Byzantine

Byzantine (pronounced biz-uhn-teen, biz-uhn-tahyn, bahy-zuhn-tyne or bih-zan-tin)

(1) Relating to Byzantium, the Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Orthodox Church.

(2) Of or about a situation deemed excessively complicated and typically involving a great deal of seemingly pointless administrative detail (usually without initial capital).

(3) A citizen of Byzantium or the Byzantine Empire.

(4) Of or belonging to the style of architecture developed from the fifth century AD in the Byzantine Empire, characterized especially by a central dome resting on a cube formed by four round arches and their pendentives and by the extensive use of surface decoration, especially veined marble panels, low relief carving, and colored glass mosaics.

(5) Of the painting and decorative style developed in the Byzantine Empire, characterized by formality of design, frontal stylized presentation of figures, rich use of color, especially gold, and generally religious subject matter.

(6) Characterized by elaborate scheming and intrigue, especially for the gaining of political power or favour (usually without initial capital).

(7) In numismatics, a coin issued by the Byzantine Empire.

(8) A dark, metallic shade of violet.

1651 (in English use): From the Late Latin Bȳzantīnus (of Byzantium), the name derived ultimately from the ancient Greek city Byzantion on the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, said to have been named in 657 BC for it founder, Byzas of Megara.  Constantine I (circa 272–337; Roman emperor 306-337 (and the first to convert to Christianity) rebuilt the city and renamed it Constantinople.  The city fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 although the modern-day name Istanbul wasn’t (except in the Vatican and the Orthodox Church) universally adopted until the years after World War II (1939-1945).  Although in Greek legend the ancient city name Byzantion came from King Byzas, leader of the Megarian colonists, who is said to be its founder, the etymology remains uncertain although most historians of the period seem to agree it must be of Thraco-Illyrian origin and there’s no doubt Byzantium is a Latinization of the original.  Centuries later, in Western literature, the name Byzantium became the standard term with which to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire (the "Byzantine Empire” centred on the walled capital Constantinople.  For all the generations which lived while the empire stood, the term would have been mysterious and it gained currency only after 1555 when introduced by the German historian Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580), a century after Constantinople had fallen and the empire had ceased to exist.  Until Wolf introduced the phrase, the word Byzantium was restricted to just the city, rather than the empire which, in the way of such things, had waxed and waned.  Byzantine is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is Byzantines.

Byzantium

A hand-painted rendition of Byzantine Constantinople after the style of medieval mapmakers.

Standing for centuries on blood-soaked soil on the Bosporus where Europe ends and Asia begins, Greek forces laid siege during the Peloponnesian war and Sparta took the city in 411 BC before it was reclaimed by the Athenian military in 408 BC.  Almost razed, by Roman forces in 196 AD, Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus (145-211; Roman emperor 193-211) and quickly regained its previous prosperity.  The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine I (circa 272–337; Roman emperor 306-337 (and the first to convert to Christianity)) who in 330 AD re-created it as an imperial residence inspired by Rome itself and after his death, it was called Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis (literally "city of Constantine"))).  For a thousand years, it was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and a commercial, cultural & diplomatic centre and from its strategic position, Constantinople’s rulers controlled the major trade routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.  On 29 May 1453, in the first example of a major city falling to a siege by artillery, Constantinople fell to the Turks, becoming the capital of the Ottoman Empire.  The great walls which for centuries had defied invaders from land and sea, crumbled to modern cannon fire.  Even then, the Turks called the city Istanbul (from the Greek eis-tin-polin (to-the-city) although it was not officially renamed until 1930, almost a decade after the Empire was dissolved and it remains Turkey’s largest and most populous city, although Ankara is now the national capital.

Lindsay Lohan meeting Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye since 2003), Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), January 2017.

The other senses of byzantine (as often used without the initial capital): (1) “characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation, often for some nefarious purpose” and (2) “something intricate, complicated; inflexible, rigid, unyielding” are both of dubious historical validity.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), “byzantine” was first used in English in 1937 (of the impenetrable despotism of the Soviet Union which appeared to those in the Foreign Office schooled in the classics to be much the same as what they’d learned of the antics practiced in Constantinople) in the sense of “reminiscent of the manner, style, or spirit of Byzantine politics; intricate, complicated; inflexible, rigid, unyielding” but in French political scientists had earlier applied in the same figurative context, something which would surprise few familiar with the politicians of inter-war France, a generally rotten crew about whom it was remarked “they can’t keep a government for nine months, nor a secret for five minutes”.  Still, it was probably the English who lent the word its loaded meaning.  Edward Gibbon’s (1737–1794) magisterial The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (six volumes: 1776-1788) was influential for generations in forming the construct of the period in the European imagination and he caricatured the history of the empire as endless chicanery, shadyness, back-channel deals, low skulduggery, back-stabbing, and naked grabs for power.  Until late in the twentieth century, phrases like “bewildering Oriental intrigue” flowed easily from the pens of English historians and hints of the attitude, cloaked in wokish words, appear even since they’ve switched to keyboards.  Much modern scholarship though has been more forgiving and there’s now an understanding that while like everywhere, low politics and dirty deeds were sometimes done, a remarkable civilization grew on the Bosporus.

