Guillotine

Guillotine (pronounced gil-uh-teen)

(1) An apparatus designed efficiently to carry out executions by decapitation.

(2) In medicine, an instrument used surgically to remove the tonsils.

(3) Any of various machines in which a vertical blade between two parallel uprights descends to cut or trim metal, stacks of paper etc.

(4) To truncate or cut.

(5) A technical procedure permitted in some parliaments which provides for an early termination of the time usually allocated to debate a bill, forcing an immediate vote.

(6) In philosophy, as “Hume's guillotine”, a synonym of “Hume's law”, the idea that what ought to be the case cannot be deduced from what is already the case; named after the Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume (1711–1776).

(7) In law, as “guillotine clause”, a contractual stipulation that the adoption of the overall contractual package requires adoption of all of the individual treaties or contracts within it; the clause often appears in international treaties or agreements between sub-national entities.

(8) In historic French slang, as “dry guillotine”, the deportation to a penal colony.

Circa 1791: The guillotine was named after Joseph Guillotin (1738-1814), the French physician who advocated its adoption.  The surname Guillotin was of French origin and was from the Old French personal name Guillot, a diminutive of "Guillaume" (the French form of William, meaning “will” or “desire” + “helmet” or “protection” which, macabrely, is amusing given the later association with the guillotine). The “-in” suffix is a common diminutive in French surnames, meaning “little” (in the sense of “younger”) or “son of”.  Still today, the surname Guillotin is found primarily in western France, particularly in regions like Brittany (Bretagne), Normandy, and the Loire Valley and probably began as a patronymic, identifying the bearer as “the son of Guillot”.  Guillotine & guillotining are nouns & verbs and guillotined is a verb; the noun plural is guillotines.  Although use of the verb is attested only from 1794, etymologists seem to agree it would have come into oral use simultaneously with the noun.

The classic guillotine consists of a tall, upright frame in which a weighted and angled blade is raised to the top and suspended.  The condemned person is secured with stocks at the bottom of the frame, positioning the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly to fall, forcefully decapitating the victim in a single pass, the head falling into a basket below.  In 1789, having witnessed the sometimes prolonged suffering caused by other methods of execution, Dr Joseph Guillotin (1738-1814), then a deputy in the National Assembly, had commended the guillotine to the authorities, his notes at the time indicating he was concerned with (1) efficiency of process, (2) a humanitarian concern for the victim and (3), the effect less expeditious methods had on executioners (and of the three, it was only the first and third which would later induce the Nazis to abandon mass-shootings of the Jews and instead create an industrialized process).  The French administration agreed and several guillotines were built in 1791, the first execution the following year.  Approvingly reporting the efficiency of the machine, the Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure in January 1793 noted "The name of the machine in which the axe descends in grooves from a considerable height so that the stroke is certain and the head instantly severed from the body."  The device also affected Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) who, in his seminal French Revolution (1837), was moved to observe "This is the product of Guillotin's endeavors, ... which product popular gratitude or levity christens by a feminine derivative name, as if it were his daughter: La Guillotine! ... Unfortunate Doctor! For two-and-twenty years he, unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive Cæsar's."  For better or worse, historians no longer write like that.

Sterling silver cigar cutter (1994) by Theo Fennell (b 1951).

A finely crafted piece, the upright frame contained a sprung, angled blade with retaining chain, the cigar tip tumbling into a gilded silver basket after the blade descends to the stocks.  The base was of honed, black slate with a sterling silver cartouche ready for engraving, the unit supplied in a bespoke, two-door presentation case.  At auction, it sold for Stg£2,000 (cigar not included).

Born in Saintes, Dr Guillotin emerged as a prominent member of the Constituent Assembly in Paris and although philosophically opposed to capital punishment, he was a realist and wished executions done in a more humane manner and, very much in the spirit of the times, for the one method to be used for all social classes.  He recommended a machine known at the time as the “Louison” or “Louisette”, the nickname derived from the French surgeon and physiologist Dr Antoine Louis (1723-1792) who designed the prototype although it was built by German engineer and harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt, the process typical of the division of labor in Europe at the time.  It was Herr Schmidt who suggested using a diagonal blade rather than the round shape borrowed from the executioner’s axe and, with his knowledge of anatomy, Dr Louis calculated what came to be known as the “angle of Louis”, an alternative term for the "sternal angle" (the point of junction between the manubrium and the body of the sternum).  The advocacy of Dr Guillotin however received more publicity and, much to his regret, “Guillotine” captured the public imagination, his family so embarrassed by the connection they later changed the family name.  A confessed Freemason, Dr Guillotin died of natural causes in his Paris home, aged 75 and was buried in the city’s Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

One of the kitten-heel shoes worn by Marie Antoinette (1755–1793; Queen Consort of France 1774-1792) on the day of her execution, 16 October 1793.  

While ascending the stairs to the guillotine, she tripped, stepped on the executioner's foot and lost her shoe, something of a harbinger to what she’d lose a few moments later.  The shoe was later recovered and is now on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen.

Although Dr Guillotin regretted his name being associated with the contraption, the true origin wasn't even French.  While the date such a thing was first used is unknown it seems almost certainly a medieval creation, an early English record indicating a mechanical beheading device was in use in Halifax in West Yorkshire; then called the Halifax Gibbet, the decapitation of an unfortunate Mr John Dalton recorded in 1286.  A sixteenth century engraving named The Execution of Murcod Ballagh Near to Merton in Ireland 1307 shows a similar machine suggesting use also in medieval Ireland and Scotland, from the mid-sixteenth century until the abolition of use circa 1710; it was called the Maiden which seems to have been functionally identical to the Halifax Gibbet.  In Italy, most un-euphemistically, it was called the Mannaia (cleaver).  Over the years, it attracted many nicknames, some sardonically deployed as the equivalent of gallows humour including La Monte-à-regret (The Regretful Climb), Le Rasoir National (The National Razor), La Veuve (The Widow), Le Moulin à Silence (The Silence Mill), La Bécane (The Machine), Le Massicot (The Cutter), La Cravate à Capet (Capet's Necktie (Capet being Louis XVI (1754–1793; King of France 1774-1792)) & La Raccourcisseuse Patriotique (The Patriotic Shortener).

Marie Antoinette's execution on October 16, 1793 (Unknown artist).

The carts famously used to take victims to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror (the period in the mid-1790s after the declaration of the First Republic, marked by massacres, public executions, anti-clericalism and internecine political struggle) were called tumbrels although many illustrations depict the use of four-wheeled carts rather than tumbrels.  Presumably both types were used but historians generally believe it was usually the tumbrel because the revolutionaries preferred the symbolism of something used usually for moving dung or rubbish and suggest artists preferred the four-wheelers simply for compositional reasons.  The noun tumbrel (two-wheeled cart for hauling dung, stones etc) was from mid-fifteenth century French, a name, curiously perhaps, used in the early thirteenth century to describe what some eighteenth century dictionaries described as a mysterious “instrument of punishment of uncertain type” but which turned out to be (1) a name for the cucking stool used, inter alia, to conduct the dunking in water of women suspected of this and that and (2) was a type of medieval balancing scale used to weigh coins.  It was from the Old French tomberel (dump cart) (which exists in Modern French as tombereau), from tomber ((let) fall or tumble), possibly from a Germanic source, perhaps the Old Norse tumba (to tumble), the Old High German tumon (to turn, reel).

Public guillotining of Eugen Weidmann, Versailles, 1939.

The records from the early days of the revolution are understandably sketchy but the first guillotine was likely that crafted by German harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt which first was used on 25 April 1792, the term “guillotine” appearing first in print in a report by the journalist Louis René Quentin de Richebourg de Champcenetz (1759-1794) who, in another journalistic scoop, was later guillotined.  Although synonymous with the French Revolution, during which some seventeen thousand were beheaded, the guillotine remained the nation's official method of capital punishment until the death penalty was abolished in 1981.  The highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier (circa 1756–1792) was the first victim while the last public guillotining was of Eugen Weidmann (1908-1939) who, convicted of six murders, was beheaded in Versailles on 17 June 1939.  The final drop of the blade came when murderer Hamida Djandoubi’s (1949-1977) sentence was carried out in Marseille on 10 September 1977.

Boucles d'oreilles pendantes guillotine en laiton (guillotine drop earrings in brass), cut and engraved, Paris, circa 1880.

In France, until the onset of modernity with the coming of the twentieth century, artistic and decorative representations of the guillotine proliferated because the bloody events of the 1790s had made the instrument a symbol of republican patriotism.  Methods of execution now appear less as fashion items although there was a revival associated when the punk movement went mainstream in the mid-1970s (anarchists, revolutionaries and such less inclined to trivialize what they intended soon to be a serious business). In recent years, models in nooses have however strutted the catwalks generating outrage which, measured in column inches, photographs and clicks, was of course the point of them donning the macabre accessory.  For those nostalgic for the days of la révolution, made with a variety of materials, guillotine drop earrings are available on-line.

Paper trimming guillotine.

The device was used in many European countries until well after the Second World War but, perhaps predictability, none were as enthusiastic as the Nazis.  Having been used in various German states since the seventeenth century and being the preferred method of execution in Napoleonic times (circa 1799-1815), guillotine and firing squad were the legal methods of execution during both the Second Reich (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919–1933).  For the Nazis however, it was just another way to industrialize mass-murder and under the Third Reich (1933-1945), 16,500 were guillotined including 10,000 in 1944–1945 alone although, after the attempt on his life in July 1944, Hitler wasn’t at all attracted to an efficient or humanitarian dispatch of the surviving plotters and for them specified a more gruesome method.  The guillotine was used for the last time in the FRG (Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany; the old West Germany) 1949-1990) in 1949 though use in the GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic; the old East Germany) 1949-1990) persisted until 1966, mostly by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi) for secret executions.

Brandenburg prison fallbeil now on display at the Deutsche Historisches Museum.  Unlike most of the Tegel machines, it's un-painted and not fitted with a blade shield although the rather crude construction (using unfinished wood planks and four hefty, unadorned wooden legs) is characteristic of the Tegel design.  Some other Tegel fallbeils have had some of the timber members replaced with square metal tubing.

