Hermeneutic

Hermeneutic (pronounced hur-muh-noo-tik or hur-muh-nyoo-tik)

(1) Of or relating to hermeneutics; interpretative; explanatory.

(2) That which explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates.

(3) In theology, of or relating to the interpretation of Scripture (technically when using or relating to hermeneutics but sometimes used more loosely)

1670s: From the Ancient Greek ἑρμηνευτικός (hermēneutikós) (of, skilled in, interpreting), the construct being hermēneú(ein) (to make clear, interpret (derivative of ἑρμηνεύς (hermēneús) (an interpreter) + -tikos (–tic).  The –tikos suffix was commonly used to form adjectives.  The Greek τικός (-tikos) was derived from the noun τι (-tis) (“one who does” or “related to”).  Typically, when –tikos was appended to a word, it conveyed the sense of “being related to, characterized by, or pertaining to the base word”.  It was used also (n various contexts) to create adjectives that describe qualities or characteristics associated with the base word.  The form in French was herméneutique.  Hermeneutic is a noun & adjective, hermeneuticist & hermeneut are nouns, hermeneutical is an adjective, hermeneutically is an adverb; the noun plural is hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics is now an overarching technical term which can (despite the disapproval of some) be used to describe all or some of the theories and practices of interpretation.  The word started life in academic theology and referred to the interpretation of scripture and biblical scholarship generally but by the early eighteenth century it was used also of the analysis of literature and philosophical texts.  Hermeneutics thus began as a practice which evolved into a formal discipline, the parameters of which have changed as needs arose and can now encompass any aspect of deconstruction, understanding or transmission.  Still most associated by some with scriptural interpretation (with all the controversy that implies), in modern use, hermeneutics is applied to law, philosophy, history or any field in which information is contained in texts (and as the post-modernists told us, “text” exists in many forms beyond the written or spoken word).

Despite the impression given by some sources, the terms hermeneutics and exegesis (from the Ancient Greek ἐξήγησις (exḗgēsis) (interpretation), from ἐξηγέομαι (exēgéomai) (I explain, interpret), the construct being ἐξ (ex-) (out) + ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai) (I lead, guide)) tend not to be used interchangeably, probably because both are elements in the jargon of specialists who field them with the necessary precision.  Both are approaches to the interpretation of texts but they have distinct focuses and differing methods of operation.  Exegesis describes a critical analysis of a text, the purpose being to understand its meaning, the primary focus being the extraction of the original or intended meaning, the historical and cultural context thus a tool of exegesis, undertaken often by the interplay of linguistic analysis and historical research.  Hermeneutics (at least in modern use) casts a wider vista although it too is a discipline built around a theory of interpretation which encompasses a range of principles which can be applied to texts, symbols and any means of communication.  The essence of hermeneutics is that as well as an understanding of original meanings in the context of the time, place and circumstances of their origin, there's also the ongoing process of interpretation which can consider not only previous research but also an understanding of the way interpretation is (and has historically been) influenced by the relationship between the interpreter and the text; the effect of an interpreter's biases (conscious and not), history and culture.  Implicit is this is the need to deconstruct the biases and assumptions inherent in language.  Given all that, although the purists might not approve, the techniques and tools of exegesis can be thought of as a sub-set of those of hermeneutics.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The source of the word "hermeneutics" was once tangled up with a folk etymology which attributed a link to Hermes, in Greek mythology the son of Zeus and Maia.  Hermes had a troubled and eventful past which included the theft of livestock from the herd of Admetus which grazed in the (admittedly neglectful) care of his brother Apollo and the invention of the lyre which he fashioned from the shell of a tortoise with strings made from the gut of the unfortunate pair of the cattle he’d earlier sacrificed to the twelve gods.  A bit of a hustler, through a complicated series of trades and negotiations, Hermes emerged with the gift to prophesize the future and assumed the role of psychopomp (from the Latin psȳchopompus, from the Ancient Greek ψῡχοπομπός (psūkhopompós or psȳchopompós) (conductor (guide) of souls), the construct being ψῡχή (psūkhḗ) (the soul, mind, spirit) + πομπός (pompós) (guide, conductor, escort, messenger).  It was the psychopomp who was given the task of escorting the souls of the dead to Hades, the psychopomp most familiar in popular culture being the grim reaper.  It’s not clear which of these many qualities and skills have over the last two centuries so appealed to the admirals of the Royal Navy that they chose HMS Hermes as the name of a dozen-odd warships, the Admiralty website blandly noting his role as divine messenger.  That was certainly what gave rise to the old story (which for years appeared in many dictionaries) of Hermes being the etymological source of “hermeneutic”, based on his role in interpreting divine will: Nephele, Amphion, Heracles, Perseus and Odysseus all benefiting from his skills.  Lending credence to that was the observation of more than one of the philosophers of Antiquity that interpretation of text matters because the same collection of words can be used to spread lies as well as truth so the task of Hermes was an important one although, being Hermes, in some of the myths its recounted how he wasn’t above “bending interpretations” to suit his own purposes.

