Panda

Panda (pronounced pan-duh)

(1) A black & white, herbivorous, bearlike mammal (in popular use sometimes as “giant panda”), Ailuropoda melanoleuca (family Procyonidae), now rare with a habitat limited to relatively small forested areas of central China where ample growth exists of the stands of bamboo that constitutes the bulk of the creature’s diet.

(2) A reddish-brown (with ringed-tail), raccoon-like mammal (in the literature often referred to as the “lesser panda”), Ailurus fulgens (that inhabits mountain forests in the Himalayas and adjacent eastern Asia, subsisting mainly on bamboo & other vegetation, fruits, and insects).

(3) In Hinduism, a brahmin (a member of the highest (priestly) caste) who acts as the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat (temple) and regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual.

(4) In colloquial use (picked up as UK police slang) as “panda car” (often clipped to “panda”), a UK police vehicle painted in a two-tone color scheme (originally black & white but later more typically powder-blue & white) (historic use only).

(5) Used attributively, something (or someone) with all (or some combination of) the elements (1) black & white coloration, (2) perceptions of “cuteness” and (3) the perceived quality of being “soft & cuddly”.

1835: From the French (Cuvier), a name for the lesser panda, assumed to be from a Tibeto-Burman language or some other native Nepalese word.  Cuvier is a trans-lingual term which references the French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) and his younger brother the zoologist and paleontologist Frédéric Cuvier (1773–1838).  The term was use of any of the Latinesque or pseudo-Latin formations created as taxonomic names for organisms following the style & conventions used by the brothers.  Most etymologists suggest the most likely source was the second element of nigálya-pónya (a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim), which was perhaps from the Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle) (relating to a certain species of bamboo), the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo) (Drepanostachyum intermedium (a species of bamboo)).  The second element was a regional Tibetan name for the animal, related in some way to ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya) (messenger).  The use in Hinduism describing “a learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar, teacher (and specifically of the Brahmin (a member of the highest (priestly) caste) who was the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat (temple) and regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual, especially one who had memorized a substantial proportion of the Vedas)” was from the Hindi पंडा (paṇḍā) and the Punjabi ਪਾਂਡਾ (pāṇḍā), both from the Sanskrit पण्डित (paṇḍita) (learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar, teacher).  The English word pundit (expert in a particular field, especially as called upon to provide comment or opinion in the media; a commentator or critic) entered the language during the British Raj in India, the use originally to describe native surveyor, trained to carry out clandestine surveillance the colonial borders.  The English form is now commonly used in many languages but the descendants included the Japanese パンダ (panda), the Korean 판다 (panda) and the Thai: แพนด้า.  Panda is a noun and pandalike (also as panda-like) is an adjective (pandaesque & panderish still listed as non-standard; the noun plural is pandas.

Charismatic creature: Panda with cub; like the dolphin with its permanent "happy smile", pandas gained much of their popularity from the genetic accident of their appearance, making them ideal as a model for plushies (stuffed toys).

Illustrative examples of PANDA as an acronym include (1) antiProton ANnihilation at Darmstadt (a particle physics experiment at GSI Darmstadt, Germany), (2) Professional Adult Nightclub DJ (Disc Jockey) Association, (3) Protocol for the Assessment of Non-Violent Direct Action and (4) Programa Nacional Contra el Desarrollo de Pandillas (Spanish: National Development Program against Gangs) while, uniquely, PANDAS stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infection.  As a word, panda has been productive.  The portmanteau noun pandemonium (the blend being panda +‎ (pande)monium was a humorous construct describing the reaction often seen in zoos when pandas appear and was on the model of fandemonium (the reaction of groupies and other fans to the presence of their idol).  The "trash panda" (also as "dumpster panda" or "garbage panda") was of US & Canadian origin and was an alternative to "dumpster bandit", "garbage bandit" or "trash bandit", describing the habit of raccoons foraging for food in trash receptacles.  The use was adopted because the black patches around the creature's eyes are similar to the markings of the giant panda.  The Australian equivalent is the "bin chicken", an allusion to the way the elegant ibis has adapted to habitat loss by entering the urban environment, living (very well) on food scraps discarded in rubbish bins.

Lindsay Lohan with “panda” eye makeup (left) and a cat managing the look, "makeup free" (right).  The companion term is "reverse panda", a usually unintended effect caused by light makeup around the eyes appearing as white circles or patches.  The look sometimes is exaggerated in photographs because of the use of studio lighting or a camera's flash.

The “panda crossing” was a pedestrian safety measure, an elaborate form of the “zebra crossing”.  It was introduced in the UK in 1962, the name derived from the two-tone color scheme used for the road marking and the warning beacons on either side of the road.  The design worked well in theory but not in practice and all sites had been decommissioned by late 1967 (although in New Zealand some were still in use in the 1990s).  The panda’s twotonalism led to the adoption of “panda dolphin” as one of the casual tags (the others being "jacobita", "skunk dolphin", "piebald dolphin" & "tonina overa" (the latter for the black & white Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii)).  In English, the first known reference to the panda was as a “carnivorous raccoon-like mammal (the lesser panda) of the Himalayas” while the giant panda was first described in 1901 although it had been “discovered” in 1869 by French missionary priest and zoologist Armand David (1826-1900); it was known as parti-colored until the name was changed after evidence of the zoological relationship to the red panda was accepted.  The giant panda was thus once included as part of the raccoon family but is now classified as a bear subfamily (Ailuropodinae), or as the sole member of a separate family (Ailuropodidae (which diverged from an ancestral bear lineage)).  The lesser panda (the population of which has greatly been reduced by collectors & hunters) is now regarded as unrelated to the giant panda and usually classified as the sole member of an Old World raccoon subfamily, Ailurinae, which diverged from an ancestral lineage that also gave rise to the New World raccoons, most familiar in North America.  As late as the early twentieth century, the synonyms for the lesser panda included "bear cat", "cat bear" & "wah", all long obsolete.

