Leek & leak

Leek (pronounced leek)

(1) A cultivated plant, Allium ampeloprasum, of the amaryllis family, related to the onion, with a long cylindrical bundle of strap-like leaves and used in cooking, especially the paler portion (the bulb) near the base.

(2) Any of various onion-related plants, especially the wild leek, Allium ampeloprasum, from which the culinary leek was cultivated.

(3) In symbolism (in real or representational form), a national emblem of Wales

Pre 1000: From the Middle English lek, leek, leck & leike, from the Old English læc (Mercian), lēac (West Saxon), & lēc (a garden herb, leek, onion, garlic), from the Proto-West Germanic lauk, from the Proto-Germanic lauką & laukaz (leek, onion), from the primitive Indo-European lewg- (to bend).  The Proto-Germanic lauka- was the source also of the Old High German louh, the German Low German Look (leek), the Old Norse laukr (leek, garlic), the Danish løg, the Swedish lök (onion), the Old Saxon lok (leek), the Swedish lök (onion), the Icelandic laukur (onion, leek, garlic), the Middle Dutch looc, the Dutch look (leek, garlic), the Old High German louh, the German Lauch (leek, allium), and the Old Norse laukr.  The Finnish laukka, the Russian luk- and Old Church Slavonic luku are also presumed to be Germanic and the word provided the final element in garlic.  Leak is a noun; the noun plural is leeks.

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) (left), Peter Sellers (1925–1980) (centre) and Harry Secombe (1921-2001) with leeks, publicity photo for the BBC's Goon Show (1951-1960).

Leak (pronounced leek)

(1) An unintended hole, crack, or the like, through which liquid, gas, light, etc., enters or escapes.

(2) An act or instance of leaking.

(3) Any means of unintended entrance or escape.

(4) In electricity, the loss of current from a conductor, usually resulting from poor insulation.

(5) In politics, diplomacy or industry etc, divulgation, or disclosure of previously secret (especially official), information, to the news media or others (also in the sense of the “managed leak”, the controlled disclosure of nominally confidential information to selected targets).  A person who leaks information can be said to be “the leek”.

(6) To let a liquid, gas, light etc, enter or escape, as through an unintended hole or crack; to pass in or out in this manner, as liquid, gas, or light.

(7) In computing (usually as “memory leak”), the figurative loss of some static resource because of some flaw in design.

(8) In vulgar slang as “to take a leak”, to urinate.

(9) In psephology, the “leakage” of votes from one candidate to another as a quirk of the because of the mechanism of a voting system (used especially in preferential systems).

(10) In military slang (especially US), to bleed as a consequence of an injury sustained in combat.

1375-1425: From the Middle English leken (to let water in or out), from the Old English lecan (to leak), from the Middle Dutch leken (to leak, drip) or the Old Norse leka (to leak, drip), all of which were from the Proto-Germanic lekaną (to leak, to drain away), from the primitive Indo-European leg- & leǵ- (to leak).  It was cognate with Dutch lekken (to leak), the (obsolete) Dutch lek, the German lech (leaky), lechen & lecken (to leak), the Swedish läcka (to leak) and the Icelandic leka (to leak) and related to the Old English leċċan (to water, wet), the Albanian lag & lak (I dampen, make wet”) and ultimately modern words like leach and lake.  The verb leak (to let water in or out) emerged in the late fourteenth century, the noun leakage a hundred years later, the adjective leaky appearing midway between the two along with the related leakiness, the slang sense of which as “unable to keep a secret” documented by 1704 although in oral use it may earlier have been common, the figurative meaning "coming to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" in use by at least 1832, the transitive sense first noted in 1859.  The phrase “spring a leak” dates from the early fifteenth century and drew from the image of water bubbling from a spring.  Leak is a noun, verb & adjective, leakage, leakiness & leaker are nouns, leaky, leakproof & leakless are adjectives and leakily an adverb; the noun plural is leaks.

Mark Felt (1913-2008), the associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was "Deep Throat", the source of the leaks from government about the Watergate affair cover-up which provided the Washington Post's journalists with much of their information.  The identity of Deep Throat was for decades the subject of speculation and Felt was "outed" from time to time but so were other senior figures.  It was only three years before his death that Felt confirmed he was the source of the leaks, something confirmed by the Washington Post's reporters.  

The idiomatic "take a leak" has potential in advertising.

In politics, diplomacy and industry, leaks have existed as long as there has been information to leak although the motivations have varied.  Leaks have enabled many battlefield victories and, especially if strategically timed, sabotaged many political campaigns, one advantage of this approach being that what is leaked doesn’t of necessity have to be true.  Although this tradition of the leak had a long (if not noble) lineage, such things seem to have been commonly described as leaks only since 1950 although the notion in this context had existed for centuries.  In politics leaks aimed at destabilizing or compromising one’s official opponents are familiar but the most amusing are those designed to embarrass one’s colleagues, internecine squabbles the most fun to watch.  The Nixon White House (1969-1974) took up the challenge of stopping leaks linguistically as well as operationally, the unit set up to “plug the leaks” informally known as “the plumbers”.  In their endeavors the plumbers enjoyed some early success but there was also mission creep, the unit responsible for the “third-rate burglary” at the Watergate complex which led eventually to the Richard Nixon's (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) resignation.

