Spider

Spider (pronounced spahy-der)

(1) Any predatory silk-producing arachnid of the order Araneae, having four pairs of legs and a rounded un-segmented body consisting of abdomen and cephalothorax, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and as traps for prey.

(2) In non technical use, any of various other arachnids resembling or suggesting these.

(3) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs or feet once common in open-hearth cookery (now rare and applied more loosely; still used by chefs).

(4) A trivet or tripod, as for supporting a pot or pan on a hearth.

(5) In digital technology. digitally to survey websites, following and cataloging their links in order to index web pages for a search engine.

(6) In engineering, a skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.

(7) In agriculture, an instrument used with a cultivator to pulverize soil.

(8) Any implement, tool or other device which is some (even if vague) was resembles or is suggestive of a spider (sometimes as spider-like or spideresque).

(9) In nautical use, a metal frame fitted at the base of a mast to which halyards are tied when not in use.

(10) A drink made by mixing ice-cream and a soda (a fizzy drink such as lemonade) (mostly Australia & New Zealand).

(11) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer (mostly Australia & New Zealand and probably extinct although it still appears in some anthologies of cocktails).

(12) In slang, a person spindly in appearance (dated); also a popular nickname for those with the surname Webb.

(13) In slang, a man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar (also as bar spider).

(14) In snooker & billiards, a stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension; a bridge.

(15) In bicycle design, the part of a crank to which the chain-rings are attached.

(16) In drug slang, one of the many terms for heroin (an allusion to the web-like patterns on the arms of addicts into which the needle is poked.

(17) In music, part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.

(18) In fly fishing, a soft-hackle fly (mostly southern England).

(19) In the sport of darts, the network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.

(20) In mathematics, a type of graph or tree.

(21) In passenger transport, a early type of light phaeton (obsolete) and latterly a descriptor for a roadster (also as spyder).

(22) In photography and film-making, a support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.

1380s: From the Middle English spydyr, spydyr & spither (the forms from mid-century were spiþre, spiþur & spiþer), from the Old English spīþra & spīthra (spider), from the Proto-West Germanic spinþrijō, from the Proto-Germanic spinnaną & spin-thon (“to spin”).  The Old English forms were akin to spinnan (to spin) and cognate with the Danish spinder (literally “spinner”) and the German Spinne and (mostly) displaced attercop (spider, unpleasant person) which was relegated to a dialectal term.  The root of the European form was the primitive Indo-European spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + the formative or agential -thro.  The connection with the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates such as the Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German & German spinne and the Dutch spin (spider).  The loss of -n- before spirants is familiar in Old English (such as goose or tooth).  Spider is a noun, spidery and spideresque are adjectives, spidering is a verb and spidered is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spiders.

Lindsay Lohan with Spiderman and spideresque offspring, Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot, Los Angeles, 2007.

Despite the ancient lineage, in the Old & Middle English there were more common words used when speaking of arachnids including lobbe (or loppe as Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400) would have it, atorcoppe (the Middle English attercop translates literally as “poison-head”), and (from the Latin aranea), renge.  Middle English also had araine (spider) which was picked up, via the Old French from the Latin word with the same spelling and, more poetically, in the Old English there was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes).  In literature, the spider was often a figure of cunning, skill, and industry as well as venomous predation.  In the seventeenth century, the spider figuratively represented venomousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity to vibrations and the habit of solitary lurking, waiting for prey to fall into the web; quintessentially, the spider was an independent character.  The two-pack game of solitaire (patience) called spider dates from 1890 (still available in software), the choice of name thought owed to the resemblance of the layout of the decks in the original form of the game.  In zoology, the spider crab was first identified in 1710 (an applied to various species) while the spider monkey, so called for its long limbs, dates from is from 1764.  The noun spider-web in the 1640s replaced the more cumbersome spider's web from a century-odd earlier and the adjective spidery (long and thin) was first noted in 1823.

Spider Phaeton, circa 1875, US.

There are cars called spider and spyder although, unlike many other natural or engineered creations which in some way resemble arachnids, these cars are almost always small roadsters which in appearance don’t look anything like their eight-legged namesakes.  The origin of the name lies in the horse & buggy era when a spider phaeton was a lightweight horse-drawn carriage intended for short-distance journeys and the design was intended to impress so there was often on protection from the elements beyond perhaps something to shade ladies from the sun.  Unlike some true “convertible” or “cabriolet” carriages, there were no side windows and the spider name was gained from the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called to mind an arachnid’s legs.  Quite where this style of coachwork was first seen isn’t known but they were certainly in use on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1860s and it’s not impossible the invention was both simultaneous and independent although there are sources which insist it was first seen in the ante-bellum US.

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Monza.

