Liberal

Liberal (pronounced lib-ruhl (U) or lib-er-uhl (non U))

(1) Favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs (and in this context a synonym of progressive and antonyms of reactionary.

(2) Noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform (used often with an initial capital letter, something in some cases perhaps influenced by the existence of political parties with the name (where the initial capital is correct)).

(3) Of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism, especially the freedom of the individual and governmental guarantees of individual rights and liberties.

(4) Favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties (now better described as libertarian now the definitions of “liberal” are so fluid).

(5) As “liberal education”, of or relating to an education that aims to develop general cultural interests and intellectual ability (as distinct from specific vocational training).

(6) Favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression.

(7) Of or relating to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.

(8) Free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant, unprejudiced, broad-minded

(9) Open-minded, free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values etc.

(10) Characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts; unstinting, munificent, openhanded, charitable, beneficent; lavish.

(11) Given or supplied freely or abundantly; generous.

(12) Abundant in quantity; lavish.

(13) Not strict or rigorous; not literal (often of translations, interpretations etc).

(14) Of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts.

(15) Of, relating to, or befitting a freeman (now rare).

(16) A person of liberal principles or views, especially in politics or religion.

(17) A member of a “liberal” party in politics (if applied to a part actually named “Liberal”, in some contexts an initial capital should be used).

(18) Unrestrained, licentious (obsolete although the sense seems still to be understood by the Fox News audience).

1350–1400: From the Middle English, from the twelfth century Old French liberal (befitting free people; noble, generous; willing, zealous), from the Latin līberālis (literally “of freedom, pertaining to or befitting a free person” and used also in the sense of “honorable”), the construct being līber (variously “frank, free, open unrestricted, unimpeded; unbridled, unchecked, licentious”) + -ālis.  The –alis suffix was from the primitive Indo-European -li-, which later dissimilated into an early version of –āris and there may be some relationship with hel- (to grow); -ālis (neuter -āle) was the third-declension two-termination suffix and was suffixed to (1) nouns or numerals creating adjectives of relationship and (2) adjectives creating adjectives with an intensified meaning.  The suffix -ālis was added (usually, but not exclusively) to a noun or numeral to form an adjective of relationship to that noun. When suffixed to an existing adjective, the effect was to intensify the adjectival meaning, and often to narrow the semantic field.  If the root word ends in -l or -lis, -āris is generally used instead although because of parallel or subsequent evolutions, both have sometimes been applied (eg līneālis & līneāris).  The noun came into use early in the nineteenth century.  The antonym in the sense of “permitting liberty” is “authoritarian” while in the sense of “open to new ideas and change”, it’s “conservative”.  Liberal is a noun & adjective, liberalism, liberalizer, liberalization, liberalist & liberality are nouns, liberalize is a verb and liberally is an adverb; the noun plural is liberals.

The mid-fourteenth century adjective meant “generous” (in the sense of “quantity”) and within decades this has extended to “nobly born, noble, free” and from the late 1300s: “selfless, magnanimous, admirable” although, as a precursor of what would come, by early in the fifteenth century it was used with bad connotations, demoting someone “extravagant, undisciplined or unrestrained”; Someone something of a libertine (in the modern sense) therefore and it was in this sense Don Pedro in William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) Much Ado About Nothing (1599) spoke of the lustful villain in Act 4, Scene 1:

Why, then are you no maiden, Leonato,
I am sorry you must hear. Upon mine honor,
Myself, my brother, and this grievèd count
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber window
Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
Confessed the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

The evolution in use continued and while in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries “liberal” was used as a term of reproach suggesting “lack of restraint in speech or action”, with the coming of the Enlightenment there was a revival of the positive sense, the word now used also to mean “free from prejudice, tolerant, not bigoted or narrow” and that seems to have emerged in the late 1770s although by the nineteenth century, use often was theological rather than political, a “liberal” church (Unitarians, Universalists et al) one not so bound the rigidities in doctrine & ritual as those said to be “orthodox” (not to be confused with the actual Orthodox Church).  It was also in the nineteenth century that in England the phrase “liberal education” became widely used although what to claimed to described had a tradition in pedagogy dating from Antiquity although the it path to modernity was hardly uninterrupted, various forms of barbarism intervening and in this context it probably is accurate to speak of some periods of the Medieval era as “the Dark Ages”.  There was never anything close to a standard or universal curriculum but theme understood in the nineteenth century was it was the only fitting education for what used to be called “a gentlemen” (a term related in sense development to the Classical Latin liber (a free man)) and contrasted with technical, specialist or vocational training.  Historically, the “liberal arts” inherited from the late Middle Ages were divided into the trivium (grammar, logic & rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music & astronomy).

Much associated with the worst of America’s “corrupting coasts” (New York City & Hollywood), Lindsay Lohan is a classic liberal.

The now familiar use in politics began in the first decade of the nineteenth century, one of the many ripples from the French Revolution (1789) when it was used to suggest a tendency to “favor freedom and democracy” over the long dominant hierarchical systems which characterized feudal European society.  In English, the label was initially applied by opponents to whichever party or politicians championed individual political freedoms and it seems the word often was spoken with a French accent, the implications being that such notions were associated with chaos and ruin; the revolution of 1789 had shocked and frightened the ruling establishment(s) just about everywhere.  However, there seems to have been a fork in the sense development in the US which came from a tradition which of course viewed more approvingly revolutions which swept away tyranny and there, certainly by the 1820s, “liberal” was already being used to mean “favorable to government action to effect social change” and some historians have linked this to the religious sense of “free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions” (and thus open to new ideas and plans of reform); this theme has continued to this day.  From the very foundations of the first colonial settlements, in what became the US there has always been a tension between the lure of freedom & democracy and that of religious purity, the notion what was being created was a society ordained by God.

In politics the usual brute-force distinction is of course between “liberals” and “conservatives” and while the nuances and exceptions are legion, it does remain the core template by which politics is reported and it applies to institutions as varied as the Roman curia, the Israeli cabinet, the Church of England and presidential elections in the Islamic republic or Iran; while not entirely accurate, it remains useful.  What is less useful is the noun “liberalism” which in the nineteenth century did have a (more or less) accepted definition but which since has become so contested as to now be one of those words which means what people want it to me in any given time and place.  That the title of the “true inheritor” of liberalism has been claimed groups as diverse as certain neo-Marxists and the now defunct faction of the US Republican Party which used to be called the “Rockefeller Republicans” illustrates the problem.  Also suffering from meaning shifts so severe as to render it a phrase best left to professional historians is “neo-liberal”, first used in 1958 as a reference to French politics and theology but re-purposed late in the twentieth century to describe a doctrine which was a synthesis of laissez-faire economics, deregulation and the withdrawal of the state from anything not essential to national security, law & order and economic efficiency.  Some critics of latter day neo-liberalism call it "an attempt to repeal the twentieth century" which captures the spirit of the debate.

1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T E49 (left) and 1974 Ford Falcon XB GT Hardtop (right), 1974 RE-PO 500K endurance race, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia, November 1974.

