Cokebottle

Cokebottle (pronounced koke-bott-el)

A descriptor for a design where objects either resemble or are inspired by the shape of the classic Coca-Cola bottle.

1965: From an unsuccessful trademark application file in the US by the Chevrolet division of General Motors (GM), cokebottle thus word that never was.  The Coca-Cola name was a deliberately alliterative creation which referred to two of the original ingredients (leaves of the coca plant and kola nuts (source of the caffeine).  Coca is from the Erythroxylaceae family of cultivated plants native to western South America and renowned as the source of the psychoactive alkaloid.  Used since the drink’s debut in 1886, the cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola in 1903, the remainder of the recipe remaining famously secret.  Coke dates from 1908 in US English and was a clipping of clipping of cocaine although it’s not known when the word was first used to refer to the drink but given the rapidity with which slang forms emerge to describe popular products, it’s at least possible it pre-dated the drug reference although the company did not lodge a trade-mark application for Coke until 1944 although in internal company documents it appears at least as early as 1941.  While the drink produced a number of derived forms (Diet Coke, Coke-Bottle, frozen Coke, Coke-float, Coke Zero and the most unfortunate New Coke), those attached to the narcotic are more evocative and include coke dick, cokehead, coke whore and coke-fucked.  Bottle was from the Middle English botel (bottle, flask, wineskin), from the Old French boteille (from which Modern French gained bouteille), from the Medieval Latin butticula, ultimately of uncertain origin but thought by most etymologists to be a diminutive of the Late Latin buttis (cask, barrel).  Buttis was probably from a Greek form related to the Ancient Greek πυτίνη (putínē) (flask) and βοῦττις (boûttis), from the imitative primitive Indo-European bhehw (to swell, puff).

Lindsay Lohan seems to tend to prefer her Coca-Cola in cans but occasionally is seen drinking from the bottle.

Between its unpromising origin in 1926 as a lower-cost alternative to the anyway non-premium Oakland brand and its demise (with a whimper) in 2010, Pontiac in the 1960s did enjoy a brief, shining moment of innovation and style.  Pontiac had been one of a number of companion brands introduced by GM as part of a marketing plan to cover every price segment (the so-called "Sloan Ladder" conceived by Alfred P Sloan (1875–1966; president of General Motors (GM) 1923-1937 and Chairman of the Board 1937-1946)) with a distinct nameplate, Cadillac gaining LaSalle, Oldsmobile gaining Viking, Oakland gaining Pontiac and Buick gaining Marquette; only the high-volume Chevrolet stood alone.  The idea was that as one's wealth increased, one would take the "next step on the ladder" so that after the ninth and final step, the man who once bought a Chevrolet now bought a Cadillac, after which there was nowhere else to go except another new Cadillac.  The effects of the Great Depression meant the experiment didn’t last and GM would soon to revert six divisions, the newcomers Viking and Marquette axed while Pontiac, which had proved both more successful and profitable than the shuttered Oakland, survived, joined LaSalle which lingered until 1940 and then there were five.  Pontiac also returned to the line-up when car production resumed late in 1945 and, benefiting from the buoyant post-war economy, enjoyed success although much of the engineering was based on that of Chevrolet while the side-valve engines were obsolescent.  Things began to change in 1955 when a new overhead-valve (OHV) V8 was introduced, a power-plant which faithfully would serve the line for a quarter century in displacements between 265 cubic inches (4.3 litres) and 455 (7.5L) and, unusually for US manufacturers during the era, Pontiac used the one basic block for all iterations.  By 1955, all Pontiacs sold in the US were V8 powered (some sixes were still made for overseas markets) and the division began to become more adventurous, joining the power race, fielding cars in competition and moving up-market.  However, the first real master-stroke (one of several innovations which would contribute to such stellar growth in both sales and reputation in the decade to come) was the introduction in 1959 of the "wide-track" advertising campaign.

1959 Pontiac convertibles:  A Canadian Parisienne (left) built on the Chevrolet X-Frame and a US Catalina (right) on Pontiac’s wide-track frame; note the gaping wheel-wells on the Canadian car.

There were not a few visual exaggerations in the wide-track advertising campaign but the underlying engineering was real, the track (the distance between the centre of the tyre-tracks across each axle-line) increased by 5 inches (125 mm).  This improved the handling, giving the Pontiacs a more sure-footed stance than most of the competition and an attractive low-slung look,  If anyone had any doubts about the veracity of the “wide track” claim, the Canadian Pontiacs were there for comparison.  Because of internal corporate agreements, the bodies of the Canadian Pontiacs were mounted on the Chevrolet X-frame with its narrow track and the difference is obvious, the wheels looking lost inside the cavernous lacunas created by the overhanging bodywork.  In the US, sales soared and while a comparison with the recession-hit 1958 is probably misleading, the success of the wide-track programme did propel the division from sixth to fourth place in the industry and for much of the 1960s Pontiac Motor Division (PMD) was one of the industry's most dynamic name-plates.

