Subduction

Subduction (pronounced sub-duhk-shuhn)

(1) The action of being pushed or drawn beneath another object.

(1) An act or instance of subducting; subtraction or withdrawal; an act of taking away.

(2) In geology, the process by which collision of the earth's crustal plates results in one lithospheric plate being drawn down or overridden by another, localized along the juncture (subduction zone) of two plates, sometimes resulting in tensions and faulting in the earth's crust, with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

(3) In specialized us in applied optics, the act of turning the eye downwards.

(4) In mathematics, a surjection between diffeological spaces such that the target is identified as the push-forward of the source.

1570-1580: From the Latin subductiōn (nominative subductiō) (pulling up, computation).  The original sense was “withdrawal, removal; the action of taking away” (originally of noxious substances from the body), from the Latin subductiōnem (nominative subductiō) (a withdrawal, drawing up, hauling ashore), a noun of action from the past participle stem of subducere (to draw away, take away).  From the 1660s it was used in the sense of “an act of subduing; fact of being subdued” while the now familiar geological sense, referring to the edge of a tectonic plate dipping under a neighboring plate came into use in English only by 1970, following the adoption in French in 1951.  The word is now peculiar to geology, the newness a consequence of plate tectonics becoming well understood only from the mid 1960s.  The verb subduct (used first in the 1570s in the sense of “subtract”) was from subductus, past participle of subducere, and the geological sense is from 1971, a back-formation from the noun subduction.  Subduction is a noun, subduct, subducting & subducted are verbs, subductively is an adverb and subductive is an adjective; the noun plural is subductions.

Subduction is a geological process which happens where the boundaries of tectonic plates converge and one plate moves under another, being forced or, under the force of gravity, sinking into the mantle. Regions where this process occurs are known as subduction zones and rates of subduction are usually small, averaging one to three inches (25-75mm) per year.

Affected plates include both oceanic and continental crusts.   Dutch scientists Douwe van der Meer, Douwe van Hinsbergen, and Wim Spakman of Utrecht University published Atlas of the Underworld in the journal Tectonophysics documenting ninety-four distinct slabs.

Etching

Etching (pronounced ech-ing)

(1) The art, act or process of making designs or pictures on a metal plate, glass etc, by the corrosive action of an acid instead of by a burin.

(2) An impression, as on paper, taken from an etched plate.

(3) The design so produced.

(4) A flat (usually metal) plate bearing such a design.

1625–1635: The construct was etch + -ing.  The verb etch was from the Dutch etsen (to engrave by eating away the surface of with acids), from the German ätzen (to etch), from the Old High German azzon (to cause to bite or feed), from the Proto-Germanic atjaną, causative of etaną (to eat), from the primitive Indo-European root ed- (to eat) (from these sources English gained “eat”).  The suffix –ing was from the Middle English -ing, from the Old English –ing & -ung (in the sense of the modern -ing, as a suffix forming nouns from verbs), from the Proto-West Germanic –ingu & -ungu, from the Proto-Germanic –ingō & -ungō. It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian -enge, the West Frisian –ing, the Dutch –ing, The Low German –ing & -ink, the German –ung, the Swedish -ing and the Icelandic –ing; All the cognate forms were used for the same purpose as the English -ing).  The “etching scribe” was a needle-sharp steel tool for incising into plates in etching and the production of dry points.  Etching is a noun & verb; the noun plural is etchings.

The noun was the present participle and gerund of etch (the verbal noun from the verb etch) and was used also in the sense of “the art of engraving”; by the 1760s, it was used also to mean “a print etc, made from an etched plate" and the plates themselves.  The term etching (to cut into a surface with an acid or other corrosive substance in order to make a pattern) is most associated with the creation of printing plates for the production of artistic works but the technique was used also as a way to render decorative patterns on metal.  In modern use, it’s also a term used in the making of circuit boards.  In idiomatic use (often as “etched in the memory”), it’s used of events, ideas etc which are especially memorable (for reasons good and ill) and as a slang word meaning “to sketch; quickly to draw”.  The Etch A Sketch drawing toy was introduced 1960 by Ohio Art Company; a kind of miniature plotter, it was a screen with two knobs which moved a stylus horizontally & vertically, displacing an aluminum powder to produce solid lines.  To delete the creation, the user physically shook the device which returned the powder to its original position, blanking the screen.

Rembrandt's Jan Asselyn, Painter (1646) (left) and Faust (circa 1652).

Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669)) wasn’t the most prolific etcher but he remains the most famous and his output provides an illustrative case-study in the evolution of his mastering of the technique, his early work really quite diffident compared with his later boldness.

What came to be known as etching gained the name from the Germanic family of words meaning “eat & “to eat”, the transferred sense an allusion to the acid which literally would “eat the metal”.   Etching is an intaglio (from the Italian, from intagliare (to engrave) technique in printmaking, a term which includes methods such as hard and soft ground etching, engraving, dry-point, mezzotint and aquatint, all of which use an ink transferring process.  In this, a design is etched into a plate, the ink added over the whole surface plate before a scrim (historically starched cheesecloth) is used to force the ink into the etched areas and remove any excess.  Subsequently, the plate (along with dampened paper) is run through a press at high pressure, forcing the paper into etched areas containing the ink.  The earliest known signed and dated etching was created by Swiss Renaissance goldsmith Urs Graf (circa 1485-circa 1525) in 1513 and it’s from those who worked with gold that almost all forms of engraving are ultimately derived.

Lindsay Lohan, 1998, rendered in the style of etchings.

A phrase which was so beloved by comedy writers in the early-mid twentieth century that it became a cliché was “Want to come up and see my etchings?”, a euphemism for seduction.  The saying was based on some fragments of text in a novel by Horatio Alger Jr (1832–1899), a US author regarded as the first to formalize as genre fiction the “rags-to-riches” stories which had since the early days of the republic been the essence of the “American Dream” although it wasn’t until the twentieth century the term came into common use (it’s now used mostly ironically).

Bedchamber

Bedchamber (pronounced bed-cheym-ber)

A now archaic word for bedroom; the alternative form was bed-chamber.

1325–1375:  From the Middle English bedchaumbre, the construct being bed + chamber.  Bed was from the Middle English bed or bedde, from the pre-1000 Old English bedd (bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot), from the Proto-Germanic badją (plot, grave, resting-place, bed) and thought perhaps derived from the Proto-Indo-European bhed (to dig).  It was cognate with the Scots bed and bede, the North Frisian baad and beed, the West Frisian bêd, the Low German Bedd, the Dutch bed, the German bett, the Danish bed, the Swedish bädd, the Icelandic beður and perhaps, (depending on the efficacy of the Proto-Indo-European lineage), the Ancient Greek βοθυρος (bothuros) (pit), the Latin fossa (ditch),the Latvian bedre (hole), the Welsh bedd (grave), the Breton bez (grave).  Any suggestion of links to Russian or other Slavic words is speculative.

Chamber dates from 1175-1225 and was from the Middle English chambre, borrowed from Old French chambre, from the Latin camera, derived from the Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára) (vaulted chamber); the meaning “room”, usually private, drawn from French use.  As applied to anatomy, use emerged in the late fourteenth century; it was applied to machinery in 1769 and to ballistics from the 1620s.  The meaning "legislative body" is from circa 1400 and the term chamber music was first noted in 1789, not as a descriptor of any musical form but to indicate that intended to be performed in private rooms rather than public halls.

The Bedchamber Crisis, 1839

A Lady of the Bedchamber, a position held typically by women of noble descent, is a kind of personal assistant to the Queen of England.  A personal appointment by the Queen, they’ve existed for centuries, their roles varying according to the relationships enjoyed.  Most European royal courts from time-to-time also adopted the practice.

The 1839 bedchamber crisis is emblematic of the shifting of political power from monarch to parliament.  Although the eighteenth-century administrative and economic reforms created the framework, it was the 1832 Reform Act which, in doing away with a monarch’s ability to stack parliaments with ample compliant souls, shattered a sovereign’s capacity to dictate election results and within two years the new weakness was apparent.  In 1834, William IV (1765–1837; King of the UK 1830-1837)  dismissed the Whig Lord Melbourne (1779–1848; Prime Minister of the UK 1834 & 1835-1841) and appointed the Tory Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850; Prime Minister of the UK 1834–1835 & 1841–1846).  However, the King no longer enjoyed the electoral influence necessary to secure Peel a majority in the Commons and after being defeated in the house six times in as many weeks, the premier was obliged to inform the palace of his inability to govern, compelling the king to invite Melbourne to form a new administration, one which endured half a decade, out-living William IV.  The king's exercise in 1834 of the royal prerogative proved the last time the powers of the head of state would be invoked sack a prime-minister until an Australian leader was dismissed in 1975 by the governor-general (and in a nice touch the sacked PM had appointed the clearly ungrateful GG).

