Harlequin

Harlequin (pronounced hahr-luh-kwin or hahr-luh-kin)

(1) A stock comic character, depicted usually wearing a black mask and dressed in multicolored, diamond-patterned tights, often with a wooden sword or magic wand (often with initial capital)

(2) In theater, the most famous of the zanni (the comic servant characters) from the Italian commedia dell'arte (from the Italian Arlecchino or one of its many variants (Arlechin, Arlechì et al) which was associated with the city of Bergamo.  In English the character is best known as the foppish lover of Columbine in the English harlequinade.  The original spelling in Italian was Harlicken.

(3) A jester; a buffoon or oaf-like character; the pantomime fool.

(4) Any of various small snakes having bright diamond-pattern scales.

(5) Anything fancifully varied in color, decoration etc and in commerce sometimes of a specific product (such as harlequin ice-cream) and the eighteenth century English adjective particoloured is a reference to the absurdity of a Harlequin’s costume.

(6) Of a greenish-chartreuse color (a specialized use in certain industries and used sometimes both as harlequin-green & harlequin-yellow).

(7) A clipping of “harlequin's mask”.

(8) In writing, something comic, ludicrous or absurd.

(9) In geology, a classification of opal,

(10) In fashion, the use of multi-color combinations in other than an obviously discernible pattern.

(11) In medicine, as harlequin-type ichthyosis, (also clipped as harlequin ichthyosis), a severe genetic disorder that results in thickened skin over nearly the entire body at birth (“harlequin baby” & “harlequin foetus” the historic medical slang although use of both is now often discouraged.

(12) In zoology (as a modifier in the names of certain animals) having a white or light-hued coat with irregular patches of black or other dark colors including various snakes, ducks (used informally), a bat, a moth, a species of darter fish, the mantis shrimp, some insects & beetles and any of various riodinid butterflies of the genera Taxila and Praetaxila.

(13) To remove or conjure away, as if by a harlequin's trick; to perform antics or play ludicrous tricks.

1580–1590: From the French harlequin, from the Middle French arlequin & harlequin, semantically (and in part phonetically), from the Italian arlecchino, from the Middle French, phonetically continuing unattested the Old French mesniee Herlequin (more often appearing as la maisnie Hellequin (the household of Hellequin) although the spellings Harlequin, Halequin, Herlequin, Hierlekin & Hellekin also appear) (a malevolent spirit; leader of band of demon horsemen who rode at night (literally “Hellequin's escort”)), perhaps from the Middle English Herle (the (unattested) King Herle, a figure of legend identified with Woden), from the Old English Herla Cyning (or Herela Cyning; Helle cyn) (King Herle), rendered in the Anglo-Latin as Herla rex and related to the Middle English Hurlewain (a mischievous sprite or goblin).  Although it’s uncertain, etymologists think it likely the Old English forms were related to the Old Frisian helle kin and the Old Norse heljar kyn (the kindred of Hell).  One quirk noted in the theatrical history is the earliest known depictions of Harlequin are of a crass and bumbling servant rather than the amusing and magical hero familiar in the nineteenth century which would imply the accepted story of the origin being with the world of demonic horsemen and dark spirits might be suspect.  The other curiosity is the earliest known reference in a French text but it lists him among Italian characters, so the Italian origin remains probable.  .  Because of its origin in the name of an Italian theatrical character, Harlequin is often used as a proper noun (although the appearance of the initial capital is often incorrect).  Harlequin is a noun & adjective, harlequinade, harlequinery & harlequinism are nouns, harlequining & harlequined are verbs and harlequinesque & harlequin-like are adjectives; the noun plural is harlequins.

The logo and home-kit colors of Harlequin Football Club (1866).  A rugby union club and usually referred to as “Harlequins”, they're based at the Twickenham Stoop in south-west London.

The Germanic links includes the Old High German Herilo (a personal name, derivative of heri (armed forces) and the ultimate source of the Modern German Herres (Army), thus the World War II (1939-1945) institution OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres; the army high command), the companion structures being OKL (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe: the air force high command) & OKM (Oberkommando der Marine: the navy high command), all three structurally subordinate to OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: the armed forces high command).  To the Allies that was a familiar military structure and it was only after the war it came to be understood how little coordination was imposed by OKW.

Clockwise from main image: Arlecchino, Arlequine, Arlequin & Colombine.  Commedia dell'arte costumes from Maurice Sand's Masques et Bouffons (Masks & Jesters), Paris 1860.

