Fastback

Fastback (pronounced fast-bak or fahst-bak)

(1) A form of rearward coachwork for an automobile body consisting classically of a single, unbroken convex curve from the top to the rear bumper line (there are variations of this also called fastbacks).

(2) A car having using such styling (also used as a model name by both car and motorcycle manufacturers).

(3) A type of pig developed from the landrace or large white and bred for lean meat.

(4) In computing, a product-name sometimes used for backup software.

1960–1965: The construct was fast + back.  Fast was from the Middle English fast & fest, from the Old English fæst (firmly fixed, steadfast, constant; secure; enclosed, watertight; strong, fortified), from the Proto-West Germanic fast, from the Proto-Germanic fastu & fastuz (firm) (which was the source also of the Old Frisian fest, the Old Norse fastr, the Dutch vast and the German fest), from the primitive Indo-European root past- (firm, solid), the source for the Sanskrit pastyam (dwelling place).  The original meaning of course persists but the sense development to “rapid, speedy” dates from the 1550s and appears to have happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective.  The original sense of “secure; firm” is now restricted to uses such as “hard & fast” description of track conditions in horse racing but the derived form “fasten” (attach to; make secure) remains common.  Back was from the Middle English bak, from the Old English bæc, from the Proto-West Germanic bak, from the Proto-Germanic bakam & baką which may be related to the primitive Indo-European beg- (to bend).  In other European languages there was also the Middle Low German bak (back), from the Old Saxon bak, the West Frisian bekling (chair back), the Old High German bah and the Swedish and Norwegian bak; there are no documented connections outside the Germanic and in other modern Germanic languages the cognates mostly have been ousted in this sense by words akin to Modern English ridge such as Danish ryg and the German Rücken.  At one time, many Indo-European languages may have distinguished the horizontal back of an animal or geographic formation such as a mountain range from the upright back of a human while in some cases a modern word for "back" may come from a word related to “spine” such as the Italian schiena or Russian spina or “shoulder”, the examples including the Spanish espalda & Polish plecy.  Fastback is a noun; the noun plural is fastbacks.

1935 Chrysler Imperial C2 Airflow (top left), 1936 Cadillac V16 streamliner (top centre), 1936 Mercedes Benz 540K Autobahnkurier (Motorway Cruiser) (top right), 1948 Pontiac Streamliner (bottom left), 1948 Cadillac Series 62 (bottom centre) and 1952 Bentley Continental R (bottom right).

Although it was in the 1960s the fastback became a marketing term as the range of models proliferated, it was then nothing new, the lines appearing on vehicles even before 1920, some of which even used the teardrop shape which wind tunnels would confirm was close to optimal, as least in terms of reducing drag although it would be decades before the science evolved to the point where the importance of the trade-off between drag and down-force was completely understood.  To some extent this was explained by (1) so many of the early examples being drawn from aviation where shapes were rendered to optimize the twin goals of reducing drag & increasing lift and (2) road vehicles generally not being capable of achieving the velocities at which the lack of down-force induced instability to a dangerous extent.  Rapidly that would change but there was quite a death toll as the lessons were learned.  By the 1930s, streamlining had become one of the motifs of the high-performance machinery of the era, something coincidently suited to the art deco moment through which the world was passing and in both Europe and the US there were some remarkable, sleek creations.  There was also market resistance.  Chrysler’s engineers actually built one of their sedans to operate backwards and ran tests which confirmed that in real-world conditions the results reflected exactly what the wind-tunnel had suggested: it was quicker, faster and more economical if driven with the rear bodywork facing the front.  Those findings resulted in the release of the Airflow range (1934-1937) and while the benefits promised were realized, the frontal styling proved to be too radical for the time and commercial failure ensued.  People however seemed to like the fastback approach (then often called “torpedo style”) and manufacturers added many to their ranges during the 1940s and 1950s.

Ford Galaxies, Firecracker 400, Daytona International Speedway, July, 1963 (top), 1966 Dodge Charger (bottom left), 1968 Plymouth Barracuda (bottom centre) and 1971 Ford Torino (bottom right).

Ford in 1962 inadvertently provided a case study of relative specific efficiencies of rooflines. The sleek Starliner roof on the 1961 Galaxies used in NASCAR racing sliced gracefully through the air and while sales were initially strong, demand soon slowed and the marketing department compelled a switch to the “formal roofline” introduced on the Thunderbird; it was a success in the showroom but less than stellar on the circuits, the buffering induced by the steep rear windows reducing both stability and speed.  Not deterred, Ford resorted to the long NASCAR tradition of cheating, fabricating a handful of fibreglass hard-tops which would (for racing purposes) turn a convertible Galaxie into a Starliner.  Unfortunately, to be homologated for competition, such parts had to be produced in at least the hundreds and be available for general sale.  Not fooled by Ford’s mock-up brochure, NASCAR banned the plastic roof and not until 1963 when a “fastback” roofline was added was the car’s competitiveness restored.  Actually, it wasn’t really a fastback at all because full-sized cars like the Galaxie had become so long that even a partial sweep from the windscreen to the rear bumper would create absurd proportion but the simple expedient of a sharply raked rear window turned out to work about as well.  Even on intermediates like the Dodge Charger and Ford Torino the pure fastback didn’t really work, the result just too slab-sided.  The classic implementation was when it was used for the shorter pony cars such as the Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang.

1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Coupé (top left) & 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 (top right); 1971 Ford Mustang 351 Coupé (bottom left) & 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 429 Super CobraJet SportsRoof.

The fastback for a while even influenced roofs not fast.  The original Mustang coupé (1964) was a classic “notchback” but such was the impact in the market that later in the year a fastback was added, joining the convertible to make a three body-style range.  The fastback’s popularity was bolstered by Carroll Shelby (1923–2012) choosing that style for his Shelby Mustangs which over the course of half a decade would evolve (or devolve depending on one’s view) from racing cars with number plates to Mustangs with bling but it would also influence the shape of the coupé.  By 1971 the fastback Mustangs (by then called “SportRoofs”) had adopted an even more severe angle at the rear which was dramatic to look at but hard to look through if inside, the almost horizontal rear window restricting visibility which made the more upright coupé (marketed as “Hardtop”) a more practical (and safer) choice.  However, such was the appeal of the fastback look that the profile was fastbackesque, achieved by the use of small trailing buttresses which made their own contribution to restricting reward visibility although not to the extent of some, like Ferrari’s Dino 246 which in some jurisdictions was banned from sale for just that reason.

