Pontiff

Pontiff (pronounced pon-tif)

(1) In historic pagan use, any pontifex, high or chief priest.

(2) In historic ecclesiastical use, a bishop.

(3) In modern use, the Roman Catholic Pope, the Bishop of Rome.

1600–1610: From the Middle French pontife, from the Latin pontifex.  The form "pontiff" which emerged in the early 1600s preserved the earlier (pagan) meaning "high priest", from the French pontif, also ultimately from the Latin pontifex (a title used by a Roman high priest).  It was used to refer to the office of bishop in Church Latin but appears not to have been recorded in that sense in English until the 1670s and then, only specifically to "the Bishop of Rome" (ie the Roman Catholic Pope), the Roman Catholic Pope. Pontifical was however used in that sense from the mid fifteenth century but it's now exclusively an alternative name for a pope.  Not any pope however; it’s never used with reference to the Coptic Pope.  The Latin pontifex meant literally “bridge builder”, the construct being pōns (bridge) +‎ fex (suffix representing a maker or producer).  It was used as a title for some of the more senior pagan priests of Ancient Rome, the consensus being it was adopted as a metaphorical device to suggest “one who negotiates between gods and men” although at least one scholar of antiquity suggested the relationship was close to literal in that the social class which supplied the priests was more or less identical with engineers responsible for building bridges.  That may seem more a sociological than theological point but for structural functionalists and other realists, such distinctions seem a bit naff.

Pontifical promotion: Lindsay Lohan in 2019 flirted with an eternity in Hell by purloining a picture of Pope Francis to promote her song Xanax.  The image was taken in 2013, during a visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida in Brazil while he was conducting communion.  Captioned “Blessed be the Fruit”, the meme has a digitally altered image of Francis holding up a copy of her debut album Speak (2005) and in the language of the MBAs would probably be classified as a kind of “ambush marketing”.  The prospect of damnation must have been considered but when one has a dropped tune to promote, risks must be taken.

Theodosius I (347–395) was the last Roman Emperor (379-395) to rule both the eastern and western "halves" of the Roman Empire.  Once, on his travels he fell so ill that death seemed inevitable but, upon being baptised, he staged an astonishing recovery and reached Constantinople a devout Christian.  Immediately he set about removing the last vestiges of paganism from the Empire.  It wasn’t the first imperial intervention against paganism.  Earlier, the Emperor Gratian (359–383) had refused the traditional title Pontifex Maximus (chief priest of the state religion) because his bishop thought it unworthy for a Christian emperor to accept a pagan honour, even though it had been worn by emperors since Constantine (circa 272–337).  However, although the Church may have disapproved of pagan baubles for others, by 590, Pope Gregory I (circa 540–604) decided it was fine for him and granted it to himself, explaining a pope was the “…chief priest of Christianity” and that Constantine had claimed to be the “bishop of bishops”, a role long since assumed by popes.  It’s from here the word pontiff evolved into its modern form.

Pope Pius VIII (1761-1830) being carried in Saint Peter's on the Sedia Gestatoria (circa 1825), wearing the papal triple tiara (triple crown) by Emile Jean Horace Vernet (1789-1863).

The sedia gestatoria (gestatorial chair, literally translated from the Italian as "chair for carrying") was the ceremonial throne on which the Pope, pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, was carried on shoulders of courtiers.  An enlarged and elaborate version of the sedan chair, it was constructed with a silk-covered armchair attached to a suppedaneum, on each side of which were two gilded rings; through these passed the long rods with which twelve palafrenieri (footmen) carried the chair on their shoulders.  With origins in antiquity, the sedia gestatoria was for almost a millennium used to convey popes during the grandest of ceremonial occasions in the Basilica of St John Lateran & St Peter's Basilica and, beyond the Holy See, somewhat less grand sedia gestatoria were used by cardinals and others, given sometimes with the blessing of the pope as an expression of especial favor.  Used also by Byzantine emperors, the concept and much of the design was borrowed from the sedias of the Roman Empire although there, use was a little less exclusive, high officials as well as emperors enjoying the distinction and some fun was made of rich individuals (who held no public office) arranging their own.

Pope Benedict XVI in Popemobile passing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House), Washington DC, April 2008.  This Popemobile was based on a Mercedes-Benz ML 430 (W163), powered by a 4.3 litre (260 cubic inch) V8 (M113).

For their public appearances, popes have been driven a variety of vehicles ranging from a Leyland truck to a Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet (1982-1993), the latter believed to be the fastest of the Popemobiles.  Although most associated with the need to provide protection against assassination, the Popemobiles replaced the sedia gestatoria because, although trips such as Benedict's to White House would have been possible with the traditional chair carried by a dozen, attractive young palafrenieri, it would have been time-consuming.  Pope John Paul I (1912–1978; pope August-September 1978) was the last to use the sedia gestatoria and even he had resisted, preferring to walk, acceding only because without the elevated platform, his visibility to the crowd and the television cameras would be so limited.  Pope John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005), the first non-Italian pontiff in over four-hundred years, vetoed the idea of being carried on shoulders and alternatives were created, evolving into the increasingly armored Popemobiles.  The sedia gestatoria thus joined the papal tiara (triple crown) on the shelf of the retired symbols of the church of a grander age.

The Triple Tiara

Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (circa 1545), woodcut by an unknown Venetian artist.  Historians suspect the depiction of the splendid jewel-studded helmet was substantially accurate but the object may simply have been too heavy safely to wear for all but static, set-piece events, the risk of injury to the neck too great.