The fifth round of the 1974 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, the 1974 RE-PO 500K event was run under Group C (Touring Cars) regulations over 106 laps (501 km (311 miles)) and one quirky thing about the race was it being a footnote in Australian political history, both the E49 Charger of Lawrie Nelson (b 1943) and the Falcon GT of Murray Carter (b 1931) carrying “Liberal” signage as part of a paid sponsorship deal arranged by the Liberal Party of Australia.  Carter finished second, like the Liberal Party in that year's federal election (ie, they lost), although then party leader, Sir  Billy Snedden (1926–1987), provided one of the more memorable post election statements when he claimed "We didn't lose, we just didn't win enough votes to win." and he'd today be most remembered for that had it not be for the circumstances of his death which passed into legend.  Carter would later reveal that despite his solid result, the Liberal Party never paid up, the sponsorship deal apparently what later Liberal Party leader John Howard (b 1939; prime minister of Australia 1996-2007) might have called a "non-core promise".  

Death of former Australian Liberal Party leader Sir Billy Snedden.

The Liberal Party was in 1944 founded by Sir Robert Menzies (1894–1978; prime-minister of Australia 1939-1941 & 1949-1966) as essentially an “anti-Labor Party” aggregation of various groups and he emphasized at the time and often subsequently that he wanted his creation truly to be a “liberal” and not a “conservative” party; it was to be a “broad church” in which some diversity of opinion was not merely tolerated but encouraged.  Mostly he stuck to that although some would note as the years passed, perhaps he became a little less tolerant.  By 2024, the Liberal Party of Australia has fallen under the control of right-wing fanatics, religious fundamentalists & soft drink salesmen and it doubtful someone like Sir Robert would now want to join the party, even if they’d have him.  The current party leader is Peter Dutton (b 1970; leader of the opposition and leader of the Australian Liberal Party since May 2022).

The Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's (b 1931) media empire has become essentially the propaganda unit of the Liberal Party of Australia.  In 2018 Brisbane’s Murdoch-owned Courier-Mail (known to sceptical locals as the “Curious Snail”) was able to run a gushing puff-piece on Mr Dutton, headed (left) by a statement from his wife Kirilly (b 1974): “He is not a monster.”  People might give him the benefit of the doubt on that one but the Courier-Mail has never been able to run the one on the right because neither Mr Dutton or his wife have ever denied he’s a Freemason.

The arrival of political parties called “Liberal Party” & “Conservative Party” (often with modifiers (Liberal Democrats, Liberal Movement etc) created the need for labels which distinguish between the “liberal” and “conservative” factions within each: while all members of a Liberal Party are “big L Liberals” some will be “small c conservatives” and some “small l liberals” which sounds a clumsy was of putting things but it’s well-understood.  Some though noted there were sometimes more similarities than differences, the US writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-circa 1914) in an entry in his Devil's Dictionary (1911) recording: "Conservative (noun), a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others."  These days it he might be called a cynical structuralist.  Bierce, a US Civil War (1861-1865) veteran, never lost his sense of adventure and, aged 71, vanished without a trace in one of the great mysteries in American literary history.  The consensus was he probably was shot dead in Mexico and in one of his last letters there’s a hint he regarded such as fat as just an occupational hazard: “Good-bye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life.  It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!”

So, “liberal” being somewhat contested, while the comparative was “more liberal” and the superlative “most liberal”, modified forms appeared including anti-liberal, half-liberal, non-liberal, over-liberal, pre-liberal, pseudo-liberal, quasi-liberal, semi-liberal, uber-liberal, ultra-liberal, arch-liberal, classical-liberal, neoclassical-liberal and, of course, liberal-liberal & conservative-liberal.  In modern use there have been linguistic innovations including latte-liberal (the sort of “middle class” liberal who, stereotypically, orders complicated forms of coffee at the cafés & coffee shops in up-market suburbs, the term very much in the vein of “Bollinger Bolshevik” or “champagne socialist”.  A latte liberal is a variation of the earlier wishy-washy liberal (someone who will express fashionable, liberal views but will not deign to lift a finger to further their cause) with the additional implication they are of the middle class and committed only to the point of "virtue signaling".  The portmanteau word milliberal (the construct being mill(ennial) +‎ (li)beral is a liberal of the millennial generation (those born between 1981-1986).  The term boba-liberal comes from internet-based (notably X, formerly known as Twitter) political discourse (mostly in the US it seems) and is a slur describing a liberal-leaning Asian American with politics or attitudes considered too tepid or whitewashed by other Asian Americans, stereotyped as focusing on superficial gestures over more meaningful actions especially in regards to Asian American activism.  Those who comment on stories on Fox News have also contributed to the lexicon, the portmanteau libtard (the construct being lib(eral) + (re)tard) and the meaning self explanatory, as it is for NazLib, the construct being Naz(i) + Lib(eral).  So, especially in the US, “liberal” is a word which must be handled with care, to some a mere descriptor, to some a compliment and to others an insult.  While there are markers which may indicate which approach to adopt (is one's interlocutor carrying a gun, driving a large pick-up truck, listening to country & western music etc), none are wholly reliable and probably the best way is to work into the conversation a “litmus paper” phrase like “liberal gun laws”.  From the reaction, one's path will be clear.

But although there are some for who it seems a calling, being a liberal is not in the DNA and there have been some who became conservative, just as there are conservatives who converted to liberalism.  Indeed, were the views of many to be assessed, it’d like be found they are various to some degree liberal on some issues and conservative on others, a phenomenon political scientists call “cross-cutting cleavages”.  Political journeys are common and may be endemic to one’s aging (and certainly financial) path, there being many youthful anarchists, socialists and nihilists who have ended up around the boardroom table, very interested in preserving the existing system.  The path from liberalism can also be a thing of blatant opportunism.  It is no criticism of Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) that he re-invented himself as an anti-liberal because that was the way to become POTUS (president of the United States), despite for decades his stated positions on many social issues revealing his liberal instincts.  It’s just the way politics is done.  It’s also the way business is done and it was unfortunate Rupert Murdoch (b 1931) elected to settle in the matter of Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News to ensure no more of Fox’s internal documents entered the public domain.  Those which did appear were interesting in that far from Fox’s anti-liberal stance being Mr Murdoch’s ideological crusade, it was more the path to profit and were Fox’s audience to transform into something liberal, there would go Fox News.

Once was liberal: Candace Owens Farmer (née Owens and usually styled “Candace Owens”; b 1989) with "Candace Coffee Mug", one item in a range of Candace merchandise.

