Orthogonal

Orthogonal (pronounced awr-thog-uh-nl)

(1) Of, pertaining to or involving right angles; perpendicular

(2) In mathematics (sometimes as orthographic), pertaining to or involving right angles or perpendiculars.

(3) In mathematics, of a system of real functions defined so that the integral of the product of any two different functions is zero; of a system of complex functions defined so that the integral of the product of a function times the complex conjugate of any other function equals zero.

(4) In mathematics, of two vectors having an inner product equal to zero.

(5) In mathematics, of a linear transformation defined so that the length of a vector under the transformation equals the length of the original vector.

(6) In mathematics (and applied fields such as engineering or statistics), of a square matrix defined so that its product with its transpose results in the identity matrix.

(7) In crystallography, referable to a rectangular set of axes.

(8) Figuratively, something having no bearing on the matter at hand; independent of or irrelevant to another thing or each other.

(9) In art, (1) the descriptor of the lines of perspective which can be mapped onto an image pointing to the vanishing point & (2) in the literature of art criticism a technical term which refers to work consisting exclusively of horizontal or vertical line and thus angles which, if they exist, are right angles.

1565–1575: From (the now obsolete) orthogonium (right triangle), from the French orthogonal, from either the Late Latin orthogōnium & orthogōnālis, from the Latin orthogōnius (right-angled).or directly from the Greek orthogṓnion (neuter) (right-angled), the construct being ortho- + -gōn(ion) + -al.  Ortho- (straight, correct; proper), was from the Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós), from the Proto-Hellenic ortwós, from the primitive Indo-European hr̥dwós, from herd- (upright) and was cognate with the Latin arduus and the Sanskrit ऊर्ध्व (ūrdhvá).  The –gon element was from the Ancient Greek γωνία (gōnía) (corner, angle), from the primitive Indo-European ǵónu (knee).  The -al suffix was from the Middle English -al, from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al.  It was use to denote the sense "of or pertaining to", an adjectival suffix appended (most often to nouns) originally most frequently to words of Latin origin, but since used variously and also was used to form nouns, especially of verbal action.  The alternative form in English remains -ual (-all being obsolete).  Orthogonal is a noun & adjective, orthogonality & orthogonalization are nouns and orthogonally & orthonormal are adverbs; the noun plural is orthogonals.

As adjectives, orthogonal & orthographic are synonymously and the choice is dictated by preference, habit or the rhythm of the text although, to avoid confusion, they probably shouldn’t both be used in the same document.  The Ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιον (orthogṓnion) and the Classical Latin orthogonium originally denoted a rectangle and it was in this sense the words were used by the early mathematicians although the use was later extended to mean a right triangle.  By the twelfth century (especially among engineers and architects) the post-Classical Latin orthogonalis came to mean a right angle or something related to a right angle.  In the modern era, in science and mathematics, derived forms have been coined as required (biorthogonal, psuedo-orthogonal et al) and there’s also the mysterious semiorthogonal which would seem oxymoronic given orthogonal is a description of a mathematically defined absolute.  In figurative use, orthogonal is used to suggest something is unrelated or irrelevant to whatever is being discussed but because it’s so rarely used outside of mathematics, engineering, architecture or art criticism, it’s probably a term to avoid though it may be worth a point or two in Philosophy 101.

Lindsay Lohan in an unusual cage cutout top, the lines assuming or relaxing from the orthogonal as the body moves (maybe an instance of "a shifting semiorthogonal"), The World's First Fabulous Fund Fair in aid of the Naked Heart Foundation, The Roundhouse, London, February 2015.  An opportunity was missed by not adding a sympathetic clutch purse.

Richard Nixon, the Franklins & the Orthogonians

When Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) attended Whittier College in California (1930-1934), it was still formally affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers), a link it would maintain until the post-war years.  However, in many ways it was little different to wholly secular institutions in the US (except that one hour a day in chapel was mandatory), including the fraternities and sororities, the still almost exclusively single-sex, student-run societies which were established on many a basis and have evolved variously although a number of the male-only ones often attract attention related to their epic levels of alcohol consumption.  As was the case with many colleges until recent decades, many of those which Richard Nixon found when he arrived had been formed as literary societies and while there were four sororities (for women), there was but one fraternity.