Byzantium architectural styles.

The association with needless complexity and pointless administrative duplication was probably born of the same prejudices to which was added the view the empire was infused with strange religious rituals and stubbornness in the way it clung to superstition.  Historians have of late have refined this view, suggesting words like “intricate” or even “labyrinthine” might better capture the spirit of the place which was, by any standards and certainly those of medieval Europe, a complex and highly developed society.  The loaded meaning though seems here to stay, perhaps reinforced in the public imagination by the phonetic similarity between “byzantine” & “bizarre”.  Bizarre means “strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic or conspicuous ways” and was from the French bizarre (odd, peculiar (and formerly “brave; headlong, angry”), either from the Basque bizar (a beard (on the notion that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French) or from Italian bizzarro (odd, queer, eccentric, weird (and, of a horse “frisky” in the sense of the English “bolter”)) of unknown origin but thought probably related to bizza (tantrum), which may be of Germanic origin.  In summary then, the Byzantines would have had their moments but were no more nasty and duplicitous that politicians everywhere and when describing convoluted things as byzantine it might be more accurate to instead call them labyrinthine or just bizarre.

Kosher

Kosher (pronounced koh-sher)

(1) In Judaism, a legal definition of food fit or allowed to be eaten or used, according to the dietary or ceremonial laws of the of the Talmud; in conformity with canonical texts or Rabbinical edict, the kosher rules can be applied also to non-food items such as clothing.

(2) In Judaism, adhering to the laws governing such fitness.

(3) In informal use (without any religious connotations), proper, legitimate, genuine, authentic.

1851: From the From Yiddish כּשר‎ (kosher), from Hebrew כָּשֵׁר‎ (kāshēr, kasher and kashruth) (right, fit, proper), the Yiddish reflecting the original meaning.  In the US, in the mid-nineteenth century, the forms kasher & coshar were also in use and beyond the Jewish community, the use as a general verbal shorthand for proper, legitimate, genuine, authentic etc dates from 1896 or the 1920s depending on source although it’s only “kosher” (the original, simplified form of the Hebrew) which endured thus.  Kosher is a verb, adjective & adverb, kosherness is a noun, kosherize, koshering & koshered are verbs and kosherly an adverb.  Because the state of kosherness is a matter of fact under the rules of the Talmud, the adjectives nonkosher & unkosher are often used though whether there are nuances which dictate the choice of which (or even if any such nuances are consistent) isn’t clear.  Although it’s grammatically non-standard, kosher & non kosher are sometimes used as nouns.  Even among those who tend to work in English or an English-Yiddish mix, the transitive verb “to kasher” is commonly used to describe the preparation of food to conform to Jewish law.  As a modifier it’s applied as required thus formations such as kosher salt, kosher kitchen, kosher pickle etc.

Lindsay Lohan on a visit to Westminster Synagogue with former special friend Samantha Ronson, London, March 2009.

The rules for kosher foods are codified in the Torah in the kashrut halakha (dietary law) which exists mostly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  Food that conforms is called kosher; that which does not is treif.  Although many elements of the rules are well known (no hare, hyrax, camel, and pig; no shellfish or crustaceans, no creeping things that crawl the earth and no mixing of meat and dairy at the same meal), for adherents, it can at the margins be complex and sometimes the adjudication of the rabbi is needed although, Judaism as practiced is not monolithic and while those who are practicing will probably adhere to a core set or rules, the interpretation varies between communities, their traditions and their level of observance.  The history is also acknowledged by scholars of the texts and it’s admitted many of the original rules about the consumption of animal flesh were a kind of health code in the pre-refrigeration era, the proscriptions applied to the animals which had been found most prone to spread illness or disease if eaten after too long after slaughter or subject to inadequate preparation.  However, despite advances in technology & techniques meaning health concerns no longer apply, because of the long tradition, the rules have no assumed the function of a devotional obligation.

McDonald's at Abasto Mall, Buenos Aires, Argentina, said to be the world’s only kosher McDonald's outside of Israel.  On some days, it’s open until 2am.

The core rules of kosher food

(1) Animals must be slaughtered with a specific method: The beast must be killed by a trained kosher slaughterer (a shochet) using a sharp blade without nicks or imperfections.  The animal must be healthy and not suffer during the process.

(2) Only certain animals are considered kosher: The Torah lists several permitted animals including cows, sheep, goats, and deer. Pigs, camels, rabbits, and other animals are proscribed.

(3) If from the sea, river or lake, only fish with fins and scales may be considered kosher; crustaceans & shellfish are proscribed.

(4) Certain parts of an animal must not  be eaten including the sciatic nerve and certain fats.

(5) Insects which dwell or habitually crawl on the ground are proscribed but flying and leaf-dwelling insects such as locusts are permitted.

(6) Fruit and vegetables must carefully be inspected for bugs and other contaminants; a contaminated item can be cleaned if only touched by a bug but if partially eater, it must be discarded.

(7) Meat and dairy must never be mixed; not stored, prepared, cooked or consumed together.  Separate utensils and dishes must be used for each.