Hermes, Aglauros & Herse in the chamber of Herse (1573), oil on canvas by Paolo Caliari (1528–1588).  The winged staff held by Hermes was the symbol of his position as divine messenger and Caliari depicts the scene in which Hermes has come to seduce the Athenian princess Herse.  Her sister Aglauros (a jealous type), attempts to prevent him entering her chamber but with a touch of his staff he will transform her into black stone and take what he wants.  Herse is shown apparently sanguine about her sister's sad fate; perhaps it was a difficult family.  It's a rarely painted subject and is from the epic-length Metamorphoses, by the Roman Poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BC–17 AD)

The connection with the sometimes dastardly Hermes is obviously an attractive tale but etymologists have concluded the true origin of "hermeneutic" lies in forms related to the Ancient Greek ἑρμηνεύω (hermēneuō) (translate, interpret), from ἑρμηνεύς (hermeneus) (translator, interpreter), of uncertain origin.  As ἑρμηνεία (hermeneia) (interpretation, explanation), it appears in the works of Aristotle (384-322 BC) which are among the oldest surviving philosophical texts in which appears the origins of textual analysis and the theoretical underpinning of the relationship between language and logic.

Sling

Sling (pronounced sling)

(1) A (sometimes improvised) device for hurling stones or other missiles, constructed typically by the use of a short strap with a long string at each end, operated by placing the missile in the strap, and, holding the ends of the strings in one hand, whirling the instrument around in a circle and releasing one of the strings to discharge the missile; often called a slingshot (or sling-shot).

(2) A bandage used to suspend or support an injured part of the body, most commonly in an arrangement suspended from the neck to support an injured arm or hand.

(3) A strap, band, or the like, forming a loop by which something is suspended or carried, as a strap attached to a rifle and passed over the shoulder.

(4) As sling-back, a design used for woman’s shoes which uses an exposed, usually thin strap which wraps around the ankle.

(5) A rope, chain, net, etc, used for hoisting freight or other items or for holding them while being hoisted.

(6) An act or instance of slinging.

(7) In nautical use, a chain or halyard for supporting a hoisting yard (an in the plural (as slings), the area of a hoisting yard to which such chains are attached; the middle of a hoisting yard.

(8) To throw, cast, or hurl; fling, as from the hand.

(9) To place in or secure with a sling to raise or lower; to raise, lower, etc by such means; to hang by a sling or place so as to swing loosely.

(10) To suspend.

(11) An iced alcoholic drink, typically containing gin, water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice.

(12) In mountaineering, a loop of rope or tape used for support in belays, abseils, etc.

(13) A young or infant spider, such as one raised in captivity or those in labs used in scientific or industrial research (a shortening of s(pider)ling).

(14) In the sport of badminton, carrying the shuttle on the face of the racquet rather than hitting it cleaning (penalized as a foul).

1175–1225: From the Middle English noun slynge (hand-held implement for throwing stones) & verb slyngen (past tense slong, past participle slungen & slongen) (to knock down" using a sling (and by the mid-thirteenth century “to throw, hurl, fling, especially if using a sling), probably from the Old Norse slyngja & slyngva (to hurl, to fling), from the Proto-Germanic slingwaną (to worm, twist) which was cognate with the Middle Low German slinge (a sling), the Old High German slingan and the Old English slingan (to wind, twist) and etymologists speculate that while the Middle English noun may be derived from the verb, the sense of “strap, hoist” may be of distinct (an uncertain) origin.  The Old English slingan (to wind, twist) came from the same source and comparable European forms include the German schlingen (to swing, wind, twist), the Old Frisian slinge, the Middle Dutch slinge and the Danish and Norwegian slynge, from the primitive Indo-European slenk (to turn, twist) which may be compared with the Welsh llyngyr (worms, maggots), the Lithuanian sliñkti (to crawl like a snake) and the Latvian slìkt (to sink).  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) approved the past tense slung but not slang.  Sling is a noun & verb, slinger is a noun, slinging & slung are verbs and slinged is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is slings.