1975 Triumph Trident T160.

It’s possible to tell this Trident has just been parked because there are no tell-tale patches of oil on the ground below.  Before the Japanese manufacturers proved it was possible to mass-produce motor-cycles without endemic oil-leaks, the rationalization of owners of British bikes had always been the weeping fluid was helpful because the seals existed “not to keep oil in but to keep dirt out”.  Whether true or not, the urban legend was that the fewer the cylinders and the greater the displacement, the more the vibration and the volume of oil leaked.  Thus the biggest singles (such as BSA's 441 & the various 500s) were most susceptible and the triples (750 cm³) the least while among the twins, the 500 & 650 cm³ machines wept less than those which displaced 750 & 850 cm³.  However, that's damning with faint praise and all concede that while things improved over the years, it was always the case that some leaked more than others

In computing, the dreaded “memory leak” or “resource leak” is technically, usually a failure to de-allocate previously reserved portions of memory or a resource so leak in this context is an expression of effect rather than cause, the resource still existing but now inaccessible.  The idiomatic “take a leak” entered popular use after appearing in fiction during the 1930s but late in the sixteenth century Shakespeare’s audiences would have understood there were alternatives when an iourden (chamber pot) was denied: "Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney: and your Chamber-lye breeds Fleas like a Loach." (Henry IV, Part 1 II.i.22).

Lindsay Lohan’s chicken pot pie with leeks and veal meatballs appears in Jamie’s Friday Night Feast Cookbook (Penguin Books, 2018).  It serves 8.

Ingredients

2 onions
2 carrots
2 small potatoes
2 medium leeks
Olive oil
300g free-range chicken thighs, skin off, bone out
300g skinless boneless free-range chicken breast
4 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
1 knob of unsalted butter
50g plain flour
700ml organic chicken stock
2 tablespoons English mustard
1 heaped tablespoon creme fraiche
A ½ bunch (15g) of fresh woody herbs
White pepper
3 sprigs of fresh sage
300g minced higher-welfare veal (20% fat)
1 large free-range egg
300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting (for pastry)
100g shredded suet (for pastry)
100g unsalted butter (cold) (for pastry)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).  Peel and roughly chop the onions and carrots, then peel the potatoes and chop into 2cm (¾ inch) chunks.  Trim, halve and wash the leeks, then finely slice.

Place a large pan on a medium heat with one tablespoon of oil.  Chop chicken into 3cm (1¼ inch) chunks, roughly chop bacon and add both to the pan.  Cook for a few minutes, or until lightly golden. A dd the onions, carrots, potatoes and leeks, then cook for a further 15 minutes or until softened.  Add the butter, then stir in the flour to coat.

Gradually pour in the stock, then add the mustard and creme fraiche.  Tie the woody herb sprigs together with string to make a bouquet garni and add to the pan. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring regularly, then season with white pepper.

Meanwhile, for the pastry, put the flour and a good pinch of sea salt into a bowl with the suet; cube and add the butter. Using the thumb and forefingers, rub the fat into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Slowly stir in 100ml of ice-cold water, then use the hands to bring it together into a ball without over-working.  Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes, during which, make the meatballs.

Pick and finely chop the sage, season with salt and pepper, then with the hands scrunch and mix with the veal.  Roll into 3cm (1¼ inch) balls, gently place in a large pan on a medium heat with half a tablespoon of oil and cook for 10 minutes or until golden all over, jiggling occasionally for even cooking.

Transfer the pie filling to a large (250 x 300mm (10-12 inch)) oval dish, discarding the bouquet garni.  Leave to cool, then dot the meatballs on top.

Roll out pastry on a clean, flour-dusted surface until it's slightly bigger than pie dish. Eggwash edges of dish, then place the pastry on top of the pie, trimming off any overhang, pinching the edges to seal and make a small incision in the centre. Use any spare pastry to decorate the pie if preferred.  Eggwash the top, bake for 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the pie is piping hot.  Leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Apathy

Apathy (pronounced ap-uh-thee)

(1) An absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.

(2) A lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting; a state of un-interest.

1595-1605: From the Middle English apathy & apathie (freedom from suffering, passionless existence, from the sixteenth century French apathie, from the Latin apathīa, from the Ancient Greek ἀπάθεια (apátheia) (impassibility, insensibility; freedom from emotion; freedom from suffering; a want of sensation), from ἀπαθής (apathḗs) (not suffering or having suffered; without experience of), the construct being ἀ- (a-) (not) + πάθος (pathos) (anything that befalls one, incident, emotion, passion, suffering), from the primitive Indo-European root kwenth- & kwent- (to suffer).  From the origins influenced by the use in Greek philosophy, the word in English originally expressed either a neutral or positive quality; the meaning shift to a sense of "indolence of mind, indifference to what should excite" was noted as prevalent in general use by the 1730s, the adjective apathetic (characterized by apathy) emerging during the following decade on the model of the earlier pathetic.  In Hellenic philosophy apatheia was the state of mind in Stoic philosophy in which one is free from emotional disturbance; the freedom from all passions, a variant of that idea and word adopted (a little opportunistically) in the late twentieth century as apatheism, the coining a blend of apath(y) +‎ (th)eism (technically the belief in the existence of a supreme God as the creator of all things but used also of the belief in deities generally) which was a fork of both atheism and agnosticism which didn’t so much deny the existence of God (thought it seems implicit) as treat it with apathetic indifference as a matter of no importance.