As engines (steam, electric and predominately internal combustion) made possible horseless carriages, in the earliest days the body-styles were carried over as were the designations which is why berlinas, cabriolets and phaetons appeared in the catalogues of the early automotive coach-builders.  However, the spider nomenclature seems to have been forgotten, because although the ancillary seats still existed, the terms “dicky seat”, “rumble seat” & “jump seat” came to be preferred, each with its own etymological tale.  The revival of the name had to await the interwar years, Alfa Romeo in 1931 introducing the 8C, powered by 2.3, 2.6 & 2.9 litre stright-8s, the line continuing until 1939.  Many were touring cars but the Spider version was a sports car built for road and track, and 8C 2300 Spiders won the 1931 & 1932 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily and it was victory in the 1931 Italian Grand Prix which the factory honored with the "Monza", the GP car a shortened, lightweight version of the Spider.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, one of the few times the factory preferred spyder to spider.

Encouraged by the image Alfa-Romeo gained from the illustrious 8C spiders, a few other cars emerged from Europe in the 1930s but it was in the post-war years the name became really fashionable, the economic boom and the availability of chassis suitable to carry the imagination of carrozzerias meant there was a concurrence of supply and demand for stylish roadsters, many of which carried the magic of the spider name.  Seemingly more glamorous still must have been “spyder” because it was in the 1950s that roadsters called spyder began to appear.  Quite why the “y” sometimes was preferred to the “i” has over the years attracted comment and speculation but the reason for the adoption remain obscure.  The idea it was to avoid legal action from Alfa-Romeo was soon discounted because, spider being a historic generic from coach-building (like sedan, limousine, cabriolet etc), it couldn’t be trade-marked or otherwise protected and Alfa-Romeo seems anyway never to have tried.  There was however a quasi-legal status granted to the spelling “spider” because in 1924, the (the apparently now forgotten) Milan-based National Federation of Body makers declared that was how it should be written, the speculation being that Il Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945; Duce (Leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) wanted to make everything as Italian as possible and, there being no "y" in the alphabet, spider it was.  Of whether such matters much occupied the fascist mind, there seems no documentation and it does seem dubious; X, Y, W, J not appearing in the Italian alphabet either although many words in the languages include them.

The exotic "spyder with a y" did sometimes appear in US commerce: Advertisement in Hot Rod Magazine, April 1972 (note little Miss Muffet's strategically positioned tip of the tongue).

Motor Wheel Corporation may have been encouraged by the Ford Motor Company which in the 1960s had borrowed the French spelling Galaxie for the top-trim option for its then full-sized Fairlane, Ford in 1966 adding the 7 Litre option to the range.  Even then liters were not unknown in US English (especially among scientists and engineers) but they tended not to use the French spelling.  Ford certainly wasn't trying to suggest the Galaxie's big engine option was something remotely French (there, by 1966, they certainly didn't build cars with 7 litre V8 engines) but it avoided a linguistic clash with Galaxie.  It also simplified the administration of the badgework because in 1966 & 1967, Ford actually offered two very different versions of their 7 litre FE V8, the 427 (a famously powerful & robust beast with a stellar reputation on the circuits which was expensive, noisy, cantankerous and an oil burner) or the 428 (mild-mannered, smooth, quiet & cheap), the choice at the dealership just a tick on the box.  The market spoke, the sales breakdown between the 427/428 in 1966/1967 being 11035/38 and 1056/12.  So the 427 was retired from the full-sized line for 1968, a run 350-odd of a curious version with hydraulic valve lifters (intended originally for the Mustang) used in the Mercury Cougar, coupled exclusively to an automatic gearbox; for the 1968 Cougars, Ford decided there were just 427s & 428s and didn't both with litres or liters.  Strangely, by then, the corporation would have had an excuse to stick with the French because in 1968 Ford had three different 7 litre V8s in the showrooms, the 427 & 428 from the FE family and the 429 from the 385 series.  Fortunately, another 7 litre (the 430 from the MEL family) had been retired in 1966 after being enlarged to 462 cubic inches (7.5 litres).            

1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider.

The trend really took off in 1954 when Lancia introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider and soon Ferrari and other from Italy would follow although spyders would appear too, (including some from Ferrari & Lancia), and General Motors (GM), noted scavengers of European nomenclature (GTO, Grand Prix etc) shamelessly tacked Spyder onto the doomed Corvair, even for versions with a fixed roof.  North of the Brenner Pass, spyder has found favour, used by Porsche, Audi and BMW while in the Far-East, companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, arch-imitators in style and perfectionists in execution have rolled out their own spyders.  Alfa-Romeo and Fiat however have stuck to spider, Lancia and Ferrari too seeming to have forsaken their youthful indiscretions and only using the original.

1969 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce.

Although in continuous production between 1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the memorable Osso di Seppia (Round-tail, literally "cuttle fish") coachwork.  After 1970, the Spider gained a Kamm-tail which increased luggage capacity and presumably also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always coveted the cigar-shaped original.

Robert the Bruce, colored engraving by an unknown artist (1797).

Robert I (Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329; King of Scots 1306-1329) was crowned King of Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English.  Earlier though, he’d had his defeats and his spirits were said to be at a low ebb when after one disastrous battle, he was forced to take refuge in a cave.  Sitting in the cold, dark space, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web and time and time again, the little creature failed.  However, each time the spider fell, it climbed back up to try again until finally, the silk took hold and the web was spun.  From this, Robert was inspired to return to the fight and was victorious in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), a triumph which turned the tide of the war and ultimately, in 1328 the independence of Scotland was won.

