inside the bun is a piece of unidentified processed meat, a slice of processed cheese, a dash of shredded cabbage or single lettuce leaf, finished with a dollop of sauce described variously as “reddish” or “brownish”.  Some sources, claiming to have received confirmation from the airline, suggest the meat is chicken but speculation on the Internet has long pondered the matter because it seems impossible to tell from the taste (there isn't any) or texture (said to be equally indeterminate).

The Koryo Burger expanded.

Air Koryo did in the past dabble with other culinary offerings.  Some years ago for several months, for reasons unknown, on some inbound flights full meals appeared including curried rice and side dishes and also served was a sort of sandwich wrapped in a Danish pastry but neither innovation lasted and in recent years it's been burgers all the way, Air Koryo clearly having decided to stick to the classics.  The decision may have been in response to public demand given the cult-following the Koryo Burger has attracted, #koryoburger a must-visit tag for any foodie.  Surely not as repugnant as some have alleged, the many reviews of the experience of eating one seem to struggle to find words adequately to convey blandness rather than awfulness although, apart from the plastic packaging which seems to be of a good standard, there’s no aspect of the burger which escapes condemnation, the buns said always to be stale (either through age, incorrect storage or some flaw in the manufacturing process), the meat patty vapid to the point where it’s been suggested the admired wrapping may be more tasty, the lettuce or cabbage usually limp and the smell of the sauce said to suggest some association with wood-working glue although one reviewer mentioned their relief at finding a thin liquid which oozed from the patty was too watery to be blood.  Most however did concede the slice of processed cheese was about the same as plastic cheese anywhere on the planet.  Koryo burgers are served chilled, apparently straight from the fridge and it may be that this accounts for much of the expressed distaste; were they served at the temperature at which burgers are typically enjoyed, it’s not impossible the Koryo Burger would taste much the same as similar offerings anywhere.

The Koryo Burger surprise.  Until opened, the passenger doesn't know whether the burger will contain lettuce leaves or shredded cabbage.

The airline review site Skytrax has for years consistently rated Air Koryo as the world’s worst airline but unfortunately they don’t provide the qualitative data which might indicate what part the Koryo Burger plays in securing the national carrier's perpetual last place.  It may be Skytrax’s reviewers allowed themselves unduly to be influenced by the burger; the customer write-ups of aspects of Air Koryo not touching on anything culinary actually often positive and not infrequently making the point the DPRK carrier is in some ways superior to some in the West.

The vegetarian option.

Neither can it be denied there has been gastronomic progress in the DPRK’s skies.  While in the days of Kim I (Kim Il-sung, 1912-1994; The Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994) and Kim II (Kim Jong-il, 1941–2011; The Dear Leader of DPRK 1994-2011), the only choice usually was to eat the burger or not eat the burger, in the new age of Kim III (Kim Jong-un, b circa 1982; The Supreme Leader (originally The Great Successor) of DPRK since 2011), there's now a vegetarian option, which is the familiar Koryo Burger but with sliced cherry tomatoes in place of the meat patty.  Few have commented on the veggie burger but one reviewer praised the tomatoes, saying they tasted better than those he ate elsewhere which tended to look nice and bright but usually lacked flavor.

Air Koryo quality control.

Every morning, the DPRK's Supreme Leader and noted gastronome personally selects the buns used to make Koryo Burgers, the buns Kim Jong-un rejects being fed to political prisoners who are said to be grateful to receive them.  The tradition of the daily selection of buns was started by his grandfather (the Great Leader) and carried on by his father (the Dear Leader).  The Supreme Leader's entourage always carry notebooks and pens in case he says anything interesting.  They all write it down. 

Combo

Combo (pronounced kom-boh)

(1) In informal use, a small jazz or dance band (as distinct from a big band).

(2) In informal use, many forms of combined items (bundled “meal deals”; products sold with a collection of options offered at a nominal discount against the price calculated on the basis of the extended value etc).

(3) In informal use, to combine.

(4) A sequence of actions combined as one for certain purposes.

(5) In informal use, the combination (the numerical sequence) of a combination lock.

(6) In video gaming, an action composed of a sequence of simpler actions, especially a composite attacking move in a fighting game; two or more game-play elements (characters, items, options etc) which are powerful when used together.

(7) In collectible card games, a strategy under which the objective is to win by playing a specific combination of cards (or similar), usually in a single play.

(8) In historic Australian (derogatory) slang, a white man (1) who lives among Aboriginal people and adopts Aboriginal culture or (2) has entered into an ongoing sexual relationship with an Aboriginal woman or (3) has taken an Aboriginal wife, usually in a common-law marriage (all now archaic).

(9) In computing (in the design of graphical user interfaces (GUI)), in the informal use “combo box” (A GUI widget that is a combination of a dropdown list or list box and a single-line textbox, allowing the user either to type a value directly into the control or choose from the list of existing options).