The English comic theatrical genre harlequinade evolved between the seventeen & nineteenth centuries and was a form in which clowns (not all of them in traditional harlequin garb) were the principal protagonists & antagonists.  Originally a physical form of comedy very much in the tradition of the Italian commedia dell'arte in which there were five main characters, the most celebrated of which were Harlequin and his lover Columbine, it evolved from a mime performance with music and a form of dance which, although choreographed, was designed to appear to the audience as unstructured and sometimes chaotic.  Dialogue was introduced as the appeal began to wane but the focus was always on the colorful visual spectacle, usually as relatively brief, intense performances being staged as a prelude to longer musicals, operas or even ballet.  In English theatre, the popularity of harlequinade endured until World War I (1914-1918), historians of theatre noting its successful adaptation to changing conditions in what was becoming a more crowded environment by incorporating increasingly elaborate stage effects.  The advent of cinema in the 1920s was the death knell for harlequinade which, labor-intensive and demanding a large inventory of props and equipment, had become an expensive production although the legacy lingers in the some aspects of the Christmas pantomimes which in the UK remain popular annual events.  The words pantomime entered English in the sixteenth or seventeenth century and was from the Latin pantomīmus, from the Ancient Greek παντόμιμος (pantómimos), the construct being πᾶς (pâs), (each, all) + μιμέομαι (miméomai) (I mimic), thus analyzed as “all on stage miming”, the name persisting as a generic description even after dialogue had been introduced to the performances.

1960s Volkswagen advertizing in the US: inverted snobbery.

In a brief era of unprecedented and not since repeated general affluence, Volkswagen in 1960s America wasn’t able to compete with the domestic manufacturers with advertizing emphasizing the qualities they liked to project: power, speed, style and in some cases, sheer size.  Instead they used a technique the industry called “inverted snobbery” which wasn’t new but the Volkswagen advertizing of the time is thought still a classic example of the type.  Knowing the Beetle had a reputation for being slow, small and anything by stylish, the campaign took those perceptions and presented them as virtues, with wry humor emphasizing practicality and economy of operation.

1960s Volkswagen advertising in the US, the first VW “Harlequin” (the term not then used).

Also, at a time when Detroit made annual changes, often with no purpose other than to ensure the new cars in the showrooms looked different for last year’s model so status-conscious buyers would be stimulated to update, Volkswagen made a point of the Beetle looking much the same from season-to-season, one from 1954 barely distinguishable from the 1964 model.  For a number of reasons, the company choose usually to run the copy in black & white but there was one which really had to be in color: it featured a Beetle assembled with various panels from models made over five years, each in a different color, the harlequinesque effect said to have been achieved with physical paint on metal rather than air-brushing a photograph (doubts have be cast).  As well as the subliminal messaging about timelessness, there was the practical aspect of parts interchangeability which, so it was asserted, made spare parts more readily available, something which should presumably was intended to work in unison with the advertisement suggesting the most likely need for those parts would be if one let one’s wife drive.  That one might not be published today.

Der Polo Harlekin: Home market propaganda, 1995.

Whether carefully bolted together or just an air-brushed photograph, the harlequinesque Beetle might have remained a footnote in the annals of advertising had not something apparently unrelated appeared in the 1990s.  It’s all a bit murky but it’s clear that somewhere within Volkswagen (the tales vary), as an allusion to the soon to be announced “block construction” concept (green=paintwork; blue=engines & chassis; yellow=interior; red=special equipment), ten of the new VW Polos were built using panels of four different colors (Chagallblau (Chagall Blue, LD5D), Flashrot (Flash Red, LP3G), Ginstergelb (Ginster Yellow, L132) & Pistazie-grün (Pistachio Green, LD6D) for use as promotional vehicles.  A popular attraction after first appearing at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the much photographed cars generated so much publicity a further ten were built the following year to meet the demand from dealers who wanted one to display in their showrooms.  Selfies weren’t then a thing but many turned up to be snapped by a camera wielding companion and, most unexpectedly, dealers were reporting customers actually wanting to buy one.

Polo Harlekin color chart.

Despite this, Volkswagen’s corporate management wasn’t convinced there would be sufficient demand to make a production run viable but the inquiries from the public continued so a market study was conducted which confirmed the cult was real and it was announced that if 1000 were ordered, 1000 would be produced.  As a novelty, there were also 1000 key-chains with numbered certificates and this was to rationalize the production process because the buyers couldn’t choose the base color (ie the welded components: the color of the chassis, identified by roof, C-pillars, rocker panels & what lay beneath the plastic moldings, carpets and engine bay which was of some legal significance because it was the colored associated with ownership title and VIN (Vehicle Identification Number).  The 1000 were thus produced but in a what sounds a remarkably inefficient way, each Polo Harlekin painted as used on the standard production-line in the base color and then by hand disassembled and reassembled in accordance with the schedule of the Polo Harlekin color chart, the trick being that no two removable panels of the same color were touching.  In the 1960s, the colors had been about engineering; by the 1990s, it was all art.

