Diligence

Diligence (pronounced dil-i-juhns or dee-lee-zhahns (French))

(1) Constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind.

(2) In law, expressed often as “due diligence” the extent of care and caution required of a person or entity in the relevant circumstances.

(3) In the law of Scotland, the process by which persons, lands, or effects are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance of witnesses or the production of writings.

(4) Care; caution (obsolete).

(5) A public stagecoach, especially of the small, fast type once used in France (archaic).

1300–1350: From the Middle English deligence (constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken), from the Old French dilligence (attention, care; haste, speed) and directly from the Latin dīligentia (carefulness, attentiveness), from diligentem (nominative dīligēns) (attentive, assiduous, careful), the present-participle adjective from diligere (single out, value highly, esteem, prize, love; aspire to, be content with, appreciate (originally “to pick out, select”), the construct being dis- (apart) + legere (choose, gather), from the primitive Indo-European root leg- (to collect, gather (with derivatives meaning "to speak (in the sense of “to pick out words”).  The meaning-shift was gradual and evolved from “love” through “attentiveness” to “carefulness” to “steady effort”.  The legal sense “attention and care due from a person in a given situation” dates from the 1620s.  A now probably extinct synonym was worksomeness.  The –ence suffix was a word-forming element attached to verbs to form abstract nouns of process or fact (convergence from converge), or of state or quality and was from the Middle English -ence, from the Old French -ence, from the Latin –entia & -antia (depending on the vowel in the stem word).  The Latin present-participle endings for verbs stems in -a- were distinguished from those in -i- and -e- and as the Old French evolved from Latin, these were leveled to -ance, but later French borrowings from Latin (some of them subsequently passed to English) used the appropriate Latin form of the ending, as did words borrowed by English directly from Latin, thus diligence, absence et al.  There was however little consistency, English gaining many words from French but from the sixteenth century the suffix –ence was selectively restored, such was the reverence for Latin.  In French, the word dates from the 1740s and was a shortened form of carosse de diligence (literally “coach of speed”).  The stage-coach sense should be pronounced as in French because use will be so rare it’ll be thought correct rather than an affectation though if preferred, the further truncation “dilly” was common.  Diligence is a noun, diligent is an adjective and diligently an adverb; the noun plural is diligences.

In commercial law, due diligence describes the comprehensive and systematic review of all aspects of a business, investment opportunity or legal matter before a transaction or decision is made.  The process involves an examination of all available information (including identifying what is not available) related to the subject, including financial statements, contracts, legal relationships, intellectual property, internal structures and such obligations which may exist.  The purpose of due diligence is to identify potential risks, liabilities, or opportunities associated with the matter to ensure that whatever decision is taken, is made with a full understanding of all matters.  The companion term, summary diligence, isn’t drawn from law but describes a similar but less extensive process; less detailed and less comprehensive review which is restricted usually to only the critical aspects of the matter.  Summary diligence is undertaken when it’s certain that even in a worst case scenario, losses will be minimal or outweighed by other advantages.

Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care.  Although the concept also exists as a legal obligation, it’s also used of the process undertaken in self-interest to ensure all relevant information is known an assessed, prior to a decision being taken.  As a legal device, proof of others having failed to have exercised due diligence can in some circumstances be used as a defence against allegations of inadequate (as opposed to misleading) disclosure.  Alternatively, against allegations of negligence, if one can establish that the threshold of “reasonable care” had been reached, a defence can also succeed even if the process was in some way incomplete.  In the US where formally it entered the language of commerce and law during the 1930s, it was originally merely an indicative description of the process of investigation before, via an adjectival career, becoming both noun and legal jargon.  Depending on what’s required and as a general principle the larger the quantity and the more complex the quality of information to be assessed then the greater resources will be required duly to be diligent but the principles are the same of any data set and many check-lists are available for box-ticking.  Depending on what’s involved, there may be a functional need to create dozens of sub-headings under the boxes but, within the bounds of fuzzy logic, most check lists suggest the categories are something like: (1) Financial, (2) Legal, (3) Tax, (4) Compliance and Regulatory (5) Commercial, (6) Human Resources, (7) Intellectual Property, (8) Information Technology, (9) Environmental & (10) Health and Safety.

Lights burning at a quarter to midnight: the company formerly known as Credit Suisse.