The notion of the verb was doubtlessly that of the missile being twisted and twirled before it is released and the stone or piece of metal hurled was by the late fourteenth century known as a sling-stone, the older English word for which was lithere, from the Old English liþere (related to leather), the connection being the strips of tanned animal hide used in slings.  Etymologists note the likely influence of Low German cognates in the sense development in English, the use to describe a “loop for lifting or carrying heavy objects” documented since the early fourteenth century and the “leather shoulder strap for a musket or other long-arm” was in use by at least 1711.  As pieces of fabric used to support injured arms, there evidence of use dating back thousands of years but such things seem formally to have been called slings only after the 1720s, the earlier medical word in Middle English for a “sling or supporting loop used in treating dislocations”, although there was also the early fifteenth century stremb & suspensorie, from the Medieval Latin stremba.  The slingshot (also sling-shot or hand-catapult) dates from 1849 and although it seems likely to have previously been in oral use, it’s not documented as a verb until 1969.  The slung-shot, first recorded in 1848, was a rock wrapped in a sling, used as a weapon by the criminal class and those living in rough neighborhoods.

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (b 1983), a Sri Lankan cricketer and right-arm fast bowler who was known as "Slinga Malinga" because of his unusual delivery, often referred to as a "sling action".

As a battlefield weapon, the sling is ancient and has endured (often in improvised form) to this day because it’s simple, reliable and can readily be fashioned from whatever falls to hand.  As projectiles, rocks can be lethal if delivered with force and in many environments (include urban), ammunition is effectively limitless.  In Antiquity, the armies of Greece, Rome & Carthage all had units of slingers attached to their infantry formations and used continued into the sixteenth century when the first grenades were developed.  There’s a political aspect too, the Palestinian resistance fighters gaining notably more international sympathy when they restricted their weapons to stones and slings rather than guns and bombs.  The sweetened, flavored liquor drink known as the sling was a creation of US English, dating from 1792, the origin mysterious although it may have been from the notion of “throwing back” a drink or linked with the German schlingen (to swallow).  In the nineteenth century, it was used also as a verb in the sense “to drink slings”.  The noun gun-slinger, although now associated with the Hollywood version of the nineteenth century American west, is documented only since 1916 and sling hash was US slang for a waiter or waitress, especially one employed at a lunch counter or cheap restaurant. In Australian slang a sling was a (1) a part of one’s wages paid in physical cash, thereby avoiding taxation and (2) that part of a business’s turnover not entered in the transactional record, again as a form of tax evasion.  It picked up- on the earlier use of sling to mean “to sell, peddle, or distribute something (often drugs, sex etc) illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.).  A rare variation was undersling (to sell with an implication of illegality) and that presumably was for emphasis, being a blend of “under the table” and “sling”.

Lindsay Lohan in open-toed slingbacks, New York City, April 2006.

Slingback shoes are so-named for the distinctive ankle strap which crosses around the back and sides of the ankle and heel.  In this it’s a style distinct from a conventional arrangement in which a strap completely encircles the ankle.  Produced in a variety of heel heights and in open & closed-toe styles, most slingbacks are made with a low vamp little different from those with enclosed heels.  In a sense, the slingback shoe is related to the many types of sandal but is almost always more formal.  To accommodate different ankle sizes, slingback straps are almost always of adjustable length, typically with a buckle and such is the design that it’s rarely necessary for the wearer to re-buckle after the first fitting.  In that sense, slingbacks are effectively slip-ons.

Two Singapore Slings.

The Singapore sling cocktail said to have been invented in 1915, by a bartender at Raffles Hotel’s (named after Sir Stamford Raffles (1781–1826), a colonial official who under the Raj was a notable figure in the early development of Singapore) Long Bar.  Selling sometimes a thousand a day during the peak season, the current price of a Singapore sling (including taxes) is SGD$46 (US$34) so the Long Bar’s cash flow is usually positive.  The unusual story of its origin is also a tale of one of the Far East’s early contributions to women’s rights because although the European men in the Long Bar coped with the heat & humidity with gin & tonics or whisky & sodas, they didn’t approve of women drinking alcohol in public places so they were served iced teas or fruit juices.  However, although it’s not recorded where it was a product of feminist agitation or local initiative, a bartender created a drink visually indistinguishable from the fruit juices usually served but which was actually a cocktail infused with gin, cherry liqueur & grenadine, the latter chosen for the pinkish-red hue it produced, something said to lend it some “feminine appeal”.  Thus was born the Singapore Sling which, more than a century later remains a symbol of the city-state although there have been many variations over the years including the addition of ingredients such as lime, pineapple juice, Cointreau or Benedictine liqueur.