The German for guillotine is fallbeil (literally "axe-method" which is pleasingly informative).  The Nazis increased the number of capital offences in the criminal code and consequently, there was a drastic increase in the number of executions in the Reich.  To meet the demand, many prisons were designated as execution sites, sixteen gazetted by 1942, all equipped with metal (Mannhardt) fallbeils, the standardized procedure for execution as typically exact and bureaucratic as anything in the German civil service.  The first fallbeils were made from wood and built by the inmates of the Tegel prison in Berlin (hence the name) while the later Mannhardt design (fabricated from steel) was more sophisticated, including an external pulley frame and, thoughtfully, a hinged sheet-metal cover to protect the executioner from "blood spray".

The help admiring a SWB 600.

It’s at least arguable the Mercedes-Benz 600 (M100, 1963-1981) was the last car which, upon its introduction, could be called “the best car in the world”.  Some publications used exactly that phrase when their road-test reports appeared and about all the review in US magazine Road & Track found to complain about was (1) the choice of where to place the driver’s ashtray was obviously the decision of a non-smoker and (2) the air-conditioning (AC) was primitive compare with what was installed in Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials (or for that matter, Chevrolets, Fords and Plymouths).  The factory did improve ashtray placement (before social change drove them extinct) but it took decades for it to produce AC systems as good as those from Detroit although, impressionistically, probably nothing has ever matched the icy blasts possible in 1960s Cadillacs and such.

A 600 Pullman on location, 2011.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) & Grant Bowler (b 1968) during the filming of Liz & Dick (2012), a “biopic” of the famously tempestuous relationship between the actors Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) & Richard Burton (1925–1984).  The car is a Mercedes-Benz 600  four-door Pullman with the vis-a-vis seating.  The flagstaffs (installed in this instance above the front wheel arches) were usually fitted to cars used by governments or the corps diplomatique.

An extraordinary technical achievement, despite its run of 18-odd years, the 600 was a commercial failure with only 2677 built, the 408 (345 sedans & 63 Pullmans) which left the line in the first year of full production (1965) an encouraging start but that proved the high point, the decline precipitous after 1972 when the 600 was withdrawn from the US market, the costs of complying with the new regulations (as well as uncertainty about what was to come) just too onerous to be justified for such a low-volume model.  Although there were examples of special coachwork (armour plating, higher roof versions and even a couple of coupés)  the 600 appeared in three basic forms, the SWB ("short" wheelbase) four-door sedan, the LWB (long wheelbase) Pullmans (in four & six door form) and the Pullman Landaulets (with two lengths of retractable roof); the breakdown was 2,190 sedans, 428 Pullmans and 59 Landaulets.

The car of kings, dictators and real estate developers.

The 1970 Pullman Landaulet (one of twelve known informally as the "presidential" because the folding portion of the roof extended to the driver's compartment, the other 58 Landaulets having a convertible top only over the rear seat) was purchased by the Romanian government and used by comrade president Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989; general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party 1965-1989) until he and his wife were executed (by Kalashnikov assault rifle) after a “people's tribunal” held a brief trial, the swiftness of which was aided by the court-appointed defense counsel who declared them both guilty of the genocide of which, among other crimes, they were charged.  Considering the fate of other fallen dictators, their end was less gruesome than might have been expected.  Comrade Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980; prime-minister or president of Yugoslavia 1944-1980) had a similar car (among other 600s) but he died undisturbed in his bed.  The blue SWB (short wheelbase) car to the rear is one of the few SWB models fitted with a divider between the front & rear compartments including hand-crafted timber writing tables and a refrigerated bar in the centre console.  It was delivered in 1977 to the Iranian diplomatic service and maintained for the Shah’s use.  The 1969 sedan to the right (identified as a US market car by the disfiguring headlight treatment) had a less eventful past, purchased by a California real estate developer, who took advantage of the Mercedes-Benz European Delivery Program (discontinued in 2020 after some sixty years), collecting the 600 from the Stuttgart factory.

KCNA (Korean Central News Agency) footage of the DPRK Youth Parade, Pyongyang, DPRK, 2012.  The KCNA (its headquarters at 1 Potonggang-dong in Pyongyang's Potonggang District) may be the world's most productive state news agency and is the best source for new Kim Jong-Un content. 

At the 2012 Youth Parade, all in the full stadium were happy and enthusiastic, delighted no doubt to be the only audience on the planet able to see two long-roof Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulets together.  The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) should not be confused with the "puppet state" RoK (Republic of Korea (South Korea)).  Kim Il-Sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994) purchased a brace of presidential Landaulets which he passed down the line (along with the rest of North Korea) to his descendants Kim Jong-Il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK1994-2011) & Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK since 2011).    Evil dictators and real estate developers are one thing but the television personality Jeremy Clarkson (b 1960) also owned a (SWB) 600 and from that the car's reputation may never have recovered.  

Staged publicity shot of 1966 Mercedes-Benz 600s.

A four-door Pullman (left) and SWB (right) parked outside the Hotel Vierjahreszeiten, Munich, Bavaria, FRG.  This shot illustrates the difference between the two platforms, the Pullman's additional length all in the wheelbase (the Pullman's was 3,900 mm (153½ inches) against the sedan's 3,200 mm (126 inch).  The factory initially called the sedans “limousines” because that was the traditional German term for a four door sedan (or saloon) but they’re commonly referred to also as the SWB (short wheelbase), the Pullmans very definitely a LWB (long wheelbase).

1966 Mercedes-Benz 600 SWB, Place de la Concorde, Paris, France.

The 600’s famously smooth ride and remarkably capable handling was achieved with a suspension system using air-bellows but more intricate still was the engine-drive hydraulic system with which could be controlled the raising and lowering of the windows and central divider (installed on all but one of the Pullmans and optional on the SWBs), the setting of the shock absorbers (dampers), the opening and closing of the sun-roofs (it was possible on Pullmans to order two!) and the positions of the seats.  Additionally, the closing of the trunk (boot) lid and doors were hydraulically controlled although the hood (bonnet) needed to be raised manually; the factory was clearly more concerned for the comfort of passengers than mechanics.  To achieve all this, the plumbing’s fittings included 30 hydraulic switches, 12 double-acting hydraulic cylinders, 10 single-acting cylinders, six self-resetting single-acting units, a pump, a reservoir, and an accumulator, all connected by 3.5 mm (⅛ inch) internal-diameter lines coursing with hydraulic oil at a pressure of 2,176 psi (150-bar).  As might be imagined, to even experienced automotive engineers & mechanics, the schematic appeared of Byzantine complexity but to those accustomed to the hydraulics of heavy machinery it seemed simple, the only novelty being components unusually small.  The pressure of the system was high enough (twice that of a typical fire hose), if ruptured, to pierce human flesh although, reassuringly, below what’s needed to cut through bone.  Just to prove safety warnings are not something recent, the high pressure warranted a passage in a notably thick publication: Workshop Manual, Type 600, The Grand Mercedes: “It cannot be too highly stressed that it is mortally dangerous to open the oil-pressure container!”  Although the silently operating hydraulic system did offer the advantage of eliminating the noise which would have been generated had electric motors been used, the real attraction was the elimination of an estimated 800 metres (2600 feet) of wiring and more than a dozen motors (and it would have been a challenge to fit them all in the existing structure).

The Guillotine.

A Mercedes-Benz 600 sedan in the now closed Kemp Auto Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri, is used to demonstrate why the hydraulically activated trunk (boot) lid was known to wary technicians as “the guillotine”.  This is the lid closing with the hydraulics on the most hungry setting.

1966 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet with the shorter of the two folding roofs.

The trunk-lid’s single hydraulic cylinder can bring the steel panel down with alarming force so service personnel decided it deserved to be nicknamed “the guillotine”.  It was however adjustable to reduce the potential to damage fingers (at least there was an attempt to minimize risk; from certain manufacturers, some of the early electric windows didn’t include a clutching mechanism and were capable of crushing the match boxes often used to demonstrate the danger to dawdling digits).  The 600’s hydraulic system was well-built and used high quality components but the factory knew nothing is indestructible and every car included in the trunk a box containing (1) four wedges to force between the glass and the jambs to keep the windows up and (2) a set of pins which could be inserted to keep the squabs of the front seats upright.  Indeed, the door closing apparatus proved troublesome (tales of expensive dresses ruined by a squirt of hydraulic fluid part of the 600 legend) and wasn’t fitted after 1967 but the guillotine remained standard equipment until the end.

Gorp

Gorp (pronounced gawrp)

(1) Greedily to eat (obsolete).

(2) A mixture of nuts, raisins, dried fruits seeds and such, often packed as a high-energy snack by hikers, climbers and others undertaking strenuous outdoor activities.

(3) By extension, in the slang of late 1950s US automobile stylists (and subsequently their critics), the notion of adding many design elements to a car, even if discordant.

(4) In fashion criticism, an adoption of the automotive use, used to describe an excessive use of decorative items, especially if loosely fitted and inclined to “stray”.

Early 1900s: Of uncertain origin (in the sense of “greedily to eat”) but assumed by most etymologists to be a merging of gorge & gulp, the construct being gor(p) + (gul)p.  The mid-fourteenth century verb gorge (to eat with a display of greediness, or in large quantities) was from the Middle English gorgen (greedily to eat) and was from the Old French gorger & gorgier (which endures in modern French as gorger (greedily to eat; to gorge)), from gorge (throat).  The Middle English noun gorge (esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been take consumed) came directly from the Old French gorge (throat) (which endures in modern French as gorge (throat; breast)), from the Vulgar Latin gorga & gurga, from the Classical Latin gurges (eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea), of uncertain origin but perhaps linked with the primitive Indo-European gwerhs- (to devour, swallow; to eat).  The English word was cognate with the Galician gorxa (throat), the Italian gorga & gorgia (gorge, throat (ravine long obsolete)), the Occitan gorga & gorja, the Portuguese gorja (gullet, throat; gorge) and the Spanish gorja (gullet, throat; gorge).  The duality of meaning in French meant the brassiere (bra) came to be called “un soutien-gorge (with derived forms such as “soutien-gorge de sport” (sports bra) with “soutif” the common colloquial abbreviation; the literal translation was thus “throat supporter” but it’s better understood as “chest uplifter”.

Lindsay Lohan gulping down a Pure Leaf iced tea; promotional image from the brand's “Time for a Tea Break” campaign.