Queen Mary's State Bed Chamber, Hampton Court Palace (1819) by Richard Cattermole (1795–1858).

By 1839, Melbourne felt unable to continue and the new Queen Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901), reluctantly, invited Sir Robert Peel to assume the premiership, a reticence some historians attribute as much to her fondness for the avuncular Melbourne as her preference for his Whig (liberal) politics.  Peel, knowing any administration he could form would be nominally in a minority, knew his position would be strengthened if there was a demonstration of royal support so asked Victoria, as a gesture of good faith, to replace some of the Whig Ladies of the Bedchamber with a few of Tory breeding.  Most of the ladies were the wives or daughters of Whig politicians and Sir Robert’s request made sense in the world of 1839.

Victoria rejected his request and prevailed upon Melbourne to continue which he did, until a final defeat in 1841.  By then it was clear only Peel could command a majority in the Commons and he insisted on his bedchamber cull, forcing Victoria to acquiesce to the parliament imposing on her the most intimate of her advisors.  This is the moment in constitutional history where the precedent is established of the parliament and not the Crown determining the formation and fate of governments.  Since then, the palace can warn, counsel and advise but not compel.

A lady in, if not of, the bedchamber.  A recumbent Lindsay Lohan in The Canyons (IFC Films, 2013).

Dunbar

Dunbar (pronounced duhn-bahr)

(1) A proper noun (given and surnames, town & locality names et al).

(2) As Dunbar's number, a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships (those in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person).

Pre 1100: From a Boernician family in ancient Scotland who are the ancestors of those who first used the name Dunbar. They lived in the barony of Dunbar on the North Sea coast near Edinburgh. The construct of the place name is from the Gaelic dùn (a fort) + barr (top; summit).  The surname Dunbar was created by the eleventh century barony of Dunbar in the Lothians, created when Cospatrick fled to Scotland after being deprived of his Earldom of Northumberland by William the Conqueror.

Dunbar’s Number

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar (b 1947) explored the idea there might be a relationship between brain size and social group size through his studies of non-human primates.  This ratio was mapped using neuroimaging and the observation of time devoted to important social behaviour among primates.  Dunbar concluded that the size (relative to body mass) of the neocortex (the part of the brain associated with cognition and language) is linked to the size of a cohesive social group.  This ratio is a measure of the complexity a social system can handle.

Using this mathematical model, Dunbar applied the principle to humans, examining historical, anthropological and contemporary psychological data about group sizes, including how big groups get before they fragment, split off or collapse, finding a remarkable consistency around the number one-hundred and fifty (150).  The 150 number appears to apply to early hunter-gatherer societies and an array of more modern formations: offices, communes, factories, residential campsites, military organisations, medieval English villages and even Christmas card lists.  Where the number exceeds 150, network cohesion reduces.

Others have done research in this area and their theories tend to suggest the tightest circle has just 5 (loved ones) followed by successive layers of 15 (close friends), 50 (friends), 150 (meaningful contacts), 500 (acquaintances) and 1500 (those you can recognise).  People migrate in and out of these layers, but the idea is that space has to be carved out for any new entrants.  Dunbar offered no suggestion why these layers exist in multiples of five, but noted it did seem fundamental to monkeys and apes and most research indicated this was replicated in human relationships.  Dunbar’s 150 number is contested within the discipline although most in the field concur there probably is a Dunbarian number.  However, reducing it to a mean value may not be a helpful model of social interaction because connections aren’t normally distributed (shaped like a bell curve), a few people with massive or tiny numbers of contacts tending to distort the result.  There are also critiques on methodological grounds. Primates’ brain sizes are influenced by other aspects besides social complexity and social capacity can be stretched in different cultural settings, especially with the advent of newer technologies.

There are friends and there are followers and there is no such thing as a Dunbar number for followers; one can certainly suffer a surplus of "friends" but one can never have too many "followers".

People had friends before there was Facebook but the platform’s use of “friends” as the original prime identifier of a linkage with another did annoy those who thought “acquaintances” should have been offered as an alternative and had Facebook’s founders known what was to come, they might have done things a little differently.  However, because of Facebook’s origins as a parochial system peculiar to a single educational institution, the use of “friend” at the time certainly reflected the purpose and the approach was little difference to the other embryonic social media platforms early in the twenty-first century.  Once deconstructed, the structural similarities between Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, hi5 and MySpace were quite striking but Facebook flourished and the others did not.  There were many reasons for this but Facebook certainly benefited from learning from the mistakes of those who came first and their product offered a better experience for users who clearly preferred ease of navigation and simplicity of use compared to extensive (and not always intuitive) configurability.  Having a large group of Harvard University students as a beta test group proved invaluable and unlike others, what Facebook had from day one of its general release was a product which was inherently global and scalable.