1924: A clipping of comb(ination) + -o.  Combination (the act of combining, the state of being combined or the result of combining) was from the Middle English combinacioun & combynacyoun, from the Old French combination, from the Late Latin combīnātiō.  The colloquial -o suffix (wino, ammo, combo, kiddo etc) appears widely in English but is most common in Australia where in certain sub-cultures it appears to be obligatory (they have names like Shaneo, Toddo, Wayneo etc).  The first use was of small jazz groups and dance bands and was used to differentiate the smaller ensembles from the then popular “big bands”, the implication also that while combos were often ad-hoc things with the membership varying from evening to evening whereas big bands had a more stable (usually salaried) membership and usually took the name of the band leader.  Combo is a noun, comboing & comboed are verbs and comboable is an adjective; the noun plural is combos or comboes.

The VW Kombi and the Samba

1951 VW Kombi.

Although there was for years in English-speaking markets something of a tendency to call all the Volkswagen Type 2s Kombis, the Kombi was just one configuration in a range which eventually extended beyond a dozen distinct types.  Kombi was a clipping of the German Kombinationskraftwagen (combination motor vehicle), another of those compound nouns at which they excel.  The Kombi coachwork featured side windows and removable seats in the rear compartment, permitting the thing thus to be used either for passengers, freight or a combination of the two.  Other types in the range included pure delivery vans (no rear seats) with a variety of door options, a high-roof version best suited to transporting cargo which was bulky but not especially heavy, pick-ups (Transporters) with either a single or double passenger cabin and the other classic, the Microbus, intended purely for people and thus configured with fixed seats in the rear.  It was the Microbus which made its mark with the US surfing community in the 1960s and it became identified with the counter culture, something perhaps assisted by its large, flat surfaces which lent themselves to the psychedelic paint schemes associated with the era.

Not a Kombi: 1959 VW Microbus Deluxe (Samba).  Such was the enduring appeal of the shape, VW in the 2020s used it for an electric van.

Between 1951-1967, the Microbus was also offered as the Kleinbus Sonderausführung (small bus, special version) which was marketed variously as the Microbus Deluxe, Sunroof Deluxe & Samba; the most obvious distinguishing features were the folding fabric sunroof and the unusual “skylight” windows which followed the curve of sides of the roof, a technique borrowed from tourist train carriages, busses and boats.  Available in 21 & 23 window versions, these are now highly collectable and such is the attraction there’s something of a cottage industry in converting Microbuses to the be-windowed specification but it’s difficult exactly to emulate the originals, the best of which can command several times the price of a fake (one restored with studious devotion to the maintenance or replication of originality in 2017 selling at auction in the US for US$302,000 although for various reasons the market has since cooled).  Such was the susceptibility to rust, the survival rate wasn’t high and many led a hard life when new, popular with the tour guides who would conduct bus-loads of visitors on (slow) tours of the Alps, the sunroof & skylights ideal for gazing at the peaks.  To add to the mood, a dashboard-mounted valve radio was available as an option.  The Microbus Deluxe is actually rarely referred to as such, being almost universally either “21 Window”, “23 Window” or “Samba”, the first two deterministic and the origin of the latter uncertain.  One theory is it was a borrowing from the Brazilian dance and musical genre associated with things lively, colorful, and celebratory, the link being that as well as the sunroof and windows, the Deluxe had more luxurious interior appointments, came usually in bright two-tone paint (other Type 2s were usually more drab in appearance) and featured (by German if not US standards) lashings of external chrome.  It’s an attractive story but some prefer something more Germanic: Samba as the acronym for the business-like phrase Sonnendach-Ausführung mit besonderem Armaturenbrett (sunroof version with special dashboard).  However it happened, Samba was in colloquial use by at least 1952 and became semi official in 1954 when the distributers in the Netherlands added the word to their brochures.  Production ended in July 1967 after almost 100,000 had been built.

Combo in nature but not Kombi in name: 1959 VW Double passenger cabin Transporter (which the factory called the Doka, from Doppelkabine (double cabin).

The very existence of the VW Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) was an act of serendipity, one entrepreneurial dealer from the Netherlands in 1947 noting during a visit to the factory the use of a rather cobbled-together “pick-up” based on a Beetle chassis.  With Europe in the throes of post-war rebuilding and so much industrial production still disrupted, there was a shortage of such vehicles and he sketched what would now be called a “forward control van” which the factory agreed to develop.  However, such was the demand for the Beetle that it wasn’t until 1950 than production of the Type 2 began and, despite the legend that the two share underpinnings, that’s only partially true because to gain the necessary strength, a different floor plan was required.

One of the Wolfsburg factory's original Plattenwagens (best translated as "flat bed carrier"), improvised atop a Type 1 (Beetle) chassis; it inspired the sketch of the original Volkswagen Type 2.

Still, with many mechanical components there was much interchangeably between Types 1 & 2, something which added greatly to its appeal and immediately it was successful, the first generation staying in production until 1966 and although in most of the world the classic air-cooled / rear-engine configuration was in subsequent decades replaced, Type 2 in that specification were made in Brazil until 2013.  Even then, demand in South America was was still strong and the line profitable but Brazil was about the last developed market in the world to introduce the safety regulations which driven old Kombis elsewhere extinct.  The South American line had been the last link with the Nazi’s Kdf-Wagen (which became the Beetle, the first prototype of which dated from 1935, renamed to the snappier Volkswagen (literally “people’s car”).  Kdf (Kraft durch Freude, literally “Strength Through Joy” was the Nazi state’s leisure organization which was involved in everything from holiday resorts and cruise liners to the regulation of workplaces (the classic Nazi “carrot & stick” approach) but it was also used as a slogan an in that sense joy was compulsory and the state had ways to punish those not thought sufficiently joyful.