Because race remains the central fault-line in US politics, political cartoonists and commentators have never been prepared to have as much fun with the black conservatives as they enjoyed with “gay Republicans”, the latter a breed thought close to non-existent as last as the 1990s.  Black conservatism is to some extent aligned with black Christian religiosity but it’s a creature also of that under-reported demographic, the successful, black middle class, a diverse group but one which appears to have much in common with the priorities of their white counterparts.  In that sense Candace Owens is not wholly typical but she is much more entertaining and here early political consciousness was as a self-declared (though apparently retrospectively) liberal before moving to a nominally conservative stance although whether this was an ideological shift or a pursuit of clicks on the internet (on the model Mr Murdoch values to maximize revenue from Fox News) isn’t clear.  What is clear is Ms Owens knows about the Freemasons, her research into the cult beginning apparently when she “freaked out” after learning Buzz Aldrin (b 1930; who in 1969 was the second man to set foot on the Moon) is a confessed Freemason.  On 30 September, 2024, she discussed the Freemasons on her YouTube channel:

What is Freemasonry?  OK, so during the late Middle Ages, the world was united under the holy Roman Catholic church.  OK?  So if you had any opposition to the church throughout Europe, you were forced to go underground.  Right?  We were a Christian society.  And among the only organized groups that were able to move freely throughout Europe were these guilds of stonemasons, and they would then be, therefore, because they could move freely, hence, Freemasons.  They were able to maintain the meeting halls or lodges in virtually every major city, and the Masons were, essentially, very talented at architecture, and they had a bunch of secret knowledge — sometimes secret knowledge of architecture and of other topics.  And that knowledge was dated back to the times of Egypt. Right?  And it was essential maintaining this knowledge in the construction of European churches and cathedrals.

So one of the things that is well known is that Freemasons were in opposition to the church.  Right? They wanted to crush the church, which is why it is not ironic that the person who founded the Mormon church, as just one example — many of the churches, the very many Protestant faiths that we have — was Joseph Smith and he was a Freemason.  That's a fact, just as one example. Now, you may know some people that are Freemasons and you're going, well, I know this person and he goes to a lodge and he's completely harmless.  Yes. It is a known thing that 97 — like, something like 97% of Freemasons are not in the top tier degree of Freemasonry.  And it is understood that at the top tier degree of Freemasonry, you essentially become one of the makers of the world.

So I'm — just for those of you guys who've never even heard of that, and like I said, I would have been among you. I'm very new to relearning American history through the lens of Freemasonry. Some known Freemasons — George Washington was a Freemason, Thomas Jefferson was a Freemason, Benjamin Franklin was a Freemason, Buzz Aldrin was a Freemason — don't get me started. For those of you that have been listening to this podcast for a long time, you already know where I'm at — or where I'm at when it comes to NASA and the weird satanic chants that they were doing to establish the Apollo program and all the weird stuff that happened leading up to the moon landing. So I freaked out when I learned Buzz Aldrin was a Freemason.  It's not helping my case in believing those moon landings, I'll tell you that for free.  Franklin Roosevelt was another Freemason.

They're even on the moon: Autographed publicity photo of confessed Freemason Buzz Aldrin issued by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) prior to the Apollo 11 Moon mission (16-24 July 1969).

Most have concluded Mr Aldrin secretly would have left on the surface of the moon some sort of Masonic symbol or icon.  Of the other eleven men to have walked on the moon, only Apollo 15's James Irwin (1930–1991) and Apollo 16's John Young (1930–2018) are known to have been confessed Freemasons but so secretive is the cult there could be others.  As a footnote, as a member of New Jersey's Montclair Lodge No. 144 which is associated with the Scottish Rite, Mr Aldrin presumably would have worn his apron underneath his jacket, something unique to the Scottish tradition. 

Whether Ms Owens changed her views on matters Masonic after hearing Mr Aldrin had endorsed Mr Trump isn’t known but he issued an unambiguous statement of support, sentiments with which presumably she’d concur.  The former astronaut was especially impressed the Republican candidate had indicated in a second term he would elevate space exploration as a “policy of high importance again” and that his first administration had “reignited national efforts to get back to the Moon and push on to Mars.”  Beyond that, Mr Aldrin noted: “The Presidency requires clarity in judgement, decisiveness, and calm under pressure that few have a natural ability to manage, or the life experience to successfully undertake. It is a job where decisions are made that routinely involve American lives – some urgently but not without thought.  For me, for the future of our country, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe we are best served by voting for former President Trump. I wholeheartedly endorse him for President of the United States. Godspeed President Trump, and God Bless the United States of America.”  Masonic votes having the same value as any other, Mr Trump welcomed the support.

They're everywhere: Confessed Freemason Most Worshipful Brother Harry S. Truman (1884–1972; US president 1945-1953) in Masonic regalia including Worshipful Master collar and apron (over jacket) with Provincial Honours.  Although he served as US president or vice president for eight years, Truman later wrote: “The greatest honor that has ever come to me, and that can ever come to me in my life, is to be Grand Master of Masons in Missouri.”

Masonic aprons are obligatory wear for any Mason when in a lodge or temple and they’re worn always on the outside except in Scotland where the tradition is for them to sit under the jacket.  Like much else in the cult of Freemasonry, the apron is a symbol of a mason’s place in the hierarchy (as codified a system as the precedence afforded to the orders of knighthood in the UK's imperial honors) and although variations exist, there are essentially five layers of apron-wear:

(1) Enterered Apprentice: The apron of an entered apprentice is plain white to symbolise purity and innocence and usually made of lamb's leather.

(2) Fellow Craft: The Fellowcraft apron has the same white background as that of the Enterered Apprentice except for the addition of two blue rosettes.  Despite much research and speculation, it’s not known why the color blue is used.

(3) Master Mason: The decoration on a Master Mason’s apron is much more elaborate and is recognizably Masonic in a way the simpler constructions are not.  Because many Master Masons elect not to progress to the status of Worshipful Master, for many this will be the apron they wear for their entire Masonic career.

(4) Worshipful Master: The only change to the apron when one enters the chair as Worshipful Master is the blue rosettes are replaced by three levels.  The symbols are distinctive so the wearer instantly is recognizable as being a present or past Worshipful Master of a Lodge.

(5) Provincial Honours: Once a mason has gone through the chair and become Worshipful Master, his title changes from Brother to Worshipful Brother.  As the years pass, he may be granted Provincial honours and his apron will then be changed from light blue to dark blue with gold braid.

Knowing masons are everywhere among us, Ms Owens had been scheduled to speak at a number of engagements in Australia  & New Zealand but interestingly, in October 2024, the Australian government issued a press statement confirming her visa had been "canceled", based on her "capacity to incite discord", leading immediately to suspicions her silencing had been engineered by the Freemasons.  It’s good we have Ms Owens to warn us about liberals and the Freemasons, an axis of evil neglected by political scientists who tend often to take a structralist approach to the landmarks in the evolution of the use of the term “liberal” which they classify thus:

(1) Classical Liberalism which emerged in the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries, was rooted in the ideas of the Enlightenment with an emphasis on limited government, a free market (ideas as well as goods & services), individual liberty, freedom of speech, the rule of law and the enforcement of private property rights.  The movement was a reaction to absolute monarchies and state-dominated mercantilist economies.

(2) Social Liberalism (understood as “liberal” in modern US use) was a layer of rather than a fork off classical liberalism but it did accept a greater role for the state in regulating the economy and providing social welfare to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity.  It was a nineteenth century development to address the excesses of “unbridled” capitalism” and its critique of economic inequality was remarkably similar to that familiar in the twenty-first century.