Had the evolution of the socials been predictable, Facebook might well from the start have had “customers” and “acquaintances” as well as “friends” and it probably would also have allowed the addition of “followers”, now one of the core measures in the ecosystem.  The difference between “friends” and “followers” is that friends are presumed to enjoy a mutual connection and the establishment of the relationship needs mutual consent while followers may attach themselves of their own volition; friends are thus symmetrical, followers inherently an asymmetric concept although it’s known many Facebook accounts have friend counts which suggest the user is accumulating them essentially as followers.

“Friend” has before been used in novel (frankly Orwellian) ways.  The head of the Nazi SS (the Schutzstaffel (protection squad), a paramilitary formation which became an economic empire and in wartime eventually morphed into a parallel army close to a million-strong), Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945; Reichsführer SS 1929-1945), also coordinated an interesting aggregation of individuals and institutions styled the Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS (Circle of Friends of the Reichsführer SS (FRFSS)).  The origins of the FRFSS lay in the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft (Circle of Friends of the Economy), a kind of combination of think tank and slush fund, the money provided by those in industry or the finance sector who either wished to support the party or anticipated them gaining power and wished to be on the winning side.  Himmler’s power grew during the 1930s but many of his grand designs (a good number of them crackpot schemes) hadn’t proceeded beyond the planning stage because of a lack of funds, the resources of the state directed primarily towards re-armament.  In re-constituting the Circle of Friends of the Economy as the FRFSS, funds became available on the basis of mutual interest, Himmler as the coordinator of repression in the Nazi state able to use the SS to deliver cheap labor (mostly from concentration camps) in exchange for the money and technical assistance he needed to build the economic enterprises he intended to create to make the SS independent of the state.  In this hunt he faced some competition from others, notably Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) who led an expensive lifestyle as well as needing money for his industrial empire.  Himmler’s Dunbar number has never been certain but it’s believed the number of friends in the FRFSS never exceeded a few dozen.

Theodolite

Theodolite (pronounced thee-od-l-ahyt)

(1) In surveying, a precision instrument having a telescopic sight for establishing horizontal and sometimes vertical angles; usually called a transit in US & Canada.

(2) As phototheodolite, an instrument consisting of a theodolite mounted on a camera which can take at each of several stations of known position and elevation (as determined by transit survey) a series of photographs used in terrestrial photogrammetry.

1571: From the New Latin theodolitus the origin of which is contested.  It was probably coined either from the Arabic al-idhâda (a sort of rule) or the Ancient Greek theā (a viewing) plus a second element of unknown origin which may have been invented.  The North American use of” transit” rather than theodolite is historic.  During the nineteenth century, Americans preferred the surveyor’s compass and, later, the surveyor’s transit, which were cheaper and more robust and, despite technical progress, the name stuck.

Many have attempted to trace the etymology of theodolite but no satisfactory explanation has been found.  The first use was in a book by English mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges called Geometrical practical treatize, named Pantometria, diuided into three bookes, longimetria, planimetria, and stereometria (1571, second edition 1591).  The author didn’t mention any derivation and used the spellings “theodelitus” and “theodolitus” alternately.  Writing a few years later, another mathematician named the same instrument a “horizontall or flatte sphere”, although inconsistencies in spelling was at the time not unusual, the same author when speaking of an alidade (a sighting device or pointer for determining directions or measuring angles used in both surveying and astronomy), spelled it as “alideday” and “athelida”.

Surveyor in hi-vis orange viewing Lindsay Lohan through theodolite.

One explanation is that both theodelitus and athelidae were corruptions of the Arabic al-idhâda (a sort of rule), and both mathematicians would have been acquainted with the work of earlier Arabic mathematicians.  That’s not unconvincing for athelidae but theodelitus is more likely to have been derived from (or at least influenced by) the Ancient Greek; the second element has mystified all.  The first part of the New Latin theo-delitus might stem from the Ancient Greek θεᾶσθαι (to behold or look attentively upon) or θεῖν (to run) but the second part is puzzling though sometimes attributed to an unscholarly variation of one of the following Greek words: δῆλος (evident; clear), δολιχός (long) or δοῦλος (slave) or even an unattested Neo-Latin compound combining ὁδός (way) and λιτός (plain).  It has been also suggested that -delitus is a variation of the Latin supine deletus, in the sense of "crossed out".

