Consortium

Consortium (pronounced or kuhn-sawr-tee-uhm or kuhn-sawr-shee-uhm)

(1) A combination of financial institutions etc, for carrying into effect some financial operation requiring large resources of capital.

(2) Any association, partnership, or union.

(3) In law, the legal right of partners in a marriage to companionship and conjugal intercourse with each other.

(4) In biology, two or more microbial groups living symbiotically; they can be endosymbiotic or ectosymbiotic.

1820–1830: From the Classical Latin consortium (partnership; association; society), derived from consortis & consors (partner), the construct being con- + -sors- + -ium.  Con is from the preposition cum (with; together) +‎ sors (lot; fate) from the Proto-Italic sortis, from Proto-Indo-European ser- (to bind) + -ium, the neuter singular morphological suffix from the Latin –um, based on Latin terms for metals such as ferrum (iron).  It was cognate with serō, seriēs and sermō.  Words (often imprecisely) used as synonyms include conference, group, society, club, company, union, organization, merger, wedding, patent, trust, cartel, holding, ownership, body, league, federation, business, institute & corporation.  Consortium is a noun and consortial an adjective; the noun-plural is either consortia or consortiums (the latter more common in English-speaking countries).  

Although it has technical meanings in law and science, in general use consortium has evolved to apply particularly to aggregations of corporations or individuals for purposes of some commerce.  It can however be used as a generic to apply to any partnership or union although such use has become increasingly rare as the mercantile association tends to dominate.  Other descriptors of aggregations are nuanced (such as federation vis-à-vis confederation) but consortium is an absolute; at law either it is or is not although from the outside, it can be hard to tell.

Consortia or consortiums?

In English there are neither rules nor even established conventions which decide whether original Latin plurals or manufactured English inventions are preferred but popular use has produced several practices.  Firstly there are words where either may be used but, because the classical forms are now rare, they should probably be avoided unless there’s some compelling case for their adoption (such as historical, technical or legal writing) but, whichever is chosen, that style should consistently be applied.  Then there are words which really demand the Latin plural be properly used because (1) it’s not possible to invent a pleasing Modern English form and (2) the originals tend to be better known so incorrect use can make for a jarring read.  Those often used interchangeably as both singular and plural include criteria and phenomena, the singular forms being criterion and phenomenon.  

Finally (3), there are words which have been not merely assimilated, but been wholly absorbed to become English.  Data is now an English word which is both singular and plural for all except for pedants and a handful of nerds for whom the distinction between data (plural) and datum (singular) is important.  Agenda, which once was plural, is now so established as a singular that the classical agendum is, if not extinct, is certainly archaic and perhaps obsolete; agendas is the accepted plural.  One great advantage of preferring English plural formations is that the rules are simple.  Classical Latin has a complex system of endings in which there are five categories or declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns (some with sub-categories).  The earlier Ancient Greek had a simpler system, but one still more complicated than that of English.

When describing business structures, the terms consortium & conglomerate are often used interchangeably although technically they’re quite different.  The confusion arises because to the casual observer (certainly the customer and probably not a few shareholders), they can from the outside look the same and some regulatory systems are so opaque it can take an expert to wade through a labyrinth of trusts and registrations to work out just how some of the more elaborate structures should be described.  Famously, the South Korean 재벌(chaebols (literally “financial cartel” or “rich family” or “financial clique”)), although usually regarded as conglomerates appear in at least part of their operations to function sometimes as a consortium (or even a number of parallel consortiums) but whether such arrangements are ad hoc or a permanent convenience can be difficult to determine.  With the chaebols, it’s no easy task to determine where one state ends and another begins.

A consortium is a group of independent organizations or individuals which join forces to collaborate on a specific project or objective (which can be a one-off, a time-limited agreement or permanent). In a consortium, each member retains their independence and autonomy, but all work together towards common goals.  Typically consortiums involve technology (such as the LIM (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft) which was formed to develop specifications for EMS (Expanded Memory Specification) & XMS (Extended Memory Specification) computer RAM (random access memory)), manufacturing (such as PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) which collaborated on a V6 engine few admired)) & education (such as the G8, the eight “old” Australian universities (sort of the equivalent of the US Ivy League) which formed an ongoing alliance to try to maximize their share of the nation’s research funding).  Consortium arrangements can be formal or informal and most exist to permit projects of common interest to be completed more quickly and avoid duplications of effort.

