Daughter

Daughter (pronounced daw-ter)

(1) A female child or person in relation to her parents.

(2) Any female descendant (now rare).

(3) A person said to be related to an institution as if by the ties binding daughter to parent (daughter of the church; Daughters of the American Revolution etc).

(4) Any female (archaic in the English-speaking world but used sometimes by some cultures to indicate some closeness of family relationship, rather as aunt & uncle are sometimes used in the West).

(5) Any institution or other thing personified as female and considered with respect to its origin (eg Australia is the daughter of the six colonies).

(6) In chemistry & physics (of a nuclide), an isotope formed by radioactive decay of another isotope.

(7) In biology, pertaining to a cell or other structure arising from division or replication (eg the daughter cell; daughter DNA).

(8) As daughterboard, IBM’s original descriptor for boards (now called piggyback boards, riser cards or mezzanine boards) which directly (usually by soldering) connect to motherboards (now called main or system-boards).

(9) In historical linguistics, as daughter language (known also as a descendant language), a language descended from another (its mother language) through genetic descent as opposed to a "sister language" which is one which also evolved from the proto- mother language but formed a separate branch.  The model is that of a tree where the mother language is the trunk and the branches the daughters and sisters (each of which can have their own daughters and sisters).  The image of the tree represents the diversification of languages from a root source.

(10) In fantasy writing, as merdaughter, a mermaid daughter.

(11) In slang, as “daughter of Sappho”, a lesbian.

Pre 950: From the Middle English goghter & doughter, from the Old English dohtor (female child considered with reference to her parents; daughter) from the Proto-West Germanic dohter, from the Proto-Germanic dokhter and the earlier dhutēr, from the primitive Indo-European dughtḗr, source also of the Sanskrit duhitā & duhitar-, the Avestan dugeda-, the Armenian dustr, the Old Church Slavonic dušti, the Lithuanian duktė and the Ancient Greek thygátēr & thugatēr).  The Proto-Germanic forms were the source also of the Old Saxon dohtar, the Old Norse dóttir, the Old Frisian and Dutch dochter, the Old High German tohter, the German Tochter and the Gothic dauhtar.  Daughter, daughterhood, daughtership & daughterling are nouns and daughterless, daughtered, daughterly & daughterlike are adjectives; the noun plural is daughters or daughtren (archaic).

Dutiful daughter: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) with daughter Ivanka Trump (b 1981;  senior advisor in the first Trump administration 2017-2021) in an extended (stretch) Lincoln Continental limousine, New York City, circa 1992.

The common Indo-European word was lost in Celtic and Latin; the Latin filia (daughter) is the feminine form of filius (son), the most obvious connection in Modern English being young female horses: a filly is a beast under four and thus too young to be a mare and filly is still used as humorous and affectionate slang to refer to a lively girl or young woman.  The modern spelling evolved in the sixteenth century in southern England.  In late Old English, the form also emerged of a "woman viewed in some analogous relationship" (to her native country, church, culture etc and that use persists to this day) and from circa 1200 could be used to describe anything regarded as feminine.  Daughter-in-law is attested from the late fourteenth century.  The noun plural is daughters, the long archaic form being daughtren and the last surviving obsolete spelling was dafter.  The adjective daughterly (relating to or characteristic of a daughter) is technically neutral but has long denoted “dutiful (towards parents)”, the “dutiful daughter” a frequent reference in English literature, often to damn those judged insufficiently dutiful although in the English-speaking world there was never much of a tradition of "honor killing" as still practiced east of Suez; daughters who disappointed the family might variously be disinherited or ostracized but they were allowed to live.  As well as dutiful, daughters can be difficult and Theodore Roosevelt (TR, 1858–1919; POTUS 1901-1909) was once asked by some Republican Party apparatchiks to "control his daughter" (Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884–1980) who had a mind of her own).  He replied he "could be president of the United States or he could control Alice but he could not do both."  

The noun step-daughter was from the Old English stepdohtor, the formation aligned with the German Stieftochter.  Grand-daughter, like the related forms to describe recent ancestors and relations dates from 1610.  The noun god-daughter (female godchild, girl one sponsors at her baptism) was adopted in the mid-thirteenth century as a modification of the Old English goddohtor.  The noun filicide (action of killing a son or daughter) dates from the 1660s, the construct being the Latin filius/filia (son/daughter) + -cide (a killing), the meaning extended after 1823 to "one who kills a son or daughter", filicidal appearing shortly after.  Bathsheba was the Biblical wife of King David, mother of Solomon, from the Hebrew Bathshebha (literally "daughter of the oath" from bath (daughter)).

Lindsay Lohan: Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father).

I wait for the postman to bring me a letter

I wait for the good Lord to make me feel better

And I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders

A family in crisis that only grows older

Why'd you have to go

Why'd you have to go

Why'd you have to go

Daughter to father, daughter to father

I am broken but I am hoping

Daughter to father, daughter to father

I am crying, a part of me is dying and

These are, these are

The confessions of a broken heart

And I wear all your old clothes; your polo sweater

I dream of another you the one who would never, never

Leave me alone to pick up the pieces

A daddy to hold me, that's what I needed

So why'd you have to go

Why'd you have to go

Why'd you have to go

Daughter to father, daughter to father

I don't know you, but I still want to

Daughter to father, daughter to father

Tell me the truth, did you ever love me'

Cause these are, these are

The confessions of a broken heart, of a broken heart

I love you

I love you

I love you

I, I love you

Daughter to father, daughter to father

I don't know you, but I still want to

Daughter to father, daughter to father

Tell me the truth, did you ever love me'

Did you ever love me?

These are

The confessions of a broken heart, oh yeah

And I wait for the postman to bring me a letter

Songwriters: Kara Dioguardi (b 1970), Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) & William Wells (b 1973).  Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music.  From the album A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005).