That was the Franklin Society which in 1921 had been the first fraternity founded at Whittier College, beginning as a literary society that based itself on the "virtues" espoused by US founding father and polymath (and confessed Freemason) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).  Nixon, then unpolished and obviously a shop-keeper’s son, thought them snobby and elitist, an opinion either formed or reinforced when the Franklins rebuffed attempts to join and readily he accepted the suggestion be assume the presidency of the fraternity formed by other students resentful at being rejected by the Franklins.  This was the Orthogonians, the name (based on the now standard translation “right angles”) meaning “the straight shooters”, their motto an earthy “beans, brains, brawn and bowels”.  The Orthogonians did not enjoy the black tie lifestyle of the Franklins and weren’t invited to the best parties but several of Nixon’s biographers have traced from his fraternity experience many of the characteristics which would remain identifiable throughout this political career.  He learned that in life there are few stars but many supporting players and the man who can align himself with their interests you can gain their loyalty, something of real practical value in systems where everyone has one vote; it was the origin of his idea that elections and contests of ideas can be won by being appealing to the “silent majority”, something which would emerge as a political strategy during his presidency.  It taught him also that being hated was no obstacle to political success as long as one was hated by the right people, something he proved by beating the Franklin’s nominee for the position of student body president.  To this day, the Frankin’s website still boasts: “Among those who have been denied membership to this exclusive society is former president Richard Nixon.”  The Orthogoian Society still exists.

The master and the apprentice: Donald Trump and Richard Nixon, Houston, Texas, 1989.  It’s said the subject of Iran was raised in their discussions.

Some biographers have made much of the Franklin-Orthogonian contrast in the making of Nixon the younger.  In Nixonland (2008), Rick Perlstein’s (b 1969) thesis was that between 1965-1972, Nixon crafted a national conflict by exploiting the the mutual fear and hatred between the country’s elite Franklins and the “ordinary people”, the Orthogonians.  Some criticized the approach but Nixonland was a vivid approach to the era in which the divisions in the US became more exposed than they had been for a century and which was a prelude to the cross-cutting cleavages which have for decades characterized the country’s politics.  Nixon didn’t invent the politics of resentment but he expressed them in a language more easily understood by even the unsophisticated and more offensive than ever to those he labeled “the elites”.  In their own ways, to their radically different constituencies, Bernie Sanders (b 1941; senior US senator (Independent, Vermont) since 2007) and Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) are both inheritors of the Nixon legacy, two Franklins telling the Orthogonians they’re here to help.

Sinister

Sinister (pronounced sin-uh-ster)

(1) Threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous.

(2) Bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell; treacherous, especially in some mysterious way.

(3) Unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable.

(4) Of or on the left side; left-handed (mostly archaic except as a literary device).

(5) In heraldry, noting the side of an escutcheon or achievement of arms that is to the left of the bearer (as opposed to dexter), ie from the bearer's point of view and therefore on the spectator's right.

(6) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest (obsolete).

1375-1425: From the Middle English sinistre (unlucky), from the Old French sinistra (left), from the Latin sinestra (left hand) from the Proto-Italic senisteros, of unknown origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same primitive Indo-European root as the Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān) (more useful, more advantageous) with the contrastive or comparative suffix -ter, (as in the Latin dexter (on the right-hand)) familiar in the modern “dexterity”.  Sinister is an adjective, sinisterly is an adverb and sinisterness is a noun.  Unlike some other adjectives applied to people, such as exquisite, sinister never evolved into a self-definitional noun.  The alternative spelling sinistre is long obsolete but those for whom historical authenticity matters should note sinister was once accented on the middle syllable by poets including Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.

Evolution of Sinister

The now universal meanings (evil et al), emerged in the late fifteenth century, a sense inherited from the fourteenth century Old French senestre & sinistre (contrary, false; unfavorable; to the left) picked up directly from the Classical Latin sinestra (left, on the left side (opposite of dexter)).  Sinister had been used in heraldry from the 1560s to indicate "left, to the left" and left in heraldry indicated illegitimacy and in that it preserves the literal sense from Latin of "on or from the left side".  In zoology, the botanists in 1856 created the adjective sinistrorse a word to describe the direction of spiral structures in nature, from Latin sinistrorsus (toward the left side) the construct being sinist- (left) + versus (turned), past participle of vertere (to turn), from the primitive Indo-European root wer- (to turn, bend).  In the scientific literature it was paired with dextrorse but a broader adoption was doomed by confusion; it was never agreed what was the correct point of view to reckon the leftward or rightward spiraling.  

Peter Dutton (b 1970; Liberal-National Party MP for Dickson (Queensland, Australia) since 2001).  Sometimes, a sinister look is just a matter of chance, there being nothing sinister about Mr Dutton (although he has never denied being a Freemason).

The former Research Institute For Experimental Medicine, Berlin, Germany.  Built for the purpose of housing live animal testing facilities, and until 2003 known as the Central Animal Laboratories of the Free University of Berlin, its common name among Berliners (long known for their sardonic humor) the Mäusebunker (Mouse Bunker). 

Those working in visual media, photographers, cinematographers and painters use tricks of lighting and angle to convey a sense of the sinister, even buildings and landscapes, carefully framed, can invoke the feeling.  Although it can be because of a structure's historical associations, when a building is described as "sinister" it's a thing usually of subjective perception, induced often by a a dark, eerie, or foreboding appearance. There are a number of elements which may be involved:

(1) The architectural style, lighting and choice of materials can contribute to a perception of sinisterness, buildings in the Gothic or Brutalist tradition with their sharp angles, heaviness and use of slabs of dark stone noted for this.