The classic example of the use of the due diligence process is in mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and probably in no M&A activity is it of more interest than in the financial services sector.  It was notable therefore that the process or arranging the “purchase” by Swiss bank UBS (the old Union Bank of Switzerland) of its erstwhile national competitor Credit Swisse (the old Schweizerische Kreditanstalt) appeared to be completed in the time that either institution would once have though inadequate were either contemplating acquiring a reasonably successful suburban dry-cleaning shop.  It was however a most unusual purchase which should more correctly be thought a takeover or absorption and the timing of the announcement was based not on the satisfactory completion of the due diligence process but the need to make an announcement before the markets opened the next Monday morning.  Despite all that, UBS certainly undertook an exercise in due diligence, dotting every i and crossing every t, once the Swiss government had made it clear they were making an offer the bank shouldn’t refuse.  UBS’s interest was less in the exact state of Credit Suisse’s books (something that would take even a big team at least weeks to determine) than in ensuring whatever losses subsequently were sustained, they would be underwritten by the Swiss exchequer and not the bank.  To ensure that, UBS would have ensured diligence was more due than usual.  So there’s somewhere a “secret protocol” to the UBS-Credit Suisse pact, presumably well protected in a Zürich vault and it’s likely to be a document the Swiss government will be unlikely to discuss, let alone publish.

Hank Paulson before the US Congress, 2008, "explaining" the bank bailouts at the start of the global financial crisis (GFC).

Whether whatever the Swiss government undertook can be characterised as something like un-due diligence (as opposed to undue diligence) might emerge in the months ahead as the true position of Credit Swisse unfolds because it may be even within the organisation, nobody can be certain how high the liabilities might go, the track derivatives can follow being among the more unpredictable in the world of gambling.  Still, the fear over that weekend was something like Hank Paulson (b 1946; US treasury secretary 2006-2009) had little trouble conveying to the congress in the wake of the failure of Lehman Brothers (1850-2008) and the same risk of “contagion” meant Bern really had little alternative that have the Swiss taxpayer assume responsibility for whatever is going to happen.  If that turns out to be effectively a very big credit default swap (CDF), the Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB, the Swiss central bank) quantitatively may need to easy many Swiss francs.

Photo due diligence

There are two aspects to "photo due diligence".

(1) Ex ante (before the photograph is taken) due diligence is assessment of factors such as the background, the environment and (often especially) who else will appear in any photo.  This is of some importance to those for whom public image management is an important part of their career.  One would not wish to be photographed in the “wrong” surroundings or be seen with the “wrong” people.

(2) Ex post facto (after the photograph is taken but before release for publication) due diligence is really possible only when “embargo” arrangements exist with the photographer, something sometimes a condition imposed by event organizers.  When photographs needed to be processed from negatives this something sometimes difficult to enforce but in the digital era, unsuitable images can instantly be deleted.  Out in the wild, where the paparazzi roam, it’s a contractual arrangement between subject and photographer and there is some evidence of cooperation.

Photo due diligence failure: Tony Abbott (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2013-2015) photographed (left) outside the Reject Shop, Canberra, Australia, June 2015.  There was some prescience in the image because some three months later, the Liberal Party ejected him as leader and thus from the prime-ministership.  In this case, the failure of due diligence was among those minders who arranged the photo-opportunity although it’s surprising Mr Abbott’s political antennae seems not to have been sensitive.

Photo due diligence success: Lindsay Lohan at Christian Siriano’s fashion show, New York City, February 2023.  This one could be used in a case study of how to tick the due diligence boxes: (1) prestige brand-name, (2) front-row seating, (3) an acceptable degree of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), (4) the show well attended & (5) ideal lighting for photography.

Melon

Melon (pronounced mel-uhn)

(1) Any of various plants of two cucurbitaceous vines (the gourd family) including the watermelon, muskmelon et al.  Variations include Genus Cucumis (various musk melons, including honeydew, cantaloupes, and horned melon); Genus Citrullus (watermelons and others); Genus Benincasa (winter melon); Genus Momordica (a bitter melon)

(2) The fruit of any of these plants.

(3) A color ranging between a medium crimson and a deep pink, noted for the orange tinge.

(4) In zoology, the visible upper portion of the head of a surfacing whale or dolphin, including the beak, eyes, and blowhole (a mass of adipose tissue used to focus and modulate vocalizations).

(5) In the slang of (mostly North American) financial markets, an especially large additional dividend (often in the form of stock) distributed to stockholders (often as “cut a melon”).

(6) By extension, any windfall of money to be divided among specified beneficiaries.

(7) In slang, the breasts of the human female (almost always in the plural).

(8) In slang, the head; the skull.

(9) In slang, a derogatory term for members of a green political party, or similar environmental groups (rare and mostly Australia & New Zealand).

