Gadget

Gadget (pronounced gaj-it)

(1) A mechanical contrivance or device; any ingenious article (by convention, something small).

(2) Any contraption which is thought interesting because of its ingenuity or novelty rather than for its practical use.

(3) A name for something used in circumstances when the correct name cannot be recalled (obsolete and supplanted in this context by thingamajig, gizmo, doohickey, whatchamacallit et al).

(4) In slang, any consumer electronics product.

(5) In computing, a sequence of machine code instructions crafted as part of an exploit that attempts to divert execution to a memory location chosen by the attacker.

(6) In computer science, a technique for converting a part of one problem to an equivalent part of another problem (used in constructing reductions).

1850–1855: Of uncertain origin but it may be linked with gagée or gâchette (catch of a lock, sear of a gunlock; trigger) a diminutive of gâche (staple of a lock)).  The alternative etymology is that it’s derived from the French family name Gaget because of the connection with the metalwork foundry Gaget, Gauthier & Co, which produced promotional “gadgets” in collaboration with the project to build the Statue of Liberty.  The word first appeared in print in 1886.  In sailor’s slang, the noun gadjet was in use by at least 1886 in the sense of “any small mechanical thing or part of a ship for which they lacked (or forgot the correct name for).  Because of the possible connection between gadget and gâchette (a diminutive of gâche), with seafaring being a multi-national trade, many twentieth century dictionaries speculated a link with “gauge” but the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has ruled this “improbable”.  The noun widget (a small manufactured item, produced usually in great quantity) was and invention of US English and probably an alteration of gadget.  It was coined by playwright George S. Kaufman (1889-1961) and it first appeared in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).  In the years since, widget has been adopted by economists and others as a placeholder name for an unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product, usually for purposes of measuring or explaining productivity, unit production costs etc.  Gizmo was World War II (1939-1945) era US Marine and Navy slang for “any small device or piece of equipment the correct name of which eluded one”.  Its origin is utterly mysterious but in was in regular use by at least 1942.  Gadget & gadgetry are nouns and gadgety is an adjective; the noun plural is gadgets.

Lindsay Lohan texting friendly greetings on a smartphone.  The smartphone was the most influential gadget of the early twentieth century but within three years of its debut had become so integrated into social and economic life that it had ceased to be regarded as a “gadget” although an industry sprung up to provide accessories, some of which legitimately were gadgets (multi-function stands & cases; gaming controllers etc).

Windows Gadgets in Sidebar.

At the hardware level, there have over the decades been literally thousands of gadgets which attach to, hang off or in some way interact with PCs, laptops and servers.  Some proved so useful they came to be thought indispensable and were integrated into the core devices, some were niche products for controlling things as diverse as telescopes or fish tanks and some were so absurdly useless (a USB ghost detector; a mouse with an integrated telephone) one wonders what market research was undertaken.  Almost forgotten now however is that for a while, Microsoft had a entire “Gadgets Division” dedicated to developing or perfecting lightweight, single-purpose applications which ran directly on a user’s desktop or a “bolt-on” called a sidebar (although some actually ran from a web page).  For those whose memories stretch back to the earliest attempts to provide some degree of multi-tasking functionality on the inherently single-tasking PC/MS-DOS operating system, the sight of the gadgets summoned a warm nostalgic feeling for TSR (Terminate & Stay Resident) products like Borland’s Sidekick, a personal information manager (PIM) with a variety of features, the most popular of which was said to be the calculator.  The Microsoft Gadgets were introduced when certain builds of Windows 7 were released and the implementation was extended under Windows Vista but because of the way the Gadgets interacted with HTML, it proved impossible adequately to secure them against vulnerabilities and they were withdrawn during the Windows 8 Product cycle.

The gadget in the test stand in New Mexico (left), gadget 0.016 of a second after the nuclear chain reaction was triggered (centre) and the mushroom cloud, 15 seconds after detonation (right).  The photographs were taken a a distance of approximately 10 miles (16 km).

In the military, project code-names can occasionally be amusing (although many are in-jokes) but where secrecy matters (notably during war-time), the protocol usually is to choose a name which gives no hint of the nature of the purpose.  That was the origin of the “Manhattan Project” which covered the activities involved in the creation of the first nuclear weapons.  Since late in the nineteenth century the US Army Corps had been organized on a geographic basis, divided into the districts in which work was undertaken and it was a flexible system, the borders altered as needs changed.  In August 1942, the “Manhattan Engineer District” was created, something which would have appeared to any outsiders as something as merely procedural as the establishment of any of the districts which had for time to time been gazetted.  However, the secret of the Manhattan Engineer District was that it had no geographical boundaries and its function was to build the atomic bomb (A-Bomb).  Originally, the plan had been to use the code name “Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials”, very much in the vein of “Tube Alloys” which had been name the British used for their nuclear research programme but it was thought Manhattan Engineer District was much less likely to attract attention.  The rationale for the code name for the actual A-Bomb was much the same; it came to be known as “The Gadget”, something vague and nondescript.  The gadget was first tested (code-named “Trinity”) on 16 July 1945, in the New Mexico desert.