In business, a conglomerate is a corporation composed of multiple diverse and often unrelated businesses operating in various sectors.  The typical structure is to have a holding company which holds a controlling interest in several subsidiary companies, each of which operates with at least some degree of independence and such is the nature of international tax law that each may be registered in a place different from where their commercial activities are physically transacted.  Conglomerates may be planned or can grow organically through M&A (mergers and acquisitions) or from splitting up existing structures, either for some commercial or tax advantage or if ordered by regulators.  There can be real advantages in the conglomerate model because diversification can mean the structure can withstand downturns in one sector of the economy because of participation where demand remains strong.  Classic conglomerates include General Electric (GE) with fingers in pies like energy, aviation & healthcare and Berkshire Hathaway, which controls a portfolio in industries as diverse as insurance, finance, retail & manufacturing.

Lindsay Lohan, JFK Airport, New York, December 2011.

French-based LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is a conglomerate formed in 1987 through the merger of Louis Vuitton & Moët Hennessy and as well as the eponymous names their portfolio now includes over seventy “luxury” brands including Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, and Bulgari.  LVMH technically is thus a holding company but does from time to time enter into consortium arrangements to collaborate on projects (which in some cases have become acquisitions and therefore part of the conglomerate).

Tu quoque

Tu quoque (pronounce to-koh-cue-e)

(1) In philosophy, an appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the validity of the opponent's logical argument by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion.

(2) In international law, a justification of action based on an assertion that the act with which the accused is charged was also committed by the accusing parties.

From the Latin Tū quoque (translated literally as "thou also" and latterly as "you also"; the translation in the vernacular is something like "you did it too", thus the legal slang "youtooism" & "whataboutism". 

An example of the tu quoque fallacy in philosophy

In formal logic, tu quoque is a type of ad hominem argument in which an accused person turns an allegation back on the accuser, thus creating a logical fallacy.  It happens when for example when one charges another with hypocrisy or inconsistency in order to avoid the substantive matter.

Mother: You should stop smoking; it's bad for your health.

Daughter: Why should I listen to you? You started smoking at fourteen.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The daughter's tu quoque fallacy lies in dismissing or avoiding the argument because she believes her mother is being hypocritical or at least inconsistent.  While both may be true, that has nothing to do with and does not invalidate her argument.  While not quite the same thing, in 2012 Lindsay Lohan tweeted a hint she had some sympathy with the tu quoque defence gambit: "Why did I get put in jail and a nickelodeon star has had NO punishment(s) so far?". 

International Military Tribunal Trial  (IMT) Trial #1, Nuremberg, 1945-1946

At law, the classic tu quoque defense is an attempt by an accused to deny the legitimacy of a charge by alleging those mounting the prosecution committed exactly the same offence and thus stand equally guilty.  An interesting variation was raised by German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891-1980), appointed head of state in Hitler's will but on trial for his role as head of the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy) between 1943-1945.  Dönitz argued he should be acquitted because the navies of other (victorious) nations had conducted their operations using exactly the same tactics with which he was charged as war crimes but what was novel was the argument that the conduct in dispute (essentially, unrestricted submarine warfare) was, as practiced by both sides, entirely lawful and within the rules of war at sea.  A great many British & US sea captains and admirals agreed (“admirals are a trade union” Anthony Eden (1897-1977; UK prime-minister 1955-1957) would later remark in another context), some of whom provided affidavits for the defense in which they provided the details of they way they had their submarine forces conduct exactly the same operations which were the basis of the charges against Dönitz.

Defendants in the dock. IMT Trial #1, Nuremberg, 1945-1946.  All were guilty of something but three were acquitted by the IMT and later tried by German courts.  Dönitz (wearing dark glasses) is sitting in the back row (left of the photograph). 

