Whiskey & Whisky

Whiskey & Whisky (pronounced hwis-kee or wis-kee)

(1) An alcoholic liquor distilled from a fermented mash of cereals (the grains usually barley, rye, or corn) and typically containing 43-50% alcohol; the end product usually aged in oak barrels and sometimes a blend from various mixes.

(2) A drink of whiskey or whisky.

(3) Of, relating to, or resembling whiskey or whisky.

(4) A light gig or carriage (historical reference only).

(5) In international standards (as “w for whiskey”), the NATO, ICAO, ITU & IMO phonetic alphabet code for the letter “W” (familiar to many in the form WTF).

1715: A variant of usque,an abbreviation of usquebaugh, from the Irish uisce beatha (water of life) or the Scots Gaelic uisge-beatha (water of life), ultimately a translation of the Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life (originally an alchemical term for unrefined alcohol)).  The form whiskybae has been obsolete since the mid eighteenth century.  The Scots and Irish forms were from the Proto-Celtic udenskyos (water) + biwotos (life), from biwos(alive).  The Old Irish uisce (water) was from the primitive Indo-European ud-skio-, a suffixed form of the root wed- (water; wet); bethu (life), from the primitive Indo-European gwi-wo-tut-, a suffixed form of gwi-wo-, from the root gwei- (to live). The noun plurals are whiskies & whiskeys.  Although iskie bae had been known in the 1580s, it appears unrelated to usquebea (1706), the common form of which was uisge beatha which in 1715 became usquebaugh, then whiskeybaugh & whiskybae, the most familiar phonetic form of which evolved as “usky”, influencing the final spellings which remain whisky & whiskey.  Wisely, the Russians avoided the linguistic treadmill, the unchanging vodka freely translated as “little water”.

The Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life) had great appeal to those Europeans making drinks (especially distilled spirits).  In Sweden there was the cordial akvavit, the French called Brandy eau de vie and in Scotland and Ireland, the most popular liquor was called uisge beatha, all these forms meaning “water of life”.  The Gaelic variety was with both alacrity and enthusiasm embraced by the English, one noted champion and consumer being Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) although given the fondness for strong drink long shown south of the border, it’s likely that even without the royal imprimatur, success would have anyway been assured and it was certainly guaranteed after 1541 when Henry dissolved the monasteries and with that one act, also the English monopoly on distilling enjoyed by the monks.  The spellings whisky and whiskey are used world-wide to distinguish regional drinks (Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, bourbon whiskey etc) and the terms “Scotch” and “Bourbon” are common ellipticals for their types.  The adoption of the spelling “whiskey” in the US during the nineteenth century was unusual in that the usual US practice was to simplify things by removing a letter or two but it was technically an adoption of an older form rather than an innovation.   

John Walker & Sons, holders of the Royal Warrant, made Diamond Jubilee to mark the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.

Diamond Jubilee is a blend of grain and malt varieties, all of which were distilled in 1952, the year of Her Majesty's accession.  To further the connection, the whiskies were blended in two small casks made with oak from the Royal Estate at Sandringham and laid down at the Royal Lochnagar distillery close to Balmoral Castle.  The blend was bottled on 6 February 2012 (sixtieth anniversary of the accession) and released in a limited edition of sixty.  The list price was US$198,000.

Having a belt.  Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a shot of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

Scotch, Bourbon and Rye are all types of whiskey or whisky, both distilled liquors made from a fermented mash of cereal grains and aged in containers, traditionally of oak.  The most commonly used grains are corn, barley malt, rye, and wheat but what makes each type different is not only the grain but also the distilling process, the aging and critically, the water used.  Despite the widespread perception that there’s a clear rule about the application of “whisky” and “whiskey”, although there are conventions, the distinctions are not always absolute and the only reliable guide is what the maker chooses to print on the label.  As a general principle, (1) the spelling whiskey is common in the US & Ireland while whisky is used elsewhere and (2) all labelled as scotch is whisky while other types tend to be whiskeys.  However, in the US, the two spellings were used interchangeably until the mid-nineteenth century when whiskey began to predominate but it wasn’t until the widespread availability of style-guides in the late 1940s that US use became consistent, writers using whiskey as the accepted spelling for aged grain spirits made in the US and whisky for those distilled overseas.  Despite that, many American brands use whisky on their labels, and the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits which sets out the legal regulations for spirits sold in the US, also uses whisky.  North of the border, the Canadians prefer whisky.  Within Scotland, the whisky that is locally made is called simply whisky, while everywhere else, (and in the UK regulations that govern its production), it’s almost always called “Scotch whisky” or "Scotch".  Anything made in Ireland is a whiskey whereas what’s distilled in Japan, in the style of the Scottish product, is whisky.

Lindsay Lohan advertising the (fictitious) Japanese chewing gum Number One Happy Whiskey Chew, filmed for the TV show Anger Management, March 2013.