1350–1400: From the Middle English meloun & melon (herbaceous, succulent trailing annual plant or its sweet, edible fruit), from the Old Portuguese (via the thirteenth century Old French melon) melon, from the Late Latin melonem & mēlōn- (stem of mēlō and a shortening of mēlopepō (the “gourd apple”, a large apple-shaped melon)), from the Ancient Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopépōn) (large apple-shaped melon), the construct being μηλο (mêlo(n)) (apple) + πέπων (pépōn) (ripe), from πέπτω (péptō) (to ripen).  Confusingly for historians seeking to reconstruct the recipes of Antiquity the Latin melopeponem was a kind of pumpkin while the Greek mēlopepon (gourd-apple) was applied to several kinds of gourds bearing sweet fruit, the origin of that in the noun use of pépōn (ripe) distinguishing the fruit on the vine ready for harvest from those yet to ripen.  As a modifier, melon is appended as appropriate (based on color, shape, diet, environmental niche, habitat etc) including melon beetle, melon cactus, Melon rugose mosaic virus, melon thistle & melon-headed.  The best known is probably the watermelon, dating from the 1610s and so named for their high content of water-like juice.  The more pleasing term in French is French melon d'eau.  Melon is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is melons.

Being prolific and undemanding to grow, melons were among the earliest plants domesticated and in Greek, “melon” was used in a generic way for many foreign fruits, a fate which would also befall apple, thus the naming of the pineapple and in some Old English texts, cucumbers are referred to as eorþæppla (literally "earth-apples", the deductive process which produced the French pomme de terre (potato (literally “earth-apple”, the French pomme from the Latin pomum (apple; fruit)).  Apple was from the Old English æppel (apple; any kind of fruit; fruit in general), from the from Proto-Germanic ap(a)laz (source also of the Old Saxon, Old Frisian & Dutch appel, the Old Norse eple, the Old High German apful & the German Apfel), from the primitive Indo-European ab(e)l- (apple), (source also of the Gaulish avallo (fruit), the Old Irish ubull, the Lithuanian obuolys, & the Old Church Slavonic jabloko (apple)) by etymologists caution original sense of these and their relationship(s) to which is now understood as “an apple” is uncertain.  In Middle English, as late as the seventeenth century (even the earliest compliers of recipe books aren’t always explicit so some reverse-engineering based on supposition has been undertaken), it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts (such as Old English fingeræppla (dates (literally "finger-apples) and the late fourteenth century Middle English appel of paradis (banana (literally apple of paradise)).

The twenty-first century judgment of Paris: Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears & Paris Hilton reprise Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, New York City, 29 November 2006.  The car was a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (C199).

That generality of meaning saw “apple” named as the fruit with which the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, creating the original sin with which we’ve all since been damned, women especially since the Bible says it was all her fault.  However, the “fruit of the forbidden tree” was unspecified in the original texts of the Book of Genesis but despite the wishful thinking of a few, in biblical scholarship there’s no support for the notion the fruit was even hinted at being an appel of paradis, however appropriate a nice plump banana might seem, given the context.  Nor is the forbidden fruit explicitly mentioned in the Holy Quran but according to traditional Islamic commentaries it was not an apple but wheat.  The Prophet may not have been concerned but in Greek mythology there was the μῆλον τῆς Ἔριδος (Golden Apple of Discord) in the story of the Judgment of Paris which the goddess Ἔρις (Eris) (Strife), tossed in the midst of the feast of the gods at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis as a prize of beauty, thus sparking a vanity-fueled dispute among Hera, Athena and Aphrodite which ultimately triggered the Trojan War.  Eris was the goddess of chaos and discord who (perhaps unsurprisingly), having not received a wedding invitation, was miffed and inscribed kallisti (To the prettiest one) on her “wedding gift” handing it to Πάρις (Paris, AKA Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) (Alexander), the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy) who was told to choose the goddess he found most beautiful.  Judging what turned out to be one of Greek mythology's more significant beauty contests, Paris chose Aphrodite, offending Hera and Athena, the most famous consequence of their feud being the Trojan War.  Tragedy did thereafter stalk the marriage of Peleus and Thetis; of their seven sons, the only one to survive beyond infancy was Achilles.

Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit (circa 1620-1625), oil on canvas by Sir Nathaniel Bacon (1585–1627).