The Singapore Sling Chicane in its original form (left) and before & after (2012-2013, right).

Conducted on a street circuit the Singapore Grand Prix was added to the Formula One (F1) calendar in 2008 and is notable as the first ever night time Grand Prix, a wise move in the equatorial zone.  Although regarded as one of the more challenging of the street circuits, the city-state had previously staged motor-racing events and they were conducted on an a narrow and treacherous course called the Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit, created overnight from public roads which offered almost no run-off areas and featured monsoon drains, bus stops, and lampposts, all dangerously close to the racing line which itself was marked by the oil trails left by the cars, trucks and buses which usually percolated around.  More than one driver called the circuit the “most dangerous in the world”.  The racing however was good, the original Grand Prix on the course run in 1961 under Formula Libre rules (much more interesting than the current, dull Formula One cars) and the events between 1966-1973 were usually Formula Two (F2) events but by 1973 Singapore had developed to such an extent the organization was just too disruptive and the safety concerns about Thomson Road were not merely theoretical because there had been injuries and deaths.  However, in 2008 the Marina Bay Street Circuit was designed and despite being regarded as “difficult”, it conformed to all modern safety requirements.  Notably, it contained 23 corners, more than any other on the calendar and by far the most famous was turn 10 which attracted such interest it was divided by analysts into 3 smaller turns (10a, 10b, & 10c).  The corner was called the Singapore Sling Chicane.

Lindsay Lohan, 2009 Singapore Grand Prix.

It was well-named because between turns 9 & 10, F1 cars were travelling at around 170 mph (273 km/h) and the Singapore Sling was defined with raised kerbing which, it hit at speed would literally launch a car into the air if the driver varied by less than an inch (25 mm) from the ideal line.  One driver called them “little tortoises that would wreck the car if you get something wrong” and after many complaints from various drivers the height of the kerbing was reduced.  However, that only reduced the danger they posed and crashes continued so in 2010 Turn 10 was modified but there were still airborne adventures and broken cars still littered the chicane at every event.  Physicists even ran the number through one of the super-computers used usually to model the climate or simulate thermo-nuclear weapons and determined that if a F1 machine hit “a tortoise” at racing speed, it was guaranteed to hit the wall.  Accordingly, in 2013 Turn 10 became just a left-handed turn instead of the left / right / left format of the notorious Singapore Sling Chicane.  That in itself was unusual because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation which is international sport’s dopiest regulatory body) has for decades adored chicanes to the point of fetishism, such is their desire to make racing as slow and processional as possible.  In recent seasons however, F1 has become so predictably processional, there have been calls to bring back the Singapore Sling Chicane and given nobody has come up with a better suggestion to make the competition interesting, it may be worth considering.  Of course, they could change the rules relating to the cars and the adoption of large capacity hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines would be a good start. 

Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred (pronounced thur-oh-bred, thur-uh-bred, thuhr-uh-bred)

(1) Of pure or unmixed breed, stock, or lineage, as a horse or other animal; bred from the purest and best blood; a pedigree animal; purebred.

(2) By analogy, a person having good breeding or education.

One of a breed of horses, to which all racehorses belong, originally developed in England by crossing three Arabian stallions with European mares (always initial upper case)

(3) By analogy, a machine built to exacting standards with mostly bespoke parts rather than something assembled from parts or components from other manufacturers.

1701: The construct wass thorough +‎ bred.  Through is traced to circa 1300, from Middle English thoruȝ & þoruȝ, an adjectival use of the Old English þuruh (from end to end, from side to side, a stressed variant of the adverb þurh), a byform of Old English þurh, from which English gained through.  The word developed a syllabic form in cases where the word was fully stressed: when it was used as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and less commonly when used as a preposition.  Bred is the past tense of breed.  Breed is from the Middle English breden, from the Old English brēdan (bring (young) to birth, procreate (also "cherish, keep warm), from the West Germanic brodjan (source also of the Old High German bruoten, & German brüten (to brood, hatch)) & the Proto-Germanic brōdijaną (to brood), from brod- (fetus, hatchling), from the primitive Indo-European bhreu (warm; to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn).  It was cognate with the Scots brede & breid, the Saterland Frisian briede, the West Frisian briede, the Dutch broeden, the German Low German bröden & the German brüten.  The etymological notion is incubation, warming to hatch.  The intransitive sense "come into being" is from circa 1200; that of "beget or bear offspring" from the mid-thirteenth century.  As applied to livestock, the meaning "procure by the mating of parents and rear for use" was standardised by the mid-fourteenth century.  The sense of "grow up, be reared" (in a family; clan etc.) is from the late 1300s, extended to mean "form by education" a few decades later.  Thoroughbreed (also as thorough-breed) is a now rarely used alternative form.  Thoroughbred & thoroughbredness are nouns; the noun plural is thoroughbreds.