(3) Neoliberalism as a term first appeared in the late 1950s but in the familiar modern sense it was defined in the era of Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) & Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013; UK prime-minister 1979-1990) who embarked on project built around a philosophy which afforded primacy to free markets, deregulation, privatization and a reduction in government spending, often combined with globalization.  Their program simultaneously to restrict the money supply while driving up asset prices had implications which wouldn’t be understood for some decades.  The Reagan-Thatcher neoliberal project was a reaction to the post oil-crisis stagflation (a portmanteau word, the construct being stag(nation) + (in)flation)) and the alleged failure of the welfare state & the orthodoxy of Keynesian economics, named after English economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes (later Lord Keynes) 1883-1946).

(4) Political Liberalism was most famously articulated by US philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002) in his book A Theory of Justice (1971), a work nobody much under forty should attempt because few younger than that would have read enough fully to understand the intricacies.  In summary, it does sound remarkably simple because it calls for a pluralist society built on principles of justice and fairness, administered by a system of governance which permits a diversity of viewpoints while maintaining a fair structure of cooperation.  Rawls’ political liberalism draws one in to what soon becomes and intellectual labyrinth; once in, it’s hard to get out but it’s a nice place to spend some time and most rewarding if one can maintain the same train of thought for several weeks.

(5) Cultural Liberalism is not new but from the mid-twentieth century, its range of application expanded as previously oppressed groups began to enjoy a recognition of their rights, initially usually as a result of a change in societal attitudes and later, by a codification of their status in law, the matters addressed including ethnicity, feminism, civil liberties, reproductive rights, religion and the concerns of the LGBTQQIAAOP community.

(6) Liberal Internationalism is an approach to foreign policy (really a formal doctrine in some countries) advocating global cooperation, international institutions, human rights, and the promotion of democracy.  Its core tenants included support for multilateralism, international organizations like the United Nations (UN), global trade and the promotion of liberal democratic governance worldwide.  What is called the “liberal world order” has underpinned the western world since 1945 but its dominance is now being challenged by other systems which have their own methods of operation.

Zoozve

Zoozve (pronounced zooz-vee or zooz-vay)

The orthodox clipping of 524522 Zoozve (provisional designation 2002 VE68), a temporary quasi-satellite (or quasi-moon and technically an asteroid) of the planet Venus.

2024 (sort of): From an accidental coining by a graphic artist preparing a rendering of a stylized poster of the solar system, the asteroid's provisional designation (2002VE) misread and written as ZOOZVE (the text of the descriptors all in upper case).  Another suggested pronunciation is jeuj-vey (as in zhuzh) but zooz-vee & zooz-vay seem more mnemonic.  Zoozve is a proper noun; the noun plural is zoozves.  Although Zoozve is a unique object, in the solar system, doubtlessly there are many more quasi-moons and zoozve (with an initial lower case) may emerge as the generic term, thus the need for the noun plural.

The Poster.

Zoozve first came to wider public attention early in 2024 when the tale was revealed in a podcast produced by Latif Nasser (b 1986) of New York public radio station WNYC’s RadioLab.  The story was triggered when he first noticed a detail on a poster of the solar system: a moon of Venus called Zoozve.  There are many moons in the solar system but Dr Nasser holds a PhD from Harvard's History of Science department and knew the astronomical orthodoxy was that Venus “has no moons”, something some rapid research confirmed so he contacted Elizabeth Landau (b 1975), a member of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) communications, his not unreasonable assumption being if anyone should know about what’s in space, it was the folk at NASA.  After consulting the charts, Ms Landau concluded there was such an object but that it wasn’t a moon; it was a quasi-moon which, discovered in 2002, after 2004 when its dual orbits were first tracked, enjoyed the distinction of being the first quasi-moon ever found.  What appeared on the poster as “Zoozve” was the graphic artist’s misreading of “2002VE”, a designation typical of the naming conventions used in astronomy.

Poster close-up.

The distinction between a moon and a quasi moon is the former have “a primary anchor”: Although the Earth’s Moon of course revolves around the Sun as well as this planet, the solar relationship is a by-product of Earth’s gravitational pull.  A quasi-moon is one with two distinct paths of rotation, one around its (temporary) planet and one around the Sun.  There are implications in that beyond the cosmic phenomenon being a scientific curiosity: quasi-moons eventually will become detached (astronomers seem to like “flung-off” which is more illustrative) which means they could become objects which could crash into Earth.  Zoozve is some 240m (785 feet) in diameter and the conventional calculation is an impact with Earth would release energy equivalent to some 69,000 A-bombs with the yield (15 kilotons of TNT) of the device dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.  Zoozve is in the last few hundred years of its eight millennia-odd attachment to Venus and modelling suggests it is unlikely to hit earth when it does become adrift but such calculations are acknowledged to be “ultimately imprecise” and, as mentioned, there are doubtless many more; the universe is a violent and destructive place.  Quasi-moons had been speculated to exist for almost a century before 2002VE was named and since then it’s been discovered Earth has a few of its own.

2002VE was discovered in 2002 by Brian Skiff (b 1953), a research scientist at Arizona’s Lowell Observatory in Arizona and because he made no attempt to give it a “proper” name, it was allocated the procedural 2002VE86 (“proper” names granted usually only after an object has attracted sufficient interest to generate academic papers).  Dr Nasser however was so charmed by the tale of 2002VE that he submitted an application to the Working Group Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) the committee responsible for assigning names to minor planets and comets.  What he wanted was for 2002VE to become Zoozve but it transpired there were naming "rules" including:

(1) 16 characters or less in length

(2) Preferably one word

(3) Pronounceable (in some language)

(4) Non-offensive

(5) Not too similar to an existing name of a Minor Planet or natural Planetary satellite.

(6) The names of individuals or events principally known for political or military activities are unsuitable until 100 years after the death of the individual or the occurrence of the event.

(7) Names of pet animals are discouraged

(8) Names of a purely or principally commercial nature are not allowed.

(9) Objects that approach or cross Earth's orbit (so called Near Earth Asteroids) are generally given mythological names.

Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida.

Because of 2002VE’s proximity to earth, the need to have the name rooted in mythology was obviously the most onerous hurdle to overcome and it is a common-sense stipulation, imposed to avoid controversy on Earth: Imagine the fuss if quasi-moon 524522 Lindsay Lohan ended up crashing into Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago.  There would be litigation.

Added to which, the IAU have the reputation of being a bunch of humorless cosmic clerks, something like the Vogons ("...not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.") in Douglas Adams’ (1952–2001) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992): they were the crew who decided Pluto should no longer be thought a planet because of some tiresome technical distinction.  Although lacking the lovely rings of Saturn (a feature shared on a smaller scale by Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune), Pluto is the most charming of all because it’s so far away; desolate, lonely and cold, it's the solar system’s emo.  If for no other reason, it should be a planet in tribute to the scientists who, for decades during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, calculated possible positions and hunted for the elusive orb.  In an example of Donald Rumsfeld's (1932–2021; US secretary of defense 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) “unknown knowns”, the proof was actually obtained as early as 1915 but it wasn’t until 1930 that was realized.  In an indication of just how far away Pluto lies, since the 1840s when equations based on Newtonian mechanics were first used to predict the position of the then “undiscovered” planet, it has yet to complete even one orbit of the Sun, one Plutonian year being 247.68 years long.  Unromantic, the IAU remains unmoved.  Still, there have been exceptions to the rule and it emerged some of the “rules” are actually “guidelines” and the WGSBN was so impressed by the serendipitous tale that a majority of the committee’s eleven voting members cast their ballots for Zoozve so, on 5 February 2024, Radiolab was able to announce the IAU officially had re-designated 2002VE as 524522 Zoozve.