Jelly

Jelly (pronounced jel-ee)

(1) A food preparation of a soft, elastic consistency due to the presence of gelatin, pectin etc, especially fruit juice boiled down with sugar and used as a sweet spread for bread and toast, as a filling for cakes or doughnuts etc.

(2) A preserve made from the juice of fruit boiled with sugar and used as jam (jam the preferred term in much of the English-speaking world outside North America).

(3) Any object or substance having a jelly-like consistency.

(4) A fruit-flavored gelatin dessert (in the English–speaking world but less common in North America where “jello” or “jell-o” are preferred).

(5) A “jelly shoe”, a plastic sandal or shoe, often brightly colored.

(6) To bring or come to the consistency of jelly.

(7) In theatre, film & television production, the informal term for a colored gelatin filter which can be fitted in front of a stage or studio light.

(8) A slang term for the explosive gelignite.

(9) In Caribbean (Jamaica) English, a clipping of jelly coconut.

(10) A savory substance, derived from meat, with a similar texture to the sweet dessert (the gelatinous meat product also known as aspic).

(11) In the slang of zoology, a jellyfish.

(12) In slang (underworld & pathology), blood, especially in its congealed state.

(13) In slang, an attractive young woman; one’s girlfriend (US, probably extinct).

(14) The large backside of a woman (US, now rare).

(15) In internet slang, a clipping of jealous (rare).

(16) In Indian use, a vitrified brick refuse used as metal in road construction.

(17) As “royal jelly”, a substance secreted by honey bees to aid in the development of immature or young bees, supplied in extra measure to those young destined to become queen bees.

1350–1400: From the Middle English jelyf, gelly, gelye, gelle, gelee, gele & gely (semisolid substance from animal or vegetable material, spiced and used in cooking; chopped meat or fish served in such a jelly), from the Old French gelee (frost; frozen jelly), a noun use of feminine past participle of geler (to set hard; to congeal), from the Medieval Latin gelāta (frozen), from gelu (frost), the construct being gel- (freeze) + -āta (a noun-forming suffix).  The Classical Latin verb gelō (present infinitive gelāre, perfect active gelāvī, supine gelātum) (I freeze, cause to congeal; I frighten, petrify, cause to become rigid with fright) was from gelū (frost), from the primitive Indo-European gel- (cold) and was cognate with the Ancient Greek γελανδρόν (gelandrón).  Originally quite specific, by the early fifteenth century jelly was used of any jellied or coagulated substance and by the 1700s it came to mean also "thickened juice of a fruit prepared as food" which was both a form of preserving fruit and a substance used by chefs for flavoring and decorative purposes.  The adjective jellied (past-participle from the verb jelly) emerged in the 1590s with the sense of “of the consistency of jelly” and by the late nineteenth century this had been extended to include “sweetened with jelly”.  Because of the close historical association with foods, the preferred adjectival form for other purposes is jelly-like.  As a modifier jelly has proved productive, the forms including jelly baby, jelly bag, jellybean, jelly coat, jelly doughnut, comb jelly, jelly bracelet, jelly plant & royal jelly.  Jelly is a noun & verb, jellify & jellification are nouns, jellified & jellied are verbs & adjectives and jellying is a verb; the noun plural is jellies.

Aunger "jelly bean" aluminium wheels, magazine advertisement, 1974.  A design popular in the 1970s, different manufacturers used their own brand-names but colloquially the style was known as the “jellybean”, “slotted” or “beanhole”.

The verb jell (assume the consistence of jelly) is documented since 1869 and was a coining of US English, doubtlessly as a back-formation from the noun of jelly.  The figurative use (organizations, ideas, design etc) emerged circa 1908 but with the spelling gel, a echo of the Middle English gelen (congeal) which was extinct by the late fifteenth century.  The jellyfish (also jelly-fish) was in the late eighteenth century a popular name of the medusa and similar sea-creatures, the name derived from the soft structure.  Figuratively, jellyfish was used from the 1880s for “a person of weak character” although publications from 1707 use the name for an actual vertebrate fish.  

The jelly roll.

The jellyroll (also jelly-roll) was a “cylindrical cake containing jelly or jam” which dates from 1873 and in some markets (notably Australia & New Zealand) it is sold as a “jam roll” or “Swiss Jam Roll”.  The use of jelly roll as slang for both the vagina and the act of sexual intercourse was of African-American origin circa 1914 and was mentioned several times in blues music.  The jellybean (also (rarely) jelly-bean) (small bean-shaped, multi-colored sugar candy with a firm shell and a thick gel interior) was introduced in 1905, the name obviously from the shape.  It entered US slang in the 1910s with the sense of “someone stupid; a half-wit” which was apparently the source of the slang sense of bean as “head”.  In the 1990s, jellybean was the (usually disparaging) term often applied to the depressingly similarly-shaped cars which were the product of wind-tunnels.  While aerodynamically efficient, few found the lines attractive.

1996 Ford Taurus Ghia (left) and 1996 Ford EF Falcon XR8 (right).

In 1996, Ford Australia put the US-sourced Taurus into the showrooms alongside the locally-built and well-received EF Falcon.  As well as carrying the stigma of front wheel drive (FWD), the “jellybean” styling alienated buyers, some of whom suggested the Taurus looked as if it had already been in an accident.  The Taurus was withdrawn from the Australian market after two years of dismal sales, dealers managing to clear to unsold stock only after a further year of heavy discounting.