The papal triple tiara is a crown which has been worn by popes of the Roman Catholic Church since the eighth century.  Traditionally it was worn for their coronation but no pontiff has been so crowned since Saint Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) in 1963 and he abandoned its use after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962-1965).  The name tiara refers to the entire headgear and it has used a three-tiered form since a third crown was added during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1378).  It's also referred to as the triregnum, triregno or Triple Crown.  In a piece of one- (or perhaps four-) upmanship, Suleiman I (Süleyman the Magnificent, 1494-1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520-1566) commissioned from Venice a four tier helmet to show, in addition to the authority claimed by popes, he could add the symbol of his imperial power.  Often put on display as the centrepiece of Ottoman regalia to impress visitors, there's no documentary evidence the sultan ever wore the four layer tiara, crowns not part of the tradition and, fashioned from gold and gemstones, it would anyway have been extraordinarily heavy.

A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter continues to be used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on papal documents, buildings and insignia.  Remarkably, there’s no certainty about what the three crowns symbolize.  Some modern historians link it to the threefold authority of the pope, (1) universal pastor, (2) universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction and (3) temporal power.  Others, including many biblical scholars, interpret the three tiers as meaning (1) father of princes and kings, (2) ruler of the world and (3) vicar of Christ on Earth, a theory lent credence by the words once used when popes were crowned:  Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et scias te esse patrem principum et regum, rectorem orbis in terra vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum (Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever).

Documents in the Vatican Archive suggest by 1130 the papal tiara had been modified to become a conventional (and temporal) symbol of sovereignty over the Papal States.  In 1301 during a dispute with Philip IV (Philip the Fair, 1268–1314, King of France 1285-1314), Pope Boniface VIII (circa 1230–1303; pope 1294-1303) added a second layer to represent a pope’s spiritual authority being superior to an earthly king’s civil domain.  It was Benedict XII (1285–1342; pope 1334-1342 (as the third Avignon pope)) who in 1342 who added the third, said to symbolize the pope’s moral authority over all civil monarchs, and to reaffirm Avignon’s possession.  A changing world and the loss of the Papal States deprived the triple crown of temporal meaning but the silver tiara with the three golden crowns remained to represent the three powers of the Supreme Pontiff: Sacred Order, Jurisdiction and Magisterium.

Pope Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) in the papal triple tiara, at his coronation, 1939.

Not since 1963 has a pope worn the triple crown.  Then, the newly-elected Pope Saint Paul VI, at the end of his coronation, took the tiara from his head and, in what was said to be a display of humility, placed it on the altar.  In a practical expression of that humility, the tiara was auctioned; the money raised used for missionary work in Africa although, keeping things in house, the winning bidder was the Archdiocese of New York.  Popes Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) and Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) received tiaras as gifts but neither wore them.  Benedict’s, in a nice ecumenical touch, was made by Bulgarian craftsmen from the Orthodox Church in Sofia, a gesture in the name of Christian unity.  Benedict would have appreciated that, having always kept a candle burning in the window to tempt home the wandering daughter who ran off to Constantinople.

Lindsay Lohan, the wandering daughter who ran off to Dubai in Lynn Kiracofe tiara, W Magazine photo- shoot, April 2005.

Pump

Pump (pronounced puhmp)

(1) An apparatus or machine for raising, driving, exhausting, or compressing fluids or gases by means of a piston, plunger, or set of rotating vanes.

(2) An instance of the action of a pump; one stroke of a pump; any action similar to pumping.

(3) In engineering or building trades, a shore having a jackscrew in its foot for adjusting the length or for bearing more firmly against the structure to be sustained.

(4) In the slang of the biological sciences, an animal organ that propels fluid through the body; the heart.

(5) In cell biology, a system that supplies energy for transport against a chemical gradient, as the sodium pump for the transfer of sodium and potassium ions across a cell membrane.

(6) To raise, drive or free from fluids by means of a pump.

(7) To inflate something with a gas or viscous substance and used analogously in other contexts.

(8) To operate or move by an up-and-down or back-and-forth action.

(9) Several types of shoe, with much variation in the way the description is applied.

(10) In bodybuilding and climbing, a swelling of the muscles caused by increased blood flow following high intensity weightlifting; a specific type of exercise routine offered by gyms; as “pump iron” a generalised phrase to refer to weight-lifting.

(11) In colloquial use, a ride on a bicycle given to a passenger, usually on the handlebars or carrier (rare).

(12) In US slang, the heart, (obsolete).

(13) In (vulgar) UK slang, the vagina (obsolete).

(14) In the slang of (pre-pandemic) social interaction, vigorously to shake a hand (often as "pumping the flesh").

(15) In slang, as “pump for information”, relentlessly to question.

(16) In the slang of computer programming, to pass messages to a program so it may respond.

(17) In cosmetic surgery or non-surgical beauty treatment, as "pumped up", a general term to describe body parts (lips, breasts etc) made plumper with some artificial substance or the redistribution of the body’s natural fat deposits.

(18) In ballistics, as “pump-action”, a design which permits the rapid loading a shell or cartridge from a magazine.

1400-1450:  From the Late Middle English pumpe, cognate with Middle Low German pumpe and Middle Dutch pompe (water conduit, pipe).  Later variations were the Dutch pompen, the German pumpen, and the Danish pompe.  All are thought derived from the Spanish bomba of imitative origin, the source thought to be North Sea sailors, either an imperfect echoic or something imitative of the sound of the plunger in the water.  The earliest use in English was in reference to a device to raise and expel bilge water from ships and the Late Old French pompe probably is from something Germanic.  The mystery is that pumps are ancient machines so the late appearance in the Germanic word is odd in that no evidence has been found of a previous descriptive word.  The use as an "an act of pumping" is attested from the 1670s.  Pump & pumping are nouns & verbs, pumper is a noun, pumpy is a noun & adjective and pumped is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is pumps.