Beginning probably in Holland in the early seventeenth century and apparently first painted by Pieter Aertsen (circa 1533-circa 1573) "cookmaid and market scenes" was a genre in painting which combined representations of produce and kitchens with themes often borrowed from the New Testament.  Two other of Sir Nathaniel's works in this vein are known still to exist: Cookmaid with Still Life of Game & Cookmaid with Still Life of Birds, both featuring healthy young ladies and there is obviously some artistic license in Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit given that although every piece of produce depicted was at the time grown somewhere in England, not all simultaneously would have been in season.  Sir Nathaniel's lengthy title was too much for many and the painting has often been referred to as "Maid with Melons".  This slang use of melons is listed by many dictionaries as “vulgar” or “mildly vulgar” but does travel with the vague respectability of a classical origin: In Antiquity the plural of the Greek melon (μῆλα) (mela) was used for “a girl's breasts”.

Juicy Melons, Euston Station, London. 

A cantaloupe as one would appear in most of the world (left) and a rockmelon down under (right).

Globalization has to some extent standardized in the English language spellings and meanings which once were disparate, sometimes reversing the trend towards diversity which was noted as one of the linguistic effects of the British Empire, especially in India under the Raj where the British pillaged the local languages with only slightly less enthusiasm than they showed for gold and diamonds.  However, the names of food seem often resistant to change, presumably most often where forms are well-established and supplied by local production.  Thus what is in some places eggplant is elsewhere the aubergine.  It’s also a melon matter because in Australia, what most of the world knows as the cantaloupe (from the French cantaloup, from the Italian place name Cantalupo, a former Papal summer estate near Rome, where the melons were first grown after being introduced to Europe from the Middle East), is called the rockmelon (occasionally rock-melon) and the antipodean quirkiness is not unique, the cantaloupe in some places call the “sweet melon” or “Crenshaw melon” while in South Africa where it’s not uncommon to see fruit-stalls side-by-side, one might be selling cantaloupes and the other spanspeks (from the Afrikaans Spaanse spek (literally “Spanish bacon”)).  The Australian use, once deconstructed, does make sense in that a cantaloupe does resemble some rocks but the case seems not compelling and cantaloupe is a wonderful word.  Visiting foodies will be gratified Australians follow the rest of the world when it comes to the honeydew (or honey-dew) melon, the name from the late sixteenth century honeydew (sticky sweet substance found in small drops on trees and plants), a replication of the formations in the Dutch honigdaauw and the German Honigthau.  The melon was first named in 1916 when selective breeding produced a cross between the cantaloupe and a melon native to southern African.

Baffle

Baffle (pronounced baf-uhl)

(1) To confuse, bewilder or perplex.

(2) To frustrate or confound; to thwart (a now archaic and probably obsolete seventeenth century use which didn’t of necessity involve the creation of confusion or bewilderment).

(3) To check or deflect the movement of (sound, light, fluids, etc.).

(4) To equip with a baffle or baffles.

(5) To cheat or trick; to hoodwink or deceive someone (used between the sixteenth & eighteenth centuries and now obsolete).

(6) To struggle ineffectually, as a ship in a gale (a nineteenth form rare except in Admiralty use).

(7) Publicly to disgrace, especially of a recreant knight (used between the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries and now obsolete).

(8) Something that balks, checks, or deflects (also called a baffle-board); an artificial obstruction for checking or deflecting the flow of gases (as in a boiler), sounds (as in the loudspeaker system of a radio or hi-fi set), light (as in a darkroom) or fluids (as in a tank).

(9) In audio engineering, any boxlike enclosure or flat panel for mounting a loudspeaker.

(10) In military camouflage, an architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.

(11) In coal mining, a lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine (US dialectal use).

1540-1550: Of uncertain origin but may have entered English from the Scots dialectal bauchle (to disgrace, treat with contempt, especially a perjured knight), from bauch or bachlen (publicly to condemn) and probably related to the early-modern French bafouer (to disgrace, to scorn, abuse or hoodwink) or the obsolete French befer (to mock) which was definitely picked up from the Scots bauchle.  The most likely root is the German natural sound of disgust, like bah which appears in the language as baff machen (to flabbergast) and the familiar modern meaning “to bewilder or confuse” is from 1640s while that of “to defeat someone's efforts” is from 1670s.  The use meaning “shielding device” dates from 1881 and “artificial obstruction” is from 1910.  The alternative spellings bafful & baffol are both obsolete.  Baffle is a noun & verb, bafflement & baffler are nouns and baffled & baffling are verbs & adjectives; the noun plural is baffles (or the rare bafflers).

