Typology

Typology (pronounced tahy-pol-uh-jee)

(1) The doctrine or study of types or pre-figurative symbols.

(2) A systematic classification or study of types and the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics.

(3) In linguistics, the study and classification of languages according to structural features, especially patterns of phonology, morphology, and syntax, without reference to their histories.

(4) In archaeology, the result of the classification of things according to their characteristics.

(5) In Biblical scholarship, the study of symbolic representation, particularly the origin and meaning of Scripture types.

(6) In theology, the doctrine or study of types or of the correspondence between them and the realities which they typify.

1835–1845:  A compound word, the construct being typo- + -logy.  The Middle English type (symbol, figure, emblem) was from the Latin typus, from the Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos) (mark, impression, type), from τύπτω (túptō) (I strike, beat).  The –ology suffix was also a construct, built from -o- (an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The English -logy suffix originates with loanwords from the Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned such as astrology from astrologia, the practice since the sixteenth century.  The French -logie is a continuation of the Latin -logia, ultimately from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  In Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (logos) (account, explanation, narrative), itself a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English, the suffix has long been productive, especially to form the names of scientific disciplines, analogous to names of disciplines loaned from the Latin, such as geology from geologia.  Original compositions of terms with no precedent in Greek or Latin become common in the late eighteenth century, sometimes imitating French or German templates; insectology (after the French insectologie (1766) and terminology after German terminologie (1801).  From the nineteenth century, the suffix was applied to words with no Greek or Latin origin, such as undergroundology (1820) and hatology (1837).  In the twentieth century, it began liberally to be applied to for amusing yet useful words (such as Kremlinology) and sometime satirically (garbageology, burgerology, footballology et al).  Typology & typologist are nouns and typological & typologic are adjectives; the noun plural is typologies.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

In pop-psychology, one of the most popular tests is the so-called "16 Personalities Test", a multi-choice exercise in typology which determines one’s place in the sixteen.  The model is that of the original Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which uses a combination of four letters to represent different personality types.  The four letters are drawn from:

(E) Extraversion: How much one focuses on the outer world versus inner world.

(I) Introversion: How much one focuses on the inner world vs. outer world.

(S) Sensing: How one processes information through the senses and concrete experience.

(N) Intuition: How one processes information through patterns and possibilities.

(T) Thinking: How one makes decisions based on objective analysis and logic.

(F) Feeling: How one makes decisions based on subjective values and emotions.

(J) Judging: How one prefers a structured, organized, and planned lifestyle.

(P) Perceiving: How one prefers a flexible, adaptable, and spontaneous lifestyle.

Bolted on to the four letter string is an additional –A or –T.  The (-A) applies to those who are Assertive Advocates who see things through a filter that values humanity and want to have people (in limited introverted doses) in their lives.  The (-T) people are Turbulent Advocates who are more likely to go beyond merely wanting people in their lives.

Lindsay Lohan, suspected ESFP

Most sites which list celebrities as illustrative examples of the type categorize Lindsay Lohan as ESFP (Entertainer) although some also put her in the INFJ (advocate) list and variation between tests is not unusual because a single different answer can change the allocation.  For an actor to be found to be "an entertainer" is obviously uncontroversial, the interest presumably in the appended -A or -T which would depend on variations in the answers.  The test has always been popular although the profession doesn’t regard as serious science and its origin actually was a reaction by someone who though the orthodox scientific approaches were needlessly complex.  In its original form it was first published in 1944 and has been often since revised.  Pseudoscience or not, it’s great fun and there are worse ways of deciding whether or not to marry one’s boyfriend.  Grouped into four categories, the sixteen types are:

Analysts

(1) Architect (INTJ-A / INTJ-T): Imaginative and strategic thinkers, with a plan for everything.

(2) Logician (INTP-A / INTP-T): Innovative inventors with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

(3) Commander (ENTJ-A / ENTJ-T): Bold, imaginative and strong-willed leaders, always finding a way – or making one.

(4) Debater (ENTP-A / ENTP-T): Smart and curious thinkers who cannot resist an intellectual challenge.

Diplomats

(5) Advocate (INFJ-A / INFJ-T): Quiet and mystical, yet very inspiring and tireless idealists.

(6) Mediator (INFP-A / INFP-T): Poetic, kind and altruistic people, always eager to help a good cause.

(7) Protagonist (ENFJ-A / ENFJ-T): Charismatic and inspiring leaders, able to mesmerize their listeners.

(8) Campaigner (ENFP-A / ENFP-T): Enthusiastic, creative and sociable free spirits, who can always find a reason to smile.

