Macabre

Macabre (pronounced muh-kah-bruh, muh-kahb or muh-kah-ber)

(1) Gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible; grim.

(2) Of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.

(3) Of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death, the danse macabre.

1400–1450: As Macabrees daunce, a Middle English borrowing from the Middle French danse (de) Macabré (dance of death), of uncertain origin, thought perhaps identified with the Medieval Latin chorēa Machabaeōrum a representation of the deaths of Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, but there’s no documentary evidence.  An interesting technical point is the French pronunciation with a mute “e” is a misreading of the Middle French forms.  The abstracted sense of "characterized by gruesomeness" was used first in French in 1842, spreading to English by 1889 and dictionaries date a racial sense from 1921.  The sense "comedy that deals in themes and subjects usually regarded as serious or taboo" was first recorded in 1961, in the figurative sense of "morbid".  The origin, although contested, is most associated with the French left and new wave of the late 1950s (pièce noire, comédie noire) which may have and the source of the terms “black comedy” & “dark comedy” in English.  A revisionist theory suggests derivation from the Spanish macabro, from the Arabic مَقَابِر‎ (maqābir) (cemeteries), plural of مَقْبَرَة‎ (maqbara) or مَقْبُرَة‎ (maqbura).  Borrowing from the Arabic in plural form is not unusual (eg magazine, derived from the plural مخازن (maxāzin) of the Arabic singular noun مخزن (maxzan) (storehouse; depot; shop) so the theory is etymologically possible but, like the preferred French source, evidence is wholly lacking.  Related meanings include spooky, ghastly, ghoulish, grisly, morbid, gruesome, weird, frightening, grim, lurid, cadaverous, deathly, dreadful, frightful, ghostly, hideous, horrible, offensive & scary; Macabre is an adjective, macabrely the adverb.  The alternative spelling is macaber but few approve.  Macabre is an adjective.

Dance of Death

Danse Macabre of Basel, memento mori painting, unknown artist, circa 1450, Basel Historical Museum.

The Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) was an artistic genre of allegory dating from the late middle ages; exploring the universality of death, it made clear that however exulted or lowly one’s station in life, the Dance Macabre unites all.  It was a popular artistic motif in European folklore and the most elaborated of medieval macabre art.  During the fourteenth century, Europe was beset by deathly horrors, recurring famines, the Hundred Years’ War and, looming over all, the Black Death.  All these were culturally assimilated throughout Europe, the omnipresent chance of either a sudden or a long and painful death spurring not only a religious desire for penance but also a sometimes hysterical desire for amusement while such things remained possible; a last dance as cold comfort.  The Danse Macabre satisfied these desires, the dance-with-death allegory originally a didactic dialogue poem to remind people of the inevitability of death and to advise them strongly to be prepared at all times for death.

During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the theme was a source of the vivid and stark paintings on the walls of churches and the cloisters of cemeteries and ossuaries.  Art of the Danse Macabre was typically a depiction of the personification of death summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave; often included were popes, emperors, kings, children and labourers. They were produced as mementos mori (a phrase from the Latin which translates literally as "remember that you will die"), artistic or symbolic reminders of the inevitability of death and intended to remind the living of the fragility of life and how one should try to live a more fulfilling and purposeful life, making the most of one's brief few years.  The tradition, although it became increasingly detached from its religious associations, never died and has enjoyed periodic resurgences over the last six-hundred years, notably after horrific events such as pandemics or the First World War.  COVID-19 seemed not to stimulate similar art; popular culture’s preferred platforms have shifted.

Sense of the macabre: Terry Richardson's (b 1965) suicide-themed shoot with Lindsay Lohan, 2012.

Sconce

Sconce (pronounced skons)

(1)  A bracket for candles or other lights, placed on a wall, mirror, picture frame etc (a development of the earlier use relating to candles).

(2) The hole or socket of a candlestick (for holding the candle).

(3) A fortification; a small detached fort or defense work, as to defend a pass, bridge etc; a protective screen or shelter (obsolete).

(4) In the University of Oxford, informally to fine an undergraduate for a breach of rules or etiquette (the penalty drinking a specified quantity of ale); a fine so imposed; a mug or tankard used in sconcing (typically a beer bong).

(5) The head or skull; sense or wit (now rare, probably obsolete); a piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet (now for historic reference only).

(6) A poll tax; a mulct or fine.