The mid-fifteenth century noun gulp (eagerly (and often noisily) to swallow; swallow in large draughts; take down in a single swallow) was from the Middle English gulpen and probably from the West Flemish or Middle Dutch gulpen &, golpen, of uncertain origin.  Although not exactly onomatopoeic, the word may have been of imitative origin, or even an extension of meaning of the Dutch galpen (to roar, squeal) or the English galp & gaup (to gape).  It was related to the German Low German gulpen (to gush out, belch, gulp), the West Frisian gjalpe, gjalpje & gjealpje (to gush, spurt forth), the Danish gulpe & gylpe (to gulp up, disgorge), the dialectal Swedish glapa (to gulp down) and the Old English galpettan (to gulp down, eat greedily, devour).  The derived senses (to react nervously by swallowing; the sound of swallowing indicating apprehension or fear) may have been in use as early as the sixteenth century.  Gorp is a noun; the noun plural is gorps.  In fashion (technically perhaps “anti-fashion appropriated by fashion”) “gorpcore” describes the use as streetwear of outerwear either designed for outdoor recreation (in the sense of hiking, wilderness tracking etc) or affecting that style.  Exemplified by the ongoing popularity of the puffer jacket, gorpcore is something much associated with the COVID-19 pandemic but the look had by the time of the outbreak already been on-trend for more than a year.  The name comes from the stereotypical association of trail mix (gorp) with such outdoor activities.  The verbs gorping and gorped (often as “gorped-up”) were informal and used among stylists and critics when discussing some of Detroit’s excessively ornamented cars of the late 1950s & early 1960s.  Acronym Finder lists eleven GORPs including the two for trail-mix which seem peacefully to co-exist:

GORP: Great Outdoor Recreation Pages (a website).
GORP: Good Old Raisins and Peanuts (trail mix).
GORP: Granola, Oats, Raisins, and Peanuts (trail mix).
GORP: Garry Ork Restoration Project (An ecosystem restoration project in Saanich, Canada, designed to save the endangered Garry Oak trees, British Columbia’s only native oak species.
GORP: Georgia Outdoor Recreational Pass (Georgia Wildlife Resources Division).
GORP: Graduate Orthodontic Residents Program (University of Michigan; Ann Arbor).
GORP: Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program (Grinnell College, Iowa)
GORP: Good Organic Retailing Practices.
GORP: Get Odometer Readings at the Pump.
GORP: Gordon Outdoor Recreation Project (Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts).
GORP: Growing Outdoor Recreation Professionals (University of California, Berkeley).

Lexicographers acknowledge the uncertainty of origin in the use of “gorp” to describe the mix of nuts, raisins, seeds and such in the packaged, high-energy snack now often known by the description most common in US commerce: “Trail mix”.  So common and conveniently packaged are the ingredients of gorp that doubtlessly variations of the combination have been carried by travellers since the origins of human movement over distance but the first known references to the concept to appear in print were seen in the “outdoors” themed magazines of the early twentieth century.  Deconstructed however, the notion of “high-energy, long-life, low volume” rations were for centuries a standard part of a soldier’s rations with different mixes used by land-based or naval forces, something dictated by availability and predicted rates of spoilage; as early as the seventeenth century, recommended combinations appeared in military manuals and quartermaster’s lists.  Not until the mid-1950s however is there any record of the stuff being described as “gorp” although the oft quoted formations: “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts” & “Granola, Oats, Raisins, and Peanuts” may both be backronyms.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, either left or right) and Erin Mackey (b 1986, either left or right), hiking scene in The Parent Trap (1998).  They would have packed some trail mix in their back-packs.

In various places around the planet, similar concoctions (the composition influenced by regional tastes and product availability) were described by different names including the antipodean scroggin or schmogle (the latter apparently restricted to New Zealand) and beyond the English-speaking world, there’s been a myriad of variants among those in schools or universities including “student mix”, “study mix”, “student fodder” & “student oats”.  That variety has faded as US linguistic imperialism has exerted its pull and even before the internet attained critical mass, the product name familiar in US supermarkets and grocery stores had begun to prevail: “Trail mix”.

Packaged gorp and trail mix.  Historically, gorp bars lived up to their name, a typical ingredients list including "peanuts, corn syrup, rasins, salt & lecithin" so commercially available gorp often was "the truth if not the whole truth".  Oddly, even when manufactured in disk-shapes, the product still tended to be described as a "bar".  With the contents of trail mix, there's been a bit of "mission creep" and the packaged product can now include chunks of chocolate and other stuff not envisaged in years gone by.

1958 Buick Special Convertible (left) and 1958 Buick Limited Convertible (right).If asked to nominate one from the list of usual suspects, many might pick Cadillac as the most accomplished purveyor of gorp but historians of the breed usually list the 1958 Buicks as "peak gorp" and for the sheer number and variety of decorative bits and pieces, it probably is unsurpassed.  Unfortunately for the division, a combination of circumstances meant between 1956 & 1958, Buick sales more than halved and while "excessive" gorp wasn't wholly to blame, after GM (General Motors) re-organized things, gorp never made a comeback quite as lavish.       

In automotive styling “gorp” is not synonymous with “bling” although there can be some physical overlap.  The word “bling” long ago enjoyed the now obsolete meaning “a want of resemblance” but in modern use it means (1) expensive and flashy jewelry, clothing, or other possessions, (2) the flaunting of material wealth and the associated lifestyle or (3) flashy; ostentatious.  It seems in these senses first to have been recorded in 1997 and is thought to be from the Jamaican English slang bling-bling, a sound suggested by the quality of light reflected by diamonds.  In the Caribbean, bling-bling came to be used to refer to flashy items (originally jewelry but later of any display of wealth) and the term was picked up in the US in African-American culture where it came to be associated with rap & hip-hop (forks of that community’s pop music) creators and their audiences.  There were suggestion the word bling was purely onomatopoeic (a vague approximation of pieces of jewelry clinking together) but most etymologists list it as one of the rare cases of a silent onomatopoeia: a word imitative of the imaginary sound many people “hear” at the moment light reflects off a sparkling diamond.  The long obsolete meaning “a want of resemblance” came from earlier changes in pronunciation when dissem′blance became pronounced variously as dissem′bler and dissem′ bling with bling becoming the slang form.  There is no relationship with the much older German verb blinken (to gleam, sparkle).

1958 Continental Mark III by Lincoln.

Some critics of design insist "gorp" (like "bling") really applies only to stuff "added on" (ie glued, screwed, bolted etc) but some claim there's no better word when discussing the cars which were a "mash-up" of disparate elements and there's no better example than the Ford Motor Company's (FoMoCo) 1958 Continental which was actually a "Lincoln with more stuff" but named simply "Continental" in the hope it would fool people into thinking it was an exclusive line following the genuinely unique Continental Mark II (1956-1957).  The Continental division had however been shuttered as another victim of the recession and the propaganda proved unequal to reality.  The Mark III's huge body (a remarkable technical achievement because even the convertibles were unit-bodies with no separate chassis) lingered for three dismally unsuccessful seasons and remains as the period's most confused agglomeration of motifs, a reasonable achievement given some of the weird creations Chrysler would release.  Although the sheer size does somewhat disguise the clutter, as one's eye wanders along the length, one finds slants and different angles, severe straight-lines, curves soft and sudden, scallops, fins and strakes.  On McMansions, it's not uncommon to find that many architectural traditions in on big suburban house but it's a rare count in one car.  Despite the diversity, it's not exactly "post-modernism in metal" so even if a re-purposing, "gorp" seems to fit.

In the English-speaking world, bling & bling-bling began to appear in dictionaries early in the twenty-first century.  Many languages picked up bling & bling-bling unaltered but among the few localizations were the Finnish killuttimet and the Korean beullingbeulling (블링블링) and there was also the German blinken (to blink, flashing on & off), a reference to the gleam and sparkle of jewels and precious metals.  Blinken was from the Low German and Middle Low German blinken, from the root of blecken (to bare) and existed also in Dutch.  As viral-words sometimes do, bling begat some potentially useful (and encouraged) derivations including blingesque, blingtastic, blingbastic blingiest, blingest, a-bling & blingistic; all are non-standard forms and patterns of use determine whether such pop-culture constructs endure.  Bling & blinger are nouns, blinged, blingish, blingy & blingless are adjectives, bling-out, blinged-out & bling-up are verbs; the noun plural is blingers (bling and bling-bling being both singular & plural).

Gingerbread: 1974 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop (left) in chestnut tufted leather though not actually “fine Corinthian leather” which was (mostly) exclusive to the Cordoba (1975-1983) until late 1975 when not only did the Imperial's brochures mention "genuine Corinthian leather (available at extra cost)" but for the first time since 1954 the range was referred to as the "Chrysler Imperial", a harbinger the brand was about to be retired.  Imperial's advertising copy noted of the brochure photograph above: “...while the passenger restraint system with starter interlock is not shown, it is standard on all Imperials.”; the marketing types didn't like seat-belts messing up their photos.  While all of the big three (GM, Ford & Chrysler) had tufted interiors in some lines, it was Chrysler which displayed the most commitment to the gingerbread motif.  After 1958, exterior gorp, while it didn't every entirely go away, it did go into decline but in the mid 1960s, as increasingly elaborate and luxurious interiors began to appear in the higher-priced models of even traditionally mass-market marques, those who disapproved of this latest incarnation of excess needed a word which was both descriptive and dismissive.  The use "gorp" might have been misleading and according to the authoritative Curbside Classic (which called the trend the start of "the great brougham era"), the word of choice was "gingerbread" and truly that was bling's antecedent.

In the stylists’ (they weren’t yet “designers”) studios in the 1950s, what would come to be called “bling” certainly existed (and in the “age of chrome” was very shiny) but the idea of gorp was different in that it was quantitative and qualitative, the notion of adding to a design multiple decorative elements or motifs, even if this meant things clashed (which sometimes they did).  Why this happened has been debated but most historians of the industry have concluded it was the result of the unexpected, post-war boom which delivered to working and middle-class Americans a prosperity and wealth of consumer goods the like of which no mass-society had ever known.  In material terms, “ordinary” Americans (ie wage and salary earners), other than in measures like the provision of servants or hours of leisure, were enjoying luxuries, conveniences and an abundance unknown even to royalty but a few generations earlier.  Accordingly, noting the advice that the way to “avoid gluts was to create a nation of gluttons” (a concept used also in many critiques of rampant consumerism), the US car industry, awash with cash and seeing nothing in the future but endless demand, resolved never to do in moderation what could be done in excess and as well as making their cars bigger and heavier, began to use increasing rococo styling techniques; wherever there appeared an unadorned surface, the temptation was to add something and much of what was added came casually to be called “gorp”, based on the idea that, like the handy snack, the bits & pieces bolted or glued on were a diverse collection and, in the minds of customers, instantly gratifying.  Gorp could include chrome strips, fake external spare tyre housings, decorative fender and hood (bonnet) accessories which could look like missiles, birds of prey in flight or gunsights, the famous dagmars, fake timber panels, moldings which recalled the shape of jet-engine nacelles, taillights which resembled the exhaust gasses from the rockets of spacecraft (which then existed mostly in the imagination) and more.