Truly unique words (in the sense of one-off spellings) happen for many reasons.  Those intended for global use as trademarked company or product names really do have to be unique and sufficient different to just about every other word to ensure there are no legal maneuverings contesting their registration which is how we ended up with “Optus” (used since 1991 by the Australian telecommunications company (TelCo) which is now a subsidiary of Singapore-based TelCo Singtel) and Stellantis (a conglomerate created by the merger of the Italian Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group (comprising the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands)).  While on first hearing, to many, Optus and Stellantis probably sounded like mistakes, some words really were just the result of error.  Apron (an article of clothing worn over the front of the torso and at least part of the legs and donned by (1) cooks, butchers and others as protection from spills and (2) Freemasons as part of their regalia worn during their cultish rituals was from the Middle English naperoun & napron, from the Old French napperon, a diminutive of nappe (tablecloth), from the Latin mappa (napkin).  “Napron” became “apron” by the process of linguistic assimilation (ie “a napron” becoming “apron” because of the evolution of pronunciation.

Some become legion as accidental coinings only for it to turn out there’s a pedigree.  Warren Harding (1865-1921; US President 1921-1923), during the 1920 presidential campaign, used “normalcy” instead of “normality” after a George W Bush-like (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) mangling of the written text, something understandable because the section with the offending word was almost aggressively alliterative:

“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”

In saying "normalcy" he may have misspoken or perhaps Harding liked the word; questioned afterwards he said he found it in a dictionary which probably was true although whether his discovery came before or after the speech wasn't explored.  Although Harding’s choice was much-derided at the time, normalcy had certainly existed since at least 1857, originally as a technical term from geometry meaning the "mathematical condition of being at right angles, state or fact of being normal in geometry" but subsequently it had appeared in print as a synonym of normality on several occasions.  Still, it was hardly in general use though Harding gave it a boost and it’s not since gone extinct, now with little complaint except from the most linguistically fastidious who insist the use in geometry remains the only meaning and all subsequent uses are mistakes.

Triple

Triple (pronounced trip-uhl)

(1) Threefold; consisting of three parts (matching or not).

(2) Of three kinds; threefold in character or relationship.

(3) Three times as great; multiplied by three (numbers or quantities in general).

(4) In international law or international relations, as triple entente, triple alliance etc, a treaty or some state of arrangement between three states.

(5) In baseball (also called the three-base hit), a hit which enables the batter safely to reach third base.

(6) In (ten-pin) bowling, three strikes in succession.

(7) In basketball, a three-point field goal.

(8) In curling, takeout shot in which three stones are removed from play.

(9) In musical time or rhythm, having three beats in each bar

(10) As triple crown, in various sporting competitions (Rugby Union, thoroughbred racing, motor sport et al), a (sometimes informal) acknowledgement of victory in three specific events (use based on the triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) once used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope).

(11) In internal combustion engines (ICE), an engine with three pistons or rotors.

(12) One of three; a third (obsolete and the source of some misunderstandings when found in historic texts).

(13) In programming theory, as Hoare triple, a description of how the execution of a piece of code changes the state of the computation in Hoare logic, consisting of (1) a command to be run, (2) a pre-condition that holds true beforehand, and (3) a post-condition that holds true afterwards.

(14) In mathematics, a sequence of three elements or 3-tuple.

1325-1375: From the Middle English triple (there was also þripell), from the Old French triple or the Medieval Latin triplare (to triple) from the Latin triplus (threefold, triple), from the primitive Indo-European tréyes.  Triple is a noun, verb & adjective, tripled is a verb, tripling is a noun & verb, triply is an adverb and triplet is a noun; the noun plural is triples.

In English, the Latinate multiplier “triple” is but one of many ways the value three (3) is in some way expressed or applied.  “Three” is the highest value, single digit cardinal number, as an ordinal it’s “third” (the Latinate ordinal is “tertiary”), the adverbial form is “thrice” (or the more mundane “three times”, as a multiplier the term is “threefold” (also as “three-fold”), the distributive is “triply”, the collective “tripartite”, “trio” or “threesome” (ménage à trois a popular version which has tended to limit the utility of “threesome” for other purposes), the multiuse collective “triplet”, the Greek or Latinate collective “triad”, the collective prefix (from both Latin & Ancient Greek (the latter also had “trito”)) was “tri”, the fractional expression is “third” (the Latinate fractional prefix was “trient-”, the elemental “thrin” & “triplet” and a period of three years is a triennium.  However, while there are weeks, fortnights & months, there’s no accepted term which express a measure of 21 days although three months is often described as “a quarter” although in the context of the nine month gestation associated with human pregnancy, the three month blocks are "trimesters" (first, second & third).  The use in obstetrics extended to education and in systems where academic years exist in four semesters (or terms), there is also the "fourth trimester".

Boss & Co SxSxS 16-bore triple-barrel shotgun #4690.

Originally an adjective, the noun emerged in the early fifteenth century.  The use in baseball dates from 1880 while the various uses of triple-deck, triple-decker etc (a development of the earlier double-decker) for cakes, sandwiches, bunk-beds etc all came into use in the early 1940s.  Triple-barrel carburetors were rare but did exist, Porsche for example using them on their flat sixes.  Rugby Union in 1883 was the first to use “triple crown”, awarded in the UK to the side which won the three “home countries” (England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales) matches.  That was based on the use of the papal triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) then used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope and was later picked up in US thoroughbred racing: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes comprise the Triple Crown which was first officially awarded in 1919 although the term didn’t become widely used until the 1930s.  In motorsport, despite the popular perception, it’s never been an official award and many branches of the sport have their own triple crowns, most barely known outside of the small circle of their cognoscenti.  The three events which comprised the classic triple crown were (1) the Indianapolis 500 (first run in 1911), the 24 Hours of Le Mans (first run in 1923) and the Monaco Grand Prix (first run in 1929) and it’s been achieved only once.  That was by Graham Hill (1929–1975) who completed the set at Le Mans in 1972 and although he and others have suggested the Formula One World Championship should be included instead of the Monaco Grand Prix, the original arrangement seems still the accepted triple crown.

The Triple Alliance and Triple Entente were diplomatic arrangements formed in Europe in the decades prior to the First World War (1914-1918).  The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary & Italy was signed in 1882 as a defensive system directed entirely against France.  It was an integral part of the series of treaties and agreements variously negotiated or imposed by Otto von Bismarck (1815-1989; chancellor of the German Empire (the "Second Reich") 1871-1890) and needs to be understood in the way it interacted with other cogs in the Bismarck machine.  That machine, a collection of inter-locking treaties and agreements (some of them secret) worked to further the interests of (1) the German Empire and (2) a general peace in Europe and was a good device in Bismarck’s capable hands but it proved lethal when less competent practitioners (who didn’t fully understand the implications) inherited the tool.  The Triple Entente was between France, Russia and the UK and was formed in 1907; in the narrow technical sense it was not a formal military alliance but an “understanding” between the three to counter the growing power of Germany and the Triple Alliance.  The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria would become attached to the Triple Alliance with the onset of war although Italy initially remained neutral before (in what would continue to be an Italian tradition) switching sided in 1915 to join the Alliance.  Both the Alliance and the Entente played their parts in the escalating tensions which culminated in the outbreak of hostilities which would trigger the chain reaction of declarations of war.  Had Bismarck still been in Berlin, it’s unlikely things would have been allowed to assume their own momentum.