Bruce and the spider, by Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

FOR Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
 
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
 
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
 
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.

Brace

Brace (pronounced breys)

(1) Something that holds parts together or in place, as a clasp or clamp.

(2) Anything that imparts rigidity or steadiness (sometimes called a bitbrace or bitstock).

(3) In drilling, a hand tool for drilling holes, with a socket to hold the drill at one end and a cranked handle by which the tool can be turned in full (also called a bitstock).

(4) In building trades, a piece of timber, metal, etc., for supporting or positioning another piece or portion of a framework.

(5) In Admiralty use, on a square-rigged ship, A rope reeved through a block at the end of a yard, by which the yard is moved horizontally (also as the rudder gudgeon).

(6) In nautical use, to swing round the yards of a square rigged ship (using braces), to present a more efficient sail surface to the direction of the wind.

(7) In music, the leather loops sliding upon the tightening cords of a drum to change their tension and the drum's pitch.

(8) In dentistry, a system of wires, brackets, and elastic bands used to correct crooked or irregularly arranged teeth or to reduce overbite, placed directly against the surfaces of the teeth.

(9) In orthopaedic surgery, a device or appliance that supports or holds a movable part of the body in correct position while allowing motion of the part.

(10) In fashion, an alternative name for suspender (almost always in the plural as braces).

(11) A pair; a couple, used originally of dogs, and later of animals generally (eg a brace of grouse) and then other things, but rarely people.  Now usually used in the context of hunting or (in sport) scoring a pair of goals, tries etc (though not related to the “pair” in cricket, the unhappy record of being dismissed twice without scoring in each innings of a first class or test match.

(12) In typography, one of two characters { or } used to enclose words or lines to be considered together.  Also called a bracket, though not recommended because technically, they’re [ and ]. 

(13) In mathematics, as { or } used for connecting lines of printing or writing or as a third sign of aggregation in complex mathematical or logical expressions that already contain parentheses and brackets.

(14) In musical composition, as { or } also called accolade, a line or bracket connecting two or more staves of music

(15) A protective band covering the wrist or lower part of the arm, especially a bracer.

(16) In military parade drill, a position of attention with exaggeratedly stiff posture.

(17) Literally and figuratively, to prepare for an impact or an event.

(18) In informal slang, to become resolute; to stimulate or freshen.

(19) A form of armor for the arm, also called vambrace (obsolete).

(20) In mining, the mouth of a shaft (apparently a localism restricted to Cornwall).

(21) A medical device, a kind of compression fitting used on joints (ankles, knees etc) to provide support during the healing process.

(22) A measurement of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms (obsolete).

(23) In engineering, a piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts.  It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members.

(24) A kind of riding equipment or horse tack (in historic reference only).

(25) A peninsula; a cape or slice of land jutting into the sea (in historic reference only).

(26) A perch (unit of measure) (in historic reference only).

(27) A point of a cross or rood (in historic reference only).

1300–1350: From the Middle English brace & bracen and the Anglo-French bracier borrowed from the from the Old French brace (arm), derived from the Latin brāchia & brācchia (the nominative and accusative plural (taken as feminine singular)) of brāchium & brācchium (arm) drawn from the Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn), most influenced by the plural Latin form bracchia (two arms).  The variety of spellings from the medieval period are extinct, the usual forms now bracchium or bracchia in the plural.  The prior etymology is wholly speculative, may have come from Gothic brasa (glowing coal), Proto-Germanic brasō (crackling coal) or the primitive bhres (to crack, break, burst).  It was cognate was the French braise (embers), Swedish brasa (to roast) and Icelandic brasa (to harden by fire), all thought related to the Sanskrit भ्रज bhraja (fire).  Brace & bracing are nouns & verbs and braced is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is braces.

Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy (b 1996) wearing leather braces (without belt).

In idiomatic use, the phrase “belt and braces approach” is used to describe the inclusion of redundancy in design, ensuring mutual backups in the event of one system failing.  The phrase is from the notion of the use of either a belt or set of braces to prevent one’s trousers falling down and although both accessories are now (at least to some extent) decorative fashion items, in the era before tighter fitting clothes, they were essential and the especially cautious wore both, avoiding the dreaded SPF (single point-of-failure).  In the US, the equivalent form is “belt and suspenders approach”, “suspenders” (also as “suspender belt”) elsewhere usually understood as the device used by women to hold up their stockings, a device in US English styled as a “garter belt”. 

The original, early fourteenth century meaning was “an item of armor for the arms (and also “a thong or strap for fastening”), reflect the link to the Old French brace (arms) and it was from here that emerged brace as “a length measured by the span of a man’s two arms”.  The meaning "that which holds two or more things firmly together" (derived originally on the notion of clasping arms) emerged in the mid-fifteenth century and came to be applied to an array of fastening and tightening devices in a wide range of endeavours including art, engineering, carpentry, agriculture etc.  The specific meaning as a “prop, supporting strut” began in architecture in the 1520s and came to be applied to just about anything involving physical objects, the figurative use noted from the late sixteenth century.  The idea of things in pairs (first dogs, later game such as ducks, grouse etc) dates from circa 1400 and was later applied to various pairs (pistols, carriages etc); the use in sport to describe scoring twice in the one game (goals, tries etc) was a twentieth century coining, apparently by print journalists wanting something different from “pair” or “two”.  Braces in the sense of “straps passing over the shoulders to hold up the trousers” was from 1798, used after 1945 to describe the hardware used for wires for straightening the teeth.  In the English tradition, to say the weather is "bracing" means it's "damnably cold".