Among the thoroughbreds:  Lindsay Lohan visiting Flemington Racecourse for the Spring Carnival, Melbourne, Australia, November 2019.  Melbourne Cup Day (left) and Derby Day (right).

The noun breed "race, lineage, stock from the same parentage" (originally of animals) dates from the 1550s, derived from the verb but wasn’t applied to people until the 1590s; the scientific use to define a “"kind or species" began to be used in the 1580s.  The noun half-breed (person of mixed race) is attested from 1760 and was used first as an adjective in 1762; now though offensive it appears to have been replaced by “mixed-race”  but even this is not recommend for use unless being applied self-referentially.  The verb cross-breed appeared in 1670, used in relation to dogs, livestock and plants and, surprisingly, appears not to have been a noun until 1774.  Underbred (of inferior breeding, vulgar) from the 1640s was an adjective which didn’t survive; it was applied to animals "not pure bred" after 1890.

Thoroughbred the adjective dates from 1701 in the sense of persons "thoroughly accomplished" and wasn’t used for horses until the concept was created in 1796; the noun is first recorded 1842 but it’s hard to believe if wasn’t earlier in use in the horse-racing business; the noun is first recorded in 1842.  Use to refer to racehorses soon became definitive and all other applications are now analogous.

Needs a trained eye.  Thoroughbred (Indy King by Mr Prospector out of Queena) on the left, Standardbred to the right.

Sometimes casually used to refer to any purebred horse, it’s correct to use the word only with the Thoroughbred breed.  If used with a lower-case "t", it technically may be applied to just about any object when appropriate but never with other horse breeds.  It can cause confusion or worse. 

The Thoroughbred was bred in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England when several dozen native mares were crossbred with three imported Oriental stallions, Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian; all Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to these three.  Between the 1730s and the late nineteenth-century, the breed spread throughout the world, first arriving in Australia in 1802.  Bred mainly for (gallop but not trotting or pacing) racing, they are also used for show jumping, combined training, dressage, polo, and fox hunting.  Thoroughbreds born in the Northern Hemisphere are officially considered a year older on the 1 January each year; those from the Southern Hemisphere having their birthday on 1 August.  These artificial dates enable the synchronization of northern and southern competitions for horses within their age groups.  Thoroughbreds are bred for speed, and depending on their intended career, for endurance over distances less than a mile (1600m) or as long as four (6400m).  They have a reputation for being highly-strung, sometimes deserved, sometimes not.

A horse cannot be registered as a Thoroughbred unless conceived by natural means; any form of artificial insemination is banned.  The industry maintains there are all sorts of reasons for this but it’s really a restraint of trade designed to limit supply and maintain high prices.  One charming second career for a Thoroughbred stallion which has proven too slow to race is that of a teaser.  A teaser’s job is to be placed close to a mare, usually behind a fence, to see if she’s in the mood to mate.  If she proves receptive, the teaser is led (unwillingly one supposes) away and replaced with a fast stallion.  Nature is then allowed to take its course.

The Maserati 5000 GT (Typo 103, 1959-1966)

1957 Maserati 450S.

It’s never taken much to induce advertising agencies to describe a car as a “thoroughbred”.  Some have been more convincing than others but few have been as deserving of the appellation as the Maserati 5000 GT (Typo 103).  With coachwork fabricated by eight different Italian coach-building houses, all of the thirty-four built used a slightly tamed 4.9 litre (300 cubic inch) variant of the 4.5 litre (273 cubic inch) V8 last seen in the Maserati 450S with which the factory’s racing team contested the World Sports Car Championship.  It really was end of the era stuff, a shift to unitary construction soon dooming most of the specialist coachbuilders while increasingly interventionist governments were in the throes of passing a myriad of laws which would outlaw barely disguised racing cars being used on the road.