1960s Pontiac Wide-Track advertising graphic art by Art Fitzpatrick (1919–2015) & Van Kaufman (1918-1995).

Memorable as the 1960s Pontiacs were, of note too was the graphic art produced by Art Fitzpatrick (1919–2015) & Van Kaufman (1918-1995) whose renderings were ground-breaking in the industry in that rather than focusing on the machine, they were an evocation of an life-style, albeit one which often bore little relationship to those enjoyed  by typical American consumers.  Still, that was and remains the essence of aspirational advertising and Fitzpatrick & Kaufman influenced their industry with techniques still seen today and students of art history would identify elements from mannerism.  The pair didn't take things so far they became surrealists but truth-in-advertising rules in the 1960s were not as demanding as they would become; although the big Pontiacs after 1959 genuinely were wide-tracked, they weren’t quite as wide as Fitzpatrick & Kaufman made them appear.  Never had "longer, lower & wider" really been that wide.

Envious of what Pontiac had achieved in trade-marking wide-track for the wide track advertising campaigns, GM’s Chevrolet division attempted to claim both cokebottle and coke-bottle for similar purposes, wishing to run a campaign to tie in with their new styling idea for its big cars, using similar curves to those seen on the classic coke bottle. The authorities in Detroit declined the application and legal advice to Chevrolet suggested there was little chance of success against likely opposition from the Coca-Cola Corporation.

Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtops: 1965 (left), 1966 (centre) & 1967 (right).

However, along with much of the industry, Chevrolet did produce cars inspired by the shape which came to be known as coke bottle styling and on the big cars, the cokebottle motif was expressed mostly in the curves applied to the rear-coachwork.  Chevrolet toned-down the look in 1968-1969 but by then it had spread to other manufacturers, including those across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and although by the early 1970s it was dated, the realities of production-line economics meant the look in some places lingered, even into the 1980s, the odd revival (usually in the rear-fender shape) still seen from time-to-time though modern interpretations do (except on sports cars and their ilk) tend to be more subtle than the exuberant lines of the 1960s.  Essentially bodies with outward curving fenders with a narrow centre, the technique had also been adopted by the aeroplane designers as a necessary means of dealing with the aerodynamic challenges created by supersonic speeds and although the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labelled the design principle area rule, most engineers referred to it as coke bottle or, among themselves, the Marilyn Monroe.

1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88 convertible.  The classic example of cokebottle styling is the third generation (S3) Chevrolet Corvette (1968-1982) where the idea is executed front and rear.  In the design of twenty-first century sports cars, the motif still appears.

Coca-Cola bottles and a replica of the 1914 A.L.F.A. Aerodinamica Prototipo (aerodynamic prototype) which used the shape of the bottle introduced in 1900).  The replica is now exhibited at the Alfa Romeo Historical Museum in Arese. 

In the narrow technical sense, cokebottle styling had been done as early as 1914 although there’s nothing to suggest Coca Cola's bottle design of 1900-1914 provided any inspiration.  The A.L.F.A. 40/60 HP Aerodinamica Prototipo was built by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Castagna in 1914 on a commission from Milanese Count Marco Ricotti (the distinctive machine at the time described as the Siluro Ricotti (the Ricotti Torpedo)).  Although relatively large & heavy, the designers assumed the aerodynamic properties of the teardrop-shaped body (the coach-builder listed it as a "droplet", an instance of Italian borrowing from English) would permit the then impressive top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph), a useful increase of 25 km/h (16 mph) over the standard 40/60.  Unfortunately, the additional weight meant rendered it no faster although the appearance certainly was memorable.  The 40/60 used an overhead valve (OHV) in-line four cylinder engine with a displacement of 6.1 litres (371 cubic inches) with a rating of 70 HP (51 kW).

Going topless: The count takes countess and children for a post-roofectomy drive.

It took the industry some decades to work out that while men might be signing the checks (cheques), women exerted much influence on the choice of car to be purchased and as early as the 1930s some manufacturers did add women to their design teams for "look and feel" stuff like interiors (it took longer for them to infiltrate the engineering offices).  Countess Ricotti however made her impact early.  The shape of the Siluro Ricotti was optimized to achieve the best possible aerodynamic efficiency while providing enough internal space comfortably to accommodate six, the original benchmark the top-speed number.  That proved illusory but, dictated by the fluid dynamics of air-flow, the radiator and engine had been placed within the passenger compartment and while this had certain advantages, it also meant heat soak through the aluminium skin and a tendency for the cabin to fill with fumes of gas (petrol) and oil.  That was what the countess disliked and she refused to let her children be driven in the thing.  The count had envisaged it as the ideal family car so in a spirit of marital compromise had Carrozzeria Castagna remove most of the roof, turning it into a kind of phaeton to be enjoyed during Milan's many warm, sunny days.