Pump-action, in reference to a type of repeating firearm equipped with a rapid loading mechanism is attested in advertisements from 1912 but it’s unknown whether this was an invention by a manufacturer or retailer or an adoption of existing slang.  The metaphoric extension in pump (someone) for information is from 1630s.  To pump iron as a term for the lifting of weights for fitness was first noted in 1972; pump-classes in gyms became popular in the 1990s although label wasn’t (virtually) universal until circa 2002.  The meaning “low shoe without fasteners" dates from the 1550s and is of unknown origin but was perhaps (very speculatively) echoic of the sound made when walking in them or, more plausibly, from Dutch pampoesje (type of sandal worn in the Dutch East Indies), derived from the Javanese pampoes and ultimately of Arabic origin.  Some sources propose a connection with pomp but it’s undocumented.  The name pump was applied to many shoes with a very low heel, convenient in situations where freedom of movement was required and thus preferred by dancers, couriers, acrobats, duellists and such.  In the shoe business, the definition soon wandered with differences noted between British and North American applications.

The now obsolete nineteenth century phrase “keep your toes in your pump” was dialectal for "stay calm, keep quiet, don't get excited", in the same sense as advice not to “get your knickers in a knot”, the latter which has survived.  In slang, to "be pumped" is (1) to be excited in anticipation of something, (2) having muscles in an engorged state following exercise, (3) in body-building, having muscles which have responded as expected to steroids or other drugs, (4) in rock-climbing, being severely fatigued, (5) in cosmetic surgery & certain non surgical treatments, having a fuller appearance (lips, breasts etc) by virtue of the insertion of implants or an injection of some chemical and (6) among models and other women, the sense of relief upon replacing fetching but uncomfortable shoes with a pair of welcoming and accommodating pumps.

Of pumping ship

Pumps are of great importance on ships because of the need quickly to be able to remove unwanted water from inside a hull.  At sea, when a ship is "taking on water", if pumps fail or the entry of water exceeds pumping capacity, a ship will become unstable and it may sink.  In the smallest vessels, hard-pumps are used while mechanical devices are installed on anything larger than a modest dinghy.  In admiralty jargon, the command “Pump Ship!” is an instruction to begin pumping with all pumps and, in the way sailors adapt such things, it entered naval vernacular as the phrase meaning “I intend to urinate”.

It was picked up by nautical types in civilian life but was probably unknown to most until the publication (in three volumes, 2021-2022) of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1958), a US born English MP and socialite.  Edited by Dr Simon Heffer (b 1960), the entry of interest was from 19 November 1936 when Channon hosted one of his many glittering dinners in the dining room designed by Parisian interior decorator Stéphane Boudin (1888–1967, his House of Jansen later decorating the White House for Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963)) and modelled on the interior of the Amalienburg, an eighteenth century hunting lodge in on the grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace Park outside Munich, a place notorious for the intricacy of its fittings, even by the standards of Rococo.  The Amalienburg was built for someone who would later be Holy Roman Emperor, just the sort of crew with whom Channon identified and he had the elaborate style replicated in the dining room of his London house in Belgrave Square, including even the Bavarian national colors of blue & silver.  Unfortunately, no color photographs appear to have survived and the room was later disassembled, the extendable mirrored table, which could expand to a length of 25 feet (7.7 m), occasionally offered at auction.  By all accounts, the room truly was “breathtaking” and it was one of the few things in life of which Channon could find no grounds for criticism, it living up to his expectation it would “shimmer in blue and silver” and “shock and stagger London”.  For that alone he seemed to think the Stg£6,000 (mostly money he had married) cost (some Stg£525,000 adjusted for 2023) well worth it.  To illustrate the relativities, the next year he would purchase a V12 Rolls-Royce Phantom III for a sum (Stg£1900 for the chassis & another Stg£1100 to have a coach-builder fabricate a body) which would then have bought six houses in a middle-class London suburb although it’s not known if that’s something he’d have known, “middle class” being about the worst thing he could think to say of anyone.

Dining Room, 5 Belgrave Square, London, circa 1937.

On that November evening the guest of honor was King Edward VIII (1894–1972; King of the UK & Emperor of India January-December 1936, subsequently Duke of Windsor) and Channon noted in his diary his surprise at the monarch’s “modern” turn of phrase when he rose and announced “I want to pump shit.”  A dutiful host, Channon recorded he “…led His Majesty to our loulou! He proceeded to pass water without shutting the door, talking to me the while”.  That fragment of royal history was printed in the first volume (2021) of the published diaries (it was a measure of the deference which still applied in the England of 1965 that when first they appeared in heavily redacted form the passage was omitted) but comments soon appeared suggesting neither Channon nor Dr Heffer were well-acquainted with the sailors' slang the king would have learned during his brief naval career.  Dr Heffer responded by examining closely the original entry in the diarist’s hand and concluded the relevant character really was a “t” and not a “p” so the words on the night were either “misheard or misunderstood” and there’s little doubt what was said was “pump ship” and not “pump shit”.  He added that like Channon, he had “no naval connections” and was as thus just as “unfamiliar with the sea-dog slang” but that when the paperback edition was proofed, the text would be changed and an explanatory footnote (the diaries worth reading just for Heffer’s detailed footnotes) added.  Rising to the occasion, he observed this meant the “the hardback edition is destined to become a collector's item.”  The dinner proved the apogee of Channon’s social life because he’d backed the wrong royal horse, Edward VIII abdicating within weeks of having pumped ship in Belgrave Square.