Halcyon

Halcyon (pronounced hal-see-uhn)

(1) Calm; peaceful; tranquil.

(2) Rich; wealthy; prosperous.

(3) Happy; joyful; carefree, the best of times.

(4) A mythical bird, usually identified with the kingfisher, said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, and to have the power of charming winds and waves into calmness.

(5) Any of various kingfishers, especially of the genus Halcyon.

(6) In Classical mythology, Alcyone.

1350-1400: From the Middle English Alceoun, from the Latin halcyōn & alcyōn (kingfisher), from the Ancient Greek halkyṓn, a pseudo-etymological variant of ἀλκυών (alkuṓn). (kingfisher) of unknown origin.  It replaced the Middle English alceon (or alicion), from the Classical Latin alcyōn, from the same Greek root.  By the 1540s it had in English assumed the sense of "calm, quiet, peaceful" in the phrase "halcyon dayes", a translation of the Latin alcyonei dies, from the Greek alkyonides hemerai, the fourteen days of calm weather at the winter solstice, when a mythical bird (identified with the kingfisher) was said to breed in a nest floating on calm seas.  In late fourteenth century Middle English, the fabled bird was known as the alcioun.  The word intrigued etymologists and the orthodox explanation is the construct hals (sea; salt) + kyon (conceiving), the present participle of kyein (to conceive (literally "to swell")) was an ancient folk-etymology to explain a loan-word from a non-Indo-European language.  The proper noun Halcyonidae describes the taxonomic family within the order Coraciiformes (tree kingfishers), sometimes considered a subfamily, as Halcyoninae.  Halcyon is a noun & adjective, halcyonid is a noun and halcyonian is an adjective; the noun plural is halcyons.

The Legend of Halcyone

Halcyone (1915) by Herbert James Draper (circa 1863-1920).

In Greek mythology, Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus and she married Ceyx, son of Eosphorus (the Morning Star).  Alcyone and Ceyx were very happy together in Trachis and according to Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, playfully they would often call each other Zeus and Hera.  That was sacrilegious and so did it anger Zeus that one day when his mood was especially bad, seeing Ceyx at sea, the god cast a thunderbolt at his boat, sinking the fragile vessel and drowning Ceyx.  That evening, Morpheus, the god of dreams, disguised himself as Ceyx and appeared to Alcyone as an apparition, telling her of her lover's fate, at which in her grief, determined to join Ceyx, she cast herself into the sea and died.  In compassion, the gods changed them both into halcyon birds, named after her and by some accounts the kingfisher-like birds were granted the power to calm stormy, troubled seas and breed in nests floating on calm waters.  Like much mythology from Antiquity, there are variations of the story.  The Roman writers Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BC–17 AD) & Hyginus (Gaius Julius Hyginus (circa 64 BC–17 AD) both recount the metamorphosis of the pair after Ceyx's loss in a terrible storm, though neither make mention of the wrath of Zeus, blaming the tragedy on the stormy seas.  Ovid also claims she threw herself into the ocean upon seeing his body washed ashore and Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC)) makes a brief mention of the affair, again without blaming Zeus.

Halcyon days: The Mean Girls (2004) cast at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards ceremony.

The most common use of halcyon now is "halcyon days" meaning “the best of times”.  Ovid and Hyginus both make Alcyone’s metamorphosis the origin of the etymology for halcyon days although for them it was something literally meteorological: the seven winter days when storms never gather.  These were the fourteen days each year (seven days either side of the shortest day) during which Alcyone (as a kingfisher) laid her eggs and made her nest on the beach and during which her father Aeolus, god of the winds, restrained the winds and calmed the waves so she could do so in safety. The phrase has since come to refer to any peaceful time and this has supplanted the older meaning; that of a lucky break, or a bright interval set in the midst of adversity.

Upper

Upper (pronounced uhp-er)

(1) Higher, as in place, position, pitch, or in a scale.

(2) Superior, as in rank, dignity, or station.

(3) In geography (as place or regional names), at a higher level, more northerly, or farther from the sea.

(4) In stratigraphy, denoting a later division of a period, system, or the like, (often initial capital letter).

(5) The part of a shoe or boot above the sole, comprising the quarter, vamp, counter, and lining.

(6) A gaiter; made usually of cloth.

(7) In dentistry, as upper plate, the top of a set of false teeth (dentures), the descriptive prefix for teeth in the upper jaw.

