Bogan

Bogan (pronounced bow-ghin)

(1) A backwater, usually narrow and tranquil or sluggish.

(2) Any narrow stretch of water.

(3) In Australia and New Zealand, derogatory slang used to describe a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behavior are considered unrefined or unsophisticated.

Circa 1991: The origin of bogan is uncertain, about the only thing on which most dictionaries agree (although none have produce anything more than anecdotal evidence) is the term may have emerged in Melbourne in the late 1970s, the earliest documented use dating from 1991.  Competing words from the same era (such as bevans, westies, chiggas (or chiggs) & booners), which tended to be regionally specific faded from use as bogan became universal, the speculation being the use on commercial television and youth-oriented FM radio accelerated the process.  There is both a Bogan River and a Bogan Shire in central New South Wales (NSW) and it’s speculated some earlier Australian slang may be the basis for the modern use.  The first recorded instance of bogan in a jocular adjectival form was in Banjo Paterson’s (1864–1941) The City of Dreadful Thirst:

We don't respect the clouds up there, they fill us with disgust,
They mostly bring a Bogan shower ⁠— three raindrops and some dust;
But each man, simultaneous-like, to each man said, 'I think
That cloud suggests it's up to us to have another drink!

The “bogan shower” was thus a poor imitation of the real thing and, presumably by extension, the later “bogan gate” described a rather rough & ready, makeshift farm gate.  From here, some etymologists suggest the idea of the bogan as something cheap, inferior and unsophisticated developed although how and why it began to gain critical mass in the 1980s remains unexplained.  It has however proved adaptable.  In one of Australia's recent spate of defenestrations, the knifed prime-minister was replaced with one a bit boganish and the prime-minister's official residence came to be referred to by some as "boganville" (a play on words referencing Bougainville Island which is (at least for now) part of Papua New Guinea (PNG)).  Mischievously, the opposition's spokesman on foreign affairs stood in parliament and asked the deposed leader (by then the foreign minister) "Will the Foreign Minister advise the House when he intends to return to Bougainville?"

The word is the Australia version of those that exist elsewhere such as Chav in England (probably derived from chavi, a Romani (Roma; Traveller; Gypsy) word for child) or Ossi (easterner) in the Fourth Reich (used in post-unification Germany as a disparaging term for those coming to the west from the former GDR (East Germany)).  Use is criticized as a form of snobbery which of course it is but a form of inverse-snobbery has emerged with bogans now self-identifying in a modern form of class-pride.  The unique aspect of boganism is that, unlike chav or other ethnic-based slurs, bogans are associated, however inaccurately in a world of cross-cutting cultures, exclusively as white and of Anglo-Saxon extraction.  This makes bogans the only societal sub-set set able to be derided, denigrated and vilified; bogans having no recourse to the formal and informal mechanisms of protection available to other (ethnic, race, gender, sexual orientation, sex etc) minorities.  Society seems to need to have one minority available for disparagement and a combination of legislation and social pressures mean all others now enjoy some sort of protection.  Others permissible targets such as fat, stupid people are not actually a separate group; such people presumed to be bogans until proven otherwise.

Winfield Blue was once really blue and advertised: 1976 (left), 1979 (centre) & 1986 (right). 

Bogan stereotypes abound and historically they had names like Todd and Chantelle, the archetypical Chantelle a sixteen year old mother of two and in some sort of relationship with a man who may be the father of at least one and while barely literate and probably unable to point to Canada on a map, is most adept with Instagram and TikTok.  Of late however, the list of possible bogan names has expanded (including a few original concoctions) and one news site identified (an apparently non-exhaustive list) the most bogan names thus far registered in 2022 which included Brexleigh, Iveigh, Juul, Kardi, Kior, Maevery, Miraccle, Resilia, Salmon & Samanda for girls while boys were blessed with Brave, Draven, Draxler, Kashdon, Knoxlee, Ledgen, Maxon, Roar, Zaiken & Zinc.  The novel names or variations in spelling of older forms is new but some cultural markers are intergenerational such as footwear (thongs if possible, Ug Boots if it’s too cold) and cigarettes, Winfield Blue (although the packaging is now plain except for the disturbing photographs of the consequences of smoking) apparently still the most popular and carried usually tucked into a t-shirt’s sleeve.  However, despite the most enduring stereotype, the mullet is no longer the default hair-style and the goatee not the inevitable beard, rat-tails and a number of closely cropped variations now common.

Bogan culture

Bogans at home.  This house will contain many big TVs.