Knocking back a bracer: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a quick belt of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

Lindsay Lohan’s injured right ankle in foot-brace, Mykonos, Greece, 2018.  It’s believed she made a good recovery but may never play rugby again.

The verb brace emerged in the mid-fourteenth century meaning both “to seize, grasp, hold firmly” & “wrap, enshroud; tie up, fetter”, something gained from the Old French bracier (to embrace), again the idea of grasping by the arms.  The meaning "make tense, render firm or steady by tensing" was noted from the mid-fifteenth century although decades earlier it had been used in the figurative sense of "strengthen or comfort someone”.  From this, by the 1740s, developed the later extension to tonics which "brace" the nerves (the bracer a "stiff drink"), a throwback to the original bracer (the early fourteenth century piece of armor protecting the arm) and by 1826 a bracer had assumed the specific use as “an alcoholic drink taken early in the morning”.  From the 1580s, a bracer was also “any sort of stay or clamp which braces or makes firm”, used typically in engineering or construction.  To brace oneself (place oneself in the position of a brace in anticipation of some shock or impact) is documented by 1805 but there is peripheral evidence the phrase may have been in use as early as circa 1500, probably in relation to horse-drawn transport and now familiar to many from the safety demonstration dutifully conducted by flight attendants before every take-off.  Because braces are designed and used for many purposes, there are a large number of derived terms including angle brace, curly brace, neck brace, ankle brace, tower brace, tower brace etc.

General Ulysses S Grant (1822–1885; US president 1869-1877) being photographed in uniform as General of the Army (four star), a rank to which he was appointed in 1866, New York, circa 1866.

Behind the general is a “posture brace”, used by photographers to prevent their subjects moving (the projecting prongs holding the head steady), any movement during the long exposure time risking blurring of the image.  The photo session was conducted in the Huston and Kurtz studio and can properly be called a “session” because, in addition to being time-consuming, the technique in use was called “photosculpture” (developed in 1859 by French artist François Willème (1830–1905)) which involved taking up to 24 photographs of a subject from various angles, the original concept being the creation of a montage which was effectively a 360^o view to assist sculptors carving busts or creating statures.  The perpendicular lines & numbers (1-24) on the platform were references for the photographer who would use them to align the camera’s lens, ensuring an exact series of images.  The studio was a partnership between German born Wilhelm Kurz (1833–1904) and a certain Mr Huston who appears to have vanished from history.  The business was dissolved within two years and Mr Kurz reverted to operating as a sole-trader, later establishing a studio in Madison Square, New York and going on to make notable innovations in the then novel color photography.

In modern commerce the posture brace (marketed also as “posture corrector”) is a specialized form of underwear garment designed to help improve one’s posture, typically by aligning the spine and shoulders into a more upright (or “correct”) position. Advertised as devices which can counteract poor posture habits (especially those resulting from prolonged sitting or slouching), the claims include a reduction in neck, back & shoulder strain.  The designs and methods of construction vary but many of the most popular are made from elastic or neoprene, wrapping around the back & shoulders, acting gently to “pull the shoulders back”.  Others are really straps or harnesses which combine a lightweight form which can exert the required force on the shoulders without excessively restricting movement and a recent development has been the “passive brace”: wearables which buzz or vibrate when slouching is detected, acting as a reminder rather than physically forcing alignment and thus analogous with seat-belt or speed waring chimes in cars.

Brace of single-shot duelling pistols in hardwood case, featured by Hallowell, the design from England and in vogue circa 1770-1850.

Many items were produced in pairs for many reasons but with duelling pistols it was obviously culturally deterministic.  Most used either flintlock or percussion ignition, and were supplied with the cleaning and loading accessories (the cleaning kit still something to ensure is supplied when one buys (or otherwise obtains) one’s AK47).  Duelling pistols tended to be lighter than contemporary service pistols and were often made with a finer finish, reflecting the upper-class market for which they were produced.  The ballistics techniques varied and although most appear to have been smooth-bored, some were scratch-rifled and there were octagon (or octagon-to-round) barrels, all around 9-10 inches (228-254 mm) long.  Almost all were forged from some form of Damascus steel, with bores slightly larger than a half-inch (50 mm) and supplied with ramrods, rudimentary sights front and rear, single-set triggers, roller-bearing frizzens and curved grips integral with full or half-stocks.  Although usually of high quality construction (sometimes with silver furniture), unlike the boxed braces produced for display or ceremonial purposes, duelling pistols tended to be relatively plain and unembellished.

Noted pheasant plucker Boris Johnson (b 1964, UK prime-minister 2019-2022) after bagging a brace of pheasants.