Sentinels

(9) Logistician (ISTJ-A / ISTJ-T): Practical and fact-minded individuals, whose reliability cannot be doubted.

(10) Defender (ISFJ-A / ISFJ-T): Very dedicated and warm protectors, always ready to defend their loved ones.

(11) Executive (ESTJ-A / ESTJ-T): Excellent administrators, unsurpassed at managing things – or people.

(12) Consul (ESFJ-A / ESFJ-T): Extraordinarily caring, social and popular people, always eager to help.

Explorers

(13) Virtuoso (ISTP-A / ISTP-T): Bold and practical experimenters, masters of all kinds of tools.

(14) Adventurer (ISFP-A / ISFP-T): Flexible and charming artists, always ready to explore and experience something new.

(15) Entrepreneur (ESTP-A / ESTP-T): Smart, energetic and very perceptive people, who truly enjoy living on the edge.

(16) Entertainer (ESFP-A / ESFP-T): Spontaneous, energetic and enthusiastic people – life is never boring around them.

The difference between between Typology and Allegory in Biblical scholarship

Typology is an approach to the interpretation of the Scriptures found in the New Testament itself and in the writings of the early Church, which sees certain people and events in the Old Testament (Types) as foreshadowing things fulfilled in the New Testament (Antitypes). This is related to, but distinct from, allegory.  The opinions of those in the early Church were never monolithic, the view being that Scripture had different levels of meaning which included the literal or historical sense of the text, but could also have an allegorical, or a typological meaning.  A text also has a moral sense and an anagogical or mystical sense. That a text had an allegorical or typological meaning did not negate the historical sense, it being just another way of understanding the text.

Typology stresses the connection between actual persons, events, places, and institutions of the Old Testament, and their corresponding reality in the New Testament which they foreshadowed.  Moses the Lawgiver foreshadows Christ, the ultimate Lawgiver.  Aaron, the high priest, foreshadows Christ, the ultimate High Priest.  Manna, which fed the people in the wilderness foreshadows the Christ the Heavenly Bread (the Eucharist), which provides ultimate spiritual nourishment.  The classic example is probably the The Burning Bush which foreshadows the Theotokos.  In the book of Exodus, God calls Moses on Mount Horeb from the midst of a bush which "was burning, yet it was not consumed".  The Church sees the Unburnt Bush on Horeb as a type of the Most Holy Theotokos, who gave birth to Christ while still while remaining a virgin.

Allegory finds hidden or symbolic meaning in the Old Testament, which is inherent in text and does not depend on a future historical fulfillment; for example, I Corinthians 9:8-10 sees the law forbidding the muzzling of an ox while it treads the corn as having the hidden meaning that a minister of the Gospel should be supported by the people he ministers to.  The Song of Solomon is also often interpreted as an allegory of God (the Lover), and His love for His people (the beloved). The allegorical approach also often sees multiple correspondences in a given narrative which illustrate some point. For example, St Paul explicitly uses allegory in Galatians 4, in which he sees the child of the slave woman (Hagar) as representing those under the Law, while the child of the free woman (Sarah) as representing those under the New Covenant, and the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael as representing the inferiority of the Old Covenant to the New (Galatians 4:21-31).

Mistress

Mistress (pronounced mis-tris)

(1) A woman who has authority, control, or power, especially the female head of a household, institution, or other establishment; a woman employing, or in authority over, servants or attendants.

(2) A female owner of an animal or formerly, a slave.

(3) A woman who has the power of controlling or disposing of something at her own pleasure; the companion term to master (sometimes initial capital letter).

(4) A woman who has a continuing, extramarital sexual relationship with one man, especially a man who, in return for a continuing (and hopefully exclusive) liaison, provides her with financial support.

(5) A senior female schoolteacher; a schoolmistress, a unique New Zealand form of which was Senior Assistant Mistress (SAM), the highest teaching position (ranking below assistant principle (or headmaster)) available to women until the mid-1970s.

(6) A term of address in former use and corresponding to Mrs, Miss, or Ms (should be with initial capital letter but often misused).

(7) A dialectical word for sweetheart (archaic).

(8) The term for a woman who specializes in the niche BDSM (a abbrevation traditionally of "bondage, discipline & sadism masochism" (in modern use dominance & submission sometimes also added or substituted) market, female equivalent of a master in the same context; a dominatrix.

(9) A married woman; a wife (archaic Scots dialectal form).