1978 Mercedes Benz 280 TE (S123).

One of the last of the “chrome Mercedes”, the W123 range was in production between 1975-1986 and the station wagon appeared in 1977 with the internal code S123 (only nerds use that and to the rest of the world they’re “W123 wagons”).  The designation was “T” (the very Germanic Tourismus und Transport (Touring and Transport)) or TD for the diesel-powered cars and the S123 was the company’s first station wagon to enter series production, previous such “long roof” models coming from coach-builders including many hearses & ambulances as well as station wagons.  The English still call station wagons "estates" (a clipping of "estate car") although a publication like Country Life probably still hankers after "shooting brake" and the most Prussian of the German style guides list the compound noun Kombinationskraftwagen which for decades has usually been clipped to the semi-formal Kombiwagen, (plural Kombiwagen or Kombiwägen) or, in general use: Kombi.  That Mercedes-Benz in the mid-1970s decided their first station wagon in regular production should be a “T” (and understood as a Tourenwagen (touring car) rather than a “K” (ie Kombiwagen, the designation used by other manufacturers) reflected the prevailing German view of such cars.  Unlike the US where station wagons had long been emblematic of middle-class respectability (often as a family’s second car for the wife & mother) or England where the style enjoyed an association with the upper class HFS (huntin’, fishin’ & shootin’) set, to Germans the utilitarian long-roofs had a down-market image, bought only by those unable to afford separate vehicles for business & pleasure.  Coach-builders had of course used Mercedes-Benz saloons as the basis for station wagons, ambulances and hearses but these were always expensive and thus not tainted by association with thriftiness by necessity.  In their alphanumeric system of model designations, Mercedes-Benz had previously used “K” to mean either Kompressor (supercharged) (eg 770 K) or Kurz (short) (eg SSK) and other letters had also done double-duty, “L” standing for either Lang (long) (eg 600 SEL) or Licht (light) (eg SSKL) and “S” could mean both Super (300 SL) or Sports (300 SLR) so for the S123 “K” wasn’t avoided because of fears of confusing folk; it was just an image thing: "Don't mention the kombi".  That all changed in the 1980s when the Germans decided wagons were sexy after all, the high performance arms of Audi, BMW & Mercedes-Benz all producing some remarkably fast ones.   

Combo cards: 3Com Ethernet XL PCI 3c900 NIC (RJ45-AUI-BNC) (left), NVidia GPU (HDMI-VGA-DVI) (centre) & Startech AT (Advanced Technology (or ISA (Industry Standard Architecture)) 2S1P (2 x DB9 Serial-1 x DB25 Parallel) (right).

In personal computer hardware, combo devices have existed almost as long as the industry.  When, with rather modest expectations, IBM released the PC-1 in 1981, it cost as much as US$5000 and was, even by the standards of the time, neither fast nor particularly capable but (1) it was an IBM and that really gave it a legitimacy no other name could and (2) it was delivered with lots of “open architecture” slots which meant third-party manufacturers could (license and royalty-free) produce all sorts of plug-in cards which extended the functionally.  Soon, there were cards offering sound, support for color monitors (IBM liked people to watch acid-green text displays because they thought the PC-1 would be used mostly as a way to hook into their big mainframes), higher definition graphics, additional ports soon including various adapters which could be used to connect to networks.  Things advanced rapidly however and before long there were many ways of connecting to stuff and, with "standards' still emerging, such were the realities of production-line economics that for manufacturers it often made sense to combine different things on the one card.  While for example a manufacturer could offer three different NICs (network interface cards) to support three different connections, what proved most popular was the combo card which included the three most common types.  The approach also suited customers who might want an additional serial & parallel port but found a combo card with both a better deal than buying two cards.  The approach is still followed today by the GPU (graphical processing unit) manufacturers which have at various times offered combo card with ports for VGA (technically “Video Graphics Array” but really long a reference to the pin-layout), HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface), DVI (Digital Video Interface, of which there were many) & DP (DisplayPort).

Just about any combination of stuff can be a combo including mix & match makeup.  Lindsay Lohan also was part of Pepsi’s promotional campaign for a “dirty soda”, a concoction of Pepsi Cola & milk (Pilk), served with cookies; on the internet, opinion was divided.  One of the most prolific users of combo seems to be the fast food industry, a combo meal (there are often variations) two or more components (typically a burger, a soda and fries) bundled at a price lower than purchasing the items separately.  For the industry, the combos are a high profit item because they stimulate demand, increasing volume with only a marginal increase in labour costs.