Polo Harlekin brochure.  The look does seem something which wouldn't appeal to the stereotypical German; it may be they sold well to Bavarians, it being hard to imagine a Prussian driving one. 

Despite the labor intensive nature of production, presumably the accountants would have calculated things and worked out it was less expensive than disrupting the production lines, the same conclusion the Ford Motor Company had reached in 1969 when arranging a small run of Mustangs with the Boss 429 engine.  In the manner typical of such “specials”, added touches included a bright blue leather for the steering wheel, “Joker” plaid upholstery for the sport seats (so admired it would later appear in the “Joker” edition Polo), a Harlekin sticker on the hatch, blue piped floor mats, and Harlekin gear-shift knob.  The other options were the usual array for the Polo, the only surprise for one being which of the four color combinations one would receive when arriving to collect one’s Polo Harlekin.  The 1000 however didn’t satisfy demand so a further 2806 ended up being built, some even with right-hand-drive (RHD), all of which appear to have been sold in the UK, buyers in Australia, Japan and New Zealand denied the pleasure of their own Polo Harlekin.

1996 Volkswagen Golf Harlequin (US market).  The Americans didn't take to the cult as the Europeans had.

Inspired by the European’s embrace of the Harlekin concept, Volkswagen’s North American operation decided the new world too shouldn’t be denied the particoloured treat and in 1996, 264 Mark 3 Golfs (the VW formerly and briefly later known as the Rabbit) were produced for sale in the US, all of course configured with left-hand-drive (LHD), the main visual difference being the use of Tornadorot (Tornado Red, LY3D) while in accordance with local habits, most had automatic gearboxes.  Demand never went close to matching that in Europe and some sat in dealer stock for some time and one dealer in Georgia with eight on his hands had them re-made into single-color cars to attract buyers, the only remaining hint of difference the unique pattern in the grey upholstery.  It echoes what some Plymouth dealers resorted to in 1970 & 1971 to shift the remaining, outlandish Superbirds (now expensive collectables), buyers of the standard Road Runner then easier to find.  The Golf Harlequins haven’t attained quite that status but the oddballs have a following among VW enthusiasts and seem now to command a small price premium.

Made in Mexico: 1996 Volkswagen Beetle Harlequin.  All were originally left-hand drive, this one converted the RHD in the UK.  

There was one more Volkswagen Harlequin and it was the rarest of all.  Although production in Germany ended in 1978 (the last cabriolets sold in the US the following year), Beetle production in Brazil lasted until 1996 and in Mexico until 2003.  Officially, all of the Beetle Harlequins (all of which were fitted with Digifant fuel injection) were produced in VW's Puebla plant and sold in the the home market, hand painted on Ginster Yellow bases.  Some have been photographed in Brazil but the factory denied involvement and, given Brazil’s long tradition of improvisation in such matters, it’s likely they were efforts by enterprising owners although it’s not impossible at least some were Mexican originals. 

Nu en Jaune (Nude in Yellow (1908)), oil on canvas by Sonia Delaunay, Musée d'Arts de Nantes (The Museum of fine arts, Nantes, France).

In the sense the colourful Volkswagens are understood, “harlequin” cars predate not only the ventures of the 1990s which came at the dawn of the internet as a mass-market commodity but even the advertisement of 1960.  French artist Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) was born in Odessa but was adopted by a rich uncle, became multi-lingual, toured the great capitals of Europe and at 18 entered the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe State Academy of Art) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.  After two years, she enrolled at the Académie de La Palette (The Palette Academy; 1888-1925) in Paris which had begun as a progressive art school but early in the century it evolved into a kind of finishing school (an “un foutu terrain de reproduction” (a damned breeding ground) according to some critics) for the avant-garde; the alumni of this short-lived institution is a notable list.

The Ball (1913 and originally Le Bal Bullier (the name of a Parisian ballroom)), oil on canvas by Sonia Delaunay, Centre Pompidou, Paris.  Some 3½ m (12 feet) wide, it is a classic piece in the school of Orphism.

Delaunay’s early work reflected both her academic training and the influences swirling around her but what was always striking was her use of color and a reluctance to adhere to the naturalistic.  These tendencies manifested especially in her role as one of the leading practitioners of Orphism, a fork of Cubism which usually is described as an exercise in pure abstraction rendered in vivid colors.  It was in part a reaction to the focus of the mainstream cubist artists on substantive subjects such as people or physical objects and their obvious aversion to using multiple color but as often seems to happen, Orphism did seem to evolve into of l'art pour l'art (art for art's sake).  Orphism seems to have been the at least the conduit through which Delaunay left the world of fine art an applied her talents to fashion, publications, fabrics, wallpaper industrial structures and machines, some of the most memorable of which were cars.