Champagne Jelly

Champagne Jelly was served at the coronation banquet of Edward VII (1841–1910; King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India 1901-1910) in 1902 and has since been a popular “nostalgia” dish, seen often at weddings or seasonal celebrations.

Ingredients (to serve 6)

1 bottle 750 ml bottle of Champagne
2 sachets (2½ tsp each) powdered gelatin (or 8 gelatin sheets)
2 tablespoons water (if using powdered gelatin)
115g (4oz) white sugar
Berries and/or edible flowers (optional)
Fresh mint leaves, for garnish

Instructions

(1) Place Champagne bottle in a freezer 30 minutes before beginning (this will ensure jelly will retain the bubbles

(2) In a small bowl, sprinkle the powdered gelatin, if using, over the water and let stand until softened (typically 3-5 minutes).  If using gelatin sheets, put sheets into a bowl and cover with cold water, soaking until floppy (typically 5-10 minutes).

(3) Open Champagne and pour 120ml into a small pan.  Return the Champagne to the freezer, ensuring bottle remains upright.  If this is not possible, put bottle into fridge in upright position.

(4) Add the sugar to the pan, place over a medium heat, and heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves at which point, removed from the heat.  Liquefy the powdered gelatin by setting the bowl of softened gelatin into a larger bowl of very hot tap water (do not use boiling water).

(5) If using gelatin sheets, lift the sheets from the water, wring to release excess water, then put them into a bowl and liquefy as for the powdered gelatin.  Add the liquefied gelatin to the Champagne mixture and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

(6) Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl or pitcher, then allow it cool to room temperature.

(7) Add 480ml of chilled Champagne to the cooled gelatin mixture and stir well.  If adding berries or edible flowers, pour half of the gelatin mixture into a 600ml (1pint) mould and chill until almost set (typically 30-45 minutes).  Arrange the embellishments on top, then add the remaining gelatin mixture.

(8) If serving the jelly without embellishments, pour all the gelatin mixture into the mould.  Cover and refrigerate until fully set (at least 12 hours and preferably longer).  At this point drink remaining Champagne.  If need be, open a second bottle.

(9) To serve, fill a bowl with hot water.  Dip the bottom of the mould into the hot water for a few seconds to loosen the jelly from the mould, then place on a serving plate and garnish with mint.

Lindsay Lohan in outfit inspired by Champagne Jelly, ABC’s Good Morning America, November 2022.  The suit was from Law Roach’s (b 1978) Akris’ fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection, the ensemble including a wide-lapelled jacket, turtleneck and boot cut pants fabricated in a green, yellow, red & orange Drei Teile print in an irregular geometric pattern.  The distinctive look was paired with a similarly eclectic combination of accessories, chunky gold hoop earrings, a cross-body Anouk envelope handbag, and Giuseppe Zanotti platform heels.

Goodly

Goodly (pronounced good-lee)

(1) Of a substantial size or quantity.

(2) Of a good or fine appearance (rare).

(3) Of fine quality (obsolete).

(4) Highly virtuous (obsolete unless quantity is thought virtuous which does seem possible).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English, from the Old English gōdlīc, from the Proto-Germanic gōdalīkaz (equivalent to the Old English gōd (good)).  The construct was good + -ly.  Good was from the Middle English good & god, from Old English gōd (that which is good, a good thing; goodness; advantage, benefit; gift; virtue; property), from the Proto-West Germanic gōd, from the Proto-Germanic gōdaz, from the primitive Indo-European ghed (to unite, be associated, suit).  It was cognate with the Dutch goed, the German gut, the Old Norse gōthr, the Gothic goths & the Russian го́дный (gódnyj) (fit, well-suited, good for) & год (god) (year). The –ly prefix was from the Middle English -ly, -li, -lik & -lich, from the Old English -līċ, from the Proto-West Germanic -līk, from the Proto-Germanic -līkaz (having the body or form of), from līką (body) (from whence Modern German gained lich); in form, it was probably influenced by the Old Norse -ligr (-ly) and was cognate with the Dutch -lijk, the German -lich and the Swedish -lig.  It was used (1) to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, having a likeness or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" and (2) to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals".  Goodly, goodlier & goodliest are adjectives and goodliness is a noun.

Lindsay Lohan with a largifical show of skin and a goodly sprinkle of freckles in Lynn Kiracofe tiara & Frye boots with Calvin Klein Original’s blue cotton jeans over white polyester and spandex XT Trunk briefs, W Magazine photo shoot, April 2005.