A young lady wearing gorpcore, Singapore, 2022.  Along with Kuwait, Hong Kong, Monaco and Vatican City, Singapore is listed by demographers as "100% urbanized" but it's good always to be prepared.

Had any one of these items been appended as a feature it might well have become a focus or even an admired talking point but that wasn’t the stylistic zeitgeist and in the studios they may have been reading the works of the poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) who attributed to Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881; UK prime- minister 1868 & 1874-1880) a technique he claimed the prime-minister adopted during his audiences with Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901): “Everyone likes flattery and when you come to royalty, you should lay it on with a trowel”.  Detroit in the late 1950s, certainly laid on the gorp with a trowel and the men and women (there was in the era the odd woman employed in the studios, dealing typically with interiors or color schemes) were students also of the pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence, published in 1932 by US real estate broker (and confessed Freemason) Bernard London (b circa 1873 but his life is something of a mystery) and in the post-war years came the chance to put the theory to the test.  This meant not only was there much gorp but each year there had to be “different” gorp so the churn rate was high. Planned obsolescence began as a casual description of the techniques used in advertising to stimulate demand and thus without the negative connotations which would attach when it became part of the critique of materialism, consumerism and the consequential environmental destruction.  Like few before or since, the US car industry quickly perfected planned obsolescence and not content with “annual model changes” sometimes added “mid-season releases” thus rendering outdated something purchased only months earlier.  Unfortunately, just as “peak gorp” began with the release late in 1957 (replete with lashings of chrome and much else) of the 1958 ranges, an unexpected and quite sharp recession struck the American economy and a new mood of austerity began.  That would pass because the downturn, while unpleasant, was by the standard of post-war recessions, relative brief although the effects on the industry would be profound, structurally and financially.

1970 Plymouth 'Cuda AAR in Lemon Twist over Black.  The AAR stood for All American Racers, the teams which campaigned the 'Cuda in the Trans-Am series for 5.0 litre (305 cubic inch) modified production cars.

Not all "added-on" stuff can however be classed as "gorp", "bling" or "gingerbread" and the most significant threshold is "functionalism"; if stuff actually fulfils some purpose, it's just a fitting.  Thus the additional stuff which appeared on the 1970 Plymouth AAR ’Cuda (and the companion Dodge Challenger T/A) were “fittings” because they all fulfilled some purpose, even if the practical effect away from race tracks was sometimes marginal.  Added to the pair was (1) a fibreglass hood (bonnet) with functional air-intake scoop, (2) front and rear spoilers, (3) side outlet dual exhaust system, (4) hood locking pins and (5) staggered size front & rear wheels.  Of course, there were also “longitudinal strobe stripes” which did nothing functional but that seems a minor transgression and in the world of stripes, there have been many worse. 

Cup

Cup (pronounced kuhp)

(1) A small, open container now manufactured usually using ceramics, plastic, glass or metal, typically with a single handle and used as a receptacle from which to drink fluids (tea, coffee, soup etc) and often categorized by design according to their nominal use (tea cup, coffee cup etc); many cups are supplied in sets with a saucer on which the cup sits protecting surfaces from spillage and offer a place on which a stirring spoon may sit.  A cup can be made from glass but may not be a “glass” while a glass made from glass may also have a handle while mugs are essentially cups but called something else.

(2) The bow-like part of a goblet or the like.

(3) A cup with its contents (“a cup of tea” etc).

(4) The quantity contained in a cup (which can be a general reference to any cup or a precisely defined measure).

(5) As a customary unit of measure, a defined unit of capacity frequently used in cooking, the quantum of which varies between (and sometimes within) markets but historically based on a half pint (now usually expressed as 220-250 ml or 14-20 tablespoons).  Measuring cups are available with graduations.

(6) An ornamental bowl, vase, etc especially of precious metal, offered as a prize for a contest (the use of “cup” often persisting even when trophies have been re-designed in a different form); a sporting contest in which a cup (or some other trophy) is awarded to the winner (collective known as the “cup competitions”).

(7) Any of various mixed beverages with one ingredient as a base and historically served from a bowl (claret cup burgundy cup, gin cup, cider cup etc).

(8) In Christianity, the chalice used in the Eucharist (used also of the consecrated wine of the Eucharist).

(9) Something to be partaken of or endured; one's portion, as of joy or suffering.

(10) In many fields, any cup-like utensil, organ, part, cavity etc; anything resembling a cup in shape or function.

(11) In botany, parts such as the flower base of some plants.

(12) In women’s underwear, the two forms containing the breasts in a bra or other garment in which an apparatus with a similar function is integrated (camisoles, bathing suits etc).

(13) In certain sports, a concave protective covering for the male genitalia, reinforced with usually with rigid plastic or metal (in some markets called a “box”, “cup” the common form in North America).

(14) In golf-course construction, the metal receptacle within the hole or the hole itself.

(15) In astronomy, a constellation or a crater.

(16) In pre-modern medicine, as “cupping glass”, a glass vessel from which air can be removed by suction or heat to create a partial vacuum, formerly used in drawing blood to the surface of the skin for slow blood-letting (also called the “artificial leech”).  The concept (cupping) remains in use (though without the blood-letting) in certain beauty treatments popular in East-Asia.

(17) In metalworking, a cylindrical shell closed at one end, especially one produced in the first stages of a deep-drawing operation; to form (tubing, containers etc) by punching hot strip or sheet metal and drawing it through a die.

(18) In mathematics, the cup-like symbol ∪, used to indicate the union of two sets.

(19) As CUP, the international standard (ISO 4217) currency code for the Cuban peso.

(20) In tarot card reading, a suit of the minor arcana or one of the cards from the suit.

(21) In ultimate frisbee competition, a defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower (or those three players).

(22) A flexible concave membrane used temporarily to attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction (the “suction cup”, the origins of which were in biomimicry (of the octopus)).

(23) To take or place in, or as in, a cup.

(24) To form into a cuplike shape.

Pre-1000: From the Middle English cuppe & coppe, created by a blending of the Old English cuppe (cup) and the & Old Northumbrian copp (cup, vessel), from the Late Latin cuppa which etymologists list as being of uncertain origin but thought probably a variant of the earlier cūpa (tub, cask, tun, barrel) which may have been cognate with the Sanskrit kupah (hollow, pit, cave), the Greek kype (gap, hole; a kind of ship), the Old Church Slavonic kupu, the Lithuanian kaupas, the Old Norse hufr (ship's hull) and the Old English hyf (beehive).  Etymologists are divided on whether the source of the original Latin was the primitive Indo-European kewp- (a hollow) or the non Indo-European loanword kup- which was borrowed by and from many languages.  The Old English copp was from the Proto-West Germanic kopp (round object, bowl, vessel, knoll, summit, crown of the head), from the Proto-Germanic kuppaz, from the primitive Indo-European gew- (to bend, curve, arch), the source also of the obsolete English cop (top, summit, crown of the head) and the German Kopf (top, head).  The Middle English word evolved also under the influence of the Anglo-Norman cupe & the Old French cope & coupe.  The Late Latin cuppa begat many words meaning “cup” including the Old French coupe, the Saterland Frisian & West Frisian kop, the Old Frisian kopp, the Italian coppa, the Middle Dutch coppe, the Dutch kop & kopje, the Middle Low German kopp, the German Low German Koppke & Köppke, the Danish kop, the Spanish copa and the Swedish kopp.  It was a doublet of coupe, hive and keeve.  The German cognate Kopf now means exclusively “head”.  The first cups doubtlessly were formed by a “cupping” of the hands in order to drink and that action would have been pre-human and an important evolutionary step in the development of the brain.  Later, whatever fell conveniently to hand (sea-shells, the shells of nuts etc) would have been used before drinking vessels came to be fashioned from clay, wood or other materials.  Cup is a noun & verb, cupped & cupping are verbs; the noun plural is cups.

Art Deco and the coffee cup.

By the late fourteenth century, “cup” had come to be used of just about in the shape of what is now understood as a cup, the sense of “quantity contained in a cup” emerging about the same time.  The sense of a “cup-shaped metal vessel offered as a prize in sport or games” dates from the 1640s, the origin thought to be the traditional ceremonial ritual of celebrating victory by drinking wine or some other alcoholic brew and while it’s speculative, anthropologists have suggested there may be some symbolic link with the idea of “drinking the blood of the vanquished”.  The idea obviously persists, and among the more disgusting versions is drinking from a shoe or boot worn by the victor during the event.  That particular form of podophilic mixology actually has a long history but of late it’s become something of a fetish on the podiums in motor-sport; the term “shoey” was coined in the barbarian nation of Australia.  The origin of the use of “one cup in life” is in the Biblical scripture: And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 (King James Version (KJV, 1611))).

Art Deco and the tea cup: 1934 "Tango" trio by Royal Doulton in bone china, the cup with the classic pointed handle.

The use of “cup” in recipes is probably one of the less helpful uses of the word and for those not familiar with the conventions, they were probably baffled and wondering which of the various sized cups they had should be used.  The origin of “cup” as a measure lies in the old English unit which was ½ an imperial pint and thus (10 imperial ounces (284 ml), often later rounded to 300 ml.  Elsewhere, countries did their own thing: In Australia & New Zealand it was set at 250 ml after the conversion to metric measurements in 1973; In the US it was a liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (237 ml which was usually rounded to 240); In Canada it was set at 8 imperial ounces (227 ml and rounded to 250).  The “metric cup” is now a universal 250 ml and for recipes this appears to be the preferred use even in North America.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg taking a dish of tea.  He'd think cups something from which those "not of the better classes" slurp their tea and  "mugs" perhaps a synonym for "the voters".