DPRK’s military parades.  The 2010 event (left) during the era of the Dear Leader and the 2015 event (right) after the accession of the Supreme Leader.

Although in production for almost two decades, Mercedes-Benz built only 2677 600s and of those, 428 were the long-wheelbase Pullmans.  Of those, 59 were the Landaulets with a convertible roof extending either over the rearmost seats or the whole passenger compartment.  Just 12 of the latter were built and the only one known to have bought a brace was Kim Il-sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRD, North Korea)) who ordered two in 1968.  Just as the DPRK and its grateful population passed to his descendents, Kim Jong-il (1941–2011; Kim II, Dear Leader of the DPRK 1994-2011) and Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1983; Supreme Leader of the DPRK since 2011), they also inherited the Landaulets which for decades were a fixture at state occasions like military parades.  Buying a brace ensured an unusual distinction of rarity; the parades are said to be the only occasions when two 600 long-roof Landaulets were seen in the same place at the same time.  The Supreme Leader updated in 2015 to the new S600 Pullman Landaulets but they’re mass-produced compared with the original, lack gravitas and look something like a very big Hyundai (made in the "puppet state" of South Korea).  For this reason, the old 600s are retained for occasions when there’s a need really to impress folks and maintain the dynasty’s image of continuity which stretches back to the Great Leader.

1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger with strut brace (also called strut bar), triangulated against the firewall.  Strut braces are stiff metal bars which connect the strut towers (front or rear), the purpose being enhanced structural rigidity.  Depending on the vehicle, the difference can be anything from transformative to non-existent and manufacturers of high-end machinery are aware of their appeal.  There have in recent decades been enormous advances in structural engineering and engineers admit that on some exotic machinery, the torsional rigidity is so high that strut braces add nothing except a little additional weight but they’re installed anyway, simply for the visual effect and to meet buyer expectation.  They’re a popular retro-fit to many of the machines from the 1960s and 1970s which, frankly, were over-powered when new and more so when modified.

Macro

Macro (pronounced mak-roh)

(1) Anything large in scale, scope, or capability.

(2) In the colloquial language of economics, of or relating to macroeconomics.

(3) In computing, an instruction that represents a sequence of instructions in abbreviated form (also rarely called macroinstruction) or a statement, typically for an assembler, that invokes a macro definition to generate a sequence of instructions or other outputs.

(4) In photography, producing larger than life images, often a type of close-up photography or as image macro, a picture with text superimposed.

(5) As the acronym MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma).

1933: A word-forming element from the Ancient Greek μακρός (macros), a combining form of makrós (long), cognate with the Latin macer (lean; meagre) and from the primitive Indo-European root mak (long, thin); now a general purpose prefix meaning large.  The English borrowing from French appears to date from 1933 with the upsurge in writings on economics during the great depression.  It subsequently became a combining form meaning large, long, great, excessive etc, used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with those prefixed with micro-.  In computing, it covers a wide vista but describes mostly relatively short sets of instructions used within programs, often as a time-saving device for the handling of repetitive tasks, one of the few senses in which macro (although originally a clipping in 1959  of macroinstruction) has become a stand-alone word rather than a contraction.  Other examples of use vis-a-vis include macrophotography (photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens (1863)), macrospore (in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others (1859)), macroeconomics (pertaining to the economy as a whole (1938), macrobiotic (a type of diet (1961)), macroscopic (visible to the naked eye (1841)), macropaedia (the part of an encyclopaedia Britannica where entries appear as full essays (1974)), macrophage (in pathology "type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms" (1890)).

Dieting and the macro fad

In the faddish world of dieting, the macrobiotic (macro- +‎ -biotic (from the Ancient Greek βιωτικός (biōtikós) (of life), from βίος (bios) (life)) diet is based on the precepts of Zen Buddhism.  It’s said to seek to balance what are described as the yin & yang elements of food and even the cookware used in its preparation.  The regime, first popularised by George Ohsawa san (1893-1966) in the 1930s, suggests ten food plans which, if followed, will achieve what is said to be the ideal yin:yang ratio of 5:1.  Controversial, there’s no acceptance the diet has any of the anti-cancer properties its proponents often claim beyond that expected if one follows the generally recommended balanced diets which differ little from the macrobiotic.  It was Ohsawa san's 1961 book Zen Macrobiotic which introduced the word to a wider audience although he acknowledged the system had been practiced in Germany in the late eighteenth century.

In macro: Lindsay Lohan's left eye.

A later fad, macronutrients, is distinct from macrobiotics and describes another form of a balanced diet, the three classes of macronutrients being the familiar proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.  The macro diet puts a premium on whole rather than processed foods and requires calorie counting because of the need to track intake and maintain the metrics within a certain range.  Where the macro diet differs is that the metrics vary between individuals rather than requiring conformity to the unchanging yin:yang ratio .  Depending on factors such as body type, life-style, age and health, a nutritionist will construct a target macro ratio (eg 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein and 20% fat) although that may change depending upon outcomes achieved.  The pro ana community seems to view the macrobiotic diet with uninterest rather than scepticism, noting it’s optimised around a concept of balance rather than weight-loss and, while perhaps useful in some aspects, is just another fad diet and that’s fine because, if followed, all diets probably work but for pro ana purposes there are better, faster, more extreme ways.