The tribunal's aversion to a classical tu quoque being even admitted for discussion was not mere legal pedantry.  Hinted at by the prosecution declining to indict the German air force for their wartime conduct, despite pursuing the army, navy, and many other institutions of state, there was no hunger to offer defense counsel the chance to cite, inter alia, the carpet bombing (then often referred to as "area bombing") of Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities (and of course the matter of Tokyo or the later use of atomic bombs).  For the same reason, the Kremlin had no wish to have discussed the secret protocol to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact which had divided the spoils of Poland between Germany and the USSR although, because it had become known to the defense lawyers (who managed to sneak-in a mention) the curious situation came to prevail that the protocol, while not formerly admitted as a document, could be referred to but not in detail.  So, in the narrow technical sense, whether specific acts were justified in law depended (at least for the purposes of the trial) on whether or not they were part of the indictment, a position described by one twenty-first century author as “…hypocrisy permitted by Realpolitik” since the novel and vital ideas behind the creation of Nuremberg trial would have been jeopardized had the IMT cast doubt on the legitimacy of the victors’ actions, strategic or tactical.  That has been criticized but mostly by legal theorists who state, correctly “…there is no moral or legal basis for immunizing victorious nations from scrutiny… [and]… the laws of war are not a one-way street”.  In the abstract they are of course correct but the circumstances and timing of the Nuremburg trial were, and remain, unique and the matters for judgment so grotesquely horrid that it will always be a special case.

Dönitz’s defense appeared to impress the judges (though obviously not the two Russians who were under instruction from comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) to vote to have every defendant hanged).  Although convicted on counts two (crimes against peace) and three (war crimes), he received only a ten-year sentence, the shortest term of the seven imposed on those not hanged or acquitted.  Perhaps tellingly, one has to read the summary of the verdicts to work out against which of the indictment's four counts he had been convicted; it really isn't possible to work it out from the judgment and it wasn't until later it emerged that had been written by a judge who had voted for his acquittal.

Squirrel

Squirrel (pronounced skwur-uhl, skwuhr or skwir-uhl (UK))

(1) Any of numerous arboreal, sciurine, bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Sciurus, of the family Sciuridae.  Most common are the red (S. vulgaris) and grey (S. carolinensis).

(2) Sometimes applied to any of various other members of the family Sciuridae, as the chipmunks, flying squirrels, and woodchucks.

(3) The meat of such animals.

(4) The pelt or fur of such an animal.

(5) A coat trimmed with squirrel.

(6) To store or hide money, valuables etc, usually for the future (often followed by away).  Used informally to refer to a person who hoards things.

(7) In Scientology, a person, usually a freezoner (who practices Scientology outside of the official structures of the organization), who applies L Ron Hubbard's (1911-1986) technology in a heterodox manner (usually derogatory).

(8) One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.

(9) In LGBTQQIAAOP slang, as "squirrel friend" a trans-female friend or associate who still has functioning testicles (the pun based on the idea of "squirreling away their nuts").

1325–1375:  From the Middle English squirel & squyrelle, a borrowing from the Anglo-French escuirel (derived from the Old French escuireul), from the Vulgar Latin scūrellus or scūriolus, representing the Classical Latin sciurus.  Root was the Greek σκίουρος (skíouros) (shadow-tailed), the construct being ski(á) (shadow) + ouros (the adjectival derivative of ourá (tail); apparently because the tail was large enough to provide shade for the rest of the animal.  It was used with the diminutive suffixes ellus and olus.  Squirrel soon displaced the native Middle English aquerne, from the Old English ācweorna; in the Modern French, word is écureuil.  The use to describe hoarders was first noted in 1939 but, based on the notion of those who "squirrel thing away", it may long have been in informal oral use.  Squirrel is a noun & verb and squirrelly is an adjective (although squirrel-like seems more commonly used; the noun plural is squirrels.

A squirrel squirreling away nuts for the winter.  Most English dictionaries accept this spelling (although some prefer a single l) which makes squirrelled the longest word in English pronounced in one syllable.

In March 2023, Lindsay Lohan posted a "coming soon" picture confirming her rumored pregnancy.  Although it's not known how far advanced is her state, traditionally such announcements are made as a mother-to-be enters the second trimester so she should thus be three-months pregnant.  This means she can use the expression "with squirrel", one of the more curious adaptations of the word.  The origins of "with squirrel" are mysterious but etymologists seem convinced it was used from about the point at which the baby was expected to be delivered in six months, the implication presumably as soon as the "baby bump became apparent".  There are references to it being used at various points in the nineteenth century and it seems to have been restricted to rural communities in the Ozark mountains in the US.  Seemingly one of the many euphemisms employed to avoid saying the confronting word "pregnant", the last known reference to use dates from 1953.

Parabola

Parabola (pronounced puh-rab-uh-luh)

(1) In geometry, a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point in the same plane or in a parallel plane. Equation: y2 = 2px or x2 = 2py.

(2) In rhetoric, the explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose; a parable.