Bogans may seem remote from the progress of civilization but there’s certainly an identifiable culture and, within their cultural specializations, there's doubtless a pecking order.  Although derided by the genteel as unsophisticated, that’s a misunderstanding because although sophistication is a hierarchal construct, there are many different sophistications, all of which enjoy their own hierarchies and while bogans may be thought to have appalling taste in most things, in aspects of life in which they’re interested (big televisions, jet-skis etc), bogans are genuine experts.

Cashed-up bogans (CUBs) at home.  This house will contain many big TVs which will be positioned by the interior decorator is a "tasteful way".

A recent phenomenon is the CUB (cashed-up bogan) which reflects the higher incomes incomes enjoyed in the last quarter-century odd by those (skilled and trained but not usually university-educated) who have benefited from the resources and construction booms.  It’s a term of both social and economic significance and refers to those who have recently and suddenly become richer yet lack the cultural and social skills to match what is typically expected of those with wealth.  In this it differs from a parvenu in that conventions of use suggest a parvenu tends to come from the middle-class and is often an employee while a CUB is quintessentially from the trades and will likely be self-employed.  Parvenu and the CUB are terms laden with the snobbery of classism.  The idea is of those newly arisen (ie the nouveau riche), especially if by some accident or luck or circumstances, being thought by those already there not worthy of their new assertion of status and despised for their attempts to persuade, the sort of people David Lloyd George (1863–1945; UK prime-minister 1916-1922), speaking of his Liberal Party colleagues, called “jumped-up grocers”.  The CUB by comparison is unaware of or indifferent to the conventions of polite society and, content with materialism, usually makes no attempt socially to climb.  That means snobs despise them for other reasons; multiple huge televisions in vulgar houses thought not tasteful, hence the view it’s just appalling for such people to have money because they have not the taste to know how it should be spent.

The highest form of bogan culture remains the burn-out, and the hotted-up Holden Commodore seems still the preferred machine.  A burn-out is achieved by applying maximum power to the rear wheels while applying the brakes on the front and object is to destroy the back tyres, preferably by reducing both to chunks of smoking rubber.  All this is achieved while travelling a very short distance, usually in somewhat irregular circles.  The burn-out’s origin is in drag-racing where it’s done (in a brief, straight-line run), to heat the tyres to the point at which they achieve maximum traction.  In such competition, the object is to attain the lowest elapsed-time to complete a quarter-mile (402.336 m) sprint from a standing start.  So in drag-racing, there’s thus a purpose whereas otherwise the burn-out is thought a display of bogan barbarism.  Polite society frowns on hobbies such as burn-outs but in fairness to bogans, some of the engineering required to produce machines with the robustness required to endure the stresses imposed is of very high quality.

While the hotted-up Commodore is the vehicle of choice, bogans not yet able to afford such a status-symbol (your actual basic bogan), will improvise.

Before the word became associated with opprobrium, Bogan was just another name to be applied to this and that and dotted around the place are many avenues so named.  Some living at these addresses are not best pleased and for some years residents of a pleasantly leafy part of Sydney’s North Shore have been lobbying their council to change their roadway’s name from Bogan Place to Rainforrest Close.  One resident noted there was also the practical benefit to de-boganizing the place given the street sign has been stolen six times in two years.  However, he added the main reason was "We're middle class people and it's got really nothing to do with who's in the street".  Presumably it’s all Audis and Lexuses there and not a hotted-up Commodore in sight.  However, others saw commercial possibilities and Forbes Shire Council changed the name of Bogan Gate Road to The Bogan Way, an initiative of the Tottenham Development Group which expects the new name to attract hordes of bogans in hotted up Commodores anxious to take selfies under the street signs, the attraction being they’ll spend time in community, spending up big on pre-mix cans of bourbon & cola and packets of Winfield Blue, thereby injecting much money into the local economy.

Bogan and Sons is a highly regarded hardware supplier (Unit 10 / 8 Chrome Street, Salisbury, Queensland 4107, Australia).

Parachute

Parachute (pronounced par-uh-shoot)

(1) A folding, umbrella-like, fabric device with cords supporting a harness or straps for allowing a person, object, package, etc, safely to float down to safely through the air from a great height, especially from an aircraft, the design rendered effective by the resistance of the air that expands it during the descent and reduces the velocity of the fall.

(2) In certain type of competition cars (drag racing, land-speed vehicles et al) and military (mostly carrier-based) aircraft, a type of air brake deployed horizontally from the rear of the vehicle.  Known as the drogue chute.