Before the release of the Barbie movie in July 2023, it had probably never occurred to the industry there would one day be demand for a burger with hot-pink sauce but it’s now at Burger King, available as part of a combo meal.  First to make the Barbie-themed meal available was Burger King Brazil, the combo including a cheeseburger topped with bacon bits and dressed with a hot pink sauce, said to have a “smoky” flavor.  Also included is a pink vanilla milkshake with strawberry Nesquik powder mixed in and when the straw is put in, it’s topped with a pink frosted donut.  Barbie being the star, the side order of “Ken’s potatoes” is just a plain order of fries, a sly nod to the “he’s just Ken” message.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe (pronounced uh-pos-truh-fee)

(1) The punctuation mark (') used variously: (1) to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether pronounced or unpronounced, (2) to indicate the possessive case or (3) to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols.

(2) In formal rhetoric (as the literary apostrophe), a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea.

(3) In sociolinguistics & orthography, the text character (’) which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.

1525–1535: The use as a rhetorical device was from the Late Latin, from the Classical Latin apostrophe, from the Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ) (a turning away; a digression), the construct being apostroph-, verbid of apostréphein (to turn away) + -ē (the noun suffix).  The punctuation mark dates from 1580–1590 and was from the Middle French, replacing the earlier apostrophus, from the Late Latin, from the Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos) (accent of elision) (prosōidía) (eliding (mark) (literally “(mark) of turning away”), noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō) (I turn away), verbid of apostréphein, the construct being ἀπό (apó) (away (which sometimes appeared as aph)) + στρέφω (stréphō or stréphein (to turn).  The now rare alternative forms were apostrophë & apostrophy and in non-US use apostrophise etc is more common than apostrophize etc.  Apostrophe & apostrophization are nouns, apostropher, apostrophizing & apostrophize are verbs, apostrophic & apostrophed are adjectives and apostrophically is an adverb; the noun plural is apostrophes.

Lindsay Lohan with pram, JFK airport, New York, January 2024.  In English, names with apostrophes are uncommon (almost all from other languages) but the punctuation mark is sometimes used as a guide to pronunciation.  Ms Lohan named her son (b 2023) Luai which in the Arabic is pronounced Lou’aye with the apostrophe operating as “a kind of break or a cut”.

There are a number of derived terms.  Some are purely descriptive (such as the “curly apostrophe”, the “perpendicular apostrophe”, “vertical apostrophe” and the “straight apostrophe” which in publishing are distinguished as the “typographic apostrophe” (an apostrophe that has a curved, asymmetrical form) (known also as the printer's apostrophe) and the “typewriter apostrophe” (an apostrophe with a straight, vertically symmetrical form).  In sociolinguistics & orthography, the apologetic apostrophe is imposed upon a Scots word in to lend it the appearance of being a contraction of an English word such as wi' (equivalent to the English “with”) and a' (equivalent to the English “all”).  The humorous apostrophectomy is a clinical procedure used by the grammar nazis ruthlessly to excise incorrect apostrophes, usually those used wrongly to form plurals.  The construct was apostrophe +‎ -ectomy (from the Ancient Greek -εκτομία (-ektomía) (a cutting out of), from ἐκτέμνω (ektémnō) (to cut out), the construct being ἐκ (ek) (out) + τέμνω (témnō) (to cut). The reverse procedure (inserting an apostrophe where one is required) was apostrophplant. the construct being apostroph(e) + (in)plant.  The grammar nazis operate usually on the “greengrocer's apostrophe” one where the symbol is used in error when forming a noun plural.  It’s probably a slight on greengrocers in that others are just as guilty but the most commonly cited examples are usually something like “Banana’s, 99c lb” rather than “Vegetarian Burger’s available”.  Among those in England who speak RP (Received Pronunciation, the “correct” form insisted on by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) until the 1960s (with the odd quirky exception)), the greengrocer's apostrophe is still sometimes known as the “Yorkshire apostrophe”; it’s a form of (southern) linguistic snobbery because the phenomenon certainly isn’t unique to those from the county.

The literary apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person, is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. Classic instances include Oliver Goldsmith’s (1728–1774) opening in The Deserted Village (1770): “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain…”; Antony's cry in William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) Julius Caesar (1599): “'O Judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts…”; William Wordsworth’s (1770–1850) passionate appeal in London 1812: “Milton! Thou should'st be living at this hour…” and the biblical: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55; King James Version (KJV, 1611)).

The star cross'd lovers: Romeo and Juliet (1884), oil on canvas by Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928), Southampton City Art Gallery.

As a mark indicating “an omitted letter”, the apostrophe was in common (though far from universal) use by the early sixteenth century and the origin of use as a possessive marker lay in one representing the loss of -e- in words ending in –es; by the mid eighteenth century, it was being applied to all possessives, whether or not they were ever once spelled with an additional “e”.  Another of the grammar Nazis bugbears (they have many) is the incorrect use of “it’s” as a neuter possessive pronoun, the late sixteenth century construct being it + the genitive/possessive ending “'s”.  The correct use of “it’s” is as a contraction of “it is” etc but as a possessive form it endured until the early nineteenth century and etymologists suggest the decline in use was due to either because the contraction of “it is” had become established or to align use with the general practice of omitting apostrophes in personal pronouns (yours, hers, theirs etc.).  One of the best known instances of a word with a “apostrophe substitution” appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) where “star cross’d lovers” is used to describe the doomed pair.