(10) A title (either official or courtesy) granted to certain positions in royal households or religious orders (eg Mistress of the Robes, Mistress of the Cloisters et al).

(11) In the games of bowls, the jack (obsolete).  

1275–1325: From the Middle English maistresse from the Old & Middle French maistresse (maîtresse in modern French), feminine of  maistre (master), from the Latin magister (chief, head, director, teacher) the construct being maistre (master) + -esse or –ess (the suffix which denotes a female form of otherwise male nouns denoting beings or persons).  In yet another example of the patriarchal domination of language, when a woman is said to have acquired complete knowledge of or skill in something, she’s said to have “mastered” the topic.  Mistress is a noun and verb, mistressship (or mistress-ship), mistresspiece,  mistresshood & mistressdom are nouns, mistressing is a verb and mistressly is an adjective; the noun plural is mistresses.  The noun plural mistresses has been used by many and the pragmatic advice is mistresses should be enjoyed sequentially rather than concurrently.  That said, plenty who have had the odd mistress might reflect things would have been better had they followed the advice of the English poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861), published in The Latest Decalogue (1862):  Do not adultery commit; Advantage rarely comes of it.

In English, the original meaning (circa 1300) was "a female teacher, governess; supervisor of novices in a convent", reflecting the senses in the Old French maistresse although in the Old French it could be used to mean also "lover" & "housekeeper" (though there would have been some overlap in those roles).  The notion of a mistress being a "a woman who employs others or has authority over a household and servants" developed in the early fifteenth century, the use to describe "a woman who has mastered an art or branch of study" emerging some decades later.  The familiar modern sense of "a kept woman maintained by a married man" dates from the early fifteenth century and, perhaps surprisingly, by the mid-1600s it was used as a polite form of address to a woman, a extension presumably of a sense other than adulterous women.  The meaning "woman who is beloved and courted, one who has command over a lover's heart" is from the turn of the fifteen century.

Thought crime

Associated Press (AP) tweeted in early May 2020 it would no longer use the term “mistress” to describe adulterous women, noting it thought the word “archaic and sexist”, preferring the alternatives “companion” or “lover”, adding the AP Stylebook had been updated to include this proscription among some two-hundred changes.  The AP Stylebook has for generations been a standard reference for many news organizations, often referred to by working journalists as the “style bible” and widely used in journalism courses.

Barnaby reflects: Vikki Campion (b 1985) & Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice deputy prime-minister of Australia 2016-2022).

Linguistically, AP’s attempt to avoid hurting the feelings of adulterers isn’t a great deal of help, banning as it does a word with a precise meaning, well-understood for centuries, replacing it with terms ambiguous or misleading; there’s no other single word (or term of convenient brevity) which conveys the same meaning of “mistress” in the sense which so disturbs AP.  The revisions make much of the need to adopt “gender-neutral language”, another “inclusive” transformation being the pursuit of criminals at large will no longer be “manhunts” but rather “searches”, a further example of dilution of meaning, an unfortunate trend for a news organization to pursue.  AP are correct that “mistress” is both “loaded” and “gendered” given there’s no similarly opprobrious term for adulterous men but the word is not archaic; archaic words are those now rare to the point of being no longer in general use and “mistress” has hardly suffered that fate.  AP’s agenda appears to be the creation of doctrinaire neutrality and are constructing their own newspeak to save its readers from their own thought crime.

Ashley Horn before (left) & after (centre) and Lindsay Lohan (right).

Ashley Horn (b 1995) is Lindsay Lohan's half sister, her father being Michael Lohan (b 1969), her mother, Kristi Kaufmann Horn (b 1963), a Montana massage therapist who briefly was Michael Lohan's mistress.  In 2013 it was reported by In Touch Magazine (a famously reliable source) that Ms Horn had paid some US$25,000 on five rounds of cosmetic surgery with the intention of more closely resembling her older half-sister.  As detailed by Ms Horn, she had "...rhinoplasty, a bit of refinement underneath my cheeks and jawline, some fat injected into my chin and some fat injected into my upper cheeks", the specific instruction being to emulate Lindsay Lohan's look in her late teen-age years, Ms Horn's age at the time.

Bipolar

Bipolar (pronounced bahy-poh-ler)

(1) Having two poles, as the earth.

(2) Of, relating to, or found at both polar regions.

(3) Characterized by opposite extremes in opinions, nature etc.

(4) In electronics, relating to a semiconductor device, such as a transistor, that exploits the electrical characteristics of contact between two substances, one with an inherent positive charge, the other with an inherent negative charge.