(3) In horology, a shock-proofing device for the balance staff of a watch, consisting of a yielding, spring-like support for the bearing at either end.

(4) In industrial relations, a casual term for the aggregate of benefits, given a terminated employee.  Usually called the golden parachute if an especially large sum granted, essentially ex-gratia, to senior but now unwanted staff.

(5) To drop or land or on water (troops, equipment, supplies etc) by parachute.

(6) In democratic politics, a slang term for the practice of bringing in a candidate from outside the electorate, often one imposed by central executives against local wishes.

(7) In franchised sport, a payment made when a team is relegated to a lower division; called the parachute payment.

1785: From the French parachute (that which protects against a fall), the construct being para + chute.  The French imported para (protection against), via the Italian para & parare, from the Latin parō, derived from the primitive Indo-European per (produce, procure, bring onward, bring forth).  It was cognate with pariō (to produce) and properus (ready; to shield), a form which endures in the modern parasol.  Chute (fall) was a refashioning of the Old French cheüe & chue (from the Vulgar Latin caduta) based on cheoite, corresponding to the analogous Vulgar Latin form cadecta, feminine past participle of cheoir, the older form of choir.  The military verbal shorthand, generally adopted, is chute, first used in 1919.  The verb parachute (to descend or convey by or as if by the aid of a parachute) dates from 1807 and was directly from the noun.  In an example of technological determinism affecting language, dictionaries as late as 1906 tagged parachute as "rare".  The related forms are parachuted & parachuting; the noun plural is parachutes.  

Perhaps invented in China

Lindsay Lohan in a Camilla and Marc dress, Aquazzara boots and Balenciaga sunglasses carrying a Bottega Veneta Large Intrecciato Parachute Bag (US$5,900), Bravo Clubhouse, New York City, November 2024.

Sketches (dating from circa 2200 BC) discovered in western China indicate even then people were aware air resistance could be used to slow a man’s fall from a height although there’s nothing to prove the idea was ever put to the test.  The oldest known design for a recognizably modern parachute appears in a manuscript from Renaissance Italy, dated from the 1470s although it was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) a couple of decades later who produced a technically better design, one which suggests he well understood the relationship between a parachute’s surface area and the weight of whatever was attached.  Leonardo's drawings proved influential among European inventors, the earlier fixed, flat surfaces being replaced by sail-like pieces of cloth which, bulging as they filled with air, increased surface area still further, thereby generating greater friction and resistance.  Although several plans survive from the seventeenth century showing men parachuting from towers, there’s no evidence this was a depiction of an actual experiment and is thought most likely to be an inventor’s speculative illustration.

Lindsay Lohan skydiving (tandem jump) in Dubai, 2018.  She landed safely. 

The first documented test happened in 1783 when French physicist Louis-Sébastien Lenormand (1757-1837) jumped from the top of the Montpellier observatory.  Surviving this, two years later, Lenormand coined the word parachute, an Italian-French hybrid which translates as "to protect from falling”.  That same year, to demonstrate its utility as a safety device for the new sport of hot-air ballooning, French engineer Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809) floated safely to the ground and by the 1790s he was manufacturing parachutes from silk (and some sources claim it was Blanchard who coined the word parachute).  Although not a few pioneering parachutists died as the hobby spread, progress continued and by 1911, the first jump was made from an aircraft; from that time, it was the military which devoted most attention to development, using them, successfully and not, with balloons, airships and aircraft.  By the start World War Two, parachutes were standard issue to aircrew and a novel way of quickly deploying infantry behind enemy lines.  The German army famously used paratroopers in several daring and successful operations although later heavy losses forced the Wehrmacht to abandon the tactic.  Others persevered and paratrooper battalions, brigades and divisions exist today in many military establishments.

A NASA Boeing B-52 Stratofortress research aircraft deploys an experimental drag chute upon landing at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California.

The test flights, conducted during 1990, were part of the development project for the Space Shuttle’s drag chute.  The B-52 often uses a drag chute when landing, especially in wet weather or if cross-winds are severe.  Parachutes are used to slow the delay of some spacecraft in their final re-entry phase and horizontal (drogue) chutes are deployed to assist the deceleration of some competition cars and aircraft landing on carriers.  The absolute record height for a parachute descent is held by Alan Eustace (b 1957) who on 24 October 2014 jumped from the stratosphere at an altitude of 135,889.108 feet (41,419 m).

