Phytosuccivorous

Phytosuccivorous (pronounced fahy-toh-suhk-siv-er-uhs)

The general descriptor of creatures which feed on sap, such as certain sucking insects.

1860s: The construct was phyto- + succi- + -vorous.  Phyto- (pertaining to or derived from plants) was from the Ancient Greek φυτόν (phutón) (plant) and a doublet of -phyte.  Succi- was a combining for of the Latin succus (plural succi) (juice), source also of the Modern English succulent.  In pre-modern medicine, succus & succi were terms for the expressed juice of a plant, extracted for medicinal purposes.  The construct of –vorous was the Latin –vor(us) + -ous.  Vorous was from vorō (I devour, greedily I eat) +‎ -us (the suffix used to form adjectives) and the suffix –vorous was used to form adjectives with the sense of “habitually eating, feeding on”.  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 related forms, used in entomology and the biological sciences include phytosuccivorous, phytosuccivore & phytosuccivory.

Originally described in entomological taxonomy the H. coagulata (later called Homalodisca vitripennis), is a leafhopper from the insect family Cicadellidae.  The surprisingly destructive little bug was later and more mnemonically named the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a not entirely accurate but graphically illustrative description.  Being phytosuccivorous means the insect lives by sucking sap from the plants which make its environment hospitable.  That’s unremarkable but the glassy-winged sharpshooter is one of a number of sap-suckers noted for a still curious aspect of their behavior: They “make it rain” by flinging droplets of pee while feeding on plant juices.  Although the reason the creatures have evolved to do this remains speculative, close observation has allowed biologists to understand the tiny, catapult-like mechanism the sharpshooters use to propel their waste at what turned out to be extraordinary rates of acceleration.

It’d long been known that trees infested with sharpshooters exude a steady pitter-patter of pee and many nature-loving bush-walkers may have probably enjoyed the experience, thinking it a natural climatic phenomenon.  Use of high-speed video capture allowed scientists to observe the process and analysis revealed how the insects release the waste.  Of interest also was that sharpshooters frequently simultaneously “feed & fling”, droplets collecting on a tiny barb called a stylus at the insect’s rear end which, when the droplet reaches a certain weight, induces the stylus to act like spring, the drop flying off the structure as if hurled from a catapult.

In an intriguing example of the complexity of nature often observed at the miniature level, two tiny hairs at the end of the stylus which, by flicking the water at the point of ejection, greatly increase the flinging power (because of the scale, an aspect of design not able to be added to any of the catapults made by humans since antiquity).  As a result, the stylus launches liquid waste with a maximum acceleration 20 times that of Earth’s gravity.  Impressive though that sounds, such findings are not unusual in the physics of very small creatures and it remains uncertain why the pee is flung so far, the current thinking being the sharpshooters try to send it as far as possible lest the sugar-rich fluid attracts predators.  Nor, despite the name, is there any suggestion the sharpshooters are aiming at anywhere or anything in particular, their interest apparently distance rather than direction.  The researchers hope their findings will improve engineering in the field of microfluidics, in which tiny amounts of fluids are manipulated to diagnose disease, sequence DNA, and study cells one at a time.  Already, engineers are experimenting with a design which emulates the sharpshooter's rear end by attaching false eyelashes to an electric motor.

Small though they are, where colonies cluster, the sharpshooters can do serious damage.  The phytosuccivorous pests daily slurp-down and fling-out hundreds of times their body weight and can transmit bacteria that cause diseases in plants and poison the spiders which play a vital role in maintaining insect numbers.  Their technique of feeding and voracious appetite for so many different hosts means the glassy-winged sharpshooters are an effective vector for a number of bacteria which colonizes the creature by forming a biofilm on its mouth-parts.  The infected insect then transmits the disease to additional plants while feeding and even if not susceptible, the newly infected plant becomes a reservoir, holding the bacterium for other sap-suckers to pick up and carry to other plants.  There have been a number of successful attempts at pest management including the use of insecticides, parasitoids (especially wasps) and the impact of naturally occurring pathogens like viruses, bacteria, and fungi, one recently discovered pathogen actually a virus conveniently specific to sharpshooters.  Evidence suggests the most successful approach is the release of broad-spectrum leafhopper parasitoids which reduce the survival rate of the eggs.