1967 Ford Mustang (left), 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda (the 1971 grill an aesthetic choice), the apostrophe indicating a clipping of “Barracuda”, the model designation used on the non high-performance models) (centre) and 1968 Chevrolet Camaro (right) at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) (the “Race to the Clouds”).  The three compete in the "Vintage Car" class.  The PPIHC is a marvelously anarchic event, run continuously since 1916 (except in 1917-1919 & 1942-1945 because of wartime restrictions) and an example of how good things can be if the FIA (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation), world sport’s dopiest regulatory body) isn’t involved.

Pikes Peak in the US state of Colorado was in 1820 named (as Pike’s Peak) after Brigadier General Zebulon Pike (1779–1813) who led an earlier expedition (which failed to reach the summit).  It a shame the landmark wasn't named "Zebulon's Peak"; so much more evocative.  The name Zebulon was from the Latin Zabulon, from the Ancient Greek Ζαβουλών (Zaboulṓn), from the Biblical Hebrew זְבוּלוּן (z'vulún).  In the Hebrew, Zebulon was a male name meaning “exalted house,” “dwelling,” “lord,” or “prince” (the alternative spelling was Zebulun.  In biblical times, Zebulun was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and it was the given name for the sixth son of Jacob and his wife, Leah.  Prior to European settlement, the native peoples of the region called the peak variously Tava (Sun) or Heey-otoyoo' (Long mountain).  In 1890, the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) introduced a policy avoiding the use of apostrophes in the possessive form in place names, the intent being: (1) a standardization convention to remove confusion, (2) to simplify the printing of maps by ensuring there were fewer clashes with special characters and (3) to remove another source of imaginative interpretation by lawyers.  An additional benefit was realized when computer databases began to be created and, especially in the early post-war years, many problems in indexing and formatting were avoided by restricting entries to letters & numbers.  In 1890, Pike’s Peak thus became Pikes Peak and just to make sure no grammar Nazis ever attempted a revival, in 1978 the Colorado state legislature outlawed the use of an apostrophe in Pikes Peak, apparently one of the world’s few laws about punctuation.  The BGN does make the odd exception in the case of places of historical significance and Martha's Vineyard was one of the few places to emerge with apostrophe intact.  

It’s a pity the BGN doesn’t set the other rules for the use of the apostrophe, a matter which so concerned Henry Fowler (1858–1933) that he devoted several paragraphs to the topic in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926).  One helpful reform would be to standardize the placement when making a possessive of names ending in “s” and that rule should be: (1) when a name ends in a letter other than “s” the apostrophe sits before the appended (plural) “s” (Lindsay Lohan’s car) and (2) when a name ends in “s” the apostrophe follows (the so-called “trailing apostrophe”) (Britney Spears’ car).  That has the benefit of simplicity and would mean one wouldn’t have to choose between the various options published in style guides, some of which are based on the number of syllables and some on the sound of the word when pronounced.  It’s a layer of complication as unnecessary as adding pronunciation guides to printed numbers (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th etc) in that it’s a needless tribute by the written to the spoken; the human brain can manage without them.

Kamala Harris (b 1964; US vice president since 2021) and Tim Walz (b 1964; governor of Minnesota since 2019), on stage, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 August 2024.

The issue flared when Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 US presidential election for not only does “Harris” end in “s” but “Walz” when spoken sounds like it too ends thus, something which style guides variously suggest should exist in the possessive either as Walz’s or Walz’.  Clearly, he’s a trouble-maker.  Most of the grammar nazis (X (formerly known as Twitter) their natural home where debate ensued) seemed to conclude “Walz’s” was correct but Harris’ or Harris’s divided opinion, the factions forming to defend either (1) if the “s” is sounded, spell the “s” and (2) if it ends in an “s” regardless of pronunciation, it’s a trailing apostrophe.  Most dictionaries say either practice is acceptable provided use is consistent which is fence-sitting but reflects reality although there is the sense many editors would be happy if a universal appended “’s” was the “rule” so the tiresome debate would go away.  Presumably that would also please the Harris-Walz campaign team which has issued press releases which included “Harris’s positive vision” and “Harris’ seventh trip to Nevada.”

Henry Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage has been influential for almost a century and it’s the original and the second edition (1965) edited by Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966) which remains the standard (the third (1996) and fourth (2015) editions less helpful although some readers might appreciate being “spoken with” rather than “dictated to” as was Henry Fowler’s way).  However, in the TikTok age, it may prove the singer Taylor Swift (b 1989) is now the final arbitrator of the language’s squabbles.  In mid 2024, Ms Swift released the album The Tortured Poets Department and while most (Swifties and others) focused on the music, some couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be the “missing apostrophe”.  However, whether or not it’s missing depends on how the title is read:  If it's a possessive form then one should appear but if “poets” is operating as descriptive modifier of “department” then none is required.  Understanding the distinction is easiest if the phrase is deconstructed and imagined as a department in a university which contains tortured poets; there morosely they sit for a time but they don’t “possess” the department; instead, tortured poets come and go and over generations the membership changes but the department endures.  In that sense, Ms Swift’s "Tortured Poets Department" is like a "Farmers Market" rather than a "driver’s license".  So, it’s really a matter of what Ms Swift intended and she seems a bit of a word nerd so it may be assumed she says what she means and means what she says.