Whiskey and whisky can be straight or blended, the former not mixed with anything or only with other whiskey from the same distiller and distillation period; the latter can include various combinations of whiskey products from different distillers and different distillation periods as well as other flavorings, such as fruit juice; blended whiskeys generally have a lighter flavor than the straight.  With Scotch whisky, the distinction is fourfold: (1) Pure Malt which is a spirit made solely from barley malt.  It’s an uncompromising taste, purer (and usually much more expensive) and more intense in flavour, with what the aficionados (who, like the “cork dorks” who “taste” wine have their own language of criticism) tend to describe pure malts in terms of their “personalities”.  Confusingly, a pure malt is not the same as a single malt and for this reason pure malts also received the denomination “vatted”, helping buyers to differentiate.  (2) The single malt differs from the pure in that the former has only the one malt, the result of a single distillation whereas a pure malt has at least four.  Single malts are almost always stronger but not necessarily more expensive than pure malts.  For those searching for some scientific reason to justify their fondness for single-malt whiskies, there is some research which suggests consumption may lead to a reduction in internal cancers, apparently because single-malts are high in ellagic acid, an antioxidant thought to absorb rogue cancer cells.  Critics note a more effective might be to eat more fruit, higher still in ellagic acid but, in typical academic fashion, all agree “more research is required”. (3) Grain Whisky is a simpler Scotch, produced using only the distillation of grains such as rye, wheat or corn and can thus be produced much more quickly.  The grain whiskies are much cheaper and the manufacturing process is commonly used throughout the world.  (4) Blended Scotch is the most consumed.  Produced using a combination of grains and single malts, blends deliberately are mixed to be both affordable and accessible, the taste perhaps less challenging than pure or single malt Scotch, both of which have a minimum maturation time of 12-15 years while a blended Scotch can be ready in eight.  However, at the upper end of the market, there are blends matured for 24 years.

By their colors they shall be known.

Scotch is a whisky made from grain, primarily barley which is malted and then heated over a peat fire.  There is much UK legislation which governs the definitions of various categories and marketing of Scotch whisky and it can’t be so-named unless wholly produced and bottled in Scotland.  Bourbon is a type of whiskey which was first produced in Kentucky and regulations demand it must be based on a mix with at least 51% mash from corn in its production.  It uses a sour mash process, so-called because the mash is fermented with yeast and includes a portion from a mash that has already been fermented.  For a whiskey to be called bourbon, it must be made in the United States but it’s a myth it can come only from Kentucky or Tennessee.  Rye uses either a rye mash or one with a mix of a rye and malt and while US regulations demand a minimum 51% rye content, other jurisdictions, such as Canada, don’t set a lower limit.  Bourbon is one of some twenty defined categories of American whiskey and it’s thought the name is derived from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, on the basis that the name was used first in 1854 while the claim of a link to Bourbon County in Kentucky wasn’t asserted until twenty-odd years later.

Glenfiddich 1937 Rare Collection.  Laid down before the Second World War, all bottles of this came from a single barrel held at the firm’s Dufftown warehouse, the last filled in 2001.  A auction in Scotland in 2016, one sold for US$87,000 but another changed hands in the US in 2020 for US$120,00, a handy appreciation of about 40%.

Whisky and whiskey, like rum, gin and other spirits, have a history of involvement with fiscal systems.  In eighteenth century Pennsylvania, whiskey was both commodity and currency, used for cooking, medicine and drinking as well as being a store of value and a means of exchange and there began the Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794), a violent protest against the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government.  The new tax became law in 1791, levied to generate revenue so the debt incurred during the War of Independence could be serviced and to call it the “whiskey tax” was misleading because it applied to all distilled spirits, but consumption of American whiskey had greatly increased while rum production hadn’t recovered its pre-war levels so the name stuck.

Lindsay Lohan leaving the Whisky Mist night club, London, June 2014.

Less violent was the Whisky War (also called the Liquor War), conducted (1984-2022) in gentlemanly fashion between Canada and Denmark, two of the world’s more civilized nations.  The Whiskey War was “fought” over a border dispute concerning Hans Island, a previously obscure barren and uninhabited lump of rock (1.3 km² (½ sq mi)) which sits in the Kennedy Channel between Greenland (a Danish territory) and Canada’s Ellesmere Island.  The actual border had been left unresolved in 1973 when other matters in the region were resolved but in 1984, Canadian soldiers provoked a border incident by raising the national flag and leaving a bottle of Canadian Whiskey.  In retaliation, the Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs visited the island, respectfully lowering and folding the Canadian flag, raising the Danish standard, taking the whiskey and leaving a bottle of Cognac.  The flag ceremonies and exchanges of bottles of liquor went on until 2005 when both countries agreed on a process to settle the dispute.  Remarkably, this took until 2022 when it was announced a border had been agreed, dividing the inhospitable place equally between the Canadian territory of Nunavut and the Danish constituent country of Greenland.  As geographers and cartographers updated their records, they were pleased to note the historically unusual side-effect the transaction meant Canada and Denmark now shared a land border whereas before, each had a border only with one other country (respectively the US and Germany).