Sometime during Italy's turbulent inter-war period the Siluro Ricotti was lost but over two years during the 1970s, Alfa Romeo's engineers, using old photos and the extant original blueprints, created a replica on a surviving 40/60 chassis.  That machine is now on display at the Alfa Romeo Historical Museum in Arese and the website confirms the top speed as only the 139 km/h (86 mph) the factory had verified for the Corsa (racing) version of the 40-60 which used distinctly non-aerodynamic bodywork but with an engine tuned to deliver 73 HP (54 kW).

Sombrero

Sombrero (pronounced som-brair-oh or sawm-bre-raw (Spanish))

(1) A sometimes highly embroidered, broad-brimmed hat of straw or plush felt, usually with a high conical or cylindrical crown and a saucer-shaped brim, worn especially in Spain, Mexico, and the south-western United States.

(2) A style of automobile wheel-cover which became popular in the US during the 1950s, the enveloping design vaguely similar to the motifs associated with the hat.

(3) A mixed drink, made with coffee liqueur and cream.

(4) In ten-pin bowling, a series of four consecutive strikes.

1590–1600: From the Spanish from sombrero de sol (broad-brimmed hat offering shade from the sun) and originally "umbrella, parasol" (a sense found in English by the 1590s), from sombra (shadow; shade) from the Late Latin subumbrare (to shadow), the construct being sub (under) + umbrāre (from umbra (shadow)) + ero (the dative & ablative singular of erus, from the Proto-Italic ezos (master), from the primitive Indo-European heshós (master) and cognate with the Hittite išhāš (master)) and thus literally "shade-maker".  Sombrero is a noun and sombreroed is an adjective, (the non-standard sombrerolike & sombreroesque both used informally); the noun plural is sombreros.

Politicians are often compelled to wear sombreros in the search for votes.  Others wear them by choice.

(1) Gerald Ford (1913–2006; US president 1974-1977).

(2) Comrade Marshal (Josip Broz) Tito (1892–1980;  Yugoslav president 1953-1980).

(3) Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965; Democratic presidential nominee 1952 & 1956).

(4) Hugo Chávez (1954–2013; Venezuelan president 1999-2002 & 2002-2013).

(5) Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974).

(6) Britney Spears (b 1981; entertainer).

(7) Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022).

(8) Barry Goldwater (1909–1998; Republican presidential nominee 1964).

1961 Lincoln Continental SS-X-100 with sombrero wheel covers, Dallas, 22 November 1963 (left) and with the (ex Continental Mark II) turbine-style wheel covers and some of X-100’s protective accessories (right).

Traces of a sombrero-like shape can be discerned in the designs used for the early post-war Cadillacs but it was in the 1950s the style became popular with many manufacturers emulating the lines.  Although less popular by the early 1960s, the coachbuilders Hess & Eisenhardt chose to use sombrero-style wheel covers from the 1957 Lincoln Premiere when the White House’s 1961 presidential parade limousine was updated in 1963 with a current model grill.  This was the famous SS X-100 (the Secret Service inventory number) in which the president was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963.  It was extensively re-modeled in the aftermath of the assassination (and again in 1967), Hess & Eisenhardt reverted to the turbine-style wheel covers from the Continental Mark II (1956-1957) with which the car had originally been fitted.  Although other presidential parade cars were built in 1968 and 1972, X-100 continued to be used by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter until 1977 and it’s now on permanent display in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

1952 Cadillac sombrero wheel covers (16 inch reproductions) (left), 1954 Packard sombrero wheel covers (centre) and 1957 Cadillac sombrero wheel cover, Cadillac by 1957 unable to resist adding embellishments.

The terms “wheel cover” & “hubcap” (or hub-cap) have long been used interchangeably but the two, historically, are different.  The distinction between the two is that a wheel cover covers the entire diameter of the wheel whereas a hubcap covers only the center portion of the wheel, concealing at most only the lug nuts which secure the wheel.  The origin of the hub cap pre-dates powered-transportation and was simply a device which fitted over the hub of a wheel to prevent dirt and debris from entering the assembly and contaminating the grease which provided lubrication and some of the early versions were actually called dirt-caps or grease-caps.

1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III saloon with wire wheels with centre hub cap (left) and an unusual 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III pillarless fixed head coupé (FHC) with wheel covers over wire wheels.