Kim Ju Ae, First Daughter of the DPRK

Donald Trump is by all accounts a good father and no doubt gave his daughters the odd tour of the hotels and real-estate developments which are the core of the family business but as daddy-daughter days go, they probably weren’t as much fun as those arranged for Kim Ju Ae (b circa 2013) by Kim Jong Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (North Korea) since 2011).  Like just about everything else done by the Supreme Leader, his daddy-daughter days are well-publicized by the KCNA (Korean Central News Agency) and Kim Ju Ae had been seen accompanying her father while inspecting nuclear warheads, watching ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) launches and reviewing military parades although the most recent highlight was of her driving a battle-tank on manoeuvres over a plain (she seemed to be having fun).  With an elaborate headquarters located at 1 Potonggang-dong in Pyongyang's Potonggang District) the KCNA may be the world's most productive state news agency and is the best source for new Kim Jong Un content.  Of course, Mr Trump is commander-in-chief of the world’s best-equipped military and, if so minded, could on next daddy-daughter day take his daughters tank-driving although their enthusiasm for such things may be restrained.

Daddy-daughter day.  DPRK postage stamp issued in 2018 to mark Kim Ju Ae’s presence at a military base where ICBMs were being displayed.  Like many young girls, Kim Ju Ae is much taken by the beauty of nuclear weapons.

Although not discussed by the KCNA, there has in the West been speculation Kim Ju Ae is being groomed to succeed Kim Jong Un as leader of the DPRK (and thus become Kim IV) should (God forbid) the Supreme Leader drop dead.  One important aspect of the succession would be the choice of title to be granted to Kim IV, not a minor matter in the DPRK where the personality cult of the leaders has so assiduously been cultivated.  The DPRK’s leadership titles are not arbitrary honorifics; they are components of the Suryŏng system, a carefully managed political theology blending Confucian familial hierarchy, Marxist terminology and quasi-religious veneration. Structurally, the key functional term is 령도자 / 지도자 (leader), the adjectives chosen to mark legitimacy, continuity, and distinction and thus far the nomenclature has included:

Kim Il Sung (Kim I): 위대한 수령 (Widaehan Suryŏng); “Great Leader, 1948-1994”.

Kim Jong Il (Kim II): 친애하는 지도자 (Chin’aehan Jidoja); “Dear Leader, 1994-2011”.

Kim Jong Un (Kim III):  최고령도자 (Ch’oe-go Ryŏngdoja); “Supreme Leader since 2011”.

Were Kim Ju Ae to be elevated as successor, it would be the first time since the formation of the DPRK in 1948 that the leadership would be held by a woman but on forums in the RoK (Republic of Korea (the "puppet state" of South Korea)), users seems to think this not significant and that it was at least possible the “Supreme Leader” epithet might be re-used, the argument being (1) “Supreme Leader” has become accepted as the apex designation, (2) institutional continuity would be maintained and (3) it would conform with the dynamics of 삼대세습 (三代世襲, samdae sesŭp), the construct being 삼대 (三代) (three generations) +세습 (世襲) (hereditary succession).  In Korea, the “three-generation hereditary succession” of the Kim dynasty is the Great Leader / Dear Leader / Supreme Leader sequence and for various reasons it’s unthinkable that the “Great Leader” title could be re-used because part of Kim gamily mystique (of which much has been manufactured) is that as the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung is and must remain unique.

Daddy-daughter day.  KCNA official image of Kim Ju Ae’s driving a Cheonma-2 (M2024) third generation main battle tank, March, 2026.

Indeed, despite being three decades dead, Kim Il Sung remains president.  Kim Il-sung held an array of titles during his decades as the DPRK’s dictator, the proliferation not unusual in communist nations where the ruling party’s structures are maintained alongside the formal titles of state with which a nation maintains relations with the rest of the world.  In office for a remarkable 45 years, he was designated premier (head of government) between 1948-1972 and president 1972-1994.  Additionally, he was between 1949-1994 head of the WPK (Workers' Party of Korea) and in that role was styled successively as chairman (1949-1966) and general secretary (after 1966).  During his 45-year rule, there were ten POTUSs, six RoK presidents, nine British prime ministers and ten Australian prime ministers and his tenure in office spanned the era of the Soviet Union from its apotheosis under comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) to its collapse in 1991.

Daddy-daughter day. DPRK postage stamp issued in 2018 to mark Kim Ju Ae’s presence at a military base where ICBMs were being displayed.

Being dead however proved no obstacle to The Great Leader extending his presidency, the collective office Chuch'ejosŏnŭi yŏngwŏnhan suryŏng (Eternal leaders of Juche Korea) created in 2016 by the insertion of an enabling line in the preamble to the constitution.  What this amendment did was formalise the position of The Great Leader and his late son (The Dear Leader) as the “eternal leaders” of the DPRK and was said to be part of juche, the term used to describe the DPRK’s national philosophy, a synthesis of The Great Leader’s interpretation of (1) Korean tradition and (2) Marxist-Leninist theory.  It was an interesting legal move.  Constitutionally, the office of president was established only in 1972; prior to that the role of head of state had been purely ceremonial and held by respected party functionaries, all power exercised by The Great Leader in his capacity as premier and general secretary of the WPK.  However, merely by being president, The Great Leader vested the office with such prestige that upon his death in 1994, the position was left vacant, The Dear Leader not granted the title.  That nuance of succession for a while absorbed the interest of the DPRK watchers but attempts to invest the move with any significance abated as DPRK business, though in the more straitened circumstances of the post Soviet world, continued as usual.