In English, goodly was long used to mean (1) someone or some act thought commendable or virtuous, (2) an item of high quality, (3) something or someone attractive and (4) ample or numerous in quality.  It was thus variously a synonym of many words including ample, big, biggish, burly, capacious, comprehensive, decent, extensive, good, great, gross, hefty, husky, jumbo, largish, major, massive, ponderous, respectable, sensible, beautiful & virtuous.  However, by the mid-twentieth century most senses of goodly had gone extinct and the word was only ever used of something quantitative.  Even then it was (and remains) rare but it exists in a niche populated by poets and literary novelists so its audience is thus limited.  As an example of the inconsistency in English’s evolution, the sense of virtue did survive in the noun goodliness.  An alternative to goodly when speaking of quantities was largifical and unlike goodly, it did not survive although large obviously has flourished.  The adjective largifical was from the Latin largificus, from largus (bountiful, liberal), the construct being an adaptation (via facere (in fact)) of larg(us) + faciō (do, make), from the Proto-Italic fakjō, from the primitive Indo-European dheh- (to put, place, set), the cognates of which included the Ancient Greek τίθημι (títhēmi), the Sanskrit दधाति (dádhāti), the Old English dōn (from which English ultimately gained “do”) and the Lithuanian dėti (to put).  So, beyond the confines of the literary novel, the preferred alternatives to goodly and largifical include sufficient, adequate, plenty, abundant, enough, satisfactory, plentiful, copious, profuse, rich, lavish, liberal, generous, bountiful, large, huge, great, bumper, flush, prolific, overflowing, generous & ample, the choice dictated by the nuances of need.

Flurona

Flurona (pronounced floo-roh-nuh)

An (currently) informal term for a case in which a patient simultaneously is infected both with influenza and the SARS-Cov-2 virus (source of the COVID-19 (a coronavirus) disease).

2022: A portmanteau word, the construct being (in)flu(enza) + (co)rona.  Influenza was from the Italian influenza (influence), from the Latin influentia.  The word has been used in English since 1743 borrowed from the Italian where it had been used since at least the late fifteenth to describe diseases (not all of which would now be regarded as influenza) with symptoms similar to a severe cold accompanied by a high fever.  Italian picked up the word from the  Medieval Latin influentia in the astrological sense (visitation, influence (of the stars)), an inheritance from the Classical Latin where it carried the meaning "to be planet-struck, afflicted as if by an evil star" on the notion of the then inexplicable disease being the result of some astral, occult, or atmospheric influence.  Corona dates from 1555–1565 and was from the Latin corōna (garland, crown) from the Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē or korōnis (crown, any curved object)), akin to korōnís (wreath; curved, beaked) & kórax (crow; raven); related was the Latin curvus (curved).  COVID-19 (an abbreviation of coronavirus disease 2019) is the name of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.  The name was adopted in February 2020, chosen by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.  Until then, it had been called variously 2019-nCoV, Novel coronavirus or Wuhan coronavirus.  SARS-CoV-2 is related to MERS-CoV (which causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)) and SARS-CoV (which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)).  Flurona is a noun; the noun plural is fluronas.

Avoiding florona:  Donald Trump, crooked Hillary Clinton, Lindsay Lohan and Boris Johnson in face masks.

Flurona is one of those neologisms which are creations of a certain time and place and dictionaries tend to reserve judgement, so many words of this type fading from use as the circumstances which encouraged their creation recede.  Two things may count against flurona becoming embedded in the language: (1) flurona is thus far rare although it’s hard to be definitive because among those with minor or zero symptoms reporting is known to be low (it’s just unknown how low) and (2) even where cases are confirmed, it’s rare for a case of flurona to produce symptoms which are appreciably worse than single instances of either condition.  So the dictionaries will wait and see and there’s every chance a hundred years hence, flurona might appear in whatever form lexicographers will then use appended with an “archaic”, “extinct” or “obsolete”.

COVID-19 and Flu A/B Rapid Antigen Combo Test.

Flurona differs from the more established neologisms used in epidemiology and virology: twindemic & tripledemic (the respective constructs twin or triple + (pan or epi) + -demic.  There words reference respectively a combination of (1) influenza & Covid-19 or (2) influenza, COVID-19 & RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).  Both a twindemic and a tripledemic can thus be geographically limited (as in an epidemic) or, like a pandemic, widespread.  A case of flurona (not a single disease or a new strain of COVID-19) is thus two conditions diagnosed in one patient whereas twindemic or tripledemic are outbreaks of two different conditions happening simultaneously.

Concord & Concorde

Concord or Concorde (pronounced kon-kawrd)

(1) Agreement between persons, groups, nations, etc.; concurrence in attitudes, feelings, etc; unanimity; accord; agreement between things; mutual fitness; harmony.

(2) In formal grammar, a technical rule about the agreement of words with one another (case, gender, number or person).

(3) A treaty; compact; covenant.

(4) In music, a stable, harmonious combination of tones; a chord requiring no resolution.

(5) As concordat, under Roman-Catholic canon law, a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Church and the state in matters that concern both.

(6) In law, an agreement between the parties regarding land title in reference to the manner in which it should pass, being an acknowledgment that the land in question belonged to the complainant (obsolete).

(7) A popular name for locality, commercial operations and products such as ships, cars etc.

(8) In horticulture, a variety of sweet American grape, named circa 1853 after Concord, Massachusetts, where the variety was developed.