In English, the construct was a- + -pathy.  In this context, the a- prefix was from the Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (ἀν-) (not, without, opposite of).  The–pathy suffix was from the ancient Greek Ancient Greek πάθος (pathos), “suffering”) +‎ -y and was used variously to denote (1) suffering, feeling, emotion, (2) damage to, disease of, disorder of, or abnormality or (3) therapy, treatment, method, cure, curative treatment.   The –y suffix was from the Middle English –y & -i, from the Old English -iġ (-y, -ic), from the Proto-Germanic -īgaz (-y, -ic), from the primitive Indo-European -kos, -ikos, & -iḱos (-y, -ic).  It was cognate with the Scots -ie (-y), the West Frisian -ich (-y), the Dutch -ig (-y), the Low German -ig (-y), the German -ig (-y), the Swedish -ig (-y), the Latin -icus (-y, -ic), the Sanskrit -इक (-ika) and the Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós); a doublet of -ic.  The –y suffix was added to (1) nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of” and (2) verbs to form adjectives meaning "inclined to".  Apathy is a noun, apathize is a verb, apathetic & apathetical are adjectives and apathetically is an adverb; the noun plural is apathies.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, discussing stoicism, Los Angeles, 2012.

In antiquity, apathy had a positive association because, some indolence of the mind, unaffected by the excitements stimuli induce in others, was thought a virtue.  From the start a spectrum-condition, later variously codified by physicians, the philosophy of the Stoics is perhaps unfairly described as classical apathy in purist-form, stoicism here presented as a freedom from emotion of any kind.  The word stoicism itself shifted meaning in the modern age and dictionaries now suggest stoic is used also to describe those who suffer quietly, but conspicuously.  Apathy’s meaning-shift in modern English was influenced by early-modern medicine where apathetic was used to describe conditions such as a slow heart-rate.  Later, early psychiatrists, seeking both scientific credibility and a way of describing patients’ mental state, would introduce their own apathy scales; a forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which later would codify differences within spectrum-conditions.  What the spectrums never tracked was that among some of those who suffer most conspicuously, it can be a bit of a calling.  The DSM has long made a point of differentiating between apathy and depression while acknowledging the extent of the overlap between the conditions, something prevalent in those suffering a variety of neurodegenerative and other conditions.

Arch

Arch (pronounced ahrch)

(1) In architecture, a curved masonry construction for spanning an opening, consisting of a number of wedge-like stones, bricks, or the like, set with the narrower side toward the opening in such a way that forces on the arch are transmitted as vertical or oblique stresses on either side of the opening.

(2) In architecture, an upwardly curved construction, as of steel or timber functioning in the manner of a masonry arch.

(3) A doorway, gateway etc, having a curved head; an archway or the curved head of an opening, as a doorway.

(4) Any overhead curvature resembling an arch.

(5) Something bowed or curved; any bowlike part.

(6) In anatomy, any of various parts or structures of the body having a curved or arch-like outline, such as the transverse portion of the aorta (arch of the aorta) or the raised bony vault formed by the tarsal and metatarsal bones (arch of the foot),

(7) In cobbling, a device inserted in or built into shoes for supporting the arch of the foot.

(8) A dam construction having the form of a barrel vault running vertically with its convex face toward the impounded water.

(9) In glassmaking, a chamber or opening in a glassmaking furnace.

(10) Cunning, crafty or sly.

(11) Playfully roguish or mischievous.

(12) A preeminent person, a chief (largely obsolete except for technical use in ecclesiastical or other hierarchies, (Archdeacon, Archbishop, Archangel, Archduke, monarch, matriarch et al).

(13) One of the basic patterns of the human fingerprint, formed by several curved ridges one above the other.

1250-1300: From the Middle English arch, from the Old English arce, ærce & erce, from the Old French arche, from the Vulgar Latin arca, feminine variant of Latin arcus (arc, a bow), from the Classical Latin atchi, from the Ancient Greek arkhi (to rule).  From the Latin, other European languages similarly borrowed including the Old Norse erki, the Dutch aarts, the Middle Low German erse, the Middle High German & German erz and the Gothic ark.  Archangel was universally borrowed unchanged from the Greek.  Arch was added to many words borrowed from Latin and Greek in the Old English period; it subsequently became a productive form added to nouns of any origin, which thus denote individuals or institutions directing or having authority over others of their class (archbishop; archdiocese; archpriest, archdeacon). More recently, arch, has developed the senses “principal” (archenemy; archrival) or “prototypical” and thus exemplary or extreme (archconservative); nouns so formed are almost always pejorative (archvillain).

Some variations of the arch.

The original meaning, used in architecture of building, bridges and other structures, was by the early fifteenth century applied to eyebrows and anything having this form.  The sense of "chief, principal" used first in the twelfth century as archangel became extended to so many derogatory uses that by mid-seventeenth century, it acquired a meaning of "roguish, mischievous" although over time that softened, by the nineteenth century generally understood to mean something like "saucy".  The verb arch emerged in the early fourteenth century in the sense of "to form an arch" (which had be implied in the earlier arched) and within a hundred years there was the transitive sense "furnish with an arch".  Arch is a noun, verb & adjective, arched is an adjective, arching is a verb, noun & adjective and archly is an adverb; the noun plural is arches.

