Pillow

Pillow (pronounced pil-oh)

(1) A bag or case made of cloth that is filled with feathers, down, or other soft material, and is used to cushion the head during sleep or rest.

(2) Any similar construction used to cushion the head; a type of headrest.

(3) In lace-making, a hard cushion or pad that supports the pattern and threads in the making of bobbin lace (also called lace pillow).

(4) In ship-building, a supporting piece or part, as the block on which the inner end of a bowsprit (a spar projecting over the prow of a sailing vessel to provide the means of adding sail surface) rests.

(5) In geology, as “pillow lava”, the rock type resembling the shape of a typical pillow, formed when lava emerges from an underwater volcanic vent or a lava flow enters the ocean.

(6) In engineering, as “pillow block”, a piece of wood or metal, forming a support to equalize pressure (historically known also a “brass”, an allusion to the alloy once commonly used for such purposes.

(7) In engineering, the socket of a pivot.

(8) A kind of plain, coarse fustian (a coarse fabric made originally from cotton and flax and now a coarse fabric of twilled cotton or a cotton & linen mix).

(9) With and without modifiers (love pillows; dirty pillows etc) and usually in the plural, yet another slang term for the human female's breasts.

(10) To rest on a pillow.

(11) To support with pillows.

(12) To serve as a pillow for some purpose.

1450s: From the Middle English pillow & pilow, (a head-rest used by a person reclining, especially a soft, elastic cushion filled with down, feathers etc), from the earlier pilwe, from the Old English pylwe, pylu & pyle (cushion, bed-cushion, pillow), from West Germanic noun pulwi & pulwin (source also of the Old Saxon puli, the Middle Dutch polu, the Dutch peluw, the Old High German pfuliwi and the German Pfühl), from the Proto-West Germanic pulwī (pillow), borrowed (possibly as early as the second century) from the Latin pulvinus (a little cushion, small pillow) of uncertain origin but some etymologists have speculated the construct may have been the Latin pulvis (dust, powder) +‎ -īnus (-ine) (in the sense of the filler of a pillow).  The suffix -īnus (-ine) was from the Proto-Italic -īnos, from the primitive Indo-European –iHnos and was cognate with the Ancient Greek -ινος (-inos) and the Proto-Germanic -īnaz.  In use it was added to a noun base (especially a proper noun) to form an adjective conveying the sense “of or pertaining to” and could indicate a relationship of position, possession, or origin.  The modern English spelling dates from the 1450s.  Pillow & pillowing are nouns & verbs, pillowed is a verb & adjectice and pillowless, pillowy, pillowlike & pillowesque are adjectives; the noun plural is pillows.

Pillowslips (left) in the typical combination of (1) a pair in a matching set with sheets & (2) a pair in a set matching the duvet cover and a quartet of pillowshams (right).  

Use of the pillowcase (washable enclosure drawn over a pillow and known also as a “pillowslip”) probably long predates the first known use of the term in 1745 but the emergence in the 1860s of the “pillowsham” is likely indicative of the tastes of the rising middle-class.  The pillowsham can be thought of as the archetypal middle class accessory and while structurally similar to a pillow case, in the jargon of interior decorators they are distinct.  A pillowcase (or pillowslip) is a basic and close-fitting cover which encases a pillow to protect it and provide a comfortable surface for sleeping.  Typically, pillowcases are made from soft, washable fabrics like cotton, linen, or microfiber and usually feature an open end with a flap; most are simple in design although there can be frills (though not fringes which are restricted to cushions) and the fabric tends to be either a solid color or matching the rest of the bed linen (ie as part of a set).  A pillowsham is a decorative cover for a pillow, often used on beds to add style rather than for everyday sleeping and some shams placed over pillows for decorative effect are removed or placed at the back when someone is sleeping.  Pillowshams are much associated with intricate designs (embroidery, ruffles, textured fabric and worse) and usually have an opening at the back, often closed with buttons, a zipper, or an overlapping flap to hide the closure.  Sham (intended to deceive; false; act of fakery) is thought probably to have been a dialectal form of shame (reproach incurred or suffered; dishonour; ignominy; derision) from the Middle English schame, from the Old English sċamu, from Proto-Germanic skamō.  Thus, while interior decorators may have no shame, they certainly have shams.

Pillowsham is the generic term for these items (whether put over a pillow or cushion) and “cushionsham” is not part of the jargon; the terms pillowcase, pillowslip & pillowsham appear variously also as separate words and hyphenated.  The pillowsham is notorious for its use as a platform for kitsch and Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) mountain home (the Berghof in the Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria) featured many, sent to him by his many female admirers.  At the aesthetic level, he of course didn't approve but appreciated the gesture although they seem never to have appeared in photographs of the house’s principle rooms, banished to places like the many surrounding buildings including the conservatory of Hans Wichenfeld (the chalet on which the was Berghof based).

Hitler's study in the Berghof with only matched cushions (left) and the conservatory (centre & right) with some pillowshams (embroidered with swastikas and the initials A.H.).

In the US, Life magazine in October 1939 (a few weeks after the Nazis had invaded Poland) published a lush color feature focused on Hitler’s paintings and the Berghof, the piece a curious mix of what even then were called “human-interest stories”, political commentary and artistic & architectural criticism.  One heading :“Paintings by Adolf Hitler: The Statesman Longs to Be an Artist and Helps Design His Mountain Home” illustrates the flavor but this was a time before the most awful aspects of Nazi rule were understood and Life’s editors were well-aware a significant proportion of its readership were well disposed towards Hitler’s regime.  Still, there was some wry humor in the text, assessing the Berghof as possessing the qualities of a “…combination of modern and Bavarian chalet” styles, something “awkward but interesting” while the interiors, “…designed and decorated with Hitler’s active collaboration, are the comfortable kind of rooms a man likes, furnished in simple, semi-modern, sometimes dramatic style. The furnishings are in very good taste, fashioned of rich materials and fine woods by the best craftsmen in the Reich.”  Life seemed to be most taken with the main stairway leading up from the ground floor which was judged “a striking bit of modern architecture.”  Whether or not the editors were aware Hitler thought “modern architecture” suitable only for factories, warehouses and such isn’t clear.  They also had fun with what hung on the walls, noting: “Like other Nazi leaders, Hitler likes pictures of nudes and ruins” but anyway concluded that “in a more settled Germany, Adolf Hitler might have done quite well as an interior decorator.”  There was no comment on the Führer’s pillows and cushions.