(5) In electric power distribution, a power transmission line having two direct-current conductors in opposite polarity.

(6) In physics, a region of magnetic flux having two distinct poles

(7) In psychiatry, of, relating to, or having bipolar disorder (a major mood disorder that is characterized by episodes of mania and depression; once known as manic-depression.

(8) In physiology, having two poles; used especially of nerve cells in which the branches project from two usually opposite points.

(9) In geopolitics, of or relating to an international system in which two states wield most of the cultural, economic, and political influence (ie two states with hegemonies exerted over their respective spheres of influence.  The companion terms are unipolar and multipolar and all are sometimes used by analogy in fields like commerce or sporting competition to reference instances of specific dominance.

1800–1810: The construct was bi- + polar.  Pole (in this context) was from the Middle French pole & pôle, from the Latin polus, from the Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos) (axis of rotation).  The –ar suffix was from Latin -āris (of, pertaining to) and was appended to nouns to create adjectives (it came increasingly to be appended to words of non-Latin origin).  The bi- prefix came directly from the Latin bi-, from Latin bis (twice) & bīnus (double), from the Proto-Italic dwi-, from the primitive Indo-European dwi- and was one of the sequence of Latin number prefixes (uni-, bi, tri etc).  In English, it can be confusing because it can used to mean either (1) two, pair, both, duo or (2) half.  In chemistry, the use meaning half has been discontinued.  In general use, the ambiguity remains, illustrated by the use when applied to measures of duration which can variously be interpreted as “once every two periods” or “twice every period”, the classic examples of which are this like biweekly, bimonthly, and biannual.  Style guides now often suggest choosing unambiguous forms such as “fortnightly” or, where no such elegant alternative exists, spelling it out explicitly (twice a month; every two years etc).  Using semi- as a prefix can work but is imprecise although acceptable if the meaning is in other ways made clear.

In English, as a clipping (a use of the prefix as a stand-alone word) of bisexual (used as both noun & adjective), the meaning was clear and effortlessly “bi” moved from LGBTQQIAAOP slang to the general vocabulary.  Potentially misleading however is bigender, a coining of LGBTQQIAAOP activists which became linguistically necessary when gender and sex were re-assigned as separate constructs.  It’s recommended it be used as the hyphenated bi-gender (to be consistent “bi-sexual” should probably also adopt the form) lest one might ponder if a bigend is LGBTQQIAAOP slang for something (and at this point one’s mind may wander) unbeknown to one.  Additionally in engineering, a big-end bearing in an internal combustion engine is the one located “big end” of the connecting rod and attached to the crankshaft.  Mechanics may use “bigender” (pronounced big-end-ah) as slang which in oral use won’t be confused with something pronounced as by-jen-dah but if transcribed, were the latter hyphenated, there’ll be no mystified mechanics.  Bipolar is a noun & adjective and bipolarization & bipolarity are nouns; the noun plural is bipolar.

Lindsay Lohan following Edvard Munch's (1863–1944) The Scream (1893).  Much art has been analysed by those seeking insight into the mental health of the artist, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder two conditions frequently identified.

The adjective bipolar dates from 1810 in the figurative sense of "of double aspect" and was by 1859 used in the literature of anatomy (having two processes from opposite poles) to refer to nerve cells while the sometimes hyphenated noun bipolarity (state of having two poles) emerged in 1834.  The earliest known instance of the now familiar use in psychiatry as a technical term to describe what was then known as manic-depressive psychosis appears to date from 1957 in a publication by German psychiatrist Karl Leonhard (1904-1988), noted in the history of the profession for his extensive (though now mostly forgotten) classification of psychotic illnesses (a nosology (the construct being nos- + -ology, from the Ancient Greek νόσος (nosos) (disease) + -λογία (-logia) (study of), the branch of medical science dealing with the classification of diseases)) although still used in structural linguistics is the system of classification of non-verbal communication.  As the term “manic-depression” ascended the linguistic treadmill (a process accelerated by the negative connotations which attached to the word because in popular literature and films manic depressives were often characterised as psychopathic murderers or other flavours or madness) “bipolar disorder” was positioned as a preferable term, the reason being that bipolar was separated from both the connotations of “manic depression” and the two elements (“manic” & “depression”), each loaded with negative associations.  Accordingly, in 1980, bipolar disorder replaced manic-depressive psychosis in the third edition (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  According to tracking by dictionaries, it was in the mid-1990s that bipolar (in the context of mental health) gained traction in general use and, inevitably, appeared on the linguistic treadmill although even forty-odd years on there’s little to suggest it has yet reached the level of opprobrium which might prompt the DSM’s editorial board to discuss the need for a replacement although their processes can take a while, the term “mental retardation” (long regarded in the community as offensive and in some cases misleading) not replaced by term “intellectual development disorder (intellectual disability)” until the release of DSM-5-TR (text revision) in 2022.