Six-pack: Lindsay Lohan re-imagined as one of identical triplets.

The word is used also as a modifier as required such as triple-barreled (used with three-element surnames and in various manufactured items but best known in shotguns), triple-headed (again widely used but probably still most associated with creatures from mythology, tripledemic (a term used in public health and epidemiology to describe the simultaneous outbreak of three epidemics or pandemics), triple fault (in computing a third (and fatal) error instance in a CPU attempting a graceful recovery from a double fault, triple jump (an athletic (track & field) event involving three different types of jump), triple goddess (a female deity who is either three goddesses in one or one who is triune (both three and one at the same time) and triple X syndrome (a chromosomal variation characterized by the presence of an extra X chromosome in each cell of a human female).

The papal triple tiara

Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) in the papal triple tiara, at his coronation, 12 March, 1939.

The papal triple tiara is a crown which has been worn by popes of the Roman Catholic Church since the eighth century.  Traditionally it was worn for their coronation but no pontiff has been so crowned since Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) in 1963 and he abandoned its use after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962-1965).  The name tiara refers to the entire headgear and it has used a three-tiered form since a third crown was added during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1378).  It's also referred to as the triregnum, triregno or Triple Crown.  In a piece of one- (or perhaps four-) upmanship, Suleiman I (Süleyman the Magnificent, 1494-1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520-1566) commissioned from Venice a four tier helmet to show, in addition to the authority claimed by popes, he could add the symbol of his imperial power.  Often put on display as the centrepiece of Ottoman regalia to impress visitors, there's no documentary evidence the sultan ever wore the four layer tiara, crowns not part of the tradition and, fashioned from gold and gemstones, it would anyway have been extraordinarily heavy.

A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter continues to be used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on papal documents, buildings and insignia.  Remarkably, there’s no certainty about what the three crowns symbolize.  Some modern historians link it to the threefold authority of the pope, (1) universal pastor, (2) universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction and (3) temporal power.  Others, including many biblical scholars, interpret the three tiers as meaning (1) father of princes and kings, (2) ruler of the world and (3) vicar of Christ on Earth, a theory lent credence by the words once used when popes were crowned:  Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et scias te esse patrem principum et regum, rectorem orbis in terra vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum (Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever).

Lindsay Lohan triple-pack DVD bundle.

Documents in the Vatican Archive suggest by 1130 the papal tiara had been modified to become a conventional (and temporal) symbol of sovereignty over the Papal States.  In 1301 during a dispute with Philip IV (Philip the Fair, 1268–1314, King of France 1285-1314), Boniface VIII (circa 1230–1303; pope 1294-1303) added a second layer to represent a pope’s spiritual authority being superior to an earthly king’s civil domain.  It was Benedict XII (1285–1342; pope 1334-1342 (as the third Avignon pope)) who in 1342 who added the third, said to symbolize the pope’s moral authority over all civil monarchs, and to reaffirm Avignon’s possession.  A changing world and the loss of the Papal States deprived the triple crown of temporal meaning but the silver tiara with the three golden crowns remained to represent the three powers of the Supreme Pontiff: Sacred Order, Jurisdiction and Magisterium.

Not since 1963 has a pope worn the triple crown.  Then, the newly-elected Paul VI, at the end of his coronation, took the tiara from his head and, in what was said to be a display of humility, placed it on the altar.  In a practical expression of that humility, the tiara was auctioned; the money raised used for missionary work in Africa although, keeping things in house, the winning bidder was the Archdiocese of New York.  Popes Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) and Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) received tiaras as gifts but neither wore them.  Benedict’s, in a nice ecumenical touch, was made by Bulgarian craftsmen from the Orthodox Church in Sofia, a gesture in the name of Christian unity.  Benedict would have appreciated that, having always kept a candle burning in the window to tempt home the wandering daughter who ran off to Constantinople.

The Mercedes-Benz triple rotor Wankel

The original (although there was a prototype rendered in the tradition of functional brutalism) Mercedes-Benz C111 with triple rotor Wankel engine (1969).

Triple cylinder engines in cars were something of a niche in the early post war years but of late they’ve achieve a new popularity, improvements in electronics and combustion chamber design meaning three cylinders can now achieve what once required four and even with an equivalent displacement their efficiency is inherently greater because of the reduction in internal friction.  Obviously compact, they’ve proved an ideal power-plant in hybrid vehicles.  One quirky triple was the Mercedes-Benz C111 which first appeared in 1969 with a 1.8 litre (110 cubic inch) three-rotor Wankel engine, something then thought to have a great future; it seemed a good idea at the time.  The C111, although produced in a small run and finished in some cases to production car standards was only ever a test bed, not only for the doomed rotary engine but also developments in suspension design, anti-lock braking (ABS; Anti-Bloc System) and safety engineering.  The gullwing body really was designed by an Italian-born stylist but so long had he been in Germany that Teutonic ways had entered his soul so the C111 was less lovely than what might have emerged from a studio in Turin but at the time it still caused a stir, even though finished in what the factory called “safety orange”, their standard high-visibility paint for prototypes and test-beds.  Later versions were fitted with a four-rotor Wankel, a variety of diesels and even a 4.8 litre (292 cubic inch) V8, the fastest of the rotaries said to be capable of 300 km/h (188 mph) while the V8 version (C111-II-D) in 1976 set a new closed-course record on the Nardò Ring in Italy, clocking in at 403.978 km/h (251.815 mph).

Triple carburetors

1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C (Gran Turismo Berlinetta Competizione (denoting a grand touring coupé built to competition-specification)).

When submitting to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) the application to homologate the 275 GTB/C for sports car racing, there was some glitch in the factory’s administrative processes because the document certifying the existence of a six-carburetor option for the 275 GTB wasn’t part of the paperwork enclosed.  That meant the 275 GTB/C could appear on the grid only with triple carburetors so to compensate, Ferrari had Weber produce a run of 40 DF13 units which in addition to their higher flow-rate featured lightweight magnesium bodies instead of the aluminium housing and were distinguished also by the distinctive, rearward-facing inlet trumpets.  As might be expected, original Weber 40 DF13s now command a premium price.  Twelve 275 GTB/Cs were built and the model was a turning point in being the last Ferrari built for racing to use the classic Borrani wire wheels.  Such had been the advances in tyre technology that by 1966 the grip generated transferred stresses so acute that in extreme conditions the spokes could break, a tendency exacerbated by the wheels’ additional width (7 inch front 7½ rear); there were accidents.  Such was the concern the two 275 GTB/Cs built as road cars were factory-fitted with aluminum-alloy wheels although the lovely Borranis continued to be made available for the later and much heavier 365 GTB/4 (Daytona, 1968-1973) and 365 GTC/4 (1971-1972), the factory cautioning they were suitable only for road use.  In truth, using a 275 GTB/C on the road was a dubious proposition because, as a weight-saving measure, the body panels had been fabricated in thin 20-gauge aluminium; about half the thickness of the metal used for the road cars, it could be dented just by being touched and the dainty bumperettes (which offered at least some protection on the other variants of the 275 GTB) were wholly fake and merely affixed to the panels with no underlying structure.