1350–1400: From the Late Middle English sconce, sconce & sconse (defensive fortification or fortification work), from the Old French esconce (hiding place; lantern) from the Medieval Latin scōnsa, an aphetic variant of abscōnsa (noun use of feminine past participle of abscondere (to conceal; dark lantern) (also the source of the modern abscond)).  The Latin absconsus (hidden) was the perfect passive participle of abscond (hide).  Related was the Dutch schans (defensive fortification or fortification work) and the Middle High German Schanze (bundle of brushwood).  The Dutch word also had an interesting evolution, used to mean (1) a type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford, (2) a hut for protection and shelter; a stall, (3) a fragment of a floe of ice ( (4) as fixed seat or shelf.  Sconce is a noun & verb and sconced & sconcing are verbs;  the noun plural is sconces.  In English, while other meanings emerged, in military use sconce continued to be used to refer to fortifications or defensive works and during the English Civil War (1642-1651) a sconce was a small fortification or earthwork that was built quickly to defend a position. 

An Oxford tradition

Beer bong half-yard.

A tradition of the Oxford colleges, a sconcing was a demand a person drink a tankard of ale as a penalty for some breach of etiquette.  The word in this context is attested from 1617 and originally described a monetary fine imposed for a more serious breach of discipline, the use as a kind of high table drinking game becoming common only in the early nineteenth century.  Offences which might have attracted a sconce included talking at dinner about women, religion, politics, one's work, the portraits hung in the college hall or making some error in the reciting of the Latin Grace.  Originally reserved for the senior scholar or fellow at each table, the right to demand a sconce (usually in Classical Latin (and mixing in later variants was not tolerated) or Ancient Greek) was later extended to all.  The quantity of a sconce varied from two imperial pints (1.1 litres) and three and three-quarters (2.1 litres) although the larger measures are believed to have been "rare".  The Oxford tradition was essentially the same as "fining" at Cambridge although in the narrow technical sense, a sconce was the act of issuing a penalty rather than the penalty itself, a distinction often lost on undergraduates, especially after a couple of sconces.

Lindsay Lohan with bandaged sconce: Falling for Christmas (2022).

In the Netflix film Falling for Christmas, the plot line includes Lindsay Lohan suffering trauma-induced amnesia after a blow to the sconce.  In English slang (UK and most of the Commonwealth although it seems not to have reached the critical mass needed for survival in the US & Canada) the use of sconce (which may have peaked in the early nineteenth century although any measure of oral use is difficult to estimate) to mean "the head, the skull" remained common until just after World War I (1914-1918).  Etymologists suspect the decline may have been the result of UK & Commonwealth troops mixing with those from other nations and developing a preference for their slang, a trend by which US English (formal & informal) has influenced the language for well over a century.

Leman

Leman (pronounced lem-uhn or lee-muhn)

(1) A sweetheart; lover; beloved.

(2) A mistress.

(3) As Lac Léman, the French name for Lake Geneva.

1175-1225: From the Middle English lemman (loved one of the opposite sex; paramour, lover; wife (and also (1) "a spiritually beloved one; redeemed soul, believer in Christ; female saint devoted to chastity; God, Christ, the Virgin Mary" & (2) "a term of intimate address to a friend or lover")), variant of leofman, from the Old English lēofmann (lover; sweetheart; attested as a personal name), the construct being lief +‎ man (beloved person).  Lief was from the Middle English leef, leve & lef, from the Old English lēof (dear), from the Proto-Germanic leubaz.  It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian ljo & ljoo, the West Frisian leaf, the Dutch lief, the Low German leev, the German lieb, the Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk ljuv, the Gothic liufs, the Russian любо́вь (ljubóv) and the Polish luby.  Man is from the Middle English man, from the Old English mann (human being, person, man), from the Proto-Germanic mann (human being, man) and probably ultimately from the primitive Indo-European man or mon (man).  The origins of the use of "Dear" as a salutation in letters (a convention some preserve in email though apparently not in other digital comms) is thought derived ultimately from the the Old English leofman (the construct being leof (dear) + man) as a term of intimate address to a friend or lover.

Bader Shammas (b 1987) and his leman.