As wheel designs evolved from those used on hand-carts or horse-drawn vehicles, the hubcaps were enlarged to extend protection to the lug nuts, reducing abrasion and limiting the moisture penetration which encouraged rust.  The hubcap was thus a purely utilitarian device and this functionality was extended in the 1920s when all-enveloping wheel covers (some of which had actually been seen in the nineteenth century) began to appear in volume.  These were usually covers for wire wheels (a type preferred because they were much lighter that those made from pressed steel) and served to protect both the spokes and the brakes behind from dirt and the impact of stones and rocks, an important consideration when so many roads were un-sealed.  Owners and drivers appreciated the protection, wire wheels notoriously time-consuming to clean.  One drawback however was that the air-flow to the brake drums was inhibited so the brakes were more prone to overheating, thus reducing their retardative effect but as some soon discovered, speed and economy were actually improved because the smooth wheel covers were aerodynamically more efficient, as aspect of design which continues to be exploited to this day.  In the UK, both hubcaps and wheel covers were originally called nave plates.  Nave (hub of a wheel) was from the Middle English nave, from the Old English nafu, from the Proto-West Germanic nabu, from the Proto-Germanic nabō (which influenced the Dutch naaf, the German Nabe and the Swedish nav), from the primitive Indo-European hneb- (navel) and related to the Latin umbō (shield boss), the Latvian naba and the Sanskrit नभ्य (nabhya).  The idea of it being “something central” was a development from the Latin nāvem, the singular accusative of nāvis, terms from architecture which referred to the middle section of a church (later extended to other structures & shipbuilding).

1959 Imperial Silvercrest Landau (left), 1959 Edsel Citation convertible (centre) and 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz (right).

Also exploited, for better and worse, were aesthetic sensibilities.  It was in the stylistically exuberant US of the 1950s that wheel covers became truly extravagant and heavy, the latter something that brought its own problems.  The design teams took to wheel covers with enthusiasm because changes were cheap to implement and they soon became part of product differentiation, the higher in the hierarchy a model sat, the more elaborate the wheel covers were likely to be.  The sombreros were just one style, others referencing influences as diverse as the original wire wheels, the turbines in jet engines, water fountains, the full moon (though without pock-marks) and beehives.

Dog dishes: 1966 Ford Fairlane 427 (left), 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Six Pack and 1969 Yenko Chevrolet Nova 427.

Wheel covers became part of what was typically an annual cycle of styling changes and it wasn’t unusual for those used on last year’s top-of-the-line model to re-appear on a cheaper line and just because wheel covers had arrived, hubcaps didn’t go away, fitted almost always as standard equipment on the cheapest entry-level models and those defined as heavy-duty such as the ones built for police fleets.  Simple steel stampings, they were cheap to produce and, being lightweight, were less prone to becoming detached during brisk driving, the “flying hubcap” (actually usually a wheel cover) a noted feature of many of Hollywood’s car chases and something the many film buffs delight in noting sometime escape the "continuity process", a lost wheel cover inexplicably having re-attached itself later in the sequence.  The simple pressings were sometimes dubbed “poverty hubcaps” but a more common nickname was “dog dish”, a reference to their appearance if upturned.

Mercedes-Benz 600 SWB with early, two-piece hub cap & trim ring combination (left) and the later, less pleasing, one-piece wheel cover.

The wheel cover as part of a re-style was not restricted to the US but manufacturers in the UK & Europe were more conservative (an exception to this tended to be the locally produced models from companies ultimately owned by US corporations; as in Australia, these sometimes used hand-me-downs from Detroit), hubcaps persisting longer while “trim-rings” began to be added to emulate wheel covers but designs were often carried over from one model to the next.  In this, the Mercedes-Benz 600 (M100, 1963-1981) is a footnote in hubcap history in that in its eighteen-odd years in production, the only styling change (other than the disfigurements demanded by US regulators) was to replace the two-piece hubcap/trim ring combination with a one-piece wheel cover.  This was unfortunate because the earlier style better suited the car and designers have distinguished between them, calling one the "frowning" and the other the smiling, the 600 definitely a "frowning" sort of car.

Lindsay Lohan in Sombrero.

Wheel covers remained of interest to those designing cars for competition, the trade-off between brake cooling and aerodynamic advantage weighed up according to the nature of the event.  On the circuits a premium usually was attached to cooling but those setting speed records were particularly attracted to the smoothest possible shape which meant flat wheel covers of some description were often fitted and where possible many choose to enclose the wheel to whatever extent was possible; In testing, Jaguar discovered an additional 3-4 mph (5-6 km/h) could be attained if the XK120’s (1948-1954) rear wheels were wholly enclosed by fender skirts (also called spats).  In the modern era, even with aluminum or composite wheels optimized for lightness and brake cooling, there are manufacturers which use additional wheel covers, either to produce downforce for use in competition or to reduce drag, lowering energy consumption to increase a vehicle’s range.  Like many manufacturers of EVs (electric vehicles) Tesla uses the combination of aluminium wheels (for weight-saving) and a plastic wheel cover (for aerodynamic efficiency), the latter the main reason why there have been so few EV convertibles, the inherent inefficiency of the shape imposing a significant penalty "in the drag".  When the naked wheel of a Tesla Cybertruck is revealed, many are struck by the attractiveness of the design.