Panda diplomacy

Lindsay Lohan collecting Chinese takeaway from a Panda Express outlet, New York City, November 2008.

Although the first pandas were gifted by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s (1887-1975; leader of the Republic of China (mainland) 1928-1949 & the renegade province of Taiwan 1949-1975) Chinese government in 1941, “panda diplomacy” began as a Cold War term, the practice of sending pandas to overseas zoos becoming a tool increasingly used by Peking (Beijing after 1979) following the Sino-Soviet split in 1957.  Quite when the phrase was first used isn’t certain but it was certainly heard in government and academic circles during the 1960s although it didn’t enter popular use until 1972, when a pair of giant pandas (Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing) were sent to the US after Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; VPOTUS 1953-1961 and POTUS 1969-1974) historic visit to China, an event motivated by Washington’s (1) interest in seeking Peking’s assistance in handling certain aspects of the conflict in Indochina and (2) desire to “move Moscow into check on the diplomatic chessboard”.  Ever since, pandas have been a unique part of the ruling CCP's (Communist Party of China) diplomatic toolbox although since 1984 they’ve been almost always leased rather than gifted, the annual fee usually over US$1 million per beast, the revenue generated said to be devoted to conservation of habitat and a selective breeding program designed to improve the line’s genetic diversity.  Hong Kong in 2007 was gifted a pair but that’s obviously a special case ("one country, two pandas") and while an expression of diplomatic favour, they can be also an indication of disapprobation, those housed in the UK in 2023 returned home at the end of the lease and not replaced.  In the CCP's world view, there are countries in "the panda house" and those in "the doghouse".

It’s one of a set of such terms in geopolitics including  “shuttle diplomacy” (the notion of a negotiator taking repeated "shuttle flights" between countries involved in conflict in an attempt to manage or resolve things (something with a long history but gaining the name from the travels here & there of Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1973-1977) in the 1960s & 1970s)), “ping-pong diplomacy” (the use of visiting table-tennis teams in the 1960s & 1970s as a means of reducing Sino-US tensions and maintaining low-level cultural contacts as a prelude to political & economic engagement), “commodity diplomacy” (the use of tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers as “bargaining chips” in political negotiations), “gunboat diplomacy” (the threat (real or implied) of the use of military force as means of coercion), “hostage diplomacy” (holding the nationals of a country in prison or on (sometimes spurious) charges with a view to exchanging them for someone or something) and “megaphone diplomacy” (an official or organ of government discussing in public what is usually handled through “usual diplomatic channels”; the antonym is “quiet diplomacy”).

Panda diplomacy in action.  Panda up tree can be dubbed "Beijing" and one attempting climb, "Renegade".

A case study in the mechanics of panda diplomacy was provided by PRC (People’s Republic of China) Premier Li Qiang (b 1959; premier of the PRC since 2023) during his official visit to Australia in June 2024.  Mr Li’s presence was an indication the previous state of “diplomatic deep freeze” between Beijing and Canberra had been warmed to something around “correct but cool”, the earlier state of unarmed conflict having been entered when the CCP didn't react well to public demands (delivered via “megaphone diplomacy”) by previous Australian prime minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian prime-minister 2018-2022) for an international enquiry into the origin of the SARS-Covid-2 virus which triggered the COVID-19 pandemic.  Such a thing might have been a good idea but underlying Mr Morrison’s strident call was that he was (1) blaming the PRC and (2) accusing the CCP of a cover-up.  Mr Morrison is an evangelical Christian and doubtlessly it was satisfying for him to attend his church (one of those where there’s much singing, clapping, praising the Lord and discussing the real-estate market) to tell his fellow congregants how he’d stood up to the un-Christian, Godless communists but as a contribution to international relations (IR), it wasn’t a great deal of help.  His background was in advertising and coining slogans (he so excelled at both so clearly it was his calling) but he lacked the background successfully to handle the demands of IR (international relations).  The CCP’s retributions (trade sanctions and declining to take Canberra's phone calls) might have been an over-reaction but to a more sophisticated (if less godly) prime minister they would have been reasonably foreseeable.

Two years on from Mr Morrison's self-inflicted diplomatic injury and with Australia now under new management, Mr Li arrived at Adelaide Zoo for a photo-opportunity to announce the impending arrival of two new giant pandas, the incumbent pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, soon to return to China after their 15 year stint.  Wang Wang and Fu Ni, despite over those years having been provided “every encouragement” (including both natural mating and artificial insemination) to procreate, proved either unable or unwilling so, after thanking the zoo’s staff for looking after them so well, the premier announced: “We will provide a new pair of equally beautiful, lovely and adorable pandas to the Adelaide Zoo.”, he said through an interpreter, adding: “I'm sure they will be loved and taken good care of by the people of Adelaide, South Australia, and Australia.”  The duo, the only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere, had been scheduled to return in 2019 at the conclusion of the original ten year lease but sometime before the first news of COVID-19, this was extended to 2024.  Although their lack of fecundity was disappointing, there’s nothing to suggest the CCP regard this as a loss of face (for them or the apparently unromantic couple), Wang Wang & Fu Ni able to enjoy a comfortable retirement, munching on abundant supplies of bamboo.  Unlike some who have proved a “disappointment” to the CCP, they’ll be spared time in a “re-education centre”.