A linguistic relic, leman applied originally either to men or women and had something of a romantic range.  It could mean someone of whom one was very fond or something more although usage meant the meaning quickly tended to the latter; a sweetheart or paramour.  In the narrow technical sense it could still be applied to men although it has for so long been a deliberate archaic device and limited to women, it would be confusing.  It tends now to be used as a term of disparagement against women in the same way a suggestion of the mendacious is thought a genteel way to call someone a liar.  In early-modern English, alternative spellings did emerge, lemman between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries and remarkably, lemon in the fifteenth and sixteenth.  No explanation for lemon in this context has emerged and it may have been an imperfect echoic.  The word certainly had a curious path on its way to obscurity, beginning as meaning "one's beloved", it came to be applied to God, Christ, the Blessed Virgin and other notables of Christianity before being specifically re-purposed around the turn of the fourteenth century to mean "one's betrothed" yet by the late 1500s it had acquired the  at the turn of the sense of a "concubine or mistress".   

The Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser (circa 1552-1599)

Woodcut illustration for Book II (Cantos VII-XII) of the Faerie Queene.

As long ago as the late sixteenth century, leman was rare word, supplanted by other forms, some gender-specific.  However, that very quality of the obsolescent made it attractive as a literary device for those seeking some historic flavor, the use exemplified in The Faerie Queene, an epic-length poem recounting tales of knightly exploits.  Written in a deliberately archaic style, Spenser merged history and myth, drawing especially on the Arthurian legends with each of the books an allegorical following of a knight who represents a particular virtue (holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy) which will be tested by the plot.  It’s long been of interest to Shakespearean scholars because book two appears to be a source for much of King Lear.  It’s also attracted the attention of feminist critics.

Such is the crueltie of womenkynd,
When they have shaken off the shamefast band,
With which wise Nature did them strongly bynd,
T’obay the heasts of mans well ruling hand,
That then all rule and reason they withstand,
To purchase a licentious libertie.
But virtuous women wisely understand,
That they were borne to base humilitie,
Unlesse the heavens them lift to lawfull soveraintie. (Book five) 

The poem is unfinished: Spenser planned twelve books but only six were completed, a seventh left incomplete.

Faire Venus seemde vnto his bed to bring

Her, whom he waking euermore did weene

To be the chastest flowre, that ay did spring

On earthly braunch, the daughter of a king,

Now a loose Leman to vile seruice bound. (Book one)

Yogurt

Yogurt (pronounced yo-gurt, yog-urt or yog-utt)

(1) A milk-based product stiffened by a bacterium-aided curdling process, and sometimes mixed with fruit or other flavoring.

(2) Any similar product based on other substances (used very loosely except in jurisdictions with prescriptive legislation).

1620s: From the Ottoman Turkish یوغورت‎ (yoğurt) (yogurt).  Deconstructions of the original Turkish suggest the root yog meant something like “to condense” and was related to yoğun (thickened; intense), yogush (liquify (of water vapor)), yogur (knead) & yoğurmak (to knead; to be curdled or coagulated; to thicken) and there are similar words in other languages including the Welsh iogwrt (yogurt).  Yogurt is a noun; the noun plural is yogurts.

In the English speaking word there’s the usual Atlantic divide, yog-urt the usual pronunciation in the UK whereas in the US it tends to be yo-gurt.  This is mirrored by the various spellings and they in turn influence the regional differences in pronunciation.  In the UK, the usual spelling is yoghurt (although some imported product is different) while in the US it’s nearly always is yogurt.  In the far-flung outposts of the linguistic empire (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), both spellings are found.  Canada (influenced by the UK because of the imperial legacy, the US because of proximity and France because of the special position of the province of Quebec) uses both the common spellings and has its own, unique blend (yogourt), a variant of the French yaourt.

Lindsay Lohan eating yogurt, Los Angeles, 2009.

The origin of the UK’s spelling (yoghurt) is said by etymologists to date from a mispronunciation of the Turkish from which the dairy treat came.  The sound ğ was in the early seventeenth century rendered as gh in transliterations of Turkish (the “g” a "soft" sound, in many dialects and closer to an English "w").  Across the channel, the French universally say yaourt, thus exactly following the spelling so while the English got the “g” wrong in transliteration, the French don’t pronounce the “g” at all and that appears to be the closest to the original.  The French pronunciation pays tribute to the Turkish letter “ğ” (yumuşak ge (a “g” with a squiggle)) which in Turkish is silent, the squiggle denoting only that the length of the preceding vowel should be lengthened.  The linguistic theory is that France being geographically closer to Asia Minor (the land mass which encompasses most of the modern Republic of Türkiye), yogurt must have been introduced by Turkish traders who demonstrated the correct pronunciation whereas the more remote English and Scandinavians received their yogurt by ship and had only the spelling with which to work.  They did their usual phonetic thing and the variations are with us to this day.