Whatever Life’s views on him as potential interior decorator, decades later, his architect was prepared to note the dictator’s “beginner’s mistake” in the building’s design.  In Erinnerungen (Memories or Reminiscences) and published in English as Inside the Third Reich (1969)), Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) recalled:

“A huge picture window in the living room, famous for its size and the fact that it could be lowered, was Hitler s pride.  It offered a view of the Untersberg, Berchtesgaden, and Salzburg. However, Hitler had been inspired to situate his garage underneath this window; when the wind was unfavorable, a strong smell of gasoline penetrated into the living room.  All in all, this was a ground plan that would have been graded D by any professor at an institute of technology. On the other hand, these very clumsinesses gave the Berghof a strongly personal note. The place was still geared to the simple activities of a former weekend cottage, merely expanded to vast proportions.”

He commented also on the pillowshams: “The furniture was bogus old- German peasant style and gave the house a comfortable petit-bourgeois look.  A brass canary cage, a cactus, and a rubber plant intensified this impression.  There were swastikas on knickknacks and pillows embroidered by admiring women, combined with, say, a rising sun or a vow of "eternal loyalty."  Hitler commented to me with some embarrassment: "I know these are not beautiful things, but many of them are presents.  I shouldn't like to part with them."

Life’s assessment of Hitler’s alternative career path as an interior decorator wasn’t the first time the observation had been made of a head of state & government.  Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; US president 1913-1921) had gone to the Paris Peace Conference (1919) determined above all to secure the agreement of all parties to the creation of the League of Nations (1920-1946) and this he pursued with a vigour not matched by other leaders present, all of who had a focus on the immediate needs of their own countries.  Wilson, knowing political pressure on him was rising in the US and whose health had long been fragile, found the negotiations exhausting and doctors in recent years have concluded he likely suffered several small strokes while in Paris, a prelude to the major event later in the year which substantially would incapacity him for the remainder of his presidency.

Wilson’s personal physician (Cary Grayson (1878–1938) had accompanied him to the conference and in his diary noted one manifestation of what he described as “the strain” when, after hours of “intense discussion” on matters ranging from tiresome US senators to the treaty terms sought by the delegation from Japan to the arraignment of the former Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941; German Emperor & King of Prussia 1888-1918), the president suddenly made an announcement.

“I don’t like the way the colors of this furniture fight each other. The greens and the reds are all mixed up here and there is no harmony.  Here is a big purple, high-backed covered chair, which is like the Purple Cow, strayed off to itself, and it is placed where the light shines on it too brightly.  If you will give me a lift, we will move this next to the wall where the light from the window will give it a subdued effect.  And here are two chairs, one green and the other red.  This will never do.  Let’s put the greens all together and the reds together.”  He went on to relate to his doctor how at the “Council of Four” (the leaders of France, Italy, the US & UK) meeting how “…each delegation walked like schoolchildren each day to its respective corner.  Now, with the furniture regrouped, he said each country would sit according to its color.”  Dr Grayson attributed the “aberrant behaviour” to “stress” and prescribed only going for a drive in an automobile, remarking to his patient: “I think if you ever want a job after leaving the presidency you would make a great success as an interior decorator.”  Wilson concurred, answering: “I don’t mean to throw bouquets at myself but I do think that I have made a success of the arrangement of the furniture.”

Woodrow Wilson’s bedroom in the Washington DC townhouse where he lived after leaving office.

Mrs Wilson fitted-out the bedroom on S Street, Kalorama almost to exactly replicate the one he’d used at the White House, down to the footrests, pillows and reading lights.  Mrs Wilson commissioned the bed to be exactly the imposing dimensions (8 feet, 6 inches x 6 feet, 6 inches (2590 x 1981 mm)) of the White House’s Lincoln Bed; built in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a colonial revival style, it's made of mahogany.  After his stroke in October, 1919, Wilson substantially was confined to his bed and it was in this bed he died on 3 February, 1924, aged 67.  He was buried at the Washington National Cathedral, the only US president whose body lies in the national capital.

The "furniture incident" is now assessed in the light of the knowledge of the president’s previous neurological issues and analysts since have compared the behaviour to that of the anorexic who takes control of their diet because it is one thing they are able completely and immediately to control, in contrast to other aspects of their life which they have come to believe they are unable to influence and neurologists who have written on the subject do seem to agree a stroke would likely have induced the episode.  In October 1919, shortly after returning to the US, Wilson suffered a major stroke, us stroke, leaving him paralyzed on his left side, and with only partial vision in the right eye.  Despite this, he continued in office until his term expired in 1921 though he was physically isolated and few were able to see him except his wife and doctor, a situation not greatly different from the situation in 1953 when Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) son-in-law for months acted as something of a prime-ministerial proxy in the aftermath of Churchill’s massive stroke.  The ad-hoc apparatus constructed by Mrs Wilson and Dr Grayson had led some claim she was, in effect, the nation’s “first female president” and while that’s drawing a long bow, it was something discussed in 2024 when Joe Biden’s (b 1942; US president 2021-2025) descent into senility was a topic of interest.  The roles played by of Dr Grayson, Lord Moran (Charles Wilson, 1882-1977, personal physician to prime minister Winston Churchill) and Ross McIntire (1889–1959; personal physician to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, US president 1933-1945)) remain controversial and reflect the sometimes conflicting duality of responsibility a physician has (1) to their patient and (2) their patient’s position as head of government.