Despite tensions between Beijing and Washington, panda diplomacy remains a “headline element” in foreign policy.  During a recent visit to the US, Xi Jinping (b 1953; General Secretary of the CCP and paramount leader of the PRC since 2012) announced a breeding pair of giant pandas would be sent to Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, the “envoys of friendship” (Ping Ping & Fu Shuang) arriving within days.  Whether the alleged “subliminal messaging” (China not as a threatening predator but rather cuddly companion) still works (or ever did) isn’t clear but they’re certainly a popular attraction with crowds at zoos, making the annual lease-fee (up to US$1.2 million per panda with an additional US$600,000 payable for each cub born) sound value.  It’s also a good case study for those writing contracts, China retaining ownership of not only the leased adults but also any offspring and additionally, facilities often pay up to US$2 million for “sponsorship” and “research” funding.  While hard to be definitive, the “panda-rental” programme may be self-funding, one US think tank estimating gross-income between 1994 and 2023 of some US$300 million from its panda-rental program.  Given that, Guinness World Records listing the giant panda as the “most expensive species in captivity” (costing more even than Taylor Swift’s (b 1989) cats) is understandable.

Panda diplomacy in action.

As an example of the craft of legal drafting, the contracts are about as one-sided as it possible to achieve, the lessor able unilaterally to terminate (without notice or compensation) any agreement, effectively without having to cite any reason for the premature recall.  Although a number of potential grounds are mentioned (including “unauthorized release of relevant information”), the vista is so wide they can mean whatever the CCP on the day decides they mean and although some of proscribed words seem innocuous (“lease”; “rental”; “loan”; “contract”), clearly they are thought “sensitive” in Beijing.  That does seem strange given the essentially “transactional” nature of panda diplomacy is hardly a secret and were there any doubts, recalling two US-born panda cubs after the White House announced Barack Obama (b 1961; POTUS 2009-2017) would not cancel his meeting with the 14^th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso, b 1935) illustrated how these things work.  From the point of view of assisting in the conservation of a vulnerable species, panda diplomacy does seem to be a positive force, arguments the bears are being “exploited for commercial and diplomatic purposes” a little abstract given their apparent contentment during the “overseas holidays”.  However, whether their presence in zoos here and there is a meaningful measure of bilateral relations is now questionable but what might be indicative of something is that the number of countries with leased pandas has dropped from (a pre-COVID-19) 21 in 2019 to 16 by 2026.  More fun is to compare the creatures with the PRC’s foreign policy.  Panda’s are popular as plushies because the appears so placid and cuddly but, in reality, are quite formidable with long, sharp claws and a bite with a force similar to that of an adult male lion and, as more than one political scientist has observed, even when sitting docile, a panda cannot conceal its teeth.

Pandas on four wheels

Top row: A classic UK police Wolseley 6/80 (1948-1954, left) in black, a staple of 1950s UK film & television, a brace of Adaux era Hillman Minxes (1956–1967, the time of the first "true" black & white "panda cars", centre) and Jaguar Mark 2 (1959-1969, right).

Bottom row: Ford Anglia 105E (1958-1968, in one of the pastel blues that replaced the gloss black, left) on postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail in 2013, Rover Rover 3500 (SD1, 1976-1984, centre) in one of the deliberately lurid schemes used in the 1970s & 1980s (UK police forces stockpiled Rover 3500s when it was announced production was ending; they suspected what would follow would be awful and they were right) and BMW 320d (right) in the "Battenburg markings" designed by the Police SDB (Scientific Development Branch).

Until the 1960s, the fleets of cars run by most of the UK’s police forces tended to be a glossy black.  That began to change when, apparently influenced by US practice, the front doors and often part or all of the roof were painted white, the change said to be an attempt to make them “more distinctive”.  The new scheme saw them soon dubbed “panda cars”, the slang picked up by police officers (in their economical way, often clipped to “panda”) and use persisted for years even after the dominant color switched from black to pastels, typically a duck-egg blue.  Things got brighter over the years until the police developed the high-visibility “Battenburg markings” a combination of white, blue and fluorescent yellow, a system widely adopted internationally.  Interestingly, although the black & white combination was used between the 1960s-1990s by New Zealand’s highway patrol cars (“traffic officers” then separate from the police), the “panda car” slang never caught on.

The Fiat Panda

Basic motoring: 1980 Fiat Panda.