(2) A notorious historical context can impart a meaning which transcends the actual architecture.  Buildings known to be associated with dark historical events or periods in history can gain a reputation as being sinister.  Places once the sites of suffering, torture or death gain this reputation such as the Lubyanka Building in Moscow.  Although an inoffensive Neo-Baroque structure in yellow brick, for most of its life it's been the home of one branch or other of the Russian internal agency, most famously the KGB.

(3) The surrounding environment can make an otherwise charming building seem mysterious and threatening.  Some will find a building standing alone in an isolated area or surrounded by dark and overgrown vegetation can provoke feeling of unease.

Lindsay Lohan as she would appear if left-handed, signing photographs with Sharpie (as recommended by Pippa Middleton), Rachael Ray Show, New York City, January 2019 (digitally mirrored image).  As a general principle, pink is not associated with sinisterness (although crooked Hillary Clinton in pink pantsuit would be most sinister).

A quirk from antiquity is that in matters of religion, to Romans sinister meant auspicious whereas for Greeks it meant inauspicious.  The curious duplicity arose because the Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky; unfavorable" a natural inheritance because omens, especially the flight of birds seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, adverse".  This was from the influence of Greek, reflecting the early Hellenic practice of facing north when observing omens.  In genuine Roman auspices, the augurs faced south so the left was thought good and favorable.  The Romans were a superstitious lot but seem to have managed this strange dichotomy of meaning without difficulty, sinister suggesting something bad except in the temple when it meant something good.

The salute associated with the Nazi regime (1933-1945) has long been regarded as something sinister or worse.  The pantsuit wasn't thought sinister until it became emblematic of crooked Hillary Clinton.

Superleggera

Superleggera (pronounced soo-per-lee-ghera)

(1) In automotive coach-building, a method of construction which combined a framework of thin steel tubes with aluminum outer panels, producing a lightweight structure.

(2) In recent years, a designation used as a model name to refer to a “lightweight” vehicle even if not a classic superleggera structure.

1935 (a patent for the technique issued in 1936):  From the Italian superleggera (super light) (feminine singular of superleggero), the construct being super- +‎ leggero.  Super was from the Latin super-, from the Proto-Italic super, from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) which was cognate with the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér) (above) and the Proto-Germanic uber (now familiar in English and translated as “over” although this doesn’t wholly convey the sense in Modern German).  Leggero (light in weight, slight, thin) was from the Old French legier, from the Vulgar Latin leviārius, from the Latin levis, from the Proto-Italic leɣis, from the primitive Indo-European hlengwih-, from hléngus, from hleng (lightweight). The cognates included the Sanskrit लघु (laghú), the Ancient Greek ἐλᾰφρός & ἐλᾰχῠ́ς (elaphrós & elakhús) and the Old English lēoht (the ultimate source of the English light).  Superleggera is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is superleggeras (or in the Italian the masculine plural is superleggeri, the feminine plural superleggere).

Carrozzeria Touring and superleggera

It was in 1926 that two Milanese lawyers discussed how bored they were with mundane, if lucrative, legal work and much preferred the exciting world of the automobile, the industry then something like that of IT in the early twenty-first century in that a critical mass of users had been established, growth was consistent and new ventures were coming and going amid a milieu of M&A (mergers & acquisitions).  The lawyers negotiated a controlling interest in Milan-based coachbuilder Carrozzeria Falco, changing the company’s name to Carrozzeria Touring.  Contracts to provide bodywork soon followed including from some of the industry’s major manufacturers including Citroën, Isotta Fraschini & Alfa Romeo and for some time they continued to adopt Falco’s methods which was an adaptation of the “Weymann” system which involved laying fabric over lightweight frames supported by a traditional separate chassis.  Touring produced elegant coachwork of a high quality and attracted the patronage of both Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) and Victor Emmanuel III (1869–1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) although perhaps more influential was the Queen who was often photographed alighting from one of Touring’s large cars, a more imposing sight than the exit of her diminutive husband.

1938 Alfa Romeo 8C-2900B LeMans with Touring Superleggera (left), a wrought-iron artwork installation based on the idea using the Volkswagen Beetle as a model (centre) and Lindsay Lohan with conventional (body-on-chassis) Beetle (Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)).