Lindsay Lohan advertising the (fictitious) Japanese chewing gum Number One Happy Whiskey Chew, filmed for the TV show Anger Management, March 2013.  It was interesting to note that what was notionally a Japanese product was labelled "whiskey" rather than "whisky" which is the usual form in the Japanese domestic market.  That may have been something dictated by the sitcom's plot. 

Musk

Musk (pronounced muhsk)

(1) A substance secreted in a glandular sac under the skin of the abdomen of the male musk deer (Moschus Moschiferus), having a strong odor, and once widely used in perfumery; in some contexts, a similar secretion of other animals, as the civet, muskrat, and otter.

(2) A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.

(3) The odor of musk or some similar odor.

(4) In botany, any of several scrophulariaceous plants of the genus Mimulus, especially the North American M. moschatus, which has yellow flowers and was formerly cultivated for its musky scent; sometimes known as the monkey flower, or, a plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.

(5) In zoology, the musk deer (genus Moschus).

1350–1400: From the Middle English musk(e), from the Old & Middle French musc, from the Late Latin muscus (the Medieval Latin was moschus), derived from the Late Greek móskos & móschos.  Root was the Persian mushk, probably from the Sanskrit mushká (scrotum or testicle), a form thought derived from the appearance of the musk deer's musk bag and diminutive of mūsh (mouse).  From either the Persian or the Arabic al misk (the musk), German gained moschos and Spanish has almizcle.  Cognates include the Proto-Germanic musą and the Proto-Slavic mъxъ.).  Ultimately from the Sanskrit मुष्क (muaka) (scrotum or testicle), a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ) (mouse), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles; earlier compared to mice, from primitive Indo-European muhas (mouse).

Love is in the Air Limited Edition by the House of Sillage, US$1210.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Some three thousand years ago, in the high plateaus of Asia, between the Himalaya, China and Siberia, there roamed the small, solitary, musk deer and the people of the region came to understand that during their rutting period, the males produced from a gland nestled in their abdomens, a secretion with which to attract females.  In the tradition of pre-modern medicine, men sought to capture the aphrodisiac power of the fluid, hoping female humans too would find it bewitching.  Presumably after some trial and error, what they found was the olfactory properties endured only as long as the gland remained warm under the animal’s skin; upon extraction, the musk dried out, losing its odoriferous power.  Having taken note of the nuance, the men undertook a vast harvest of musk because, as well as musk, the unfortunate cervid was hunted for all else it offered: leather to make bags and soft hair with which to stuff the cushions and mattresses of Chinese emperors.  Already, musk was thought a luxury product and the trade became important to merchants and explorers who would take a pouch to Mediterranean countries where the Arab peoples found the scent enchanting, incorporating it into many rituals conducted to fight evil spells and often, in Islam, it’s said to be the perfume of which the blessed will smell in heaven.  Demand soared and the harvesting grew throughout then twentieth century, peaking in the late 1960s, encouraged by the high profits, musk selling by then for 400,000 francs per kilo.  By the late twentieth century, musk deer populations had been hunted to precariously low levels, disappearing from many parts of their original Himalayan range, its plight recognised in 1973 when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) issued a ruling which limited the trade.

According to the authortitive Celebrity Fragrance Guide, Lindsay Lohan is not a user of musk scents and prefers Monyette Paris Coquette Tropique, Monyette Paris Fragrance, Escada Agua Del Sol Eau, Jill Stuarts Jasmin Fleur & Vanilla Lust, Valentino V, Child perfume, Narcisco Rodriguez For Her, Escada (with sea breeze notes), Jill Stuarts Jasmin Fleur & Vanilla Lust.

Cherry Garden by the House of Sillage, US$1200.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Musk was very expensive to produce.  Found only in the mature male, to be used in a scent, the dried gland needed first to be sliced into small pieces, then left in high-strength alcohol to mature for at least months but, more typically, years.  Prepared thus, it possesses a uniquely sweet, aromatic intensity prized especially for its longevity.  Now rare in scent, musk was occasionally used on its own but, such is the potency, it was usually as an additive and, scarce and staggering expensive, perfume houses invested in research to produce a synthetic replica and that was partially successful.

Reputed, at US$1.29 million, to be the world's most expensive scent, fragrance brand The Spirit of Dubai has created just the one bottle of Shumukh (deserving the highest) although the high price is not just for the fluid, the packaging both labour-intensive and containing precious metals and gems.