The term "cup of tea" (in the vernacular as "a cuppa") widely is used although folk like the UK's former Tory (Conservative) Party MP (member of parliament) Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg (b 1969) probably speak of "taking a dish of tea".  Fond of archaisms, Sir Jacob, while a member of the House of Commons, sometimes was referred to as "the right honourable member for the eighteenth century".  Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), although acknowledging he was not without guilt in the practice, really didn't approve of such affectations in literature, describing the over-frequent use of affected archaisms as “tushery”.  The slang “tosh” (now often in forms like “load of (old) tosh”) meaning “rubbish, trash, worthless” isn’t documented in English slang until the mid-1800s whereas tush (thought probably imitative of a snort or scoffing sound, used to express disdain, impatience or disbelief) dates from fourteenth century Middle English.  It was used by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) in act 1 of Othello (1603): “Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly...” and his imprimatur may for centuries have encouraged later authors to include it in Shakespearesque and pseudo-Elizabethan dialogue.  The nineteenth century adoption of tosh as slang is thought unrelated to the older Scottish dialect form meaning “neat; tidy” and there are a number of theories about the origin, one being “Tush!”.  Both still are used as dismissive interjections but “Tush!” tends now to be a literary captive while the earthier “Tosh!” belongs to the street.

The word cup appears in many scriptural verses which refer to God's judgment or a time of great suffering, Christ Himself asking James and John if they could "drink the cup" (Matthew 20:22) assigned to Him (by which he meant the suffering He soon would endure on the cross, experiencing God's judgment for the sins of humanity.  It’s an important theological point, emphasized (Hebrews 4:15) by Jesus seeming to be overwhelmed and saddened by the prospect and awfulness of his impending crucifixion, praying to God he be spared this fate.  Jesus was, although the son of God, also fully human and few humans wish to suffer humiliation, torture, and death so his prayer was natural but critically, almost at once he submits and resolves to obey the will of the Father.  Whatever his human anguish at what is to come, his absolute commitment was to obeying God.  The idea then is that “suffering is to be endured” was by the fourteenth century expressed in phrases like “the cup of life” and whatever may be the cup, it is “something to be partaken of” because it is the will of God.  In figurative use thus, “one’s cup” is that which is one’s lot to be endured; that which is allotted to one for good and bad whether it be paradise on Earth or nailed to the cross at Golgotha.

The daffodil (one of the common names of flowers of the genus Narcissus); as in many flowers, the alternative name for the corona is the cup.

To be in one's cups was to be “intoxicated”, a use dating from the 1610s which may have been a direct development from the mid-fourteenth century Middle English cup-shoten (drunk, drunken).  One’s “cup of tea” is what interests one and came into use in the 1930s of things or concepts although it’s documented from 1908 applying to persons; tellingly, the use of “not my cup of tea” is more common.  The “cup-bearer” was an early fifteenth century job description to describe the “attendant at a feast who conveys wine or other liquor to guests” but a more specialized use was of the court official who carried with him the cups, plates and other utensils to be used by those fearing poisoning (usually royalty or feudal barons).  The phrase “storm in a tea cup” refers to a fuss being made over a trivial matter and is in the same vein as “much ado about nothing”, “tempest in a teapot”, “storm in a teapot”, “lightning in a bottle” and “make a mountain out of a molehill”.

America's Cup (left), FIFA World Cup (centre) and William Webb Ellis Cup (left).

In sport, cups are a popular choice as trophies and they range from small ones in anodised plastic to large, heavy constructions plated in gold or silver.  The America's Cup is contested in yacht racing and, first awarded in 1870, is the oldest international sporting competition still running.  FIFA's (Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football) World Cup was first contested in 1930 with the tournament since run at four year intervals (skipping 1942 & 1946 because of World War II (1939-1945)).  The name “World Cup” remains although the trophy hasn’t, in the conventional sense of the word, actually been a cup since 1974, the last year the finals were contested by 16 teams (there will be 48 in 2026).  The Webb Ellis Cup is the premier trophy in international rugby and since 1987 tournaments have been run every four years.  The cup is named after English Anglican clergyman William Webb Ellis (1806–1872) and according to legend, while a pupil at Rugby School, Webb Ellis ignored the rules of the football game he was playing, picking up the ball and running with it “…thereby creating rugby.”  There’s no satisfactory evidence to support the tale and within the game there’s the joke what Webb Ellis invented was rugby's (some say Rugby School's) tradition of theft.

When used as sporting trophies, cups tend to be known by their official title if the name nicely rolls off the tongue (such as FIFA’s World Cup) but even simple forms attract nicknames, the America’s Cup often referred to within the yachting community as “the auld mug”.  In behavioral linguistics, the phenomenon of attaching an apparently dismissive nickname to something highly prized is described as an “affectionate pejorative” or “ironic diminutive”, both belonging under the umbrella of irony or litotes and in the tradition of meiosis, rather as it wasn’t uncommon for members of the English aristocracy to refer to their grand country houses as “the cottage”.

The Can-Am Challenge Cup: Mark Donohue (1937-1975) on pole in #6 Porsche 971/10 (left) beside Peter Revson (1939–1974) in #4 McLaren M20 (left) with race winner Denny Hulme (1936–1992) third on the grid in #3 McLaren M20 (far right), Mosport Park, Ontario, Canada, 11 June, 1972.  All three drivers would later die on racetracks, Donohue and Revson during testing and Hulme from a heart attack while at the wheel.  Motorsport was once a very dangerous affair and one of the many reasons drivers now have such long careers is improved safety standards mean they're not encouraged to retire by there being several funerals to attend each season.

Sometimes though, the title is a bit of a mouthful, such as the Canadian-American Challenge Cup, run under the auspices of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) & CASC (Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs) between 1966-1974 (and in diminished form between 1977-1987).  That of course immediately was in general use clipped to “Can-Am” but those wanting something more descriptive dubbed it the “Horsepower Challenge Cup” and never was a term more apt because that was exactly what rapidly the series became.  It was a competition run under the FIA’s (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation) Group 7 rules for unlimited displacement sports cars, written before the FIA degenerated into one of international sport’s dopiest regulatory bodies.  Group 7 really did have rules but they were few (enveloping body work, open cockpits, two seats (one of which usually was gestural), two “doors”, some safety requirements and little else) and generously interpreted.  It produced a generation of remarkable machines and was a series in which truly “the cars were the stars”, the drivers just the supporting cast.  By the time things peaked in 1973, the Porsche 917/30 was racing with more power than the Hurricanes, Spitfires and Messerschmitts which had fought the Battle of Britain (1940) and in qualifying trim the 5.4 litre (328 cubic inch) Flat-12 (which engineers describe as a 180^o V-12) could be tuned for 1,500 odd horsepower.  Porsche’s success in winning the cup in 1972 & 1973 ended a half-decade of dominance by the McLarens, powered by naturally-aspirated big-block Chevrolet V8s which, in response to the Porsches, had grown to a displacement of 8.3 litres (509 cubic inch).  To solve that problem, the SCCA and CASC changed the rules to hobble the “turbopanzers” but geopolitics and the consequent economic ripples anyway doomed the series, ending one of motorsport’s golden eras.

Bra cups: Art, engineering and inexact science

Example of the idiomatic use of cup in the phrase “one’s cup runneth over”: Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in 32G (10G or anything between 70-82G depending where sold) bra.

The verb use “to cup” was a part of pre-modern medicine by the fourteenth century, describing the use of something cup-like to press against the skin to draw blood closer to the surface prior to “slow blood-letting”.  Medical dictionaries note there were two modes of cupping: one in which the part is scarified and some blood taken away to relieve congestion or inflammation of internal parts (“wet cupping”, or simply “cupping”), the other in which there was no scarification no blood was abstracted (“dry cupping”).  The concept (as “cupping” and without the bleeding) is still used in certain beauty treatments popular in East-Asia.  The cupful (quantity; that a cup holds, contents of a cup) was known in late Old English and persists to this day, the phrase “cup runneth over” is used to refer an over-supply of anything and was from the Hebrew Bible (Psalms:23:5) where the message was “I have more than enough for my needs” and thus a caution against greed, or in the words of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Ich habe genug (I have enough) an unfashionable view in a materialist age although one with which Ms Fenice might concur.  Modifiers are appended as required, hyphenated and not including the teacup (circa 1700), the egg-cup (used for making the eating of boiled eggs easier (1773)) and the cupcake (1828).  Cupcakes were “small cakes intended for one” and were an invention of US English, the name derived either from cup-shaped containers in which they were baked or from the small measures of ingredients used.  The slang use to describe an “attractive young woman” was another American innovation from the 1930s.

Example of the idiomatic use of cup in the phrase "storm in a D Cup": Lindsay Lohan in demi-cup bra, from a photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love magazine, 2012.

If in cooking "cup" has been (just about) standardized around the world, the bra cup, that other use of cup as an expression of volume, is bafflingly diverse, anomalies appearing even within a manufacturer's catalogue.  The use of cup in the bra business seems to have begun in the 1930s although among historians of the bra (a surprisingly well populated niche in the discipline of the history of fashion) many differ in detail; the vague consensus seems to be the term was first used in this context in the early 1930s, was wide-spread by 1940 and almost universal by the early 1950s.  The principle of the cup size was compelling simple in that there were two variables (1) the torso and (2) the breasts.  The measurement of the torso was expressed by the bra band size (measured under the bust) in inches (or its metric equivalent) such as 30”, 32”, 34” etc, the graduations between the numbers handled by the fastening mechanism (usually a hook & eye arrangement) allowing a “tight” or “loose” fit so a 32” band could be worn by someone with a torso measurement in a 31-33 inch range.  The cup size range corresponded with the volume of the breast and (in ascending order) these were expressed in letters: A, B, C, D etc so when combined, the products were called 32B, 34C etc.  In theory, the two values worked progressively (up & down: alphabetically & numerically) so the cup size of a 32C was the same as a 30D and a 34B; in the industry, the concept is called "sister sizes", each cup the same dimensions but mounted on a different sized structure (defined by the back-band) and labelled accordingly.  That's the theory and within a manufacturer's single range it may often be true but there is no recognized definition for cup sizes so not only are any two 32Cs from different manufacturers likely to be a slightly different size, nor can it be expected the dimensions of the cup of any 30D will align exactly with that of any other 34B.  It may but it can't be predicted and the expectation should be it will likely "tend towards".

Maaree's graphical depiction of the "sister size" concept.  The point is that while band size is an absolute (expressed usually in inches or centimetres), cup size can be an absolute (within the same band size) or a comparative (when applied to different band sizes. 