Touring proved innovative in its use of strong, lightweight alloys to support the fabric skins and they enjoyed much success also in applying the technique to aircraft components such as wings and fuselages but during the 1930s with both the military and civilian airlines wanting to fly higher, faster, for longer and in all weather, the shift was beginning towards all-metal construction.  This was an organic evolution of the Weymann technique but the weight and other characteristics of sheet aluminum differed greatly from stretched-fabric and the system needed substantially to be re-engineered and it was the lessons learned from fabricating fuselages which led to Touring developing superleggera, the design patented in 1936.  The essence of superleggera was a skeleton of small diameter tubes which formed a body’s core shape, to which were attached thin aluminum-alloy panels which provided both aerodynamic form and strength.  Compared with earlier methods, as well as being inherently light, the method afforded great flexibility in fashioning shape and Touring took advantage of the properties of the metal to create both complex and flowing curves.  Some of their cars of the era did have lovely lines and in addition to the collaboration with Alfa Romeo which yielded sports cars, gran turismo machines and racing cars, the house attracted business from Lancia, Bianchi and others.

1938 Lancia Astura IV series coupé by Touring (left), 1949 Ferrari 166mm barchetta by Touring (centre), and 2014 Ducati 1199 Superleggera (right).

In the post war years, an era in which demand was high and regulations rare, the number of cars built according to the superleggera system increased as Touring licensed the use of its patent to others including Hundon in the US, Pegaso in Spain and Bristol, Aston Martin & Lagonda in England.  Bristol particularly took to the idea because of their long experience with airframes but perhaps the most influential stylistically was the 1948 Ferrari 166 MM Touring barchetta, a charismatic shape which provided a template which would remain recognizable in Ferraris for a quarter-century, the motif of the egg-crate grill still in use today.  While superleggera was unsuited to volume production, for the exclusive ranges at the upper end of the market it was ideal and both Lamborghini and Maseratis emerged built with the technique.  Although the two are sometimes confused because there are visual similarities under the skin, the space-frame method differs in that it can support the whole structural load whereas a superleggera is attached to an existing chassis.

1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (left), 1961 Aston Martin DB4 Convertible (centre; the Volante designation wasn't then in use) and 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Saloon.

In the public mind, the most enduring connection was with Aston Martin which was granted a license to use the design and the Superleggera construction method at its Newport Pagnell plant for a fee of £9 for each of the first 500 bodies and £5 for each subsequent unit and the DB4 & DB5 (the latter made famous in the early James Bond films) were both built thus.  However, they represented something of the end of the era because governments were starting to pass laws which demanded road cars attain a certain degree of crash-worthiness, something the superleggera technique couldn’t be adapted conform to without sacrificing the very lightness which was its raison d'etre.  Additionally, the manufacturers were moving swiftly to replace body-on-frame with unit-construction.  Touring attempted to adapt to the changing environment by offering its services as a coach-builder for small, exclusive production runs and made the necessary capital investment but it had become crowded field, the supply of coach-builders exceeding the demand for their skills.  Touring ceased operations in 1966 but four decades on, there was an unexpected revival of the name, the company re-established as Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, offering automotive design, engineering, coach-building, homologation services, non-automotive industrial design, and the restoration of historic vehicles.  A number of very expensive one-off and limited-production ventures for Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Bentley followed but what attracted most comment was the Sciàdipersia, shown in coupé form at the Geneva Motor Show in 2018, the cabriolet introduced the flowing year.  Based on the underpinnings of the Maserati Grantourismo, although owing no visual debt, it was very much in the tradition of the three Maserati 5000 GTs Touring built in 1959-1960, the first of which had been ordered by the Shah of Iran.  Superleggera however is now just a name with an illustrious history, the method of construction no longer in use and when used as a model designation, it now simply denotes what a literal translation of the Italian suggests: lightweight.

The original Maserati 5000 GT "Shah of Iran" by Touring (left; chassis #103-002) and Touring's Maserati Sciàdipersia in coupé form (centre; 2018) and roadster (right; 2019).

Vickers Wellingtons (B-series, Mark 1) during production, the geodesic structure visible, Brooklands, England, 1939.

There are obvious visual similarities between the classic superleggera method and the geodesic structure used in airframes and some buildings, most famously the “geodesic dome”.  The imperatives of both were strength both aim to create strong and lightweight structures, but they differ in their specific design and application.  As used in airframes, the geodesic structure consisted of a network of intersecting diagonal braces, creating a lattice framework which distributed loads as evenly as possible while providing a high strength-to-weight ratio.  This was of great significance in military airplanes used in combat because it enhanced their ability better to withstand damage better, the stresses distributed across the structure rather than being restricted to a limited area which could create a point-of-failure.  The geodesic framework was based on geometric principles which had been developed over centuries and typically employed hexagons & triangles to render a structure which was both rigid & light.  Superleggera construction differed in that it involves the creation of a lightweight tubular frame, covered with aluminum body panels of a thinness which wouldn’t have been possible with conventional engineering.  The attraction of the superleggera technique was the (relatively) minimalistic framework supported the skin, optimizing weight reduction without compromising strength.  So, structurally, the difference was the geodesic design used a network of intersecting braces to form a lattice, while the superleggera construction used a tubular frame covered with panels.