Macrophotography (also known as photomacrography, macrography or macro-photography) is a specialised niche in imagery, usually in the form of close-up photographs of small subjects, typically living organisms like insects, the object being to create an image greater than life size.  The word is used also by processing technicians to refer to the creation of physically large photographs regardless of the size of the subject or the relation between subject size and finished photograph.

When macro photography depended on a camera with a macro lens committing images to film stock, it was a genuinely specialised skill.  Now, advances in the sensor technology used in small, general purpose digital cameras mean anyone can produce raw images very close to those attainable using a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) or SLR (single-lens reflex) with a true macro lens and editing software exists to enhance the images.  The emergence of very high definition (8K+) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) televisions in sizes larger than human beings has introduced a new subset to macrophotography for home use.  The 8K devices are currently available in sizes up to 150" (3.8m) and the technology exists to join together edgeless screens to create one vast panel, the size limited only by the software support.

Insoluble

Insoluble (pronounced in-sol-yuh-buhl)

(1) A substance which cannot be dissolved, broken down or dispersed.

(2) That which cannot be solved; unsolvable; insolvable.

(3) That which cannot be explained; mysterious or inexplicable.

(4) In chemistry, a substance incapable of dissolving in a solvent.

1350-1400: From the Middle English insoluble (indestructible, unable to be loosened), from the Old French insoluble or the Latin insolūbilis (that which cannot be loosened), the construct being in (not) + solubilis (soluble) which replaced the Middle English insolible; Middle French borrowed the word from the Latin as insoluble.  In the sciences, the noun insolubility in the sense of “incapability of dissolving in a liquid” dates from 1754 (insoluble having conveyed that since 1713), the Late Latin insolubilitas having previously been used and from 1791 it replaced the Latin insolubilis (that cannot be loosened) although in the early seventeenth century it’d been used of the marriage vow to mean "that cannot be dissolved".  The curious (and in many way annoying as such thing in English are) parallel meaning "that which cannot be solved" dates from 1722 and etymologists think it likely a separate formation from the earlier senses.  The related adjective irresolvable was from the 1650s and was from an assimilated form of in- (not, opposite of), the meaning "that which cannot be resolved into parts" emerging after 1785.  Insoluble is a noun & adjective, insolubility is a noun and insolubly is an adverb; the noun plural is insolubles.

In chemistry, insoluble has the precise technical meaning “incapable of dissolving in a solvent” and while it’s actually rare for absolutely no solute to dissolve at all, many substances are poorly soluble although a compound may be insoluble in one solvent yet fully miscible in another.  There’s also the influence of external factors, most notable temperature; increasing temperature frequently improves the solubility of a solute.  The figurative sense (that which cannot be solved; unsolvable; insolvable) is actually used less than other words or phrases which convey the idea, doubtlessly because of the parallel meaning.  Some claim that in Medieval scholarship, it was a tacit conviction among the learned that the insoluble question did not exist and that all that was ever required was to find the right man whose studies were so deep that he would eventually deduce the answer.  It’s a modern-sounding idea and recalls some of the optimistic phases the United States went through in the twentieth century; probably few think like that now.

Dr Rowan Williams (b 1950; Archbishop of Canterbury, 2002-2012) and Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022), discussing insoluble problems during the papal visit to the UK, Lambeth Palace, London, September 2010

One who probably never felt quite like that but may at times have allowed himself the odd, brief moment of optimism was former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, a literary critic and one-time Professor of Divinity at Oxford although his decade in Lambeth Palace seems to have cured him of that.  In late 2008, Dr Williams took a two month summer sabbatical to finish a book about his literary hero, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) which was published as Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction.  Those few weeks may have been among the happiest of his life, later reflecting that “It was a wonderful experience actually, just being able to get up in the morning and write instead go to committees and answer letters and try to solve insoluble problems in the church.”  To the suggestion that prayer might provide answers to at least some of those insoluble problems he replied “I'll do just that.”  Ten years on, there little indication his prayers were answered.

Architectonic

Architectonic (pronounced ahr-ki-tek-ton-ik)

(1) Of or pertaining to the principles of architecture, design and construction.

(2) In figurative use in the social sciences (especially political science and sociology), those things foundational or fundamental; supporting the structure of a morality, society, or culture.

(3) As a descriptor outside the field of architecture, denoting, relating to, or having architectural qualities, especially in its highly organized manner or technique of structure.

(4) In metaphysics, of or relating to the systematic classification of the totality of knowledge.

(5) In artistic composition, having a clearly defined structure, especially one artistically pleasing.