Of Pumps, Courts and Flats

Lindsay Lohan in curved-heel stiletto pumps.

The homogenization of English was well-advanced long before the ubiquity of the internet but well into the twentieth century, different meanings for words could evolve in parallel in different regions of the same country, let alone between different states or provinces.  In British English, a court shoe was a woman’s shoe with a low cut vamp, sometimes with no instep fastening and otherwise adorned with a shoe buckle or a bow as an ostensible fastening.  In US English, such a shoe is a pump; pumps and court shoes may or may not have an ankle strap.  Pumps today, on either side of the Atlantic, are almost exclusively worn by women but historically were also formal shoes for men, the male variation called an opera slipper or patent pump.  For men, the pump gained ascendency over the dress boot as modern road-making techniques rendered cities less muddy places and dress pumps remained the standard for evening full-dress until the Second World War.  They remain the usual choice for black tie events and are obligatory with white-tie; the original design with steel-cut buckles, otherwise long extinct, still part of British court uniform and dress.

The construction of pumps is simple, using a whole-cut leather top with a low vamp, lined with either quilted silk or plain leather, trimmed with braid at the opening. The full leather sole is either glued onto the bottom, common on cheaper styles, or sewn, as on more costly bespoke styles still made traditionally, using a shallow slit to lift a flap of leather around the edge to recess and hide the stitching. The sole is, as on ordinary shoes, several layers of leather put together. The bow is made of grosgrain silk or rayon, in a pinched or flat form.  Pumps, which may have an ankle strap, if also constructed with a strap across the instep, are called Mary Janes.

Lindsay Lohan in ballet flats / pumps / slippers.  Ballet pumps in the UK, ballet flats in US English.

Most of the UK fashion business adopted the US use of pump because it simplified the mechanics of trade.  Otherwise, in the UK (and most of the Empire and Commonwealth) a pump implied a flat or low-heel ballet slipper or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls.  Ballet slippers (now more often called flats) date from the medieval period, their popularity declining in only in the seventeenth century when higher heels became fashionable.  After a brief nineteenth century revival, heals again prevailed until the 1960s when they became suddenly and wildly popular after Brigitte Bardot appeared in a pair of Rose Repetto’s hand-stitched ballet flats.  These days, between heals and flats, it seems a draw although the trend increasingly to prefer the comfort of the flat as the years pass is noted.

Lindsay Lohan in kitten-heeled pumps.

Except for court dress, historic references or the exact (if not always enforced) rules for white-tie, there’s now less precision attached to the use of pump and the word should be thought of as referencing a range of closed and open-toed shoes, with and without straps, bows or buckles, the other useful modifier being some reference to the height or type of the heel.  This means anything from a modest kitten to an elongated stiletto and, depending on the airport at which one lands, a flat may be a ballet flat or a ballet pump.

In US use, pumps are exclusively women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel; flats are never pumps and Canada, always more influenced by US linguistic imperialism, followed; that influence is now almost universal and the notion of the flat pump, while not extinct, has declined.  Heels for pumps vary, from the kitten 1-2 inch (25-50 mm) to the stripper (200-250 mm), the bulk of stiletto sales in the 3-5 inch (75-125 mm) range.  They can be made from any material though the classic is patent leather and, under rules formalised by Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) Miss Universe contests, white, stiletto pumps were once obligatory in the swimsuit section of beauty pageants.  Perhaps surprisingly to some, the swimsuits have survived much criticism as have the stilettos although they're no longer exclusively white and, open-toed and strappy, in most places they wouldn't even be thought of as pumps.

Of the Holley Double Pumper

Even in an age when electronic fuel-injection (EFI) has long been the standard form of induction in internal combustion engines, there remain silos in which the now arcane languages of carburetors are spoken and while there is some commonality of terms among the shortcuts, abbreviations & euphemisms of these vernaculars, a trained ear can pick the differences between the flavours to tell which dialect (SU, Weber, Holley, Rochester, Carter et al) is in play.  One part of the Holley tongue is “double pumper”.  A Holley double pumper is a four barrel carburettor with two accelerator pumps (the source of the moniker) and a mechanical linkage connecting the primary and secondary sides of the device.  Widely used during the classic era (1964-1971) of the US muscle cars, the main advantage of the design was the twin accelerator pumps prevented the transitory leanness in the fuel-air mixture which can happen during quick throttle blade movements if only a single pump is fitted.  All multi-barrel carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit but many have only one feeding the primary barrel(s).  These pumps spray a quick shot of the mix to compensate for the split-second lag which will happen before the main circuit fully responds to a throttle pushed suddenly wide open.  All double pumper carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit on both the primary and the secondary sides.

Holley 850 CFM (cubic feet per minute) double pumper carburetor (part number 0-4781C) (left).  The double accelerator pump outlets for both the primary and secondary throttle bores are are arrowed (right), in this case on a HP (high-performance) version in which the choke housing has been removed to optimize the air inlet path, making it less suitable for street use but ideal for competition.

It’s important not to refer to vacuum secondary carburettors (VSC) as any sort of pumper.  A VSC uses a secondary opening controlled by a vacuum diaphragm which opens the secondary barrels only when there is sufficient airflow demand to require it so no accelerator pump is required on the secondary side.  So, a VSC is technically a “single pumper carburettor” but that term is never used and anyone referring to one as such will lose face.  There's also a point of etiquette of which to be aware.  While “VSC” is an accepted term, a double pumper is never referred to as a “DP” because use in the pornography industry has made “DP” exclusively their own and it seems mere politeness not to intrude on their noble linguistic traditions.