The Court of Arches

Church of St Mary-le-Bow (bow the archaic name for arch), London, a Church of England parish church in the City of London.

Churches have existed on the site since 1080, the present building designed by Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) and built over a decade, finally completed in 1680.  The tower has for centuries been noted for its bells which are the source of the legend of Dick Whittington calling him in 1392 back to London where he would sit as lord mayor.  In London tradition, to be thought a true Cockney, one had to be born within earshot of the bells so the demographics of that race were interrupted for two decades, the damage inflicted in 1941 by the Luftwaffe so severe it would not be until 1961 the bells again rang.

A record from the Court of Arches Act books, first session of Trinity Term, 22 May 1665 (Arches A 4, f.115v).

The Court of Arches is the provincial court for Canterbury.  Having both appellate and original jurisdiction, it is presided over by the Dean of the Arches, who is styled "The Right Honourable and Right Worshipful the Official Principal and Dean of the Arches".  The dean must be a barrister of ten years' High Court standing or the holder or former holder of high judicial office, the appointment made jointly by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.  Although it has sat in other places, the court’s permanent seat is the Church of St Mary-le-Bow, the arches of which lend the court its name.  Technically, the proper jurisdiction of the court is limited to the thirteen parishes belonging to the archbishop in London but, as the office of Dean is united with that of Principal Official, the dean receives and determines appeals from the sentences of all lesser ecclesiastical courts within the province.  Many original suits are also heard, where lesser courts waive jurisdiction by letters of request.  The original jurisdiction formerly exercised by a separate provincial court, known as the Court of Audience, was long ago abolished.

Lindsay Lohan under a colonnaded arch, Miami, Florida, 2013.

The official principal of the Arches court is now the only ecclesiastical judge empowered to pass a sentence of deprivation against a clerk in holy orders.  The appeals from the decisions of the Arches court were once made directly to the sovereign but are now heard by the judicial committee of the Privy Council except on matters of doctrine, ritual or ceremony, which go to the Court for Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved.  Charmingly, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1532, dating from the reign of Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) remains one of the statutes empowering the court’s original jurisdiction though since the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, it no longer hears appeals from the consistory courts of the bishops in all testamentary and matrimonial causes.

Pood

Pood (pronounced pood or poot (Russian))

(1) An old Russian unit of mass, equal to 40 Russian funt, or about 16.38 kg (36.11 lb).

(2) A Russian unit of mass used for kettlebells (a hand-held weight used in physical training and competition), now rounded off to 16 kg (35.274 lb pounds).

(3) In computing, as POOD, (principle of orthogonal design), a model of database design with parameters designed to avoid redundancies and duplicated routines.

1100s: From the Russian пуд (pud), from Low German or Old Norse pund (pound) (unit of weight and measure), from the Late Latin pondo (by weight; in weight), from the Classical Latin pondus (weight, heaviness, density), From the Proto-Italic pondos, from the primitive Indo-European spénd-os & pénd-os, from spend- and pend-..  A doublet of pound, the alternative spelling was poud.  Pood is a noun; the noun plural is poods (pudi or pudy in Russian).

Instructions for using a 1 pood kettlebell.

Under comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), the pood, like other units of weight defined by the system used in Imperial Russia, officially was abolished in 1924 but, beyond the big cities, the old ways remained in wide use until the 1950s and, for informal transactions (which at times constituted a substantial part of the Soviet economy) it really went extinct only as the older generations died off.  One quirk however remains, the weight of the traditional Russian kettlebells (a hand-held weight used in physical training and competition), cast in multiples and fractions of 16 kg (the metric version of the pood), the 8 kg ketterbell a ½ pood, a 24 kg a 1½ pood.  Informally, among traders, bulk agricultural communities such as grain, potatoes and beets are sometimes expressed in poods, reputedly because the sacks used in retail distribution are still made in sizes in which quantities such as 8, 16, 32, 48 & 64 kg can conveniently be bagged.

1 pood kettlebells in the shape of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head, Heavy Metal Shop, Moscow.

Had all the relevant evidence been presented in court when Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) was tried before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (1945-1946) he’d likely have been hanged but as it was, convicted on counts 3 (war crimes) and 4 (crimes against humanity) he was sentenced to twenty years, most of which were served in Spandau Prison.  In there, he wrote the notes for what became his not wholly reliable but still valuable memoir and a prison diary.  Selectively edited, The Spandau Diary (1975) was one of the minor classics of the genre, not least because it was probably more helpful than all the many reports by psychologists and psychiatrists in assessing whether his fellow inmate Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941) was mad, either during his trial or subsequently.  It was also a rich source of the type of anecdotes which distinguish prison journals, one of which came from a Soviet guards who, after Speer observed to him the new Soviet prison director “didn’t seem so bad”, recited an old Russian proverb: Человека узнаешь, когда с ним пуд соли съешь which he translated as “you do not know a man until you have used up a pood of salt with him”.  Speer, then in the fourteenth year of his sentence, was interested enough to look up just how much a pood weighed but didn’t comment further.  As other prison diaries have noted, guards provide much practical advice.  A year earlier, resting in bed with a swollen knee, he mentioned to one of the Soviet guards that the Russian doctor had prescribed two aspirins a day.  Knowing the guard to be “a veterinarian on the side”, he asked how a horse with a swollen knee should be treated.  “If horse cheap, shoot dead.  If good horse, give aspirin” he was told.  Again, Speer added no comment.