The selfie sombrero, a 2014 co-development between Christian Cowan-Sanluis and Acer Inc of Taiwan.

In 2014, in one of the IT industry’s less remembered collaborations with the fashion business, designer Christian Cowan-Sanluis (b 1994) joined with Taiwanese (Taiwan a renegade province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)) manufacturer Acer to produce a “limited-edition” (a perhaps unnecessary announcement) sombrero with an integrated tablet, able to spin through 360^o.  Said to be the ultimate solution to selfie takers who struggle to find their best angle, the wide-brimmed apparatus included an Iconia A1-840 tablet.  Listed upon release at a not unreasonable Stg£599, the selfie-sombrero was based on a hat in Cowan-Sanluis' autumn-winter 2014 collection, noted for having been modeled by Lady Gaga (b 1986).

Lady Gaga in original sparkly pink sombrero from Christian Cowan-Sanluis’ autumn-winter 2014 collection.

Technically, the design was helpful for selfie-takers because of the mounting which allowed the tablet to spin through 360^o, helping the user to determine the best angle while snapping and reviewing the results.  With an internet connection, the perfect selfie could then instantly be uploaded to the social platform of choice.  Early adopters were encouraged to place an order, the designer noting the creation of ten pink sparkly glitter cases with accompanying hats in the same style as that worn by Lady Gaga.

Port

Port (pronounced pohrt (U) or pawrt (non-U))

(1) A city, town, or other place where ships load or unload.

(2) A place along a coast in which ships may take refuge from storms; harbor.

(3) A place designated in law as a point of entry where persons and merchandise are allowed to pass, by water or land, in and out of a country and where customs officers are stationed to inspect or appraise imported goods.

(4) The left-side of a vessel or aircraft, facing forward (formerly called larboard).

(5) Any of a class of very fortified sweet wines, mostly dark-red, originally from Portugal.

(6) An opening in the side or other exterior part of a ship for admitting air and light or for taking on cargo.

(7) In machinery, an aperture for the passage of steam, air, water etc.

(8) In military use, a small aperture in an armored vehicle, aircraft, or fortification through which a gun can be fired or a camera directed.

(9) In computer hardware, a physical connection (serial, parallel, USB, SCSI etc) to which a peripheral device or a transmission line from a remote terminal can be attached.

(10) In computer software, an address, part of TCP and the IP stack.

(11) The raised centre portion on a bit for horses.

(12) A gate or portal, as in the entrance to a town or fortress (chiefly Scots, now archaic).

(13) In Queensland, Australia, an alternative term for suitcase (increasingly rare).

(14) In computer programming, to modify existing code written for one operating system so it will run on another; a set of files used to build and install a binary executable file from the source code of an application.

(15) The bearing or carriage of one’s self (now archaic, survives as deportment, the once synonymous portance now obsolete).

(16) An abbreviation of Portugal for certain purposes.

(17) In internal combustion engines, an aperture through which (1) the fuel-air mixture passes to reach the inlet valve(s) to the combustion chamber and (2) exhaust gasses from the combustion process pass after exiting through the exhaust valve(s).

(18) In rowing, a “sweep rower” who rows primarily with an oar on the port side.

(19) In the sports of curling & lawn bowls, a space between two stones or bowls wide enough for a delivered stone or bowl to pass through.

(20) In military terminology (also as “at the high port), to hold or carry a weapon with both hands so that it lays diagonally across the front of the body, with the barrel or similar part near the left shoulder and the right hand grasping the small of the stock; to throw the weapon into this position on the command “Port arms!”.

(21) In telephony, to carry or transfer an existing telephone number from one telephone service provider to another.

(22) In law, to transfer a voucher or subsidy from one jurisdiction to another (mostly US use).

(23) In artisan candle-making, a frame for wicks, the word in this context sometimes used generally as a device which hold something in place while being worked on.

(24) In linguistics, an abbreviation of portmanteau.

Pre 900: From the Old English and Middle English port (harbor, haven), reinforced by the Old French port (harbor, port; mountain pass), the Old English and Old French both from the Latin portus (port, harbor (originally "entrance, passage" and figuratively "a place of refuge, asylum")) from the primitive Indo-European pértus (crossing (and thus distantly cognate with ford)) from prtu- (a going, a passage), from the root per- (to lead, pass over) and related to the Sanskrit parayati (carries over), the Ancient Greek poros (journey, passage, way) & peirein (to pierce, to run through), from the Latin porta (gate, door), portāre (passage; to carry) & peritus (experienced), the Avestan peretush (passage, ford, bridge), the Armenian hordan (go forward), the Welsh rhyd (ford), the Old Church Slavonic pariti (to fly), the Old English faran (to go, journey) and the Old Norse fjörðr (inlet, estuary).  The present participle porting, the past participle is ported and the noun plural is ported.