Lindsay Lohan themed pillows are available.

“Pillow dictionary” was a synonym of “sleeping dictionary” (a sexual partner who also serves as a native informant or language teacher for an outsider).  It was thus something of a euphemism for a tutor in a foreign language who, as is implied, gives “tuition in bed”; the term said (as might be expected) to be used more commonly used by men of women than vice versa.  Those who practice hypnopaedic techniques use a different kind of dictionary.  Hypnopedia (or hypnopædia) was a form of “sleep-learning (or sleep-teaching) and was an attempt to convey information to a sleeping person, typically by playing a sound recording to them while they sleep.  Because the role of sleep in memory consolidation had come to be understood, the hypothesis of hypnopedia was not unreasonable but it has been wholly discredited.

The “pillow fight” (a form of domestic mock-combat fought using pillows as weapons) is presumably a most ancient practice but the first known reference is from 1837.  Pillows being much associated with beds, in idiomatic use, the pillow naturally features in phrases associated with sex.  The slang “pillow talk” (relaxed, intimate conversation between a couple in bed) is doubtlessly more ancient still but the term may not have been used prior to 1939 and it now carries the implication of some indiscrete disclosure, often in the context of politics or espionage).  A “pillow word” was a calque of the Japanese 枕詞 (makurakotoba) and described the use in Waka (和歌) (Japanese poem) of a poetic device in which a certain introductory phrase is commonly used to allude to something else.

Jeremy Thorpe arriving at Minehead Magistrates Court, 4 December 1978, for the famous "pillow biter" trial.

The matter was committal proceedings against him and three others on charges of conspiring to murder former male model Norman Scott.  Ultimately Mr Thorpe was acquitted of all charges.  The car is a Rover 3500S (P6).  3500S was the original designation of the 3500s sold during the model's abortive foray (1970-1971) into the US market but elsewhere was used to designate the version offered with a four-speed manual transmission (1971-1977), the original introduced in 1968 exclusively in automatic form.

A “pillow queen” was a woman concerned only with her own gratification during sex and interestingly, the equivalent creature among lesbians was apparently more often a “pillow princess”, both classified as “takers” rather than “givers”, the synonyms in the vernacular including “stone”, “rock”, “slate”, “cold fish”, “dead fish” and “starfish”.  The more evocative phrase “pillow-biter” seems first to have entered general use after it was used by Norman Scott (b 1940) when giving evidence in the 1979 trial of Jeremy Thorpe (1929–2014; leader of the UK Liberal Party 1967-1976), the witness describing the way he handled his unwilling participation as the alleged victim of Mr Thorpe committing upon him what in some jurisdictions used to be called “the abominable crime of buggery”: “I just bit the pillow, I tried not to scream because I was frightened of waking Mrs Thorpe.”  A pillow-biter is thus (in certain circles of the LGBTQQIAAOP communities) a “gay man who engages in passive anal sex”; a “bottom”, as opposed to Mr Thorpe who allegedly was a “top”.

Pillowbook describes a journal-type book kept to record sexual dreams and escapades, most intended only for the eyes of the writer.  It was a specific form of a quite commonplace book which appears to have originated in Japan as a compilation of notes & jottings, those periodic or occasional writings that might go into an extended diary.  The most famous example (and among the earliest extant) was the The Pillow Book (枕草子) (Makura no Sōshi) (Notes of the Pillow), a volume of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon (清少納言), circa 966–circa 1020, a lady of the court to Fujiwara no Teishi (藤原 定子) 977–1001 (known also as Sadako), an empress consort of the Japanese Emperor Ichijō (一条天皇) (Ichijō-tennō), 980–1011; 66^th emperor of Japan, 986-1011; the last entries in the book were made in the year 1002.  According to Japanese legend, the origin of the pillow book lies in a bundle of unused notebooks being brought to the empress who began musing on what should be done with them.  The lady-in-waiting suggested she should have them and make them into a pillow (which meant putting them into the drawers of “a wooden pillow” (a part of the Japanese sleeping apparatus).  Subsequently, she filled the notebooks with random facts, lists and discursive jottings and from this tradition came the traditional Japanese genre zuihitsu (随筆) (occasional writings) which exists still, describing a form of literature consisting of loosely connected personal essays and fragmentary ideas typically influenced by the author's surroundings and daily interactions with them.

1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency brochure.

“Loose pillow” upholstery had been in furniture for a while, implemented usually as detachable cushions designed to be removed for cleaning but it was Oldsmobile which first used the concept for automobiles.  Since the mid 1960s “luxury” versions (as opposed to mere “deluxe” editions which often included just a bundle of options anyway available on a “standard” car at a discount compared with ordering them individually) had begun to appear and this would evolve into what came to be called “the great Brougham era”.  That term seems to have been invented by Curbside Classic, a curated website which is a gallimaufry of interesting content, built around the theme of once-familiar and often everyday vehicles which are now a rare sight until discovered by Curbside Classic’s contributors (who self-style as "curbivores"), parked next to some curb.  These are the often the machines neglected by automotive historians and collectors who prefer things which are fast, lovely or rare.  According to Curbside Classic, the “great brougham era” began in 1965 with the release of the LTD option for the mass-market Ford Galaxie and that approach was nothing new because even the Galaxie name had in 1959 been coined for a "luxury" version of the Fairlane 500, a trick the US industry had been using for some time.

1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency brochure.  When the tufted, pillowed option was chosen in red velour, it was known casually as "mid-priced bordello chic".