1570s: From the Modern Latin parabola, from the Late Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ) (a comparison; a setting alongside; parable (literally "a throwing beside" hence "a juxtaposition") so called by Apollonius of Perga circa 210 BC because it is produced by "application" of a given area to a given straight line.  The Greek parabolḗ was derived from παραβάλλω (parabállō) (I set side by side”), from παρά (pará) (beside) + βάλλω (bállō) (I throw); a doublet of parable, parole, and palaver.  It had a different sense in Pythagorean geometry.  The adjectival form parabolic (figurative, allegorical, of or pertaining to a parable) from the Medieval Latin parabolicus from the Late Greek parabolikos (figurative) from parabolē (comparison) is now probably the most widely used.  In geometry, in the sense of “pertaining to a parabola”, it’s been in use since 1702.  A parabola is a curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.  It’s best visualised as a shape consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance.

Monza

On the Monza banking: Maserati 250F (left), Ferrari F555 Supersqualo (centre) & Vanwall VW2 (right).

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (National Automobile Racetrack of Monza) is now the fastest circuit still used in Formula One, the highest recorded speed the 231.5 mph (372.6 km/h) attained during qualifying for the 2005 Italian Grand Prix by a McLaren-Mercedes MP4-20 (in qualifying trim) on the long straight between the Lesmo corners and the Variante del Rettifilo.  Built in 1922, the Italian Grand Prix has been held there every year since 1949 except in 1980 when the track was being modernised and it’s a wonder the track has survived the attention of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation).  Once an admirable body, the FIA has in recent decades degenerated into international sport’s dopiest regulatory body and has for some yers attempted to make motorsport as slow, quiet and processional as possible, issues like DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) now apparently more important than quality of racing.  Set in the Royal Villa of Monza park and surrounded by forest, the complex is configured as three tracks: the 3.6 mile (5.8 kilometre) Grand Prix track, the 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometre) short circuit and the 2.6 mile (4.3 kilometre) high speed oval track with its famous steep bankings which was unused for decades left to fall into disrepair before it was restored in the 2010s.  The major features of the main Grand Prix track include the Curva Grande, the Curva di Lesmo, the Variante Ascari and the famous Curva Parabolica.

On the parabolica: 1966 Italian Grand Prix.

The Curva Parabolica (universally known as “the parabolica”) is the circuit’s signature corner, an increasing radius, long right-hand turn and the final corner before the main straight so the speed one can attain on the straight is determined essentially by the exit speed from the the parabolica; a perfect execution is thus essential for a quick lap.  Although in motorsport it’s common to discuss the lengths of straights, one notable statistic is that even at close to 150 mph (200 km/h) speed with with the fastest cars take the curve, to transit the the parabolica takes just over 7.6 seconds.  Improvements to both the cars and the circuit means it’s now a less dangerous place but many drivers have died in accidents at Monza, some on or approaching the parabolica including Wolfgang (Taffy) von Trips (1928–1961) and Jochen Rindt (1942-1970).  In 2021, the Monza authorities announced the parabolica officially would be renamed “Curva in honor of former Ferrari factory driver Michele Alboreto (1956-2001) who to date remains the last Italian driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari.  It’s likely most will still refer to the curve as “the parabolica”.

The Monza circuit in its configuration for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix (left) and a Mercedes-Benz W196R (streamliner) exiting the parabolica ahead of two W196Rs in conventional open-wheel configuration.  The 1955 Italian Grand Prix was the seventh and final round of the World Championship of Drivers, the French, German, Swiss and Spanish events all cancelled in the aftermath of the disaster at Le Mans.  It was the fourth and last appearance of the Mercedes-Benz W196R streamliners which, after some bad experiences on the relatively tight Silverstone circuit, were restricted to the fast, open tracks.  Mercedes-Benz also withdrew from top-level competition after 1955 and, as a constructor, it would be half a century before they returned to Grand Prix racing.

The parabolic arc: A wheel drops off a Boeing Dreamlifter on take-off, describing a a classic parabolic arc.  The Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighters (LCF) were created using a modified 747-400 airline frame and were most associated with their use carrying Boeing 787 Dreamliner parts between the US, Italy & Japan.  It was an unusual configuration in that it was required to carry components which while large, weren't particularly heavy.

Biodata

Biodata (pronounced by-oh-dar-tah)

(1) A type of resume or curriculum vitae, regarding an individual's education and work history, especially in the context of a selection process.