Economics alone meant the research long pre-dated the action by CITES, chemists by the late nineteenth century working on synthetic ingredients with which to reproduce the musky notes.  What they produced didn’t exactly replicate the characteristic animal smell, but did create what was usually described as evocative of a “clean” odor and this proved popular with laundry detergent vendors.  It was not until 1926 that Croatian-Swiss chemist Leopold Ružička (1887–1976) managed to synthesize an element of natural musk, his work including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones, research for which, inter-alia, he was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  Included in this work was his replication of the structure of the compounds muscone the macrocyclic ketone scent from the musk deer.  These are called white musks (as opposed to animal musk) and Dr Ruzicka was the first to synthesize musk at an industrial scale, Firmenech calling the product Exaltone.

Paris Eau de Parfum by Alaïa, US$2500.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Even these precise chemical analogues however can’t quite match the complex odour olfactory effect of animal musk and there are operations in Russia and China using musk harvested from what are described as “sustainably farmed” animals although it’s unclear what that means.

Rectilinear & Curvilinear

Rectilinear (pronounced rek-tl-in-ee-er)

(1) Forming or formed by straight lines.

(2) In geometry, as rectilinear grid, a tessellation by rectangles or rectangular cuboids (also known as rectangular parallelepipeds) that are not, in general, all congruent to each other.

(3) Of, pertaining to or characterized by straight lines.

(4) In, moving in, or characterized by a movement in a straight line or lines.

(5) In architecture, as the rectilinear style, the third historical division of English Gothic architecture.

1650–1660: From the post-Classical Latin, either from rectilīneāris or from rectilīneus (the source also of rectiline) + -ar, in either case the ultimate sources being rectus (straight) + līnea (line).  Rectus was from the primitive Indo-European root reg- (move in a straight line) with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line".  The suffix -ar is from the Latin from -ālis with dissimilation of “l” to “r” after roots containing an “l” thus āris and used to form adjectives (usually from a noun) to convey the sense of a relationship or “of; pertaining to”.  The English adjectival suffix –ar (of, near, or pertaining to) is widely appended, usually to nouns and is not restricted to those of Latin origin (the synonymous forms including -al, -an, -ary, -ese, -ic, -id, -ish, -like, -oid, -ory, -ous & -y).  Rectilinear came to be used in the sense of “a figure bounded by straight lines" by 1728, an evolution of the earlier meaning “straight lined”.  Rectilinear & rectilineal are adjectives, rectilinearity is a noun.

Curvilinear (pronounced kur-vuh-lin-ee-er)

(1) Consisting of or bounded by curved lines.

(2) Forming or moving in a curved line.

(3) Formed or characterized by curved lines.

(4) Of lines, having bends; curved.

(4) In mathematics, a set of coordinates determined by or determining a system of three orthogonal surfaces

1690s: From the Latin, derived from curvi (a combined form of the Latin curvus (crooked, bent, curved) + līneāris, from līnea (line).  The construct of līneāris was līnea (line) + -āris (the adjectival suffix).  The Latin curvus was ultimately from the primitive Indo-European sker & ker (to bend, curve, turn) + -wós (before it became associated with perfect stems, the suffixes -wós- & -us- had a more general function, forming athematic verb participles with the meaning "having x-en").  The earlier form was curvilineal, dating from the 1650s.  Curvilinear is an adjective, curvilinearity a noun and curvilinearly an adverb.

A juxtaposition of curvilinearity and rectilinearity: Lindsay Lohan, Vanity Fair shoot, October 2010.

In engineering, as in nature, matters of rectilinearity and curvilinearity tend to be products variously of inheritance, circumstance, economics or necessity.  In design however, sometimes fashion is allowed (indeed sometimes encouraged) to prevail over function and in automotive styling, the rectilinear (known in its most extreme form as knife-edge or razor-edge design) was a motif which came and went.  In the early days when things were truly little more than starkly functional, straight lines were dominant but the industry also inherited many of the traditions of the architecture of the horse-drawn carriage and embellishments could be quite curvaceous.  Line and curve co-existed in the inter-war years and as interest grew in streamlining to improve aerodynamics, the curves actually assumed a functional purpose.  At the same time, severity of line became itself a defined style, associated with formality and wealth, structurally because the straight lines tended to exaggerate size so the bigger cars appeared larger still and perhaps psychologically because they conveyed a message of casual disregard for something like streamlining, relying instead on power.  The big, bustle-backed limousines of the pre-war years were the exemplars.

Rolls-Royce Phantom IV (1950-1956 (left)), Triumph 1800-2000 Renown (1946-1954 (centre)) & Triumph Mayflower (1949-1953 (right)).