AC Shelby Cobra 289 CSX2357 with parachute deployed at the end of test ¼ mile (400 m) run.  In drag racing circles, this is called “dumping the laundry”.

Although the Cobra gained fame for its performance on the road and the circuits, its light weight had obvious potential for drag racing, an event which would be over before speeds were reached where its dubious aerodynamic properties would be much of a limitation.  The factory built six 289 cubic inch (4.7 litre) Cobras optimized for straight-line, ¼ mile performance and named them the “Dragonsnake”, two of which were run by Shelby American, the others sold to private teams (CSX2357 was the second Dragonsnake made).  Also offered was a “drag package”, a kit with which customers could modify they own Cobras to the functional level of a factory Dragonsnake although one buyer must have thought the configuration too tame so the factory built the one-off CSX2472, a “Stage II Dragonsnake” with the 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8.  Ironically, it was never used in drag racing and alternated between being run as a road car (!) and the occasional appearance on the track.

The mean girls, left to right: Penny Wong (b 1968; cabinet minister in the Rudd / Gillard / Rudd governments 2007-2013, ALP senator for South Australia since 2002), Katy Gallagher (b 1970; Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) 2011-2014, senator for the ACT 2015-2018 & since 2019) & Kristina Keneally (b 1968; Premier of New South Wales 2009-2011, senator for New South Wales since February 2018).

Kristina Keneally's campaign material in Fowler, 2022; it seemed like a good idea at the time.

In the 2022 Australian general election, two high-profile candidates, were parachuted into two Sydney electorates by the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) head office over the objections of local members.  One succeeded and one failed, Kristina Keneally losing the previously safe seat of Fowler while Andrew Charlton (b 1978) actually improved the ALP’s margin in Parramatta.  Both were seen as improbable ALP candidates with lives far removed from the constituents to who they’d be appealing for voted but Charlton benefited from the head office analysis which concluded the result in Parramatta would be tight and thus resources were allocated and promises made.  The same analysis was applied to Fowler which revealed the ALP would retain the seat regardless of the background so little effort was expended and less money spent.  Applying historic data, the ALP’s analysis was correct but the 2022 election revealed an increasing willingness nationally to move away from the two main parties, illustrated the fact that the ALP could 2022 form a majority government with a primary vote of 32.58% (the ALP’s lowest since 1934); in 1980 they lost an election with a primary of 45.15%.  Keneally is something of a loss to the parliament because she was one of the three “mean girls” in the Senate, associated with the bullying of women who got ideas above their station.

Bibelot

Bibelot (pronounced bib-loh or beebuh-loh (French))

(1) A small object of curiosity, beauty, or rarity.

(2) A miniature book of elegant design, often produced in sets, usually in decorative packaging.

(3) By extension, in casual use, smaller versions of things.

1873: From the French bibelot (knick knack), the construct being bibel- (expressive formation akin to bauble (knick-knack)) + -ot (the noun suffix), from the twelfth century Old French beubelet (trinket, jewel) from belbel (plaything); most etymologists have concluded it a reduplication of bel (pretty; beautiful).  In French, bibelotage means " the making, buying, selling or collecting of knickknacks and a practitioner is  described variously as a bibeloter, bibeloteur or bibelotier.  Bibelot is a noun; the noun plural is bibelots.

Bibelot is sometimes used as a synonym for objects which properly would be better described as kitsch, bauble, curio, curiosity, gaud, naff, gewgaw, gimcrack, knickknack, novelty, ornament, trifle, whatnot or trinket.  Antique dealers are sometimes inclined to use the label to add a little to both an item’s status and its price tag.  A Bibelot really is a subset of the miniature market, covering those objects which should have some of all of certain characteristics: exquisite, intricate or exceptionally beautiful.

Pair of Art Deco marble bookends (circa 1933).There are some who insist a bibelot must exclusively be decorative and thus ashtrays, bookends etc, being functional, are something else but most prefer to judge objects on their merits.

The Bibelot was an annual literary anthology, published between 1895-1914 by Thomas Bird Mosher (1852-1923) whose imprint operated out of Portland, Maine.  The Mosher Bibelot was unusual in that it featured the lesser known works of writers such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, Arthur Symons, DG Rossetti, Austin Dobson, JA Symonds, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, and Fiona MacLeod.  Following Mosher’s death, a limited edition, 21 volume "Testimonial Edition" was printed by William H Wise & Co.

Lindsay Lohan at home, 419 Venice Way, Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, June 2011. Note the shelves of bibelots. 