1959 Maserati 5000 GT (Shah of Iran) by Touring.

In keeping with the pedigree of its illustrious engine, the 5000 GT enjoyed a blueblood connection in its very origin.  Before the Ayatollahs ran Iran, it was ruled by the Shah (king) and he got a lot more fun out of life than his clerical successors, noted especially as a connoisseur and of fast, exotic and expensive cars, his collection including multiple models from Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Maserati among others.  In 1958 he’d driven Maserati’s then popular 3500 GT but thought it lacking in power and, because hundreds a year were sold to the (rich) public, a bit common.  Accordingly, after receiving material advertising both the 3500 GT and the remaining 450S race cars the factory wished to dispose of after withdrawing from racing, the shah decided he wanted a combination of the two, the race engine in the road car.  To have it created, essentially he sent Maserati a blank cheque and asked them to call when it was ready.

1962 Maserati 5000 GT by Allemano.

It wasn’t as simple as it sounded for the 450S V8 was not some adaption from a production car but a genuine racing engine designed for use nowhere but the circuits and only in the hands of skilled racing drivers. Robust and powerful it certainly was but it was also raucous, inclined to roughness at low speeds and not all that well behaved except when at racing speed when it was more raucous still, if a little smoother.  Taming such a beast for the road was a challenge but, with the shah’s buckets of money and some Italian ingenuity, remarkably, a relatively quiet and tractable engine (compared with that of a race car) was concocted.  The bore-stroke relationship was changed, the camshaft profiles softened and the porting was altered, which, combined with a lower compression ratio, improved torque and delivered the still ferocious power over a more usable range.

1959 Maserati 5000 GT by Allemano.

Italian house Carrozzeria Touring designed one of their signature superleggera (their clever technique of lightweight construction) frames, onto which they attached a hand-made skin of aluminum to create a strikingly modernist two-seater coupé, its lines and interior appointments influenced by Persian Baroque architecture.  Delivered to the shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, 1919-1980) in 1959, it was almost a secret but when a second, commissioned by a South African customer,  was displayed at the 1959 Turin Motor show, it generated such interest that Maserati were soon fielding enquiries from rich commoners wanting what royalty had.  Priced stratospherically however, there weren’t enough rich folk on the planet to make it a viable option for their production lines so it entered the catalogue as a bespoke item, Maserati modifying the 3500 chassis which, frankly had been a bit over-taxed by the big V8 and tweaking the engine still further, slightly increasing the capacity but in a way that rendered it more docile, yet still a howler when stirred.  The chassis appeared in the list and buyers could choose their own coachbuilder and eventually eight produced their own interpretations, the most numerous being by Carrozzeria Allemano which, over the years, finished twenty-two, the Allemano cars thought also the most alluring.

1963 Maserati 5000 GT by Fura.

It was capable in some of the configurations in which it was supplied of 170mph (275 km/h), the fastest road car of its day, almost matching the 183 mph (295 km/h) achieved years earlier by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut” coupé, which was little more than a Formula One car with a bigger engine and number plates.  The 5000 GT was quite something and even if the early versions weren't exactly suited to urban use, they were never anything less than exciting.  All the 34 built still exist, most percolating between private collections, high-end auction houses and the odd appearance at an appropriately exclusive Concours d'Elegance.

The Gordon-Keeble GK-1 (1964-1967)

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

Although elegant and capable, the Gordon-Keeble was no thoroughbred.  Using a square-tube space-frame purchased as part of the assets of a bankrupt company, it was clothed not in hand-formed aluminum but with the much cheaper fibreglass.  Using various bits and pieces taken from the parts-bins of many manufacturers, it was powered by a 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) Chevrolet V8, essentially the same motor found in everything from Corvettes to pick-up trucks and while it may have lacked a pedigree, the purchase and the running costs were appreciably less than Maserati 5000 GT, one able to buy one for a fraction of the cost and, if the worst came to the worst, replace the engine and gearbox for less than the cost of an Italian cylinder head.

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

All but one of the one-hundred Gordon-Keeble GK-1s were built in England between 1964- 1967 by engineers once associated with the Peerless company, one of quite a few briefly to flourish during the 1950s producing low-volume runs of swoopy-looking fibreglass bodies atop custom frames, using a variety of power-plants.  It was a simpler time.  The genesis of the GK-1 was a request in 1959 from a US Air Force (USAF) pilot then stationed in England to fit a Peerless with a 283 cubic inch (4.6 litre) Chevrolet Corvette V8.  The concept, essentially the same as that Carol Shelby (1923-2012) famously and historically would pursue by mating the AC Ace with the Ford V8 to create the Cobra (1962-1967), so impressed the engineers they took a V8 Peerless to Carrozzeria Bertone in Turin, Italy where a steel body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro was built, appearing on Bertone’s stand at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show where it was well received.