The meaning "gateway; entrance etc" was from the Old English port (portal, door, gate, entrance), from the Old French porte (gate, entrance), from the Latin porta (city gate, gate; door, entrance), from the primitive Indo-European root per-.  The meaning "to carry" was from the Middle French porter, from the Latin portāre (passage; to carry) and is used in this sense still as “ported & porting”;  The use is Queensland, Australia to describe a suitcase as “a port” is fading as the use of regional forms diminishes.  The circa 1300 use to mean of "bearing, mien" (from circa there was the general sense of "external appearance" which extended by the 1520s to the now-archaic sense of "state, style, establishment") is an adaptation of this in the sense of “how one carries (ie deports) oneself” and survives in the word “deportment” (the once synonymous portance is now obsolete); young ladies at finishing school (a kind of training for husband-hunting) would undertake “deportment class” which apparently really did involve learning to walk with a book balanced on the head so the ideal posture could be learned.

Semiotics at sea: The international convention is port (left) is red, starboard (right) is green & stern (aft) is white (ie clear lens).  This rule governs things like navigation lights, chart markings and architectural schematics.

The meaning "left side of a ship" (looking forward from the stern) dates from the 1540s, from the notion of "the side facing the harbor when a ship is docked”.  It replaced backboard, larboard & leeboard to avoid confusion with starboard when in oral use, eventually confirmed by regulatory order of the Admiralty order in 1844 and US Navy Department in 1846.  The origin of the left-right (larboard/starboard) convention in maritime matters is in the ancient vessels which had a (permanently attached) steering oar on the right, thus dictating the need to moor with the left side parallel with the dock or wharf.  The configuration seems to have been standardized in the early vessels of many cultures because the vast majority of the human population seems long to have been right-handed.  Starboard was from the Middle English sterbord, stere-bourd & stere-burd, from Old English stēorbord, from the Proto-West Germanic steurubord (the construct of all forms steer +‎ board.  The use as an adjective is noted from 1857 but oral use likely pre-dated this.  Interestingly, in 1887, a US report noted “port” had replaced “larboard” among all classes of sailors except the whalers harvesting in the Atlantic and South Pacific although the new term was used in the Arctic fleets.

Lindsay Lohan approaching port while sitting slightly to starboard, Vanity Fair photo shoot, Marina del Rey, California, October 2010.  The location was the Sovereign, a motor yacht built in 1961 for the film star Judy Garland (1922-1969).

The figurative sense "place of refuge" is noted from the early fifteenth century, the phrase “any port in a storm” (any refuge is welcomed in adversity) first documented since 1749 but it’s likely it was in the oral use of sailors and others much earlier.  The “port of call” dates from 1810 and is a location scheduled for a visit by a ship; it’s used by both the military and civil shipping.  The phrase “first port of call” can be either a literal description of the first place a ship (or by extension other forms of transport) is to visit or figuratively “the default or usually choice of option”.  The porthole (opening in the side of a ship) dates from circa 1300 and is documented in the terminology of naval architects since 1506; the original use in warships was to describe the embrasures in the side of the ship through which cannons were fired.  What are now thought of as portholes in ships were (from 1788) originally called “air-ports” on the basis they were a "small opening in the side of a ship to admit air and light.

A mid-century modern car port.  The car is a Mercedes-Benz (R107) SL.

A portreeve (from the Middle English port-reve, from the Old English portgerēfa, the construct being port (a walled market town) +‎ gerēfa (reeve (a local official)) was variously a mayor, bailiff magistrate or warder in a port or maritime town; the equivalent office in inland settlements was the borough-reeve (mayor).  The difference was the specific duties attached to officials in places with ports.  The carport (also as also car-port), an adaptation of the French porte-cochère, was formalized in the jargon of architecture in 1939, referring to the practice of lean-to roofs being added to houses to afford weather-protection to cars.  It had become common practice as car ownership grew and many properties couldn’t accommodate a separate garage, or in the case of multiple-vehicle ownership, it couldn’t be enlarged.  The carport became a favourite of modernist architects who tended often to object to space which could be allocated to people being “wasted” on a car but in the affluent post-war years, became a class-identifier, the carport thought a symbol of poverty compared with the integrated or stand-alone double garage.  Portsider (left-handed person) dates from 1913 and was US baseball slang although, technically, it referred to those who batted left-handed rather than left-handers per se (as in cricket, there are right-handers who bat left-handed).  The distinction also existed in boxing, a southpaw originally a fighter who “leads with the left” rather than a left-hander although that does seem to be the modern use.