Ether

Ether (pronounced ee-ther)

(1) In chemistry, Pharmacology and (pre-modern) surgery, A colorless, highly volatile, flammable liquid (C₄H₁₀O), having an aromatic odor and sweet, burning taste, derived from ethyl alcohol by the action of sulfuric acid.  It was used as a powerful solvent and as an inhalant anesthetic (also called diethyl ether, diethyl oxide, ethyl ether, ethyl oxide, sulfuric ether.

(2) In pre-modern chemistry, one of a class of compounds in which two organic groups are attached directly to an oxygen atom (the general formula ROR), as in diethyl ether (C₂H₅OC₂H₅).

(3) In Greek mythology, the upper regions of the atmosphere; clear sky or heaven (and from this long a rarely used word for “air”).

(4) In physics, a hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space, an idea picked up in the early days of radio broadcasting, the signal said to be “in the ether”.

(5) In chemistry, a starting fluid.

(6) Figuratively, a particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere; an aura (probably most familiar in the form ethereal). 

1350-1400: From the Middle English ether (the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air), from the Middle French & Anglo-Norman ether, from the Old French aether (highest and purest part of the atmosphere; the medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space), from the Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr) (purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light), (akin to aíthein (to glow, burn)) or directly from its etymon New Latin aethēr (highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity).  The ultimate source of the Greek was αἴθω (aíthō) (to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine), from the primitive Indo-European heyd- (to burn; fire).  It was related to the Old English ād (funeral pyre) and the Latin aestus (heat).  As late as the nineteenth century, it was not uncommon in English for the Latin-derived spelling aether to be used, probably because so much of what was in the books of apothecaries remained for so long unchanged.  The German-born chemist August Sigmund Frobenius (circa 1690-1741) was the first to use the name for the volatile chemical, his bestowal based on its properties.  The name entered English science in 1757 although it wasn’t until 1842 the anaesthetic properties were fully documented.  The English word was cognate with the obsolete Italian etere (ether & ethera both obsolete), the Middle Dutch ether, the modern Dutch ether (aether obsolete), the German Äther, the Portuguese éter and the Spanish éter.

In ancient cosmology, ether was the element filling all space beyond the sphere of the moon, constituting the substance of the stars and planets; in the imagination of Antiquity it was held by one school of thought to be a purer form of fire or air, by another as a fifth element.  From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, ether was part of scientific orthodoxy and the technical word for an assumed framework within which the forces of the universe interacted, perhaps without material properties.  As the scientific method evolved increasingly to demand proof of theories, doubts were expressed about the validity of the traditional view and in 1887 an experiment by American physicists Albert Michelson (1852-1931) and Edward Morley (1838-1923) cast such doubts on the notion that among others, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was moved to begin calculations and the view of the nature of ether from Antiquity was completely dismissed after conclusive proof of the theory of relativity in 1919.  Despite that, having first been so used in 1899, the word endured well into the twentieth century to describe the path of the then seemingly mysterious radio broadcasts.

Lindsay Lohan during her dabble with Ethereum fueled NFT drops.  

Although the volatility and churn rate make it a hard sector to track, there are apparently over 20,000 currently active (in the sense of being listed somewhere and thus able to be traded) cryptocurrencies.  There are obvious attractions to creating one's own virtual currency because in a sense one is creating one's own money (usually in the millions) and if one can convince others (and guides to market manipulation have been published) to exchange their convertible currency for one's tokens, it can be a good business model.  One thankless task associated with cryptocurrencies however is coming up with a suitable name, something not of great importance once the creation gains critical mass but possibly quite influential when first listed.  It must be something like thinking of names for racehorses but harder still because not only must it be unique but it should also not be too close to other financial products (not just other virtual currencies).  Ethereum (ETH) was coined by Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin (b 1994) who has in interviews revealed he chose the name after browsing Wikipedia for a list of fictional elements on based on ether.  One can certainly see the link and it makes more sense than the earlier Ethernet, originally a trademark of the Xerox Corporation, the construct being ether +‎ net(work).  Ethernet was a collection of cabling and network connectivity protocols standards for bus topology computer networks and to use the word "ether" was a bit of a leap, everything originally connected by cable whereas at least part of the Ethereum traffic travels through the ether (as it was understood in Antiquity).  With Ethernet cabling, there was thick and thin Ethernet and the physical cabling literally was thick and thin, the choice dictated by things like the distance to be covered, the number of nodes to be connected and the available budget.  In the world of cryptocurrency, think & thin means "going through thick & thin", hodling (holding) one's coins no matter what the fluctuations.

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.