Developed during the second half of the troubled and uncertain 1970s, the Fiat Panda debuted at the now defunct Geneva Motor Show in 1980.  Angular, though not a statement of high rectilinearism in the manner of the memorable Fiat 130 coupé (1971-1977), it was a starkly functional machine, very much in the utilitarian tradition of the Citroën 2CV (1948-1990) but visually reflecting more recent trends although, concessions to style were few, the asymmetry in the frontal facia one of the few imaginative hints and even that was an example of production-line rationalization, the grille to the left on models with an air-cooled engine and to the right for water-cooled versions, the single panel simply rotated prior to assembly.  In the design brief, Fiat had made clear it wanted a car with the cross-cultural appeal of its earlier Cinquecento (500, 1957-1975 and in some markets dubbed Bambino).  Dating from the eighteenth century, the Italian bambino was used of "a child or baby, especially a representation in art of the infant Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes" and the tiny 500 was, like the BMC (British Motor Corporation, 1952-1968) Mini (1959-2000) or denim jeans, able to transcend class, valued by all for practicality.  Designed from “the inside out” in the Fiat's 600 Multipla's (1956-1967) tradition of pure functionalism, the passenger compartment’s dimensions defined the basic structure atop the mechanical components, the body built around those parameters.

1985 Fiat Panda 4x4.  Although basic, the modularity throughout made the structure highly adaptable.  At the time, green interiors were still a thing.

The focus always was on minimizing the number of components, simplifying manufacturing and assembly processes with the final package designed to render maintenance as infrequently required and inexpensive as possible.  One "retro-innovation" which seemed at the time a money-saving device was that all glass was flat, something that had fallen from fashion for windscreens in the 1950s and for side windows a decade later because it was a simple way to increase interior space.  In theory, reverting to the pre-war practice should have meant lower unit costs and greater left-right interchangeability but no manufacturer in Italy had maintained the machinery to produce such things so consequently, the cost per square metre proved higher than would have been the case for curved glass.  Over three generations until 2024, the Panda was a great success although one that did stray from its utilitarian origins as European economies recovered from the strains of the 1970s.  There was in the 1990s even an electric version which, very expensive and with capabilities (performance & range) limited by the technology of the time, was not a success.

The name came from mythology, Empanda, a Roman goddess who was patroness of travelers and controversial among historians, some regarding her identity as but the family name of Juno, the Roman equivalent of Hera, the greatest of all the Olympian goddesses.  Whatever the lineage, she was a better choice for Fiat than Pandarus (Πάνδαρος) who came from the city of Zeleia, Apollo himself teaching him the art of archery.  Defying his father’s advice, Pandarus marched to Troy as a foot soldier, refusing to take a chariot & horses; there he saw Paris & Menelaus engaged in single combat and the goddess Athena incited Pandarus to fire an arrow at Menelaus.  In this way the truce was broken and the war resumed, the coda being Pandarus then fought Diomedes but was killed, his death thought punishment for his treachery in breaking the truce.  Although neutral on the mythology, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) had objected to Fiat using the name of an endangered species but, pragmatically, agreed when the company made a “substantial financial contribution” that could be devoted to conservation programmes.  A cheque (check) could then validly be written on any surface so a Panda was delivered to the WWF with the relevant words and numbers on the hood (bonnet).

Press-kit images for 2024 Fiat Grande Panda issued by Stellantis, June 2024.  Despite the advertising agency's efforts, bright colors have yet to make much of a comeback. 

In June 2024, Fiat announced the fourth generation Panda and advances in technology meant the "mild hybrid" and all-electric power-trains were mainstream products, competitive on all specific measures (except price breakdown where the Chinese industry enjoys advantages perhaps beyond what an analysis of production and distribution costs would reveal).  The Grande Panda was built on the new Stellantis “Smart Car Platform” (shared with the Citroën ë-C3), offering seating capacity for five.  Unlike the original, the 2024 Panda features a few stylistic gimmicks including headlights and taillights with a “pixel theme”, the look extended to diamond-cut aluminum wheels, a homage to geometric motifs of the 1980s and the earlier Panda 4x4.  Although an accomplished piece, it lacks the style and charm of what Fiat produced between the 1950s and 1970s although, to be fair, the new Pandas apparently are commendably rust-resistant.

Homer's other odyssey: Homer vs Dignity 

Panda scene from Homer vs Dignity.

Pandas (real & fake) have a role in Homer vs Dignity, (November, 2000, episode 5, season 12 of the animated television series The Simpsons (on the Fox network 1989-2024, on Disney+ since 2024)).  The plot line involved evil nuclear power-plant owner Montgomery Burns hiring Homer Simpson as his “prank monkey”, staging public antics and publicly humiliating himself, all for Mr Burns’ amusement.  The most controversial scene was the one in which Homer, dressed in a panda suit, enjoyed (in two of "enjoyed" several senses) intimacy with a real captive panda (presumably this was referred to and signed-off by Fox's lawyers).  On The Simpsons, there’d not before been a scene like it and despite the cartoon South Park (on Paramount+'s Comedy Central since 1997) raising (or lowering, depending on the degree of one's nihilism) the cartoon bar, there’s not since been another in its ilk.

Psychological moment, Homer Simpson being dragged into panda’s den.  In the age of #metoo, Fox’s lawyers might have suggested a script-revision, “Homer being violated by a panda” just not as funny anymore.