The bipolar world in 1980.  The geopolitical architecture of the Cold War (circa 1948-circa 1990) revolved around Moscow (the Warsaw Pact) and Washington DC (NATO).

Bipolar disorder was actually introduced to the DSM when the multi-axial system (Axis I to Axis V) was created:

Axis I: Clinical Disorders (including bipolar disorder)

Axis II: Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation

Axis III: General Medical Conditions

Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental Problems (stressors)

Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning

This structure was modified with the release in 2000 of DSM-IV-TR which, within the axis system, divided diagnoses and symptoms into sections or "decision trees," including which symptoms must be included for a diagnosis and which must not be present.  The sectional approach was carried over to the DSM-5 (2013) when the axis system was abandoned, replaced by 20 chapters containing categories of related disorders of which “Bipolar and Related Disorders” is one, others including Anxiety disorders, Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, Depressive disorders, Feeding and eating disorders and Personality disorders.  Within its category, bipolar disorder was subject to some refinements, including those reflected in other areas (such as objectum sexuality) that attempted to reduce the medicalization of behaviour that although statistically aberrant, was part of the normal human condition.  Childhood bipolar disorder for example, although long well-defined and accepted as a diagnosis, was effectively rolled into a new category of depressive disorders called disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), reflecting the concern that the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder was being inconsistently and overly applied to behaviour better understood as variations of childhood irritability.  Possibly too, the editors may have been influenced by work in labelling theory which suggested the early appearance in an individual’s medical history of conditions such as depression or bipolar disorder could have life-long consequences.

In the DSM-5, the diagnostic sub-categories of bipolar disorder were extended to seven:

(1) Bipolar I disorder

(2) Bipolar II disorder

(3) Cyclothymic disorder

(4) Substance/medication-induced bipolar and related disorder

(5) Bipolar and related disorder due to another medical condition

(6) Other specified bipolar and related disorder

(7) Unspecified bipolar and related disorder

Other changes included (1) the elimination of “mixed episode”.  Instead, a manic, hypomanic, or depressive episode can be specified as “with mixed features” a specifier with its own DSM definition. (2) The bipolar II diagnosis in the DSM-IV excluded a history of mixed episodes and this exclusion has been removed, something many long advocated. (3) There was a standardization of the text.  The word “abnormally” was not included in the DSM-IV criterion A for a hypomanic episode, while it was in criterion A for a manic episode; in DSM-5 the same language is used for both, the full criteria for the two distinct types of episodes thus closer together. (4) Each type of bipolar disorder gained specifiers (such as “with mixed features”, “with anxious distress” & “with rapid cycling”) which serve further to clarify the illness.

The DSM-5-TR was released in 2022 and among the changes were amendments to the section covering disorder.  Criterion B in bipolar I disorder was refined to make explicit that a manic episode can't be “superimposed on” (ie bolted-onto to run simultaneously with) an existing diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder, or other specified or unspecified psychotic disorder.  A similar procedural clarification was made to criterion C for bipolar II.  The specifiers indicating the severity of a manic episode were also updated.  Under DSM-5, the bipolar severity specifiers were mild, moderate, and severe which certainly made sense when labeling depressive episodes but when of clinical significance, that was less helpful when categorizing manic episodes because, in the nomenclature of the DSM, “mild” indicated “no impairment in functioning” whereas manic episodes inherently impaired function.  The specifiers for manic episodes accordingly were updated in the DSM-5-TR to (1) Mild (the manic episode meets the minimum symptom criteria), (2) Moderate (the manic episode causes a very significant increase in impairment and (3) Severe (the patient needs nearly continual supervision to prevent harm from being done to themselves and/or others).

2:365 by Kim Rask & Missy Douglas (2014), Ucki Ood, pp 400 (ISBN-100615950620).  A collection of 365 works painted in 2013 as a document of bipolar disorder.

First diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 19 while a student of art at Cambridge, Dr Missy Douglas (b 1977) in 2013 undertook for that year, each day to paint a canvas which would express her feelings at that moment.  To ensure the works reflected her condition rather than the effects of medication, during this year she went un-medicated, hoping the paintings would more accurately reflect the highs and lows of bipolarity.  When going to sleep each evening, Dr Douglas had no idea how she would feel the next morning, some days ecstatic, some days depressed.  Although the change in name to bipolar was probably helpful, Dr Douglas' experiment does illustrate why “manic depression” was so evocative of the condition.  Interestingly, on not one day was a painting not completed, not does the set include a blank canvas or one simply black or rendered otherwise monochromatically.  What this indicates would be something to ponder but is perhaps indicative of how a spectrum condition can manifest, Dr Douglas presumably a high-functioning bipolar.  For a BBC piece, Dr Douglas provided brief notes for six of the works:

Day 5: “I was really anxious, angry and feeling trapped.”

Day 177: “I was really in a dark place here. I was completely in a depressive phase.”

Day 236: “I was burying feelings and my emotions were all over the place.  Very turbulent.”

Day 242: “I was at the height of mania here, but there was a massive wave of white depression heading towards me.”

Day 314: “Mania.  I was buzzing and everything was technicolor and beautiful.  I was flying and felt invincible."

Day 359: “Christmas Day 2013.  I was feeling very depressed yet I completely compartmentalised and concealed it.  The twinkly forced jollity hid the sadness.”

Plasma

Plasma (pronounced plaz-muh)

(1) In anatomy, physiology & hematology, the liquid part of blood or lymph, as distinguished from the suspended elements; A clear component of blood or lymph containing fibrin.

(2) In cell biology, a former name for protoplasm; cytoplasm

(3) In cheese-making, a less common term for whey (a milk serum, separating as liquid from the curd after coagulation, as in cheese making).

(4) In mineralogy, a green, faintly translucent chalcedony.  Heliotrope is a green variety of chalcedony, containing red inclusions of iron oxide that resemble drops of blood, giving heliotrope its alternative name of bloodstone. In a similar variety, the spots are yellow instead, known as plasma.

(5) In physics, a highly ionized gas containing an approximately equal number of positive ions and electrons.

(6) In historic medicine, a mixture of starch and glycerin, once used as a substitute for ointments.

(7) In digital graphics (as demoscene), a visual effect in which cycles of changing colors are warped in various ways to give the illusion of liquid organic movement.

1712: From the Late Latin plasma (literally "mold") from the Ancient Greek πλάσμα (plásma) (something molded or formed, hence "image, figure; counterfeit, forgery; formed style, affectation”), akin to plássein (to form, mold; (and related to the modern plastic).  The Ancient Greek plásma originally meant "to spread thin" from the primitive Indo-European plath-yein, from the root pele (flat; to spread).  The original meaning in English was the now obsolete "form; shape" which reflected the classical form of the earlier plasm, the sense of a "liquid part of blood" dating from 1845 while that of "ionized gas" was from 1928.  Plasma is a noun and plasmatic & plasmic are adjectives; the noun plural is plasmas.

Plasma physics

Although plasma was first observed (and named “radiant matter”) in 1879 by British chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes (1832–1919),its nature wasn’t identified until work in 1897 by British physicist Sir Joseph Thomson (1856–1940).  The term “plasma” was first used in 1928 by American chemist, physicist, and engineer Irving Langmuir (1881–1957), the word chosen as a description of ionised gas because Langmuir noted the similarity between the transport of electrons from thermionic filaments and the way blood plasma carries the red and white corpuscles. 

Almost all observable matter in the universe is in the plasma state. Formed at high temperatures, plasmas consist of freely moving ions and free electrons and are known as the “fourth state of matter” because their unique physical properties distinguish them from solids, liquids and gases.  Plasma densities and temperatures greatly vary, from the cold gases of interstellar space to the extraordinarily hot, dense cores of stars and inside a detonating nuclear weapon.  Plasma and ionized gases possess unique properties quite unlike those of the other three states, the transition between them more a definitional question of the point(s) at which nomenclature shifts from one to the other; a kind of demarcation dispute between physicists.  A wholly speculative dispute is whether plasma is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, something impossible to determine because of uncertainty surrounding the existence and properties of dark matter.  Based on the existing mathematical models of the universe, there should be a great deal more matter and energy than has ever been observed, hence the “dark” fudge.  The assumption is that both are there but because they’re “dark” we can’t see them.  That assumption is however based on other known orthodoxies and either the existence or the deduced volume of dark matter may be found to be errors if any of those orthodoxies are either disproved or proved to have been wrongly calculated.  In the history of science, probably most orthodoxies have be overturned.