1960 Jaguar XK150S 3.8 (left) and schematic of typical installation of Jaguar's auxiliary enrichment thermo-carburetor (right).

The last in the XK series (XK120 (1948-1954), XK140 (1954-1957) & XK150 (1957-1961)), the Jaguar XK150 debuted with a version of the twin carburetor 3.4 litre XK-Six used since 1948.  Increased weight had blunted the XK150's performance, something not wholly off-set by the slight increase in power coaxed from the engine and in 1958 the option of an "S" specification was made available as the XK150S, restoring the pace of the earlier cars, the raised output achieved with a revised cylinder head and triple carburettors (seen earlier in the 1950s on the C-Type, D-Type & XKSS).  The final and fastest of the species was the 3.8 litre version of the XK150S, introduced in 1960; the engine in essentially this configuration would later be shared with the early E-Types (XKE) and Mark X, the triple carburetor arrangement carried when the 4.2 litre versions were released in 1964.  The triple carburetor engines were in 1968 withdrawn from the US market because the anti-emission regulations made the cost of certification prohibitive although, while in North America buyers had to be content with twin-carburetor units, the triples continued for RoW (rest of the world) vehicles exported to other places or sold in the home market.  When the last of the six-cylinder E-Types was made in 1971, that was the end of the line for the triple carburettor Jaguar.  It is however misleading to suggest the XK150S, E-Type and Mark X/420G were the only series-production Jaguars with triple carburetors because on some cars during the 1950s & 1960s, the factory fitted a smaller electromagnetically controlled “auxiliary carburetor” which augmented the main pair, making starting easier.  The unusual arrangement acted as a choke but it was a complicated solution to a simple problem and, while performing faultlessly in testing, in the real world with gas (petrol) of varying quality and in different climatic conditions, it sometimes proved troublesome and there were owners who gave up and installed a conventional choke.

1966 Pontiac 2+2 421 HO Tri Power.

The early carburetors were all single throat (later also as “choke” or “barrel”) device and almost all were gravity-fed; it wasn’t until the 1930s the first two-barrel (then called a “duplex”) units appeared.  That design was such an advance because the duplexing allowed “fuel separation” manifolds which more accurately sent the mixture to the most distant cylinders; the adoption if this technology in 1934 allowed the output of Ford’s then new “flathead” V8 to rise from 60 to 85 horsepower (HP).  Buick in 1941 created what was, in effect, the first four-barrel system by installing two two-barrel units, the second becoming active only when the throttle had been opened far enough to operate the progressive linkage.  The advantage of that was economy of operation because the additional fuel-burn happened only on demand; it was an approach Detroit would use until 1971.  Four-barrel carburettors which operated on the same model appeared at scale in the 1950 and became an industry standard, some even installed in pairs on the high-performance vehicles.  Ideal in many ways for the V8 layout, the problem for the manufacturers was the engines grew at a much greater rate than the carburetors and while the dual four-barrel configuration was suited to some, a better compromise for many was to use triple two-barrels.  Pontiac and Oldsmobile chose that path in 1957 and Chevrolet and Cadillac followed in 1958.  Ford flirted only briefly with the triple two-barrel before switching for a few years to dual four barrels for their high performance V8s, their first venture in 1958 when three were bolted onto the big, heavy 430 cubic inch (7.0 litre) MEL V8 although in that form it appeared only on one Mercury for that single season.  As higher-volume four-barrel carburetors became widely available, the rationale for the triple option faded and Chevrolet ceased use for all but the full-sized line and the Corvette; the last triple carburetor corvettes were built in 1969.  Chrysler was last to adopt the idea and the last to offer it, Trans-Am themed 340 cubic inch (5.5 litre) Plymouth ‘Cudas and Dodge Challengers made in 1970 while the 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) (advertised variously as “Six Pack” by Dodge and “Six Barrel” by Plymouth) was available in several models between 1969-1971 (it's said six 1972 cars were so configured) although its last appearance was in the Jensen SP, the last of which was built in 1973.  Jensen's experiment had at the time seemed a good idea because, with the engines outlawed in the US, they obtained the surplus stock at an attractive price but in the Interceptor's smaller engine bay and equipped with air-conditioning (something Chrysler never coupled with the triple carburetor engines), the SP proved troublesome and production was terminated, Jensen not taking up to option to buy the remaining stock, 

"Triple" is used of many things: Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Of taillights and exhaust tips 

1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible.

DeSoto's signature triple stacked taillights were a footnote in Detroit's macropterous era of the late 1950s, the style making possible the distinctive vertical arrangement.  Chevrolet would for years make triple taillights a trademark of their more expensive lines (although, apart from the odd special built for the show circuit, they resisted the temptation to add a third to the Corvette (the additional rear apertures on the abortive 1963 Corvette Grand Sport (GS) were for air extraction)) but they appeared always in a less memorable horizontal array.  DeSoto's motif was Chrysler's most successful use of the fins but it wasn't enough to save the brand  which was crowded out of the mid-priced market, not only by competition from General Motors (GM) and Ford but also by intra-corporate cannibalization, squeezed from below by Dodge and from above by Chrysler's new Newport line.  Demand for DeSotos collapsed and that 3034 1961 models were built in late 1960 happened only to use up the large inventory of the few parts still exclusive to the brand.  The last of the line, heavily discounted, were not sold until well into 1961 by which time DeSoto was a single-model range and any loyal customer unable to be supplied with one after stocks were exhausted was rewarded instead with a similarly configured Chrysler Newport, a notch up the corporate hierarchy.  The 47-day production run of the 1961 DeSotos was short but it was longer than that of Ford's doomed 1960 Esdel, 2864 of which left the production line over 34 days late in 1959. 

More sharing of stuff than before: 1960 DeSoto Fireflite four-door hardtop (left) and 1960 Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop (right).

Note the New Yorker's larger rear window.  Remarkably (by today's standards), the Chryslers of this generation offered two different designs of rear glass, the extra surface-area described in the brochures as the “Extra-large rear window” and it was a time when such flourishes were a matter purely for designers and accountants whereas now it would require a separate programme crash-testing several vehicles.  The big glass was standard on all two-door hardtops & New Yorker four-door hardtops and optional at various times on the Saratoga, Newport and Windsor four-door hardtops.