Escarpins (Court Shoes) (1925) by Sonia Delaunay, Musée de la mode et du textile, Paris (Museum of Fashion and Textiles, 1905-1986) (left) and Propeller (Air Pavilion) (1937), oil on canvas by Sonia Delaunay, a wall-sized work painted for the 1937 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques (International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques Applied to Modern Life) (right). 

From Orphism she brought what she called “simultaneity”, the exercise of the interplay of colors, shapes and textures within the one visual space", a dynamic she would play with when posing with some of her creations, wearing clothing also rendered in the “simultaneity” style.  Even early in the century there had been “stunts” and debates about “what is art” and there is much in what Delaunay produced which can be seen as a precursor to later movements like surrealism and pop art although for those who want to deconstruct as reductively as the record allows, in a sense the path from some elements in prehistoric cave drawings to Dame Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022)  is lineal (with the odd diversion).

Vogue, January 1925, cover art by Georges Lepape.

Cars were among the many machines Delaunay decorated.  Triangles (and the diamond shapes they could combine to create) were one of the notable motifs of the art deco era.  From the start, Vogue was of course about frocks, shoes and such but its influence extended over the years to fields as diverse as interior decorating and industrial design.  The work of Georges Lepape (1887-1971) has long been strangely neglected in the history of art deco but he was a fine practitioner whose reputation probably suffered because his compositions have always been regarded as derivative or imitative which seems unfair given there are many who are more highly regarded despite being hardly original.  His cover art for Vogue’s edition of 1 January 1925 juxtaposed one of Delaunay’s (1885–1979) "simultaneous" pattern dresses and a Voisin roadster she'd decorated with an art deco motif.

1927 Voisin C14 Lumineuse,

One collector in 2015 was so taken with Pepape’s image that when refurbishing his Voisin C14 Lumineuse (literally “light”, an allusion to the Voisin’s greenhouse-inspired design which allowed natural light to fill the interior), he commissioned Dutch artist Bernadette Ramaekers to hand-paint a geometric triangular pattern in sympathy with that on the Vogue cover in 1925.  Ms Ramaekers took six months to complete the project and in 2022 the car sold at auction for £202,500 (US$230,000).  Produced during the whole inter-war period (1919-1939), the Voisin cars were among the most strikingly memorable of the era although for a variety of reasons, commercial viability was often marginal.  The demise was unfortunate because a manufacturer which once contemplated production of a straight-twelve engine deserved to survive.

Making the strange stranger.

There have been a few French cars which looked weirder than the Matra 530 (1967-1973 and not to be confused with the rather faster Matra R.530 air-to-air missile after which it was named) but the small, mid-engined sports car was visually strange enough although, almost sixty years on, it has aged rather well and the appearance would by most plausibly be accepted as something decades younger.  In 1968, Matra's CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère (1928–2003) commissioned Delaunay to use a 530 as a canvas and she delivered a harlequinesque creation.  The Matra is sometimes displayed though it wasn’t an exhibit at the Sonia Delaunay Tate Modern retrospective (April-August 2015), remarkably the first time her work had been showcased by an English gallery.  Had she been a man, it’s likely she’d be more celebrated.

Lindsay Lohan in harlequin mode.  How fashion critics will react to anything beyond the defined parameters of what's thought within their range of "right" is hard to predict: most seemed to like this.

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

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

Upper

Upper (pronounced uhp-er)

(1) Higher, as in place, position, pitch, or in a scale.

(2) Superior, as in rank, dignity, or station.

(3) In geography (as place or regional names), at a higher level, more northerly, or farther from the sea.

(4) In stratigraphy, denoting a later division of a period, system, or the like, (often initial capital letter).

(5) The part of a shoe or boot above the sole, comprising the quarter, vamp, counter, and lining.

(6) A gaiter; made usually of cloth.

(7) In dentistry, as upper plate, the top of a set of false teeth (dentures), the descriptive prefix for teeth in the upper jaw.

(8) In bicameral parliaments, as upper house (senate, legislative council, House of Lords etc), the body elected or appointed often on a less representative basis than a lower house.

(9) Slang for a stimulant drug, especially an amphetamine, as opposed to the calmative downer.

(10) In mathematics, (of a limit or bound), greater than or equal to one or more numbers or variables.

(11) In Taoism, a spiritual passageway through which consciousness can reach a higher dimension.