Homer vs Dignity was at the time cited by some as a “jumping the shark” moment although it’s regarded now as a marker of a trend towards cheerfully deliberate inconsistencies (it is, after all, a cartoon show) rather than an aberration or harbinger of decline.  The idiomatic “jumping the shark” is a reference to some creative endeavor having worked the concept dry and resorting instead to gimmicks and absurdities.  The term dates from 1985 and was coined by US media personality Jon Hein (b 1957) as a belated response to an episode in the fifth season of the ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974-1984) in which a character, most incongruously, performs a water ski jump over a caged shark.  However, although Homer vs Dignity widely was panned, typically it doesn't appear in the various “top five worst episodes ever” lists, headed often by The Principal and the Pauper (September, 1997, episode 2, season 9) in which school principal Seymour Skinner is revealed to be an imposter and dismissed from his position.  However, Principle Skinner was needed as an ongoing character so the writers resolved things by having the entire population of Springfield assemble and declare never again to speak of the matter, the town's resident judge imposing the order under penalty of torture.  While the internal logic was faultless, even by cartoon standards it was an obvious fudge.

Dictator

Dictator (pronounced dik-tey-ter)

(1) A person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who (at least ostensibly) has absolute control (ie effectively not restricted by a constitution, laws, recognized opposition, etc) in a government (and officially without hereditary succession); applied particularly to those exercising tyrannical rule.

(2) In republican ancient Rome, a person vested by the senate with supreme authority during a crisis, the regular magistracy being subordinated to him until the crisis was met (typically by conducting a war).

(3) A person who makes pronouncements, as on conduct, fashion etc, which are regarded as authoritative.

(4) A person who dictates text to someone or some sort or mechanical or electronic recording device.

(5) In Ancient Rome (during certain periods), an elected chief magistrate.

1350–1400: From the Middle English dictatour, from the Old French dictator, from the Latin dictātor (genitive dictātōris), (Roman chief magistrate with absolute authority) the construct being dictā(re) (inflection of dictō (I repeat, say often; I dictate (to someone for writing))), frequentative of dicere (to say, speak); I compose, express in writing; I prescribe, recommend, order, dictate)) frequentative of dicere (to say, speak)" (from the primitive Indo-European root deik- (to show (also "solemnly to pronounce") (and related to dīcō (say, speak) + -tor (from the Proto-Italic -tōr, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr from -tor-s; the suffix added to the fourth principal part of a verb to create a third-declension masculine form of an agent noun).  The feminine forms were dictatress or dictatrix, both probably now obsolete except in historic reference or as a jocular form; the old alternative spelling dictatour is obsolete.  Some European languages (including Dutch and Romanian) were like English and borrowed directly the Latin spelling while others used variations including Catalan (dictador), French (dictateur) Italian (dittatore), Piedmontese (ditator), Polish (dyktator), Portuguese (ditador), Russian (дикта́тор (diktátor)), Sicilian (dittaturi), Spanish (dictador) and German (Diktator).  The feminine forms dictatoress & dictatrix are now rare.  Dictator, dictatoress & distatorship are nouns, dictatory is a noun & adjective, dictatorial, dictatorlike & dictatorless are adjectives and dictatorially is an adverb;the noun plural is dictators.

The noun dictatorship (office or term of a (Roman) dictator) came into use in the 1610s to describe the historically specific terms of office the Roman Senate sometimes granted individuals in extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances while the now familiar general sense of "a ruler exercising absolute authority" evolved by the late seventeenth century.  The noun dictator had already proceeded along this path, the historical sense being first used in English circa 1600, the extension to “one who has absolute power or authority" (in any context and not just political power) noted by the 1690s.  The nasty and not infrequently genocidal nature of some of the dictators of the twentieth century and beyond certainly influenced the understanding of the word which, as late as the 1800s could be used neutrally, effectively as a synonym for president.  The adjective dictatorial (pertaining to a dictator; absolute, unlimited), dating from 1901 evolved also to enjoy use outside of descriptors of absolute government and by 1704 had acquired the general sense of "imperious, overbearing", usefully (and often applied as required to husbands, mothers-in-law, parish priests etc); the related form was the adverb dictatorially.  In that vein, to convey the notion of "pertaining to a dictator" there had been dictatorian (1640s) & dictator-like (1580s).  Etymologists insist historic duality of implication in "dictatorial" ((1) a disposition to rule & (2) a sharp insistence upon having one's orders accepted or carried out) has survived in modern use but instances of the former are now less common.

1929 Studebaker Dictator Royal Coupe with rumble seat and "artillery wheels" in the style made famous on Bugatti's roadsters and race-cars.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) was of course the dictator who has for almost a century loomed over the word and “Hitler” was used figuratively for "a dictator" from as early as 1934, a use persisting despite there being no shortage of dictatorial tyrants in the years since his assumption of power.  One amusing variation emerged in England in the early years of World War II (1939-1945), a “little Hitler” being someone appointed to a minor post (archetypically an air-raid warden (someone employed to walk the streets during a “black-out” telling folk to extinguish their lights)) and, cloaked in this brief, unaccustomed authority, soon intoxicated by their power.  In the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-), the regime encouraged a similar put-down aimed at opponents, the US being شيطان بزرگ (Shaytân-e Bozorg (the great Satan)) and Israel شیطان کوچک, (Shaytân-e Kuchak (the little Satan)) and it’s a worse slight even than it sounds because “great” is not the perfect translation, the idea of the great Satan being one of derision rather than awe.  When ayatollahs are in a bad mood (it does happen), sometimes the UK is also described as a “little Satan”.

Lindsay Lohan, glad to see a dictator go.