Once, Detroit’s most elaborate interiors had been restricted to the top-of the range models (Cadillac, Lincoln & Imperial) but when Oldsmobile in introduced the “Regency” option for their Ninety-Eight range, it was quite a jump in middle-class opulence and it must have been galling for Cadillac: Oldsmobile, two notches down the GM pecking list from Cadillac had in one stroke out-done Cadillac’s interiors with not just tufted velour upholstery but the novelty also of the welcoming loose pillow style.  Cadillac had nothing like it but scrambled to respond, offering in 1973 the d'Elegance package, a US$750 option which included pillow-style velour seating as well as a more plush carpeting and bundled a few of the otherwise optional features.

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in blue velour with optional pillows.  The pillows (which many would have described as "cushions") were also available on Talismans trimmed in leather.  The world should have more leather pillows but, unfortunately, while "Cadillac pillows" are available, they come only in fabric.  The so-called "holy grail" among Talisman collectors is a 1974 model in blue leather which was listed as a factory option but no such machine has ever been sighted and Cadillac's production records don't provide a color breakdown.  It's thought likely none were ever built.

However, all the d'Elegance bling did was match what others were doing and there was still the corporate memory of the Cadillac mystique, a hankering for the time when Cadillac had been the “standard of the world”, a reputation built in the 1930s on basic engineering such as almost unique sixteen cylinder engines and maintained a generation later with cars such as the Eldorado Brougham, times when the name stood for something truly impressive.  By 1974 the world had changed and such extravagances were no longer possible but what could still be done was to add more gingerbread and for 1974, Cadillac announced the Talisman package.  Much more expensive than the d'Elegance and consequently more exclusive, the Talisman included an extended centre console, the front section housing an illumined writing tablet, the rear a storage compartment.  This had been done before but never with this opulence although it had the effect of reducing the huge car, a size which historically been a six-seater, into something strictly for four.  The interior was available in four colors in "Medici" crushed velour at US$1800 or in two shades in leather at US$2450 at a time when the Chevrolet Vega, GM’s entry-level automobile of the era cost US$2087.  The Talisman additionally gained matching deep-pile interior carpeting and floor-mats, a fully padded elk grain vinyl roof, exterior badge identifications, a stand-up, full-color wreath and crest hood ornament and unique wheel-covers.  For those who needed more, for an additional US$85, a matching pillow and robe was available although the robe unfortunately wasn't cut in leather.  Optioned with the leather package, a 1974 Cadillac Talisman cost about US$13,200, matching what the company charged for the even bigger Fleetwood 75 limousines.  The additional gingerbread wasn’t all that expensive to produce; what Cadillac was selling was exclusivity and the market responded, 1898 Talismans coming off the production line that year, all sold at a most impressive profit.  Most prized today are the relative handful trimmed in leather, the urban legend being all were in medium saddle with none in the dark blue which was on the option list.  If any were sold with the blue leather, none appear now to exist and Cadillac’s records don’t record the breakdown.

1974 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop (left) in chestnut tufted leather though not actually “fine Corinthian leather” which was (mostly) exclusive to the Cordoba (1975-1983) until late 1975 when not only did the Imperial's brochures mention "genuine Corinthian leather (available at extra cost)" but for the first time since 1954 the range was referred to as the "Chrysler Imperial", a harbinger the brand was about to be retired.  Imperial's advertising copy noted of the brochure photograph above: “...while the passenger restraint system with starter interlock is not shown, it is standard on all Imperials.”; the marketing types didn't like seat-belts messing up their photos.  While all of the big three (GM, Ford & Chrysler) had tufted interiors in some lines, it was Chrysler which displayed the most commitment to the motif.

Fashions change and the 1997 Buick Park Avenue (right) was the last of the "pillowed cars".  The loose pillow style certainly caught on although the name was a little misleading because the pillows were loose only in the sense of moving a little to accommodate the frames sitting on them and were not removable.  In the showroom they looked good and attracted many buyers but were noted also for the propensity to trap crumbs, small coins and the other detritus of life in the many folds, tufts and crevasses.  The fad lasted for more than a generation and Detroit’s last fling of the pillow was the 1997 Buick Park Avenue.

Built-in foam pillows: 1972 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop (left) and 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham four-door hardtop (right).

Chrysler corporation’s implementation of the “loose pillow look” was the industry’s most sumptuous and on the more expensive in the range, the look extended even to “built-in foam pillows” affixed to the C-pillars, a luxury for dozing customers and these were the sort of cars which were famous for “floating” effortlessly down freeways so probably it wasn’t uncommon for folk in the back to be lulled into sleep; the huge machines of the 1970s were nicknamed “land yachts” with good reason.  The pillows also proved to be dual-purpose.  Between 1969-1973, the Imperial’s rear map-reading lamps (maps used to be printed on paper) were located next to the rear windscreen and while they worked as intended, they had a sort of “stuck-on” look which didn’t suit the ambiance of the interior.  When illuminated, they also glowed in the driver’s rear-view mirror and because the stylists were anyway intending to better integrate the units, it was decided to do so in such a way that would make the light unobtrusive for the driver, removing a potential distraction.  The new design made it debut with the 1974 range.

1974 Imperial LeBaron brochure featuring "built-in foam pillows and lavaliere straps".

Chrysler made many mistakes during the 1970s but the basic engineering was usually sound and the new map-reading lamps were indicative of the approach.  Not only did the new lamps offer “increased luminosity” but the glow was now “warmer and softer” which sounds like advertising “puffery” but the terms are an accepted part of the jargon of light and the wider aperture of the lens meant what was cast was in a broader beam, better suited to maps or anything else being read.  The shape of the built-in foam pillows was used also to ensure the light couldn’t distract the driver, the engineers devoting some energy to working out just how much padding should be used to achieve this, while not detracting from the lamp’s functionality.  On the four-door models, there was also on each C-Pillar a “lavaliere strap”.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) in Cadillac presidential limousine demonstrating the correct grip of a lavaliere strap.