In the post war-years, in Europe and US, designers were attracted to the new.  In Europe that meant the avant-garde while across the Atlantic it could mean anything from restrained formalism to macropterous absurdity.  In England however, there was still a hankering for the familiar and among the coachbuilders (and Rolls-Royce which had begun building its own “standard” bodies) it was “business as usual” and, barely updated, the razor-edged lines returned.  Remarkably, as a niche, the style would be produced in tiny numbers until the 1990s even as modernity overtook the land.  So clearly, on a big scale it worked for the small, exclusive market at which it was targeted, a rolling denotation of wealth and power and this was what attracted others to apply the rectilinear lines on a smaller scale, at a lower price.  The leading proponents were Standard-Triumph which in 1946 released their middle-class 1800 as a kind of shrunken (though no less angular) Rolls-Royce or Bentley.  Generally, it was judged an aesthetic success although it quickly became dated and before long, the company was emulating American cars, their shrunken versions of those rather less pleasing.  The 1800 however maintained sufficient popularity to remain in production for eight years and that encouraged the idea the motif might translate well to something even smaller.  Hence in 1949, the Triumph Mayflower, small, stubby and wholly unsuited to a style which worked only at scale; the only thing more absurd than its existence was that the company designed it with the US market in mind.  The advertising agency suggested advertising it as “the watch charm Rolls-Royce” but whether that was vetoed by threats from Rolls-Royce or watch charm makers isn’t recorded.  A failure in every market in which it was offered (conspicuously so in the US), it was replaced by an anonymous-looking blob which might have designed by someone French in an unimaginative moment or an Italian on a bad day.

1967 Cadillac Eldorado (left), 1971 Fiat 130 Coupé (centre) and 1983 Volvo 760 GLE (right).

Until the oil shocks of the 1970s forced just about everyone to take aerodynamics seriously, the rectilineal would come and go as a fashion trend.  Cadillac’s 1967 Eldorado was an outstanding example and has aged better even than its curvier companion, the Oldsmobile Toroando of a year earlier but probably the high point of the modern razor-edge was Pininfarina’s Fiat 130 Coupé, its dimensions a stylistic sweet-spot which proved as suited to the saloon and shooting brake the designer world later exhibit; regrettably, neither reached production and the coupé proved a commercial failure, albeit one much admired.  That wasn’t something often said of one of Europe’s less successful straight-edged ventures, the 1982 Volvo 700 series.  Looking something like an earnest but uninspired student at a technical college might have submitted for assessment, Volvo at the time claimed it would remain timeless over the years to come while the rounded shapes around it soon became dated.  In that they were certainly wrong, the competition becoming more curvilinear still and soon Volvos nip-and-tuck specialists were finding ways to smooth the corners, not an easy task given the shape the patient was in and something really not possible until the re-skinned 900 was released in 1990.  The 700 had, by Volvo’s standards, a short life but it’s remembered for a bon mot from another designer who mused that it “…might be a good-looking car when they take it out of the packing-case”.

1953 Jaguar C-Type (XK120-C) continuation (left), 1957 Jaguar XKSS (centre) & 1961 Jaguar E-Type (XK-E) (1961).

Curves can be mere styling devices and in the 1960s General Motors (GM) actually created a motif they called cokebottle, summoning the idea of a Coca-Cola bottle on its side, itself evocative of the female form supine.  Plans to trademark the word were abandoned when the lawyers assured everyone using a lowercase “c” and claiming it to be a portmanteau word would fool neither the Coca-Cola company nor the judge.  Sometimes though, the curves were functional, Jaguar in 1950 shaping the aluminum skin on the XK120-C (C-Type) simply to be as low and aerodynamic as possible, the curves bulging only where necessary to provide coverage for the wheels and tyres.  On the subsequent D-Type (and the road-going derivative the XKSS), the impression was that the curves had become exaggerated, bulging more sensually still.  It’s not entirely an optical illusion but the shape is wholly functional, the designers actually lowering the centre, a revised mounting of a now dry-sumped engine permitting a lower bonnet (hood) line and thus a smaller frontal area.  The wheels and tyres remained much the same height so the curvature of the skin enveloping them is so much more obvious on a body otherwise lower.  The remarkably small frontal area did the job at Le Mans; the D-Type nearly 20 mph (32 km/h) faster than Ferrari's far more powerful 375.  By the time the E-Type was released in 1961, it could actually have been done with a little less curvature but we should all be grateful it looks as it does.

1960s original (left), 2022 modern (centre) & 2022 retro (right).

Objects like refrigerators offer designers a little more scope given that a low drag coefficient hardly matters although the modern, rectilinear versions presumably optimize space efficiency, offering the highest internal volume relative to external dimensions.  That said, there’s clearly still some demand for fridges which emulate the rounded style most associated with the 1950s and 1960s, several manufacturers with a retro line and they’re available in the pastel shades of the era.

Vampire

Vampire (pronounced vam-pahyuh)

(1) A preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night.

(2) In the folklore of the Balkans, Eastern & Central Europe, a corpse, animated by an un-departed soul or demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living, until it is exhumed and impaled or burned.

(3) A person who preys ruthlessly upon others; an extortionist or blackmailer.

(4) A woman who unscrupulously exploits, ruins, or degrades the men she seduces (usually truncated to vamp although nuances in meaning exist).  Despite many early references, vampiress and vampirina never caught on.

(5) A type of blood-sucking bat.