Khlebosolyn: Young ladies in traditional dress presenting bread and salt to a visitor.

Quite how long it would take two chaps to work their way through 16 kg odd (35 lb) of salt is geographically and culturally variable.  In a modern Western household, that quantity of salt would typically last years and while after that long two people should be well acquainted with each other’s foibles, in pre-Modern Russia, a pood might have been absorbed more quickly.  For one thing, in the pre-refrigeration age, salt was often used in bulk to cure and preserve food including meant and fish and that was sometimes necessary even in Russia’s colder parts and there was also much boiling of food in salt water.  Prized since Antiquity, highly taxed in Imperial Russia and therefore expensive, salt was also an important part of cultural tradition.  A ritual invoked when greeting important guests was to present on the table a loaf of bread, placed upon a rushnyk (an elaborately embroidered cloth), atop which was placed a salt cellar.  The ceremony is the origin of the Russian word khlebosolny (literally “bready-salty”) which expresses someone’s hospitality, bread and salt traditional symbols of prosperity and good health.  So, salt consumption in old Russia was quite a bit higher than in modernity (not counting the high levels in processed food) and the consensus is the proverb probably means people truly don’t know anyone until they’ve spent a year or more together.

Pood is wholly unrelated to poodle (a dog breed dating from 1808), from the German Pudel, a shortened form of Pudelhund (water dog), the construct being the Low German Pudel (puddle) (related to pudeln (to splash) and the Modern English puddle) + the + German Hund (hound; dog).  The origin in German is thought related to the dogs originally being used to hunt water fowl, but in England and North America, it was always a term for an undersized fancy or toy dog with long, curly hair.  The essentially decorative qualities of the diminutive canine meant that in UK the figurative sense of "lackey" emerged in 1907, perhaps derived from the British army slang “poodle-faker”, defined in the slang dictionaries of the age as “an ingratiating” but thought always used euphemistically as a gay slur.  Despite legislative reform which removed all legal prohibitions on homosexual acts, that sense survived into twenty-first Australia to be used on the floor of the parliament by Julia Gillard (b 1961; Australian prime minister 2010-2013), later famous for her “misogyny speech” which deplored sexism and sexist language (when aimed at her).  In 2009, she used the imagery of “mincing” & “poodle” as a slur against another (male, married and with four children) parliamentarian who was admittedly really annoying and needlessly neat and tidy but it was a slur nonetheless.

The mincing poodle tapes.

Vernacular

Vernacular (pronounced vuh-nak- yuh-ler (U) or ver-nak-yuh-ler (Non-U))

(1) In linguistics, the dialect of the native or indigenous people as opposed to that of those (in Western terms) the literary or learned; the native speech or language of a place; the language of a people or a national language.

(2) In literature, expressed or written in the native language of a place, as literary works.

(3) Using, of or related to such language.

(4) Plain, everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.

(5) In architecture, a style of architecture exemplifying the commonest techniques, decorative features, and materials of a particular historical period, region, or group of people.

(6) Noting or pertaining to the common name for a plant or animal, as distinguished from its Latin scientific name.

(7) The language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or profession.

(8) Any medium or mode of expression that reflects popular taste or indigenous styles.

(9) In linguistic anthropology, language lacking standardization or a written form.

1599: From the Latin vernāculus (household, domestic, indigenous, of or pertaining to home-born slaves), a diminutive of verna (a native; a home-born slave (slave born in the master's household)) although etymologists note the lack of evidence to support this derivation, verna of Etruscan origin. Now used in English almost always in the sense of Latin vernacula vocabula, in reference to language, the noun sense “native speech or language of a place” dating from 1706.  In technical use, linguistic anthropologists use neo-vernacular and unvernacular while in medicine, epidemiologists distinguish vernacular diseases (restricted to a defined group) from those induced by external influences.  There are also variations within the vernacular, concepts like “street vernacular” or “mountain vernacular” used to differentiate sub-sets of native languages, based on geography or some demographic; in this the idea is similar to expressions like jargon, argot, dialect or slang.  Vernacular is a noun & adjective, vernacularism & vernacularist are nouns and vernacularly is an adverb; the noun plural is vernaculars.

Cannabis (known also as marijuana) is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, Cannabis ruderalis).  In the vernacular it's "weed" or any one of literally hundreds of other terms.

Vernacular and other Latin

In the intricate world of linguistics, there are many types of Latin, many of them technical differentiations between the historic later variations (Medieval Latin; New Latin, Enlightenment Latin) from what is (a little misleadingly) called Classical Latin (or just “Latin”) but there was also a Latin vernacular referred to as vulgar Latin, one of many forks:

Vulgar Latin (also as popular Latin or colloquial Latin) was the spectrum of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward and the what over centuries evolved into a number of Romance languages.  It was the common speech of the ancient Romans, which is distinguished from standard literary Latin and is the ancestor of the Romance languages.

Dog Latin (also as bog Latin (ie “toilet humor”)): Bad, erroneous pseudo-Latin, often amusing constructions designed to resemble the appearance and especially the sound of Latin, many of which were coined by students in English schools & universities.  The “joke names” used in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) (Sillius Soddus, Biggus Dickus & Nortius Maximus) are examples of dog Latin.