(2) An semi-standardized document created to list the salient features of those in the Hindu marriage market.

1950s: A compound word, the construct being bio(graphical) + data.  Bio is from the Ancient Greek βίο (bío), combining form and stem of βίος (bios) (life).  Data is borrowed from the Latin data, nominative plural of datum (that is given), neuter past participle of dō (I give) and the doublet of date.  In English use, data is frequently used as both a singular & plural, datum now restricted almost entirely to technical writing by those for whom the distinction (or who fear being shamed by fastidious colleagues) matters although pedants do delight is pointing out what they insist remains an error.  This looseness isn't anything new; by the 1640s data meant "a fact given or granted" an organic evolution from the original use in Latin when it conveyed the sense of "a fact given as the basis for calculation in mathematical problems" and the connection with numbers has in the twentieth century become stronger.  In the early 1900s the predominant meaning was "numerical facts collected for future reference" and the meaning "transmittable and storable information by which computer operations are performed" seems first to have been documented in 1946.  Probably few words have been so associated as data & computers: Data-processing is from 1954 (although for years the industry seemed unable to decide if it was electronic data processing (EDP) or just data processing (DP) and the database (also as data-base) (a "structured collection of data stored in a manner it can be retrieved, analysed & and manipulated using a computer" was first described in 1958.  The data-entry operator (a person who transcribes data from physical sources (usually paper) into a computer, usually via keyboard entry) was distinct segment of the labor market by 1969 but was effectively extinct within less than two generations, a victim of technological advances.  Biodata is a noun; there is no accepted word biodatum and the plural of biodata is biodatas.

From HR to the marriage market

Biodata began life as part of the jargon of US industrial and organizational psychology.  To the HR professionals, it was a way of standardising the biographical data submitted in CVs but, being standardised, the information was inherently structured and thus suitable for storage and analysis, something which became increasingly interesting as big-machine databases became ubiquitous in corporations.  As early as the 1960s, corporate HR operations began applying the analytical techniques of psychology and criminology to their structured biodata sets, the predictive ability of the methods based on the axiom that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.  While crunching biodata does not predict all future behaviors, it does produce an indicative number, a measure of that to which future behaviors should tend.  Although claimed to be value-free, based as it is on the factual, not introspection and subjective judgements, biodata analysis has attracted criticism because of the bias inherent in the data chosen.

Extract from Lindsay Lohan's biodata.

Sample biodata for young lady from the Rajput caste.

In the twenty-first century, as the internet reached critical-mass in South Asian countries where the arranged marriage remains culturally embedded, biodata quickly became the preferred term to describe the résumé parents submit to other parents to permit unsuitable boys and girls to be culled from the list of prospective suitors.  Now often done through marriage sites (a specialised type of social media), the biodata typically includes such information as caste, education, work history, financial status, family background, height, weight, skin-tone and a photo.  However, although many sites offer structured templates, there's much variation although it's not clear whether there's any tendency towards a consistency of layout or content based on caste, geographical origin or anything else.  One thing that hasn't changed is that biodata documents are still formatted in a way inherently suited to the printed A4 page, though to reflect the cultural preference of parents.  Despite the mobile device use being high even among the older demographic in South Asia, when culling potential suitors, the big space of the A4 page seems still preferable to the small screen.

A cultural phenomenon which would be understood by structural functionalists is that despite the caste discrimination being outlawed in India for over seventy years, caste status and preferences remain frequently included in the biodata on Indian marriage sites.  Caste discrimination and untouchability were officially abolished in India with the adoption of the Constitution of India Act (26 January 1950), article 15 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.  Building on this, the (Congress) government of India passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) (1989), which provided additional protections for Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and other marginalized groups. Despite this seventy-odd year tradition of structural equality, caste discrimination persists in India (as it does to some degree in probably every culture) and remains a significant element in biodata .   

Wiggle

 Wiggle (pronounced wig-uhl)

(1) To move or go with short, quick, irregular movements from side to side.

(2) To cause to wiggle; move quickly and irregularly from side to side.

(3) A wiggling movement or course.

(4) A wiggly line.

(5) In (mostly northern) US cooking, a form of tuna casserole (usually made with tinned peas or carrots and used also to describe describe creamed tuna on toast; known as a bechamel sauce, especially in the New England states.