(8) In bicameral parliaments, as upper house (senate, legislative council, House of Lords etc), the body elected or appointed often on a less representative basis than a lower house.

(9) Slang for a stimulant drug, especially an amphetamine, as opposed to the calmative downer.

(10) In mathematics, (of a limit or bound), greater than or equal to one or more numbers or variables.

(11) In Taoism, a spiritual passageway through which consciousness can reach a higher dimension.

1300-1350: From the Old English upp, from the Proto-Germanic upp and cognate with the Old Frisian up, the Old Saxon up, the Old Dutch up, the Old High German ūf and the Old Norse upp.  Similar formations were the Middle Dutch upper, the Dutch opper, the Low German upper and the Norwegian yppare.  The –er suffix (added to verbs to form an agent noun) is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ware (suffix denoting residency or meaning "inhabitant of"), from the Proto-Germanic (w)ārijaz (defender, inhabitant), from the primitive Indo-European wer- (to close, cover, protect, save, defend).  It was cognate with the Dutch -er, the German –er and the Swedish -are.  The Proto-Germanic (w)ārijaz is thought most likely a borrowing from the Latin ārius.

The phrase “upper hand” (advantage) was first noted in the late fifteenth century, possibly the jargon of wrestling (“over-hand” existed with the same meaning nearly two-hundred years earlier and “lower hand” (condition of having lost or failed to win superiority) was documented in the 1690s but both are rare compared with “upper hand).  Upperclassman is recorded from 1871 and upper crust is attested from the mid-fifteenth century in reference to the top crust of a loaf of bread tending to be reserved for the rich.  Upper middle class was in use by 1835 and, in an echo of the modern “one percenters”, “upper ten thousand” appears first in 1844 and was common by mid-century to refer to the wealthier strata of society; a companion term of the time was “uppertendom”.  As a descriptor of the part of a shoe above the sole, use emerged in 1789.  The slang use to describe amphetamines and other pep-pills is an Americanism dated usually from 1968 but which may have been in use earlier; the companion term for drugs with a calmative effect was "downer".

In bicameral parliaments, in almost all systems it's common to refer to "upper" & "lower" houses.  In the democratic age, lower houses evolved to be the places which were most directly representative of the electorate and a member able to gain the support of a majority of those elected to a lower house was able to form a government, a process long almost always mediated through party politics.  Upper houses were more varied in composition, sometimes elected, sometimes appointed (in some cases, for life) and they tended to be representative more or established (and entrenched) interests than the wider electorate.  In federal systems, many upper houses were conceived as representatives and defenders of the rights and interests of the constituent states but in the West, this aspect of the history has been subsumed by the influence of the parties and only in rare cases will the interests of the state transcend party loyalty.  The upper chambers have undergone many changes and one of the oldest, the UK's House of Lords, was radically transformed by the New Labour administration (1997-2010) although its powers had already dramatically been pruned earlier in the twentieth century and no prime-minister has sat in the Lords since 1903, something not again contemplated since the 1920s (and under unusual circumstances in the 1950s).  An exception to the use of upper & lower in the context is in the US where the congress and almost all the state assemblies are bicameral.  In the US, historically, there was no conception of "upper & lower" in that sense, the two being regarded as co-equal but with different roles.  That was influenced both by the circumstances of the origin of the nation and the fact the executive branches are not drawn from the memberships  of the assemblies.  However, in recent decades, the use of "upper house" & "lower house" has crept into use, essentially because the standards of journalism are not what they were and this seems to have infected even some US reporters.  Some systems (notably New Zealand) actually abolished their upper house and from time-to-time there are doubtless a number of prime-ministers elsewhere who wish they could.    

For most of the twentieth century, the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso was known as the Upper Volta (the name indicating the land-mass contained the upper part of the Volta River), initially as part of the French colonial empire, later as an independent republic.  A self-governing republic of the French Community between 1958–1960, it was granted full independence in 1960 and re-named Burkina Faso in 1984.  When president, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974), used “Upper Volta” sarcastically, as a reference to any unimportant country, especially if he was compelled by the conventions of diplomacy to spend time meeting with their delegations, talking about things in which he just wasn't interested.

Lindsay Lohan wearing Louis Vuitton Star Trail ankle boots, fashioned with a Jacquard textile and glazed calf leather upper, treaded rubber sole, 3.1 inch (80mm) heel and patent monogram-canvas back loop (made in Italy, LV part-number 1A2Y7W, RRP US$1360.00), New York, January 2019.

Hegemony

Hegemony (pronounced hi-jem-uh-nee or hej-uh-moh-nee)

(1) Leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others, as in a confederation.