Lindsay Lohan never forgave dictator Hosni Mubarak (1928–2020; president of Egypt 1981-2011) for shouting at Bill Clinton (b 1946; POTUS 1993-2001).  When told in 2011 he’d fallen from power as one of the victims of the Arab Spring, she responded: “Cool.”  When told it was brought about by a military coup she replied: “Gross!”  Lindsay Lohan doesn’t approve of coups d'état and believes soldiers should "stay in the barracks", allowing due constitutional process to be followed.   

Because of the evil of Hitler and his many spiritual successors in this century and the last, dictator really doesn’t cry out for synonyms but autocrat, despot, tyrant, absolutist, authoritarian, oppressor & totalitarian all tend in the direction.  Associatively however, the noun generalissimo (supreme military commander), dating from the 1620s and a borrowing of the Italian generalissimo (superlative of generale, from a sense development similar to the French général), can in some cases be applied to dictators because in the twentieth century the title was granted (ie self-conferred) to the dictators comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975; leader of the Republic of China (mainland) 1928-1949 & the renegade province of Taiwan 1949-1975) and Francisco Franco (1892-1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975).  Despite that roll-call, it has never come into use as a general term for "in the manner of dictator", possibly because historically it's too specific (to the military context) and has just too many syllables to be catchy slang.

Chinese edition of José Mourinho: Up Close and Personal (2016) by Robert Beasley (b 1959).  Renowned for his tact, diplomacy and finesse, José Mourinho (b 1963) is currently Real Madrid's manager so players can to turn to for advice.

The word did however in the twentieth century come widely to be used by historians and political scientists because it was the most conveniently understood term.  Use could be loose and not always accurate (indeed, some so-called “dictators” found they weren’t able to be as dictatorial as they’d have preferred) but if the word didn’t describe what someone was, it certainly conveyed what they were not so came best to be understood on the “non-democratic spectrum” as ranging from “authoritarian” to “totalitarian”.  So it was convenient verbal shorthand but in democracies it was also deployed (along the lines of “fascist”) as a term of “general disapproval”.  Still, within the rich lexicon of political critiques, it has come to be thought rather “mild” which is what in October 2026 made one of the more improbable diplomatic incidents such a surprise.  The football (soccer) player Kylian Mbappé (b 1998) captains the French national side and plays professionally for La Liga (the top-flight Spanish competition) club Real Madrid; such is his dominance on and off-field that his nickname is “the dictator”.  That attracted the now inevitable memes and, in an interview, he was asked which in this vein was his favourite to which he replied it was one with his face superimposed onto an image of “…some guy – I think he’s a Chinese dictator”.  The “some guy” turned out to be comrade Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong 1893–1976; chairman of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) 1949-1976).

Kylian Mbappé branded bottled water.

The backlash in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) was swift, social media platforms soon alight with outrage anyone, least of all a foreigner, would show disrespect to the comrade chairman, the “father of the nation” who, on 1 October, 1949, read out the formal proclamation establishing the PRC.  The commercial cost too was made clear, major Chinese brands such as Dongpeng Beverage and Mengniu Dairy cutting all contractual ties with the player and the state-backed (ie controlled) broadcasters suspended the televising of La Liga matches.  Doubtless shocked such a casual comment (he would have thought inoffensive) could provoke such a response, Mr Mbappé’s management team quickly arranged an apology: “My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world.  I apologise to everyone my words have upset.”  Eyes on their spreadsheets, La Liga’s management also issued a statement, saying the organization “…deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappé’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans” (something between apology & apologia, it translates as: “We’re sorry he said it but it was all down to him and nothing to do with us.”)

Corporations and patriotic citizens in the PRC are culturally obliged to express outrage at any slight directed towards the comrade chairman because he remains the figure (officially) most venerated by the ruling CCP, despite the party’s assessment of his time in office being “70% positive and 30% negative”, those numbers established by comrade Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997; paramount leader of the PRC (People's Republic of China) 1978-1989) in Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party (1981).  The way comrade Deng glossed the record was to make it the orthodoxy that in the memory of comrade Chairman Mao: “merits are primary and his errors secondary”.  In other words, the achievements in healthcare, improvements in life expectancy and abolition of “certain cultural backwardness” (feudal practices, foot–binding etc) outweighed the various unpleasantnesses he imposed (The Great Leap Forward (1958–1962); The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976); various crackdowns on dissent).  Comrade Deng’s carefully worded piece was nothing like the denunciation of comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) made by comrade Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964) in On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences (an address delivered in February 1956 to the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) but it was still “criticism of a leader”, something now (understandably) rare in the PRC.

Portrait of comrade Chairman Mao, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, PRC.

As far as is known, the moral outrage in the PRC was “organic” in that it didn’t follow a lead from the CCP but was citizens “working towards the CCP”, things seemingly “kicking off” on Dongqiudi (an on-line football forum) where all the many who commented agreed Mr Mbappé words “hurt the feelings of Chinese people” and were “inappropriate”.  Nor was only the text that (thought by some so offensive they refused to translate it into Chinese) attracted disapprobation, the use of a picture of the “father of the nation” whose portrait still overlooks Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, clearly beyond the pale.  The sentiment quickly spread with calls to boycott both the French striker and Real Madrid.  Presumably pleased by the patriotism, the foreign ministry issued a statement: “We have noted the relevant reports.  Words and deeds that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with opposition from all sectors of Chinese society.”  In diplomatic speak, that’s about as gentle as it gets and presumably the CCP’s view will be the storm has fulfilled its purpose and, within a day or two, business as usual may resume, a yellow card sufficient a penalty for Mr Mbappé; no red required.