Acid

Acid (pronounced as-id)

(1) In chemistry, a compound usually having a sour taste and capable of neutralizing alkalis and reddening blue litmus paper, containing hydrogen that can be replaced by a metal or an electropositive group to form a salt, or containing an atom that can accept a pair of electrons from a base. Acids are proton donors that yield hydronium ions in water solution, or electron-pair acceptors that combine with electron-pair donors or bases; having a pH value of less than 7.

(2) In chemistry, any compound which easily donates protons (a Brønsted acid); any of a class of water-soluble compounds, having sour taste, that turn blue litmus red, and react with some metals to liberate hydrogen, and with bases to form salts; any compound that can accept a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond (a Lewis acid).

(3) A substance sour, sharp, or biting to the taste; tart; having the taste of vinegar.

(4) Something, as a remark or piece of writing, that is sharp, sour, or ill-natured.

(5) A slang term for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

(6) In metallurgy, noting, pertaining to, or made by a process in which the lining of the furnace, or the slag that is present; functions as an acid in high-temperature reactions in taking electrons from oxide ions: usually a siliceous material, as sand or ganister.

(7) Of or pertaining to an acid; acidic.

(8) In pop music, a genre that is a distortion (as if hallucinogenic) of an existing genre, as in acid house, acid jazz, acid rock etc.

1620-1630: From the French acide, from Latin acidus (sour, sharp, tart (and used also figuratively to suggest "disagreeable” etc)), adjective of state from acere (to be sour, be sharp) and akin to ācer (sharp) & acētum (vinegar), from aceō (I am sour); doublet of agita.  Root was the primitive Indo-European ak (be sharp, rise (out) to a point, pierce).

The figurative use (sour-tempered; acerbic) in English dates from 1775 and came to be applied to intense colors after 1916.  The process of the acid dye was invented in 1888 and used an acid bath. The “acid test” is American English from 1881, originally a quick way to distinguish gold from similar metals by application of nitric acid, it came to be used figuratively (and not always accurately) in the same senses as “litmus test”.  The “Acid drop”, a kind of hard sugar candy flavored with tartaric acid, was first sold in 1835, the noun “drop” applied in the sense of a lozenge.  The noun appeared in the 1690s, derived from the adjective and was originally applied (rather loosely) to just about any substance tasting like vinegar; the more precise parameters defined only in the early eighteenth century as the techniques of modern chemistry came to be refined.  In the chemical sense, the antonym is alkaline.  The term “acid rain” (highly acidic rain caused by atmospheric pollution) was in 1872 coined by Scottish chemist (Robert) Angus Smith (1817–1884) although it wouldn’t be for another hundred years before if came into general use.  Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) coined a nickname for her step-mother, Raine Spencer (1929-2016): Acid Raine.  

Acid as a slang term for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) dates from 1966.  From the same year “acid rock” was originally a descriptor applied to music performed by those who were tripping on LSD (or what they sounded like suggested they might be) but, as acid rockers, soon applied equally to the audience.  The adjective before long was bolted onto a wide variety of pop music (acid jazz, acid folk etc), acid house from 1988 probably the most enduring as a marketing term. 

LSD-25 Auto.

In an example of cross-breeding in marketing,"LSD-25 Auto" is a strain of weed.  The retailers recommend LSD-25 Auto to those who “love purple strains”, praising her “tightly packed trichomes”… “clustered around the hypnotic purple shining buds that have a stacked and long characteristic”.  “Bag appeal” is said to be “on the next level” and able to “blast you into another dimension and keep you there”.  Being “mind-bending and certainly on the trippy side”, she’s said to be “best suited for smokers with a high tolerance to cerebral roller coasters and those who enjoy high concentration levels and spurts of creativity”.  For those still unsure, they caution that “novice smokers should take in moderation”.

Cutaway drawing of limited slip differential (LSD).