Jumbo

Jumbo (pronounced juhm-boh)

(1) An informal descriptor for a very large person, animal, or thing, applied especially to an unusually large version of something usually smaller.

(2) In commerce, a term (sometimes interpolated into a brand) used to suggest a large version of something.

(3) A general term for wide-bodied passenger airplanes although historically most associated with the Boeing 747 (1969).

(4) In (mostly in the US) nautical use, a forestaysail having a boom (jumbo boom) along its foot, used especially on schooners; a sail used in place of a course on a square-rigged ship, having the form of an isosceles triangle set apex downward.

(5) In engineering & mining, as drilling jumbo, a platform-mounted machine used to drill rock.

(6) As mumbo-jumbo, a historic term used of paganism, originally referring to deities or other supernatural beings worshipped some West African peoples (usually in the form of an idol representing such a being). It was later adopted to describe any speech which was either technical jargon understood only by specialists or anything genuinely meaningless or incomprehensible.

1800–1810: Of uncertain origin but there is evidence the first use of the word by English-speakers was as an imperfect echoic of what was heard by European explorers or colonists in Africa.  It entered popular use after Jumbo, an East African elephant (1860-1885) was in 1882 exhibited by PT Barnum (1810-1891) of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus.  The name may be derived from either the Swahili jambo (matter, thing) or jumbe (chief, headman) although some sources cite the Sanskrit जम्बु (jambū or jambul) (rose apple).  Most convincing comes from the anthropological record of west-Africa where jumbo was used to describe a "clumsy, unwieldy fellow" (1823), itself possibly from a word for elephant in a West African language, perhaps the Kongo nzamba.  As a modifier (formally & informally) to impart the sense of largeness, jumbo is appended as required: jumbo jet (and jumbojet), jumbo mortgage, jumbomania, jumbo slice, superjumbo, jumbo sandwich, jumbo cigar, jumbo burger, jumbo cola etc.  Walt Disney’s musical cartoon Dumbo (1941) influenced the adoption of dumbo to mean “someone not intelligent”, the use documented by 1951 but the oral use probably pre-dates that.  Jumbo is a noun & adjective, jumboization (and jumboisation) are nouns, jumboize (and jumboise) are verbs; the noun plural is jumbos.

PT Barnum's publicity materials were created prior to "truth in advertising" laws.

The original Jumbo (the elephant) was an exhibit in London Zoo, the institution having purchased the beast from French explorers who were said to have captured it as a calf in Abyssinia in 1861.  Barnum purchased Jumbo in 1862 (much to the displeasure of the English) and immediately began in the US one of his typically extravagant advertising campaigns which emphasised both what a coup he’d achieved by wresting it from the British Empire and what an extraordinary size the creature was.  His circus toured the country with Jumbo a star attraction until in September 1885 it was killed near Saint Thomas, Ontario when struck by a freight train.

Perhaps curiously, the noun mumbo-jumbo seems not to have fallen from the linguistic treadmill, despite its origin and early colonial associations.  It entered English in 1738, based on an account of an incident in 1732 which occurred near Sami (in modern-day Gambia).  In the publications of the time, the Mumbo Jumbo was described as a costume “idol” used by men to frighten others and as coercive tool to regulate behaviour; it was used especially against women to induce their submission.  In hours of daylight, the costume was mounted on a stick placed at the outskirts of the village while by night a man would dress in it, visiting the homes of women or others deemed a problem, disputes “settled” and punishments bestowed.  Other spellings noted in the eighteenth century include Munbo Jumbo, Numbo Jumbo and Mumbo Chumbo and the original account ascribed the practice to Mandingo but linguistic anthropologists have never been able to trace an obvious Mandingo term which might be the source, the suggestions including mama dyambo (pompom-wearing ancestor) and mamagyombo (magician who exorcises troubled ancestor spirits).  It may have been borrowed from another Niger-Congo language and the European colonial transcriptions were the French moumbo-dioumbo & moumbo-ioumbo and the Portuguese mumban-jumban.  On the basis of the colonial-era accounts, the tradition (of uncertain age) must have been widespread with all settlements in the region was said to have a Mumbo Jumbo and by the mid-nineteenth century it had in English become a byword for a “superstitious object of senseless worship”, evolving by the 1890s to describe any speech which was either technical jargon understood only by specialists or anything genuinely meaningless or incomprehensible, use presumably reinforced and encouraged by some perception of association with “mumble”.  In that sense, it somewhat differed from the pseudo-Latin “hocus-pocus” which described words or incantations wholly fake and intended to deceive.  Despite the history, mumbo jumbo seems still acceptable in English and why it hasn’t yet been condemned as racist or cultural appropriation isn’t clear.