Muppet

Muppet (pronounced mup-it)

(1) A usually derogatory slang term for somebody conspicuously stupid (never capitalised).  Can be used affectionately and references intelligence; distinct from cultural references such as bogan, chav, redneck etc although they can (indeed sometimes should) be used in conjunction.

(2) Any puppet character so named in various TV programmes (always capitalised).

1955: The Muppets were created by puppeteer Jim Henson (1936-1990) who variously would claim the word was (1) a construct of m(arionette) + (p)uppet and (2) it had no specific etymology and was coined because he liked the sound.  The US trademark dates from 1972 with usage claimed from 1971 (and in print from 1970) and the eponymous US network TV programme was broadcast between 1976-1981.  Well-scripted and meta-referential, Muppets aren’t stereotypically stupid; the slang term apparently applied to dopy people because Muppets look stupid.  Use of the slang appears restricted to parts of the English-speaking world though not North America, having currency only in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

They are everywhere

Muppet & muppet: Kermit the frog with crooked Hillary Clinton.

The clusters are self-replicating; as one muppet departs, one or more appears and often, muppets reach critical-mass.  Think about it, at one time there must have been only a few muppets; now look how many there are.  Muppets are everywhere, seeming sometimes to populate whole streets or even suburbs.  In workplaces also they tend to cluster and there are corporations in which entire departments appear staffed by muppets.  Although low in productivity, muppet departments are harmonious workplaces and one muppet, witnessing some act of egregious stupidity by another, will playfully chide them, usually with the phrase “you muppet!”  That’s also often heard in shopping centre car-parks when muppets have locked their keys in the car or can’t remember where it’s parked.

Lindsay Lohan with Telly the Muppet, The Letter Z Decides to Quit the Alphabet, Sesame Street (1995).

React

React (pronounced ree-akt)

(1) To act in response to an agent or influence.

(2) To act reciprocally upon each other, as two things.

(3) To act in opposition, as against some force.

(4) To respond to a stimulus in a particular manner.

(5) In physics, to exert an equal force in the opposite direction to an acting force; to act in a reverse direction or manner, especially so as to return to a prior condition.

(6) In chemistry, to act upon each other; to exercise a reciprocal or a reverse effect, as two or more chemical agents; to act in opposition.

(7) In chemistry, to cause or undergo a chemical reaction.

(8) In the hyphenated form re-act, to act or again perform.

(9) To return an impulse or impression; in Internet use, to post a reaction (now often in the form of an emoji), indicating how one feels about a posted message.

1635–1645: From the early Modern English react (to exert, as a thing acted upon, an opposite action upon the agent).  The construct was re- + act, thought to have been modeled on the Medieval Latin reagere, the construct being re- + agere (to drive, to do).  Act was from the Middle English acte, from the Old French acte, from the Latin ācta (register of events), the plural of āctum (decree, law), from agere (to do, to act), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European héǵeti and related to the German Akte (file); it partially displaced deed, from the Old English dǣd (act, deed) which endured and (especially in law), flourished in parallel.  The re- prefix was from the Middle English re-, from the circa 1200 Old French re-, from the Latin re- & red- (back; anew; again; against), from the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (again), a metathetic alteration of wert- (to turn).  It displaced the native English ed- & eft-.  A hyphen is not normally included in words formed using this prefix, except when the absence of a hyphen would (1) make the meaning unclear, (2) when the word with which the prefix is combined begins with a capital letter, (3) when the word with which the is combined with begins with another “re”, (4) when the word with which the prefix is combined with begins with “e”, (5) when the word formed is identical in form to another word in which re- does not have any of the senses listed above.  As late as the early twentieth century, the dieresis was sometimes used instead of a hyphen (eg reemerge) but this is now rare except when demanded for historic authenticity or if there’s an attempt deliberately to affect the archaic.  Re- may (and has) been applied to almost any verb and previously irregular constructions appear regularly in informal use; the exception is all forms of “be” and the modal verbs (can, should etc).  Although it seems certain the origin of the Latin re- is the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (which has a parallel in Umbrian re-), beyond that it’s uncertain and while it seems always to have conveyed the general sense of "back" or "backwards", there were instances where the precise was unclear and the prolific productivity in Classical Latin tended make things obscure.  The Latin prefix rĕ- was from the Proto-Italic wre (again) and had a parallel in the Umbrian re- but the etymology was always murky.   In use, there was usually at least the hint of the sense "back" or "backwards" but so widely was in used in Classical Latin and beyond that the exact meaning is sometimes not clear.  Etymologists suggest the origin lies either in (1) a metathesis (the transposition of sounds or letters in a word) of the primitive Indo-European wert- (to turn) or (2) the primitive Indo-European ure- (back), which was related to the Proto-Slavic rakъ (in the sense of “looking backwards”).