More in the tradition of bibelots publishing was a series of twenty nine reprints in miniature (5 inches x 2¾ inches (80mm x 70mm)) of a number of English classics, edited by John Potter Briscoe (1868-1916) and published by Gay & Bird of London.  One especially popular genre chosen for bibelot editions was dictionaries and some were distributed in cases with built-in magnifying glasses.

In the satisfying though ephemeral world of the pâtissier (pâtissière the feminine) and chocolatier (chocolatière), the word bibelot is often appropriated to describe the small, sometimes bite-sized creations to which the sweet-toothed are understandably so drawn.  Sometimes, places which specialize in such temptations even adopt the name.

L'Inde A Paris; Le Bibelot Exotique (India in Paris: The Exotic Curio) (circa 1860), oil on canvas by Alfred Stevens (1823-1906)

Fugacious

Fugacious (pronounced fyoo-gey-shuhs)

(1) Fleeting; transitory.

(2) In botany, falling or fading early.

1625–1635: From the Classical Latin fugāci- (fleeing, likely to flee), stem of fugāx (apt to flee, timid, shy) and a derivative of fugere (to flee).  The construct was fugāci- + -ous.  The –ous suffix was from the Middle English -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux, from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of); a doublet of -ose in an unstressed position.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance.  In chemistry, it has a specific technical application, used in the nomenclature to name chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a lower oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ic.  For example, sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  The Latin forms derived from fugiō (I flee) included fugācius, comparative of fugāciter (evasively, fleetingly).  From this root, English gained fugitive, refuge and subterfuge and the synonyms of fugacious include brief, ephemeral, evanescent, fleeting, impermanent, momentary, passing, short-lived, temporal, temporary, transient.  The related forms include the adverb fugaciously and the nouns fugaciousness & fugacity.

The most fugacious of the orchids (family: Orchidaceae), the Calypso bulbosa (Calypso orchid) is categorized a spring ephemeral, flowering with the first warmth of spring, the blooms lasting but a few days.  Calypso orchids are found most often on the forest floor, popping out from a carpet of ferns and moss.  They’re often referred to by their popular names (Fairy Slipper, Lady Slipper & Venus Slipper), rarely exceed six inches (150mm) in height and are seen usually in shades of pink, white & purple, including flecked combinations.  The blue varieties are especially rare and prized by collectors.

Lindsay Lohan selfie with fugacious orchid, October, 2014.

Omnibus

Omnibus (pronounced om-nuh-buhs)

(1) A now less commonly used term for a bus (a public mass-transit vehicle).

(2) A volume of reprinted works of a single author or of works related in interest or theme, by extension later applied to a television or radio programme consisting of two or more programmes earlier broadcast.

(3) Something pertaining to, including, or dealing with numerous objects or items at once, the best known example being the omnibus bills submitted to a legislature (a number of bills combined as one).

(4) As a pre-nominal, of, dealing with, or providing for many different things or cases. 

(5) In philately, a stamp issue, usually commemorative, that appears simultaneously in several countries as a common issue.

(6) In public transportation, a service which stops at every station, as opposed to a point-to-point express.

(7) In literary use as a humorous device, a jack of all trades (a person with knowledge in multiple fields, usually with some hint of lacking competence in at least some).

(8) In restaurants, both (1) a waiter’s assistant (obsolete, replaced by busboy or (now more commonly) busser or commis waiter) & (2) later the small, wheeled cart used by a waiter's assistant.

1829: A adoption in English to describe a "long-bodied, horse-drawn, four-wheeled public vehicle with seats for passengers", from the French voiture omnibus (carriage for all, common (conveyance)), from the Latin omnibus (for all), dative plural of omnis (all), ablative of omnia, from the primitive Indo-European hep-ni- (working), from hep- (to work; to possess) or hop- (to work; to take).  Bus was thus a convenient shortening to describe the (then horse drawn) forms of public transport and subsequent uses by analogy with transporting (even weightless) stuff is derived from this.  The present participle is omnibusing or omnibussing and the past participle omnibused or omnibussed; the noun plural is either omnibuses or (for the public transportation) omnibusses; the attractive omnibi unfortunately wholly non-standard.