Pig Latin: A type of wordplay in which (English) words are altered by moving the leading phonetic of a word to the end and appending -ay, except when the word begins with a vowel, in which case "-way" is suffixed with no leading phonetic change.

Apothecary's Latin: Latin as it was supposed spoken by a barbarian, reflecting the (probably not wholly unjustified) prejudices of the educated at the pretentions of tradesmen and shopkeepers.

Legal Latin: Latin phrases or terms used as a shorthand encapsulation of legal doctrines, rules, precepts and concepts).

Medical Latin: This evolved into a (more or less) standardized list of medical abbreviations, based on the Latin originals and used as a specific technical shorthand.

Barracks Latin: (pseudo Latin on the lines of dog Latin but usually with some military flavor, often noted for a tendency to vulgarity).

Ecclesiastical Latin: (also as Church Latin or Liturgical Latin), a fork of Latin developed in late Antiquity to suit the particular discussions of Christianity and still used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration (events in 2013 confirming that papal resignations are written and delivered in ecclesiastical Latin).  Technically, it’s a fork of Classical Latin but includes words from Vulgar & Medieval Latin as well as from Greek and Hebrew, sometimes re-purposed with meanings specific to Christianity (and sometimes just the Church of Rome).

The idea of the difference is best remembered in the example of the Vulgate Bible, the Latin translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek made by Saint Jerome (circa 345-420), the details of his interpretations (which tended to favor the role of the institutional church rather than the personal relationship between Christ and individual Christian) for centuries the source of squabble schism.  Vulgate was from the Latin vulgāta, feminine singular of vulgātus (broadcast, published, having been made known among the people; made common; prostituted, having been made common), perfect passive participle of vulgō (broadcast, make known).  When after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II; 1962-1965), it was decided to permit the celebration of the mass in local languages rather than ecclesiastical Latin, such use was said to be “in the vernacular”.

Under the Raj: three marquises, three viceroys; Lords Lytton (left), Rippon (centre) and Lansdowne (right).  Upon leaving office, UK prime-ministers were usually granted an earldom but viceroys of India were created Marquises, a notch higher in the peerage.

Under the Raj, there were many vernacular languages; indeed, never did the colonial administrators determine just how many existed, all the fascinated dons giving up after counting hundreds and finding yet more existed.  One difficulty this did present was that it was hard to monitor (and if need be censor) all the criticism which might appear in non-English language publications and, because at the core of the British Empire was racism, violence and rapacious theft of other peoples’ lands and wealth, criticism was not uncommon.  In an attempt to suppress these undercurrents of dissatisfaction, the viceroy (Lord Lytton, 1831–1891; Viceroy of India 1876-1880) imposed the Vernacular Press Act (1878), modelled on earlier Irish legislation, the origins of the word in the Latin verna (a slave born in the master's household) not lost on Western-educated Indians.  Not content with mere suppression, Lord Lytton also created an operation to feed to the press what he wanted printed, using bribery where required.  Fake news was soon a part of these feeds and some historians have suggested the act probably stimulated more resentment than it contained.  In 1881, Lytton’s successor (Lord Rippon, 1827–1909; Viceroy of India 1880-1884) withdrew the act but the damage was done.  The legislative reforms of the viceroys of India varied in intent and consequence.  Lord Lansdowne (1845–1927; Viceroy of India 1888-1894) enacted the Age of Consent Act (1891), raising the age of consent for sexual intercourse for girls (married or unmarried), from ten to twelve, any violation an offence of statutory rape.  Those who like to defend what they claim was the civilizing mission of empire sometimes like to cite this but seem never to dwell on the marriage age for girls in England being twelve as late as 1929.

Delicacy

Delicacy (pronounced del-i-kuh-see)

(1) Fineness of texture, quality etc; softness; daintiness.

(2) Something delightful or pleasing, especially a choice food considered with regard to its rarity, costliness, or the like.

(3) The quality of being easily broken or damaged; fragility; frailty of health or fitness.

(4) The quality of requiring or involving great care or tact.

(5) Extreme sensitivity; precision of action or operation; minute accuracy.

(6) Fineness of perception or feeling; sensitiveness, discrimination; prudence, consideration, circumspection; fineness of feeling with regard to what is fitting, proper etc (now rare).

(7) In systemic grammar, the level of detail at which a linguistic description is made; the degree of fine distinction in a linguistic description.

(8) Gratification, luxury, or voluptuousness (obsolete).

(9) Fineness or elegance of construction or appearance.

(10) Refinement in taste or discrimination.