Overlooking Henan's Tongxu county, PRC, 2016.

Times change and context matters: In 2016, Beijing ordered the demolition of a 120 foot (37 metre) tall gold (painted) statute of comrade Chairman Mao, ostensibly because it had been erected “without approval from local government”.  The privately-funded project cost a reputed was said to have cost nearly 3 million yuan (US$460,000) and on social media there had been much criticism with many suggesting the funds would have better been allocated to education, health services and such.  Sinologists in the West observed the CCP needed to maintain respect for the “father of the nation” but would rather he remain in history and not be too often discussed; he was after all, also the “father of the CCP”.

Desecration of the image aside, presumably it was the juxtaposition of “Chinese” and “dictator” that was thought most offensive although to have had the comrade chairman (indisputably one of the century’s great figures) seemingly not recognized and dismissed a “some guy” does suggest a lack of respect although, in fairness, footballers are experts in other fields.  Mr Mbappé acknowledges the light-hearted intent of the meme-makers but is on record saying some “…reveal a lack of political and human awareness.  There's a side that's a bit less funny, because we know the damage people like that have caused throughout history.  Being compared to people who murder others, or who have made millions upon millions of people miserable... I don't think I've done that in my life.”  So, even if not aware of the details of history, he knows some of the figures have “blood on their hands” and a line should be drawn somewhere. 

1935 Studebaker Dictator phaeton (left) & 1936 Studebaker Dictator sedan (right).

The Studebaker Dictator was produced between 1927-1937, the naming scheme using titles from government service to indicate a model’s place in the hierarchy, the Dictator replacing the Standard Six as the entry-level model, the progressively more expensive models being the Commander and President.  Other manufacturers have adopted the concept idea, Opal in Germany once merging admiralty and political ranks, offering the Kapitän, Commodore, Admiral & Diplomat.

Some of the opposition to crooked Hillary Clinton's (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) presidential campaign in 2016 accused her of wanting to turn the US into a dictatorship.  Given that she couldn't manage even to keep her husband "on the porch", fears crooked Hillary might in the Oval Office morph into dictatorial Hillary may have been hyperbolic but the meme makers any responded with agitprop.

To many it will seem strange a US manufacturer would, as late as 1937, call one of its cars the Dictator but in 1927 the Nazis were years from power and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943), was far from the tainted character he would later become, public perception of his rule still in the moment of admiring him for “making the trains run on time”.  Whether any improvement in punctuality was noted by many Italians is dubious but the Duce would anyway have been pleased at least one train arrived in good time.  Because the image of a mass-movement black-shirted supporters taking to the streets to overthrow an old, corrupt government was just the sort of propaganda dictators adore, the 1922 "March on Rome" became part of fascist mythology but although a good "photo opportunity", Mussolini joined the march only for it's final stage; he caught the Naples-Rome train.  Studebaker anyway had always explained the name as suggesting “a fine car at a moderate price” that would “dictate the standards” in the vital mid-priced field.  That was fair enough but with the benefit of post-Nazi hindsight, when the option of a straight-eight engine was offered as an upgrade from the straight-six, Studebaker probably would not to have used the marketing slogan “a brilliant example of excess power”.  By 1937, the use of excess power by the Third Reich’s dictator was becoming obvious and Studebaker quietly dropped the Dictator name for 1938, re-positioning the Commander as the base model, the cars exported to the Europe, the UK and the British Empire having early been renamed Director.  Of those changes, probably just about everyone except Henry Ford (1863-1947) approved.  Briefly, Studebaker had also offered the Chancellor but, presumably because it wasn’t a title that much resonated in the American imagination, it was short-lived (only in the catalogue for the 1927 season); that was a stroke of luck for Studebaker because Hitler took over the Reich Chancellery in January 1933 and had the Chancellor remained in production, it too would have faced the linguistic cull for 1938.  

So Studebaker’s tale is an example of how the shifting meaning of words can influence many things.  Still, if in 1937 any association with Hitler had become distasteful for a US corporation, even by 1940, some two years after the Nazi’s most publicized pogrom against the Jews (Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)), Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) released his satirical comedy The Great Dictator which parodied both dictators (Hitler and Mussolini), his argument being that however controversial it might be, “…Hitler must be laughed at."  He later admitted that had he known in 1940 what would later be understood, he’d never have produced the film.  When in 1940 Lord Halifax (Edward Wood, 1881–1959) arrived in Washington DC to take up his appointment as UK’s ambassador, he was taken to lunch by a group of Republican senators and told they regarded Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, POTUS 1933-1945) as “a worse dictator than Hitler or Mussolini” so Studebaker clearly made the right decision.