There is an (unverified) industry legend that the "double buffer" terminology adopted in 1991 when Microsoft released version 4 of the Smart Drive (smartdrv.exe) disk cache was the coining of a coder who used a Holley double pumper in his muscle car.  That may or may not be true but "double buffer" lives on in the memory management of graphics processing units (GPU) as a description of the temporary storage areas in main memory where data is held during the transfer process.  The trick is that rather than processes being sequential, while program x is being read, program y can be written and vice versa.  It's not exactly quantum mechanics but means things simultaneously are happening in two places; for the gamers for whom GPUs are a fetish, every millisecond matters.

Weiland tunnel ram inlet manifold for big block Chevrolet V8 (396-427-454) with dual Holley 750 CFM double pumpers.

Synod

Synod (pronounced sin-uhd)

(1) An assembly of ecclesiastics or other church delegates (particularly of a diocese), convoked pursuant to the law of the church, for the discussion and decision of ecclesiastical affairs (in various denominations such gatherings sometimes described as ecclesiastical councils or).

(2) An assembly or council having civil authority; a legislative body and used (sometimes loosely) of any council of any institution (in this context also used disparagingly of secular institutions thought becoming too rigid in thought or process.

(3) An (often geographical) administrative division or district in the structures of some churches, either the entire denomination or a mid-level division such as a “middle judicatory” or “district”); use of the word “synod” differs between and sometimes within denominations.

(4) In astronomy, a conjunction of two or more of the heavenly bodies.

1350–1400: From the Middle English synod (ecclesiastical council), from the Late Latin synodus, From the Ancient Greek σύνοδος (súnodos or sýnodos) (assembly, meeting; a coming together, a conjunction of planets), the construct being the English syn-(from the Ancient Greek σύν (sún) (with, in company with, together with) + ὁδός ((h)odós) (traveling, journeying; a manner or system (of doing, speaking, etc.); a way, road, path (the word of uncertain origin).  The term סַנְהֶדְרִין‎ (sunédrion) exists in the Hebrew Talmudic literature and was used in a similar way and the early twelfth century Middle English form was sinoth.  Synod was used in the Presbyterian Church between 1953-1922 in the traditional sense of “an assembly of ministers and other elders” when the term was changed to “General Council”, an act of modernization apparently provoked by the word “synod” beings so associated with the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.  In the schismatic world of the Medieval Church, just as there were from time to time, “antipopes” (from the Medieval Latin antipāpa), there were also antisynods, convened as meetings of his supporters.  Synod and synodicon are nouns, synodic is an adjective, synodal is a noun & adjective, the noun plural is synods.

The adjective synodal (of or relating to a synod) was a mid-fifteenth century creation from the Late Latin synodalis.  As a noun, a synodal was (1) a constitution made in a provincial or diocesan synod which was subject to review by a central body or (2) a tribute in money formerly paid to the bishop or archdeacon (at the time of his Easter visitation), by every parish priest (now made to the ecclesiastical commissioners and in later versions of canon law referred to as a "procuration").  The adjective synodic dates from the 1630s and was from the Latin synodicus, from the Ancient Greek συνοδικός (sunodikós) (of or related to an assembly or meeting); the form used in the late sixteenth century was synodical.  When used of the conjunction of two or more of the heavenly bodies (the moon and the planets) described by the astronomers of Antiquity, the phenomenon may be called a “synodical revolution” and the time in which it occurs a “synodical month”. Despite sounding suspiciously modern, a synodicon is not associated with on-line video gaming.  The noun synodicon was from the Latin, from the Ancient Greek συνοδικόν (sunodikón) and was a substantivisation of συνοδικός (sunodikós) (synodical).  Institutionalized in modern Italianate Ecclesiastical Latin, it describes a document from a church synod or synods, especially the official records of proceedings.  A subsynod (sometimes as sub-synod) is either (1) an assembly of officials which meets prior to a synod proper to make administrative arrangements, formalize an agenda etc or (2) a kind of sub-committee of a synod which is created for some purpose such as allowing a technical matter to be discussed by experts before being referred to the full assembly of the synod for deliberation.

The noun synodality (the plural synodalities) is used in Christianity to refer (sometimes perhaps optimistically) to the “quality or style of a synod; the fraternal collaboration and discernment as typified in a synod”.  The origin of the word synod (the Ancient Greek συν (together) + ὁδός (journey) hints at the hopefully fraternal collaboration and discernment that such gatherings of ecclesiastical worthies are intended to be, the expression of this the essence of synodality.  The notion of synodality is a part of the mystique of the Roman Catholic Church because it’s said to denote the essence of the church’s mission, something explained by the Holy See's International Theological Commission (ITC) which states that synodality encapsulates “the specific modus vivendi et operandi (way of living & method of operation) of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion when all her members journey together, gather in assembly and take an active part in her evangelizing mission”.

The ITC is an organization of the Roman Curia which advises the magisterium of the church, most notably the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF, the old Holy Office which many still refer to by its original name: The Inquisition).  The IDF was a creation of the re-structuring in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II; 1962-1965) and formerly was established in 1969 as a kind of internal think tank which might present a kinder face to the world than the rather austere Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the CDF (as the DDF was then known)).  That was an approach not unknown (for good & bad) in secular politics and while over the years there have been those who claimed the relationship between the ITC and the CDF was the sort of “creative tension” needed to ensure debates over matters of ethics and procedure stayed dynamic, others have seen the tension but little creativity.  For students of structuralism, it’s of interest the prefect of the DDF is ex officio the president of the ITC, an arrangement carried over in June 2022 when Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013), as a part of a range of reforms to the curia, announced the name change from CDF to DDF.