1965 Rambler Marlin (top left), 1967 AMC Marlin (top centre), 1968 AMC Javelin (top right), 1969 AMC AMX (bottom left), 1974 AMC Javelin (bottom centre) and Lindsay Lohan in 1974 AMC Javelin (bottom right).

American Motors Corporation was (until the arrival of Tesla), the “last of the independents” (ie not part of General Motors (GM), Ford or Chrysler) and at its most successful when filling utilitarian niches the majors neglected, their problem being their successes were noticed and competition soon flooded the segments they’d profitably created.  As a result, they were compelled to compete across a wider range and while always a struggle, they did for decades survive by being imaginative and offering packages which, on cost breakdown could be compelling (at one point they joined Rolls-Royce as the only company to offer sedans with air-conditioning fitted as standard equipment).  Sometimes though they got it wrong, and that they did with the Marlin, introduced in 1965 as a fastback based on their intermediate Rambler Classic.  Although the fastback was all about style, AMC couldn’t forget their history of putting a premium on practicality an accordingly, the roof-line grafted on to the classic also ensured comfortable headroom for the rear-seat passengers, resulting in a most ungainly shape.  Sales were dismal for two seasons but AMC persisted, in 1967 switching the fastback to the full-sized Ambassador line which all conceded was better though that was damning with faint praise.  More successful was the Javelin (1968), AMC’s venture into the then lucrative pony-car business which the Mustang had first defined and then dominated.  The early Javelins were an accomplished design, almost Italianate in the delicacy of their lines and the fastback was nicely balanced.  Less balanced but more intriguing was the AMX, a two seat “sports car” created in the cheapest way possible: shorten the Javelin’s wheelbase by 12 inches (300 mm) and remove the rear seat.  That certainly solved the problem of rear seat headroom and over three seasons the AMX received a generally positive response from the press but sales never reached expectations, even a pink one being chosen as the car presented to Playboy magazine's 1968 Playmate of the Year not enough to ensure survival and when the Javelin was restyled for 1971, the two seat variant wasn’t continued although AMX was retained as a name for certain models.  The new Javelins lacked the subtlety of line of the original and the fastback part was probably the best part of the package, much of the rest rather overwrought.  The pony car ecosystem declined in the early 1970s and Javelin production ceased in 1974 although it did by a few months outlive what was technically the first pony-car of them all, the Plymouth Barracuda.

1969 Norton Commando Fastback.

The Norton Commando was produced between 1968-1977.  All Commandos initially used the distinctive tail section which, like the fuel tank, was made of fibreglass and the slope of the molding instantly attracted the nickname “fastback”, an allusion to the body-style then becoming popular for sports cars.  It was the first British motorcycle built in volume of “modern” appearance but, apart from the odd clever improvisation, much of the engineering was antiquated and a generation or more behind the coming Japanese onslaught which would doom the local industry.  In 1969, as other models were added to the Commando range, all of which used more conventional rear styling, the factory formally adopted Fastback as a model name for the originals which remained in production, upgraded in 1970 (as the Fastback Mark ll), fitted with much admired upswept exhausts.  With minor changes, after only four months, it was replaced with the Mark III which served until 1972 when the Mark IV was released, the most notable change being the fitting of a front disk brake.

1970 Norton Commando Fastback (with retro-fitted disk brake).

One interesting variant was the Fastback Long Range (LR) which, although in production for almost two years during 1971-1972, only around 400 were built, most apparently exported to Australia where the distance between gas (petrol) stations was often greater than in Europe or the US.  Although there were other detail differences, the main distinguishing feature of the LR was the larger capacity (in the style of the earlier Norton Atlas) petrol tank, a harbinger of the “Commando Interstate” which became a regular production in 1972 and lasted until Commando production ceased in 1977 by which time it constituted the bulk of sales.  Fastback production ended in 1973 and although some were fitted with the doomed 750 “Combat” engine, none ever received the enlarged unit introduced that year in the Commando 850.

1965 Ford GT40 Mark 1 (road specification) (left), 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV (J-Car prototype) (centre) and 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV, Sebring, 1967.

Impressed by Ferrari’s “breadvan”, Ford, this time with the help of a wind-tunnel, adopted the concept when seeking to improve the aerodynamics of the GT40.  Testing the J-Car proved the design delivered increased speed but the resultant lack of down-force proved lethal so the by then conventional fastback body was used instead and it proved successful in the single season it was allowed to run before rule changes outlawed the big engines.

1966 Fiat 850 Coupé (top left), 1970 Daf 55 Coupé (top centre), 1974 Skoda 110 R (top right), 1972 Morris Marina Coupé (bottom left), 1972 Ford Granada Fastback (later re-named Coupé) (bottom centre) and 1973 Coleman-Milne Granada Limousine (bottom right).

The Europeans took to the fastback style, not only for Ferraris & Maseratis but also to add some flair (and profit margin) to low-cost economy vehicles.  It produced some rather stubby cars but generally they were aesthetically successful and the Skoda 110 R (from Czechoslovakia and thus the Warsaw Pact’s contribution to the fastback school of thought) lasted from 1973-1980 and as the highly modified 130 RS gained an improbable victory in the 1981 European Touring Car Championship against a star-studded field which included BMW 635s, Ford’s RS Capris & Escorts, Audi GTEs, Chevrolet Camaros and Alfa Romeo GTVs.  It was a shame comrade Stalin didn’t live to see it.  Generally, the Europeans were good at fastbacks but the British had some unfortunate moments.  In fastback form, the appearance of the Morris Marina was from the start compromised by the use of the sedan’s front doors which meant the thing was fundamentally ill-proportioned, something which might have been forgiven if it had offered the practicality of a hatchback instead of a conventional trunk (boot).  A dull and uninspiring machine (albeit one which sold well), the Marina actually looked best as a station wagon, an opinion many hold also of its corporate companion the Austin Allegro although the two frequently contest the title of Britain’s worst car of the 1970s (and it's a crowded field).  Even Ford of England which at the time was selling the well-styled fastback Capri had a misstep when it offered the ungainly fastback Granada, many made to look worse still by the addition of the then fashionable vinyl roof, the mistake not repeated when the range was revised without a fastback model.  Compounding the error on an even grander scale however was coach-builder Coleman-Milne which, bizarrely, grafted the fastback’s rear on to a stretched Granada sedan to create what was at the time the world’s only fastback limousine.  Although not entirely accurate, there are reasons the 1970s came to be called “the decade style forgot”.