1964 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

After long delays related to securing contractual relationships with external component suppliers, the show car was finished to a point close to the standard required for regular production and, after testing which convinced the engineers it was a commercially viable proposition, sent to Detroit as a proof-of-concept for General Motors to evaluate.  Suitably impressed, Chevrolet agreed to supply the Corvette engines and gearboxes for the first production run.  Visually, the GK-1 differed little from the prototype, but structurally and mechanically, there were changes.  Most obvious was the switch of the body construction from steel to fibreglass, the engineers’ preference for aluminum prohibitively expensive and the Corvette engine was the newer 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) unit introduced in 1962.  Mechanically, the GK1 was ready and reliable and, with its space-frame, De Dion rear axle, four wheel disk brakes, twin fuel tanks and a host of internal fittings hinting at a connection with aviation, the specification was tempting.  Released in 1964, the critical response was overwhelmingly positive (although nobody had a good word for the steering) and demand seemed initially strong.

1965 Gordon-Keeble GK-1.

However, the back-shed curse, which afflicting many small-scale British manufacturers in the era, struck.  Under-capitalized, the company was unable to successfully to link its cash flow with the demands of external suppliers upon which production depended and, whatever the engineering prowess available, the accounting skills required successfully to operate as a trading organization were lacking; a retail price under Stg£3,000 was unrealistically low and inadequate to support the actual cost of production and development.  By 1965, with ninety GK1s having been sold, the company was perilously close to insolvent and was sold but the new owners proved no more adept than the old.  After struggling to complete another nine cars (one more was added to the total in 1971, assembled the previous year from the residual spare parts when the factory was liquidated), operations finally closed, hopes of a US-based revival proving abortive.

Clan Gordon emblem.

One quirky footnote in the Gordon-Keeble story was the creature on the marque’s badge: a tortoise.  That may seem a curious choice for a vehicle designed for high-speed but the beast ended up on the badge because of a boardroom dispute.  Bertone’s prototype at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show had featured a badge with a stag's head, the emblem of the Scottish Clan Gordon to which belonged one of the founders of Gordon-Keeble.  Because the clan’s motto was Bydand (abiding or remaining) which, in modern parlance translates as something like “durable, immortal, steadfast & everlasting”, it was thought appropriate for the GK-1, which did live up to the motto better than most, some ninety-two of the one-hundred said either to be in running condition or undergoing restoration.

Gordon-Keeble corporate logo.

However, because of the long delays before production began, it was necessary to seek bridging finance and this brought the inevitable managerial disputes and as a result, Mr Gordon left, contractually obliged to allow the project to continue using his name but he withdrew the right to use the clan emblem.  With everything else going on, that wasn’t given much thought until late 1963 when, with a debut finally close, a photo-shoot was arranged so brochures and other promotional material could be prepared.  At just the moment the absence was noticed, a tortoise happened to be wandering in the garden chosen as the backdrop and the meandering Testudinidae, unaware of the minor role it was about to play in UK corporate history, was picked up and placed on the hood (bonnet), everyone amused at the juxtaposition of one of nature’s slowest creations adorning one of mankind’s fastest.  The tortoise was returned to the flower-beds and adopted as the emblem, appearing on the escutcheon of every Gordon-Keeble.

Tortoise

Tortoise (pronounced tawr-tuhs)

(1) Any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae (mostly North American) or the order Testudines (elsewhere in the English-speaking world), the body of which is enclosed in a shell (carapace plus plastron), the animal able to withdraw its head and four legs partially into the shell, providing some protection from predators.

(2) Another word for testudo.

(3) Figuratively, a very slow person or thing, the idea explored in Aesop’s ambiguous fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.

1550s: A variant of various Middle English words including the late fifteenth century tortuse, the mid-fifteenth century tortuce, the late fourteenth century tortuge and  tortose, & tortuca (all of which may have been influenced by the Old French tortue and the word porpoise), and probably from the mid-thirteenth century Medieval Latin tortūca, from the Late Latin tartarūcha the feminine form of Tartarus, from the Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos) (a mythological spirit, holder of Tartaros (or Tartarus), the land of the dead in ancient stories), the tortoise being regarded as an infernal animal with origins in the depths of the underworld.  The Medieval Latin form was influenced by the Latin tortus (crooked, twisted), that base on the shape of the creatures’ feet.  The Latin tortus was also the source of the English tort (the branch of law dealing with the civil remedies available for wrongful acts).  In Classical Latin the word was testudo, from testa (shell) and the words derived from Latin displaced the native Old English byrdling; the long obsolete synonym was shellpad.  Tortoise is a noun; the noun plural is tortoises.