1250-1300: From the Middle English and twelfth century Old French concorde (harmony, agreement, treaty) & concorder, from the Latin concordare & concordia, (harmonious), from concors (of the same mine; being in agreement with) (genitive concordis (of the same mind, literally “hearts together”)).  The construct was an assimilated form of com (con-) (with; together) + cor (genitive cordis (heart) from the primitive Indo-European root kerd (heart)).  The "a compact or agreement" in the sense of something formal (usually in writing) dates from the late fifteenth century, an extension of use from the late fourteenth century transitive verb which carried the sense "reconcile, bring into harmony".  From circa 1400 it had been understood to mean "agree, cooperate, thus a transfer of sense from the Old French & Latin forms.  Concorde was the French spelling which eventually was adopted also by the British for the supersonic airliner after some years of linguistic squabble.  Concord is a noun & verb, concordance & concordat are nouns, concorded & concording are verbs and concordial & concordant are adjectives; the noun plural is concords.

The Concorde and other SSTs

Promotional rendering of Concorde in British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) livery.  BOAC was the UK's national carrier between 1940-1974 when merged with British European Airways (BEA) to form British Airways (BA).

Concorde was an Anglo-French supersonic airliner that first flew in 1969 and operated commercially between 1976-2003.  It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound (Mach 2.04; 1,354 mph (2,180 km/h)) and seated 92-128 passengers.  Man breaking the sound barrier actually wasn’t modern; the cracking of a whip, known for thousands of years, is the tip passing through the sound barrier and engineers were well aware of the problems caused by propellers travelling that fast but it wasn’t until 1947 that a manned aircraft exceeded Mach 1 in controlled flight (although it had been achieved in deep dives though not without structural damage).  The military were of course immediately interested but so were those who built commercial airliners, intrigued at the notion of transporting passengers at supersonic speed, effectively shrinking the planet.  By the late 1950s, still recovering from the damage and costs of two world wars, France and the UK were never going to be in a position to be major players in the space-race which would play-out between the US and USSR but civil aviation did offer possibilities for both nations to return to the forefront of the industry.  France, in the early days of flight had been the preeminent power (a legacy of that being words like fuselage and aileron) and UK almost gained an early lead in passenger jets but the debacle of the de Havilland Comet (1949) had seen the Boeing 707 (1957) assume dominance.  The supersonic race was thought to be the next horizon and the UK’s Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee (STAC) was in 1956 commissioned with the development of a Supersonic Transport (SST) for commercial use.

Concordes exist in a number of flight simulator programs; this is Colimata's Concorde v1.10 in BA livery.

The committee’s early research soon established it was going to be an expensive undertaking so the UK sought partners; the US declined but in 1962 the UK and France signed the Anglo-French Concorde agreement, a framework for cooperation in the building of the one SST.  The choice of name actually came some months after the engineering concord was signed, the manufacturers submitting to the UK cabinet the names Concord and Concorde, it being thought desirable to have something which sounded and meant the same in both languages (the French had already agreed it shouldn’t be called the Super-Caravelle the project name for a smaller SST on which some work had been done in 1960).  The other suggestions put to cabinet were Alliance or Europa.  In the cabinet discussions in London, Alliance was thought to be "too military" and Europa offended those Tories who still hankered for the "splendid isolation" which had been the British view on European matters in the previous century.  Even in the nineteenth century age of Pax Britannica splendid isolation had been somewhat illusory but in the Tory Party the words still exerted a powerful pull.  

The French-built Concorde 001's roll-out, Toulouse Blagnac airport, 11 December 1967.

There is some dispute about whether the cabinet ever formally agreed to use the French spelling but, like much in English-French relations over the centuries, the entente proved not always cordial and the name was officially changed to Concord by UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (later First Earl Stockton, 1894–1986; UK prime-minister 1957-1963) in response to him feeling slighted by Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970; President of France 1958-1969) when Le President vetoed the UK’s application to join the European Economic Community (the EEC which evolved into the present Day EU of which the UK was a member between 1973-2020).  However, the Labour party won office in the 1964 general election and by the time of the roll-out in Toulouse in 1967, the UK’s Minister for Technology, Tony Benn (Anthony Wedgwood Benn, 1925–2014, formerly the second Viscount Stansgate) announced he was changing the spelling back to Concorde.  There were not many eurosceptics in the (old) Labour Party back then.

Concorde taking off, 1973 Paris Air Show, the doomed Tupolev Tu-144 in the foreground.

The engineering challenges were overcome and in 1969, some months before the moon landing, Concorde made its maiden flight and, in 1973, a successful demonstration flight was performed at the same Paris air show at which its Soviet competitor Tupolev Tu-144 crashed.  Impressed, more than a dozen airlines placed orders but within months of the Paris show, the first oil shock hit and the world entered a severe recession; the long post-war boom was over.  A quadrupling in the oil price was quite a blow for a machine which burned 20% more fuel per mile than a Boeing 747 yet typically carried only a hundred passengers whereas the Jumbo could be configured for between four and five hundred.  That might still have been viable had have oil prices remained low and a mass-market existed of people willing to pay a premium but with jet fuel suddenly expensive and the world in recession, doubts existed and most orders were immediately cancelled.

Concorde 002 on public display at BAC's (British Aircraft Corporation) airfield, Filton, Bristol, site of its construction.