Obviate

Obviate (pronounced ob-vee-eyt)

(1) To anticipate and prevent or eliminate difficulties, disadvantages etc by effective measures; to render unnecessary.

(2) To avoid a future problem or difficult situation.

(3) In linguistics, as obviative, a grammatical marker that distinguishes a relatively non-salient referent in a given context from a relatively salient (proximate) one.

1590–1600: From the Late Latin obviātus (prevented), past participle of obviāre (to act contrary to; go against; to block; to hinder), second-person plural present active imperative of obviō, derivative of obvius, from the adjective obviam (in the way), the construct being ob (in front of, against) + viam, accusative of via (way).  The noun obviation was from the early fifteenth century obviacioun (encounter, contact, exposure), from the Medieval Latin obviationem (nominative obviatio), the noun of action from the past-participle stem of obviare (act contrary to, go against).  Obviate is a noun & verb, obviator & obviation are nouns, obviated & obviating are verbs and obviative is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is obviates.

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

Obviate is sometimes misused.  Only things that have not yet occurred can be obviated; one can obviate a possible future difficulty, but not one which already exists.  For over a century, obviate has attracted the attention of the grammar Nazis and the objection has always been that “obviate the necessity” or “obviate the need” are redundant.  Technically however, these phrases are not redundancies in the sense that “obviate the necessity” is to prevent the necessity from arising, hence to make unnecessary.  Wilson Follett (1887-1963) in Modern American Usage (published posthumously in 1966) took the position that obviate can mean only “make unnecessary” and not “anticipate and prevent” but usage guides since have been less prescriptive, noting the older but still current meaning “to avoid an anticipated difficulty."  Thus, in a sentence like “.. avoiding discussion of these matters can obviate any need for separate communiqués”, the need can be perceived as a difficulty in which case any “need for” is indeed redundant.  There seems no reason to prefer one interpretation to the other because it’s hardly ever the case that meaning can be obscured and the choice should be based on which produces the most elegant sentence.

Beaufort

Beaufort (pronounced boh-fert) (U) or boh-fort (non-U))

(1) A standardized measure of wind speed.

(2) An Anglo-French Family name (of late, re-purposed as a forename).

(3) A World War II era torpedo bomber built by the Bristol company.

1805: The Beaufort wind force scale was devised by Anglo-Irish Royal Navy hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort (1774–1857).  The pronunciation boh-fert is the accepted correct use for the scale, family name and most other purposes but in the US, where it’s used as a locality name, south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the common form is sometimes byoo-fert.  The family name Beaufort exists in both French and English (and was of Norman and French Huguenot origin), a habitational name from (Le) Beaufort, the name of several places in various parts of France notably in Nord Somme and Pas-de-Calais, the construct being the Old French beau (beautiful) + fort (literally “strong” but used also of forts & fortified castles).  In France, hereditary surnames were adopted according to fairly consistent rules and during the late medieval period, names that derived from localities became increasingly widespread.  In the late twentieth century, Beaufort came to be used when naming a child, one attraction being the possibility of nicknames like Bee, Beau & Fort.

Variations in the coats of arms of the Dukes of Beaufort.

One of the concepts which permits the modern, trans-nationally connected world economy to function as efficiently as it does is standardization.  Modern implementations include things like shipping containers which, with standardized features such as size, mounting & lifting points and methods of construction mean goods can be transported internationally with the assurance all ships, as well as road & rail transport can handle the thing in the same manner.  Additionally, it makes more efficient the construction for facilities like sea-ports and rail-heads because they’re essentially the same, anywhere in the world.  That’s an example of change which could implemented because it could be phased in over decades as ships were replaced & railway rolling-stock upgraded while existing port infrastructure could be modified although, as the container ships increased in size, the trend increasingly was for fewer and larger ports.  Road transport was less affected, the prime-movers unchanged and a substantial part of the trailer fleet easily modified and trucks never increased in size to the extent engineering made possible because local authorities imposed restrictions in deference to roads which were built to withstand only certain weight-loadings.

Some things however are difficult to standardize, however desirable a change might be.  The fact that there’s so much diversity in whether road vehicles drive on the left or right of the road is due to many factors, some of which date from antiquity, reflected even today in the need for many manufacturers to maintain separate production lines to accommodate the need to built vehicles with steering wheels on either side.  That of course sounds silly it’s how historical inertia operates, local practices becoming set traditions hundreds or even thousands of years ago.  Other traditions came more recently.  Long before they brought cars and trucks, the European colonial powers also often built the first major networks of roads and they imposed the rules with which they were familiar, the British keeping their horses to the left, the French to the right.  Italian colonialists in Libya and Ethiopia would have had a choice because it wasn’t until after World War II (1939-1945) that Italy finally standardized, ending the era of localities setting their own rules.  Some countries have made the swap (mostly from left to right) but it’s difficult (apparently a decade-long increase in the accident rate is factored in by the planners) and in some cases it proved impossible.  When India conducted a post-Raj trial they found the drivers of cars & trucks adapted well but the beasts which pulled the carts then a significant proportion of traffic volumes just couldn’t be persuaded to change.