Plasma and blood

Plasma & platelets not separated: Lindsay Lohan in a blood-soaked photo-shoot by Tyler Shields (b 1982), Los Angeles, 2011.  Shields had worked with blood before, once completing a painting with blood from twenty donors, obtained using a commercial service after physicians declined to be involved in the project.

Plasma is the liquid component of blood and in human blood and by volume, some 55% of blood is plasma, the remainder made of red & white blood cells and platelets, all of which is suspended in the plasma which is about 92% water, a further 7% containing vital proteins such as albumin, gamma globulin and anti-hemophilic factor while the remaining 1% consists of mineral salts, sugars, fats, hormones and vitamins.  Plasma is vital for human function because it (1) assists in the maintenance of blood pressure and volume (2) transports the proteins critical for blood clotting and immunity, (3) carries electrolytes such as sodium and potassium on which muscles depends and (4) assists cell function by maintaining the body's pH balance.

In clinical medicine, plasma is given to trauma, burn and shock patients, as well as people with severe liver disease or multiple clotting factor deficiencies.  It boosts a patient’s blood volume, helping to prevent shock and encouraging clotting.  Pharmaceutical companies use plasma to make treatments for conditions such as immune deficiencies and bleeding disorders and in blood donations, the liquid portion can be separated from the cells.  As blood is drawn from the arm, it is fed through a machine which collects the plasma, the donor’s red blood cells and platelets then returned to the donor along with some saline. Remarkably, the process takes little longer than donating whole blood.  Donated plasma is frozen within 24 hours of being donated to preserve its clotting factors and can then safely be stored for up to a year, thawed for transfusion when needed.

Vermiform

Vermiform (pronounced vur-muh-fawrm)

Resembling or having the long, thin, cylindrical shape of a worm; long and slender.

1720-1730: From the Medieval Latin vermiformis, the construct being vermis (worm) + forma (form).  Vermis was from the primitive Indo-European wr̥mis and cognates included the Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos) and the Old English wyrm (worm (which evolved into the Modern English worm)).  Form was from -fōrmis (having the form of), from fōrma (a form, contour, figure, shape, appearance, looks).  The root of the Latin vermis was the primitive Indo-European wer- (to turn, bend), an element most productive, contributing to: adverse; anniversary; avert; awry; controversy; converge; converse (as the adjectival sense of "exact opposite”); convert; diverge; divert; evert; extroversion; extrovert; gaiter; introrse; introvert; invert; inward; malversation; obverse; peevish; pervert; prose; raphe; reverberate; revert; rhabdomancy; rhapsody; rhombus; ribald; sinistrorse; stalwart; subvert; tergiversate; transverse; universe; verbena; verge (as the verb meaning "tend, incline"); vermeil; vermicelli; vermicular; vermiform; vermin; versatile; verse (in the sense of the noun "poetry") version; verst; versus; vertebra; vertex; vertigo; vervain; vortex; -ward; warp; weird; worm; worry; worth (in the adjectival sense of "significant, valuable, of value") worth (as the verb "to come to be"); wrangle; wrap; wrath; wreath; wrench; wrest; wrestle; wriggle; wring; wrinkle; wrist; writhe; wrong; wroth & wry.  Vermiform is an adjective.

Commonly used in medicine to describe the appendix, Modern French also gained the word from Latin as the adjective vermiforme (plural vermiformes), the spelling of the medical use apéndice vermiforme (plural apéndices vermiformes).  The only known derived form in English is the adjective subvermiform, used apparently exclusively in the disciplines of zoology, including entomology.  The meaning was defined in a dictionary from 1898 as “shaped somewhat like a worm” which is surprisingly imprecise for the language of science but that vagueness appears adequate for the purposes to which it’s put.  For whatever reason, vermiform was a word much favored by the US humorist HL Mencken (1880-1956).

The female Eumillipes persephone: 1,306 legs & 330 segments.  

Because the scientific literature has for some time been dominated by COVID-19 and all that flowed the brief, sudden prominence of two vermiform creatures, one ancient, the other more recent, was an amusing distraction.  The younger animal was a new species of millipede which boasted not only more legs than any other creature on the planet but was the first of its kind to live up to its name.    