(2) Aggression or expansionism by large nations in an effort to achieve world domination (especially among smaller nations).

(3) As cultural hegemony, ascendancy or domination of one (class, ethnic, linguistic etc) group over others.

1560–1570: From the Ancient Greek ἡγεμονία (hēgemonía) (leadership, authority, supremacy), the construct being ἡγεμών (hēgemon-) (stem of hēgemṓn) (leader) + -ia (the suffix forming abstract nouns of feminine gender, from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin -ia and the Ancient Greek -ία (-ía) & -εια (-eia)); the rarer form was ἡγέομαι (hēgeisthai) (to lead).  The root of hēgeisthai is unknown but a link has been suggested to "to track down," from the primitive Indo-European sag-eyo- from the root sag- (to seek out, track down, trace).  The forms antihegemonic & counterhegemonic were creations in political science to describe the tactics and strategies adopted to oppose a hegemon.  Hegemony, hegemon, hegemonization & hegemonist are nouns, hegemonized, hegemonizing & hegemonize are verbs, hegemonic is an adjective and hegemonically is an adverb; the noun plural is hegemonies.

The noun hegemonism dates from 1965 and refers to a policy of political domination, based to some extent on the model of imperialism.  The noun hegemonist was first used in 1898 in a discussion of the particular role of Prussia in the German (con)federation (the joke of the time being that while there were many states with an army, Prussia was an army with a state).  The noun hegemon had been used a year earlier, describing the unique position of Great Britain in the world as a maritime power with a far-flung world-wide empire, quite distinct historically from the models of the previous two millennia which had tended to be continental or at least contiguous.  The adjective hegemonic had emerged as early as the 1650s and was older still, noted in oral use in the 1610s.

Gramsci's legacy

Hegemons at lunch.

Mean Girls (2004) has been analysed as a series of case-studies deconstructing the ways an individual or group can asset a cultural hegemony but it's also been subject to the critique that as a piece of cinema, it's emblematic of the way the industry reinforces white supremacy and white privilege.  The original sense of hegemony, dating from the 1560s, was in reference to the predominance of one city state over another in Ancient Greece and was used also to mean the literal authority or sovereignty of one city-state over a number of others, as Athens in Attica or Thebes in Boeotia and generally to the Hellenic League (338 BC), a federation of Greek city–states created by Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BC; king (basileus) of Macedonia 359-336) to facilitate his access to and use of Greek armies against the Persian empire.  It was first used in a modern sense in geo-politics during the 1850s to describe the position of Prussia in relation to other German states and came to be applied, sometime misleadingly, to the European colonialism imposed upon the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia.  In the twentieth century, political scientists (not only those from the left although the idea was most developed by neo-Marxists) extended the denotation of hegemony to include cultural imperialism, the domination, by a ruling class (or culture), in a socially stratified society.  The core of the theory was that by manipulating cultural values and mores, thereby constructing a dominant ideology, the ruling class intellectually can dominate the other classes by imposing a worldview (Weltanschauung) that, ideologically and structurally, justifies the social, political, and economic status quo to the point where it’s viewed as normal, inevitable and perpetual, with no possible alternative.

Antonio Gramsci

It was Italian politician and Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s (1891–1937) discussions in the 1920s of the nature of hegemony which provided the framework upon which others built their theories.  Gramsci was interested in the survival, indeed the flourishing of the capitalist state in the most advanced Western countries, despite the social and economic convulsions which earlier theorists had suggested should have threatened the system’s survival.  Gramsci understood the supremacy of a class and that the reproduction of its associated mode of production could be obtained by brute domination or coercion but his key observation was that in advanced capitalist societies, the perpetuation of class rule was achieved largely through consensual means.  A hegemonic class is thus one able to attain the consent of other social forces, and the retention of this consent is an ongoing project.  His work continues to underpin most critical analysis of apparently disparate systems such as The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the US, systems in which tiny ruling classes (the Communist Party (CCP) in the former and the (somewhat misleadingly named) one percent in the latter), maintain and enhance a system entirely in their own interest with support from the masses ranging mostly from resigned acquiescence to actual enthusiasm.  In the CCP, this manifests as most of the population supporting the suppression of their political rights; in the US, they’re convinced to act against their own economic interests.  Under capitalism (ie the system used by both PRC and the US), Gramsci observed the relentless contribution of the institutions of civil society to the shaping of mass cognitions.