1175–1225: From the Middle English wiglen; akin to the Old English wegan (to move), wēg (motion) & wicga (insect) and probably related to the Norwegian vigla (to totter), frequentative of vigga (to rock oneself).  The Dutch and Middle Low German was wiggelen, though to be from the Middle Dutch wigelen (to wiggle) and perhaps the Middle Low German wigelen, frequentative of wiegen (to rock) from wiege (cradle).  The most common idiomatic form is “get a wiggle on”, an informal, usually friendly, suggestion to hurry.  Synonyms include twist, squirm, jerk, wag, writhe, jiggle, wave, wriggle, shimmy, zigzag, waggle, twitch & worm and forms are created as required including the intriguing outwiggled & outwiggling.  Wiggle is a noun & verb, wiggler is a noun, wiggly is an adjective and wiggled & wiggling are verbs; the noun plural is wiggles.  

Donald Trump meets the Wiggles.

Formed in Australia in 1991 as a television musical quartet, The Wiggles were noted for their distinctive and brightly colored skivvies (red, yellow, blue and purple).  Although there were personnel changes (which sometimes attracted controversy), during its first two decades, the membership was exclusively male but in 2012, Emma Watkins (b 1989), previously performing anonymously as Dorothy the Dinosaur, became the Yellow Wiggle and the group dynamics changed, such was her popularity with the audience that almost instantly she dominated, the male members now barely noticed except as her performing backdrop.  This had the advantage of rendering the red, blue and purple wiggles essentially commodities and thus easily replaced without adverse audience reaction but did seem to create a dependence on her which some suggested might might threaten the longer-term survival of the brand.  Those concerns will soon be tested by a raft of changes in the wake of the Yellow Wiggle's announcement in October 2021 she was passing on the skivvy, retiring from the group to pursue a Ph.D in sign language and dance.  For students of branding and marketing that would have been interesting enough but it coincided with the Wiggles deciding to revamp the line-up to encompass a more ethnically diverse range of performers, presumably to entice interest from the parents of more ethnically diverse families, the theory being they too have disposable income to spend on concerts and merchandize.  For all sorts of reasons, the outcome will be interesting.

In the jargon of fashion, a “wiggle dress” is a garment with a hem is narrower than the hips, the cut inducing the wearer to walk in short strides with the legs close together, the sway producing a wiggle of the hips.  A “wiggle” is subtly different from a “wobble” or a “jiggle” as Lindsay Lohan illustrates.

Camisole

Camisole (pronounced kam-uh-sohl)

(1) A short garment worn underneath a sheer bodice to conceal the underwear; also called cami (pronounced kam-ee).

(2) A woman's dressing jacket or short negligée.

(3) A sleeved jacket or jersey once worn by men (now obsolete but occasionally revived as a catwalk novelty).

(4) As camisole de force, a straitjacket with long sleeves (mostly historic references).

1816: From the French and the Old Occitan (also called Old Provençal) camisola, the construct being camis(a) + -ola; the Late Latin camīsa (shirt) was also the source of chemise and the Latin suffix -ola was added to a noun to form a (sometimes pejorative) diminutive of that noun; a variant was the Late Latin camisia (shirt or nightgown).  The thread was well-known in romance languages, the Old Portuguese camisa (shirt) was from the Late Latin camisia (shirt), from Transalpine Gaulish (of Germanic origin) from the Proto-Germanic hamiþiją (clothes, shirt, skirt), from the primitive Indo-European ḱam- (cover, clothes).  The modern use meaning a “sleeveless undergarment for women” dates from circa 1900 but for most of the late nineteen the century it generally meant "straitjacket” (a restraint for lunatics). Camisole is a noun & verb and camisoled is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is camisoles.

Camisole de force: The straitjacket

Crooked Hillary Clinton in Camisole de force (digitally altered photo).

Although ad-hoc wearable physical restraints had existed long before, the camisole de force (straitjacket) was invented circa 1772 by Irish doctor David MacBride (1726-1778), the more romantic story of it being a creation of a Monsieur Guilleret, a tapestry maker at Bicêtre Hospital, apparently a myth.  The basic concept endures to this day although they are now less used, having largely been supplanted by camisoles chimiques (or neuroleptics (a class of psychotropic drugs used to treat psychosis)).  The only fundamental change in design is that modern camisoles de force are made with sleeves, the early types restraining the arms directly under the fabric were found to be most uncomfortable.

Camisole de force on the catwalk: Straitjacket chic by Gucci and others.