English borrowed the word brassiere from the French brassière, from the Old French braciere (which was originally a lining fitted inside armor which protected the arm, only later becoming a garment), from the Old French brace (arm) although by then it described a chemise (a kind of undershirt) but in the US, brassiere was used from 1893 when the first bras were advertised and from there, use spread.  The three syllables were just too much to survive the onslaught of modernity and the truncated “bra” soon prevailed, being the standard form throughout the English-speaking world by the early 1930s.  Curiously, in French, a bra is a soutien-gorge which translates literally and rather un-romantically as "throat-supporter" although "chest uplifter" is a better translation.  The etymological origin of the modern "bra" lying in a single garment is the reason one buys "a bra" in the same department store from which one might purchase "a pair" of sunglasses or trousers, both of which, centuries ago, began as two separate items.

The authoritative Honeylove’s comprehensive guide to bras suggest the absolute minimum number a wearer should own is three on the basis of (1) one in the bra drawer, (2) one in the wash and (3) the one being worn; their recommended number is higher but three is the functional minimum.  That was based on essentially the same calculation used in 1939 (a time when the orthodoxy in German military circles was a general European war would not happen before 1942-1943 at the earliest), when the head of the Kriegsmarine's (German navy) Unterseeboote (submarine) arm (Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1980; head of the German Navy 1943-1945, German head of state 1945)) recommended that for the submarine to be an effective strategic weapon, at any time 100 would need to be deployed at sea.  That would demand a fleet of 300 because in addition to the 100 active, 100 would be either in transit to position or returning to base while another 100 would be in their pens being repaired, serviced or re-fitted.  Unfortunately for Dönitz, at the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), his fleet numbered not even 60, fewer than half of which were suited to a campaign on the high seas but even then, the U-boats proved a potent weapon a great threat to the British, the critical dangers not overcome until 1942.  Had Germany entered the war with a fleet of even 150, the course of the Battle of the Atlantic would have been very different.       

Bra size multi-national conversion chart by Fredericks of Hollywood.

Like the footwear business, it seems an industry crying out for an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) but while something buyers might welcome, it seems unlikely industry would share the enthusiasm.  Sizing systems for shoes and bras evolved independently in different regions, based either on local traditions and preferences or just wholly arbitrary choice and there would be much commercial resistance to having to change long-established conventions, something which would necessitate updating labels, packaging & advertising, as well as re-educating initially baffled consumers.  Obviously, that would be costly and therefore lobbied against.  ISO 19407:2015 does provide guidelines for converting shoe sizes between regions but that’s more an acknowledgement of a problem (and a “sort-of”) work-around than a solution and the ISO seems never to have contemplated bras.  Probably, the only way such ISOs could successfully be imposed would be to give industry a long lead-time (perhaps 25-30 years) to permit an orderly and phased world-wide introduction but realistically, few are expecting progress.

Even in the absence of an ISO, an expert will always find the perfect cup size.

Unfortunately the manufacturers complicated things in a number of ways.  Given the A,B,C,D ascending sequence, it would have been reasonable to assume E,F,G & H would follow and in some cases they did but not all, some adopting a double letter convention yielding DD, EE etc but these did not represent fractional sizing-steps between single letters; what was to some manufacturers a DD was an E to others and some were so taken with the idea they added triple lettered sizes so a 32DDD was nominally the equivalent of a 32F from another house.  Some quirks were understandable such as the one which explains the rarity of the I cup, the explanation being the character might be confused with a numeric "1" which, given the syntax of the system, seems improbable but one can see their point.  Although there are a few "I cup" bras, most manufacturers skip the letter and either leave a nominal gap between the "H" & "J" cups or include a "HH" cup in the range (although there are the odd few who stop at "G" and handle incremental increases in volume with "GG" & "GGG".  It's only the descriptions where there's a lacuna, the actual cup sizes on offer still graduated although it can be mystifying because, between manufacturers, the same size can actually be tagged as "H", "I", "HH", "J" or even "GGG" and while that can make in-store shopping merely time-consuming, for on-line shoppers it makes life especially difficult, thus the attraction of an ISO.  

1962 Chrysler 300H (left) and 1963 Chrysler 300J (right).

Chrysler in the US, not wanting the market to think there was a "3001", was in 1963 guided by the same rationale when for the first time since 1956 a letter was skipped in the designation of the 300 “letter series” cars; there’s nothing to suggest the corporation ever pondered a “300HH”.

The BUFF: The upgraded version of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (replacing the B-52H) will be the B-52J, not B-52I or B-52HH.   

The US Air Force also opted to skip “I” when allocating a designation for the updated version of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1952-1962 and still in service).  Between the first test flight of the B-52A in 1954 and the B-52H entering service in 1962, the designations B-52B, B-52C, B-52D, B-52E, B-52F & B-52G sequentially had been used but after flirting with whether to use B52J as an interim designation (reflecting the installation of enhanced electronic warfare systems) before finalizing the series as the B-52K after new engines were fitted, in 2024 the USAF announced the new line would be the B-52J and only a temporary internal code would distinguish those not yet re-powered.  Again, the “I” was not used so nobody would think there was a B-521.  Although the avionics, digital displays and ability to carry Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM, a scramjet-powered weapon capable exceeding Mach 5) are the most significant changes for the B-52J, visually, it will be the replacement of the old Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with new Rolls-Royce F130 units which will be most obvious, the F130 promising improvements in fuel efficiency of some 30% as well as reduction in noise and exhaust emissions.  Already in service for 70 years, apparently no retirement date for the B-52 has yet been pencilled-in.  In USAF (US Air Force) slang, the B-52 is the BUFF (the acronym for big ugly fat fellow or big ugly fat fucker depending on who is asking).  From BUFF was derived the companion acronym for the LTV A-7 Corsair II (1965-1984, the last in active service retired in 2014) which was SLUFF (Short Little Ugly Fat Fellow or Short Little Ugly Fat Fucker).

Under the A-B-C-D etc cup-sizing system, a given designation varies in dimensions (and thus volumetric capacity) according to the band size, the cup of a 28A smaller than that of a 32A (which should share size and shape with that used on a 30B).   

The theory: Individual results may vary.

Then there was the band size.  Most countries of course use the metric system so dimensions had to be converted but the convention for those advertised in inches was to use increments of 2 (28, 30, 32 etc) while for metric users it was in jumps of 5 cm (70, 75, 80 etc) which is close but not quite the same (28” = 71.12 cm; 30” = 76.2 cm; 32 = 82.28 cm).  More of a problem was that for the system to work, some math was required because the number from the under-bust measurement didn’t directly translate to the advertised bra size: What the buyer had to do was take the number and add 5 inches (12.7 cm) so if one’s under-bust measurement was 29” (73.7 cm), one (at least in theory) needed something with a 34” band (86.4 cm, the closest in the metric countries being the 85 cm range).  However, if the number was over 33” (83.8 cm), then one added only 3” (7.6 cm).  At that point, one needed to determine the appropriate cup.  This required a further measurement, one taken which represented the bust at its fullest projection, the somewhat misleadingly named “over-bust” number which was actually taken following the nipple line.  Many recommended taking it while wearing a bra but if that was a poor fit, that would hardly be helpful and the ideal method turned out to be (and usually this was necessary only if the volume was above a certain point) holding the breasts in place at the desired location while another did the measuring.  An ideal project then in which to involve one’s boyfriend or girlfriend, the only instructions needed being (1) the tape should rest lightly on the skin and (2) it should straight across the back, parallel to the floor.  The relationship between the over-bust measurement and the band size indicated the needed cup size: if the difference is 1” (2.54 cm) then it dictates an A cup; 2” (5.08 cm) and it’s a B cup and so on.  In many cases the simple under/over equation will work but not in all and some authorities have added additional measurements to be taken while in different positions, the 6 listed including lying flat on one's back and leaning forward so the breasts are perpendicular to the ground.  Definitely, the more dimensions which are taken, the more this seems a job for two.  

The math of cup sizes.

In practice it transpired the human body wasn’t so accommodating of production line rationalization but the system worked well enough for it to have endured for decades although only a percentage of women find an ideal fit without the help of an in-store fitter.  Quite what that number is depends on who is asked but it’s clear it’s a long way short of 100%.  The outcome for bra wearers wasn’t helped by the lack of standardization in either the labeling or the technical specification of the cup size.  The inches vs centimetres thing was manageable but even in some countries which had long switched to the metric system, bras sizes were often expressed in inches (a similar aberration to the (almost) universal use of inches for certain products including the wheels used on cars and computer monitors) and because of the internationalized nature of the market with so much imported product, in many countries, both sizing regimes simultaneously were on sale, often in the same shop.  Helpfully, many displayed wall charts with conversion tables.  For some reason, in Australia and New Zealand, the decision was taken to use the dress sizing standard used in the antipodes (8 = 30”, 10 = 32” etc), thus bra sizes like 8C, 10D etc which local users presumably adapted to but it seems a needless complication.  Additionally, regardless of what country one was in, there was no guarantee a given size from one manufacturer would exactly align with that from another and in England, a comparison by a consumer organization revealed band and cup size differences existed in stated sizes even between various styles produced by the same manufacturer; not all 32Ds were created equal.  Given that, it seems obvious it’s best to seek the assistance of a fitter but in the internet age, customers found capitalism offered a handy on-line, home delivered alternative, the trick being to order half a dozen bras of slightly different declared sizes (eg 32C, 30D, 32E etc), the ones not quite right being able to returned for credit at no cost, the site paying all the P&H (postage & handling).  That approach has attracted much criticism because of the environmental impact and it’s a significant cost to the distributor and some have now moved to restrict the practice.

Details of fifteenth century bras in Linen from Austria.

Although it wasn’t until well into the twentieth century the idea of cup sized was codified (though to this day not standardized), the concept turned out to be ancient, something confirmed in 2008 when, as part of her PhD research, Austrian anthropologist Beatrix Nutz was undertaking at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, retrieved from the dirt, wood and straw (all discarded stuff apparent used as insulation) of centuries ago in the foundations of an Austrian castle, four linen bras among some 4000 textile fragments.  What was striking was the medieval garment was the similarity to the version first patented in the United States in 1914 something perhaps unsurprising as there really is only one way to achieve the functional effect desired if a minimalist approach is pursued and that’s what was done, a few centuries apart.

Fifteenth century "longline" bra in Linen from Austria, the midriff-enveloping fabric originally extending beneath the cups.