The hyphenated form re-act (to act or again perform) began to develop during the 1650s (although the hyphen wasn’t de rigueur for decades) and there’s evidence to suggest there was often either an exaggerated pronunciation of the “re-“ or a slight pause between syllables to distinguish it from react.  Forms like overreact & overreaction (1928), interreact, interreaction (1820s), reactivate (1902 & reactivation et al were coined as required.  React is a noun & verb, reactive is an adjective, reactor, reaction & reactant are nouns, reactionary is a noun & adjective, reactivate, reacted & reacting are verbs,; the noun plural is reacts.

Lindsay Lohan reacting, demonstrating her emotional range (left to right:  happy, surprised, terrified and despairing).

The noun reactant (a reacting thing) came from chemistry and dates from 1901; as an adjective it was noted in the literature by 1911 although it may have been in oral use for some time and the noun reactance had been in the vocabulary of science since at least 1893.  The noun reactor (one that reacts) was a standard entry in the books of Latin instruction by 1825 but came into common use in the electrical industry after 1915 to describe “coil or other piece of equipment which provides reactance in a circuit”.  The word is now most commonly associated with nuclear energy, the reactor technically the component in a power-plant, submarine etc, where the nuclear reactions are contained but in the popular imagination often used of the power-generating installations to describe the entire facility.  The adjective reactive dates from 1712 in the sense of “a repercussive, echoing” although that use is long obsolete.  It was re-purposed in the early nineteenth century to mean “caused by a reaction” and by 1888 as “susceptible to (chemical) reaction” and in chemistry the related forms were reactively, reactiveness & reactivity, the words required as new chemicals and elements were subjected to experiments determining the behavior when exposed to others.

The noun reaction (action in resistance or response to another action or power), although later much used in chemistry, dates from the language of physics & dynamics in the 1640s and came frequently to be seen in discussions of politics and international relations.  It was modeled on the French réaction, from the older Italian reattione, from the Medieval Latin reactionem (nominative reactio), a noun of action formed in Late Latin from the past-participle stem of Latin reagere.  In chemistry it was of course invaluable when describing “a mutual or reciprocal action of chemical agents upon each other” and it was the standard noun thus used by 1836.  The more general sense of "action or feeling in response" (to something said, an event etc) was from the early twentieth century.  The phrase reaction time (time elapsing between the action of an external stimulus and the giving of a signal in reply) was a creation of experimental science and first documented in 1874; it was later widely used (both as a precise measure and something indicative) in fields as varied as zoology, sport and electoral behavior.  Sometimes, the experiments to measure reaction times were conducted in a reaction chamber.

Porträt des Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein in Ritterorden des Godenen vlies (cerimonial robes of the Order of the Golden Fleece) (1836), oil on canvas by Johann Nepomuk Ender (1793-1854).

The adjective reactionary (of or pertaining to political reaction, tending to revert from a more to a less advanced policy) dates from 1831 and was on the model of the French réactionnaire.  It was part of Karl Marx's (1818-1883) standard set of descriptive terms by 1858, used to convey the idea of “tending toward reversing existing tendencies” and was the opposite of the ”revolutionary”.  The classic reactionary era is now that created by the Congress of Vienna (1514-1815) when the old monarchies contrived to ensure they wouldn’t again be threatened by something like the French Revolution (1789).  So dominant did the use in politics become that the use in science (of or pertaining to a chemical or other reaction) became rare.  In political science, the term reactionary is applied with rather more precision than in general use where, like fascist, it’s tended to become a general term of disapprobation for those who espouse an opposing view.  When applied with some academic rigor, it refers properly to the view that a previous political state of society is desirable and that action should be taken to return to those arrangements.  A reactionary is thus different from a conservative who wishes to keep things as they are but perhaps (at least sometimes) synonymous with ultra-conservative or arch-conservative, the classic example in politics being Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859; foreign minister or chancellor of the Austrian Empire 1809-1848) who constructed an intricate model of Europe which was design to avoid another unpleasantness (for the ruling class) like the French revolution (1789) and its aftermath.  It’s usually thought of as somewhere on the spectrum of conservatism although there are logical (as well as linguistic) problems with that and either in theory or historic practice, reactionary ideologies, although radical, haven’t always been the most extreme of the breed.  Even that sort of terminology wasn’t reliably indicative of anything except what the author intended, Sir Garfield Barwick (1903–1997; Chief Justice of Australia 1964-1981) giving his autobiography the title A Radical Tory (1995), a few reviewers enjoying the opportunity to point out he was neither.

Thou shalt not: Pope Pius IX and friends.