Catwalks were once a place where fashion existed for fashion's sake and while there could be social or political implications in what was worn, the messaging usually had to be some sort of overt threat to the establishment for much of a protest to be raised.  However, we live now in more sensitive times and designers have to be aware of factors as diverse as religion, ethnicity, skin color, sexual orientation, age, body mass index (BMI) and the seemingly all-encompassing "cultural appropriation".  Gucci recently had to withdraw from sale a jumper (US$890, Stg£715) after critics found it too reminiscent of blackface minstrels, the connection being the built-in half-balaclava with knitted plump red lips.  That fixed, the fashion house was then accused of cultural appropriation because one of their headpieces (US$790, Stg£635) too closely resembled a Sikh turban.   To clarify the extent of the sin, the US-based Sikh Coalition issued a statement: "The Sikh turban is not just a fashion accessory, but it's also a sacred religious article of faith."

Madness (an now unfashionable word banned in polite company; the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) recommending "mental disorder" or "psychiatric disorder") may also be on fashion's banned list after Ayesha Tan-Jones (b 1993, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) staged a non-oral, verbal protest while on the catwalk (they might prefer the less exploitative "runway") in the Gucci show at Milan Fashion Week 2019.  Tan-Jones and other models were dressed in white jumpsuits for the show (and it can't be long before even the use of white is declared "problematic"), some of which used the motif of the straitjacket.  On their hands, Tan-Jones had written the words "Mental health is not fashion", clearly not accepting Gucci's rationale the designs were meant to represent "how through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression".  That has some linguistic tradition because women have in the past not infrequently described demands to be fashionable as "a straitjacket" but Tan-Jones presumably would prefer the notion remain a simile rather than a publicity stunt.

Ayesha Tan-Jones on the catwalk, Milan Fashion Week, September 2019. 

After the show, Tan-Jones issued their own statement, writing "Straitjackets are a symbol of a cruel time in medicine when mental illness was not understood, and people's rights and liberties were taken away from them, while they were abused and tortured in the institution.  It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straitjackets and outfits alluding to mental patients, while being rolled out on a conveyor belt as if a piece of factory meat."  That was followed up with another post which added they, along with some of the other models in the show, were donating to mental health charities a portion (% not mentioned) of the modeling fees paid by Gucci.  "Many of the other Gucci models who were in the show felt just as strongly as I did about this depiction of straitjackets, and without their support I would not have had the courage to walk out and peacefully protest" they said.  In response, the fashion house didn't address the substantive issued raised but did confirm straitjacket chic was just "...a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold", adding the line was intended as "...an antidote to the colourful designs in the rest of the Spring/Summer 2020 show".

Lindsay Lohan in camisole.

Snood

Snood (pronounced snood)

(1) A headband once worn by young unmarried women in Scotland and northern England.

(2) A headband for the hair.

(3) A pouch or net-like hat or part of a hat or fabric that holds or covers the back of a woman's hair.

(4) In zoology, a long fleshy appendage of pendulous red skin that hangs over the upper beak of male turkeys.

(5) A short line of horsehair, gut, monofilament etc, by which a fishhook is attached to a longer (and usually heavier) line; a snell.

(6) A piece of clothing to keep the neck warm; a neck-warmer.

(7) To bind or confine (the hair) with a snood or (in other contexts) to put on a snood.

Pre 900: From the Middle English snod (fillet, ribbon (the plural was snoden)), from the Old English snōd (headdress, fillet, ribbon for the hair), from the Proto-Germanic snōdō (rope, string), from the primitive Indo-European snohtéh (yarn, thread), from sneh & snehi- (to twist, wind, weave, plait).  It was cognate with the Scots snuid (snood) and the Swedish snod & snodd (twist, twine) and related in various ways to the Old Saxon snōva (necklace), the Old Norse snúa (to turn, twist) & snúðr (a twist, twirl), the Old Irish snathe (thread) and the English needle.  The alternative spellings were snod & sneed, both now obsolete.  In Dutch, snood means “villanous and criminal.  The Dutch form was from the Middle Dutch snôde, from the Old Dutch snōthi, from the Proto-Germanic snauþuz (bald, naked, poor), from the primitive Indo-European ksnéw-tu-s, from the root ksnew- (to scrape, sharpen) and cognates included the German schnöde and the Old Norse snauðr.  Snood is a noun & verb and snooding & snooded are verbs; the noun plural is snoods.