Omnibus entered English to describe a “horse-drawn, long-bodied, four-wheeled public vehicle with seats for passengers” in 1829 as a borrowing from the French where it had been in use for a decade, introduced in Paris in the winter of 1819-1820 by a Monsieur Jacques Lafitte (1761-1833) who used the term voiture omnibus”, combining the French word for "carriage" with the Latin phrase meaning "for all".  An Englishman named George Shillibeer (1797-1866) was the coach-builder to whom Lafitte awarded the contract to build his omnibuses and after returning to London, he built similar models, introducing them in 1929 to immediate success.  In the manner of the Brougham and Hansom cabs, they were known first as Shillibeers (and use of his name to describe the vehicles did persist until late in the nineteenth century) but omnibus was soon preferred and that for more than a century remained the official designation (and indeed still appears in some legislation and ordinances) but predictably, the public preferred the more phonetically economical "bus" and that endures to this day.  Encouraged by his success, Mr Shillibeer remained entrepreneurial, introducing in 1858 the “funeral omnibus” which combined in the one vehicle (in separate compartments), accommodation for both coffin (casket) and mourners.  Thus a combination of bus and hearse, the advertising suggested that for smaller funeral parties it would be cheaper than hiring multiple vehicles (with their attendant staff and horses).  Perhaps for cultural reasons it seems not to have been a success, but hearses with similar configuration are used in some countries and, in the West, some are built with seating for up to four passengers, apparently intended for the undertaker’s staff.

Lindsay Lohan display advertising on Italian omnibus, Milan.

The use of omnibus to describe a junior staff member in a restaurant who was assigned essentially “all the tasks the waiters preferred not to do” dates from 1880 and came soon to be applied to the wheeled carts such helpers used to more around crockery, cutlery, flatware and such.  This simultaneous use may have proved confusing or else three syllables was just too much because by 1913 the carts were being called busses and their operators busboys (although that seems not to have survived our more gender-sensitive age and “commis waiter” seems now preferred (usually as “commis”).  Omnibus was the name of a long-running live TV series (1952-1961) hosted on US television by expatriate English journalist Alistair Cooke (1908-2004).  The use of omnibus to describe a legislative bill which addresses a number of vaguely related (or even wholly dissimilar) matters in the one document technically dates from 1842 although, as an adjective referring to legislation "designed to cover many different cases, embracing numerous distinct objects", it was in use in the US as early as 1835 and is most famously associated with the act (made of five separate bills) passed in 1850 to secure the Compromise of 1850 which (temporarily) defused a political confrontation between slave and free states over the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War.

The Man on the Clapham Omnibus

1932 Lancia Autoalveare, a triple-decker omnibus which served the Rome-Tvoli route.  The upper deck was apparently, at least on some occasions, designated as "non-smoking" but history doesn't record whether the bus company enjoyed any more success than the government of Italy in enforcing such edicts.

The phrase “man on the Clapham omnibus” was one adopted (apparently from early in the twentieth century) by judges of English courts to illustrate the “reasonable person”.  The word “reasonable” had been in English since circa 1300 as a borrowing from the Old French raisonable and the Latin rationabilis (from ratio) and in this context was an attempt by example encapsulate “the average man” or “the man in the street”, judges varying in their descriptions of this construct but meaning usually something like “a reasonably intelligent and impartial person unversed in legal esoteric” (Jones v US, DC Court of Appeals).  When the phrase was in 1903 used by Lord Justice Sir Richard Collins MR, the Clapham omnibus would have been horse drawn and he credited the expression to one he’d heard mentioned by a previous Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Lord Bowen (1835-1894).

The judicial choice of a bus passenger was based on the idea that such a person could be thought to be representative of an upstanding, respectable and thoroughly ordinary member of society, one for whom views of things were not infected by legal technicalities.  The choice of Clapham was significant only that it was an unexceptional London suburb something like many of dozens that might be said to have been “typical” of the city.  The man on the Clapham omnibus was thus in the tradition of legal fictions, a hypothetical person used for illustrative purposes, the first known instance of which in Western legal tradition was the creation by Roman jurists of the figure of bonus pater familias (good family father) a chap said to be not only respectable but unrelentingly and reliably average in every aspect of life.  In the Canadian province of Quebec, the very similar standard of the bon père de famille is derived from the Roman bonus pater familias.  The reasonable man (now of course a reasonable person) is a necessity in many aspects of law because so many standards upon which cases are decided depend on the word reasonable.  Were the consequences of an action reasonably foreseeable?  Would a reasonable person believe a certain thing told to them?  Was a claim by advertisement reasonable?  Was the violence used reasonable given the manner in which the defendant was assaulted.

Crooked Hillary dumping on deplorables, Georgia, 2016.