Gramsci wasn’t a theorist only of structures but was interested also in revolutionary strategy.  He noted the acquisition of consent prior to gaining power as an obvious implication but this he refined by offering a distinction a war of manoeuvre (the full frontal assault on the bourgeois state) and one of position (engagement with and subversion of the mechanisms of bourgeois ideological domination).  Others were taken with the concept, notably German-American political theorist Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) of the Frankfurt School of critical theory and German Marxist sociologist Rudi Dutschke (1940–1979), best remembered for the idea, inspired by Gramsci, of a “long march through the institutions”.  The strategy was inspired, the tactics flawed.  The institutions through which the revolutionaries were allowed (some say encouraged) to march turned out to be art galleries, theatre trusts and other structures on the margins.  The institutions which controlled the economy and the security of the state remained under the control of the hegemon.

Jagwah

Jagwah (pronounced jag-whar)

A slang term in western Africa; a colloquialism for a smart man-about-town.

From early 1960s post-colonial Nigeria.  A phoneticism based on the admiration locals felt for the large green and white Jaguars run by the newly-independent Nigerian Government on their executive car fleet.  An example of aspirational association; desired life-style linked to status-symbols.  In west-Africa, Jagwah to this day remains a  colloquialism for "a smart man-about-town".

Under British colonial rule since the early nineteenth century, Nigeria gained independence in 1960.  Within a few weeks, the new government had bought forty Jaguar Mark IXs, all painted in the Nigerian state colours of green and white.  The big Jags, much admired by the local citizens, were ideal for African conditions, being robustly built and supplied with a low-compression engine suitable for the octane-rating of the petrol then available in the continent.  The economics were also compelling with their price being less than half that of a visually similar Rolls-Royce or Bentley.

The big post-war Jaguars

1947 Jaguar Mark IV 3.5 Saloon.

Jaguar Mark IV, 1945-1949:  Like many of the cars produced immediately after WWII, the Jaguar Mark IV range was essentially the same at that made in the pre-war years.  The nomenclature however changed in 1945 and would later again change retrospectively, the Mark IV tag adopted only when the Mark V was introduced in 1948.   At that time there had never been a Mark I, II & II but Jaguar’s strange relationship with numerical progression, Arabic & Latin, would continue in the 1950s, the Mark VI skipped in deference to Bentley which already had one on sale although whether this was an attempt to push brand-perception up-market or on legal advice isn’t known.  Later, structurally unrelated to the earlier cars there would be a Mark 2 and (retrospectively) a Mark 1 but after the Mark X & Mark 2 were in 1967 re-named, both Roman numerals and the use of "Mark" were abandoned in favor of an alpha-numeric mix.  The other change was the dropping of the SS label, the association with the Nazi Party’s SS (Schutzstaffel (security section or squad)) too unsavoury in those times although the moment would soon pass, Jaguar in 1957 reviving the name for the XKSS, the road-going version of the D-Type race car.  Jaguar’s pre-war use of SS was apparently derived from the company’s origin as the Swallow Sidecar Company but, after the association with the Standard Motor Company as an engine supplier, the factory began to prefer Standard Swallow, the cars sold under the badge Jaguar SS.

1945 Jaguar Mark IV 3.5 DHC.

Between 1945-1949 therefore, what came to be called the Mark IV was sold as the Jaguar 1½ litre, 2½ litre & 3½ litre; most were saloons but a small number of drophead coupés (DHC or convertible) were built.  Still using Standard’s engines (although manufactured by Jaguar after 1946), the larger units were overhead valve (OHV) straight sixes, the smaller one an OHV four.  Quite old-fashioned even then, the cars still used mechanical brakes and were built on a separate chassis frame with semi-elliptic leaf suspension on rigid axles front and rear.

1950 Jaguar Mark V 3.5.

Jaguar Mark V, 1948-1951:  Unlike the first genuinely new post-war American cars which were stylistically a generation advanced, in appearance the Mark V was clearly an evolution from the pre-war lines, the flowing curves more integrated into the coachwork and the once separate headlamps now in nacelles flared into the bodywork.  Bigger and heavier than its predecessors, the Mark V, again offered as a saloon or DHC, was fitted only with the six-cylinder engines; it would be decades before the next four-cylinder Jaguar would be sold, the XK-four prototypes tested for a couple of years thought unsuitable for the market segment Jaguar played a part in creating.  The OHV six was carried over from the Mark IV, the new double overhead camshaft (DOHC) XK-six remaining exclusive to the XK-120 sports car until the debut of the Mark VII in 1951 but under the skin, it was rather more modern, now with independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes though the separate chassis would remain until the end of the Mark IX in 1961.  There would be no Jaguar Mark VI, apparently because the visually similar Bentley Mark VI was already on sale and the story (which has been repeated over the years) that the abortive Jaguar Mark VI was a Mark V fitted with the XK-six is apparently a myth although several such cars certainly were built as testbeds for the drivetrain which would be used in the Mark VII.     

The Jaguar Mark VII M which won the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally.