1635-1645 From the Latin architectonicus (of architecture), from the Ancient Greek ἀρχιτεκτονικός (arkhitektonikós) (pertaining to a master builder), from ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn) (architect).  Interestingly, in surviving Greek texts, the most commonly-used forms appears to be arkhitekton (chief workman).  As technology improved it became possible to observe physical objects at smaller scales, even down to the sub-atomic level.  What was seen was of course inherently structural so architectonic was co-opted by many fields which created their own words including receptorarchitectonic (in anatomy & biology, relating to the architectonics of receptors, neuroarchitectonic (the architectonics of nerves and the nervous system) and nanoarchitectonic (the design of nanotechnology devices or the architectonic of nanoscale architecture) and politico-architectonic (in structuralism and urban planning, the analysis of purpose of individual elements).  The adjective architectonical dates from the 1590s.  Architectonic is a noun & adjective, architectonically is an adverb and architectonical is an adjective; the noun plural is architectonics.

In English, use in the metaphysical sense (pertaining to systematization of knowledge) dates only from 1801, the allusions to the origins in Antiquity something of a retrospective Enlightenment discovery.  The division of what in Antiquity tended to be called “the sciences” (ie about any field of knowledge to which any form of method could be applied) into ancillary and architectonic is often described as Aristotelian because it was in the surviving texts of Aristotle (384-322 BC) that the concept is both so prevalent and obvious but it was Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who, in Critique of Pure Reason (1781), provided framework in its modern understanding, architectonics being the study both of a system and the processes of its construction.  Kant’s contemporary, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), was a philosopher who contributed much to the understanding of the implications of the architectonic, perhaps because as well as his interest in metaphysics, he was a composer and something of a critic of architecture.

Six of the Painterly Architectonic set (1916-1918) in oil by Lyubov Popova (1889-1924).

Painterly Architectonic was a series of works by Russian & Soviet avant-garde artist Lyubov Popova.  Thematically, she explored the effects of color and shape on individual parts of a whole, overlaying the representations of the objects after the manner of collage.  The paintings distort space within the square and rectangular frames, right angles, vertical and horizontal lines almost all shunned in seas of slants and diagonals.  Travelling in Western Europe in the years before World War I (1914-1918), Popova was stunned by the Cubist and Futurist works she saw in France & Italy and these ideas she took back to Moscow, her focus on the interrelationships between individual parts.  In 1916 Popova declared herself a "Suprematist", a term coined a year earlier by Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) another member of the Russian avant-garde who explained it described an art which rejected painting’s historic devotion to representation, focusing instead on the supremacy of pure artistic feeling.  After the October Revolution in 1917, it became a movement, many artists believing a revolutionary society demanded a radically new artistic language. In that they were probably right but in comrade Stalin’s (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) time, they would find the vocabulary was limited.

Hijab

Hijab (pronounced hi-jahb, hi-jab, hee-jahb or hee-jab)

(1) A traditional scarf or veil worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.

(2) The traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet (except in places where the interpretation is more strict and all or some of the hands, face and feet must be concealed).

1885–1890: From the Arabic حِجَاب‎ (ḥijāb) (veil, cover, curtain), from ḥajaba (to cover).  It first appeared in this sense in bilingual dictionaries in 1906 whereas in classical Arabic it meant both "partition, screen, curtain," and also generally "rules of modesty and dress for females.  One (1800) English lexicon of the “Hindoostanee language" suggested hijab was used to mean "modesty or shame," and other similar dictionaries (circa 1800) noted the connotations of "to cover, hide or conceal" and the 1906 publication (qv) also listed "modesty".  The alternative forms hejab, hijaab, hijāb; hajib & hijabi are all now regarded as non-standard, globalisation and the internet making hijab the preferred global spelling; the noun plural is hijabs.

Asif Ali Zadari and the late Benazir Bhutto, pictured on their wedding day, discussing head fashions.

The hijab is the most minimal of the Islamic veils.  Classically a square scarf of any color which covers the head and neck but leaves the face exposed, it can be of any shape, color or fabric but styles and shades tend to be more somber in more conservative cultures.  It can be used as just another fashion accessory, and, where local circumstances permit, some do drape it in a rather perfunctory way, exposing just as much as can be gotten away with.  Politicians attempting simultaneously to placate the local Mufti and assert their feminist credentials adopt this trick; former Pakistani prime-minister, the late Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007), was an expert.

Lindsay Lohan, wearing an al-amira, pictured here with aid worker Azize in Antep refugee camp, Gaziantep, Turkey, October 2016.

The al-amira and shayla are variations on a theme.  The former is two-piece, consisting of a close-fitting cap and a tube-like scarf, the latter a long, rectangular scarf, wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders.  Both are more closely-fitting than a hijab and are used when it’s important to ensure no hair is left exposed.

Lindsay Lohan, pictured here wearing a burka by Gucci while shopping in Dubai during her self-imposed exile from US while Donald Trump was president.

The almost identical niqab and burka are the highest evolution of the form.  The burka (also variously as burqa, burkha, burqua, boorka, bourkha (obsolete) & bourqa (rare)) is an all-enveloping garment, almost always in dark, solid colours which covers the entire body with a small (sometime mesh-covered) aperture through which to see.  The niqab is the same except it leaves the eyes exposed.  Until 2022, of the many “morality police” forces which have existed in countries with a majority Islamic population, the best known was Afghanistan's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice which actually pre-dated the Taliban takeover in 1996 but they certainly deployed it with an enthusiasm which went much beyond it functioning as “burka police” and in one form or another, it actually operated for most of the (first) post-Taliban era.  When the Taliban regained power in 2021, immediately they created the "Ministry of Invitation, Guidance and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" and, in a nice touch, allocated as its headquarters the building formerly used by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.  The protests in Iran which in September 2022 began over the conduct of their hijab police rapidly became a movement chanting "Death to the Dictator!". 