As a noun, baffle emerged in the early 1880s, initially used mostly of the shielding device attached to stoves and ovens where it was short for “baffle-plate”, derived from the noun.  The earlier noun (from circa 1860) in the same sense was baffler, a word which can still be used to describe (1) something that causes one to be baffled, particularly a difficult puzzle or riddle & (1) in gaming, one of the projections inside a dice tower that serve to deflect the die unpredictably.  The noun bafflement (state of being baffled) dates from 1841 while the adjective baffling (bewildering, confusing, perplexing) was from 1733; it was the present-participle adjective from the verb baffle but also emerged in Admiralty slang (soon picked up in the merchant service) in the eighteenth century as a sailor's adjective for winds that blow variously and make headway difficult; although now rare, it survived into the age of steam.  The noun and verb bafflegab was first noted in 1952 and describes pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language, especially legal or bureaucratic jargon; a synonym of gobbledygook (but not “hocus-pocus” or “mumbo-jumbo” which reference something nonsensical although use of those two is now probably proscribe because of their origin when speaking dismissively of the speech of African “witch doctors”.  The companion word is baffound (to perplex, bewilder by the use of bafflegab).

Although it had probably before been on the tips of not a few tongues, the words “baffle”, “baffling” & “baffled” in connection with Lindsay Lohan really spiked in 2016 when footage circulated of her speaking in distinctively different accent which used a conventional US English vocabulary but was delivered, with an occasionally halting delivery, the accent vaguely Russian or eastern European.  She later clarified thing by saying it was “…a mixture of most of the languages I can understand or am trying to learn”, adding that she’d been “…learning different languages since I was a child.  I'm fluent in English and French can understand Russian and am learning Turkish, Italian and Arabic”.  Taking advantage of the interest, she named the latest addition to the planet’s linguistic diversity “LiLohan” and a limited edition LiLohan clothing line was quickly made available as a philanthropic endeavour, part of the proceeds from each item sold going to Caudwell Children and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD).  Turkey is now properly called Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye); the accepted short form Türkiye.

Baffled sump (left) and fuel tank (right).In cars, baffles are used in sumps and fuel tanks to prevent fluids sloshing around when subjected to the high lateral forces encountered in high-speed cornering.  With fuel tanks this ensures weight transfers are minimized while the purpose in a sump is to (1) avoid the oil surge or starvation which can happen if movement means the oil becomes removed from the oil-pump’s pickup & (2) assist in reducing the oil’s tendency to foam.  In Australia Ford included a baffled sump on the Falcon GTHO Phase III (1970-1971) and this was to be carried over to the abortive Phase IV (1972), the novelty with the latter being the race cars gaining tear-drop shaped “ears” welded to each side of the sump, adjacent to the oil pump.  The ears not only increased oil capacity but also, sitting as they did in the air-flow passing under the body, enhanced cooling.

Speak no evil: Alan Tudge.

Given the number of times the Australian Liberal Party has in recent years sought to celebrate the virtue of “personality responsibility” the evidence given by Alan Tudge (b 1971) to the royal commission investigating the “robodebt” scheme (a system which sought to “recover” what were alleged to be debts incurred by citizens who had failed to inform the government about their earnings) must to some have seemed baffling; not necessarily surprising, just baffling.  The scheme had been found to be unlawful but Mr Tudge, who served as (Liberal) minister for human services in 2017-2018 and was (under the Westminster system) “responsible” for the administration of “robodebt”, refused during questioning to accept ministerial responsibility for the unlawfulness of the scheme.  Despite being the minister in charge, Mr Tudge said it was not his responsibility check whether or not the robodebt scheme was lawful although he did seem to concede he was responsible for the scheme’s “lawful implementation”, adding that he assumed it was lawful, and had never been shown legal advice regarding its legality.  His position appeared to be based on what sounds a reasonable assumption: that the departmental secretary (the public servant in charge of the department) would not be implementing a program which he or she would know to be unlawful, something he described as “unfathomable”, adding that the scheme had gone through a rigorous cabinet process “which always has a legal overlay”.

Justice Jackson prosecuting, Albert Speer in the dock, Nuremberg, 1946. 

There are many books by academics, historians and former politicians which discuss the doctrine of ministerial responsibility but it's not known if the transcript of 20 June 1946 of the International Military Tribunal (the Nuremberg Trial) was in Mr Tudge's mind: Mr Justice Robert Jackson (1892–1954; US Supreme Court Justice 1941-1954; Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg (IMT) trials of Nazi war criminals 1945-1946) cross-examining Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945):

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Your statement some time ago that you had a certain responsibility as a Minister of the Government.  I should like to have you explain what responsibility you referred to when you say you assume a responsibility as a member of the Government; your common responsibility, what do you mean by your common responsibility along with others?