Omnibuses have long been used by politicians for their campaign tours.  They offer lots of advantages, being offices and communications centres with at least some of their running costs offset by a reduction in staff travel expenses.  Additionally, with five large, flat surfaces, they are a rolling billboard although that can be good or bad.  In 2016, one of crooked Hillary Clinton’s campaign buses was photographed in Lawrenceville, Georgia dumping a tank full of human waste onto the street and into a storm drain.  The local news service reported that when police attended the street was “…was covered in toilet paper and the odor was noxious”.  Hazmat crews were called to clean up the scene and the matter was referred to the environmental protection division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources.  The Democratic National Committee (DNC) later issued an apology, claiming the incident was “an honest mistake.”  Using the word “honest” in any statement related to crooked Hillary Clinton is always a bit of a gamble and there was no word on whether the dumping of human excrement had been delayed until the bus was somewhere it was thought many deplorables may be living.  If so, that may have been another “honest mistake” because Gwinett County (in which lies Lawrenceville) voted 51.02% Clinton/Kaine & 45.14% Trump/Pence although the symbolism may not have been lost on much of the rest of Georgia; state wide the Republican ticket prevailed 50.38% to 45.29%.

Crooked Hillary Clinton’s campaign buses also attracted memes referencing a crash and a breakdown.  Both were fake news but surprisingly prescient, the Clinton/Kaine ticket securing an absolute majority of votes cast but failing to gain the requisite numbers in the Electoral College because the campaign neglected adequately to target areas in states the DNC regarded either (1) solidly in the possession of their machine or (2) populated by folk from the "basket of deplorables" and thus worthy only of a dumping of shit, figurative and literal.  Like the candidate, the 2016 campaign was something like what was planned for 2008, taken from the cold-room, rechauffed and served with the claim it was fresh.  It wasn't quite that the staff had "learned nothing and forgotten everything" but it does seem the operation was top-heavy with political operatives and lacking in those with a mastery of the techniques of data analysis.  All the evidence suggests there was no lack of data, just an inability to extract from it useful information. 

Before Photoshop imbued all with cynical disbelief, the triple decked omnibus was a popular vehicle for April fool's day pranks, the photograph on the left published in Lisbon on the day in 1951.  The one on the right is from 1926 and was in the German magazine Echo Continental (trade publication of the auto and truck parts manufacturer Continental AG) which "reported" the development of Berlin's new triple-decker city omnibus.  So lovely are the art deco lines, it's a shame it wasn't real.

Lilohan

Lilohan (pronounced lie-low-han)

A dialectal variant of English.

2016: The construct was Li(ndsay) + Lohan.  Lilohan is a non-geographically specific dialect of English, the name a contraction derived from that of its creator, Lindsay Lohan.  It appears to use a conventional US English vocabulary but is delivered, with an occasionally halting delivery, in an accent vaguely Russian or eastern European.  Lilohan is a proper noun (the spelling LiLohan is non-standard).

Lindsay Lohan explained things by saying it was “…a mixture of most of the languages I can understand or am trying to learn”, adding that she’d been “…learning different languages since I was a child.  I'm fluent in English and French can understand Russian and am learning Turkish, Italian and Arabic”. A limited edition LiLohan clothing line was released to welcome the latest addition to Earth's linguistic diversity.  Estimates are somewhat inexact but it's thought there are still some 7000 languages being spoken on Earth but the number is in decline; some extant languages may have but a handful of speakers remaining and neither extensive written records nor any programme to ensure preservation.  Almost half of the languages on Earth are spoken only by a few thousand.  A philanthropic endeavor, part of the proceeds from each LiLohan item sold will benefit Caudwell Children and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Türkiye (AFAD).  An example of Lilohan being spoken may be heard here and the clothing range is available in black and white in a range of sizes: Tank tops and T-shirts are US$24.99; sweatshirts US$39.99.

Lindsay Lohan with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye since 2003), First Lady Emine Erdoğan B 1955) and Syrian refugee, the prolific tweeter Bana Al-Abed (b 2009), Presidential Palace, Ankara, Türkiye, 27 January 2017.

The AFAD (Afet ve Acil Durum Yönetimi Başkanlığı), created in 2009, is the government’s central agency for emergency management and civil protection.  The AFAD conducts pre-incident work, such as preparedness, mitigation and risk management, during-incident work such as response, and post-incident work such as recovery and reconstruction.  The AFAD is under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior and coordinates the activities of NGOs with private and governmental agencies.  It additionally formulates and implements policies and in a disaster or emergency, is the state’s sole responsible organization.