Jambo!  Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls.

Much has changed in the twenty-first century and it’s doubtful all of “You got your freshmen, ROTC Guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly Black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst.  Beware of The Plastics.” would appear were the Mean Girls (2004) script to be written today, mere mention of ethnicity now often deconstructed as some level of racism.  Cady (the white protagonist raised (somewhere) in Africa) uses the Swahili greeting "jambo" (from -amba (to say) which linguistic anthropologists say was probably derived from the Proto-Bantu (there’s a similar term in Zulu)) to introduce herself to a table of “Unfriendly Black Hotties”.  The script never makes explicit just where in Africa Cady may have spent her youth but this, along with another couple of cultural and linguistic clues do hint it may have been among sub-Saharan ethnic groups although whether that was intentional isn’t documented.  However, “jambo” is one of several similar words used on the continent linked both to the later evolution in English of jumbo and mumbo jumbo and it may be jumbo was either a direct phonetic spelling recorded by Europeans or just a mis-heard rendition.

The prototype of first jumbojet (Boeing 747) on show on the forecourt at the Boeing’s factory in Seattle, Washington, 1968 (left), at the Paris Air Show in 1969 with a Concorde in the background (centre) and the last 747 (a freighter), also on the Boeing forecourt, November 2022.

End of the line: The last of the 1574 Boeing 747s built over 54 years leaves the assembly line.

Jumbo was a big elephant and the word was soon used to describe large examples of other things.  In commercial use, the first use seems to have been Jumbo Cigars, sold in 1886.  The best known use in the modern age is probably jumbo-jet (also appears jumbojet), probably first used by Boeing engineers circa 1960 although the first documented reference is from 1964.  It replaced the earlier Boeing engineering-slang jumbo-707, probably because a three syllable phrase is always likely to prevail over one with seven.  In the narrow technical sense, jumbo-jet came to refer to all wide-bodied (ie multi-aisled) passenger airplanes built since the late 1960s, but, being first, it tends most to be associated with Boeing’s 747.  Thus, when in the early 2000s, the even larger Airbus 380 took to the skies, the term superjumbo (and super-jumbo) was used by some, the airframe’s point of visual differentiation from the 747 being the Boeing’s famous hump being extended along the fuselage to the tail section, creating a double-decker.  The term (which had earlier been used of the stretched 747s) however never quite caught on in the same way because the 380 was unique and a class of superjumbos thus never emerged to demand a descriptive generic term.  As it was, economics conspired against the A380 and the circumstances in which it flew were very different to those envisaged in the late 1980s when first the project was conceived for not only had advances in engineering and materials allowed a new generation of twin-jet jumbos to operate at a much lower passenger cost per mile but airports, their systems and physical infrastructure optimized around the 747’s capacity, proved unwilling to make the changes needed to accommodate higher peak demand.  After little more than a dozen years of assembly, Airbus in 2021 ceased production of A380 after some 250 had been built.

One of NASA’s SCA Boeing 747s, adapted as a heavy-lift platform to “piggy-back” the US Space shuttles (left).  The Soviet Union (and briefly the Russians) used the one-off Antonov An-225 Мрія (Mriya (dream or inspiration)) to piggy-back its  Буран (Buran (Snowstorm or Blizzard)), the USSR's space shuttle (right).  The An-225, with the largest wingspan and heaviest take-off weight of any aircraft ever to enter operational service, was destroyed in the early days of the Russian invasion (the 2022 "Special Military Operation”) of Ukraine.

Three of the greatest landmarks of the analogue era: Space shuttle Enterprise (OV-101, the first orbiter, used for atmospheric test flights and never flew in space) atop NASA 905 SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, one of two modified Boeing 747s used to ferry shuttles from landing sites back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and a BA (British Airways) Concorde taking off, Paris Air Show, 1983.

The 747 proved more enduring a successful and was a machine which was truly revolutionary in its social consequences.  Just as Boeing’s earlier 707 (1958) had been instrumental in making trans-Continental air travel a viable and reliable means of transport for a small number of people, the economics of scale made possible by the 747 meant such trips became accessible for many more.  Between 1968 and 2022, almost 1600 were built in a variety of lengths and configurations and it was for decades the faithful workhorse of many airlines, but it ultimately fell victim to the same financial squeeze that doomed the A380, twin-engined aircraft able to carry almost as many passengers at a significantly lower cost.  By 2016 it was clear demand had dwindled and most of the production thereafter was for freight operators still attracted by the 747’s unique combination of capacity, reliability and range.  As passenger 747s progressively are retired, many will be converted to freighters, an relatively simple operation envisaged even during the design process in the 1960s.  Many flyers however noted the 747’s demise with some regret.  None denied the advantages of airframes built from composite materials nor the enhanced economy of the twin-engine configuration but for those who flew for hours above 30,000 feet (9000+ m), knowing one was in a metal cylinder with the redundancy of four engines imparted great confidence.

Lindsay’s Olives in sizes to suit.  Black olive martinis are a cult.