DEFENDANT SPEER: In my opinion, a state functionary has two types of responsibility.  One is the responsibility for his own sector and for that, of course, he is fully responsible.  But above that I think that in decisive matters there is, and must be, among the leaders a common responsibility, for who is to bear responsibility for developments, if not the close associates of the head of State?

This common responsibility, however, can only be applied to fundamental matters, it cannot be applied to details connected with other ministries or other responsible departments, for otherwise the entire discipline in the life of the state would be quite confused, and no one would ever know who is individually responsible in a particular sphere. This individual responsibility in one's own sphere must, at all events, be kept clear and distinct.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, your point is, I take it, that you as a member of the Government and a leader in this period of time acknowledge a responsibility for its large policies, but not for all the details that occurred in their execution. Is that a fair statement of your position?

DEFENDANT SPEER: Yes, indeed.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I think that concludes the cross-examination.

Alan Tudge at the 2017 Midwinter Ball with Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller.

Ms Millar also provided some interesting evidence to the “robodebt” royal commission and (pursuant to an unrelated matter) received from the Commonwealth a taxpayer-funded Aus$650,000 settlement for damages while working in two ministerial offices.  Ms Millar had accused Mr Tudge of being physically abusive towards her while in a consensual relationship and part of the settlement related to these matters, including compensation for loss of earning, hurt, distress, humiliation & medical and legal costs.  The Commonwealth did not admit liability but in paying Aus$650,000 seems to have assumed responsibility.  In a Clintonesque touch, Mr Tudge admitted he was at times sexually intimate with Ms Miller but insists he did not have “sexual intercourse” with that woman.

Diversity

Diversity (pronounced dih-vur-si-tee (U) or dahy-vur-si-tee (non-U))

(1) The state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness; nonuniformity.

(2) The inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation etc.

(3) In mathematical logic, the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct.

(4) In politics, the social policy of encouraging tolerance for people of different cultural and racial backgrounds

(5) In politics as multiculturalism or more specific legislation mandating diversity, an attempt to redress historic discrimination.

(6) In biology, as biodiversity, the degree of variation of life forms within an ecosystem.

(7) In zoological taxidermy, as species diversity, the effective number of species represented in a data set.

(8) In genetics, as genetic diversity, the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.

(9) In agriculture, as crop diversity, the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture.

(10) In electronic communications, the principle of the deployment of multiple channels or devices to improve reliability.

(11) In electrical engineering, as diversity factor, the ratio of the sum of the maximum demands of the various part of a system to the coincident maximum demand of the whole system.

(12) In law, a term often used in equal-opportunity legislation when codifying specific metrics.

1300–1350: From the Middle English diversite (originally "variety; range of differences" and by the late fourteenth century "quality of being diverse, fact of difference between two or more things or kinds; variety; separateness; that in which two or more things differ" (usually in a technical or neutral sense), from the Old French diversité (difference, diversity, unique feature, oddness (and when used in a degoratory sense "wickedness, perversity; contradiction") (which survives in the Modern French as the twelfth century diversité), from the Latin diversitatem (nominative dīversitās) (contrariety, wickedness, perversity, disagreement (and in a secondary sense "difference, diversity")), the construct being  diversus (past particle of divertere) (contradiction, difference; turned different ways (and in Late Latin "various") +‎ tas.  The Latin tas suffix was from the primitive Indo-European tehts, from the Ancient Greek της (tēs) and Sanskrit ताति (tāti).  In English, the construct uses the suffix ity which is used to form abstract nouns indicating a state of being.  Suffix is from the Middle English ite, a borrowing from the Old French ité and directly from the Latin itatem (nominative itas).  As used as a suffix denoting state or condition, in Latin it was built with a connective i + tas.  Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1926) notes that in English, a word with the ity suffix usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances whereas a word with an ism appended means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it.  Diversity is a noun, diverse is an adjective (and collective a noun) and diversely is an adverb; the noun plural is diversities.

Diversity: The path to DEI

Diversity had the distinct negative meaning "perverseness, being contrary to what is agreeable or right; conflict, strife; perversity, evil" in English from late fourteenth century but was obsolete after the seventeenth (although the twenty-first century critiques of wokeness and political correctness has seen "diversity" again used in this way in certain quarters).  Diversity as a virtue in the political construction of nation-states was an idea which grew as modern democracies developed in the decades after the French Revolution (1789) because it was thought essential to prevent one faction from arrogating all power (and discussed in The Federalist (now usually called The Federalist Papers) 85 essays published in 1788 and written by some of the Founding Fathers of the United States to advocate ratification of the constitution).  The word however was also used under the Raj where many of the British colonial "fixes" (at which they excelled) used existing divisiveness (which they encouraged and sometimes even created) as part of the principle of "divide & rule".  Diversity under the Raj was real, cross-cutting and multi-layered but for from the modern sense in which ethnicity, gender and sexual identity are the typical determinates, this use emerging as now understood in the early 1990s, the original purpose being to provide for the "inclusion and visibility of persons of previously under-represented minority identities".