The constitution was again revised in 1998.  Being a godless communist state, no fine theological points stood in the way of declaring The Great Leader the DPRK’s “Eternal President”, the latest addition to the preamble declaring: “Under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Korean people will hold the great leader Comrade Kim Il-sung in high esteem as the eternal President of the Republic.”  The constitution, as revised and promulgated after the death of The Dear Leader, again referred to The Great Leader as “Eternal President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea” but in 2016 (The Dear Leader having been dead for an apparently decent duration), another amendment to the preamble changed the administrative nomenclature of executive eternity to “Eternal leaders of Juche Korea”, the honor now jointly held by the leaders great & dear.  It was another first for the Kims and the legal mechanism is expected to be replicated after the death of the Supreme Leader.

KCNA official photograph: Ri Sol-ju (b circa 1987; wife of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un) (left), Kim Ju-ae (centre) and Kim Jong-un (right), undisclosed location, February 2023.

Although the dynastic model (Kim I, Kim II, Kim II) may appear to be that of a hereditary monarchy, the regime makes an ideological distinction between the DPRK and decadent practices elsewhere, the succession based on 백두혈통 (Paektu hyŏlt’ong) (Mount Paektu bloodline) with the legitimacy conferred not by “inheritance” but rather “revolutionary lineage”.  Sitting on the Chinese border, Mount Paektu is an active volcano and the highest peak on the Korean peninsula; as well as being important in ancient Korean mythology, it figures also in the legends of the Kims, Kim Il-sung said to have led a resistance against Japan's occupation of the peninsula from bases on Mount Paektu and it was there Kim Jong-il was born.  Now, with “three-generation hereditary succession” accomplished, in a sense, samdae sesŭp has been perfected and in South Korea (or “the puppet state to the south” as the KCNA puts it), the feeling the internal logic of henceforth maintaining a “Supreme Leader” would be compelling although that won’t stop some in the puppet state dubbing her “Supreme Leaderette”.

IBM: Mothers and daughters but not sisters

IBM PC-1 (1981).

IBM didn’t invent the motherboard.  It evolved into the form in which it became well-known in the early 1980s because advances in technology had reduced the size of certain components (CPU, memory etc) which used to be separate devices which were wired together to run as a unit.  When IBM released the original PC-1 in 1981, it was built around a motherboard which contained slots into which expansion boards could be plugged and various connectors with which compatible devices could be connected.  Given there were motherboards, IBM, in the innocent age of the 1980s, decided other peripheral components, those usually directly embedded through soldering to the motherboard, should be called daughterboards.  Quite how the nomenclature was chosen is either not known or IBM has suppressed the records and the fanciful notion that it’s because the early motherboards contained more female than male connections is just an industry myth.  In the literature, there’s also the odd reference to sisterboards though the name never caught on and "daughter-board" was sometime used to describe cards which plugged-into expansion cards but such devices were rare.  Obviously, if a server has two daughter-boards installed, there's no reason why they couldn't, in that configuration, be called “sister-boards” but that convention never evolved.

IBM PC-1 motherboard (1981), expansion slots at the top right; it seemed small at the time.

A daughterboard was a circuit board which extended the circuitry of the motherboard and, being soldered, was connected directly, unlike the inherently swappable expansion cards which plugged-in using the bus or other (most often serial, parallel or SCSI (small computer system interface)) interfaces.  Like a motherboard, daughterboards had sockets, pins, plugs and connectors to permit connection to other boards or other devices and have been both part of initial product releases and post-launch updates, the best known example of which were the MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) daughterboards used to add functionality to a sound card.  Except for the odd special build for someone really nerdy, modern PCs (personal computer) now rarely have daughterboards although they’re still seen on servers.

Daughterboard (left) and bored daughter (right):  1984 Apple Macintosh 128 KB motherboard with SCSI daughterboard (right) and additional RAM daughterboard (left).  In 1984, having a machine with 1 MB RAM was a way to impress people.  An obviously bored Chelsea Clinton (b 1980; FDOTUS 1993-2001) is pictured listening to crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) again explain why her never becoming POTUS was the fault of others, Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, Hilton Hotel, Manhattan, New York City, 18 September, 2023.  Like us all, Chelsea had heard it many times before.

Even before the twenty-first century interest in gender and gendered pronouns, IBM had renamed everything in the corporation which could in anyway be thought sexist, racist etc.  By the late 1990s, although the term motherboard continued widely to be used, IBM had started calling them them variously main-boards or system-boards; daughterboards became piggyback or mezzanine boards.  Interestingly, as part of the linguistic sanitation, IBM started calling hard disk drives "hard files" which was either looking forward to solid-state storage or just one of those inexplicable things which happens when projects assume their own inertia; whatever the reason, "hard file" never caught on.  The terms male and female for connections (modeled on human anatomy and used in everything from plumbing to the space programme) were retained because their use was universal and convenient or mnemonic gender-neutral substitutes eluded even IBM's language police.  Male and female connectors may be about the only gender-loaded terms which will escape being labelled "micro-aggressions".

Ultimatum

Ultimatum (pronounced uhl-tuh-mey-tuhm or uhl-tuh-mah-tuhm)

(1) A final, uncompromising demand or set of terms issued by a party to a dispute (used especially of governments and WAGs (wives & girlfriends)), the rejection of which may lead to a severance of relations, the imposition of sanctions, the use of force etc.

(2) A final proposal or statement of conditions; any final or peremptory demand, offer or proposal.