The detailing on the garments would be familiar to those bra shopping in the twenty-first century, the lower ends decorated with finger-loop-laces, sown on with lace-stitches, resulting some simple needle-lace decoration.  There’s structural overlap too, one of the unearthed bras in the style of the “longline” bras which first became popular in the 1930s, both representing the practical expedient of combining a type of corset with a bra.  Clearly, while not necessarily something with wide commercial availability, garments in the style of the linen bras must have been well-known (at least in certain circles because in French texts as early as 1315 CE there are mentions of the “breast bags” or “shirts with bags” women used to support and restrain their breasts and one disapproving author called them “indecent” although it seems his objection was to “breasts too large” rather than the pre-modern lingerie used to minimize their appearance and the longest known surviving fragment in this vein is a verse from fifteenth century Vienna:

Ir manche macht zwen tuttenseck
Damit so snurt sie umb die eck,
Das sie anschau ein ieder knab,
Wie sie hübsche tütlein hab;
Aber welcher sie zu groß sein,
Die macht enge secklein,
Das man icht sag in der stat,
Das sie so groß tutten hab.

Translation:

Many a woman makes two bags for the breasts,
with them she roams the streets,
so that all the guys look at her,
and see what beautiful breasts she has got;
But whose breasts are too large,
makes tight pouches,
so it is not told in the city
that she has such big breasts.

Nursing bras use specialized cups: Lindsay Lohan inspects the apparatus in Labor Pains (2009).

The most obvious specialized cup is that used with nursing bras which feature an arrangement whereby most of the cup’s fabric can be semi-separated from the superstructure, enabling breast-feeding without the need to remove the whole garment.  Among bra manufacturers, there are different implementations by which the functionality of a nursing bra's apparatus is achieved and presumably chest-feeders (the preferred term among the woke to describe those who used to be called “breast-feeding women”) choose whichever best suits them; it may simply be that for manufacturers the production-line rationalization achieved by being able to adapt the specialized cups to the structures used for conventional bras is compelling, dictating the designs.  Which chest-feeders choose is of some significance given how often heard is the complaint the process is “tiring”.  To those who will never be chest-feeders it sounds more a pleasant and diverting relaxation rather than anything tiring but they all say it so it must be true.

The "push-up" bra (the best-known of which is the "Wonderbra") lives up to its name by adding to the cups strategically placed padding which has the effect of "pushing up" the breast tissue (it has nowhere else to go), creating the visual effect of something bigger and higher.  Most padding is purely functional but there are also novelty items such as the one above which is an allusion to the "hand bra", also a thing.  Padded bras in general (and especially those in which the volume of padding equals or exceeds the volume of tissue) are a form of "constructive deceptive or misleading advertising" and in Somalia (see below), Al-Shabaab conducted their own "truth in advertising campaign".  

The cupless: A "special purpose" bra available in S, M, L & XL.

Other variations include the demi-cup (also called the half-cup ("semi-cup" not a recognized term)), the bullet cup, the adhesive cup (an enlarged & shaped adaptation of the so-called "tit-tape" technology), the padded cup and the seemingly paradoxical cupless (or open-cup), the last a niche market.  Those wanting to have "their cake and eat it too" who like to go braless while enjoying the benefit of some support can buy clothes with a "built-in bra" or a "shelf-bra" although the law of physics continue to operate and beyond a certain size (and more to the point: mass), these things simply: "don't work".  The cups of a "push-up bra" include thick padding towards the bottom of the structure, this having the effect of "pushing up" the breast tissue, lending things a higher, fuller look.  There are degrees to which this can be implemented: the more the padding, the greater the effect.

Air suspension: Ford Motor Company's "Ford Aire" spin: it seemed at the time, a good idea. 

In the late 1950s, the European & US car manufacturers began their first venture into the use of air suspension, Borgward, Mercedes-Benz Ford, AMC (American Motors Corporation) and GM (General Motors) all offering models with the feature.  None of them invented air suspension and the first use on vehicles seems to have been on trucks built in the 1920s by the Czech manufacturer Tatra, better known for its later use of art deco motifs on streamlined cars which featured rear-mounted V8s atop swing axles, a combination as entertaining as it sounds.  On the road, the idea didn’t catch on but during World War II (1939-1945), the US military developed air suspension systems for heavy aircraft, the attraction being the weight saved compared with conventional hydraulics translating into longer range, higher performance and greater load capacity.  In the US, the innovation didn’t last, “Ford Aire” in particular proving a corporate nightmare; offered only on 1958 Fairlanes and station wagons so troublesome was the system barely 100 were so equipped before the option hurriedly was withdrawn, Cadillac and Rambler’s ranges not lasting much longer.  The Mercedes-Benz systems weren’t exactly trouble free but were robust enough to last in some low volume coupés, cabriolets & LWB (long wheelbase) sedans, the last of which were sold in 1973 and the huge 600 Grosser was produced until 1981 although after 1972 when it was withdrawn from the US market, it was produced only in tiny volumes.  The air suspension delivered what was then a wondrously smooth ride but it wasn’t until the 1980s advances in materials made the systems sufficiently reliable for non-specialist applications.

Air suspension: 1950s-1960s advertising for "Blow-up" bra cups.

However, almost a decade before the unfortunate fate of Ford Aire, the underwear industry introduced “Blow-ups” which were bras with “blow-up” cups.  The technology offered a number of advantages over alternative products including (1) the visual perception of increased volume achieved with no additional weight and (2) different sizes could be achieved, unlike conventional padding or inserts which had pre-set dimensions.  What that meant was (1) a large cup size could be had even with bras of delicate construction because, with no additional weight to support there were no additional downward stresses and (2) the same bra could accommodate different cup sizes, something useful because a size which suits one outfit, might not suit another.  Although only ever a niche product (which most appear to have found a complicated solution to a simple problem) such bras are still available although unlike the originals (which users “inflated” by blowing through a tube), the modern versions are supplied with a hand-operated “squeeze pump”.

The Emergency bra: One bra, two cups, two gas-masks.

Dr Elena Bodnar with Emergency Bra and two test subjects.

The “Blow-up” bra was an example of applying a simple, known technology to enhance a bra’s functionality but Dr Elena Bodnar (b 1964), director of Chicago's Trauma Risk Management Research Institute, adapted the garment’s intrinsic design elements and created the “Emergency Bra” which quickly could be transformed from a single-purpose piece of lingerie into two protective, respiratory face masks.  In an emergency, one mask (cup) could be used by the bra’s original wearing while the other could save the life of someone nearby although, obviously, if more than two people are in the affected area, the others will just have to die but, each wearer having only one spare cup to allocate, tough choices will have to be made.  The invention gained her a well-deserved Ig Nobel Prize in 2009.  Awarded annually since 1991 and sponsored by the periodical Annals of Improbable Research, the Ig Nobel Prizes are not exactly a parody of the Nobel Prizes but a way to bring to wider attention unusual, bizarre or otherwise thought-provoking achievements in science, literature and engineering.

Dr Bodnar explains the concept.

Dr Bodnar was inspired to create the Emergency Bra while working with children re-located from the contaminated zone declared after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine.  Understanding the radioactive Iodine-131 aerosol released from the damaged reactor had been a major contributor to the internal radiation dose received by the affected population, she concluded the consequences would have been much less severe if mothers had to hand a means of protecting their children.  It was when she saw photographs of people running down the street after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City she was convinced of the need for such a thing.  On 9/11, people used less than adequate pieces of cloth over their mouths and noses and it was obvious what was needed was a simple, readily available mask which would be functional yet allow “hands free operation”.  She settled on the bra because (1) the design inherently provided two masks, (2) most women wear one most of the time and (3) the dual-purpose use could be created without compromising the garment’s original aesthetics or functionality.  As YouTube posts can verify, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea was taken up by many who improvised their own while the desirable N95 surgical masks were in short supply.

Some disassembly required.  The Emergency Bra was available in designer colors.

Dr Bodnar admitted disaster preparedness was “not the most enthralling discussion topic” but her experience suggested that once people had laughed when learning about the Emergency Bra, they then appreciated “the underlying idea: an effective personal protective device needs to be simple, economical, and readily available.”  What the Emergency Bra did was “provide a person with a critical time window to escape from fires, explosions, natural disasters and biological and radiological terrorist attacks.”  There was also a psychological element in that “as well as protecting against inhalation of harmful airborne particles and freeing victims' hands while they escape, it can decrease the chances of a panic attack in large crowds by providing individuals with a sense of security.”  Of course, those who wear a DD cup will presumably have a higher chance of survival that someone with an A cup but life is unfair and it's just the luck of the draw.

Illusion bra in red with flesh tone panels.

Many bras purposefully are designed to create an illusion of some sort (higher, bigger or smaller (despite what men tend to believe, the “minimizer” concept really is a thing)), higher etc) but there is a class of cups which borrows its motif from the “illusion dress”.  An illusion dress is one of often conventional cut but with the novelty of certain panels using a “flesh tone” fabric, thereby creating the illusion of bare flesh.  There’s an art to the illusion dress and a successful execution seems best achieved when adopting the “less is more” approach; smaller panels well-placed creating a more effective illusion than using too much surface area.  The illusion bra is the same idea and in some cases is structurally identical to a conventional model, the only difference being the use of a flesh tone fabric in certain parts of the cup.  The most dramatic effect is achieved when built using the “cage bra” model but most implementations tend to be more modest.  To achieve the best match with human skin, the fabric of choice is often a de-lustred satin and given the cultural sensitivities, such things are no longer advertised with the phrase “skin-tone”.

Sydney Sweeney, “cleavage hack” PSA, October, 2025.

Illusions can also be created with an application of stuff directly to the skin.  In addition to her movie work and promotional activities, actor Sydney Sweeney (b 1997) also does PSAs (public service announcements) and in October 2025 posted to Instagram what she described as a “cleavage hack”.  What she did was apply in three dimensions the chiaroscuro technique artists use in two.  In painting, chiaroscuro describes the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade in color; what it does is enhance the delineation of character, adding to the dramatic effect.  What the admirable Ms Sweeney did was selectively apply make up to strategic points on her décolletage, the interplay of darker and lighter skin emphasising the effects naturally created by her curves.  Of course, as we know from American Eagle’s recent campaign, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”, one aspect of her genetic luck is she’s less in need than many of a “cleavage hack” but the trick works with flesh in just about any dimensions.  For those without her advantages, the chiaroscuro effect can further be enhanced by using a “wonderbra” of some type and experts caution that because what’s being sought is contrast, users may need to experiment with different colors to determine which best suits the skin tone.  Expertly done (practice makes perfect), a bronzer or highlighter in the right shade will optimize the contours and produce a sculpted look.