Pope Francis has made synodality (at least his conception of it) as perhaps the core value he intends to be the legacy of his pontificate and the ITC in 2018 published a paper which made explicit Francis was not modest in his ambitions for that legacy, the ITC’s document stating it was “…precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium” and stressed synodality “…is an essential dimension of the Church”, in the sense that “what the Lord is asking of us is already in some sense present in the very word 'synod’”.  Although presumably the pope and the ITC were more concerned with theology than etymology, tracing a tread which ran from the gathering of Christ’s disciples to the sessions of Vatican II in the 1960s, word nerds would anyway have enjoyed the thoughts:

In ecclesiastical Greek it expresses how the disciples of Jesus were called together as an assembly and in some cases it is a synonym for the ecclesial community. Saint John Chrysostom, for example, writes that the Church is a “name standing for 'walking together’ (σύνοδος)". He explains that the Church is actually the assembly convoked to give God thanks and glory like a choir, a harmonic reality which holds everything together (σύστημα), since, by their reciprocal and ordered relations, those who compose it converge in αγάπη and όμονοία (common mind).

Since the first centuries, the word “synod” has been applied, with a specific meaning, to the ecclesial assemblies convoked on various levels (diocesan, provincial, regional, patriarchal or universal) to discern, by the light of the Word of God and listening to the Holy Spirit, the doctrinal, liturgical, canonical and pastoral questions that arise as time goes by.

The Greek σύνοδος is translated into Latin as synodus or concilium. Concilium, in its profane use, refers to an assembly convoked by some legitimate authority. Although the roots of “synod” and “council” are different, their meanings converge. In fact, “council” enriches the semantic content of “synod” by its reference to the Hebrew   קָהָל(qahal), the assembly convoked by the Lord, and its translation into Greek as έκκλησία, which, in the New Testament, refers to the eschatological convocation of the People of God in Christ Jesus.

In the Catholic Church the distinction between the use of the words “council” and “synod” is a recent one. In Vatican II they are synonymous, both referring to the council session. A precise distinction was introduced by the Codex Iuris Canonici of the Latin Church (1983), which distinguishes between a particular (plenary or provincial) Council and an ecumenical Council on the one hand, and a Synod of Bishops and a diocesan Synod on the other hand.

5. In the theological, canonical and pastoral literature of recent decades, a neologism has appeared, the noun “synodality”, a correlate of the adjective “synodal”, with both of these deriving from the word “synod”. Thus people speak of synodality as a “constitutive dimension” of the Church or tout court of the “synodal Church”. This linguistic novelty, which needs careful theological clarification, is a sign of something new that has been maturing in the ecclesial consciousness starting from the Magisterium of Vatican II, and from the lived experience of local Churches and the universal Church since the last Council until today.

So for Francis, the word synodality has assumed an importance beyond that with which it has so long been vested in the Catholic Church so the Vatican watchers took note when, under the pope’s imprimatur, it was in October 2021 announced a summit to be conducted over two years was to be known as the Synod on Synodality.  It would have sounded an innocuous thing had it not been for the ITC’s paper three years earlier and it had the inevitable immediate effect among the clergy, the laity and the theologians: sniffing change in the air, some were hopeful and some fearful.  However, the pope, although thought by many a disruptor is also a realist and understands change in his 2000 year old institution will unfold among the generations to come and his immediate ambition seems restricted to tweaking the way the church relates to the rest of the world rather than overturning dogma.  Thus, expectations of welcoming the LGBTQQIAAOP in the church or approving the ordination of women are absurd but there may be changes in the way bishops both interact with their flock and the priests who are closer to that flock.  Just because a change doesn’t happen in the corridors of the Vatican where the curia plot and scheme, doesn’t mean the power structures haven’t changed.  The flock doesn’t mix with the curia; they talk to their parish priest.

Interestingly, for something some fear will be the harbinger of something radical, the Synod on Synodality is structured in the traditional (Vatican II style) modules with un-threatening names like "communion", "mission" & "participation" but however vague may be the indication of the content, few doubt that at the next session the factions will be mapping onto those titles the concerns which have for decades troubled Rome and it’ll be mostly about sex: whether the thousand-year enforcement of clerical celibacy is the underlying cause of the rampant child-sex abuse among its members, the role of women in the power structures and attitudes towards same-sex relationships including marriage.  Those discussions will play out between the factions and there are few with any hope there'll be many minds changed but the tone of the synod will be important and Francis has the advantage of being the absolute monarch in a theocracy; it is Francis who gets to review the synodicon the theologians and the bishops will submit and he will write the final document of the Synod on Synodality.

Working for more synodality in the world: Lindsay Lohan supporting the NOH8 campaign which sought to end California's 2008 voter-approved gay marriage ban (Proposition 8). 

It means Francis has immense power to shape things and point them in the desired direction and his contribution to ecclesiology is likely to be very different to the intriguing exercises in abstraction which came from the pen of Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022).  Whether that means it becomes simultaneously possible for the church simultaneously to continue to condemn homosexuality as a sin yet approve priests giving a blessing to those in a same-sex marriage remains to be seen but in many places, it would merely be an acknowledgement of what’s already happening.  Still, those who enjoy the process of such things more than the outcome can be assured there'll be much weeping and gnashing of teeth during the modules and some rending of garments on the way out.

Sandbag

Sandbag (pronounced sand-bag)

(1) A bag filled with sand, used in water-proofing, fortification, as ballast etc.

(2) Such a bag used as a weapon.

(3) Violently to set upon or attack from or as if from ambush (archaic).

(4) To coerce or intimidate, to make threats (archaic).

(5) Sometimes by metaphor, by virtue of added weight, to reduce performance in competitive sport; a form of cheating.

(6) To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage.