1731: From the New Latin, a specialized use of the Medieval Latin ultimatum (a final statement), noun use of neuter of Latin adjective ultimātus (last possible, final; ended, finished), past participle of ultimāre (to come to an end), from ultimus (extreme, last, furthest, farthest, final).  The Latin plural ultimata was used by the Romans as a noun in the sense of “what is farthest or most remote; the last, the end”.  In mid-1920s slang ultimatum described also “the buttocks” (a use which deserves to be revived).  In English, the plural form had an interesting trajectory.  Although the Anglo-Irish satirist & Anglican cleric Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) used “ultimatums”, that didn’t until the twentieth century convince the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) to displace ultimata as the recommended form.  In diplomacy (a world of “gray areas”), the comparative is “more ultimative”, the superlative “most ultimative”.  Ultimatum is a noun, ultimating & ultimated are verbs and ultimative is an adjective; the noun plural is ultimatums or ultimata. 

The first ultimatum would have been issued in prehistoric times and there have been many since.  History suggests a great many have been bluffs which can be a successful tactic if perceived as plausible but often the “bluff was called” and the ultimatum proved a hollow threat, thus the language of diplomacy including also the (sometimes darkly) satirical or humorous (1) penultimatum (plural penultimatums or penultimata) which describes a statement of terms or conditions made by one party to another, commonly expressed as an ultimatum in the hopes of compelling immediate compliance with demands, but that then is superseded by more negotiation instead of actual dire consequences and (2) antepenultimatum (plural antepenultimatums or antepenultimata) which describes a statement of terms or conditions made by one party to another, essentially a penultimatum, but even more tentative and more repeatedly abandoned in favour of subsequent ignominious compromises.  The trouble with unfulfilled ultimatums is that while rapidly they can lose their persuasive power (in a manner analogous with Aesop's Fable The boy who cried wolf), at some point a party issuing unenforced ultimatums may one day make good on their threats, the high stakes gambler Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) and the rather dim-witted Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945) both in September 1939 genuinely surprised when the Anglo-French ultimatum guaranteeing the sovereignty of Poland was honoured, the previous back-downs no longer a guide.  Of course, six year later, Polish sovereignty was sacrificed to political necessity but a war which began with the RAF (Royal Air Force dropping leaflets politely asking the Germans to stop what they were doing and ended with the USAAF (US Army Air Force) dropping A-bombs of Japanese cities had many unintended consequences.

CD cover art for Lindsay Lohan's Spirit in the Dark (2008) album.

For centuries, the word “ultimatum” seems to have been avoided by poets, librettists and lyricists.  Ultimatum is a Latinate “formal” word so perhaps not well-suited to love songs but beyond the register and tone, those studying structural linguistics note the prosody: It’s a four-syllable word with a stress pattern (ul-TIM-a-tum) difficult to “fit into” common meters and melodic phrasing.  That said, while there’s a semantic narrowness, the idea of the ultimatum (a final demand backed by consequences) is hardly rare in opera and poetry but it tends to be described or implied rather than labelled with the specific word.  However, one niche was found in the definitely modern genre of rap, hip-hop and such and that’s attributed to the material putting a premium on conflict, violence and the technique of rhyming on the final syllable.  Undaunted however was Kara DioGuardi (b 1970) who included “ultimatum” in the opening verse of the Lindsay Lohan song Stay (2008).  Its inclusion is a genuine rarity.

Verse 1 of Stay (2008) Kara DioGuardi, sung by by Lindsay Lohan.

Baby, take your coat off and your shoes and just relax
Let your body sink into these arms, that's where it's at
I'll open up a bottle and slip into something else
I hope tonight's the night that all these walls are gonna melt
'Cause when we're out, you're sending me mixed signals all the time
You want me, but you don't just wanna lay it on the line
So baby, here's your ultimatum, are you in or out?
All you have to do is wanna turn this all around, and...

If it was for poets a challenge to splice “ultimatum” into the body of a work, without any discordance it could be used as a title and Philip Larkin (1922-1985) choose it for his first published poem which appeared in The Listener on 28 November, 1940:

Ultimatum (1940) by Philip Larkin.

But we must build our walls, for what we are
Necessitates it, and we must construct
The ship to navigate behind them, there.
Hopeless to ignore, helpless instruct
For any term of time beyond the years
That warn us of the need for emigration:
Exploded the ancient saying: Life is yours.
For on our island is no railway station,
There are no tickets for the Vale of Peace,
No docks where trading ships and seagulls pass.
Remember stories you read when a boy
- The shipwrecked sailor gaining safety by
His knife, treetrunk, and lianas - for now
You must escape, or perish saying no.

Unknown previously, “ultimatum” did occasionally appear in twentieth century poetry, a product probably of the big, multi-theatre wars and the use in modern and experimental poetry of language which borrowed from abstract or formal vocabularies.  While the terrible first half of the twentieth century gave poets plenty of scope to explore the concept (it was an age of ultimatums), in print, it was done almost without mention of the word.

The issuing of ultimatums has shaped a number of turning points in history; variously they have proved decisive, stabilizing or catastrophic.  Probably the most infamous was the “July Ultimatum”, served on Serbia by Austria-Hungary after a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914; heir presumptive to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).  While such a procedure was orthodox politics, what was notable about what Vienna did in 1914 was to make demands it was certain Serbia would be unable to fulfil.  The Austrians hankered for war because they wanted permanently to put an end the “Serbian threat” and Berlin, anticipating a traditional, short, sharp, limited war of a few weeks, gave Vienna the infamous “German blank cheque” of support.  Belgrade accordingly turned to its traditional supporters in Moscow who agreed to offer military support; that came after the Kremlin had received confirmation from Paris that France would honor its treaty arrangement with Russia.  From all this came the outbreak of war in August 1914 by which time the British (for a variety of reasons) had become involved and by 1917 the US had become a belligerent; this was conflict which came to be called “The World War” before in the 1940s being renamed “World War I” (1914-1918).