(6) A species of crab.

(7) In the theatre, a stage trapdoor.

(8) In medicine, a colloquial term for a patient suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus, with effects such as photosensitivity and brownish-red stained teeth.

1732: From the now archaic vampyre (spectral being in a human body who maintains semblance of life by leaving the grave at night to suck the warm blood of the living as they sleep), from the French vampire and German vampir, from the Hungarian (Magyar) vampir, from the Old Church Slavonic opiri (related to the Serbo-Croatian vampir, Bulgarian vapir & Ukrainian uper).  The Serbian vàmpīr, was an alteration of earlier upir (by confusion with doublets such as vȁzdūh, ȕzdūh and with intrusive nasal, as in dùbrava, dumbrȁva (grove)) and was related to the Czech upír, the Polish upiór, the Old Russian upyrĭ & upirĭ and the Russian upýr.  Some etymologists suggest the ultimate source was the Kazan Tatar ubyr (witch) but not all agree, many suggesting a Macedonian origin more probable.  An Eastern European creature popularized in English by late nineteenth century gothic novels but scattered English accounts of night-walking, blood-gorged, plague-spreading un-dead corpses have been traced back to 1196 and few doubt there was an oral tradition long pre-dating this.  Influenced by the literature, the blood-sucking bat was named in 1774 by the French gentlemen scientist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon (1707–1788).  Related adjectival forms are vampiric and vampirish, the noun vampirism dating from 1737.

Figurative sense of "person who preys on others" is from 1741, the idea of “one who sucks money from others” being little worse than “one who sucks their blood”.  The word vamp (a seductive woman who uses her charms to exploit men" dates from 1911 and was short for vampire; it’s entirely unrelated to the earlier term “vamp” from the trade of cobbling.  Dracula was the name of the vampire king in Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Gothic horror novel Dracula (1897), a borrowing from Prince Vlad III of Wallachia (circa 1430-circa 1477; remembered in English as Vlad the Impaler and in Romania (where he is celebrated as a national hero) as Vlad Drăculea.

It was Lord Byron (1788-1824) who did most to popularize in Western literature all things vampiric in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), but it was John Polidori (1895-1921) who in 1819 authored the first true vampire story, called The Vampyre.  Polidori was Byron’s personal physician and the vampire of the story, Lord Ruthven, is based partly on him and the "ghost story competition" that spawned this piece was the same contest which tempted Mary Shelley (1797-1851) to write her 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein (or The Modern Prometheus).  Other early texts include Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (1772-1834) unfinished poem Christabel (circa 1799) and Sheridan Le Fanu's (1814-1873) lesbian vampire story, Carmilla (1872) which remains influential to this day in the depiction of vampires but it’s Bram Stoker's Dracula which remains the definitive version in popular fiction.  The portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with an undertone of sex, blood, and death, suited the zeitgeist of Victorian Europe where tuberculosis, syphilis, typhoid and cholera were common.

In Among the Shadows (2020 (released in some markets as The Shadow Within)), Lindsay Lohan played a vampire (top left), one married to a European Union (EU) politician no less and it’s hard to imagine a more complementary relationship.  In May 2011, Lindsay Lohan was the subject of a vampire-themed session by photographer Tyler Shields (b 1982), called Life is not a fairytale.

On screen, the best evocations of the vampiric remain the Nosferatu films, especially the 1979 re-make of the 1922 original.  Aspiring vampires meet here:

De Havilland Vampire (DH-100) Mark 1.

The de Havilland Vampire was a British jet fighter.  Although development began as early as 1941 and the aircraft first flew in 1943, the problems associated with jet propulsion meant it entered service too late to see combat during World War II, the first Vampires delivered to Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons only in 1946.  The second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF (the first the Gloster Meteor), it was the first powered by a single engine, a configuration delayed in development because of the poor thrust delivered by the early jets and the Vampire was one of a number of aircraft released in the late 1940s which straddled the engineering and aeronautical practices of the propeller and jet eras of fighters.  The jet engine and the unusual twin-boom configuration aside, it was a conventional design, borrowing much from de Havilland’s wartime practices which had proved so effective including the use of molded plywood for the frame, assembled as a glued sandwich to which was attached the aluminum skin.

De Havilland Vampire (DH 113) NF10 prototype G-5-2.

The hybrid of old and new was a product of so much of the design work having been completed before an understanding of the advantages and possibilities of the swept wing pioneered by the Germans, notably with the Messerschmitt 262, had been gained.  Without a swept wing, the Vampire would never achieve the performance of the more cutting edge designs which increasingly appeared in the late 1940s and was the last really simple interceptor to serve with the RAF.  Despite that, for most of its operational life it was far from obsolescent and remained in front-line service until 1953, during which it set altitude records and was the first jet to fly a trans-Atlantic flight; the Sea Vampire naval variant being in December 1945 the first jet to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier.  The last Vampires were retired from RAF service in 1966 but foreign services maintained them in operational use much longer, the Swiss using them still in the 1980s.  Almost 3300 were built and their simplicity and ease of maintenance has meant many now in private hands continue to fly.