Jaguar Mark VII, 1951-1956:  Reluctant still entirely to abandon the pre-war lines, the Mark VII was again evolutionary in appearance, something of a streamlined Mark V, but under the bonnet (hood) now sat the XK-120’s 3.4 litre (210 cubic inch) XK-Six which enabled the big saloon (there were no more DHCs) to top 100 mph (160 km/h) with acceleration to match all but the most powerful of the competition from Detroit.  The lusty performance made the Mark VII a somewhat improbable competition vehicle and it enjoyed success both on the track and as a rally car, a career enhanced when the Mark VII M was introduced in 1954, the 3.4 XK engine now with more aggressive camshafts and a higher compression ratio made possible by the wider availability of high-octane petrol.  The lift in performance was sufficient for victory in the 1956 Monte-Carlo Rally and while success continued on the track, a win in a 1956 NASCAR event was enough to convince the ruling body to ban foreign-built cars.  In a sign of the times, the automatic gearbox, previously available only on export models, was offered as an option on the home market.   

1958 Jaguar Mark VIII.

Jaguar Mark VIII, 1956-1958:  Externally distinguishable from its predecessor only by the new, one-piece curved windscreen and other detail changes, the Mark VIII gained another useful increase in performance by the adoption of a variation of the XK-140’s higher performance 3.4 XK-Six, tuned to deliver low and mid-range torque rather than the top-end power needed in sports-car trim.  Now trimmed more elaborately, weight increased so the lift in performance was a little blunted but Jaguar’s choice as a performance saloon had anyway switched to (what came retrospectively to be known as) the smaller Mark 1 which in 1957 gained the 3.4 litre engine, becoming something of the BMW M5 of its day.  Additionally, the 1956 Suez crisis had made the smaller car much more attractive to customers and from its introduction the smaller saloon would out-sell the big Marks.

1959 Jaguar Mark IX.

Jaguar Mark IX, 1958-1961:  With the success of the smaller Mark I & 2, they became the mainstream Jaguar saloons and the Mark IX was upgraded further, the interior appointments now more luxurious, some previously optional features such as the sun-roof fitted as standard.  Power was again increased, the XK-six now bored out to 3.8 litres (231 cubic inches) and rated at 220 bhp (164 kW), the same unit which would power the smaller Mark 2 to such success in competition; only the triple carburetor versions in the XK-150S, Mark X & E-Type (XKE) would be more powerful.  Befitting the market at which it was aimed, power steering was now standard as were four-wheel disc brakes which were typical of the early versions of the type, often noisy and with quite high pedal pressures but very effective, so good in fact that in conjunction with the power of the new 3.8 engine, on the track the big Jaguar was again remarkably competitive in it its class.  Even by 1958 however, the Mark IX was stylistically, a bit of a relic and in 1961 it was replaced by the longer, lower, wider Mark X.

1967 Jaguar 420G.

Jaguar Mark X, 1961-1966 & 420G, 1966-1970:  A transformative vehicle, the Mark X in so many ways set the template for Jaguar saloons, one which would serve the line for decades.  While in engineering terms, a considerable advance over its baroque predecessor; its low-slung lines made it less suitable as a state vehicle, a market-gap not adequately filled by the visually antiquated limousines Jaguar had inherited when it absorbed Daimler in 1960 and this would not be resolved until late in the decade.  The Mark X represented Jaguar’s particular take on modernity.  Introduced in 1961, while it didn’t create anything like the splash the sensational E-Type managed that same year, it shared much of the mechanical specification including the very clever rear suspension with its inboard disc brakes, another long-lived design which wouldn’t be retired until 2006.  Also shared with the E-Type was the triple carburetor 3.8 XK-six, rated at up to (a perhaps optimistic) 265 horsepower although in 1965, that would be replaced by the 4.2 litre iteration, installed in the quest for more torque.

1965 Jaguar Mark X 4.2.

The long-stroke 4.2 did improve drivability, as did the improved, all-synchromesh four-speed manual gearbox which, while shared with and much welcomed in the E-Type, was anyway becoming increasingly less relevant in cars in this market segment.  That was certainly true in the United States which was the market at which the Mark X was intended to succeed but there it never did.  It was always understood by the factory that because of its sheer size, appeal in the home market would be limited but there were high hopes for success across the Atlantic and indeed, the Mark X was is so many ways perfect niche competition for the big Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials.  However, by the early 1960s those manufacturers were building the finest engine-transmission combinations in the world with V8 engines up to 430 cubic inches (7.0 litres) and gearboxes which didn’t so much change gear as slur effortlessly from one ratio to the next.  It was a driving experience the XK-six couldn’t match under the conditions in which most American driving took place and the joys offered by the brakes and suspension (two generations ahead of anything from Detroit), didn’t compensate for the lack of effortlessness or amenities like air-conditioning which actually worked.  The obvious solution would have been to install the superb 4.6 litre (278 cubic inch) V8 acquired with the purchase in 1960 of Daimler and the V8 was tested in a Mark X with most satisfactory results and if more was wanted, enlargement well beyond five litres (305 cubic inches) was possible.  Unfortunately, Jaguar at the time was convinced engines should have either six or twelve cylinders and it’s true their V12 with its turbine-like smoothness would have suited the Mark X perfectly but it took so long to develop that the big car was out of production by the time it arrived.