Vaquera’s crew neck T-shirt with trompe l'oeil underwear.  Despite the model’s dour expression (it’s part of their training for the catwalks), the look really should be worn for fun.  The skin-tone of the legs is because of tights, not Photoshopping.

Bra cups can even be virtualized.  The technique called tompe-l'œil (from the French and translating literally as “trick the eye”) describes an optical illusion created by rendering on a two-dimensional surface something which appears as a three-dimensional object and the trick had been around for millennia when first the term was used in 1800 by French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) for a painting he exhibited in the Paris Salon.  While it wasn’t for a few decades trompe-l'œil (usually in English as trompe l'oeil) was accepted by the academy as a legitimate part of high-art, architects and interior decorators continued to exploit the possibilities and the term entered their lexicons.  It has of course for years also been used in the prints on T-shirts but of late this has extended to depictions of underwear.  For most of the twentieth century, the sight of an exposed bra strap was a social faux pas, Vogue and other dictators of fashion publishing helpful tips recommending (for the well-organized) sewing on Velcro strips and (for everyone else) the industry’s DLR (device of last resort): the safety pin.  By the 1980s things had changed and the bra emerged as a fashion piece which might in part (or even in whole) be displayed.  It’s a look which waxes and wanes in popularity but one which has never gone away although it’s one of those things where ageism remains acceptable: beyond a certain age, it shouldn’t be done.  Now, fashion houses are promoting trompe l'oeil bras, knickers and other underwear printed on T-shirts, one attraction being it’s possible to create depictions of garments appearing to possess an intricacy or delicacy either not financially viable or impossible IRL (in real life).

A mastectomy bra with prostheses (left) and with the prostheses inserted in the cups' pockets (centre & right).

There are also bras for those who have lost a breast, the cups of which are “double-skinned” in that they feature internal “pockets” into which a prosthetic breast form (a prosthesis) can be inserted.  Those who have had a unilateral (or single) mastectomy (the surgical amputation of one breast) can choose a cup size to match the remaining while those who have lost both (a bilateral or double mastectomy) can adopt whatever size they prefer.  There are now even single cup bras for those who have lost one breast but opt not to use a prosthetic, an approach which reflects both an aesthetic choice and a reaction against what is described in the US as the “medical-industrial complex”, the point being that women who have undergone a mastectomy should not be subject to pressure either to use a prosthetic or agree to surgical reconstruction (a lucrative procedure for the industry).  This has now emerged as a form of advocacy called the “going flat” movement which has a focus not only on available fashions but also the need for a protocol under which, if women request an AFC (aesthetic flat closure, a surgical closure (sewing up) in which the “surplus” skin (often preserved to accommodate a future reconstructive procedure) is removed and the chest rendered essentially “flat”), that is what must be provided.  The medical industry has argued the AFC can preclude a satisfactory cosmetic outcome in reconstruction if a woman “changes her mind” but the movement insists that's an example of how the “informed consent” of women is not being respected.  Essentially, what the movement seems to be arguing is the request for an AFC should be understood as an example of the legal principle of VAR (voluntary assumption of risk).  The attitude of surgeons who decline to perform an AFC is described by the movement as the “flat refusal”.

World map with the traditional Mercator projection (left), world map with land masses accurately to scale (centre) and world map with true size overlaid on the Mercator depiction (right).

In most of the world, women’s main issue with bras probably is finding one which fits and affords both support and comfort, the informal test being it should “feel like not wearing one”.  That can be a challenge (certainly after a long, hot day) and the inconsistencies in the sizing and labelling doesn’t make it easier but if tiresome, the problems are at least manageable.  In Africa, bras can be more of an issue and the continent is a big place (bigger indeed than the impression created by maps of the world which use the still popular Mercator projection which exaggerates the size of the land masses at more northern latitudes (Europe, Asia and North America)).  The are 54 sovereign states on the continent and the African Union recognizes also the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), which is a disputed territory but it’s neither recognized by the United Nations (UN) as a member state nor granted observer status.  The African Union is a pan-African association comprised of the whole 55 entities although several currently are suspended because of military meddling in politics.

Nigeria’s Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) staff enforcing the “No Bra, No Entry” rule.

So geographically it’s big and also diverse politically, culturally, religiously and ethnically with different states in various stages of development, all of those factors having sometimes led to clashes with wars with other conflicts legion; the death toll over recent decades is in the millions.  Given all that, less lethal squabbles were perhaps inevitable but one source of disputes which may not have been predicted concerned that most Western of garments: the bra.  In June 2025, a viral video circulated showing (female) staff at Nigeria’s Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in the south-western state of Ogun, frisking students to verify bras were being worn, enforcing the institution’s “No Bra, No Entry” rule for exam halls.  The backlash on social media was predictably swift with users condemning the act as “harassment” and a “violation of human rights”, pointing out women have “different reasons for not wearing bras” ranging from comfort to poverty.  A (male) representative for the university’s student union seemed unimpressed with the protests, posting on X (formerly known as Twitter) that: “No bra, no entry is not a new policy in Olabisi Onabanjo University”, adding that the institution promotes “modest dressing” to ensure a “distraction-free environment."  In case people didn’t get it, the post went on to clarify things, explaining the policy was enforced to prevent “indecent dressing capable of making the opposite sex unnecessarily lust after them.”  However, in conclusion, the representative did acknowledge the strength of feeling and said the union would hold discussions with university authorities to explore “more respectful and dignified” alternative methods of enforcement.  Like many institutions, the OOU seems to understand that if a problem is identified, women must be cause and therefore must be blamed.

The Brady Bunch's Marcia (left) and Jan (right).

Lest it be thought making bras compulsory is something culturally specific, during the latter seasons of the US television sitcom The Brady Bunch (1969-1974), the director (physically!) would check the two young actresses (Maureen McCormick (Marcia, b 1956) & Eve Plumb (Jan, b 1958) to ensure bras were on, the method being a palm of the hand placed between the suspect’s shoulder blades, a detected strap a “pass”, its absence meaning a trip back to the dressing room.  The rationale for this was the show having a “wholesome, family-friendly image” and a concern the outline of a nipple protruding through fabric might jeopardize advertising revenue.  Going braless was an act of deliberate rebellion by the teen-aged pair and apparently they got away with it for a couple of episodes before being detected, triggering the “battle of the bras”.  Interestingly, unlike the protocols used at the OOU, the physical check was performed by a man, the show’s director, Lloyd Schwartz (b 1946), something which must seem remarkable to the #metoo generation but times have changed.

Being a big place of 54 sovereign jurisdictions, cultural standards in Africa vary from place to place and while bras may sometimes be compulsory in Nigeria, to the east they have in the past been banned.  In 2009, Reuters reported in the Somali capital Mogadishu, members of the hardline Islamist group al Shabaab publicly had whipped women for wearing bras, a garment they claim violates the rules of Islam by “constituting a deception”.  It was an interesting example of cultural difference given that in the West bras often are marketed as a device to enable women to do their own "deceptive and misleading" advertising.  The news agency reported gunmen had been seen rounding up any woman whose appearance suggested the presence of a bra which they were instructed to remove and then “shake their breasts”.  One woman interviewed on condition of anonymity told Reuters: “Al shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts, my daughters have been whipped.  They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women's chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat."

Ladies Undergarments Fancy Bra Imported Bra & Panty, Shopkeeper number: 0313 5520532, Shop 36b, Al Ghaffar Mall, G 11 Markaz, Islamabad, Pakistan.

The very existence of such a place in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would appal al-Shabaab which would declare the whole place Haraam on the grounds of promoting “deceptive and misleading conduct”.

Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (known usually as al-Shabaab and translated as “the youth”) remains active in and beyond Somalia although its presence in Mogadishu has been restricted to raiding activities with their effective control of territory limited to southern and central regions.  As a military and political formation based (notionally) on youth, al-Shabaab can be compared with the Pakistani Taliban (طالبان) which translates variously as “students”" or “seekers (of knowledge)” and is the plural of the Arabic-derived ṭālib (طالب) (“student” or “seeker”).  Formed in 2007, the origins of the Pakistani Taliban lay in the madrassas (Islamic seminaries) which produced graduates marked by a mix of youthful energy, a militant interpretation of Islam and a belief in violent jihad as a means of furthering the political end of imposing a rigorous form of Sharia law on the Islamic Republic of Pakistani.  The earlier product of the Pakistani madrassas was the Afghan Taliban which emerged in southern Afghanistan during the mid-1980s (though the name would not come into use for several years).  The students came mostly from Madrasses in the rather lawless border areas (notably Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), the funding for which came from Saudi and Western sources (with the active logistical support of the Pakistan military’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the funders’ interest being to oppose the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Unlike the other great monotheist faiths (Christianity and Judaism) which (at least at certain stages) had standardized, codified rules, despite the existence of the Holy Quran, lacking centralized authority (such as the Roman Catholic pope) Islam’s precepts have long been open to interpretation (a trend the Anglicans picked up after the 1968 Lambeth conference) which is why al-Shabaab members were able to ponder whether a bra was haraam, halal or fard.  Haraam was from the Arabic حَرَام (ḥarām) and meant “forbidden by Islam; unlawful, sinful”.  Halal was from the Arabic حَلَال (ḥalāl) and meant “allowable, according to Muslim religious customs” (although in some places it’s now rather more prescriptive).  Fard (or fardh) was from the Arabic فَرْض (farḍ) (religious duty) and was from فَرَضَ (faraḍa) (to ordain, make obligatory, specify) and meant “obligatory for all Muslims”.  Although those three headings (forbidden; permitted; compulsory) are well known in the West, the Sharia is more nuanced and the key terms in Islamic jurisprudence include:

Halal (حلال): Permissible

Haraam (حرام): Forbidden

Fard (فرض): Obligatory or compulsory

Wajib (واجب): Also means obligatory but in use it seems now to apply to matters not strictly enforced

Mustahabb (مستحب): Recommended

Makruh (مكروه): Disliked, but not sinful

Mubah (مباح): Neutral or permissible (neither encouraged nor discouraged)

Nigeria’s Ogun state is not exclusively Islamic (estimates of the population breakdown vary, the Christians estimated between 35-70%) but the OOU’s student union clearly is convinced the wearing of a bra is Fard (at least when sitting an exam) whereas to al-Shabaab it’s definitely haraam.  While it can be predicted al-Shabaab will be uncompromising and not prepared to reclassify bras as Makruh, it remains to be seen whether the OOU union’s discussions with university authorities will result in the garment becoming merely Mustahabb or enforcement at least reduced to Wajib.