Studebaker US6 truck in Red Army use, configured as mobile Katyusha rocket launcher, circa 1943.  Under Lend-Lease arrangements, some 152,000 US6's were supplied during Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

Comrade Stalin’s favorite cars by the 1930s were the big Packards but he acknowledged the importance of Studebaker trucks supplied by the US under Lend-Lease and the company also greatly benefited; like many US corporations, some of its golden years came during World War II (1939-1945) when industrial capacity was given over to government contracts fulfilling military demand.  A variety of materiel was produced but Studebaker’s most notable contribution to the war effort was the versatile US6 (G630 in the government purchasing system) 2½ (short) ton 6x6 trucks, over 150,000 of which were supplied to the Soviet Union.  Built in many configurations, the most memorable adaptation by the Red Army was as a mobile platform for the BM-31-12 (nickname: Andryusha) Katyusha rocket launcher, known to the enemy as “Stalin’s organs” because of the distinctive sound; before drones emerged as the preferred front-line weapon, the Russian army widely deployed such rockets in the “special military operation” (invasion) against Ukraine.  The US6 proved popular with Red Army troops who judged it superior to the locally-made ZIS-5 & GAZ-AA and better even than the captured German trucks with Maybach engines which (belying the German reputation for “good beer, good engines, good sausages”), were prone to overheating under extreme loads, unlike the Studebakers that never boiled.

Tough, durable and easy to repair, it was the WS6 that made possible the movement of the Red Army at the scale and speed achieved by 1943-1944 and it proved equally adept at handing the both the muddy and freezing conditions that became notorious on the Eastern Front; affectionately the troops nicknamed the things “Studer”.  The tale circulated that comrade Stalin even wrote a letter of appreciation to Studebaker, mentioning how important the US6 had been to the Red Army; that turned out to be apocryphal but in the Studebaker archives there are documents from Soviet officials expressing their satisfaction with the machines.  The flow of information between across the Iron Curtain was once highly restricted and one Soviet diplomat, arriving in the US in the late 1960s, expressed surprise Studebaker was no longer in business.  Brought up on the legends of the part the WS6 had played in Great Patriotic War, he'd assumed the company would still be a fixture in US manufacturing.  Of course, if corporate comings & goings in Detroit (actually South Bend, Indiana, where Studebakers were built, a place that wouldn’t again make the international headlines until 2020 when Pete Buttigieg (b 1982; US secretary of transportation 2021-2025), who served as mayor from 2012 to 2020 sought the Democratic presidential nomination), were a mystery to Russians, the Kremlin was just as opaque, even to experienced diplomats.  Probably no figure in the twentieth century was as dominating a dictator as comrade Stalin but even at the Yalta Conference (February 1945) there were senior figures in the US State Department and the UK’s Foreign Office who believed the one Russians knew as their vozhd (from the Russian вождь (vožd) (chieftain, leader) was a figure whose freedom of action was constrained by “hard liners in Moscow”.

The Hijab Police

Of the many “morality police” forces that have existed in countries with a majority Islamic population, the best known was Afghanistan's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice which actually pre-dated the Taliban takeover in 1996 but they certainly deployed it with an enthusiasm which went much beyond it functioning as “burka police” and in one form or another, it actually operated for most of the (first) post-Taliban era.  When the Taliban regained power in 2021, immediately they created the "Ministry of Invitation, Guidance and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" and, in a nice touch, allocated as its headquarters the building formerly used by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

The institution is infamous also in Iran.  In the West, it’s usually referred to as the “morality police” and among women the sardonic slang is “hijab police” but technically, the instrument of the Islamic Republic of Iran which enforces, inter alia, the laws governing the wearing of the hijab is گشت ارشاد (Gašt-e Eršād (Guidance Patrol)).  On 16 September 2022, the hijab police arrested Mahsa Amini (2001-2022) because she was wearing her hijab in “an un-Islamic way”.  While in custody, Ms Amini suffered a medical event, dying two days later without recovering consciousness, the hijab police claiming the cause of death was heart failure, induced by pre-existing conditions.  Her family dispute this, saying the evidence suggests she was severely beaten and many witnesses have confirmed she was tortured in the back of a van before arriving at a hijab police office.

Handy guide for the hijab police.  Not only must hijab must be worn correctly but clothing must also be (1) not brightly colored, (2) not patterned with extravagant designs or shapes and (3) be loose enough that the shape of the body is not discernible.

Her death triggered waves of protests in Iran, which, on the basis of footage seen in the West, seem dominated by school girls and young women; that's not unique in the context of political protest but is historically unusual.  With protest signs and banners rendered in TikTok-friendly English, the headline issue is of course the matter of the hijab and whether women should be beaten to death for letting a lock of hair slip from beneath but the protesters are making clear they're there to highlight corruption (noting the poverty of most while the clerical elite have become very rich), the structure of the state, the economy and the very question of whether the republic should be an Islamic theocracy.  The ayatollahs are no doubt well aware that the standard calculation in political science is that if 3½% of the population can be mobilized to revolt, regimes can be toppled and most recently, the Afghan Taliban did it with a fraction of that.  For many reasons, Afghanistan may be a special case and the Iranian state, on paper, is much better equipped to suppress internal dissent but then the security apparatuses around Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi (circa 1942–2011; Libyan dictator 1969-2011) both looked impregnable until the volume of the protesters reached critical mass.  These things are however hard to judge from afar, Bashar al-Assad (b 1965; ophthalmologist and Syria dictator 2000-2024) looked vulnerable long before Gaddafi and Mubarak fell yet he sat as dictator in Damascus for another 14 years.  The ayatollahs of course watched things with concern but so did individuals in the Kremlin, aware their security apparatus proved inadequate to execute the battle plan of the "special military action" in Ukraine and observed, in a nice echo of the 1979 revolution, the protesters in Tehran again chanting the cry once spat against the Shah: “Death to the Dictator!”.