In the UK there were of course already the Tories but it was the French Revolution from which English gained the descriptors "conservative", "right-wing" and "reactionary".  Conservative was from the French conservateur and was applied to those deputies of the French assembly which supported the monarchy (ie they wish to conserve that which was).  The term right-wing came to be used because when the Estates General was summoned in 1789, liberal deputies (the Third Estate) sat usually to left of the presiding officer's chair while the (variously usually either conservative or reactionary) members of the aristocracy (the Second Estate) sat to the right (the clerics were the First Estate and it’s from here is derived the later idea of the press as the Fourth Estate).  Reactionary was from the late eighteenth century French réactionnaire (from réaction (reaction)) and was used to denote "a ideology directed to return the structure of the state and the operation of society to a previous condition of affairs".  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the first use of the word in English to 1799 and political scientists have managed to coin variations like reactionist and even the (thankfully rare) reactionaryism.  In theology, the classic reactionary was Pope Pius IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, 1792–1878; pope 1846-1878) who in 1864 published Syllabus Errorum (Syllabus of Errors), a still controversial document which listed all the ideas of modernity which His Holiness thought most appalling and which should be abandoned because the old ways are the best.  Had he lived, his Holiness would have noted with approval the entry in that manual curmudgeons, Henry Fowler's (1858–1933) A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926): "The word derives its pejorative sense from the conviction, once firmly held but now badly shaken, that all progress is necessarily good."

Boycott

Boycott (pronounced boi-kot)

(1) To combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as a means of intimidation or coercion; the refusal to purchase the products of an individual, corporation, or nation as a way to apply social and political pressure for change.

(2) To abstain from buying or using.

1880: (in the sense described): Named after Charles Boycott, an estate manager in Ireland, against whom nonviolent coercive tactics were used in 1880.  The surname, recorded as Boycott and Boykett, is both English and Irish, although the origins are the same.  It appears originally to have been locational from Boycott, either in Berkshire or Shropshire, derived from “Boia's cot” (Boia a pre-seventh century Old English term of personal endearment for a boy or young man).  Boycott is a proper noun, boycott is a noun & verb, boycotting is a noun & verb, boycotter, boycottism & boycottage are nouns, boycotted is a verb; the noun plural is boycotts.

Origin

Captain Charles Boycott (1832–97) was an English land agent for an absentee landlord in County Mayo, Ireland.  In 1880, after a year of bad harvests, the landlord offered his tenants what he considered a generous 10% reduction in their rents.  The tenants however thought this parsimonious and demanded a 25% reduction which was rejected and Captain Boycott was dispatched to evict the revolting tenants.  About the same time, the period which came to be known as the Irish “land war”, Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891), a member of the Irish Land League, had proposed dealing with landlords and land agents through a peaceful form of social ostracism rather than resorting to violence, suggesting the local community should simply ignore the land agents and conduct no business with them.

Former England cricket captain Geoffrey Boycott (b 1940), Headingley, Leeds, 1977, playing a rare defensive shot.

As news of Boycott’s evictions spread, he found himself isolated within the local community and, despite the immediate economic consequences, his workers stopped working in his fields, stables and house, local businessmen no longer traded with him and the postman refused to deliver his mail.  Because of these actions, Boycott faced financial peril because nobody would harvest the crops, forcing him to bring in fifty workers and an escort of almost a thousand armed police and soldiers to guard them, the cost of these measures exceeding the value of the harvest.  Following the harvest, the boycott on Boycott was sustained and the new use of the word spread quickly, the New York Tribune applying the term in 1880, The Spectator the following year.  It has entered other languages, being used sometimes in French, German, Spanish, Italian and even Japanese (ボイコット (Boikotto)).

The boycott can be an effective tactic which can be applied in diplomacy, commerce or politics, the boycotting of elections a widely used tactic.   

Historically and by convention, a boycott is an action by an individual or a community whereas such programmes pursued by states tend to be known as embargos or sanctions.  An interesting hybrid, designed to encourage individuals, institutions and states, is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Palestinian-led pressure group, formed in 2005, with a stated objective to force Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the right Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.

Hostage

Hostage (pronounced hos-tij)

(1) A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.

(2) A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.

(3) A security or pledge (obsolete).

(4) The condition of a hostage.

(5) To give someone as a hostage (rare).

1225–1275: From the Middle English hostage & ostage, from the eleventh century Old French hostage & ostage (kindness, hospitality; residence, dwelling; rent, tribute; compensation; guarantee, pledge, bail; person given as security or hostage (and ôtage (hostage) persists in Modern French)) of uncertain origin although most etymologists favor the Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (state of being a hostage; condition of being held captive), from the Latin obsid- (stem of obses (hostage)), the construct being ob- (before) + sid- (the base of sedere (to sit)) + -āticum (the suffix used (1) to form nouns indicating pertinence to the root verb or noun & (2) to form nouns indicating a state of being resulting from an action).  There is a (less supported) alternative etymology which traces hostage back to a construct from the Old French hoste (host) + -age (the sense development from “taking someone in and offering them lodging” to “taking someone in and holding them captive”.  The initial “h” was added to the Latin obses (hostage) under some influence which may have been the Old French hoste or the Latin hostis.  The word displaced the Old English ġīsl.  In idiomatic use, the phrase “hostage” to fortune historically had different meanings on either side of the Atlantic.  In the UK it meant “an action, promise, or remark that is considered unwise because it could be difficult to later to fulfill one’s obligations (even if merely implied)”.  In North America, it conveys the idea of “a person (or institution) whose fate is seen as dependent on chance or luck”.  Hostage & hostageship are nouns and hostaged & hostaging are nouns; the noun plural is hostages.