“Lavaliere” is a term from jewellery design which describes a pendant (typically with a single stone) suspended from a necklace and presumably Chrysler’s marketing department thought that sounded much better than the more brutish “grab handle”, typified by the later Subaru BRAT, a vehicle in which admittedly they were essential.  On his Californian ranch, Mr Regan kept a Subaru BRAT but removed the tariff-dodging jump seats so didn't have the pleasure of using the grab handles.  The jewellery style was named after Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours (1644–1710) who was, between 1661-1667 (a reasonable run in such a profession), the mistress of Louis XIV (1638–1715; le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), King of France 1643-1715); it’s said the adaptation of her name for the pendants was based on the frequency with which the accessories appeared in her many portraits.

1977 Chrysler (Australia) Valiant Regal SE.

In the era, Chrysler's Australian outpost did cut a few corners when implementing the “pillowed look”, economies achieved by (1) using fewer buttons for the tufting of the fabric or optional leather and (2) attaching the tufted “feature sections” directly to the cushion & squab rather than creating an emulated “pillowed” look (in which a separate piece appears to sit atop the structure).  Even by the time of the release of the CL range (1976-1978) the feeling was the writing was on the wall for the once popular Australian Valiant (1962-1981) and the top-of-the-line Regal SE was created in the Q&D (quick & dirty) way by including all the lesser Regal’s options (including the 318 cubic inch (5.2 litre) V8) as standard equipment; only the tufted upholstery and optional leather was unique to the model.  Sales were modest but there remained a devoted following for the Valiant which was durable enough to endure the sometimes harsh environment and it was highly regarded for its towing capabilities, even when fitted with the lusty six cylinder engines which were the best produced by the local industry.  Built on the US A-body platform, when production ended in 1981 it had lasted a half-decade longer than the Plymouth and Dodge versions sold in the home market and only in Mexico would use continue until 1988.

Cartnaping

Cartnaping (pronounced kahrt-nap-ing)

(1) In retail industry slang, the act of customers taking a shopping cart (in some markets a “shopping trolley, buggy, trundler etc”) beyond the designated confines (usually a car-park).

(2) In slang, a customer (now presumed to be a “Karen”) who purloins another’s (empty) shopping cart for their own use, usually when no others conveniently are to hand.

1990s: First recorded in California on the model of “kidnapping”, the construct being cart + nap + -ing.  In most non-US use, the spelling would usually be “cartnapping”.  Historically, a cart was a small, open, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by a person or animal and used usually for transporting goods (although many passenger transports (often towed) have been described thus.  Go-carts (also as go-kart), the small motor vehicles, powered by lawn-mower or motorcycle engines remain one of the most popular platforms in entry-level motorsports although the sport no prefers they be called “karts”.  Cart was from the Middle English cart & kart, from the Old Norse kartr (wagon; cart), akin to the Old English cræt (chariot; cart), from the Proto-Germanic krattaz, krattijô & kradō, from the primitive Indo-European gret- (tracery; wattle; cradle; cage; basket), from ger- (to turn, wind).  It was cognate with the West Frisian kret (wheelbarrow for hauling dung), the Dutch krat & kret (crate; wheelbarrow for hauling dung), the German Krätze (basket; pannier); the most obvious wider cognate was the Sanskrit ग्रन्थ (grantha) (a binding).

In English the familiar meaning of “nap” is “to sleep for a brief time, especially during the day”.  In that sense, nap was from the Middle English nappen, from the Old English hnappian (to doze, slumber, sleep), from the Proto-West Germanic hnappōn (to nap) and was cognate with the Old High German hnaffezan & hnaffezzan (from which Middle High German gained nafzen (to slumber), source of the German dialectal napfezen & nafzen (to nod, slumber, nap).  In this sense, “nap” is used figuratively, often in the phrase “caught napping” which suggests being “caught off guard (in military conflicts, sporting competitions etc.  However, one of the other meanings of “nap” was “to grad; to nab”) and while the use is long extinct as a stand-alone word, as an element it endures in “kidnap” (and the derived “cartnap”, “catnap” etc).  In that sense the source of “nap” is murky but it was probably of North Germanic origin, from the Old Swedish nappa (to pluck, pinch).  The suffix –ing was from the Middle English -ing, from the Old English –ing & -ung (in the sense of the modern -ing, as a suffix forming nouns from verbs), from the Proto-West Germanic –ingu & -ungu, from the Proto-Germanic –ingō & -ungō. It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian -enge, the West Frisian –ing, the Dutch –ing, The Low German –ing & -ink, the German –ung, the Swedish -ing and the Icelandic –ing; All the cognate forms were used for the same purpose as the English -ing).  Cartnaping & cartnap are nouns & verbs, cartnaper is a noun and cartnaped is a verb; the noun plural is cartnapings and although also rare, cartnapers is more widely used, usually on internet “shaming” sites which document the devices abandoned or dumped in streets, waterways, parks etc.

How it all began: US Patent 2,196,914.

Although it’s clear such things had been used in many cultures for millennia, as a mass-produced commodity, the modern shopping cart was “invented” by Sylvan Goldman (1898-1984) an Oklahoma-based supermarket mogul.  It was in 1936, during the Great Depression, that Mr Goldman built his first prototypes and the following year, he began a trial of the devices in his chain of Humpty Dumpty grocery stores.  Although the early take-up rate was “sluggish”, by 1938, when he filed a patent application for his original design (“a combination basket and carriage”) the things had becoming popular with customers and in April 1940 the US Patent and Trademark Office granted US Patent 2,196,914 (Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores).