Detail of an oval multi-foiled dish with chinoiserie motifs, tortoiseshell with gold and mother-of-pearl piqué work (circa 1740) by Giuseppe Sarao (circa 1710-circa 1775) of Naples, once owned by Baron Henri de Rothschild (1872-1947).

The noun carapace (upper shell of a turtle or tortoise; shell of an insect, crustacean etc) date from 1836 and was from the eighteenth century French carapace (tortoise shell), from the Spanish carapacho or Portuguese carapaça, both of uncertain origin but may be related to the Latin capa (cape).  The noun turtle (tortoise) emerged circa 1600, originally in the form "marine tortoise" from the thirteenth century French tortue & tortre (turtle, tortoise) of unknown origin. Etymologists suspect the English turtle may be a sailors' mauling of the French and it was later extended to land tortoises, the sea-turtle noted since the 1610s.

Lindsay Lohan in tortoiseshell-frame sunglasses, Los Angeles. 2012.

The use of the common terms turtle, tortoise, and terrapin vary by geography.  In North America, turtle tends to be the general term while tortoise is used only in reference to terrestrial turtles or those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises.  Terrapin is applied usually to turtles that are small and live in fresh and brackish water.  Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, turtle is used generally of the aquatic while tortoise is applied to land-dwelling members of the order Testudines (regardless of whether they are actually members of the family Testudinidae).  One antipodean linguistic anomaly is that although land tortoises are not native to Australia, freshwater turtles traditionally have been called tortoises.  Non specialists often use tortoise and turtle interchangeably and although the most commonly accepted distinction is that tortoises are terrestrial (land-dwelling) and turtles aquatic, it’s not a zoological rule because the box turtle is primarily terrestrial and confusingly, is also called the box tortoise.  One helpful physical indication is that aquatic turtles (like snapping turtles) have webbed feet or flippers whereas turtles known as tortoises typically have stubby, round feet, and their shells are often more domed.

A sea turtle showing its classic tortoiseshell pattern & coloring.

Tortoises are studied by herpetologists, a field which encompasses reptiles and amphibians, the word from the Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν (herpetón) (creeping animal, reptile, especially a snake) +‎ -ologist.  The relatively rare suffix -ologist is the alternative spelling of -logist (one who studies a subject), the construct being -logy (study of) +‎ -ist (the agent suffix).  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).

In the style of late mid-century modern, a serving tray (circa 1970) by Guzzini of Italy, the platter of acrylic & acrylic glass with brass handles.  The use of the tortoiseshell motif on a large flat surface illustrates the possibilities offered by synthetics.  Such things can now be 3D-printed.

The oldest known reference to tortoise shell (also tortoise-shell & tortoiseshell) as a pattern of markings is from 1782 although for decorative purposes it had been prized for centuries.  The material is made from the shell of the larger species of turtles & tortoises and the attractive and unusual combinations of colors and patterning has seen the name tortoiseshell attached to some species, most famously the breed of domestic cat and several butterflies.  The attractiveness of the mottled material, its durability and even the pleasingly natural touch made tortoiseshell a popular material with consumers and it was famously used in inlays by French craftsman André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) who lent his name to the distinctive style.  As a natural product, the some variations in style and color were especially valued and it was one of those commodities men sometimes killed to obtain.  Such was the demand that some species of sea turtles became threatened although trade in the substance, first restricted by treaty under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) process, wasn’t wholly banned until early in the twenty-first century.  The appearance of the natural tortoiseshell is now emulated in a variety of synthetic materials including cellulose acetate and various thermoplastics.

Tortoiseshell kitten.

Despite the way the name is often used, there is no distinct breed of cat called tortoiseshell, the coloring caused by the normal operation of genetics.  The variations are induced by x-linked genes, the process called mosaic expression under which only one x-linked gene for hair color is expressed in each cell, resulting in the mix coloring which is determined by which gene is left “on” in each cell.  In a model familiar in mammals, a female cat has two X chromosomes in each cell (XX) while males have one X and one Y (XY).  In cats, the X chromosome includes much information (genes) including the instructions which determine the color of the coat and female cats, being XX, have two sets of genes for coat color in each cell.  In tortoiseshell cats, these instructions don’t match because there’s one gene for orange one for black fur and during the earliest stages of an embryonic kitten, one X chromosome in every single cell deactivates in a process called lyonization and because the process is entirely random, skin cells retain the instruction for orange fur while others remain coded for black, thus the tortoiseshell pattern.  As a further evolutionary quirk, because the colors are linked to the X chromosome, almost all tortoiseshell cats are female.