1961 Chrysler brochure (page 7).

The phrase "EXTRA-LARGE REAR WINDOW" really did appear (capitalized) in the brochures and the simplicity in the description wasn't always typical of the advertising copy of an era during which words like "vista", "panoramic" or "dioramic" might have been expected when extolling the virtues of having more glass.  In the same (1961) brochure, the plain-speaking language may be compared with "FLIGHT-SWEEP DECK LID", used to describe the fake spare tyre cover the agency further explained was a "smooth sculptured circle" which added "a distinctive finishing touch".  In the wild, universally, the "flight sweep deck lid" was referred to as "the toilet seat".  "Flight-Sweep" was an allusion to a pair of concept-cars Chrysler sent around the show circuit in 1955 and they genuinely did have the spare tyre housed under the mounting although the complexity of the assembly would have seen it vetoed by the accountants as too expensive for mass-production.  When "Flight Sweep" was used as an advertising hook for the 1956 range, while some of the styling cues from the show cars did appear the "toilet seat" did not but it was a feature (many suggesting, even then, a blemish) between 1957-1960 when it was fitted as standard on some of the higher-priced lines and an option on others.  There were buyers who chose the option so the "toilet seat look" must have had some appeal.   

By 1959 the writing was on the wall for the once popular DeSoto and the 1960 range would prove its swansong, the last of the breed barely modified Chryslers and the only real hint of the past was the taillight's triple frets.  On the DeSoto the ridges were a modest attempt to retain brand identity but in optics such things have a purpose and are known as “Fresnel lenses” or “Fresnel ribs”, the name from French civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827), remembered for his research into optics which led eventually to the near-unanimous acceptance of the nature of light being a wave (he was half-right but light was later proved to possess a wave-particle duality).  His more enduring Fresnel lens used the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) principle and what the “stepped” design did was extend the reach of lighthouse beams, doubtlessly saving the lives of many seafarers.  Fresnel’s invention was a refinement of the dioptric (refractive) stepped lens, a concept first published by the French cosmologist and mathematician Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) and Fresnel’s enhancements better distributed and directed the light, improving visibility from longer distances and a greater range of angles.

By 1960 (left) the DeSoto's taillights were a shadow of the way the triple-stack motif had been defined in 1959 (right): This juxtaposition is DeSoto Red Tail Lights in Black and White by Paul Ward.  Many designers probably will prefer the later interpretation but there's a charm to the triple stack. 

1969 Dino 206 GT by Ferrari in Azzurro Metallizzato (left), 1974 Ferrari 365 GT4 in Rosso Corso (centre) and 1975 Ferrari 365 GT4 BB in Verde Germoglio.

Unexpectedly, in the early 1970s, Ferrari had a flirtation with triple taillights and they doubled-down for the 365 GT4 BB (better known as the Berlinetta Boxer), adding a pair of triple tail-pipe apparatuses (thus a count of six rather than the usual four) for the 4.4 litre Flat-12.  Before the decade was out it must have been decided four of either was enough and the factory decided for a while (mostly) to stick to the classics: as designs like the Dino 206 GT illustrate, less can be more.  Since the BB however, Ferraris have also appeared with two and three tailpipes (some in the 1970s had but one) and in the twenty-first century many cars come with just a minimalist pair of taillights.  Ascetically, no arrangement works as well as the traditional template: four lights, four pipes.

The fetish of motorcycle exhaust systems

1980 Laverda Jota 1000 (3-into-2, far left), 1973 Suzuki GT750 "Water Buffalo" (3-into-4, centre left), 1972 Kawasaki 750 Mach IV (H2) (3-into-3, centre right) and 2017 MV-Augusta Dragster 800Rc (3-into-3, far right).

Triple cylinder engines have been a feature of motorcycle engines for decades and different manufacturers have taken various approaches to the exhaust systems, an item which exerts upon riders a special fascination.  It’s not unusual to fit single systems (3-into-one) but there are also some which “siamesed” the central header pipe, the derived pair joining the two outer pipes to duct into two mufflers.  Unusually, Suzuki for a while offered 380, 550 & 750 cm³ machines with 3-into-4 systems, the central header again “siamesed” the central header but had the novelty of terminating the two pipes in separate mufflers thereby emulating the appearance of a four-cylinder machine.  It was a curious arrangement which Suzuki abandoned and other manufacturers choose not to follow (although there had been after-market suppliers which concocted 2-into-4 systems which exchanged the "advantage" of "the look" for the drawback of additional weight and needless complexity).  Greatly at the time, Suzuki must have valued symmetry.

1973 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750 (left) and 1975 Triumph X-75 Hurricane (right).

Somewhat earlier, asymmetry hadn’t frightened Kawasaki which used pragmatic 3-into-3 engineering for their range (250, 350, 400, 500 & 750 cm³) of charismatic, highly strung two-strokes, one pipe to the left, two to the right and it was a distinctive feature which, although sometimes seen on the track, remains rare on the road.  In the same era, Triumph on their X75 Hurricane took 3-into-3 asymmetry to its logical conclusion, its three pipes arranged in a radically upswept stack on the right.  It looked dramatic and was much admired but didn’t catch on although there’s the odd revival, the Italian house MV-Augusta engineering a particularly aggressive interpretation on their Dragster 800Rc.

1969 Triumph Trident T150.

So there have been triple-cylinder motorcycles with exhaust systems configured as 3-into-1, 3-into-2, 3-into-3 & 3-into-4 but the early versions of the Trident and BSA Rocket 3 (1968-1975) offered a unique take on things with a design which had the three headers ducted into two mufflers, each of which terminated with three exhaust stubs so it can be described as a 3-into-2-into-6 which seems one layer of complication too many.  The styling on the early Trident and Rocket wasn’t well received and was revised for 1971.  Neither motorcycle was a commercial success because they arrived too late; had the pair been released in 1966 as was planned, things might have been better because genuinely they were fast and offered a level of refinement beyond the parallel twins which for years had been a mainstay of the British industry.  As it was, within weeks of their debut, Honda’s epoch-making 750-Four was on the market, a generation (or more) advanced compared with the competition and when the Kawasaki 900 later followed, even the (slight) performance advantage enjoyed by the British triples vanished.

2022 Triumph Rocket 3 GT in triple black.

When Triumph announced the Rocket 3 in 2019, most attention was on the numbers, the 2458 cm³ (150 cubic inch) triple being the largest displacement engine available in a motorcycle and the (163 ft-lb) (221 N⋅m) torque generated also industry leading, topping even the big Ducatis and the straight-six BMW.  Triumph since 2004 been at the top of the displacement tree with the Rocket III’s 2294 cm³ (140 cubic inch) engine and the updated model was very much a modernization exercise, something which may account for the decision to switch from the traditional Roman numerals to a digitally compliant “3”.  Being a triple there were of course options for how to handle the exhaust ducting and for the GT model Triumph opted for the asymmetric on the model of the old Kawasaki two-strokes rather than reprise its own X-75 Hurricane of nearly half a century earlier.  Unlike Kawasaki, Triumph didn’t make asymmetry a signature feature, choosing to route the third exhaust, almost inconspicuously, just under the swing-arm on the left side, a curious juxtaposition with the visual statement of intent made by the two on the right.  Doubtlessly the engineering behind the decision was sound and to add a bit of high-tech bling, some Rocket 3’s had carbon-fibre exhaust tips and most conspicuously they were carbon-fibre.