Projecting diversity: Lindsay Lohan in rainbow T-shirt, the T-shirt of the T-shirt created through Yoshirt's portal.

Although the use of diversity (in a positive sense) as applies to race, gender etc. appears to date only from 1992, the term "affirmative action", as government policy designed to promote or achieve diversity in various aspects of life, was first used in an executive order signed by US President Kennedy in 1961.  That was a decree which required that government contractors "…take affirmative action to ensure applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin".  Such policies have become widespread, especially since the 1980s and, in the west, are applied exclusively for the benefit of groups or individuals thought disadvantaged.  Beyond the west, other countries have adopted such policies although sometimes they’re applied for the benefit of a defined majority.  Increasingly, in the US, affirmative action policies are being challenged, sometimes by groups themselves defined as "diverse".

To demonstrate a corporate commitment to workplace DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), always include a brunette in photos. 

In the West, not all approve of diversity positive initiatives.  In March 2018, the University of Sydney Union issued a statement noting the application of an affirmative action policy to its debating team would promote diversity and prevent domination by “affluent, white, privately educated students”.  The union’s press release was prompted by a report in the Murdoch press that the new affirmative action policies will mean the university would be sending not necessarily its best team to the annual debating tournament, but one “…meeting quotas for women, people of colour, and others oppressed by the white male supremacy”.

Former senator Eric Abetz

Anxious always to expose conspiracies by communists, LGBTQQIAAOP agitators, Trotskyists, trade unionists and other malcontents, then Senator Eric Abetz (b 1958; senator for Tasmania (Liberal) 1994-2022) labelled the move “Stalinist dogma’’ dressed up as progressive thinking, adding the union’s move was evidence of “stifling political correctness’’ which threatened to “damage the future generations who are taught this nonsense as fact’’.  The former senator was perhaps not someone good at recognizing white privilege or understanding its implications for those from diverse backgrounds but he did take a Churchillian stand defending the nation when the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands declared war on Australia so there's that.

The young ladies of Alpha Gamma Delta: ἐννέα κόραι, ἑπτὰ αὐτῶν ξανθαί (ennéa kórai, heptà autôn xanthai).

Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ and clipped usually to "Alpha Gam") decided to adopt “DEI best practice” in choosing their webpage banner, including not one but three brunettes.  Dating from 1904 when the first chapter was founded at New York’s Syracuse University, AGD is an international women's fraternity and social organization with over 200,000 members, some 200 collegiate chapters and over 250 alumnae groups.  There is an on-line shop (Alpha Gam Boutique) with lines of hats, T-shirts, stoles, tank-tops & such and there's the helpful facility of "custom chapter orders".

Gallimaufry

Gallimaufry (pronounced gal-uh-maw-free)

(1) A hodgepodge (or hotchpotch); a medley of the unrelated; a mélange; a miscellany; jumble; a mish mash; olio; potpourri; an omnium-gatherum.

(2) Figuratively, something messy or confused.

(2) In music, any absurd medley especially if elaborate.

(3) In cooking, a stew.

1545–1555: from the Middle French galimafrée (ragout, hash; a kind of sauce or stew), from the Old French calimafree (sauce made of mustard, ginger, and vinegar; a stew of carp) of uncertain origin but probably coining of peasant cuisine, a conflation of galer (to amuse oneself; to have fun) + the Old Northern French (Picard) dialect mafrer (to gorge oneself; gluttonously to eat), from the Middle Dutch moffelen (to eat, to nosh (from Middle Dutch moffelen, (from the idea “to open one's mouth wide” of imitative origin)).  The alternative spellings were gallimaufray & gallimaufrey, both even more rare than gallimaufry although in historical fiction and poetry both have appeared, either suit the depiction of the era or as a device of rhyme.  Elsewhere, the equivalent sense was conveyed by Sammelsurium or Mischmasch (German), galimatija (Bulgarian), zibaldone (Italian), papazjanija (Serbo-Croatian), galimatías (Spanish) and karmakarışık şey (Turkish).  Gallimaufry is a noun; the noun plural is gallimaufries.