The utility was so obvious that shopping carts rapidly became features of large shopping centres throughout the nation and he soon added features, most famously as “baby seat” although the implementation of that would probably shock & appal today’s H&S (health & safety) regulators.  In the post-war years the shopping carts multiplied by the million because of a then unique combination of circumstances in the US economy: (1) widespread prosperity, (2) a shift of population from town centres to (often newly developed) remote suburbs, (4) clusters of those suburbs being serviced by large shopping centres & supermarkets and (4) multi-vehicle households which meant women had begun to drive to shop.  What the shopping centres tended to do was provide a space in which all a week’s shopping could be done in one place, purchases collected by customers who parked their car in a vast car park and it was the shopping cart which made this structural model possible.

1964 GM Runabout show car with obligatory white, happily married, middle-class woman with one of her 2.8 children (who were always well-behaved).  Note the child's white gloves, a wise parental precaution (even pre-COVID-19) given the volume of pathogens found on the typical supermarket shopping cart.

One refinement to the concept was the GM Runabout, displayed at the General Motors Futurama Exhibit the 1964 New York World's Fair.  The three-wheeled car was able to seat two adults and three children (approximately the size projected for the “average” white, middle-class US family of the late 1960s) and was optimized for ease of handling, the single front wheel able (at low speeds) to turn through 180^o.  The target market was made obvious by its most innovative feature: two fitted shopping carts which slotted into the rear bodywork, the wheels and lower assembly folding away when locked into position.  That might seem superfluous given supermarkets provided such things but the advantage was the carts could also be used at home, obviating the need to make several trips between car and kitchen.  The retail industry presumably would have liked to have seen the idea catch on because, having already off-loaded onto the customer the task of carrying the groceries to the car, it would have meant they could do away with most of their own stock of carts, needing only a few for those who needed to take their goods as far as a taxi.  The poor, able to afford neither cab nor car would just have to work it out.

Mitt Romney (b 1947; Republican nominee in the 2012 US presidential election, US senator (Republican-Utah) since 2019) (left), buying 12-packs of Caffeine Free Diet Coke and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, Hunter's Shop and Save, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, August 2012.  Mormons are not allowed to do anything “evil” (though it's rumored some do) and the Doctrine and Covenants (the D&C (1835); referred to usually as the Word of Wisdom) is the scriptural canon of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), section 89 of which provides dietary guidelines which prohibit, inter-alia, the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and hot drinks (ie tea & coffee).  This index of forbidden food accounts not only for why noted Mormon Mitt Romney usually looks so miserable but also why manufacturers of chocolate, candy & soda have long found Utah a receptive and lucrative market; other than joyful singing, the sugary treats are among their few orally enjoyed pleasures.  Although buying caffeine-free soda, Mitt still knows how to have a good time.  Lindsay Lohan, shopping in Beverley Hills in December 2007 (right), uses a shopping cart because a half-dozen 500 ml (16.9 fl oz) bottles of Evian water are heavier than they look.  Neither have ever been accused of cartnapping.

Dumped in the wild: victims of cartnaping. 

But carts built into cars never reached the market so the shopping cart remained ubiquitous, thus the emergence of the crime of “cartnaping”, a poorer demographic (such as university students with carts loaded with beer & frozen pizzas) sneaking from the store, using their cart all the way home.  So the students got their beer and pizza but now had the problem of disposing of an unwanted cart and waiting for dark to fall before dumping the things in local parks, waterways or underpasses was a popular solution.  Because there were so many cartnaping students, it became a real problem (1) for the environment and (2) for the stores which paid several hundred dollars for each cart.  One early response was to pay third-party contractors a “fee per cart recovered” but more recently there have been measures to prevent cartnaping including electronic devices which make it difficult to push the things beyond a certain point and a deposit scheme in which a low-denomination coin is inserted to gain use; the money refunded when the cart is returned.  The latest approach is to require a swipe with a credit card or phone, not to extract a payment but to register the name of the user and local authorities have a variety of schemes t address the problem including a "report-a-cart hotline" and regimes under which stores are fined for each of their carts found "in the wild".

Macropterous & Brachypterous

Macropterous (pronounced muh-krop-ter-uhs)

(1) In zoology (mostly in ornithology, ichthyology & entomology), having long or large wings or fins.

(2) In engineering, architecture and design, a structure with large, untypical or obvious “wings” or “fins”.

Late 1700s: The construct was macro- +‎ -pterous.  Macro is a word-forming element meaning “long, abnormally large, on a large scale”, from the French, from the Medieval Latin, from the Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós), a combining form of makrós (long) (cognate with the Latin macer (lean; meager)), from the primitive Indo-European root mak (long, thin).  In English it is used as a general purpose prefix meaning “big; large version of”).  The English borrowing from French appears as early as the sixteenth century but it tended to be restricted to science until the early 1930s when there was an upsurge in the publication of material on economics during the Great Depression (ie as “macroeconomy” and its derivatives).  It subsequently became a combining form meaning large, long, great, excessive et al, used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with those prefixed with micro-.  In computing, it covers a wide vista but describes mostly relatively short sets of instructions used within programs, often as a time-saving device for the handling of repetitive tasks, one of the few senses in which macro (although originally a clipping in 1959 of “macroinstruction”) has become a stand-alone word rather than a contraction.  Other examples of use include macrophotography (photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens (1863)), macrospore (in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others (1859)), macroeconomics (pertaining to the economy as a whole (1938), macrobiotic (a type of diet (1961)), macroscopic (visible to the naked eye (1841)), macropaedia (the part of an encyclopaedia Britannica where entries appear as full essays (1974)) and macrophage (in pathology "type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms" (1890)).