Since circa 1600, the term millipede has been applied to any of the many elongated arthropods, of the class Diplopoda (a taxonomic subphylum within the phylum Arthropoda (the centipedes, millipedes and similar creepy-crawlies) with cylindrical bodies that have two pairs of legs for each one of their many body segments and, although milliped was long regarded as the correct spelling by scientists who work with myriapods, millipede is by far the most common form in general use (although there’s the odd specialist who insists on millepede).  Millipede was from the Latin millipeda (wood louse), the construct being mille (thousand) + pes (genitive pedis) (foot), from the primitive Indo-European root ped (foot) (probably a loan-translation of Greek khiliopous).  When named, it wasn’t intended as a mathematically precise definition, only to suggest the things had lots of legs though, certainly many fewer than a thousand.  The creature has always possessed a certain comical charm because, despite having usually twice the number of legs as centipedes, the millipede is entirely harmless whereas there are centipedes which can be quite nasty.  For centuries millipede was thought a bit of a misnomer, with no example ever observed with more than 750 legs and that deep-soil dweller was an outlier, most having fewer with a count in two figures quite common.  The new species also lives in the depths: Eumilipes persephone (Persephone, the daughter of Zeus who was taken by Hades to the underworld), a female was found to be sprouting 1,306 legs.  Pale and eyeless, it’s vermiform in the extreme, the body-length almost a hundred times its width and instead of vision, it used a large antennae to navigate through darkness to feed on fungi.

The sheer length of the thing does suggest a long lifespan by the standards of the species, most of which tend not to survive much beyond two years.  The persephone however, based on a count of the body segments which grow predictably in the manner of tree rings, seems likely to live perhaps as long as a decade.  One factor which accounts for the longevity is the absence of predators, the persephone’s natural environment banded iron formations and volcanic rock some 200 feet (60 m) beneath the surface of a remote part of Western Australia.  Entomologists didn’t actually venture that deep to explore, instead using the simple but effective method of lowering buckets of tempting vegetation down shafts drilled by geologists exploring for minerals, returning later to collect whatever creatures had been tempted to explore.

Artist’s impression of an Arthropleura: half a metre wide and perhaps nearly three metres in length, the latter dimension similar to a small car.  

Days after the announcement from the Western Australian desert, livescience.com also announced researchers in the UK found the fossilized exoskeleton of an Arthropleura, the largest arthropod yet known to have lived.  The length of a modern car, the giant millipede-like creatures appear to have done most of their their creeping and crawling during the Carboniferous Period, between 359 million and 299 million years ago.

Although the Arthropleura have long been known from the fossil record, there’d not before been any suggestion they ever grew quite so large and the find was quite serendipitous, discovered on a beach in a block of sandstone which had recently fallen and cracked apart.  The exoskeleton fragment is 30 inches (750 mm) long and 22 inches (550 mm) wide which means the giant millipede would have been around 102 inches (2600 mm) long and weighed around 110 lbs (50 kg)m making it the biggest land animals of the Carboniferous era.  Despite its bulk however, the physics of movement and the need to support its own weight mean the leg count is nowhere near as impressive as its young relation what is now on the other side of the world (what are now the Australian and European land masses were closer together during the Carboniferous) and it’s still not clear if Arthropleura had two legs per segment or every two segments but either way it adds up to much fewer than a hundred.

Ultimately, Arthropleura was a victim of changing conditions.  In its time, it would have been living in a benign equatorial environment but, over millions of years, the equator can shift because of the phenomenon of TPW (true polar wander) in which the outer layer of Earth shifts around the core, tilting the crust relative to the planet’s axis.  This last happened some eighty-four million years ago.  So, the conditions which for so long had been ideal changed and changed suddenly and Arthropleura was unable to adapt, going extinct after having flourished for nearly fifty-million years.  The reasons for their demise are those seen repeatedly in the fossil record: In an abruptly changed environment, there was suddenly more competition for fewer resources and the Arthropleura lost out to animals which were stronger, more efficient and better able to adapt.

The human appendix.

Thousands of years after first being described, the human appendix, a the small blind-ended vermiform structure at the junction of the large and the small bowel remains something of a mystery.  For centuries the medical orthodoxy was it vestigial, a evolutionary dead-end and a mere quirk of human development but the current thinking is it exists as a kind of “safe-house” for the good bacteria resident in the bowel, enabling them to repopulate as required.  However, being blind-ended, although intestinal contents easily can enter, in certain circumstances it can operate as a kind of one-way, non-return valve, making exit impossible which results in inflammation.  This is the medical condition appendicitis and in acute cases, the appendix must surgically be removed.  That's usually fine if undertaken in good time because it's a simple, commonly performed procedure but unfortunately, in a small number of cases, a residual "stump" of the structure may escape the knife and in this inflammation may re-occur, something surgeons resentfully label “stumpitis”.  Apparently the most useless part of the human anatomy, there is noting in the medical literature to suggest anyone has noticed any aspect of their life being changed by not having an appendix.