In the Medieval period, snoods were most associated with young unmarried girls, the implication being “in a state of maidenhood or virginity” so were something like advertising one’s status on Facebook as “single”.  Merely adorning one’s hair with a snood was of course no guarantee of chastity so the system was open to abuse but social media profiles can be misleading so in a thousand or more years little seems to have changed.  Modern adaptations of the word have been opportunistic.  Since 1938 snood has been used to describe the pouch or net-like “bags” use to contain hear at the back of the scalp and these were well-documented as widely worn in the Middle Ages but nobody seems to have thought them snoods which were culturally specific.  The accessories dating from the late 1930s were sold in parallel with conventional hairnets and were worn almost exclusively by women, long hair for men not then a thing in the West.  Typically, they were a close-fitting hood worn over the back of the head but differed from a hairnet proper in that the fit was looser, and they were constructed with a noticeably thicker yarn, weaved in a coarser mesh.  The way they were worn varied greatly according to the preference of the user and the nature of the hair to be contained.  Sometimes, a tighter-mesh band around the forehead or crown, running over or behind the ears and under the nape of the neck held things in place, the woven “bag” containing the hair dangling at the back.  There were also snoods fashioned from a solid fabric, but the advertising of the era suggests these were for fashion rather than function and tended to be colored to match an outfit.  Snood-like constructions are also worn by some women in a variety of religions which demand some form of hair-covering although the interpretation varies.  In the post-war years as health regulations began more rigorously to be imposed in food production and other sensitive facilities, snood seems briefly seems to have been used to describe the hairnets which were being mandated for employees and others in the space.  There were “hair snoods” and “beard snoods” but it was a brief linguistic phenomenon and soon it was hairnets all the way down.

Samir Nasri (b 1987) in football snood.

In Association football (soccer), the word was for some years used to describe the specialized garments players used as “neck-warmers”.  Popular with some players and understandably so in a sport played in the depths of the northern winter, the team managers were divided on their desirability and there were reports that as recently as 2009, (male) media commentators (presumably from a nice warm commentary position) were recorded as saying snoods as neck-warmers were “unmanly”.  Use of such as word would now probably see a commentator cancelled (or worse) and if may be that if a player chose again to wear one on grounds of the ubiquitous H&S (health & safety), they might find officialdom too timid to react. 

Nike Football Snood.

Demand clearly exists because manufacturers continue to maintain the product lines despite bans on their use at the professional level, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and the Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA, the International Association Football Federation) acting in 2011.  The concern apparently was on grounds of player safety, the suspicion that injuries might result from a snood being pulled from behind and in those circumstances the awarding a penalty for the infringement would not be sufficient because the need was to avoid injuries, not simply punish transgressors.  However, there was no empirical data and the risks were all theoretical so both authorities outlawed the things on the technical basis of them being “not an approved part of the football kit”.  The football snoods aren’t actually exclusively “neck-warmers” because, fully unfolded, they actually can cover the nose and ears, both vulnerable areas in cold conditions and in competitions where they’re not banned, they’re popular with goalkeepers, usually the most static position on the pitch.  So, instead of being thought of as neck-warmers, they’re really half-balaclavas and in the US, where “football” is something different, they’re often called “soccer scarfs”.

Lindsay Lohan illustrates the difference in a muffler (designed for warmth, left) and a scarf (designed to be decorative, centre).  A football player is a fully extended football snoot, worn in extended, half-balaclava style (right); in the US these are sometimes called “soccer scarfs”.

There is a logic to that although “soccer muffler” might be more precise although, lacking the alliterative punch, it’s unlikely to catch on.  Until well into the twentieth century, muffler and scarf were used interchangeably but with the introduction of the baffled mechanical device used to reduce the noise from car engines, the automotive use swamped the linguistic space and muffler became less associated with the neck accessory.  Historically, muffler was mostly British in use, Americans always preferring scarf but scarf is now almost universal although in the upper reaches of the fashion business however, the distinction is sometimes still drawn between the two, a scarf defined as an accessory to enhance the look and made from fabrics like silk, cotton or linen whereas a muffler is more utilitarian, bulkier and intended to protect from the cold and thus made from wool, mohair or something good at retaining body-heat.  Confusingly, muffler occasionally is used in commerce as a label of something which looks like a small blanket, worn over the shoulders and resembling an open poncho.