LSD is also the abbreviation for the limited slip differential, a device used in motor vehicles which allows a differential’s two output shafts to rotate at different speeds within a defined permissible difference in speed.  LSDs are used to improve traction under extreme conditions and the usual slang is “slippery-diff”.  LSD was also the historic abbreviation for the currency denominations used by UK prior to the decimalization of Sterling in 1971.  Although pre-1971 Sterling (based on there being 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound) also used guineas, half crowns, threepenny bits, sixpences and florins, LSD referenced just the base units: pounds, shillings and pence.  The abbreviation LSD dates from Ancient Rome when a pound of silver was divided into 240 pence (or denarius) and the Latin currency denominations were librae, solidi, and denarii.  In veterinary science, LSD is also the standard abbreviation for lumpy skin disease, a viral disease of cattle and water buffalo.

Lindsay Lohan in Peter Thomas Roth’s campaign promoting Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Hydra-Gel Eye Patches.

The active ingredient in the patches is hyaluronic acid, a gooey, slippery substance produced naturally throughout the body and at its highest concentration in the eyes, joints and skin.  Best visualized as a lubricant, it works by providing a fluid cushion between tissues which would otherwise grind against each other.  As a lubricant, hyaluronic acid has remarkable properties, one teaspoon of the stuff able to absorb and retain some 6 US gallons (22¾ litres) of water, a reason why it’s used in the treatment of dry eyes and is a popular additive in in moisturizing creams, lotions, ointments and serums.  Hyaluronic acid is often produced by fermenting certain types of bacteria (rooster combs (the red, Mohawk-like growth on top of a rooster’s head and face) a common source) something the beauty industry dwells on less than the use to enhance the way skin stretches and flexes, reducing wrinkles.  It said also to be helpful in wound healing and the reduction in scarring.

Because of the popular association science fiction and gaming with toxic, flesh dissolving fluids (sometimes flowing through the veins of aliens) the word “acid” evokes horror in many but the body naturally produces many acids and it depends on these interacting with everything else to ensure good health and acids in many forms are in every diet.  An apple (a typical example containing up to 300 chemicals) for example includes pantothenic acid (B5), citric acid, tartaric acid & acetic acid while its taste depends on the concentration of malic acid.  Pantothenic is a combination of pantoic acid and β-alanine, the name pantohenic from the Greek πάντοθεν (pantothen) (from everywhere), the name chosen by chemists because, at least in tiny quantities, it’s present in almost all foods.  Familiar too is the pain-killer aspirin, now taken by many in low-dose form (100 mg or 1½ grains), a regime first recommended as a blood-thinner for those with certain risk factors for heart disease but later adopted by those impressed with the apparent protection offered against many internal cancers.  To a chemist, what we call the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid (usually pronounced uh-seet-l-sal-uh-sil-ik as-id).  

Lysergic acid diethylamide

LSD, known colloquially as acid, is a drug known for its psychological effects. This includes altered awareness of surroundings, perceptions, and feelings as well as sensations and images that seem real though they are not.  It’s thus most often described as a hallucinogenic and the one which first generated a moral-panic although there has never been any evidence to support the stories which circulated telling cautionary tales of users leaping to their deaths from tall buildings, thinking themselves able to fly.  The urban myths persist to this day.

LSD was created in Basel in November, 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906–2008).  Dr Hofmann synthesized LSD after examining the constituents of the well-known medicinal plant Drimia maritima (squill) and the fungus ergot, the breakthrough moment apparently his understanding of the chemical structure of the squill's Scilla glycosides but the famous properties were discovered only serendipitously, his pharmaceutical research for a unrelated purpose.  It wasn't until 1943 that Dr Hofmann conducted any research on the possibilities LSD might offer using what he then regarded as side-effects.  In a long-known scientific tradition, he tested it on himself, thus enjoying the first acid-trip.

Having no bad trips, he continued the research and LSD (acronym for the German Lyserg-säure-diäthylamid) was in 1947 introduced as a commercial medication under the trade-name Delysid and intended for various psychiatric uses.  In the 1950s, the CIA thought the drug might be useful for mind control and chemical warfare, their tests conducted on young servicemen and students, usually without anything even close to informed consent.  Its possibilities interested psychiatrists and it was a popular subject in experimental research, the design of many of which would today appall ethics committees and terrify the lawyers.

President Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) explaining to congress aspects the message sent to the Congress on 17 June 1971, requesting the appropriation of an additional US$155 million for a “war on drugs”.  Egil Krogh (1939-2020 left) was deputy director of the Domestic Council and Dr Jerome Jaffe (b 1933, right) was hired to lead a new drug strategy and was usually referred to as Nixon’s “drugs tsar”.  Egil Krogh was later jailed for his involvement in the Watergate affair.