1967 Jaguar 420G.

So, selling is much lower volumes than had been hoped, the 4.2 litre Mark X continued until 1970 by which time production had slowed to a trickle.  To mark some detail changes in trim and a few additions to conform with new safety regulations, it was in 1966 renamed 420G (rather than Mark XI as tradition suggested) but even the option of air-conditioning and a central partition to make it a more suitable vehicle for those with chauffeurs didn’t arouse much interest.  When the Mark X’s fine underpinnings were instead offered in the much more manageably sized XJ6 in 1968, it was the death knell, the 420G, its tooling long amortized remaining on the books to fulfil the small demand which still existed for a car, which whatever its design failures, still offered a unique combination of virtues for those who appreciated such things.

1986 Daimler DS40, Buckingham Palace.

Daimler DS 420, 1968-1992:  British Leyland, which had absorbed Jaguar, had continued production of both the Daimler Majestic Major with its old-fashioned body and modern V8 engine and the truly antiquated Vanden Plas Princess, replacing them (and in a sense the old Jaguar Mark IX) with the new Daimler DS420.  The DS420 needs to be considered when assessing the Mark X/420G as a failure because it was around the Mark X’s frame the DS420 was designed.  Suddenly the sheer bulk of the Mark X, which had proved such an impediment to market acceptance, was an invaluable asset, the stately DS420 long & tall, ideal for presidents and potentates.  Most were configured as conventional limousines but coachbuilders built also hearses and the odd landaulet; they were for decades a fixture at state events, weddings and funerals.  The last was made in 1992 and was noted also for being the final car to use the old XK-six, introduced more than forty years earlier in the XK120.

Snug

Snug (pronounced snuhg)

(1) Warmly comfortable or cozy, as a place, accommodations, clothing etc.

(2) Fitting closely (often as “snug fit”), applied usually to clothes, shoes etc but also to the internal space in buildings, the interaction of components etc.  In clothing, the nuances of the use of “snug” depend on context and can suggest either or both “warm & cozy” and “figure-hugging; form-fitting”.

(3) Compact or limited in size, and sheltered or warm.

(4) Something trim, neat or compactly arranged.

(5) Pleasant or agreeable, especially if in a small, exclusive way.

(6) A financial state enabling one to live in comfort.

(7) A secret, concealed or well-hidden place (as in a hideout).

(8) In nautical use, to prepare for a storm by taking in sail, lashing deck gear etc (usually in the phrase “snug down”); as “a sung harbor” or “a snug anchorage”, a sheltered and secure place to anchor or dock.

(9) In bars and pubs, a small room or enclosure, offering intimate seating for only a few persons (historically used Britain and Ireland but often seen in the “Irish Pubs” or “British Pubs” built in many countries and a similar concept to the “lounge bars” which were once distinct places from “public bars”).

(10) In engineering, a small peg under the head of a bolt engaging with a slot in the bolted component to prevent the bolt turning when the nut is tightened; a lug.

(11) A minor character in William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) play A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596).

(12) For two (or more) people lie closely or comfortably together; to nestle.

(13) To make something snug.

1575–1585: From dialectal English snug (tight, handsome) and in the sense of “prepared for storms” or “protected from the weather” (as used by sailors at sea), it may be from the Old Icelandic snöggr & Old Norse snøggr (short-haired), from the Proto-Germanic snawwuz (short, quick, fast) and cognate with the Swedish snygg (handsome, nice-looking; neat, tidy) and the Low German snögger (smart), the Icelandic snöggur (smooth) and the Danish snög (neat, tidy).  Although it’s uncertain, the ultimately source may have been the primitive Indo-European root kes- (to scratch).  The sense of "in a state of ease or comfort" was first documented in the 1620s while the sense of “fit closely” seems to have emerged in 1838.  The phrase “snug as a bug in a rug” was in use by at least 1769, the meaning the same was the earlier snug as a bee in a box, documented since 1706; rhyme seems to have prevailed over alliteration.  The verb snuggle in the sense of “move this way and that to get close to something or someone” (for purposes of warmth or affection) was in use by the 1680s, a frequentative of the verb snug (move so as to lie close to), dating from the 1580s.  Snuggled & snuggling were the related form and snuggle was used as noun from 1901.  Given the spread in meaning, the synonyms can include comfortable, comfy, cushy, neat, tight, close, compact, intimate, trim, homely, restful, sheltered, tidy, ordered, orderly, cozy, cuddle.  Snug is a noun, verb & adjective, snuggish, snugger & snuggest are adjectives, snugness is a noun, snugly is an adverb and snugged & snugging are verbs; the noun plural is snugs.