1325-1375: From Middle English delicacie and delicat, (delightfulness; fastidiousness; quality of being addicted to sensuous pleasure) from the Latin delicatus (dēliciae, from dēliciō, construct of dē + laciō).  The construct was delicate + -cy (the abstract noun suffix).  Delicate was from the Middle English delicat, from the Latin dēlicātus (giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate (in Medieval Latin also "fine, slender”)), from dēlicia (used usually in the plural form dēliciae) (pleasure, delight, luxury), from dēliciō (I allure, entice), the construct being from dē- (away) + laciō (I lure, I deceive), from the Proto-Italic lakjō (to draw, to pull), of unknown origin. A related from was the Spanish delgado (thin, skinny).  The –cy suffix was from the Anglo-Norman -cie, ultimately from the Latin –cia & -tia, from the Ancient Greek -κια (-kia) & -τια (-tia), originally variants of the Latin -ia and the Ancient Greek -ια (-ia), -ία (-ía) or -εια (-eia).  It may have been original loan words like pharmacy and papacy were formed the model.  The suffix was used to form nouns of (1) state, condition or quality & (2) rank or office.  The meaning "fineness, softness, tender loveliness" is from the 1580s; that of "weakness of constitution" from the 1630s.  As applied to fine food and dainty viand, meaning evolved from the early seventeenth century; this apparently inspired the use of the plural form for the first time.  Delicacy is a noun; the noun plural is delicacies.

Cultural relativism in food

The notion of delicacy does vary between cultures.  Examples include:

Civet Coffee (Indonesia): A coffee made with the part-digested beans eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet.  Beans are fermented as they pass through the civet's intestines and, after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected and coffee is brewed.  Origins of the practice are interesting.  In colonial times (as the Dutch East Indies), the indigenous people working the plantations weren’t permitted to take any of the harvest so took to gathering the defecated beans from the forest floor.  The plantation owners soon discovered these produced a superior flavor of coffee and a delicacy was thus created.  

Rocky Mountain Oysters (US & Canada):  Known also as prairie oysters, these are bulls’ testicles, served deep-fried.  The story that George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) wanted them added to the White House menu for state banquets to avenge himself upon the French appears to be an urban myth.

Ready to enjoy: A haggis sliced open.

Haggis (Scotland): A savoury pudding containing sheep's heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and encased in the animal's stomach.

Surströmming (Sweden): Fermented Baltic Sea herring.  During production, just enough salt is added to prevent the raw herring from rotting and newly opened can of Surströmming is said to have one of the most putrid food smells in the world.

Escargot Pearls (Austria): The fresh or processed eggs of land snails, sometimes called snail caviar.

Fried brain sandwich, sliced.

Fried Brain Sandwich (US): Self-explanatory, thinly sliced fried slabs of calf’s brain on white toast; eaten mostly south of the Mason-Dixon line though apparently first offered in St Louis, Missouri.

Butter Tea (Tibet): A tea made with rancid yak butter and said to be good for chapped lips.

A delicate soul pondering a table of delicacies: Lindsay Lohan, Who What Wear Magazine photoshoot and interview, November 2022.

Tent

Tent (pronounced tent)

(1) A portable shelter of skins, canvas, plastic, or the like, supported by one or more poles or a frame and often secured by ropes fastened to pegs in the ground.

(2) Something that resembles a tent (often as tent-like).

(3) A type of frock (usually as tent-dress).

(4) In casual political discourse (popularized by US President (1963-1969) Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973) (as “inside the tent”) a term to distinguish between those inside or outside the institutionalized political system.

(5) To give or pay attention to; to heed (Scots; largely archaic).

(6) In first-aid (medicine), a roll or pledget, usually of soft absorbent material, as lint or gauze, for dilating an orifice, keeping a wound open, etc.

(7) A red table wine from Alicante, Spain (obsolete).

(8) A sixteenth century word for a dark-colored tint (from the Spanish tinto (obsolete)).

(9) A portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church (Scots; largely archaic).

1250–1300: From the Middle English tente (a probe) from the twelfth century Old French tente (tent, hanging, tapestry) from the Latin tenta, (a tent; literally literally "something stretched out”), noun use of feminine singular of the Latin tentus, (stretched), past participle of tendere (to extend; stretch) from the primitive Indo-European root ten (to stretch).  Technically, the Old French tente was a noun derivative of tenter from the Latin tentāre, variant of temptāre (to probe, test, to try). Despite some sources claiming the Latin tentōrium translates literally as “tent”, the correct meaning rather “something stretched out” from tendere (to extend; stretch); related was the Latin temptāre, source of the modern “tempt”.

In Middle English, tent (noun) (attention) was an aphetic variant of attent from the Old French atente (attention, intention) from the Latin attenta, feminine of attentus, past participle of attendere (to attend).  Word thus evolved in meaning to describe a structure of stretched fabric under which people could attend events.  The French borrowing wholly displaced the native Middle English tild & tilt (tent, til”) from the Old English teld (tent). The closest in Spanish is tienda (store, shop; tent).  The verb sense of "to camp in a tent" is attested from 1856, "to pitch a tent" noted a few years earlier.  The modern sense of tent and the relationship to words related to “stretch” is that the first tents were ad-hoc structures, created by stretching hides over wooden framework.  In arachnology, the Tent caterpillar, first recorded 1854, gained its name from the tent-like silken webs in which, gregariously they live.

FBI director J Edgar Hoover & President Johnson, the White House, 1967.

The phrase “inside the tent” is a bowdlerized version of words most frequently attributed to Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973 (LBJ); US president 1969-1969) explaining why, on assuming the presidency, he chose not to act on his original inclination (and the recommendation of some of his advisors) not to renew the appointment of J Edgar Hoover (1895–1972; director of US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 1924-1972): “Well, it’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”  That may have been sound political judgement from one of the most Machiavellian operators of the modern age but an indication also of the fear (shared by not a few others) of what damaging and even incriminating information about LBJ Hoover may have locked in his secret files.