This is the portable loo of Kim Jong-un, (b 1984, Supreme Leader of the DPRK (North Korea) since 2011) which travels with the Supreme Leader when he visits places in the DPRK (to view missile tests etc).  In commercial parlance, these are known as portaloos.  Note the soldier stationed outside the loo, there to guard against anyone attempting to share the Supreme Leader’s facilities (it’s said the soldier has orders to “shoot to kill”).  Proof of existence of Kim III's portable loo solved one mystery which had divided genetcists and the medical community.  In a biography of the Supreme Leader's father (Kim II: Kim Jong-il (1941–2011; The Dear Leader of DPRK 1994-2011), it had been revealed The Dear Leader was not subject to bowel movements, never needing to defecate or urinate but it was not known if this is was genetic characteristic of the dynasty and therefore enjoyed also by The Supreme Leader.  Now we know.  The noun and adjective portable was from the Middle French portable, from the Latin portabilis.

Seaport describes a port which is costal rather than one on the banks of a river or the shore of a lake.  The airport (facility for commercial air transport) dates from 1902 and became (at lease in civilian use) the preferred description of the place where aircraft arrive and depart (although airfield, field, aerodrome, airstrip, airdrome & landing strip seem still sometimes to find a niche).  Airport came into regular use in 1919 (the use in reference to airships in 1902 was a one-off) and was used first to describe Bader Field, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey which opened in 1910.  The older word for such a place was aerodrome which had an interesting history, coined originally to mean “flying machine” from the Ancient Greek ἀεροδρόμος (aerodrómos) (traversing the air), the newer sense analogous with the French hippodrome, from the Latin hippodromos, from the Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος (hippódromos), the construct being ἵππος (hippos) (horse) + δρόμος (dromos) (course).  Airport shouldn’t be hyphenated to avoid confusion with the earlier (1788) air-port which is now a ship’s porthole.

Penfords Great Grandfather Rare Tawny gift box, US$244 per 750 ml.

The use to describe the sweet, dark-red wine was from circa 1695, a shortening of Oporto, the city in northwest Portugal from which the wine originally was shipped to England (from O Porto (literally “the port”).  French wines had been preferred in England but various squabbles had for some time almost excluded them, not least because, with anti-French feeling high during the reign of Queen Anne (1665–1714; Queen variously of England, Scotland, Ireland & Great Britain 1702-1714), English politicians ran nasty “don’t buy French” campaigns.  Paul Methuen (circa 1672–1757), the English minister-resident in Lisbon, negotiated a reciprocal agreement (part of the Methuen Treaty of 1703) whereby low tariffs would be imposed on Portuguese wines in exchange for a similar accommodation on English textiles.  Portuguese wine merchants decided to stimulate trade further by spiking port wine with brandy, thereby increasing the alcohol content which gradually induced a change in the national taste and accounts for why to this day English port is stronger.  The other alcohol-related use is porter, a dark style of beer developed in London well-hopped beers made from brown malt, or well-roasted barely.  It’s un-related to port wine or Portugal and gained its eighteenth century name from the popularity the brew enjoyed among street and river porters, porters in that context being the people employed to carry or move luggage, freight etc, a use which survives in hotels, railway stations etc.

Tunnel port heads

Long rendered obsolete by modern fuel delivery systems and advances in the understanding of fluid dynamics, tunnel port heads were an attempt to remove one fundamental drawback of pushrod-activated valves in overhead valve (OHV) engines with crossflow cylinder heads: the restriction the pushrod path imposes on intake port size and shape.  Historically, the shape and size of intake ports was compromised by the need to make room for the pushrod passing from the centre of the engine to the valve lifters above the combustion chambers.  This meant it was rarely possible for intake ports to assume what was thought to be the ideal size and shape for high performance applications.

Ford’s solution in 1965 was a brass tube to house the pushrod, passing directly through the intake port, permitting the port to be as large as possible.  Dubbed the “tunnel port”, surprisingly, flow-tests proved the tube was no impediment to gas movement and the design proved successful, both in the Le Mans winning GT40s and the Galaxies on the NASCAR circuits.  Those however were big-block 427 cubic inch (7 litre) engines and the sheer size of the things disguised the inherent limitation of huge ports: the reduced velocity of gas-flow at low engine speeds which consequently produced power and torque curves unimpressive except high in the rev-range, where they were impressive indeed.  In 1969, needing more power from the small-block (Windsor) 302 cubic inch (4.9 litre) engines used in the Trans-Am series, Ford bolted on tunnel port heads, the results disastrous.  Gas flowed effortlessly and top-end power was prodigious but the cars were used on circuits and, unlike the NASCAR ovals, a broad power-band was needed and the tunnel port 302s were forced to operate at engine speeds apparently beyond the block’s capacity to survive.  The project was soon abandoned.

1968 Ford Mustang 302 tunnel port, Car & Driver comparison test with Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, March 1968.