Domestic electricity is another patchwork.  Most of the planet is supplied with 220-240 volt feeds (there was once the odd outlier with 250v and while their light globes burned brighter, they didn’t last as long) while other run at 110-120v.  Electricity networks of course started locally and just spread so the reason for the differences are understandable and the costs & disruption which would be caused by converting one to another means it’ll probably never happen anywhere although there is a move, undertaken in many (220-240) jurisdictions to standardize on 230v.  What is a bit of a nuisance though is the proliferation of connection types in the 220-240v world, forcing travellers either to travel with the relevant adaptor or rely on being able to buy one when they arrive.  For those who go many places, there are some thoughtfully designed, multi-prong adaptors, the most intriguing of which use slides so the correct metal can be chosen to extend.  Again, because the installed base of wall-plugs decades ago reached the point where a change-over would be prohibitively expensive, it something the world is stuck with.

Standardized wind: The Beaufort wind force scale.

The Beaufort wind force scale was devised because the British Admiralty was accumulating much data about prevailing weather conditions at spots around the planet where the Royal Navy sailed and it was noticed there was some variation in way different observers would describe the wind conditions.  In the age of sail, wind strength frequency and direction was critical to commerce and warfare and indeed survival so the navy needed to information to be as accurate an consistent as possible but in the pre-electronic age the data came from human observation, even mechanical devices not usually in use.  What Captain Beaufort noticed was that a sailor brought up in a blustery place like the Scottish highlands was apt to understate the strength of winds while those from calmer places were more impressed by even a moderate breeze.  Accordingly, he developed a scale which was refined until formally adopted by the Admiralty after he’d been appointed Hydrographer of the Navy.  The initial draft reflected the functional purpose, the lowest rating describing the sort of gentle zephyr which was just enough to enable a captain to manoeuvre while the highest was of the gale-force winds which would shred the sails.  As sails gave way to steam, the scale was further refined by referencing the effect of wind upon the sea rather than sails and it was adopted also by those working in shore-based meteorological stations.  In recent years, categories up to 17 have been added to describe the phenomena described variously as hurricanes, typhoons & cyclones.

Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) in a breeze estimated at 4-5 on the Beaufort wind force scale (left).  There is product which substantially can withstand winds of such force but they do produce an unnatural look.  Lindsay Lohan (right) illustrates the "wind-blown" look which is popular in fashion photography although it's not always done with wind machines (big fans), strategically-placed tape and cardboard often used to get the effect.  This one would be around 6 on the scale. 

Although remembered for the scale which bears his name, Beaufort also made a great contribution to the Admiralty’s charts, quite a task given that the only way to determine depth was laboriously to take soundings which were then mapped onto charts compiled from observations of the shoreline and astronomical observations determining longitude and latitude.  Sir Francis retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral after also developing the Beaufort Cipher for coded communication which he used for some of his private correspondence and he had a sister name Frances which must have sometimes been confusing but after his death when his letters were decoded, the scandalous nature of his relationship with his sister Henrietta (1778-1865) was revealed.  In 1819, Henrietta published Dialogues on Botany for the Use of Young Persons, an introductory text for young readers interested in plant biology.

Bristol Beaufort of RAF 217 Squadron out of Malta, 1942.

The Bristol Beaufort was a twin-engined, four-seat torpedo and general reconnaissance bomber which entered service late in 1939, allocated initially to Royal Air Force (RAF) Costal Command to replace the Blackburn Botha which had proved unsatisfactory although the original specification had suggested it would be used as a torpedo bomber in the Far East.  Developed from the smaller, lighter and less powerful Blenheim the Beaufort was a solid rather than an outstanding performer and but it served as the RAF’s primary torpedo bomber until 1943 and was also deployed as a ground bomber to plug the UK’s technology gap until newer, more capable designs entered production.  More successful was the use in the Pacific theatre, some 700 Beauforts produced in Australian factories which proved adaptable in sea and land operations, some even converted as high-speed, light transport freighters.  The Beaufort’s greatest legacy however was when its wings, tail and rear fuselage were combined with more powerful engines and a revised forward section to produce the two seat Beaufighter, one of the war’s outstanding heavy strike-fighters.  Heavily armed with various combinations of cannons, machine guns and later rockets, it was one of the most effective anti-shipping weapons; offering reliability, high speed and the relative quiet of its sleeve valve radial engines, it proved lethal against U-boats (the German submarines).  Robust and easy to maintain even in adverse environments, in a variety of roles, examples remained in RAF service until 1960.

Ides

Ides (pronounced ahydz)

(1) In the ancient Roman calendar, the fifteenth day of March, May, July, or October, and the thirteenth day of other months.  Now most associated with 15 March.

(2) A Greek plural suffix appearing in scientific names.

1300–1350: Middle English from the Old French, derived from the Classical Latin īdūs (feminine plural), the borrowing from French replacing earlier Middle English forms.  In ancient Greek, the plural of is, suffix of source or origin.  Meaning in Latin was always “middle day of a Roman month” but the origin is uncertain; some etymologists suggesting an Etruscan root although even back-formations are scant and the only evidence is īdūs was cognate with the Oscan eiduis, Oscan having many words derived from Etruscan.

The Latin practice was to treat most recurring calendrical days as plurals although both Middle English and Old French also used the singular form ide.  English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans' inclusive dating, including the ides itself when counting. Thus, the "third day before the ides of March" (a.d. iii Id. Mart.) is 13 March; two days before 15 March not three.  English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem so 13 March may appear as the "third ides of March" or the "third of the ides of March". Thus, the "second ides" (pridie idus) is the fourteenth day of the old long months and the twelfth day of the other months; the "third ides" (tertia idus) is the day before that; the "fourth ides" is the day before that; and so on until the "eighth ides", which is preceded by the nones in every month.  That seems clear enough.

The Ides of March

The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March.  Several religious observances were held on the day and, like the ides of other months, was the traditional Romans deadline for settling debts.  In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, one of the great events of antiquity and a turning point in Roman history.

The Death of Caesar (1867) by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).

Caesar was stabbed to death at a sitting of the Senate and it’s thought some there were some five-dozen conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius.  In the writings of Plutarch, a soothsayer had foretold that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. While going to the Theatre of Pompey where the Senate sat, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The Ides of March are come", implying the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."  In the western canon, it’s best remembered from William Shakespeare's (1564–1616)'s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1599), when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March." 