The subsequent recreational use in the Western world, an outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture, resulted in its worldwide prohibition in 1971, one of the most obvious casualties of the Nixon administration’s “war on drugs” which has around the world been for fifty-odd years waged with many consequences but little apparent effect on the demand for drugs, supply now at historically high levels, outpacing the increase in population.  Fifty years on, LSD remains popular though the extent of its use varies according to supply which tends to be dictated more by the economics of production and distribution than demand, the illicit drug business really preferring other substances because LSD is not addictive.  Of late there’s been much renewed interest in the possibilities offered by therapeutic hallucinogenics, the encouraging findings in DMT, LSD, mescaline & psilocybin research drawing in venture capital, the odd start-up picking up not only where things were left off in 1971 but working with more recently synthesised compounds.  Their difficulties are less scientific than regulatory.

Notable moments in Acid Rock

Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, a True Star (1973).

It’s not known if most listeners recovered from this but Todd Rundgren probably never did, his subsequent output so discursive that the many audiences he sought and sometimes gained never coalesced into a consistent following.   A Wizard, a True Star is there to be enjoyed as his psychedelic phase; just don’t expect more of the same.

Grateful Dead: Aoxomoxoa (1969).

Anthem of the Sun (1968) cast such a shadow that few dead heads list Aoxomoxoa as the band’s finest but none deny it’s the most psychedelic the Dead ever got in the studio.  The hippie-dippy vibe is of course more on display on many of the live releases (bootlegs and otherwise) but on Aoxomoxoa there are enough of the long, circular guitar lines for any tripper to keep tripping.  Unlike some of the European electronica which would follow, the Dead sound best through speakers rather than headphones but, at the time, the effect of Quadraphonic divided opinion.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland (1968).

Not all of Electric Ladyland was as psychedelic as the reputation suggests but, spread over two records, there was room to move and psychedelia does at least tinge much of the blues for which this is remembered.  Some trippers however resist the epic length Voodoo Chile and go straight to side three of the original vinyl, setting the turntable to repeat.

Spirit: Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus (1970).

Although not released until the era’s historic moment had passed with the implosion of the San Francisco ecosystem which fed the beast, Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus is the retrospective encapsulation of the psychedelic and is Spirit’s masterpiece.  Lyrically one long, strange trip, it’s also musically playful, mixing (rather than fusing) the most clichéd of the motifs of jazz, pop & rock.  This is acid rock’s period piece.

Pink Floyd: More (1969).

So much has Dark Side of the Moon (1973) loomed over Pink Floyd that their early work is neglected by all but a few.  In some cases the indifference is not undeserved but, influenced by the late Syd Barrett (1946-2006), before they were a staple of FM radio, Pink Floyd were certainly somewhere on the psychedelic spectrum and while The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) hints at it, their work in a trilogy of film soundtracks, More (1969), Zabriskie Point (1970) & Obscured by Clouds (1972) tracks the path of acid-rock.  The best approach is said to be to watch Zabriskie Point with the sound turned down while the album plays on repeat and a true aficionado will drop some acid a few minutes before putting on the headphones.

Sheryl Crow: There goes the neighborhood

Hey let's party
Let's get down
Let's turn the radio on
This is the meltdown
Get out the camera
Take a picture
The drag queens and the freaks
Are all out on the town
And cowboy Jane's in bed
Nursing a swollen head
 
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene any how
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the fuss was about
Now there goes the neighborhood
 
The photo chick made to look sickly
Is standing in her panties in the shower
She plays the guitar in the bathroom
While the police dust her mother's plastic flowers
And Schoolboy John's in jail
Making a killing through the U.S. mail
 
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene any how
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the fuss was about
Now there goes the neighborhood
 
This is the movie of the screenplay
Of the book about a girl who meets a junkie.
The messenger gets shot down
Just for carrying the message to a flunkie.
We can't be certain who the villans are 'cuz everyone's so pretty
But the afterparty's sure to be a wing-ding as it moves into your city
 
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene any how
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the stink was about
Now there goes the neighbourhood.