Lindsay Lohan in snug-fitting dresses.

Because of the “UG” element in snug, there have been many SNUG acronyms which have come and gone over the years, Acronym Finder listing a couple of dozen including:

Synopsys Users Group
Space Network Users' Guide
Stanford Newton User Group (Palo Alto, California)
Storage Networking User Group
Sydney Novell Users Group
Siemens International Users Group
Startel National Users Group
Stanford Newton Users Group
Storage Network Users Group
Storage Network User Group
Stichting Notes User Group
Seniors Networking User Group
Storage Networking User Groups
Select Noble Users Group
Southwest Notes User Group
Sebastopol Nix User Group
SolidWorks National User Group
Special Needs User Group
Sinclair Northamerican User Groups
Spanish NonStop User Group
Space Network Users Guide
SMS National User Group
Southern National Users Group
Sydney NetWare Users Group
Startel National User Group
Strategic Network User Group

Thanks to Urban Dictionary, it can be revealed snug is a word which describes a number of sexual practices ranging from the charming to the depraved.  It’s also a part of drug slang, a snug being either (1) an intricately small, but very dank nug of weed or (2) a small nug of weed that becomes lodged in the hole of a pipe, constricting the airflow.  A Snug is also a girl apparently native to university campuses and defined by her clothing choice: Spandex pants, North Face jacket, UGG boots.

In the Snug.

Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant; 1897-1988, left), Ena Sharples (Violet Carson; 1898-1983, centre) and Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol; 1914-1990, right) gossiping in the Rovers Return snug which was one of the sets of the Granada Television soap opera Coronation Street (1960-).  The three characters were usually depicted drinking milk stout but in 1964, Martha Longhurst dropped dead in the snug, shortly after ordering a sherry.  The story-line may have been an early public service health warning about the dangers of mixing drinks.

The origin of the snug, a small room in a secluded part of a pub, was to provide a private room where ladies could enjoy a drink at a time when it was not proper for a woman to be seen in a pub.  The tradition began in Ireland at a time when women weren’t even allowed to enter pubs, the drink trade in the country being vibrant but public consumption was exclusively a male domain.  There was social pressure but probably economics was just as compelling a reason for their introduction and in the late nineteenth century they began to appear and they were patronized not only by women but by those who simply might not wish to be seen, a list which was reputed to extend to police officers and priests as well as those transacting business.  As time went by, snugs proved to be what the hospitality business calls a “revenue centre” and they became places where higher prices could be charged and so menus were added, lunch and dinner “in the snug” becoming a thing.

Flanagan’s Outback Sports Bar, Emporium Building, 69 Front Street, Hamilton HM 12, Bermuda.

In pre-EU (European Union) Ireland, it wasn’t actually against the law for a woman to enter a pub, it was just one of those social conventions enforced if required by many innkeepers, always with the approval of the parish priest, the Roman Catholic Church then exercising an influence was so pervasive it’s difficult now for those who didn’t live through the era to believe it could have happened.  There is much documentary evidence that in pre-famine Ireland it was common for men and women to drink together in bars but, as is well-known, that can lead to dancing or worse and the church decided to do something about the immorality and indecency, imposing from the pulpit new and restrictive social mores.  Beginning in the 1960s however, even Ireland was exposed to the social forces which were transforming other Western cultures and women started to appear in bars.  That proved in some ways to be the end of civilization as the Catholic Church knew it but women could now enjoy a pint at the bar so there was that.  The snugs however survived for a while although in both the UK and Ireland they’re now rare but paradoxically, because so many “British” and “Irish” pubs have been built around the world, there are now more snugs outside the British Isles than within and just to remove doubts, many have a sign above the door (often in some “olde worlde” script) saying “The Snug”.

The attraction of the word in “Irish Pub” branding means around the world there are many actually called “Snug”, something which was never the practice in Ireland or the UK.

Within Ireland and the UK, the snugs began to vanish because instead of increasing revenue, they became a drag on the operation, taking up space which could be used more profitability.  Those with the space would create “lounge bars” where drinks cost more than in the public bar; it was a place to meet a better class of drunk and the idea had proved popular in Australia and New Zealand where for much of the twentieth century, women were also by various means excluded from public bars.  In the British Isles, a number of snugs remain because they’re on a register of historic architecture and must be maintained.