(7) In commerce, to obstruct an unwelcome takeover bid by prolonging talks in the hope an acceptable bidder will appear.

1580-1590: A compound of the nouns sand + bag.  Sand was from the Middle English sand, from the Old English sand, from the Proto-Germanic samdaz.  In other European languages there was the West Frisian sân, Dutch zand, German Sand, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sand, thought all related to the primitive sámh₂dhos.  Bag was from the Middle English bagge, borrowed from the Old Norse baggi (bag, pack, satchel, bundle), from the primitive bhak and thought related are the Welsh baich (load, bundle) and the Ancient Greek βάσταγμα (bástagma) (load)).  In Latin there was sabulum, and in Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos) from sem (to pour).  English root is hinted at by The Old English dialectal samel (sand bottom), the Old Irish to-ess-sem (to pour out), the Latin sentina (bilge water), the Lithuanian sémti (to scoop) and the Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō) (to gather) & ἄμη (ámē) (water bucket)).  The verb was first noted in 1860 with the simple meaning “provide someone with sandbags".  The meaning "pretend weakness" apparently first used in 1950s motor racing appears not to have been in common use until the 1970s, with most sources linking use to the poker-playing sense of "refrain from raising at the first opportunity in hopes of raising more steeply later", a use first documented in 1940.  The idea of the sandbag as a weapon (used by a sandbagger) dates from 1882 with the resultant “sandbagged” emerging in 1887.

Sandbagging

Lindsay Lohan in Chief Sandbagger tank top.

Sandbagging is a form of cheating, usually in sport but also in commerce.  It involves deliberately under-performing at certain stages to maximise the benefits gained when later performing to full-potential.  The metaphor is based on the notion of being impeded by the extra weight of carrying a sandbag, analogous with the old “lead in the saddle” from horse racing when unscrupulous owners would add to a well-priced mount’s weight if they were betting on a longer-odds starter.  In motor racing, sandbagging described drivers who, in handicapped events, deliberately recorded slow times in qualifying to gain a more advantageous starting position or a less onerous handicap in the event proper.  The authorities responded with penalties or disqualification if race-day performance improved on the qualifying mark by more than a defined measure.  Literal sandbagging proved useful as a stabilizing device in many of the big-engine machines during the (1964-1974) US muscle car era during which some of the things generated close up to five-hundred horsepower, delivered to the road through primitive drive systems with over sixty percent of their weight sitting over the front wheels.  On street, strip and track, two or more bags of sand in the trunk (boot) greatly improved traction and balance.  A specialised need for the bag in the boot is in the stunt car business for those times when there’s a need to have a vehicle fly through the air, landing safely on four wheels at the end of descent.  To do that, object will fly best if its weight-distribution is a close as possible to 50-50 but, most cars being front-heavy, there’s a tendency to nosedive, the traditional fix being sandbags in the boot.  Cement is sometimes used instead of sand and the need for such tricks is diminishing with advances in CGI.

Before sandbagging: A tendency to nosedive.

The CBS comedy TV series The Dukes of Hazzard was aired between 1979-1985.  The show did feature actors and plot lines (analysts have suggested there were either five or six plots and these, with tweaks and variations on the themes, were recycled in all the 147 episodes shot) but for many the most memorable character was the 1969 Dodge Charger.  Introduced as a 1968 model, it replaced its rather slab-sided predecessor which, after an encouraging debut in 1966, had suffered a precipitous drop in sales the next season.  The re-styling for 1968 transformed not only the appearance but also its popularity and sales more than quadrupled even though some of the extravagant interior appointments (the eye-catching electroluminescent instrument lighting and the four bucket seats with a full-length centre console) which two years earlier had attracted such interest were no longer offered.  The sleek new lines however more than made up for the cost-cutting although belying the wind-cheating appearance, the shape wasn’t that aerodynamically efficient, something the corporation would twice seek to rectify in the quest for success on the circuits.  The first attempt was relatively modest and proved inadequate but the second worked so for the one season it was used the sanctioning body outlawed the entire concept.  Known as the first of the "aero cars", it was the most radical a manufacturer had ever attempted.  It still is.

After sandbagging: Perfect weight distribution.

In the course of production, over 300 Dodge Chargers were used in the series, the rate of attrition as one might expect from the number of car-jumping stunts involved.  Early in the show’s life, when 1968-1969 (the 1968 cars were easily modified to appear as next year’s model for filming purposes) Dodge Chargers were just cheap used cars and readily available, the supply-line of replacements wasn’t a significant part of the budget but by the early 1980s, the cars were becoming scarce and increasingly expensive, something at least partly attributable to the impact of the TV series.  There was in the early 1980s also a sudden drop in the cost of gas as the (somewhat misleadingly named) “oil glut” depressed the price of oil and gas-guzzlers like the Chargers, with their satisfying, if rather primitive characteristics, enjoyed a renaissance.  In response, the producers responded with the tricks used in the pre CGI (computer-generated imagery) era, re-using old footage and staging some of the more distant scenes with scale models.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Perfect weight distribution: Jessica Simpson (b 1980) in promotional shot for The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), said to be among the worst films ever made.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Joe Biden, sandbagged in Colorado.

In June 2023, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) told reporters he'd "been sandbagged" after tripping over “a sandbag” after handing out diplomas on a stage at the US Air Force (USAF) Academy’s Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The footage of the event was all from one camera angle and on that no sandbag was evident but some quickly observed even if there wasn’t really a sandbag, the president clearly believes there was one and under some theories of cognition, that means the same thing.  The eighty year old president was quickly picked up by an air force officer and two members of the Secret Service, the White House later issuing a statement saying he was “fine after the fall” and USAF sources confirmed “two small black sandbags were used to support the teleprompter”.