Even in 1945, the phrase “unconditional surrender” (the origin an apparently chance remark (although subsequently he would cite a precedent from the US Civil War (1861-1865)) by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, POTUS 1933-1945) at the Casablanca Conference (January 1943)) had been controversial because of the concern it had lengthened the war against Germany by dissuading (the probably chimerical) opposition forces within the country from staging a coup with a view to negotiating peace.  Despite that, at the Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945) the Allied powers (China, the UK & US, the Soviet Union not then at war with Japan) served Tokyo with the Potsdam Declaration demanding exactly that.  After the two A-bombs were dropped, the Japanese agreed to a surrender that fell a little short of being “unconditional” but the Americans decided to accept the offer, concluding having a “puppet emperor”.

Trump: The Art of the Deal (First Edition, 1987) by Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz.

One once improbable text in 2016 added to the reading lists of political analysts was Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987) by Donald J. Trump (b 1946; POTUS 2017-2021 and since 2025) with Tony Schwartz (b 1952).  It’s a useful book because in it Mr Trump (or Mr Schwartz depending on one’s spin of choice) provided examples of negotiating techniques.  That book was about commerce, notably property deals, but it gave an insight into why Mr Trump later succeeded so well in reality TV, his understanding of the potency of mixing fact, threats, spectacle and blatant untruths underlining that second career.  He may not, while the book was being drafted, have been contemplating politics as a third career but he did find many of its techniques could be adapted to international diplomacy.  In that he proved an innovator but there are limitations to how well things translate.  One weapon in the arsenal is the ultimatum which can be used in real-estate deals with few consequences beyond the relatively few individuals concerned but in international relations, such things can have cascading global effects.

If within the White House there were any doubts the issuing of ultimatums might have consequences other than what was desired, the path of the conflict in the Middle East should have given them some interesting case studies.  What’s also interesting is whether in the White House the possible reactions to ultimatums were discussed prior to them being presented.  Giving the Ayatollahs 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face withering new airstrikes on Iran’s power generation infrastructure sounded decisive on Truth Social (which definitely is part of the modern calculation in such matters) but Tehran responded by threatening to target the energy and water desalination facilities in the neighboring Gulf states.  As threats go, it was a stark warning because those nations can rely on desalinated water for as much as 90% of their needs and have no practical alternative so it would have been an escalation with potentially devastating regional consequences.

Not a model easily translatable to Iran.  Nicolás Maduro (b 1962; President of Venezuela 2013-2026, right) and his lawyer Barry Pollack (b 1964, left), US Federal Court, Manhattan, New York City, March 2026, illustration by Jane Rosenberg (b 1949).

Accordingly, prior to the deadline, Mr Trump announced he’d “temporarily” called of the strikes, claiming that was induced not by Tehran’s counter-threat but by “productive” talks with “the right people”.  He didn’t descent to specifics (something not unusual in back channel diplomacy) but did add the talks had revealed “major points of agreement” and “they want very much to make a deal, we'd like to make a deal, too.”  Apparently unimpressed, Iranian state media, claimed the president had backed down in the face of their threats and denied talks of any significance were taking place.  Again, in diplomacy of this kind, denials are standard procedure.  A few hours later, Mr Trump assured an audience the US was conducting “very, very good discussions” with Iran.  So it’s competing narratives and analysts made no attempt to try to work out how much truthfulness was coming from either side but more than one observed that if the president had realized he’d painted himself into a corner by delivering the ultimatum, revealing previously unannounced back-channel discussions was a quick and face-saving way to buy some time to hope plan A (missiles and bombs) works.  There was though from some sources the notion the mention of “the right people” may put in the mind of the regime the audacious kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro (b 1962; President of Venezuela 2013-2026), an operation made possible by the cooperation of “the right people” in Caracas.  Some suspicion of one’s colleagues might be understandable given the extraordinary success achieved in assassinating leading figures in the Iranian political establishment and the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps).

While it can be guaranteed US-Iran “talks” are taking place in some form, trying to predict the course of this conflict is difficult because there are relatively few models from the past which might provide something of indicative value.  Since the end of the Cold War, one endlessly repeated admonition issued by those in the Middle East to successive occupants of the White House has been not to do this or that because “you will open the gates of Hell”.  Many probably suspect that at some point in that last few years, those gates were at least pushed ajar but if things do escalate they could be torn from their hinges and the most worrying scenario is that US land forces will be deployed against Iran with the active cooperation of the Gulf States, something unthinkable as recently as a few weeks ago.  The theory supporting this is based on the notion that the attacks on Iran conducted over the past year have made irrevocable the Ayatollah’s determination to acquire an IND (independent nuclear deterrent), a quite rational response by any regime reviewing military matters since 1945.  Of course, ayatollahs with A-bombs would trigger a chain reaction because a number of states in the region would also demand their own IND with a genuinely autonomous launch capacity because, just as Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970; President of France 1959-1969) felt compelled to acquire the capacity because he doubted “a US president would risk New York to save Paris” the same concerns would extend to the fate of Dubai and Riyadh.

The power behind the curtain: Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (b 1969; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran since 2026, left) looking at his father Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (1939-2026; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran 1989-2026).  Mojtaba Khamenei’s nickname is reputed to be “The power behind the robes”, an allusion to the power he exercised while his father was supreme leader (something like the role fulfilled by Lieutenant General Oskar von Hindenburg (1883–1960) while serving as ADC (aide-de-camp) Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934; President of Germany 1925-1934).