In commercial use, obvious comparative terms like “small”. “medium” & “large” are commonly used and “extra” is often appended to “small” & “large”.  In the sizing of clothing, “extra” is used in multiples, labelled usually as XL XXL XXXL etc to indicate ascending graduations of large (L).  With the “Extra Large”, this is on the model of the DD, DDD, FF etc bra cup descriptors used by some manufacturers although the use varies, a DD sometimes the same as an E and sometimes something between a D & E.  However, at the other end of the size range, the multiple letters work the other way, an AAA cup smaller than an AA which is smaller than an A.  Linguistically, that does make sense because with bras the multiple letters are synonymous with “extra”, the AAA being extra small and the FF extra large.  The alpha-numeric nomenclature used (30A, 32D etc) is maintained presumably because something like a "Jumbo" or "Colossal" bra might lack sales appeal.  Where manufactures want to use descriptors which indicate a larger size beyond something like extra large, they’ll trawl the alphabet, thus product packaging described as “jumbo”, “super” “mega”, colossal” “super”, “maxi” etc.  Unlike S-M-L, there’s no defined ascendant order so it might be that where one manufacturer’s jumbo is larger than their colossal while with some it may be the other way round.  As women often complain, the bras-sizing used by manufacturers is similarly inconsistent. 

Lyndon Johnson in mansplaining mode.  His wife Claudia (1912-2007) was styled Lady Bird Johnson and his two children were Lynda Bird Johnson (b 1944) and Luci Baines Johnson (b 1947); old Lyndon was most pleased he'd contrived for his whole family to wear the initials “LBJ”.

Lyndon Johnson's (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) conversation was sprinkled with vulgarities, some of which entered the political vernacular.  His own nickname for his penis was “jumbo” although had he studied the descriptive hierarchy used in the packaging of olives, he might have preferred “colossus”; the tales of him describing, discussing and displaying the organ are legion.  At least at the anatomical level, the presidential penis wasn’t much in the news between LBJ and the public filing in 1994 by Paula Jones (b 1966) of a document deposited pursuant to her action against Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) citing sexual harassment, dating from his time as governor of Arkansas.  Ms Jones alleged an Arkansas State Police Trooper instructed her to report Mr Clinton's hotel room in the Excelsior (now the Little Rock Marriott) where Mr Clinton propositioned her, during which he exposed his penis.

Penthouse magazine, December 2000.  The covergirl & centerfold Pet of the Month (PotM) was Suzette Spencer (b 1979).  The edition contained the interview titled: Paula Jones Uncovered! How The Far Right Used And Abused Her To Destroy Clinton.

The sentence in the filing which captured the media’s attention was that Ms Jones indicated she was able to prove the validity of at least part of her claim because she could describe certain “distinguishing characteristics” of Mr Clinton’s penis.  Sadly, 1994 was a time before memes and the web was in its infancy so the wealth of speculative depictions which would these days be inevitable never appeared.  Sadly for political junkies, just what were those “distinguishing characteristics” remains a mystery because the judge issued an order barring her from elaborating on the matter prior to the trial and, though appetites were whetted and expectations high, unfortunately the matter never reached trial so the only statement on the record is the one issued by Mr Clinton’s legal team: “…in terms of size, shape, direction, whatever the devious mind wants to concoct, the president is a normal man.”  There are no blemishes, there are no moles, there are no growths.”

Jumbo spark plugs.  This was actually advertising the strength of the spark rather than the plug, some of the Jumbo line of plugs physically smaller than than some offered by the competition.  The need for higher-performance spark plugs arose as higher octane gas (petrol) permitted compression ratios to rise.

David Lloyd George (left) while Chancellor of the Exchequer (the UK’s finance or treasury minister) with Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955), the Home Secretary (interior minister), London, 1910.

Of course, Monica Lewinsky (b 1973) must have had some “special knowledge” but it was something she seemed disinclined to discuss and in the hearings conducted prior to her appearance before the grand jury, the most prosecutors could elicit was that she “didn’t agree” with the description filed three years earlier by Ms Jones.  Given Ms Jones words can be construed only as an indication Mr Clinton’s penis was in some way (or ways) “abnormal”, the implication in what Ms Lewinsky said (or failed to say) was that things, anatomically, were “normal”.  Curiously, Ken Starr (1946–2022; independent counsel investigating the Clinton-era Whitewater affair and other matters) chose not to force Ms Lewinsky clarify things by listing the intimate details (the “nuts & bolts” as it were); it was a rare example of restraint in his pursuit of the Clintons.  When Albert James (A.J.) Sylvester (1889–1989; principal private secretary (PPS) to Lloyd George, 1923-1945) in 1947 published The Real Lloyd George, drawn from his diaries, the entry which drew most comment an admiring comment about the Welsh Wizard’s penis: “…the biggest I have ever seen.”  Disappointing some, Mr Sylvester didn't burden his readers with the details or extent of the observational history which made his comparison possible but it's presumed he was on some basis an empiricist.  Sylvester pre-deceased the social media age so was spared being asked whether the Lloyd George appendage would best be described as a "jumbo" or "colossus".