Vest

Vest (pronounced vest)

(1) A sleeveless, waist- or hip-length garment made of various materials, with a front opening usually secured by buttons, a zipper, or the like, worn over a shirt, blouse, dress, or other article for style or warmth:

(2) A part or trimming simulating the front of such a garment; vestee.

(3) A waist-length garment worn for protective purposes, now often in high-visibility (hi-viz) colors.

(4) As bulletproof vest, an outer garment worn by soldiers and others in security-related fields.

(5) Historically, a long garment resembling a cassock, worn by men in the time of Charles II (archaic except as an ecclesiastical vestment).

(6) To place or settle (something, especially property, rights, powers etc) in the possession or control of someone (usually followed by in).

(7) To invest or endow (a person, group, committee, etc.) with something, as powers, functions, or rights:

(8) In the sense of something becoming vested in a person or institution; a right.

(9) In common law jurisdictions, an absolute right to some present or future interest in something of value.  When a right has vested, the person is legally entitled to what has been promised and may seek relief in court if the benefit is not given.

1375–1425: From the late Middle English vest (to put in possession of a person), from the Old French vestir (to clothe; get dressed), from the Medieval Latin vestire (to put into possession, to invest), from vestire (to clothe, dress, to adorn) and related to vestis (garment, clothing (and akin to wear)), from the primitive Indo-European wes-ti-, a suffixed form of wes- (to clothe), an extended form of the root eu- (to dress).  Vest & vested are nouns & verbs and vesting is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is vests.

The noun developed from the verb in the sense of a "loose, sleeveless outer garment" (worn by men in Eastern countries or in ancient times) dates from the 1610s, from the French seventeenth century veste (a vest, jacket), from the Italian vesta & veste (robe, gown), from the Latin vestis from vestire.  In England, the sleeveless garment worn by men beneath the coat was introduced by Charles II (1630-1685; King of Scotland 1649-1651, King of England, Scotland and Ireland 1660-1685) in a bid to rein in men's attire at court, which had grown extravagant and decadent in the French mode, Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) noting in his diary on 8 October 1666:

The King hath yesterday, in Council, declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes (and) it will be a vest, I know not well how; but it is to teach the nobility thrift.

Louis XIV (1638–1715; le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), King of France 1643-1715) is said to have mocked the effort by putting his footmen in such vests and sending Charles a painting of them standing at court.  The past-participle adjective from the verb in the sense of "established, secured, settled, not in a state of contingency" dates from 1766.  The verb revest (clothe again (with or as with a garment)) developed with the verb and was from revesten, from the Old French revestir, from the Late Latin revestire (to clothe again), the construct being re- (back, again) + vestire (to clothe, dress, adorn).  The related forms were revested & revesting.

One movement, many agendas: The Gilets Jaunes, December 2018.

The yellow vests movement (mouvement des gilets jaunes) was a large but loosely structured protest movement with origins in France in mid-2018.  It began in May that year as an online petition on social media with mass demonstrations being staged on successive weekends in November and December.  The agenda was primarily one of economic justice although factions within the movement have different objectives, ranging from tax reform to a revolutionary overthrow of the state.  Yellow vests were chosen as a symbol for the wholly practical reason French law requires motorists to have them in their vehicles so they were cheap, distinctive and widely available.  In other countries, protest movements with similar grievances also adopted yellow vests (often called "hi-vis" (high-visibility) but none seem yet to have achieved critical mass.

Lindsay Lohan in white puffer down vest with furry hood , black leggings and Ugg boots leaving XXI Forever, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2013.

Although the economic pressures had existed for some time, it was the policies of the newly elected President Emmanuel Macron (b 1977; President of France since 2017) which inspired action.  Although of bourgeois origin, a few months in the Élysée Palace mixing with the rich convinced Le Président he was one of the aristocracy and accordingly followed the advice of his new friends that France’s problem was the working class spending their disposable income on fast-food, tobacco & drink and it would be for their own good to tax them more so the money could be passed to the rich who would put it to better use.  In the Élysée, while there’s now a sense of much noblesse, there’s rather less oblige.  The protests forced Macron temporarily to retreat but even at the time this was thought a change in tactics, not strategy and few doubted the hostilities would resume as soon as the country began its peaceful co-existence with COVID-19, the mouvement des gilets jaunes making it clear it would respond to any attempt by the authorities to concoct spurious pandemic-related reasons to restrict protest.