What Mr Trump has done is to abandon the “power realist” approach to dealing with the Islamic Republic.  As explained by its high priest (Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1973-1977)), the approach was an acknowledgment that “solving” some problems was either impossible or so dangerous to attempt that the preferred approach was endlessly to “manage” things, thereby either maintaining the problem at an acceptable level or allowing it, over time, to “solve itself”.  Mr Trump probably genuinely believes there is not a problem on the planet he can’t solve by “making a deal”, achieved by a combination of threats, inducements, spectacle and ultimatums.  In some fields, such optimism is a virtue but when dealing with Ayatollahs with a nuclear weapons programme and the dream of a global caliphate under their interpretation of Shi'i Islam, it’s at least potentially dangerous.  One can argue about whether the ayatollahs had, prior to the last two rounds of attack, already decided to develop a deliverable nuclear weapon but now there can be no doubt.  No US president before Mr Trump would have dared do what’s been done in the last twelve months but now he’s in the position of not daring to stop because nothing short of regime change can now make things better; all alternatives are worse.  On paper, given the regime’s internal contradictions and the widespread dissatisfaction among the population, there should be paths to regime change without a land invasion but the Ayatollahs and IRGC appear still to possess a formidable defensive apparatus.  As the missile exchanges continue, Mr Trump has announced a ten-day extension to the deadline to re-open the Strait of Hormuz.  Whether this will come to be regarded as ultimatum 1.1 or 2.0 will be one of the footnotes when the histories of this conflict are written.

Flute

Flute (pronounced floot)

(1) A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of finger-holes (or keys) which produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin (in colloquial use, a recorder, also a woodwind instrument).

(2) An organ stop with wide flue pipes, having a flutelike tone.

(3) In architecture or engineering (particularly the manufacture of firearms), a semi-cylindrical vertical channel, groove or furrow, as on the shaft of a column, in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.

(4) Any groove or furrow, as in a ruffle of cloth or on a piecrust.

(5) One of the helical grooves of a twist drill.

(6) A slender, footed wineglass with a tall, conical bowl.

(7) A similar stemmed glass, used especially for champagne and often styled as "champagne flute".

(8) In steel fabrication, to kink or break in bending.

(9) In various fields of design, to form longitudinal flutes or furrows.

(10) A long bread roll of French origin; a baguette.

(11) In weaving, tapestry etc, a shuttle.

(12) To play on a flute; to make or utter a flutelike sound. 

(13) To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle etc); to cut a semi-cylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar etc).

1350-1400; From the Middle English floute, floute & flote, from the Middle French flaüte, flahute & fleüte, from the twelfth century Old French flaute (musical), from the Old Provençal flaüt (thought an alteration of flaujol or flauja) of uncertain origin but may be either (1) a blend of the Provencal flaut or  flaujol (flageolet) + laut (lute) or (2) from the Classical Latin flātus (blowing), from flāre (to blow) although there is support among etymologists for the notion of it being a doublet of flauta & fluyt.  In other languages, the variations include the Irish fliúit and the Welsh ffliwt.  The form in Vulgar Latin has been cited as flabeolum but evidence is scant and all forms are thought imitative of the Classical Latin flāre and other Germanic words (eg flöte) are borrowings from French. 

Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (later Queen Marie Antoinette of France (1774-1792)), circa 1768, oil on canvas by Martin van Meytens  (1695–1770).

Fluted & fluting both date from the 1610s while the verb (in the sense of "to play upon a flute") seems to bave been in use as early as the late fourteenth century.  The use to describe grooves in metalwork emerged in the 1570s and was applied to the tall, slender wine glass almost a century later although the term "champagne flute" didn't enter popular use until the 1950s.  The champagne flute is preferred by many to the coupé (or saucer) even though it lacks the (since unfortunately debunked) legend the shape of the latter was modelled on Marie Antoinette’s (1754-1793) left breast (historians gleefully recounting the tale all agree it definitely was the left).  Elegant though it is, the advantages of the flute are entirely functional, the design providing for less spillage than a coupé, something which comes to be more valued as lunch progresses to the third uncorking and the slender, tapered shape is claimed better to preserve the integrity of the bubbles, the smaller surface area and thus reduced oxygen-to-wine ratio longer maintaining aroma and taste.

Grand Cru's guide to the shape of champagne glasses.

Among musical instruments, there are a dozen or more distinct types of flute.  Early French flutes differed greatly from modern instruments in having a separate mouthpiece and were called flûte-a-bec (literally "flute with a beak").  The ancient devices were played directly, blown straight through a mouthpiece but held away from the player's mouth, the modern transverse (or "German") flute not appearing until the eighteenth century and the familiar modern design and key system of the concert flute were perfected 1834 by Bavarian court musician & virtuoso flautist Theobald Boehm (1794–1881), the fingering system known to this day as "Boehm system".  The architectural sense of "furrow in a pillar" dates from the mid-seventeenth century and was derived from the vague resemblance to the inside of a flute split down the middle.

Solidarity: Gay men supporting lesbians at the first “Dyke March”, Washington DC, April 1993.  The sign held by the protester at the far left uses the compound word for which the euphemism “playing the skin flute” was coined.

One imaginative linguistic re-purposing was the use in the 1940s (apparently first in the US) of “playing the skin flute” to mean “to perform fellatio” and while still in that sense used in certain LGBTQQIAAOP circles, in general use the meaning has shifted, no describing “a male engaged in the act of masturbation”.  Use shifted to fruit, either by virtue of use at the time being almost exclusively oral rather than written (linguistically, that’s classified as an example of an imperfect echoic) or because "fruit" was then in use as a gay slur.   The nouns flute-player, fluter & flutist can be used of flute players but the preferred term is flautist.  Presumably, someone employed to add flutes to an object could be designated “the fluter” but it’s doubtful such as specialist job-description has ever been written.  Flute is a noun & verb, flutiness, flautist, flutist & fluter are nouns, fluted is a verb & adjective, fluting is a noun, verb & adjective, flutelike is an adjective; the noun plural is flutes.  