Cormorant

Cormorant (pronounced kawr-mer-uh nt)

(1) A large, black swimming and diving bird, any of several voracious, totipalmate seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, as Phalacrocorax carbo, of the Americas, Europe, and Asia, having a long neck and a distensible pouch under the bill for holding captured fish: used still in China (with a restrictor-band on the throat to prevent the swallowing of larger fish) for catching fish.

(2) A greedy person or organization; a voracious eater; a glutton; by extension it has been used to describe thing which consume on a grand scale (blast furnaces etc).

1300-1350: From the Middle English cormera(u)nt, from the twelfth century Old French cormarenc & cormareng (source also of the Modern French cormoran), from the Late Latin corvus marinus (sea raven; translated by some Medieval writers as “the sea mare”) + the Germanic suffix –enc, the -t in English exists probably because of confusion with words including -ant.  The birds are proverbially voracious, hence the word has been applied to greedy or gluttonous persons since the 1530s.

Thought remarkable for the number of fish it can eat in a single session, the water bird has since antiquity been associated with voraciousness.  In literature, as imagery to represent gluttony and greed, the cormorant figured as Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost and represented the insatiable rapacity of time in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (1:1).

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,
The endeavor of this present breath may buy
That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge
And make us heirs of all eternity.

The Consequences of Cormorancy

Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; Deputy Prime Minister of Australia variously 2016-2018 & since June 2021).

What is described variously the obesity problem, crisis or epidemic, in 2016 attracted the concern of noted fitness advocate, Australia’s deputy prime-minister, Barnaby Joyce.  In response to suggestions the imposition of a tax on sugar, thereby raising the price of sugary drinks, could be part of a strategy of amelioration, Mr Joyce said the increasing obesity of Australians was caused by people “sitting on their backsides” and “eating too much food”, adding that the National Party would never support such a tax.  “If you want to deal with being overweight, here's a rough suggestion, stop eating so much and do a bit of exercise” Mr Joyce was quoted as saying, adding it was not the job of the taxation office to promote healthy lifestyles.  Perhaps sensing a plot by a lean, Green Party-voting, inner-city elite, Mr Joyce said it was objectionable the suggested impost would apply to soft drinks but not lattes.

Portion control, two slices at a time.  Barnaby Joyce taking morning tea.

A Grattan Institute (a think-tank that tends to neutrality) report delivered to government recommended a sugar content tax of 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar on water-based, non-alcoholic, sugar-sweetened beverages which, if imposed, it estimated would increase the average cost of a two litre bottle of soft drink by about 80 cents, assuming the producers passed the increase to the consumer.  The institute’s modelling suggested this would reduce overall consumption of sugar contained in soft drink by around 15 per cent.  Mr Joyce seemed not persuaded by the research, arguing that rather than taxes to discourage consumption, the solution was for people to try “…jumping in the pool and going for a swim” and when ordering food, “…reducing your portion size”.

Portion control, one fish at a time.  A cormorant taking morning tea.

In an indication Mr Joyce may be right the whole thing is a plot by a mineral water quaffing urban elite to deny simple country folk their humble lemonade, the Green Party quickly issued a statement saying they would push for a parliamentary inquiry into the rise of obesity and whether a sugar tax on soft drinks is one way to combat the problem.  When asked about the tax, the Green’s leader said if the government didn't act, his party would introduce a private member's bill for a sugar tax.  There is empirical evidence to suggest sugar taxes do work to reduce consumption.  The UK imposed a two-tiered system, graduated according to the sugar content and this had the effect of reducing the quantity of sugar in soft drinks purchased by households by 10% while maintaining aggregate sales at existing levels.

George Christensen (b 1978; member for Dawson (Queensland) since 2010).

The political economy of the UK however differs from Australia where some politicians, not always with safe margins, represent seats where the sugar industry is a significant source of employment and industrial activity.  In the UK, the nature and distribution of its sugar beet sector means it’s less able to generate fear among politicians fearing the loss of their seats if industry-specific taxes are imposed.  Although it wasn't clear if his parliamentary colleague George Christensen intended to follow Mr Joyce’s diet and exercise guidelines, he endorsed the leader’s opinion that personal responsibility is the answer, not a tax.  “I'm a fat bloke but I made choices”, Mr Christensen helpfully revealed.  He's since made the choice that surgery is preferable to diet and exercise, undergoing a sleeve gastrectomy (effectively reducing the capacity of the stomach) in Malaysia and has lost weight, all without the need for what former prime minister Tony Abbott (b 1957; Prime Minister of Australia 2013-2015) called "a big fat tax".