Vampire hunting used to be a thing (and debatably should still be) and for enthusiasts, Affiliated Auctions & Realty recently offered an early nineteenth century vampire slaying kit, fitted in a violin case.  The kit includes a bronze crucifix, two wooden stakes, a 15 inch (380 mm) dagger with tusk grip, sterling pommel & bolster and nickel cross-guard, a flintlock pistol with engraved barrel and functioning stock, a brass powder horn in the style of a swimming fish, a hardwood mallet (for driving stakes through the heart), a brass container for shot powder, a wooden container for silver-shot balls, a glass holy water bottle (without seam lines) and a Holy Bible with mother of pearl inlay.

Nosferatu (1979) trailer. 

Tantrum

Tantrum (pronounced tan-truhm)

(1) A violent demonstration of rage or frustration; a sudden burst of ill temper, most associated with children but widely applied to the childish outbursts of adults.

(2) To have a tantrum.

1714: One of English’s etymological mysteries, other than being derived from the earlier tanterum, the origin is so obscure there’s no evidence on which to base speculation and while the first known reference in writing is from 1714, it’s likely it had been in (presumably colloquial) oral use for some time.  There are conventions of use such as “temper tantrum” & the common intransitive “throw a tantrum”; synonymous words and phrases include angry outburst, flare-up, fit of rage, conniptions, dander, huff, hysterics, storm, wax, hissy fit & dummy spit.  Tantrum is a noun & verb, tantrumming & tantrumed are verbs and tantrumy is an adjective; the noun plural is tantrums.  The noun tantrummery (on the model of constructions like poltroonery) is non-standard but is sometimes used in political commentary.

Social media, SMS or email posts in ALL CAPS or with an extravagant use of question marks (?????) or exclamation marks (!!!!!) convey shouting and are the textual version of a tantrum although this understanding was learned behaviour; many early systems (Telix etc) available only with upper case characters so there was a greater dependency on (?????) & (!!!!!) to denote anger, the asterisk (*****) & hash (#####) symbols inserted to permit vulgarities (f**k, sh## et al) to be understood without being spelled out.  That was a work-around of some significance because the telecommunication legislation in many nations actually prohibited swearing (even on telephone voice calls) over what was then called a “carriage service”, typical wording in the acts being something like: It shall be unlawful for any person in the operation of any telephone installed within the city, to make use of any vulgar vituperation or profane language into and over such telephone.  (Profanity over telephone: (Code of ordinances, Colombus Georgia, USA, (§ 663 (1914)), Section 14-49).  Such laws probably still exist in many places but instances of enforcement doubtless;y are rare.

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)

Remarkably, as a definable condition, the temper tantrum wasn’t medicalized (as a distinct diagnosis) until 2013 when the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published.  Named Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD), it was classified as a mood disorder noted as affecting children aged 6-18, an unusual concession by the industry that tantrums in very young children are a normal and healthy (if annoying) aspect of human development.

DMDD was thus a new diagnosis but it really was a shift in classification, reflecting the early twenty-first century view that both the autism spectrum and bipolar disorder (BD, the old manic-depression) were being over-diagnosed.  Also a condition that can cause extreme changes in mood, it was noted that misdiagnosing BD can result in unnecessary medications being prescribed, the long-term use of which were associated with side effects including weight gain, lipid & glucose abnormalities and  reduced brain volume (and a diminished number of neurons in the brain).  Thus it being undesirable that BD be over-diagnosed in the young, DMDD exists as an alternative and, although many of the mood-related symptoms overlap with BD, there are as yet no FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) approved medications for children or adolescents with DMDD and in the recent history of the DSM, that’s unusual.  There have been instances of updates to the DSM removing diagnoses while the specified drug remains on the FDA schedule but it’s rare for one to appear without an approved medication, the symbiosis between the industries usually well-synchronized.  Advice to clinicians continue to include the note that stimulants, antidepressants, and atypical antipsychotics can be used to help relieve a child’s DMDD symptoms but that side effects would need to be monitored, individual and family therapy to address emotion-regulation skills a desirable alternative to be pursued where possible.  The behavioral distinction between DMDD and BD is that subjects don’t experience the episodic mania of a child with BD and they’re at no greater risk of later developing BD although there is a higher anxiety as an adult.  Because of the potentially stigmatizing effects (possibly for life) of a diagnosis of BD, that’s something which should be applied only with a strict application of the criteria.

The tabloid press like the word "tantrum" and uses it often of certain celebrities, politicians and such.