From mechanical to digital

Copper & brass theodolite, Hall Brothers of London, circa 1894.

A theodolite is an optical device used to measure angles between visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes.  Historically they were used in land surveying but they’re used also in all aspects of civil engineering, meteorology and rocket telemetry.  The earliest theodolites were small mounted telescope which rotated horizontally and vertically; modern versions are sophisticated digital instruments which can track weather balloons, airplanes, and other moving objects, at distances up to 12 miles (20 km / 65,600 feet).  Nearly always used mounted on a tripod and originally mechanical-optical instruments, almost all theodolites in active use are now digital.  Theodolites, whether mechanical or digital, are instruments used to determine the relative position of points on the earth's surface by measuring the horizontal and vertical angles. Digital theodolites are more convenient and accurate as they provide the operator with readouts.  With the traditional device, it was necessary manually to read the numbers directly from a graduated circle.

A classic theodolite's components, deconstructed by Mapping Around.

Telescope: The telescope is the primary optical component of the theodolite. It is used to observe distant objects and measure angles accurately.

Objective Lens: This lens is located at the front of the telescope and gathers light from the target, directing it towards the eyepiece.

Eyepiece: The eyepiece is where the observer looks through the telescope to view the target. It often has adjustable focus settings for clarity.

Horizontal Circle: The horizontal circle is a graduated circle attached to the theodolite’s base. It measures the horizontal angle of rotation.

Vertical Circle: The vertical circle is mounted on the telescope’s vertical axis. It measures the vertical angle of rotation.

Vernier Scales: These are fine measurement scales on the horizontal and vertical circles that allow for precise readings of angles beyond the main scale divisions.

Alidade: The alidade is the sighting mechanism on top of the telescope that allows the user to precisely align the theodolite with the target.

Levelling Screws/Bubble Levels: The levelling screws or bubble levels are used to ensure that the theodolite is properly levelled before taking measurements. This is crucial for accurate angle readings.

Tribrach: The tribrach is a mounting platform that holds the theodolite securely and allows it to be attached to a surveying tripod.

Plumb Bob: A plumb bob is often attached to the bottom of the theodolite’s telescope to provide a vertical reference line.

Base Plate: The base plate is the lower part of the theodolite that attaches to the tribrach and allows for horizontal rotation.

Vertical Axis: The vertical axis is the imaginary line around which the telescope rotates vertically.

Horizontal Axis: The horizontal axis is the imaginary line around which the theodolite rotates horizontally.

Clamps and Locks: Theodolites have clamps and locks to secure the telescope and circles in place once the desired angle is achieved.

Magnification Adjustment: Some theodolites have a magnification adjustment to change the magnification of the telescope’s view.

Illumination: Many theodolites have built-in illumination to provide better visibility in low-light conditions.

Data Collection Ports: Modern theodolites may have ports for connecting to data collectors or computers for digital data recording and analysis.

A modern digital theodolite.

A digital theodolite consists of a telescope mounted on a base, a sight at the top used to align the target, vision of which is clarified by adjusting a focusing knob, an objective lens on the opposite side used to sight and magnify the target as required.  Despite the differences in construction, the parts of a digital theodolite are mostly similar to the non-digital theodolite, except for the addition of a liquid crystal display (LCD) and the operating keys for changing the settings.  In the same manner as the non-digital theodolite, leveling is performed using optical plummets or plumb bobs and the spirit or bubble level.  In use, it’s made first to stand vertically above the survey point with the help of a plumb bob or optical plummet and is then made in level to the horizon with the help of internal spirit levels.  Once the leveling process is complete, the telescope is used to focus on the target and the respective horizontal and vertical angles are displayed on the screen.

Mnemonic

Mnemonic (pronounced ni-mon-ik)

(1) Something assisting or intended to assist the memory.

(2) Pertaining to mnemonics or to memory.

(3)In computing, truncated code thought easy to remember (eg STO for store).

1660–1670: From the New Latin mnemonicus from the Ancient Greek μνημονικός (mnēmonikós) (of memory) derived from μνήμων (mnḗmōn) (remembering, mindful) & μνᾶσθαι (mnâsthai) (to remember); the ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European men (to think).  The meaning "aiding the memory", a back-formation from mnemonics dates from 1753, the noun meaning "mnemonic device" is from 1858.  The use in computer programming emerged in the early days of code and was a space-saving (eg del rather than delete) tool as well.  Mnemonical was the original form from the 1660s.