Lindsay Lohan, Mykonos, Greece, September 2017.  Visiting the Greek Islands is a good opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the "Mediterranean diet".

The Mediterranean diet is not exactly defined but it represents the patterns of consumption in the traditional diets of those living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and is thought an especially healthy choice because it is based on "whole foods" as opposed to the modern Western diet with its high volume of highly processed foods.  The key elements include: (1) Olive oil which is rich in monounsaturated fats, (2) a daily intake of fish and other seafood and although the mechanisms of the process is still not fully understood, the benefits appear real. (3) fresh plant-based foods (whole grains, nuts 7 seeds, fruits & vegetables, legumes (lentils, beans, peas) which provide essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, (4) poultry, eggs & dairy although the point is (4a) these are consumed in moderation & (4a) the cheese & yogurt are produced in a traditional manner, unlike much of what's sold in the West, (5) a limited intake of red meat (some exclude it completely), red wine in moderation although it does appear whatever benefit exists (an it remains controversial) is obtained only if the wine is taken with food and doesn't alter the fact the main fluid intake of the diet should be water and (6) a reliance on herbs & spices to flavor food instead of large quantities of salt.

Hypaethral

Hypaethral (pronounced hi-pee-thruhl, hahy-pee-thruhl)

In classical architecture, wholly or partly open to the sky.

Circa 15 BC: From the Classical Latin hypaethrus from the Ancient Greek ὕπαιθρος (húpaithros or hýpaithros) (open to the sky), from ὑπό (hupó), combining form of ὑπό (hupó) (under) + αἰθήρ (aithḗr) (air, ether).  The construct was hyp- (under) + aîthros (clear sky; see ether) + -al (from the Latin adjective suffix -ālis). 

The Roman architect Vitruvius, in his treatise De architectura (circa 15 BC) for the emperor Caesar Augustus (63 BC–AD 14 (also known as Octavian); first Roman emperor, 27-AD 14), used the Latin hypaethrus to describe temples in which the cella (the part of the temple housing an image of the deity) was wholly or partially uncovered.  In the late eighteenth century, English classicists adopted the re-modelled form hypaethral in their works about ancient architecture and another adjective they would employ was cleithral, designating temples with roofed central spaces; cleithral comes from the Ancient Greek kleithra (lattice).

The more modern American spelling is hypethral which probably is preferable but, unlike many US spellings which have made inroads elsewhere in the English speaking world, hypaethral remains the standard form; this is doubtless because it’s a technical word used by tiny subsets of historians, classists and architects.  Both spellings remain technically correct but use within any document needs to be consistent.

Hypaethral Temple at Paestum, Wilkins William, from The Antiquities of Magna Graecia, London, Longman, Hurst, Orme and Rees, MDCCCVII (1807).

Hotline

Hotline (pronounced hot-lahyn)

(1) In Canadian use, talkback radio; of or relating to a radio program that receives telephone calls from listeners while on-air.

(2) A direct telecommunications link, either as a telephone line, teletype circuit or other connection, enabling immediate communication between heads of state and intended for use in times of crisis.

(3) A telephone service enabling people confidentially to speak with someone about a personal problem or crisis.

(4) A telephone line providing customers or clients with direct access to a company or professional service.