1300-1350: From the Old English upp, from the Proto-Germanic upp and cognate with the Old Frisian up, the Old Saxon up, the Old Dutch up, the Old High German ūf and the Old Norse upp.  Similar formations were the Middle Dutch upper, the Dutch opper, the Low German upper and the Norwegian yppare.  The –er suffix (added to verbs to form an agent noun) is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ware (suffix denoting residency or meaning "inhabitant of"), from the Proto-Germanic (w)ārijaz (defender, inhabitant), from the primitive Indo-European wer- (to close, cover, protect, save, defend).  It was cognate with the Dutch -er, the German –er and the Swedish -are.  The Proto-Germanic (w)ārijaz is thought most likely a borrowing from the Latin ārius.

The phrase “upper hand” (advantage) was first noted in the late fifteenth century, possibly the jargon of wrestling (“over-hand” existed with the same meaning nearly two-hundred years earlier and “lower hand” (condition of having lost or failed to win superiority) was documented in the 1690s but both are rare compared with “upper hand).  Upperclassman is recorded from 1871 and upper crust is attested from the mid-fifteenth century in reference to the top crust of a loaf of bread tending to be reserved for the rich.  Upper middle class was in use by 1835 and, in an echo of the modern “one percenters”, “upper ten thousand” appears first in 1844 and was common by mid-century to refer to the wealthier strata of society; a companion term of the time was “uppertendom”.  As a descriptor of the part of a shoe above the sole, use emerged in 1789.  The slang use to describe amphetamines and other pep-pills is an Americanism dated usually from 1968 but which may have been in use earlier; the companion term for drugs with a calmative effect was "downer".

In bicameral parliaments, in almost all systems it's common to refer to "upper" & "lower" houses.  In the democratic age, lower houses evolved to be the places which were most directly representative of the electorate and a member able to gain the support of a majority of those elected to a lower house was able to form a government, a process long almost always mediated through party politics.  Upper houses were more varied in composition, sometimes elected, sometimes appointed (in some cases, for life) and they tended to be representative more or established (and entrenched) interests than the wider electorate.  In federal systems, many upper houses were conceived as representatives and defenders of the rights and interests of the constituent states but in the West, this aspect of the history has been subsumed by the influence of the parties and only in rare cases will the interests of the state transcend party loyalty.  The upper chambers have undergone many changes and one of the oldest, the UK's House of Lords, was radically transformed by the New Labour administration (1997-2010) although its powers had already dramatically been pruned earlier in the twentieth century and no prime-minister has sat in the Lords since 1903, something not again contemplated since the 1920s (and under unusual circumstances in the 1950s).  An exception to the use of upper & lower in the context is in the US where the congress and almost all the state assemblies are bicameral.  In the US, historically, there was no conception of "upper & lower" in that sense, the two being regarded as co-equal but with different roles.  That was influenced both by the circumstances of the origin of the nation and the fact the executive branches are not drawn from the memberships  of the assemblies.  However, in recent decades, the use of "upper house" & "lower house" has crept into use, essentially because the standards of journalism are not what they were and this seems to have infected even some US reporters.  Some systems (notably New Zealand) actually abolished their upper house and from time-to-time there are doubtless a number of prime-ministers elsewhere who wish they could.    

For most of the twentieth century, the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso was known as the Upper Volta (the name indicating the land-mass contained the upper part of the Volta River), initially as part of the French colonial empire, later as an independent republic.  A self-governing republic of the French Community between 1958–1960, it was granted full independence in 1960 and re-named Burkina Faso in 1984.  When president, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974), used “Upper Volta” sarcastically, as a reference to any unimportant country, especially if he was compelled by the conventions of diplomacy to spend time meeting with their delegations, talking about things in which he just wasn't interested.

Lindsay Lohan wearing Louis Vuitton Star Trail ankle boots, fashioned with a Jacquard textile and glazed calf leather upper, treaded rubber sole, 3.1 inch (80mm) heel and patent monogram-canvas back loop (made in Italy, LV part-number 1A2Y7W, RRP US$1360.00), New York, January 2019.

Pump

Pump (pronounced puhmp)

(1) An apparatus or machine for raising, driving, exhausting, or compressing fluids or gases by means of a piston, plunger, or set of rotating vanes.

(2) An instance of the action of a pump; one stroke of a pump; any action similar to pumping.

(3) In engineering or building trades, a shore having a jackscrew in its foot for adjusting the length or for bearing more firmly against the structure to be sustained.

(4) In the slang of the biological sciences, an animal organ that propels fluid through the body; the heart.

(5) In cell biology, a system that supplies energy for transport against a chemical gradient, as the sodium pump for the transfer of sodium and potassium ions across a cell membrane.