The –pterous suffix was from the Ancient Greek, the construct being πτερ(όν) (pter(ón) (feather; wing), from the primitive Indo-European péthr̥ (feather) and related to πέτομαι (pétomai) (I fly) (and (ultimately), the English feather) +‎ -ous.  In zoology (and later, by extension, in engineering and design), it was appended to words from taxonomy to mean (1) having wings and (2) having large wings.  Later, it was used also of fins.  The –ous suffix was from the Middle English -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux, from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of); a doublet of -ose in an unstressed position.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns to denote (1) possession of (2) presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance or (3) relation or pertinence to.  In chemistry, it has a specific technical application, used in the nomenclature to name chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a lower oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ic.  For example, sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  The comparative is more macropterous and the superlative most macropterous.  Macropterous & macropteran are adjectives and macropter & macroptery are nouns; the noun plural is macropters.

Google ngram: Because of the way Google harvests data for their ngrams, they’re not literally a tracking of the use of a word in society but can be usefully indicative of certain trends, (although one is never quite sure which trend(s)), especially over decades.  As a record of actual aggregate use, ngrams are not wholly reliable because: (1) the sub-set of texts Google uses is slanted towards the scientific & academic and (2) the technical limitations imposed by the use of OCR (optical character recognition) when handling older texts of sometime dubious legibility (a process AI should improve).  Where numbers bounce around, this may reflect either: (1) peaks and troughs in use for some reason or (2) some quirk in the data harvested.

Brachypterous (pronounced bruh-kip-ter-uhs)

In zoology (mostly in ornithology & entomology), having short, incompletely developed or otherwise abbreviated wings (defined historically as being structures which, when fully folded, do not reach to the base of the tail.long or large wings or fins.

Late 1700s: The construct was brachy- + -pterous.  The brachy- prefix was from the Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús) (short), from the Proto-Hellenic brəkús, from the primitive Indo-European mréǵus (short, brief).  The cognates included the Sanskrit मुहुर् (múhur) & मुहु (múhu), the Avestan m̨ərəzu.jīti (short-lived), the Latin brevis, the Old English miriġe (linked ultimately to the English “merry”) and the Albanian murriz.  It was appended to convey (1) short, brief and (2) short, small.  Brachypterous & brachypteran are adjectives and brachyptery & braˈchypterism are nouns.  The comparative would be more brachypterous and the superlative most brachypterous but because of the nature of the base word, that would seem unnatural.  The noun brachypter does not means “a brachypterous creature; it describes taeniopterygid stonefly of the genus Brachyptera”.

The European Chinch Bug which exists in both macropterous (left) and brachypterous (right) form; Of the latter, entomologists also use the term "micropterous" and use does seem interchangeable but within the profession there may be fine distinctions. 

The difference in the use of macropterous (long wings or fins) and brachypterous (short wings) is accounted for less by the etymological roots than the application and traditions of use.  In zoological science, macropterous was granted a broad remit and came to be used of any creature (form the fossil record as well as the living) with long wings (use most prevalent of insects) and water-dwellers with elongated fins.  The word was applied first to birds & insects before being used of fish (fins being metaphorical “wings” and in environmentally-specific function there is much overlap.  By extension, in the mid-twentieth century, macropterous came to be used in engineering, architecture and design including of cars, airframes and missiles.

Brachypterous (short wings) is used almost exclusively in zoology, particularly entomology, the phenomenon being much more common than among birds which, being heavier, rely for lift on wings with a large surface area.  Short wing birds do exist but many are flightless (the penguin a classic example where the wings are used in the water as fins (for both propulsion and direction)) and this descriptor prevails.  Brachypterous is less flexible in meaning because tightly it is tied to a specific biological phenomenon; essentially a “short fin” in a fish is understood as “a fin”.  Cultural and linguistic norms may also have been an influence in that while “macro-” is widely used a prefix denoting “large; big”, “brachy-” has never entered general used and remains a tool in biology.  So, in common scientific use, there’s no recognized term specifically for “short fins” equivalent to brachypterous (short wings) although, other than tradition, there seems no reason why brachypterous couldn’t be used thus in engineering & design.  If so minded, the ichthyologists could coin “brachyichthyous” (the construct being brachy- + ichthys (fish)) or brachypinnate (the construct being brachy- + pinna (“fin” or “feather” in Latin)), both meaning “short-finned fish”.  Neither seem likely to cath on however, the profession probably happy with “short-fin” or the nerdier “fin hypoplasia”.

The tailfin: the macropterous and the brachypterous

Lockheed P-38 Lightning in flight (left) and 1949 Cadillac (right).

Fins had appeared on cars during the inter-war years when genuinely they were added to assist in straight-line stability, a need identified as speeds rose.  The spread to the roads came from the beaches and salt flats where special vehicles were built to pursue the world land speed record (LSR) and by the mid 1920s, speeds in these contests were exceeding 150 mph (240 km/h) and at these velocities, straight-line stability could be a matter of life and death.  The LSR crew drew their inspiration from aviation and that field also provided the motif for Detroit’s early post-war fins, the 1949 Cadillac borrowing its tail features from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (a US twin-boom fighter first flown in 1939 and built 1941-1945) although, despite the obvious resemblance, the conical additions to the front bumper bar were intended to evoke the image of speeding artillery shells rather than the P-38’s twin propeller bosses.

1962 Ford (England) Zodiac Mark III (left) and 1957 DeSoto Firesweep two-door hardtop (right).

From there, the fins grew although it wasn’t until in 1956 when Chrysler released the next season’s rage that extravagance truly began.  To one extent or another, all Chrysler’s divisions (Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial) adopted the macropterous look and the public responded to what was being described in the press as “futuristic” or “jet-age” (Sputnik had yet to orbit the earth; “space-age” would soon come) with a spike in the corporation’s sales and profits.  The competition took note and it wasn’t long before General Motors (GM) responded (by 1957 some Cadillac fins were already there) although, curiously Ford in the US was always tentative about the fin and their interpretation was always rather brachypterous (unlike their English subsidiary which added surprisingly prominent fins to their Mark III Zephyr & Zodiac (1961-1966).