Swapped for one of Moscow’s hostages: Viktor Bout in Thailand.

The hostage negotiator is now a recognized specialist category in law enforcement and there are also many in the private sector, engaged usually on an ad hoc basis as needed.  The taking of hostages, although use of the word spiked only in the 1970s as the hijacking of civilian airliners became a popular means of pursuing political agendas, is ago old and during certain periods was institutionalized as an accepted part of how conflicts were executed.  Nothing new then but of late, some regimes have become more blatant in the way “hostage diplomacy” is done, making only the most perfunctory gestures towards adding a veneer of legal legitimacy to what is essentially the tactic of gangsters.  Some cases have attracted some public attention such as the exchange by Moscow of one of their American hostages for Viktor Bout (b 1967) a Russian arms trader apparently of Ukrainian origin and one of the great characters who flourished in the chaos which prevailed after the breakup of the Soviet Union.  Whether it was grenade launchers, government officials subject to UN sanctions or frozen chickens, all through Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Viktor Bout’s air-freight operation gained the reputation of delivering the goods as described, on time and at the price quoted, international sanctions and embargos no obstacle.  Unfortunately, he strayed too closely to the claws of Western law enforcement agencies and ended up being extradited to the US where he was convicted of this and that and sentenced to a 25 year term, ten of which he served before he was exchanged in a swap.

Held us hostage” is now a commonly used phrase applied to the tactics or antics of trade unions, film stars, Meghan Markle, minority political parties and anyone else who proves difficult.

US diplomat and historian George Kennan (1904-2005) is best remembered for the “Long Telegram” he sent from Moscow in 1946, warning the State Department of the possible implications of Soviet policy and advocating the US adopt its own policies to contain Soviet expansion.  He also published widely on other aspects of US foreign policy including an assessment of the PRC (People’s Republic of China), early in the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and while he held the Chinese in high regard (he thought them “…probably the most intelligent, man for man, of the world’s peoples”), he thought “…no good could come of any closer relationship between the US and China” and he was little more enthusiastic about the rival Kuomintang government established by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on the island of Formosa (Taiwan), regarded to this day by Beijing as a renegade province.  To support his views, he made four points which, some seven decades on, sound remarkably modern and probably familiar to diplomats in many chancelleries and embassies:

(1) The Chinese were, as a people, intensely xenophobic and arrogant.  Their attitude towards the foreigner and his world, based as it was on the concept of China as the “Middle Kingdom” and the view of the foreigner as a barbarian, was essentially offensive to other peoples and did not provide a basis for satisfactory international relations, other than ones of the most distant sort.

(2) He noted it seemed clear the Chinese, despite the highly civilized nature of their normal outward behavior, were capable of great ruthlessness when they considered themselves to be crossed.  How he thought in this Peking much differed from Washington & London he didn’t explore but he nevertheless found admirable many of their best qualities including industriousness, honesty in commerce, practical astuteness and political acumen.  Where he found the national character lacking was in their lack of two attributes of the Western Christian mentality: the capacity of pity and the sense of sin though intriguingly he conceded the possession of these both qualities induced weakness rather than strength in the Western character.  Presumably, he added, the Chinese were all the more formidable for their lack but this was a reason to afford them a healthy but wary respect, not to idealize them or seek intimacy in our relationship with them.

(3) His third observation was that of the pragmatic diplomat.  While the Chinese were often ready to make practical arrangements of an unwritten nature and usually ones that could at will be reversed if that suited their purposes, they were never prepared to yield on matters of principle.  Occasionally, they would consent, were sufficient pressure applied, to allow others to do certain things provided they were able to insist that there was no actual right to act in such a way.  In other words, at least in theory, China was always in the right, others in the wrong.  Kennan thought this an expression of national arrogance that augured badly for really good relations with any outside power.

(4) Finally, there was the matter of hostage taking although it’s clear from his writing that he was somewhat in awe of the skill and success in the subtlety of their gangsterism.  Over decades he noted, the Chinese had corrupted a large proportion of the Americans who had anything to do with them and the longer these visitors resided there, the greater the risk.  He was anxious to point out this corruption was always, or even usually financial deciding it was something far more insidious, the Chinese infinitely adept at turning foreign visitors and residents (even diplomats) into hostages.  Then, with their superb combination of delicacy and ruthlessness, they would extract the maximum in the way of blackmail or ransom for giving them the privilege either of leaving the country or remaining, whichever it might be they most desired.  It all sounds remarkably modern.