The khimar is a long, cape-like veil that hangs down to just above the waist. It covers the hair, neck and shoulders completely, but leaves the face clear. The chador, worn by many Iranian women when outside the house, is a full-body cloak that is favored over the similar looking burka because it is more easily put on and taken off.  A cloak, it's especially suited for wearing in cooler months when the clothing underneath tends to be bulkier.

Celebrated since 2013 on the first day of February, World Hijab Day is all encompassing in that it’s not restricted just to hijabs and includes other styles.  The day notes the long tradition attached to head-coverings mandated for religious purposes, the history pre-dating Islam by hundreds of years and the garment was anyway probably created out of necessity, those living under a hot Mesopotamian sun using linens to protect their heads from the sun and wind.  It seems head coverings were first written into law during the thirteenth century BC, in an ancient Assyrian text mandating women, daughters and widows cover their heads as a sign of piety. Notably, headscarves were forbidden for prostitutes and women of the lowest classes, an edict enforced by social ostracization or even arrest.  From this origin, the practice was adopted by the religions which emerged from the region, Judaism, Christianity & Islam and the bible (1 Corinthians 11:6-7) contains a typical injunction:

For it shall be a disgrace for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.  For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

Although the tradition has faded, even in some parts of the Islamic world, conservative sections still maintain the rule.  Even some post Vatican II Roman Catholic nuns continue to wear the habit, Orthodox Jewish women will don either the tichel (a type of headscarf) or sheitel (a wig) and in Islam, the Quran's verses about modesty have been interpreted in different ways, some insisting head covering is obligatory while others say it’s a choice.  Political systems, geography and ethnicity also interact with tradition in the politics of head coverings and several countries, including France, Germany and Austria, have limited women from wearing full-face coverings such as the niqab and burka in public spaces.

Nansen

Nansen (pronounced nan-sun)

(1) A surname of Scandinavian origin.

(2) A passport issued to a stateless refugee during the inter-war years (1922-1938).

1922: The noun Nansen in the sense of the passport was a direct adoption of the proper noun Nansen from the Norwegian explorer and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), then the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The origin of the surname is unknown beyond it being a Danish & Frisian patronym meaning “son of Nanne”.  The use as a given name was an adaptation of the surname Nansen (the female form being Nansina).  As in many parts of Europe, surnames tended to be (1) occupational (names derived from the occupation or job of an ancestor), patronymic (2) a name passed down from either the father or more distant ancestor) or (3) toponymic (a place name, often taken from a geographical feature such as a mountain or river).  In places like England where parish records date back centuries family lines and the origins of surnames are relatively easy to trace but in Norway, prior to 1923, the most common male surnames were those that ended in “–son“ or “–sen” (meaning “son of”) which means tracing histories back more than two or three generations is difficult.  The female family names operated in the same way using the extension “–dotter” or “–datter” (meaning “daughter of”) so the surname of Nanne’s daughter would emerge either as “Nannesdotter” or “Nannesdatter.  Sweden abolished the practice in 1901 to ensure a single family name was passed from generation to generation; this was the convention Norway adopted in 1923.

The League of Nations began issuing travel documents (originally called “Stateless Persons Passports” under the auspices of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, then headed by Norwegian diplomat Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930).  They quickly became generally known as “Nansen passports”., often shortened to “Nansen”.  The documents were needed because in the aftermath of what was the called The World War (which finished off the old Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanov and Ottoman empires), national boundaries were re-drawn, civil wars erupted and something like what would now be called ethnic cleansing meant there were suddenly millions of stateless refugees on European soil.  Without passports, refugees were usually unable to travel from where they weren’t wanted.

What made the need for a non-state travel document was the new government of the Soviet Union (USSR) revoking the citizenship of Russians living abroad, a measure aimed at the 780,000-odd who had fled Russia after the Russian civil war.  The Nansen passports held by some of these Russians would prove life-saving in 1945 when, because of a still controversial agreement signed at the Yalta Conference (4-11 February 1945), Russians who had fought with the Wehrmacht and were interned by British & US forces were repatriated to the USSR because comrade Stalin wished to execute or otherwise punish Cossacks and other anti-Bolsheviks who had been troublesome since the Russian Revolutions (March & October 1917).  Actually, all those who had fled the country in 1922 and been rendered stateless then were exempt from repatriation but in the muddled haste with which the deportations were undertaken at the time, not all escaped and possession of a Nansen passport was sometime the difference between life and death.

After 1938, the passports issued by a newly created, London-based agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the Protection of the League of Nations.  Noted holders of Nansen passports include the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881–1931), the author Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), the Nazi Waffen-SS Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975) and the composers Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) & Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).  It was Stravinsky who once described Rachmaninoff as “six feet of Russian misery”.