Caesar's death came at a time of crisis in Rome and unleashed the civil war from which his adopted heir Octavian (later known as Augustus) would gain power.  On the fourth anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the siege of Perugia, Octavian executed 300 senators and knights who had fought against him under Lucius Antonius, brother of Mark Antony.  The executions were the most dramatic of the things done by Octavian to avenge Caesar's death and Roman historians characterised the slaughter as a religious sacrifice, noting it happened on the Ides of March at the new altar built as a memorial to Julius.

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert (b 1982)) in Mean Girls (2004) makes the case for the murder of Caesar.

Cupola

Cupola (pronounced kyoo-puh-luh)

(1) In architecture, a light structure on a dome or roof, serving as a belfry, lantern, or belvedere (some functional, some merely ornamental).

(2) Any of various dome-like structures (especially in architecture or one covering a circular or polygonal area).

(3) In naval architecture, a protective dome for guns on a warship

(4) In armored vehicles, a raised structure with a narrow aperture for viewing, sometimes fitted with a gun or flame-thrower.

(5) In geology, an upward-projecting mass of plutonic rock extending from a larger batholith.

(6) In metallurgy, a vertical, air-blown coke-fired cylindrical furnace in which iron is re-melted for use in casting.

(7) In geometry, a solid formed by joining two polygons, one (the base) with twice as many edges as the other, by an alternating band of isosceles triangles and rectangles.

(8) In anatomy, a small cap over a structure, shaped like a dome or inverted cup.

(9) In railway carriage design, a small viewing window in the top of the caboose (guard’s van) for looking over the train, or the part of the caboose where one looks through this window (obsolete).

1540–1550: From the Italian cupola, from the Late Latin cūpula (a small cask; a little tub), from the Classical Latin cuppella, from cuppa & cūpa (tub), from the Ancient Greek κύπελλον (kúpellon) (small cup), the construct being cūp(a) + -ula, from the primitive Indo-European -dlom (the instrumental suffix) and used as a noun suffix denoting an instrument.  The origin in Latin was based on the resemblance to an upturned cup, hence the use to describe the rounded top of just about any structure where no specific descriptor existed.  Cupola is a noun and cupolated & cupolar are adjectives; the noun plural is cupolas or cupolae.

Cupola on the dome of St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome.

In architectural history, the cupola is considered a descendent of the oculus, which may seem strange given the evidence suggests domes came first but a cupola is something which can be added to a dome and the earliest may have been “bolted on” when the open nature of an oculus proved troublesome.  Fitted with one or more windows, they would still permit the entry of light but keep out the wind and rain.  From this functional origin, they became popular as features to crown turrets, roofs, and larger dome.  Confusingly, architects at one point decided a cupola was also the inner vault of a dome so historic plans and descriptions need to be read with care.  Although classically dome-like in shape, most modern cupolas are more angular.

Onion domes on the Kremlin, Red Square, Moscow, Russia.

Cupolas were a favorite in early Islamic architecture and began their proliferation the mid-late eighth century, presumably because they were a perfect decorative addition to a mosque’s minarets but such was the appeal they would appear also in the core of the building or at its corners.  Before long, they were a regular part of commercial and residential buildings, valued not only as decoration but as a light source and for the ease with which they could sit atop vertical ducts used for ventilation.  It was the Islamic influence which was responsible for the best known motif of Russian architecture, the onion dome which was well suited to the northern climate because, constructed with severe lines, effortlessly they resisted the gathering of snow.  The Moors brought the design to Spain and whatever religious conflicts may for centuries have disfigured the Middle East & Europe, Architectural taste proved ecumenical and onion domes can still be seen atop Christian churches in Austria and southern Germany.

US Marine Corps M17 flame-thrower in use, the M1919A4 Browning .30 caliber medium machine gun to the right is hard-mounted in the tank commander's cupola, South Vietnam, 1968.

In military use, a cupola is basically a helmet fixed in place and that may be on a building, a ship or an armored vehicle, the function being to protect the head while offering a field of view.  Sometimes, especially in tanks or armored cars, guns or flame-throwers were integrated into cupolas and in naval gunnery, there was the special use to describe the dome-like structures protecting a (usually single) gun mounting, something which distinguished them from the larger, flatter constructions which fulfilled the same purpose for multi-gun batteries.

Cupola on the International Space Station (ISS), outside & in.  Cupolas are used on space craft because they are a way of maximizing the window space for a certain amount of the hull’s surface area.

McMansion with turrets and cupola.

Although the moment seems to have passed, one recent trend in domestic architecture which really disturbed the arbiters of style was the proliferation in parts of the US of McMansions, huge houses of sometimes dubious build quality often in a confusion of architectural styles and adorned with balconies, turrets, columns and cupolas, the more the better.

Afforce

Afforce (pronounced af-fors)

(1) To strengthen or reinforce by the addition of other or of specially skilled members, deliberative bodies such as juries or tribunals.

(2) To force; compel; violate (obsolete).

(3) Reflexively, to exert one's self; endeavour; attempt (obsolete).

1400s: From the Middle English (in the sense “to force”), from the Old French aforcer, from the Latin exfortiāre, from fortis (strong), from the Proto-Italic forktis, from the primitive Indo-European baergh (to rise, high, hill).  The a- prefix as used here is rare and is in English no longer productive.  It was related to the Latin ad- (to; at) and was used to show or emphasize a state, condition, or manner and was common in Old & Middle English, some of the constructs still used poetically (apace, afire, aboil, a-bling) and some where the specific, technical meaning has endured (asunder, astern).  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) noted the descent of many of these form to the archaic, suggesting it was part of the organic evolution of the language, these “…prefixes were at length confusedly lumped together in idea, and the resultant a- looked upon as vaguely intensive, rhetorical, euphonic or even archaic and wholly otiose.”  The double-ff is a written tribute to the spoken, afforce formed with an oral prefix; the noun counterpart of this was æf-.  Afforce, afforcing & afforced are verbs, afforcement is a noun; the noun plural is afforcements.

Afforce thus emerged just as a way of emphasizing the notion of force or indicating the act transpiring.  Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1343-1400) in The Man of Law's Tale (1387), the fifth of the Canterbury Tales uses afforce in that sense:  “Than whan thys wycked Thelous by harde manasses and hys grete strengh the had wyll to afforce her, than she restreynyd hys gret foly by thys reason, ffor cause that her Chylde Moryce the whyche was of the age of.”