(6) To raise, drive or free from fluids by means of a pump.

(7) To inflate something with a gas or viscous substance and used analogously in other contexts.

(8) To operate or move by an up-and-down or back-and-forth action.

(9) Several types of shoe, with much variation in the way the description is applied.

(10) In bodybuilding and climbing, a swelling of the muscles caused by increased blood flow following high intensity weightlifting; a specific type of exercise routine offered by gyms; as “pump iron” a generalised phrase to refer to weight-lifting.

(11) In colloquial use, a ride on a bicycle given to a passenger, usually on the handlebars or carrier (rare).

(12) In US slang, the heart, (obsolete).

(13) In (vulgar) UK slang, the vagina (obsolete).

(14) In the slang of (pre-pandemic) social interaction, vigorously to shake a hand (often as "pumping the flesh").

(15) In slang, as “pump for information”, relentlessly to question.

(16) In the slang of computer programming, to pass messages to a program so it may respond.

(17) In cosmetic surgery or non-surgical beauty treatment, as "pumped up", a general term to describe body parts (lips, breasts etc) made plumper with some artificial substance or the redistribution of the body’s natural fat deposits.

(18) In ballistics, as “pump-action”, a design which permits the rapid loading a shell or cartridge from a magazine.

1400-1450:  From the Late Middle English pumpe, cognate with Middle Low German pumpe and Middle Dutch pompe (water conduit, pipe).  Later variations were the Dutch pompen, the German pumpen, and the Danish pompe.  All are thought derived from the Spanish bomba of imitative origin, the source thought to be North Sea sailors, either an imperfect echoic or something imitative of the sound of the plunger in the water.  The earliest use in English was in reference to a device to raise and expel bilge water from ships and the Late Old French pompe probably is from something Germanic.  The mystery is that pumps are ancient machines so the late appearance in the Germanic word is odd in that no evidence has been found of a previous descriptive word.  The use as an "an act of pumping" is attested from the 1670s.  Pump & pumping are nouns & verbs, pumper is a noun, pumpy is a noun & adjective and pumped is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is pumps.

Pump-action, in reference to a type of repeating firearm equipped with a rapid loading mechanism is attested in advertisements from 1912 but it’s unknown whether this was an invention by a manufacturer or retailer or an adoption of existing slang.  The metaphoric extension in pump (someone) for information is from 1630s.  To pump iron as a term for the lifting of weights for fitness was first noted in 1972; pump-classes in gyms became popular in the 1990s although label wasn’t (virtually) universal until circa 2002.  The meaning “low shoe without fasteners" dates from the 1550s and is of unknown origin but was perhaps (very speculatively) echoic of the sound made when walking in them or, more plausibly, from Dutch pampoesje (type of sandal worn in the Dutch East Indies), derived from the Javanese pampoes and ultimately of Arabic origin.  Some sources propose a connection with pomp but it’s undocumented.  The name pump was applied to many shoes with a very low heel, convenient in situations where freedom of movement was required and thus preferred by dancers, couriers, acrobats, duellists and such.  In the shoe business, the definition soon wandered with differences noted between British and North American applications.

The now obsolete nineteenth century phrase “keep your toes in your pump” was dialectal for "stay calm, keep quiet, don't get excited", in the same sense as advice not to “get your knickers in a knot”, the latter which has survived.  In slang, to "be pumped" is (1) to be excited in anticipation of something, (2) having muscles in an engorged state following exercise, (3) in body-building, having muscles which have responded as expected to steroids or other drugs, (4) in rock-climbing, being severely fatigued, (5) in cosmetic surgery & certain non surgical treatments, having a fuller appearance (lips, breasts etc) by virtue of the insertion of implants or an injection of some chemical and (6) among models and other women, the sense of relief upon replacing fetching but uncomfortable shoes with a pair of welcoming and accommodating pumps.

Of pumping ship

Pumps are of great importance on ships because of the need quickly to be able to remove unwanted water from inside a hull.  At sea, when a ship is "taking on water", if pumps fail or the entry of water exceeds pumping capacity, a ship will become unstable and it may sink.  In the smallest vessels, hard-pumps are used while mechanical devices are installed on anything larger than a modest dinghy.  In admiralty jargon, the command “Pump Ship!” is an instruction to begin pumping with all pumps and, in the way sailors adapt such things, it entered naval vernacular as the phrase meaning “I intend to urinate”.