Eventually, only twenty were built, operated only by BOAC (BEA/BA) and Air France, early hopes of mass-production never materialized; while orders were taken for over a hundred with dozens more optioned, the contracts were soon cancelled.  By 1976 only four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran; the latter two never took up their orders and by the time Concorde entered service, the US had cancelled their supersonic project and the Soviet programme was soon to follow.  Even without the oil shocks of the 1970s and the more compelling economics of wide-bodied airliners like the Boeing 747, there were problems, the noise of the sonic boom as the speed of sound was exceeded meaning it was impossible to secure agreement for it to operate over land at supersonic speed.  Accordingly, most of its time was spent overflying the Atlantic and Pacific and BA and Air France sometimes made profit from Concorde only because the British and French governments wrote off the development costs.  Concorde was an extraordinary technical achievement but existed only because the post-war years in the UK and France were characterised by national projects undertaken by nationalised industries.  Under orthodox modern (post Reagan cum Thatcher) economics, such a thing could never happen. 

Concorde F-BTSC (Air France Flight 4590), Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France, 25 July 2000.

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, bound for New York, crashed on take-off out of Paris, killing all 109 on board and a further four on the ground. It was the only fatal accident involving Concorde, the cause determined to be debris on the runway which entered an engine, causing catastrophic damage.  In April 2003, both Air France and British Airways announced that they would retire Concorde later that year citing low passenger numbers following the crash, the slump in air travel following the 9/11 attacks and rising maintenance costs.

Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998)

Fictional works are usually constructed cognizant of physical reality and technological innovations have always influenced what's possible in plot-lines.  The cell phone for example offered many possibilities but also rendered some situations either impossible or improbable (although Hollywood has sometimes found either of those no obstacle in a screenplay).  The retirement of Concorde also had to be noted.  Not only had it long been used as a symbol of wealth but there was also the speed so plot-lines which included the relativities of the duration of commercial supersonic versus subsonic trans-Atlantic travel were suddenly no loner possible.  Lindsay Lohan's line in The Parent Trap (1998) since 2003 (and for the foreseeable future) is a "stranded relic" of the Concorde era.     

Tupolev Tu-144 (NATO reporting name: Charger).

The Tu-144 was the USSR’s SST and it was the first to fly, its maiden flight in 1968 some months before Concorde and sixteen were built.  It was also usually ahead of the Anglo-French development, attaining supersonic speed twelve weeks earlier and entering commercial service in 1975 but safety and reliability concerns doomed the project and its reputation never recovered from the 1973 crash.  The Soviet carrier Aeroflot introduced a regular Moscow-Almaty service but only a few dozen flights were ever completed, the Tu-144 withdrawn after a second crash in 1978 after which it was used only for cargo until 1983 when the remaining fleet was grounded.  It was later used to train Soviet cosmonauts and had a curious post-cold war career when chartered by NASA for high-altitude research.  The final flight was in 1999.

Boeing 2707.

While perfecting supersonic military aircraft during the early 1950s, Americans had explored the idea of SSTs as passenger aircraft and had concluded that while it was technically possible, in economic terms such a thing could never be made to work and that four-engined jets like the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8 were the future of commercial aviation.  However, the announcement of the development of Concorde and the Soviet SST stirred the Kennedy White House into funding what was essentially a vanity project proving the technical superiority of US science and engineering.  Boeing won the competition to design an SST and, despite also working on the 747 and the space programme, it gained a high priority and the 2707 was projected to be the biggest, fastest and most advanced of all the SSTs, seating up to three-hundred, cruising at Mach 3 and configured with a swing-wing.  Cost, complexity and weight doomed that last feature and the design was revised to use a conventional delta shape.  But, however advanced US engineering and science might have been, US accountancy was better still and what was clearly an financially unviable programme was in 1971 cancelled even before the two prototypes had been completed.

Lockheed L-2000.

Lockheed also entered the government-funded competition to design a US SST.  Similar to the Boeing concept in size, speed and duration, it eschewed the swing-wing because, despite the aerodynamic advantages, the engineers concluded what Boeing would eventually admit: that the weight, cost and complexity acceptable in military airframes, couldn’t be justified in a civilian aircraft.  As the military-industrial complex well knew, the Pentagon was always more sanguine about spending other people's money (OPM) than those people were about parting with their own.  Lockheed instead used a slightly different compromise: the compound delta.  After the competition, Boeing and Lockheed were both selected to continue to the prototype stage but in 1966 Boeing’s swing-wing design was preferred because its performance was in most aspects superior and it was quieter; that it was going to be more expensive to produce wasn’t enough to sway the government, things being different in the 1960s.  Reality finally bit in 1971.

Depiction of a Boom Overture in United Airlines livery.

In mid-2021 US carrier United Airlines (UA) announced plans to acquire a fleet of fifteen new supersonic airliners which they expected to be in service by 2029.  It wasn’t clear from the press release what was the most ambitious aspect of the programme: (1) that Colorado-based Boom (which at the time had not achieved supersonic flight), would be able by 2029 to produce even one machine certified by regulatory authorities for use in commercial aviation, (2) that the aircraft would be delivered at close to the budgeted US$200 million unit cost, (3) that what United describe as “improvements in aircraft design since Concorde” will eliminate, reduce or mitigate (all three have at various times been suggested) the effects of the sonic boom, (4) that it won’t be “any louder than other modern passenger jets while taking off, flying over land and landing”, (5) that sufficient passengers will be prepared to pay a premium to fly at Mach 1.7 in a new and unproven airframe built by a company with no record in the industry or that (6) Greta Thunberg (b 2003) will believe Boom which says Overture will operate as a "net-zero carbon aircraft".