Fluted grill on 1972 Series 1, 4.2 Litre Daimler Sovereign.

In British use, one who plays the flute is a flautist (pronounced flaw-tist (U) or flou-tist (non-U)), from the Italian flautista, the construct being flauto (flute) +‎ -ista.  The -ist suffix was from the Middle English -ist & -iste, from the Old French -iste and the Latin -ista, from the Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs), from -ίζω (-ízō) (the -ize & -ise verbal suffix) and -τής (-tḗs) (the agent-noun suffix).  It was added to nouns to denote various senses of association such as (1) a person who studies or practices a particular discipline, (2), one who uses a device of some kind, (3) one who engages in a particular type of activity, (4) one who suffers from a specific condition or syndrome, (5) one who subscribes to a particular theological doctrine or religious denomination, (6) one who has a certain ideology or set of beliefs, (7) one who owns or manages something and (8), a person who holds very particular views (often applied to those thought most offensive).  The alternative forms are the unimaginative (though descriptive) flute-player and the clumsy pair fluter although the odd historian or music critic will use aulete, from the Ancient Greek αὐλητής (aulētḗs), from αὐλέω (auléō) (I play the flute), from αὐλός (aulós) (flute).  The spelling flutist is preferred in the US and it's actually an old form, dating from circa 1600 and probably from the French flûtiste and it replaced the early thirteenth century Middle English flouter (from the Old French flauteor).

Daimler, the flutes and US trademark law

1972 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas.

Originally Belgium-based and noted for both the sporty and large bodies built for the chassis of Rolls-Royce, Lagondas, Daimlers, Bentleys and such, the coach-building house Vanden Plas was in 1946 acquired by Austin and through the British industry’s M&As (mergers and acquisitions) in the following decades, by the early 1970s it was British Leyland’s in-house coach-builder, one of its projects being to add still more luxurious appointments to the anyway lavish Daimler Double-Six.  Vanden Plas completed only 342 of the Series 1 (1972-1973) Daimler Double Sixes, the later S2 (1973-1979) & S3 (1979-1992) cars much more numerous and, in deference to the oil crisis which was the prime economic force in the decade, the S2 & S3 were available with the 4.2 litre (258 cubic inch) XK-six as were as the heroically thirsty 5.3 litre (326 cubic inch) V12.  The flutes atop the grill dated from the early twentieth-century and were originally a functional addition to the radiator to enhance heat-dissipation but later became a merely decorative embellishment.  Although some sources claim there were 351 of the Series 1 Double-Six Vanden Plas, the factory insists the total was 342.  British Leyland and its successor companies would continue to use the Vanden Plas name for some of the more highly-specified Daimlers but applied it also to Jaguars because in some markets the trademark to the Daimler name came to be held by Daimler-Benz AG (since 2022 Mercedes-Benz Group AG), a legacy from the earliest days of motor-car manufacturing and despite the English middle class often pronouncing the name as van-dem-plarr, it should said as van-dem-plass.  It's an error with the same origin as that suffered by Moët & Chandon: to English speaking ears, mow-eh sounds "more French" than mow-et. 

1976 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas two door.

The rarest Double-Six Vanden Plas was a genuine one-off, a two door built reputedly using one of the early prototypes, a regular production version contemplated but cancelled after the first was built.  Jaguar would once have called such things a FHC (fixed head coupé) but labelled the XJ derivatives as "two door saloons" and always referred to them thus, presumably as a point of differentiation with the XJ-S (later XJS) coupé produced at the same time.  Despite the corporate linguistic nudge, everybody seems always to have called the two-door XJs "coupés".  Why the project was cancelled isn't known but it was for the company a time of industrial and financial turmoil and distractions, however minor, may have been thought unwelcome.  Although fully-finished, apart from the VDP-specific trim, it includes also some detail mechanical differences from the regular production two-door Double-Six but both use the distinctive fluted finish on the grill and trunk (boot) lid trim; the car still exists.  The two-door XJs (1975-1978) rank with the earliest versions (1961-1967) of the E-Type (XKE; 1961-1974) as the finest styling Jaguar ever achieved and were it not for the unfortunate vinyl roof visually, it would be as close to perfect as any machine ever made.

1975 Jaguar XJC: The design perfected.  Even Jaguar's usually uncompromising originality police seem to approve.

The orthodoxy is the gluing-on of the vinyl was a necessity imposed by the inability of the paint of the era to cope with the slight flexing of the roof.  As a two-door hardtop, there was no B-pillar so the expanse of un-supported metal was larger than that of the sedans and thus more subject to higher stress-loads, resulting in the paint being subject to crazing.  Modern chemistry means suitable paints have long been available and many owners have taken the opportunity to fix the cars one visual flaw.  However, not all accept the “flexing roof” theory and claim the vinyl was a deliberate aesthetic choice, noting the 1972 Double-Six Vanden Plas (which appeared in 1972, three years before the two-door XJ went on sale) was fitted as standard with a vinyl roof, despite obviously there been no paint-related imperative.  Possibly it may have been a way of reducing interior noise but some argue it appeared just because the covering was then undeniably fashionable.  The inexcusable lapse in taste had been seen (then using leather) as early as the 1920s but it was in the US in the mid-1960s the motif hit the mass-market to attract those who wanted “a convertible’s rakish vibe” but needed something more practical; things soon got out of hand, the trend spreading to the UK and Australia.  For up-market models, the Australians even emulated the US practice of the “padded vinyl roof” which was a bad idea made worse the closer one got to the tropics, the foam in the “vinyl-metal sandwich” trapping moisture and leading quickly to rust.  The Europeans proved commendably resistant and by the 1980s the moment had passed in the UK and Australia but the Americans doubled-down and, until the mid-1990s, Detroit’s designers devoted much energy to styling elaborate variations on the theme, the marketing department doing its usual bit by labelling them with fanciful names.