It was picked up by nautical types in civilian life but was probably unknown to most until the publication (in three volumes, 2021-2022) of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1958), a US born English MP and socialite.  Edited by Dr Simon Heffer (b 1960), the entry of interest was from 19 November 1936 when Channon hosted one of his many glittering dinners in the dining room designed by Parisian interior decorator Stéphane Boudin (1888–1967, his House of Jansen later decorating the White House for Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963)) and modelled on the interior of the Amalienburg, an eighteenth century hunting lodge in on the grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace Park outside Munich, a place notorious for the intricacy of its fittings, even by the standards of Rococo.  The Amalienburg was built for someone who would later be Holy Roman Emperor, just the sort of crew with whom Channon identified and he had the elaborate style replicated in the dining room of his London house in Belgrave Square, including even the Bavarian national colors of blue & silver.  Unfortunately, no color photographs appear to have survived and the room was later disassembled, the extendable mirrored table, which could expand to a length of 25 feet (7.7 m), occasionally offered at auction.  By all accounts, the room truly was “breathtaking” and it was one of the few things in life of which Channon could find no grounds for criticism, it living up to his expectation it would “shimmer in blue and silver” and “shock and stagger London”.  For that alone he seemed to think the Stg£6,000 (mostly money he had married) cost (some Stg£525,000 adjusted for 2023) well worth it.  To illustrate the relativities, the next year he would purchase a V12 Rolls-Royce Phantom III for a sum (Stg£1900 for the chassis & another Stg£1100 to have a coach-builder fabricate a body) which would then have bought six houses in a middle-class London suburb although it’s not known if that’s something he’d have known, “middle class” being about the worst thing he could think to say of anyone.

Dining Room, 5 Belgrave Square, London, circa 1937.

On that November evening the guest of honor was King Edward VIII (1894–1972; King of the UK & Emperor of India January-December 1936, subsequently Duke of Windsor) and Channon noted in his diary his surprise at the monarch’s “modern” turn of phrase when he rose and announced “I want to pump shit.”  A dutiful host, Channon recorded he “…led His Majesty to our loulou! He proceeded to pass water without shutting the door, talking to me the while”.  That fragment of royal history was printed in the first volume (2021) of the published diaries (it was a measure of the deference which still applied in the England of 1965 that when first they appeared in heavily redacted form the passage was omitted) but comments soon appeared suggesting neither Channon nor Dr Heffer were well-acquainted with the sailors' slang the king would have learned during his brief naval career.  Dr Heffer responded by examining closely the original entry in the diarist’s hand and concluded the relevant character really was a “t” and not a “p” so the words on the night were either “misheard or misunderstood” and there’s little doubt what was said was “pump ship” and not “pump shit”.  He added that like Channon, he had “no naval connections” and was as thus just as “unfamiliar with the sea-dog slang” but that when the paperback edition was proofed, the text would be changed and an explanatory footnote (the diaries worth reading just for Heffer’s detailed footnotes) added.  Rising to the occasion, he observed this meant the “the hardback edition is destined to become a collector's item.”  The dinner proved the apogee of Channon’s social life because he’d backed the wrong royal horse, Edward VIII abdicating within weeks of having pumped ship in Belgrave Square.

Of Pumps, Courts and Flats

Lindsay Lohan in curved-heel stiletto pumps.

The homogenization of English was well-advanced long before the ubiquity of the internet but well into the twentieth century, different meanings for words could evolve in parallel in different regions of the same country, let alone between different states or provinces.  In British English, a court shoe was a woman’s shoe with a low cut vamp, sometimes with no instep fastening and otherwise adorned with a shoe buckle or a bow as an ostensible fastening.  In US English, such a shoe is a pump; pumps and court shoes may or may not have an ankle strap.  Pumps today, on either side of the Atlantic, are almost exclusively worn by women but historically were also formal shoes for men, the male variation called an opera slipper or patent pump.  For men, the pump gained ascendency over the dress boot as modern road-making techniques rendered cities less muddy places and dress pumps remained the standard for evening full-dress until the Second World War.  They remain the usual choice for black tie events and are obligatory with white-tie; the original design with steel-cut buckles, otherwise long extinct, still part of British court uniform and dress.

The construction of pumps is simple, using a whole-cut leather top with a low vamp, lined with either quilted silk or plain leather, trimmed with braid at the opening. The full leather sole is either glued onto the bottom, common on cheaper styles, or sewn, as on more costly bespoke styles still made traditionally, using a shallow slit to lift a flap of leather around the edge to recess and hide the stitching. The sole is, as on ordinary shoes, several layers of leather put together. The bow is made of grosgrain silk or rayon, in a pinched or flat form.  Pumps, which may have an ankle strap, if also constructed with a strap across the instep, are called Mary Janes.

Lindsay Lohan in ballet flats / pumps / slippers.  Ballet pumps in the UK, ballet flats in US English.