1950-1955: Hot was from the Middle English hot & hat, from the Old English hāt (hot, fervent, fervid, fierce), from the Proto-Germanic haitaz (hot), from the primitive Indo-European kay- (hot; to heat).  It was cognate with the Scots hate & hait (hot), the North Frisian hiet (hot), the Saterland Frisian heet (hot), the West Frisian hjit (hot), the Dutch heet (hot), the Low German het (hot), the German & Low German heet (hot), the German heiß (hot), the Danish hed (hot), the Swedish het (hot) and the Icelandic heitur (hot).  Line was from the Middle English line & lyne, from the Old English līne (line, cable, rope, hawser, series, row, rule, direction), from the Proto-West Germanic līnā, from the Proto-Germanic līnǭ (line, rope, flaxen cord, thread), from the Proto-Germanic līną (flax, linen), from the primitive Indo-European līno- (flax).  The Middle English forms evolved under the influence of the Middle French ligne (line), from the Latin linea and the oldest sense of the word is "rope, cord, thread"; from this the senses "path" and "continuous mark" were derived.  That was also the source of the use in telecommunications, telephone traffic originally routed along physical lines, usually a pair of copper wires; the use of “cable” “telegraph” & “wire” to describe the messages sent across these means of transmission had a similar gestation.  The spelling variously is hotline, hot-line and hot line and inconsistencies in use are common.

The Moscow–Washington hotline

President Warren Harding with the first telephone installed in the Oval Office, 29 March 1929.

The Moscow–Washington hotline (technically the Washington–Moscow Direct Communications Link) was established in 1963 after the experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis suggested to US diplomats that had the channels of communication been able more quickly to deliver messages, it may have been possible to resolve matters before they reached to point of crisis.  The solution was felt to be a means of immediate, secure communication between the Kremlin and the White House so the leaders of the USSR and USA instantly could communicate in times of crisis, the imagery being two telephones connected by a long line between Moscow and Washington DC.  Unfortunately, although the classic image is of red analogue telephones (without a dialing mechanism) sitting on the two desks, telephones actually weren’t part of the system.  There has been a telephone on the president’s desk in the White House since 1929 but never a red one and although there have been many red-colored phones in both civilian and military service in the US, there was never one connected to the Moscow–Washington hotline.

The photograph of George W Bush was a fake although it circulated widely, complete with a doctored photo-frame in the background, containing a picture of then UK prime-minister Tony Blair. 

The classic hotline was between two callers but there's no reason why they can't be multi-node: Four-way call, Mean Girls (2004).

The reasons telephones weren’t thought suitable was that in moments of crisis in international relations, it’s vital there be no misunderstandings and a conversation between two people speaking different languages through translators, separated by thousands of miles over a phone line of sometimes variable quality, would be inherently error-prone.  Additionally, a certainty of historic record in important in diplomatic discourse so a device which committed everything to paper, in text, was required.  What was adopted was the technology which was at the time the most appropriate, something robust, reliable and suitable for technicians at both ends; in 1963, that was the teleprinter (also known as teletypewriter, teletype or TTY), an electromechanical device which had for decades been used in inter-continental communications, much of its popularity due to the ability to bolt it to a variety of communications channels.  Over the years, the technology has changed to take advantage of advances including an era (which began during the Reagan administration (1981-1989)) in which the hotline was facsimile (fax) based, something which sounds now archaic but which was at the time both fast and secure.  Satellite links have for years been used and there is now a secure fibre-optic link.   

Hotline Teleprinter, the Pentagon, circa 1966.

Before the term hotline came into use in the 1950s, there had actually been a “hotline” which really did use telephones: In 1943, the first use of a scrambler (an early, analogue form of voice-encryption) was the system installed between the White House Downing Street to render secure conversations between President Roosevelt and Prime-Minister Churchill and both the UK military and civil service had for years used hotlines (literally dedicated phone-lines) between departments.  The idea has spread and other countries have either installed hotlines or at least flirted with the idea although, the implementation has been patchy; some installed and never commissioned or switched off during periods of heightened tensions.  The usual suspects have been involved, China–USSR (and later Russia), China-India, China–United States, China-Japan, North Korea-South Korea and India–Pakistan.

A fake Hotline.

One linguistic quirk in the name of the Moscow–Washington hotline is misleading in that while the Russian end does terminate in Moscow, the US end is technically not in Washington DC but under military control in a secure facility in the Pentagon, located in Langley, Virginia where, twenty-four hours a day, a technician and translator attend the office.  Despite reality, in many fictional depictions of US-Soviet relations in the Cold War and beyond, literal, bright-red analogue telephones sometimes appeared, long after any such devices had been replaced, an example of the way in which verisimilitude in fiction is constructed sometimes by conforming to a popular perception of reality rather than reality itself.

Four-node hotline, Mean Girls (2004).