Looking sceptical: Greta Thunberg.

The suggestion was the Overture will run on "posh biodiesel", made from anything from waste cooking fat to specially grown high-energy crops although whether this industry can by 2029 be scaled-up to produce what will be required to service enough of the aviation industry to make either project viable isn’t known.  Still, if not, Boom claimed "power-to-liquid" processes by which renewable energy such as solar or wind power is used to produce liquid fuel will make up any shortfall.  Boom does seem a heroic operation: they expect the Overture to be profitable for airlines even if tickets are sold for the same price as a standard business-class ticket.  One way or another, the flight-path (figuratively and literally) of the Boom Overture follows is going to become a standard case-study in university departments although whether that's in marketing, engineering or accountancy might depend matters beyond Boom's control.

Boom XB-1 in subsonic flight.

Boom’s progress can’t however be denied because on 10 February, 2025, its XB-1 “proof of concept” test platform accomplished what orthodox physics once deemed impossible.  On that day if flew over California’s Mojave Desert at speeds beyond the sound barrier without generating a sonic boom, the announcement surprising some sceptics but doing little to quell the doubts among analysts unable to build models which show a sustained profitable life for the project.  What Boom did with the XB-1 was use an implementation of “Mach cut-off” technology which exploits atmospheric conditions by manipulation, redirecting shock waves upward rather than toward the ground.  This is achieved by operating the airframe in a certain four-dimensional envelope (a window created by specific atmospheric conditions within a certain height range up to a certain speed).  Flying within these parameters, the airframe minimizes the unwanted effects of pressure waves, dispersing them without forming the concentrated pressure front that creates the dreaded sonic booms.  Whatever the sceptical economic modelers may conclude, it was an impressive display of Boom’s technology and engineering with the ground-level impact eliminated, at least in the ideal, controlled conditions of a test flight.

Scripps Climate Physics explains Mach Cut-Off.

What the economists noted was the XB-1 was able to achieve the much vaunted “silent-supersonic” at around 1,200 km/h (750 mph) and the math indicates the means to implement Mach cut-off when travelling faster (certainly the 2,100 km/h (1300 mph; Mach 1.7) which apparently remains Boom’s target) doesn’t yet exist, even at the level of theory.  On land, sea or air, for centuries what has determined commercial viability is the speed-cost trade-off and notional profitability was for at least some of Concorde’s years of operation achieved because it offered a quicker trans-Atlantic flight-time (typically the Concorde at Mach 2.04 (1,350 mph, 2,180 km/h) would take 3 hours 30 minutes while at Mach 0.85 (565 mph, 910 km/h), a Boeing 747 would need 7-8 hours).  In truth that profitability was a fudge subsidized by taxpayers (a remarkably common phenomenon in modern capitalism) because the French & British governments “wrote off” the development costs (some Stg £1.3 billion by the late 1970s at a time when a billion pounds was still a lot of money and even that may have been a deliberate under-estimate to conceal the true cost which has been estimated (in 2023 Sterling value terms) as high as Stg£21 billion).

Boom XB-1 taking off.

Rich customers or those with tickets paid for by OPM (other people’s money) were prepared to pay the significant premium charged for a seat on Concorde just to avoid sitting an additional 4-5 hours on a wide-bodied subsonic aircraft and that’s the market Boom is interested in for a trans-continental (New York City (NYC) to Los Angeles (LA)) US service.  Subsonic flight times on the NYC-LA route are typically 5-6 hours while Boom will be able to achieve that in under two hours if their silent subsonic plans can be realized; that would mean the road transport components of a trip elements to and from the NYC & LA airports could be longer than the time in the air.  If able to offer a 3-4 hour reduction in NYC-LA travel time, genuinely that’s a marketing advantage but one which can be leveraged only if there are enough customers willing (with the required frequency) to spend somebody’s money to fill the seats of UA’s 15 silentsonics.  If, as Boom once indicated to venture capitalists (VC) and others (JAL (Japan Airlines has reportedly invested US$10 million), the tickets on the NYC-LA route would retail at around the subsonic business-class level, then few doubt their model will work but it remains to be seen whether what’s necessary can be achieved (1) by 2029 or (2) ever.  Hopefully, Boom does succeed so delta-winged supersonics can make a (quieter) return to the skies though it’ll be a shame if the marketing department insisted on changing the corporate name to something like “Boomless”, “No Boom”, “Boom-Free” or whatever.  “Boom” is a really good name for an aviation outfit has some history in the field, “Boom” the nickname of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Trenchard (First Viscount Trenchard, 1873–1956) who was instrumental in the formation of Britain’s RAF (Royal Air Force) although he gained the moniker because of the tone of his voice rather than anything to do with fluid dynamics.