Using one of his trademark outdoor settings, Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) photographed model Suzanne Kinnear (b 1935) adorning a Daimler SP250, wearing a Kashmoor coat and Otto Lucas beret with jewels by Cartier.  The image was published on the cover of Vogue's UK edition in November 1959.

Although Daimlers had, in small numbers, been imported into US for decades, after Jaguar purchased the company in 1960, there was renewed interest and the first model used to test the market was the small, fibreglass-bodied roadster, probably the most improbable Daimler ever and one destined to fail, doomed by (1) the quirky styling and (2) the lack of product development.  It was a shame because what made it truly unique was the hemi-head 2.5 litre (155 cubic inch) V8 which was one of the best engines of the era and remembered still for the intoxicating exhaust note.  The SP250 was first shown to the public at the 1959 New York Motor Show and there the problems began.  Aware the small sports car was quite a departure from the luxurious but rather staid line-up Daimler had for years offered, the company had chosen the pleasingly alliterative “Dart” as its name, hoping it would convey the sense of something agile and fast.  Unfortunately, Chrysler’s lawyers were faster still, objecting that they had already registered Dart as the name for a full-sized Dodge so Daimler needed a new name and quickly; the big Dodge would never be confused with the little Daimler but the lawyers insisted.  Imagination apparently exhausted, Daimler’s management reverted to the engineering project name and thus the car became the SP250 which was innocuous enough even for Chrysler's attorneys and it could have been worse.  Dodge had submitted their Dart proposal to Chrysler for approval and while the car found favor, the name did not and the marketing department was told to conduct research and come up with something the public would like.  From this the marketing types gleaned that “Dodge Zipp” would be popular and to be fair, dart and zip(p) do imply much the same thing but ultimately the original was preferred and Darts remained in Dodge’s line-up until 1976, for most of that time one of the corporation's best-selling and most profitable lines.  The name was revived between 2012-2016 for an unsuccessful and unlamented small sedan.

Leaper, growler and flutes on US market 1999 Jaguar Vanden Plas (X308).  The retractable, solid-timber picnic tables in the back of the front seats were much admired.

Decades later, US trademark law would again intrude, this time on Jaguar’s low-volume business of selling Daimlers in the US.  There, the company had after 1967 ceased offering the Daimler because, it being clear the trickle of safety & emission regulations was soon to be a flood, with capital scarce, it was decided resources needed to be devoted to compliance and one form of economy was to re-allocate the funds absorbed by maintaining Daimler as a separate brand, most of which were spent on advertising.  In Stuttgart, the Daimler-Benz lawyers took note and decided to reclaim the name, eventually managing to secure registration of the trademark and Daimlers have not since been available in the US.  However, there was still clearly demand for an up-market Jaguar and so the Sovereign name (used on Daimlers between 1966-1983) was applied to Jaguar XJ sedans which, although mechanically unchanged, were equipped with more elaborate appointments.

Lindsay Lohan with stainless steel Rolex Datejust (Roman numeral dial) with fluted white gold bezel.  Note the blue eyes; it's not known if the effect was achieved with colored contact lens or digital editing.

Sales of the up-market Sovereign were good and the profit margins fatter so the US market also received some even more luxurious Vanden Plas models and during the XJ’s X308 model run (1997-2003), the VDP cars were fitted with the fluted grill and trunk-lid trim as an additional means of product differentiation; it would be the last appearance of the flutes in North America and the only occasion on which the leaper and growler were used in conjunction with them.  Although some might dismiss the interior fittings of the Vanden Plas models as “bling”, there were nice touches.  The ones based on the X308 featured the fold-down picnic-tables once so beloved by English coach-builders (the affection in the 1960s trickling down to the middle-class as they began to appear on blinged-up mass-market vehicles) but, rather than the usual burl walnut veneer, the pieces were of solid timber.  The factory seems never to have discussed the rationale but it may be it was cheaper to do it that way, the veneering process being labor-intensive.

Pim Fortuyn in his chauffeur-driven Daimler Super V8, February 2002 (left), paramedics attending to him at the scene of his assassination (centre) a few paces from the Daimler, 6 May, 2002 (he died at the scene) and the car when on sale, Amsterdam, June 2018 (right).  His assassin, memorably, was described in press reports “deranged vegetarian”; perhaps it was the sight of meneer Fortuyn sprawled across those Connolly Leather hides which was triggering.

Jaguar became aware the allure of the flutes was real when it discovered a small but profitable industry had emerged in the wake of the company ceasing to use the Daimler name in European markets (by the 1990s, it was only in the UK, Japan, Australia & New Zealand they could be bought off the showroom floor).  Entrepreneurial types, armed with nothing more than a list of Jaguar part-numbers, had created kits containing the fluted trim pieces and Daimler-specific badges, these shipped to dealers or private buyers on the continent so Jaguar XJs could become “Daimlers”.  Being factory-supplied parts of no mechanical significance, their use did not affect warranties or insurance rates (though owners were required to inform registration authorities the badgework had changed) so, unlike many after-market modifications, administratively, it was a hassle-free process.  Jaguar took note of this uptick in the Daimler-demand curve and decided to meet it with supply, re-introducing the marque to Europe.  Because the company was, in effect, doing only what was being done by those buying the kits, it proved one of the industry's cheapest and quickest brand resurrections, Germany and the Netherlands especially receptive.  One notable owner of a real LWB (long wheelbase) Daimler Super V8 (X308) was the Dutch academic and politician Pim Fortuyn (1948-2002), assassinated by a left-wing environmentalist and animal rights activist during the 2002 national election campaign.