Most of the UK fashion business adopted the US use of pump because it simplified the mechanics of trade.  Otherwise, in the UK (and most of the Empire and Commonwealth) a pump implied a flat or low-heel ballet slipper or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls.  Ballet slippers (now more often called flats) date from the medieval period, their popularity declining in only in the seventeenth century when higher heels became fashionable.  After a brief nineteenth century revival, heals again prevailed until the 1960s when they became suddenly and wildly popular after Brigitte Bardot appeared in a pair of Rose Repetto’s hand-stitched ballet flats.  These days, between heals and flats, it seems a draw although the trend increasingly to prefer the comfort of the flat as the years pass is noted.

Lindsay Lohan in kitten-heeled pumps.

Except for court dress, historic references or the exact (if not always enforced) rules for white-tie, there’s now less precision attached to the use of pump and the word should be thought of as referencing a range of closed and open-toed shoes, with and without straps, bows or buckles, the other useful modifier being some reference to the height or type of the heel.  This means anything from a modest kitten to an elongated stiletto and, depending on the airport at which one lands, a flat may be a ballet flat or a ballet pump.

In US use, pumps are exclusively women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel; flats are never pumps and Canada, always more influenced by US linguistic imperialism, followed; that influence is now almost universal and the notion of the flat pump, while not extinct, has declined.  Heels for pumps vary, from the kitten 1-2 inch (25-50 mm) to the stripper (200-250 mm), the bulk of stiletto sales in the 3-5 inch (75-125 mm) range.  They can be made from any material though the classic is patent leather and, under rules formalised by Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) Miss Universe contests, white, stiletto pumps were once obligatory in the swimsuit section of beauty pageants.  Perhaps surprisingly to some, the swimsuits have survived much criticism as have the stilettos although they're no longer exclusively white and, open-toed and strappy, in most places they wouldn't even be thought of as pumps.

Of the Holley Double Pumper

Even in an age when electronic fuel-injection (EFI) has long been the standard form of induction in internal combustion engines, there remain silos in which the now arcane languages of carburetors are spoken and while there is some commonality of terms among the shortcuts, abbreviations & euphemisms of these vernaculars, a trained ear can pick the differences between the flavours to tell which dialect (SU, Weber, Holley, Rochester, Carter et al) is in play.  One part of the Holley tongue is “double pumper”.  A Holley double pumper is a four barrel carburettor with two accelerator pumps (the source of the moniker) and a mechanical linkage connecting the primary and secondary sides of the device.  Widely used during the classic era (1964-1971) of the US muscle cars, the main advantage of the design was the twin accelerator pumps prevented the transitory leanness in the fuel-air mixture which can happen during quick throttle blade movements if only a single pump is fitted.  All multi-barrel carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit but many have only one feeding the primary barrel(s).  These pumps spray a quick shot of the mix to compensate for the split-second lag which will happen before the main circuit fully responds to a throttle pushed suddenly wide open.  All double pumper carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit on both the primary and the secondary sides.

Holley 850 CFM (cubic feet per minute) double pumper carburetor (part number 0-4781C) (left).  The double accelerator pump outlets for both the primary and secondary throttle bores are are arrowed (right), in this case on a HP (high-performance) version in which the choke housing has been removed to optimize the air inlet path, making it less suitable for street use but ideal for competition.

It’s important not to refer to vacuum secondary carburettors (VSC) as any sort of pumper.  A VSC uses a secondary opening controlled by a vacuum diaphragm which opens the secondary barrels only when there is sufficient airflow demand to require it so no accelerator pump is required on the secondary side.  So, a VSC is technically a “single pumper carburettor” but that term is never used and anyone referring to one as such will lose face.  There's also a point of etiquette of which to be aware.  While “VSC” is an accepted term, a double pumper is never referred to as a “DP” because use in the pornography industry has made “DP” exclusively their own and it seems mere politeness not to intrude on their noble linguistic traditions.

There is an (unverified) industry legend that the "double buffer" terminology adopted in 1991 when Microsoft released version 4 of the Smart Drive (smartdrv.exe) disk cache was the coining of a coder who used a Holley double pumper in his muscle car.  That may or may not be true but "double buffer" lives on in the memory management of graphics processing units (GPU) as a description of the temporary storage areas in main memory where data is held during the transfer process.  The trick is that rather than processes being sequential, while program x is being read, program y can be written and vice versa.  It's not exactly quantum mechanics but means things simultaneously are happening in two places; for the gamers for whom GPUs are a fetish, every millisecond matters.

Weiland tunnel ram inlet manifold for big block Chevrolet V8 (396-427-454) with dual Holley 750 CFM double pumpers.