It’s further noted that DMDD is a diagnosis that should apply to a specific type of mood (the tantrum) distinguished by being extreme and/or frequent; it should thus (as parents have doubtless always regarded tantrums) be thought a spectrum condition.  The markers include (1) severe, chronic irritability, (2) severe verbal or behavioral tantrums, several times weekly for at least a year, (3) reactions out of proportion to the situation, (4) difficulty functioning because of outbursts and tantrums, (5) aggressive behavior & (6) a frequent transgression of rules.  Observationally, DMDD may be indicated by (7) trouble in socializing and forming friendships, (8) physically aggression towards peers and family and even (9) difficulties in the cooperative aspects of playing team sports (although not merely a preference for individual disciplines).  The diagnostic criteria for DMDD require a child to have experienced tantrums (which are severe and/or of long duration) at least three times weekly for at least a year’ especially if between episodes they’re also chronically irritable.  However, if the tantrums are geographically or situationally specific (ie happen only at school or only at church etc) then DMDD may not be the appropriate diagnosis and other disorders (childhood bipolar disorder (CBD), autism, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) may need to be considered.  A particular difficulty in the diagnostic process is that not only is there a significant overlap of symptoms in these disorders but instances of conditions themselves can co-exist.  With children, it’s recommended that when possible, DMDD treatment begins with therapy (psychotherapy and parent training), medications prescribed only later in treatment or at least starting in conjunction with therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) thought helpful.

Noted temper tantrums

3 Ketchup Bottles (2021) by Kristin Kossi (b 1984), Acrylic on Canvas, US$8000 at Singulart.

Details of President Trump’s (Donald Trump, b 1946, US president 2017-2021) tantrum which included his ketchup laden lunch ending up oozing down an Oval Office wall were recounted during the congressional hearings into matters relating to the attempted insurrection on 6 January 2021.  Although apparently not the first time plates were smashed in the Trump White House during episodic presidential petulance, such outbursts by heads of government are not rare.  Indeed, given the stress and public scrutiny to which such folk are subject, it’s surprising there aren’t more although it’s usually only years later, as memoirs emerge, that the tales are told.

Warren Harding (1865–1923; US president 1921-1923) was once observed strangling a government official with his bare hands although that might have been understandable, his administration notoriously riddled with corruption.  When Harding dropped dead during his term, it was probably a good career move.  Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; head of state (1934-1945) and government (1933-1945) in Nazi Germany) ranting meltdown in the Führerbunker on 21 April 1945 as the Red Army closed on Berlin became a tantrum of legend and was the great set piece of the film Downfall (2004) about the last days of the Third Reich, a scene which has since generated hundreds of memes.  Even before the Watergate scandal began to consume his presidency, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) was known for his temper tantrums, often under the influence of alcohol.  His aides would later recount his expletive-laden tirades during which, apparently seriously, he would order bombings, missile launches and assassinations.  All such instructions Nixon issued during these drunken tantrums were ignored and if informed the next day that the relevant military action or murder had not been carried out, usually he would respond: "Good".  His predecessor’s, (Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969)) moods were said to be just as volatile and during episodes he would sometimes wish for whole countries to be destroyed although he stopped short actually of ordering it.

Admiring glance: George Stephanopoulos looking at crooked Hillary Clinton.

Reports of Bill Clinton’s (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) tantrums tend to emphasize their frequency and intensity but note also how quickly they subsided.  In the memoir of George Stephanopoulos ((b 1961; White House Communications Director 1993 & presidential advisor 1993-1996)) focusing on his time as communications director, it’s recounted that Clinton regularly lost his temper and would yell at the staff, the in-house code for the outbursts being “purple fits”, so named because of how red Clinton’s face became during the SMOs “Standard Morning Outbursts”.  Secret Service staff later interviewed were kinder in their recollections of the president but seemed still traumatized when describing his wife’s volcanic temper and Bill Clinton’s outbursts do need to be viewed in the context of him being married to crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

Anthony Eden (1897–1977; UK prime-minister 1955-1957) was elegant, stylish and highly strung; one of his colleagues, in a reference to his parentage, described Eden as “half mad baronet, half beautiful woman” and his great misfortune was to become prime-minister, the role for which he’d so long been groomed.  Ill-suited to the role and in some ways unlucky, his tantrums became the stuff of Westminster and Whitehall folklore, reflected in the diary entry of Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1965 & 1951-1955) physician (Lord Moran, 1885-1975) on 21 July 1956: “The political world is full of Eden's moods at No 10 (Downing Street, the PM’s London residence)”.  The tales of his ranting and raging appeared in much that was published after his fall from office but in the years since, research suggests there was both exaggeration and some outright invention, one contemporary acknowledging that while Eden certainly was highly strung, “…he seldom became angry when really important matters were involved, but instead did so over irritating trivialities, usually in his own home, and very seldom did he lose his temper in public”.  Unfortunately, the best-known "tantrum" story of the 1956 Suez Crisis in which Eden is alleged to have thrown an full inkwell at someone with whom he disagreed (a rubbish bin said to have been jammed on his head in response), is almost certainly apocryphal.