Gallimaufry Restaurant, Bristol, United Kingdom, noted for the excellence of its date pudding.

The English language is of course a gallimaufry, an agglomeration of words from all over the planet or, as some prefer to say it: a slut of a language.  That means there’s a wide vocabulary, one consequence of which is that for gallimaufry there are plenty of alternatives including farrago, hash, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, medley, mélange, mishmash, mixture, tangle, welter, mess, muddle; goulash, grab bag, mixed bag, miscellany, omnium-gatherum, array, collection, combination, combo, conglomeration, diversity, garbage, group, jumble, kind, mishmash, mixture, patchwork, potpourri & salmagundi.  Most are probably a better choice than the obscure gallimaufry which is now restricted mostly to poetic or literary use although retail outlets in various fields have used it.

In Dog Latin (amusing constructions designed to resemble the appearance and especially the sound of Latin, many of which were coined by students in English schools & universities), the term is omnium-gatherum, the construct being the genuine Latin omnium, genitive plural of omnis (all) + the English gather + -um (the accusative masculine singular).  The origin is lost to history but the earliest recorded use was by Sir John Croke (1553-1620), an English judge and politician educated at Eton & Cambridge who served as the last speaker of the House of Commons before the death of Elizabeth I (1533–1603; Queen of England & Ireland 1558-1603).

Lindsay Lohan in November 2022 appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America to promote the Netflix movie, Falling for Christmas.  What caught the eye was her outfit, a suit in a gallimaufry of colors from Law Roach’s (b 1978) Akris’ fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection, the assembly including a wide-lapelled jacket, turtleneck and boot cut pants fabricated in a green, yellow, red & orange Drei Teile print in an irregular geometric pattern.  The distinctive look was paired with a similarly eclectic combination of accessories, chunky gold hoop earrings, a cross-body Anouk envelope handbag, and Giuseppe Zanotti platform heels.

The enveloping flare of the trousers concealed the shoes which was a shame, the Giuseppe Zanotti (b 1957) Bebe-style pumps in gloss metallic burgundy leather distinguished by 2-inch (50 mm) soles, 6-inch (150 mm) heels, open vamp, rakish counters and surprisingly delicate ankle straps.  The need for the cut of the trousers to reach to the ground is noted but the shoes deserved to be seen.

Although the origins of the word gallimaufry lie in the peasant cuisine stews made from lamb, mutton, pork and beef, probably the best known gallimaufry is bouillabaisse (pronounced bool-yuh-beys, bool-yuh-beys or (in French), boo-ya-bes), the Provençal fish stew first cooked in the docks of the port city of Marseille.  The word bouillabaisse was from the Provençal Occitan boui-abaisso, bolhabaissa or bouiabaisso, a compound created with the two verbs bolhir (to boil) & abaissar (to reduce heat (ie to simmer)).  Dating from the mid nineteenth century, the word actually encapsulates the recipe was translated variously as either “boil and then lower the heat” or “when it boils, lower the heat”.  The instructions are not only a recipe but also medically sound, the boiling killing the dangerous organisms associated especially with shellfish.

An up-market bouillabaisse.

The dish, known in the Mediterranean since Antiquity, long pre-dates the entry of the word into French, being a stew cooked for their own consumption by fishermen, making use of by-catch, the unsalable rockfish neither fishmongers nor chefs wanted.  It was only when news of the tastiness of bouillabaisse spread that gradually it entered the canon of French cuisine although that would also change its nature, more expensive ingredients being added as it began to appear on restaurant menus.  Originally, it included only the boney fish with coarser, less flavorsome flesh but the fishermen would also add whatever shellfish, sea urchins, mussels, crabs or octopus might have ended up caught in their nets, the taste thus varying form day to day.  Vegetables such as leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery, and potatoes are simmered with the broth, served with the fish and of course, being the French, it’s accompanied with bread and an oil & garlic sauce.  Although not always part of the modern method of preparation, one of the key features in the cooking of bouillabaisse was that the experienced fishermen, added the fish at intervals, the time required for cooking varying.  The Portuguese version is called caldeirada.  Because it’s so specifically associated with something, the bouillabaisse is rarely used figuratively in the manner of gallimaufry although it can be done provided the context makes clear the use has nothing to do with fish: “The wallpaper was a bouillabaisse of shapes & swirls” or “The modern Republican Party is a bouillabaisse of right-wing fanatics, Christian evangelical fundamentalists, climate change deniers, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists drawn to any story which explains things in a more comprehendible way than science”.