Lord Beaverbrook & Winston Churchill, Canada, 1941.

LBJ’s sometimes scatological references often involved bodily functions but much of it drew on the earthy language he learned from decades of political horse trading in Texas, another favourite when speaking of decision-making being: “There comes a point when you have to piss or get off the pot”.  Nor were the words used of Hoover original, the earliest known references in exchanges in the early twentieth century between the Arabists in the UK’s Foreign Colonial offices as “…keeping the camel inside the tent”.  In the vein of the US State Department’s later “He might be a son of a bitch but he’s our son of a bitch”, it was an acknowledgement often it was desirable to in some way appease the odd emir so that he might remain an annoying but manageable nuisance rather than a potentially dangerous enemy.  When it came to colonial fixes, the foreign office had rare skills.  Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) recycled the joke in 1940 when, after being advised by George VI (1895–1952; King of the United Kingdom 1936-1952) not to include Lord Beaverbrook (Maxwell Aitken, 1879-1964) in his administration, the king’s concerns including being well aware of why the press lord had gained his nickname “been a crook”.

House minority leader Gerald Ford & President Johnson, the White House, 1967.

One quip however does seem to be original, LBJ’s crude humor the source also of the phrase “walk and chew gum”, used to refer to the ability (or inability) of governments to focus on more than one issue.  It was a sanitized version of a comment made by LBJ after watching a typically pedestrian television performance by Gerald Ford (1913–2006; US president 1974-1977), then minority leader (Republican) in the House of Representatives: “Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time.”  There was a time when that might never have been reported but times were changing and it was printed in the press as “Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Of tents, sacks & maxi

The tent dress, also known as the "A-line", picked up both names because of the similarity of the trapezoid shape to an A-frame tent or building and was one of a number of garments which emerged in the 1960s when women's fashion retreated from the cinch-waisted, tailored lines mainstream manufacturers mass-produced in the 1950s.  Because the sheer volume of fabric, they were popular with some designers who used vivid psychedelic imagery in the patterns, a nod to the hippie vibe of the time.

Crooked Hillary Clinton in tent dress, The Hamptons, 2019.

Designed originally to be functional, comfortable and ageless, tent dresses have no waistline and are worn without belts; they’re thus essentially shapeless and while they don't exactly hide flaws, they certainly don't cling to them so can (sort of) flatter a shape to the extent it's possible, even though they actually accentuate width.  About once every fashion cycle, and never with great success, the industry pushes the tent dress as one of the trends of that season, the attempt in 2007 still regarded in the industry as a cautionary tale of how things shouldn't be done.

Tent dresses, made from a variety of fabrics, obviously have a lot of surface area so there's much scope to experiment with colors, patterns and graphics, the garments offered in everything from solid hues, subtle patterning, bold strips and, most famously, wild arrays of colors seemingly chosen deliberately to clash.  Given their purpose, most are long-sleeved or at least with a sleeve reaching the upper forearms and while the length can vary (some actually better described as loose shirts), the classic tent dress is knee or calf-length.

Sack dresses by Hubert de Givenchy (1927–2018), Spring Summer 1958 collection, Paris 1957.

Nor should the sack-line be confused with the tent.  Givenchy’s sack-line debuted in their spring-summer line in 1957, Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972) showing a not dissimilar style just a few weeks later.  Both were essentially an evolution of the “Shirt Dress” which had attracted some attention the previous season and signaled a shift from the fitted, structured silhouettes which had been the signature motif of the decade.  The sack-line dresses were described by some critics as “shapeless” or “formless”, presumably because they lacked any suggestion of the waistline which had existed for so long as fashion’s pivot-point.  However, the forms the sack-line took would have been recognizable to anyone familiar with fluid dynamics or the flow of air in wind tunnels, a waistless dress which narrowed severely towards the hem one of the optimal aerodynamic shapes.

That was presumably a coincidence but Givenchy’s press-kits at the 1957 shows did claim that “More than a fashion, it’s actually a way of dressing” and one which must have found favor with at least some women, not unhappy at being able to ditch the forbidding and restrictive, high-waisted girdles needed to achieve the wasp-wasted “New Look” which Dior had introduced to a post-war world anxious to escape wartime austerity.  Waistless, the sack-line appeared to hang suspended from the shoulders like an envelope around the frame yet despite not being body-hugging, the lines managed to accentuate the figure, the trick being using the mind of the observer to "fill in the gaps", based on available visual clues.  The simplicity of the sack line made it the ideal canvas on which to display other stuff, models in sacks soon showing off gloves, hats, shoes and other adornments and the elegant austerity of the lines remains influential today.

Maxi dresses are not tent dresses.  Lindsay Lohan in maxi dresses illustrates the difference.

Not all enveloping dresses, of which the vaguely defined “maxi” is probably the best known example, are tent dresses.  What really distinguishes the tent dress is that it’s waistless and in the shape of a regular trapezoid, hence the alternative name “A-line” whereas the point of the maxi is that it’s ankle-length, the antithesis of the mini skirt which could be cut as high up the thigh as any relevant statutes and the wearer’s sense of daring permitted.  Extreme in length, the maxi typically had at least something of a waist although some with severe perpendicular lines certainly could be classified as sacks.