That strict arbiter of English use, Sir Ernest Gowers (1880-1966), noted approvingly in his second edition (1965) of Henry Fowler's (1858–1933) Modern English Usage (1926) that the OED as early as 1888 ruled afforce was for all purposes obsolete save "to reinforce or strengthen a deliberative body by the addition of new members, as a jury by skilled assessors or persons acquainted with the facts".  Sir Ernest seemed also pleased the OED had sought to drive a stake through afforce's linguistic heart by not including an entry in the concise (COD) edition of the OED, adding that he regarded any revival as but a flashy "pride of knowledge", a most "un-amiable characteristic", the display of which "sedulously should be avoided".  Sir Ernest had spoken, Henry Fowler would have concurred and in any sense afforce remains vanishingly rare.

Manchester Assize Courts 1934.  Damaged by Luftwaffe raids in 1940-1941, it was demolished in 1957.  Perhaps surprisingly, given some of the ghastly stuff built in post-war years, the replacement Crown Court building has some nice touches and not unpleasing lines.

It was the operation of jury trials in English law which saw the meaning beginning to shift although the legal use did encapsulate both senses.  At common law, the practice to “afforce the assize” was a method for a court to secure a verdict where the jury disagreed.  This was achieved by adding other jurors to the panel until twelve could be found who were unanimous in their opinion, thus the senses (1) afforcement being forcing a jury to verdict and (2) afforcement being the addition of members to the jury.  The word has endured (if rarely used) in this technical sense and not become merely a synonym of augment, somewhat unusual in English where words tend to be co-opted for just about use which seems to fit and it may be that when courts ceased to afforce, juries, the word became stranded in its special, historic sense, a process probably assisted by the practice of adding the a- prefix faded.

Vested with both civil and criminal jurisdiction, the Courts of Assize sat between 1293-1972 in the counties of England and Wales.  The afforcement of the assize was an ancient practice in trials by jury and involved adding other jurors to the panel in cases where the jurors differed among themselves and couldn’t agree in one (sententiam) finding.  In those instances, at the discretion of the judges, either the jury could be afforced or the existing body could be compelled to unanimity by directing the sheriff to lock them up without food or drink until they did agree.  The latter does sound an extreme measure; even when medieval conclaves of cardinals proved unable to organise the numbers to elect a new pope, when their eminences were locked-up, they were at least given bread and water.

However it was done, afforcement or starvation, the objective was to get to the point where there were twelve who could agree on a verdict.  However, as legal theorists at the time observed, this really created a second trial and eventually afforcement was abandoned, both justice and its administration thought better served by an insistence on unanimity (probably an inheritance from canon law and a common thing on the continent where the unanimity of a consultative or deliberative body was deemed indispensable).  Also refined was the practice of confining jurors without meat and drink; now they’re fed and watered and, if after long enough some prove still recalcitrant, the jury is discharged and a new trial may be ordered.  Some jurisdictions have found this too inefficient and have introduced majority verdicts so only ten or eleven of the twelve need to be convinced a defendant is guilty as sin which, as any prosecutor will tell you, they all are. 

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948; Chief Justice of the US 1930-1941) taking FDR's oath of office at the start of his second term, 20 January 1937.

There have too been attempts to afforce the bench.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945; US President 1933-1945), not best pleased at repeatedly having parts of his New Deal legislation declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, in 1937 created the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill which sought to add sympathetic judges to the bench, his argument being the constitution not mandating than there must be nine judges on the bench, it was a matter for congress to determine the number.  He was apparently serious but may also have had in mind the threat in 1911 by the UK’s Liberal Party government to appoint to the House of Lords as many peers as would be necessary to ensure the upper house could no longer block their legislation.  That worked, the peers backing down and allowing the government’s reforms to pass into law, the feeling always that they were less appalled by creeping socialism than the thought of the House of Lords being flooded with “jumped-up grocers”.  It may also have worked in the US, the "court-packing plan" ultimately not required.  Some months after FDR’s landslide victory in the 1936 presidential election, Justice Owen Roberts (1875–1955; US Supreme Court judge 1930-1945) switched his vote, creating a pro-New Deal majority, an act remembered in judicial history as the "the switch in time that saved nine".

The US Supreme Court in session, 1932.  The photo is by Erich Salomon (1886-1944) and is one of two known images of the court in session.  Dr Salomon died in Auschwitz.

The idea of “packing the court” has been revived before but in 2021, congressional Democrats introduced a bill for an act which would expand the Supreme Court bench from nine to thirteen, essentially for the same reasons which attracted FDR in 1937.  Unlike then however, the Democrat control of both houses was marginal and there was no chance of success and even had there been an unexpectedly good result in the 2022 mid-term elections, nothing would have overcome the resistance of conservative Democrats in the senate.  With the Republican-appointed judges (reactionary medievalists or black-letter law judges depending on one’s view) likely to be in place for decades, the 2021 bill is more a shot across the judicial bow and the interplay between electoral outcomes and public opinion, of which the judges are well aware, will bubble and perhaps boil in the years ahead.

Lindsay Lohan on the panel of The Masked Singer (2019).

The Masked Singer Australia is a TV singing competition, the local franchise of a format which began in South Korea as the King of Mask Singer.  The premise is that elaborately costumed masked celebrities sing a song and a panel has to guess their identity.  In 2019, the producers afforced the judging panel with the appointment of Lindsay Lohan and the experiment seems to have been a success despite Ms Lohan having little or no idea who the local celebrities were, masked or otherwise.  That may have been part of the charm of her performance and it seemed to gel with viewers, the second series in 2020, in which Ms Lohan wasn’t able to participate because of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, seeing a sharp decline in viewer numbers, the opening episode down 37% from 1.2 million to 733k.  Overall, the season average in the five mainland capital cities dropped to 816k from 928k, a year-on-year drop of 12%.  In October 2021, Warner Brothers TV announced a third series had been commissioned for broadcast in 2022 but Lindsay Lohan didn't again afforce the panel, depriving audiences of the chance to watch her try to guess the names of people she's never heard of.  #BringBackLindsay is expected to trend.