Joe Biden has suffered repeated difficulties in trying to board Air Force One using the red-carpeted stairs, once infamously tripping over three times during one ascent (left).  He now uses the "baby stairs" in the nose.  Note the Secret Service officer at the bottom of the stairs: he is the "designated catcher".

So sandbags have been added to the checklist his Secret Service detail goes through before he’s allowed to make any public appearances.  Apparently surfaces on which the president will walk (or stumble or shuffle depending on the time of day) have to be as free from obstacles and obstructions as is possible and not be at all slippery.  A roll-up mat is now part of the inventory carried in the presidential motorcade, un-rolled whenever surfaces appear “potentially challenging”.  Anything other than sitting down is obvious fraught with danger and it’s not clear if he’ll again be allowed to ride a bike after tumbling to the ground when his feet somehow got “tangled in the pedals”.  His difficulties with stairs have been well documented and it’s of note he now uses only a rarely used forward exit when boarding or alighting from Air Force One.  Even that doesn’t guarantee he won’t trip up but from these stairs it’s a shorter fall to the tarmac so there’s that.

Capillary

Capillary (pronounced kap-uh-ler-ee)

(1) Pertaining to or occurring in or as if in a tube of fine bore.

(2) Resembling a strand of hair; hair-like; slender.

(3) In physics, pertaining to capillarity; of or relating to the apparent attraction or repulsion between a liquid and a solid, observed in capillarity.

(4) In anatomy, pertaining to a capillary or capillaries; one of the minute blood vessels between the terminations of the arteries and the beginnings of the veins.  Capillaries form a network throughout the body for the exchange of oxygen, metabolic waste products, and carbon dioxide between blood and tissue cells.

(5) As capillary tube, any small-bore tube.

(6) A fine hole or narrow passage in any substance (technical use only).

1570–1580: From the Middle English, from the Latin capillāris (of or pertaining to hair), the construct being capill(us) (hair) + -ary.  The suffix –ary (of or pertaining to) was a back-formation from unary and similar, from the Latin adjectival suffixes -aris and -arius; appended to many words, often nouns, to make an adjective form.   Use was not restricted to words of Latin origin.  The etymology of the Latin capillus (hair (of the head)) is contested.  Although a relationship to caput (head) seems obvious, some doubt the connection "for formal reasons”, essentially because capillus is a diminutive, and would translate as “little head”, a perhaps tenuous relationship with “hair” but certainly not impossible and the dispute continues.  The Latin word was borrowed by early fourteenth century English as capillar (hair-like) to describe veins.

In the modern science of anatomy, used to describe “tube-like structures having so small a bore that water will not run through them”, use dates from 1742, an extension of the noun use from 1606 used to describe a “minute blood vessel”.  From 1806, experientialists used the word to describe the phenomena of the rise of liquids in tubes etc by the processes of surface tension; because the observational studies were conducted in capillary vessels, this came first to be called capillary attraction (1813).  Capillary as the "state or condition of being capillary" was first documented in 1806, from the French capillarité, from Latin capillāris.  In science, the derived terms include magnetocapillary, optocapillary & polycapillary.  The noun plural is capillaries and intercapillary is the adjective

The smaller, the bore of the tube, the greater the effect of the interaction of forces.

The process behind the counter-intuitive idea of water flowing uphill, even vertically, is called capillary action (and also capillary motion, capillarity, capillary effect, wicking or capillary attraction).  It describes the process by which liquids contained in narrow spaces are able, without the assistance of, or even in opposition to external forces such as pressure or gravity are able to move upwards.  It occurs because of the reaction of intermolecular forces between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces; if the internal diameter of the tube is sufficiently small, then a combination of surface tension (caused by cohesion within the liquid) and adhesive forces between the liquid and wall will propel the liquid.  When the intermolecular attractive forces between the liquid and the solid surrounding surfaces (adhesive forces) are stronger than the cohesive forces within the liquid, the fluid will be pulled up the liquid column up until there is a sufficient mass of liquid for gravitational forces to counteract these forces.

The circular economy of botanical water management.

Plants use capillary action to draw water from roots and stems upwards to the trunk.  The molecules of the water are attracted to the molecules already  inside of the nominally solid stem from where they are dispersed throughout the plant.  Again, it’s the product of the relationship between adhesion and cohesion, and for plants, adhesion allows for the water to stick to their organic tissues while cohesion keeps the water molecules together.  Surface tension is the effect of intermolecular attraction that causes liquids to form a top or outer layer that behaves like a thin film of sorts.  Surface tension is responsible for the shape of water drops and for holding the structures together as plants soak up the water.  This is the circular economy of plants.

Capillary attraction and the Thorny Devil (from a BBC documentary).

Dwelling uniquely in central & western Australia, the thorny devil (Moloch horridus) is a lizard which is often seen when around 50-75 mm (2-3 inches) in length but can grow as large as 200 mm (8 inches).  Long-lived (up to 20 years), although fearsome in appearance, they are placid creatures with few apparent interests other than finding the ants and so voracious is their appetite that thousands can be consumed in a single meal.  The presence of people seems little to disturb them and thorny devils will sit on someone's shoulder for some time, apparently content and without any sign of distress.  Other than ants, their main need is for fresh water which is harvested through the channels formed in its skin between the spines.  It can collect moisture either from allowing dew to settle or by finding a water source and standing still, allowing gravity and capillary action to operate to let the fluid reach the mouth.  During rainfall events (which do happen in the Australian deserts), the process is rapid but in dry periods capillary action permits water to be taken up from damp sand and this can for months at a time be the creature’s primary method of intake.