However, the tunnel port 302s have a charisma and retain a cult-following to this day, the defenders maintaining the failures were only indirectly related to the innovative heads, citing the oiling system which was inadequate to supply the bottom end of the engine under the high lateral loads experienced.  The early versions sucked in a lot of air which caused the bearings to starve for lubrication although this was quickly resolved with the installation of dual-pickup systems.  That bottom end was anyway insufficiently strong to withstand the high engine speeds the tunnel-ports mad possible.  Before long, the race drivers were being told to limit the rpm (revolutions-per-minute (engine speed)) but that defeated the very purpose of the tunnel port.  Many also note that the 302 TPs were built on Ford’s standard engine assembly line whereas the 427 TPs were lovingly hand-assembled by a dedicated crew in a separate facility.  Race teams were used to being able to blueprint and rebuilt engines to with precise clearances using exactly weighted components but were told to use the 302 TPs just as they were delivered.  There seems no doubt there were quality and assembly problems with the engines and those who have subsequently (and for decades) used them in competition (after blueprinting and careful assembly) have reported a high level of reliability.

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302.

In 1968 however, Ford’s engineers returned to the drawing board, adapting the canted-valve heads from their new small block V8 (Cleveland or 335 series) to sit atop the 302 Windsor.  Their efforts succeeded, the less exotic Boss 302 couldn’t match the tunnel port for top-end power but the torque curve meant it was more suitable for use in the road cars which had to be built in the volume necessary to fulfil the Trans Am homologation rules.  It proved a paragon of reliability.

427 FE tunnel-port cylinder head (upper) showing the hollow brass tunnel passing directly through the intake port compared with a standard 427 FE (lower).

Estuary

Estuary (pronounced es-ture-ee or es-choo-er-ee)

(1) That part of the mouth or lower course of a river in which the river's current meets the sea's tide with a mixing of fresh and salt (tidal) water; an arm or inlet of the sea at the lower end of a river.

(2) By analogy when applied to religion, politics etc, where different tides of opinion intersect.

(3) In behavioral linguistics, as Estuary English, a variety of the English accent, spreading from London and containing features mostly of Received Pronunciation and Cockney.

1530–1540: From the Latin aestuārium (a tidal marsh, mudbeds covered by water at high tides; channel inland from the sea) from aestus (tide (a boiling of the sea; billowing movement; tide, heat)), the construct being aestus (tide) +‎ ārium (place for) + -ary; the suffix –ary (of or pertaining to) was a back-formation from unary and similar, from the Latin adjectival suffixes -aris and -arius; appended to many words, often nouns, to make an adjective form and use was not restricted to words of Latin origin.  The ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European aidh (to burn).  Estuary was related is aestās (summer) and the adjectival forms are estuarial and estuarine (the latter dating from 1835, from estuary on model of marine.  Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, was once called Edo (which translates literally as "estuary").  When the Tokugawa shogunate ended in 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto (literally "western capital") was moved to Edo and renamed Tokyo (literally "eastern capital"). 

Estuary English

Despite a name which suggests a regional association, Estuary English (EE) is a modern variation of the English accent associated more with age and class distinctions although there remains a widespread perception it’s tied to the area along the River Thames and its estuary.  Best imagined as Standard English spoken with some Cockney inflections, there’s no clear point where Cockney ends and Estuary English begins and in the early 1980s, it was suggested EE may eventually replace Received Pronunciation (RP) in the southeast, a linguistic shift which could take a century or more to realize.  The word estuary was adopted as a descriptor to summon a picture of different strains of pronunciation mixing as salt and fresh water does at the estuary where river meets sea but has often, in popular use, been thought geographically associated with the Thames Estuary.  In response to EE, scholars have suggested an alphabet soup of alternatives including LRGB (London Regional General British), PE (Popular English), PL (Popular London), LRS (London Regional Standard), HCMDA (Home Counties Modern Dialect) and SERS (South-Eastern Regional Standard).  None caught on and PL had anyway earlier been used as an alternative to Cockney itself.

Was it Estuary English? At the subreddit r/askUK, redditors conducted an untypically genteel discussion about Lindsay Lohan's British accent in The Parent Trap (1998).

EE is (1) not specifically geographic within the south-east, (2) is a blend rather than containing any new elements, (3) should be thought a lower middle-class (rather than working-class) accent and (4), has spread upward in the middle-class to the point where EE is now an accepted alternative to RP, even for those in public life.  Regarding EE’s sometime cynical adoption by those expected to use RP, the derisive term is mockney.  Within the linguistics community EE is on a sociolinguistic and geographical continuum between RP and Cockney, spreading not because it’s a collection of coherent structures and objects but because it’s “…neither the standard nor the extreme non-standard poles of the continuum".  Implicit in that is that EE will continue to evolve, unlike RP or Cockney, both of which are documented, standardized forms.

Sea (Maunsell) Forts built in the Thames estuary during World War II as naval gun platforms and observation stations.  Decommissioned in 1958, they were used in the 1960s as one of the platforms from which pirate radio stations broadcast.  One of the forts has since 1967 been managed by the (internationally unrecognized) Principality of Sealand.