Ordinary

Ordinary (pronounced awr-din-rhe (U) or awr-dn-er-ee (non-U))

(1) Of no special quality or interest; commonplace; unexceptional.

(2) Plain or undistinguished.

(3) Somewhat inferior or below average; mediocre (often when describing sporting competitions or in other contexts where expectations of exceptional performance are high).

(4) Customary; usual; normal; the usual course of things; normal condition or health; a standard way of behavior or action (use now most prevalent in Ireland & Scotland).

(5) In slang (mostly US, south of the Mason-Dixon Line), common, vulgar, or disreputable.

(6) In the definition of jurisdictional limits, immediate, as contrasted with something that is delegated.

(7) In some places, of officials of the agencies of the state, belonging to the regular staff or the fully recognized class.

(8) In ecclesiastical use, an order or form for divine service, especially that used for Mass (the prescribed form of divine service, ie those parts of the Mass that do not vary from day to day and (by extension) in secular use, a book of rules or other document setting out ordinary or regular conduct.

(9) In the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church, the service of the Mass exclusive of the canon.

(10) A member of the clergy appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death, the use derived from the role of the chaplain of Newgate prison who prepared prisoners for the gallows (obsolete).

(11) In English ecclesiastical law, a bishop, archbishop, or other ecclesiastic (or their deputy or other nominee), in their capacity as an ex officio ecclesiastical authority (typically, a bishop holding an office to which certain jurisdictional powers are attached).

(12) In some US states, a judge of a court of probate.

(13) In a restaurant or inn, a complete meal in which all courses are included at one fixed price per head (as opposed to à la carte service) (both UK use, now rare).

(14) An arrangement whereby an individual hosts others to a meal in a restaurant, latter billing the guests a pre-agreed amount.

(15) A late-nineteenth century term for the penny-farthing bicycle (distinguishing them from the newer “safety bicycles”), still used (along with "hi-wheel" and variants) by hobbyists.

(16) In heraldry, any of the simplest and commonest charges (the “conventional”), such as the bend, fesse & cross, usually in geometric form with straight or broadly curved edges and commonly charged upon shields

(17) In mathematics, (of a differential equation) containing two variables only and derivatives of one of the variables with respect to the other

(18) As All Ordinaries (“all ords” in the market vernacular) index, a share index calculated using the last traded price of 500 of the largest publically listed companies on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

(19) A courier; someone delivering mail or post (used between the sixteenth & nineteenth centuries by those in the service of the Royal Mail).

1250–1300: From the Middle English noun & adjective ordinarie (regular, customary, belonging to the usual order or course, conformed to a regulated sequence or arrangement), from the Anglo-Norman ordenarie, & ordenaire, from the Medieval Latin, noun use of the Classical Latin ordinārius (orderly, regular, of the usual order), the construct being ordin- (stem of ordō (row, rank, series, regular arrangement) (genitive ordinis) + -ārius (the adjectival suffix).  The alternative spelling ordinarie is long obsolete.  Ordinary is a noun & adjective, ordinariness is a noun, ordinarily, extraordinarily & superextraordinarily are adverb and extraordinary (also as extra-ordinary) is an adjective; the noun plural is ordinaries.

In English, the adjective was derived from the noun in the sixteenth century in the sense of “common in occurrence, not distinguished in any way” and this endured in English, the O-Level (once the lowest of the three levels of the General Certificate of Education in the UK secondary school system (dating from 1947 as a contraction of “ordinary level”) remaining available in some overseas systems).  Generally though, the various noun uses adopted between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries faded for use except in the phrase “out of the ordinary” (someone of something beyond that regularly encountered, expected or customary) although in fields as diverse as steel fabrication and financial market trading, there were such uses from the mid-twentieth century.  The adjective ornery was a dialectal contraction of ordinary (which most sources list as class-based rather than a regionalism) in US English and first documented in 1816 (the history in oral use unknown).  It was used to convey the sense of “poor quality, coarse, ugly” and by the 1860s the meaning ad evolved to the more specific “mean, cantankerous and bad-tempered (orneriness the noun).  That coining hints at the strange history of the word which, following the practice in Latin, began as something neutral meaning “normal, in the expected place, of the expected appearance etc” yet came to be used (as a comparative) also in the negative (somewhat inferior, below average, plain & unexceptional (even rather mediocre).  By contrast, the extra- in extraordinary is used not as an intensifier but to create an antonym; something extraordinary is that which is exceptionally good.  Politicians are most inclined to speak of us as “ordinary people” which presumably implies that even if only sub-consciously, they think of themselves (and others in the political class) as extraordinary and the rest of us as ordinary indeed.

Lord Dawson of Penn (1864–1945; Physician-in-ordinary to the King, 1910-1937).

So calling something ordinary can mean either it’s commonplace (nothing special or unusual) and thus entirely average or its’ below average or of poor quality.  An “ordinary day” might be one pleasingly free of problems or one which has disappointed because nothing especially good happened.  To say someone is ordinary can be a compliment if one is distinguishing them from the surrounding madmen, nutcases and psychos and is essentially the same as calling them “normal” yet it can also mean “dull” or “not that attractive” and just as the politicians know we’re ordinary and they’re not, in the social media age “celebrities” and “ordinary people” really are two separate populations; ‘twas ever thus of course but now it’s an industry.  In ecclesiastical and secular law the old technical meaning persisted.  The title of physician in ordinary to the King (or Queen) is no longer in use but it meant simply the sovereign’s personal doctor and additional doctors who might be summoned were styled either physicians extraordinary or extra physicians.  They needed to be multi-skilled, at least one documented as having euthanized a dying king to ensure the death could be announced in the respectable morning broadsheets rather than the disreputable afternoon tabloids.  Interestingly, years later, Lord Dawson would speak in the House of Lords against the idea of euthanasia being provided for in legislation, maintaining that it was something best left to the judgment of the doctor in the room which will for some confirm the wisdom of Evelyn Waugh’s (1903-1966) observation that the greatest risk to one is hospital is “being murdered by the doctors”.  Although physicians-in-ordinary are no longer described as such, in the Medical Household (attached to the Royal Household in England), the positions of Apothecaries to the King & Occultist to the King have never been disestablished.