Macropterous: Lindsay Lohan with wings, generated with AI (artificial intelligence) by Stable Diffusion.

Even at the time the fins attracted criticism although it was just as part of a critique of the newer cars as becoming too big and heavy with a notable level of inefficiency (increasing fuel consumption and little (if any) increase in usable passenger space with most of the bulk consumed by the exterior dimensions, some created by apparently pointless styling features of which the big fins were but one.  The public continued to buy the big cars (one did get a lot of metal for the money) but there was also a boom in the sales of both imported cars (their smaller size among their many charms) but the corporation which later became AMC (American Motor Corporation) enjoyed good business for their generally smaller offerings.  Chrysler and GM ignored Ford’s lack of commitment to the macropterous and during the late 1950s their fin continued to grow upwards (and, in some cases, even outwards) but, noting the flood of imports, decided to join the trend, introducing smaller ranges; whereas in 1955, the majors offered a single basic design, by 1970 there would be locally manufactured “small cars”, sub-compacts”, “compacts” and “intermediates” as well as what the 1955 (which mostly had been sized somewhere between a “compact” and an “intermediate”) evolved into (now named “full-size”, a well-deserved appellation).

1959 Cadillac with four-window hardtop coachwork (the body-style known also as the "flattop" or "flying wing roof") (left) and 1961 Imperial Crown Convertible (right).

It was in 1959-1961 that things became “most macropterous” (peak fin) and the high-water mark of the excess to considered by most to be the 1959 Cadillac, east of the towering fins adorned with a pair of taillights often described as “bullet lights” but, interviewed year later, a member of the General Motors Technical Center (opened in 1956 and one of the mid-century’s great engines of planned obsolescence) claimed the image they had in mind was the glowing exhaust from a rocket in ascent, then often seen in popular culture including film, television and advertising.  However, although a stylistic high, it was the 1961 Imperials which set the mark literally, the tip of those fins standing almost a half inch (12 mm) taller and it was remembered too for the “neo-classical” touch of four free-standing headlights, something others in the industry declined to follow.

Tending to the brachypterous: As the seasons went by, the Cadillac's fins would retreat but would not for decades wholly vanish.

It’s a orthodoxy in the history of design that the fins grew to the point of absurdity and then vanished but that’s not what literally happened in all cases.  Some manufacturers indeed suddenly abandon the motif but Cadillac, perhaps conscious of having nurtured (and in a sense “perfected”) the debut of the 1949 range must have felt more attached because, after 1959, year after year, the fins would become smaller and smaller although decades later, vestigial fins were still obviously part of the language of design.  In Europe, others would also prune.

Macropterous to brachypterous.  Sunbeam Alpine: 1960 Series I (left) and 1966 Series V. 

Built in five series between 1959-1968, the fins on the Sunbeam Alpine would have seemed a good idea in 1957 when the lines were approved but trend didn’t persist and with the release in 1964 of the revised Series IV, the effect was toned down, the restyling achieved in an economical way by squaring off the rake at the rear, this lowering the height of the tips.  Because the release of the Series IV coincided with the debut of the Alpine Tiger (fitted initially with a 260 cubic inch (4.2 litre) V8 (and later a 4.7 (289)), all the V8 powered cars used the “low fin” body.

Macropterous to brachypterous. 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Lang (Long) (left) and 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 coupé.

Regarded by some as a symbol of the way the Wirtschaftswunder (the post war “economic miracle” in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany)) had ushered away austerity, the (slight) exuberance of the fins which appeared on the Mercedes-Benz W111 (1959-1968) & W112 (1961–1965) seemed almost to embarrass the company, offended by the suggestion they would indulge in a mere “styling trend”.  Although the public soon dubbed the cars the Heckflosse (literally “tail-fins”), the factory insisted they were Peilstege (parking aids or sight-lines (literally "bearing bars")), the construct being peil-, from peilen (take a bearing; find the direction) + Steg (bar) which marked the extent of the bodywork, this to assist while reversing.  That may have been true (the company has never been above a bit of myth-making) but when a coupé and cabriolet was added to the W111 & W112 range, the fins were noticeably smaller, achieving an elegance of line Mercedes-Benz has never matched.  Interestingly, a la Cadillac, when the succeeding sedans (W108-W109 (1965-1972) & W116, (1972-1979)) were released, both retained a small hint of a fin although by 1972 it wasn’t enough even to be called vestigial; the factory said the small deviation from the flat was there to increase structural rigidity.

Macropterous to brachypterous: 1962 Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre (left) and 1967 Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R (right).

The Italian design house Pinninfarina took to fins in the late 1950s and applied what really were variations of the same basic design to commissions from Fiat, Lancia, Peugeot and BMC (British Motor Corporation, a conglomerate created by merger in 1952 which brought together Morris, Austin (and soon Austin-Healey), MG, Riley, Wolseley & Vanden Plas under the one corporate umbrella.  There were a several BMC “Farinas” sold under six badges and the ones with the most prominent fins were the “big” Farinas, the most expensive of which were Princess 3 Litre (1959-1960), Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre (1960-1964) and Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R (1964-1968); the “R” appended to the 4 Litre’s model name was to indicate its engine (which had begun life as a military unit) was supplied by Rolls-Royce, a most unusual arrangement.  The 4 Litre used the 3 Litre’s body with a number of changes, one of which was a change in the shape and reduction in the size of the rather chunky fins.  Although the frumpy shell remained, the restyling was thought quite accomplished though obviously influenced by the Mercedes-Benz W111 & W112 coupés & cabriolets but if one is going to imitate, one should choose to emulate the finest.