In canon law, the term is used still to describe someone having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law (typically a bishop within a diocese).  That use dates from the fourteenth century and was picked up in the 1800s in secular judicial administration to refer to a judge vested with the right to handle cases on the basis of ex-officio authority, rather than by delegation.  In other words, that authority was the ordinary, normal authority held by a judge within their jurisdictional competence.  In the UK, the best-known use was in the title Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (the Law Lords in casual use).  These were the judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act (1876) to exercise the judicial functions of the House of Lords which was the highest appellate for most cases decided by the UK’s lower courts (apart from a handful of institutions from which cases on appeal proceeded to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council).  Because the lords of appeal in ordinary technically were appointed as barons in the peerage of England, they thus had the right to sit in the Lords and vote on legislation and this meant ultimately they might be called to decide upon cases dealing with the very laws they’d been part of creating.  In practice this was rarely controversial but it came to bother academic political scientists and other theorists who noted the importance of the doctrine of the separation of powers in a democratic system.  What made it worse (at least on paper) was the lord chancellor (1) sat in and presided over the House of Lords, (2) was ex officio, a judge in the Court of Appeal and the president of the Chancery Division (an inheritance from the days prior to the Judicature Acts (1876) when the lord chancellor headed the old Court of Chancery) and (3) was a member of cabinet.  The office therefore straddled the executive, legislative and judicial functions of government so the fingers were uniquely were in three pies.  It was something which had been discussed for decades before the New Labour government, anxious to do things which would please the various European Union (EU) critics, reformed the arrangements, taking advantage of the prevailing mood to axe from the Lords as many of the hereditary peers as could be managed.  In 2009, New Labour created the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the House of Lords ceased to be vested with judicial functions, the lords of appeal in ordinary then in office concurrently appointed as Supreme Court judges and excluded from the Lords until their retirement from the bench.

Lindsay Lohan at the Dorchester Hotel restaurant China Tang, London, June 2017.

Sibyl, Lady Colefax (1874–1950) was an English socialite and interior decorator who in the 1930s & 1940s followed the tradition of hosting “Ordinaries” at London’s Dorchester Hotel, small lunch parties with a set menu, after which she would invoice the guests for their meal.  In the restaurant trade, an “ordinary” was a lunch or dinner in which all courses were included at the one fixed price per head (as opposed to à la carte service).  Because Lady Colefax essentially “bought in bulk” and the menu was what would now be understood as a “chef’s choice”, the prices were good and her address book was the envy of London society so the company was always amusing and occasionally illustrious.  In his infamously indiscrete diaries, Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1958) would sometimes refer to her as “Old Coalbox” but most of the entries about her were affectionate and sympathetic.

Crepuscule

Crepuscule (pronounced kri-puhs-kyool or krep-uh-skyool)

(1) Twilight; dusk.

(2) By extension, a brief period of transition between two states.

1350-1400: From the Middle French crepuscule, from the thirteenth century Old French crépuscule, from the Latin crepusculum (morning or evening twilight), the construct being crepus- (akin to creper (dark, dusky; obscure)) + -culum, the accusative singular of cūlus (a vulgar term for the buttocks) from the Proto-Italic kūlos, from the primitive Indo-European kul-, from kew- (to cover), the cognates for which included the Old Irish cúl (bottom) and the Lithuanian kẽvalas (skin, cover); it was related to cutis (hide).  Crepuscule, crepuscle & crepusculum are nouns, crepuscular is an adjective; the noun plural is crepuscules.

Before the provision of electricity which by the twentieth century meant much of the world was no longer constrained in their activities by the hours of sunlight, even other forms of artificial light could be variously expensive, unavailable or unreliable so sunlight was important, socially and economically so it’s not surprising a number of words evolved to describe the transition from light to dark including blackness, dark, dusk, gloom, obscurity, twilight, sundown, sunset, black, blackout, brownout, cloudiness, dimness, duskiness, eclipse, lightlessness, murk, murkiness, nightfall, blue hour, gloaming, evenfall, fogfall & smokefall.

Lindsay Lohan in daylight (left), as the crepusculum descends (centre) and in the dark of night (right).

The most attractive of these is twilight, an evocative word and one to which poets have always been drawn, whether to suggest some sense of uncertainty or the last days of life before the darkness of death.  Twilight was from the Middle English twilight & twyelyghte, the construct being twi- (double, half-) +‎ light, thus literally “second light, half-light”.  It was cognate with the Scots twa-licht, twylicht & twielicht (twilight), the Low German twilecht & twelecht (twilight), the Dutch tweelicht (twilight, dusk) and the German Zwielicht (twilight, dusk).  In the Old English, the form was twēone lēoht (twilight).  The curious word twilit (the simple past tense and past participle of twilight) has long intrigued etymologists.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) the earliest known use dates only from 1869 and the speculation is it was coined by someone who found the conventional forms (twilitten & twilighted) inelegant.  Smokefall (the close of the day before nightfall, when fog comes) was apparently used as early as the eleventh century and reflects the use of “smoke” in some regional dialects to refer variously to darkness, smoke and fog.  After thing became more precise, it was re-purposed to describe “the soot which falls from a cloud of smoke” and much later was adopted by those creating special effects to mean “an artificial waterfall of smoke for shows”, the smoke (sometimes combined with a mist of fine water vapor) used to reflect images created by light projection.

The development of languages in cultures of course reflects their environment and priorities although the oft-repeated claim that the Inuit and other nations in arctic and sub-arctic regions had 400 (the number does vary from source to source) words for “snow” are misleading although linguistic anthropologists have explored this on a number of occasions and all have concluded there are at least a few dozen and if the net is cast wider to encompass all aspects of snow (types of tracks in snow, suitability for wildlife etc), then the number is in three figures.  Linguistics is a discipline which illustrates structural functionalism in its pure form: words are created according to need and remain in use if they fulfill a useful purpose.  To most living in urban environments in industrial societies “snow” is adequate for most situations but those running ski-fields need more nuances while for the peoples in arctic regions, the correct description of the type of snow they will soon have to traverse can be the difference between life and death.