Sans Forgetica

Sans Forgetica sample text.

Recently released, Sans Forgetica (which translates as "without forgetting") is a sans-serif font developed by RMIT University in Melbourne.  Back-slanted and with gaps in the character constructions, it’s designed explicitly to assist readers better to understand and retain in their memory what they’ve read.  Perhaps counter-intuitively for those outside the field, the shape is intended to reduce legibility, thereby (1) lengthening the tame taken to read the text and (2) adding complexity to learning and absorbing what’s been read.  Together, they create what in cognitive psychology and neuroscience is called "desirable difficulty", in this case forcing (RMIT might prefer "nudging") people to concentrate.

The first three paragraphs of Lindsay Lohan's Wikipedia page, rendered in Sans Forgetica.  Sans was from the Middle English saunz & sans, from the Old French sans, senz & sens, from the Latin sine (without) conflated with absēns (absent, remote).   Forgetica was an opportunistic coining, the construct being forget + -ica.  Forget was from the Middle English forgeten, forgiten, foryeten & forȝiten, from the Old English forġietan (to forget) (which was influenced by the Old Norse geta (to get; to guess), from the Proto-West Germanic fragetan (to give up, forget).  The -ica suffix was from the Latin -ica, the neuter plural of -icus (belonging to derived from; of or pertaining to; connected with).

From usually a young age, readers become skilled at scanning text, a process helped by most publishers seeking to render their works as legible as possible.  The theory of desirable difficulty is that omitting parts of the font requires the reader to pause and process information more slowly, thus provoking an additional cognitive processing which may enhance both understanding and retention.  While the application of the science to a font is novel, there’s nothing original about Sans Forgetica as a piece of typography, it being described as a hybrid of several existing schools and within the theory, on the basis of a small-group sample of students, it’s claimed to be a balance between legibility and difficulty.  According to the documents supplied by the developer, it’s not been tested as a device for advertisers to draw people to their text, the theory of that being people scan and dismiss (without retention) the great bulk of the large, static signage which is a feature of just about every urban environment.  With Sans Forgetica, because it can’t as quickly be scanned, people will tend longer to linger and so more carefully read the whole; a memorable event itself.

Appoggiatura

Appoggiatura (pronounced uh-poj-uh-too-r-uh or uh-poj-uh-tyoo- r-uh or ahp-pawd-jah-too-rah (Italian))

In musical composition, an ornament consisting of a non-harmonic note (short or long) preceding a harmonic one either before or on the stress (a note of embellishment preceding another note and taking a portion of its time).

1745-1755: From the Italian appoggiatura, from appoggiare (to lean; to prop; to support) from the Vulgar Latin appodiāre (present active infinitive of appodiō, from the Classical Latin podium) and related to the French appuyer, the Spanish apoyar and the Portuguese apoiar.  The meaning in music is for the sense of one note “propping up” another.

The Appoggiatura

As in many fields, fashions in music change.  There was a period, during the sixteenth century, when the rules of counterpoint were strict and discords permissible only if they were prepared and resolved in ways used in the previous sections; the only discord normally allowed on the strong beat was the suspension.  There the discord is prepared by the note being tied across from a weak to a strong beat and resolved onto the next weak beat; a type of syncopation.  In the mid-century however, there was a relaxation of the rules of voice leading which included experimentation with unprepared discords, the most important of which was the appoggiatura.  The appoggiatura started as a decorative note which displaced the first part of a note of a melody.  It occurred on the strong beat of the bar and could be either dissonant or consonant but in either case, the appoggiatura resolved (upwards or downwards) onto a consonance but, unlike the suspension, did not require to be prepared or tied from a previous note.  In order to overcome the earlier rule that all discords had to be prepared, the appoggiatura was originally shown as an ornament but later was written out in full.

An ornament: Bach, Orchestral Suite in B minor for flute and strings: Menuet.

That was just a fudge, a composer paying respect to a rule while breaking it because, as played, an appoggiatura is not a short ornament, it takes usually up a full half of the length of the note that it resolves onto and if resolved onto a note three beats long, it takes up a third or two thirds the length.  The appoggiatura is usually connected with the main harmony note by a slur and is normally played with a small degree of emphasis.

Haydn: Sonata in G major XVI:27 Allegro con Brio.

Haydn shows appoggiaturas at *1, *2 and *3, now written out in-full as was normal practice in the classical period. Their identity as elaborating notes is given away by the presence of the slurs.

The two superstars of the 1950s.  Maria Callas (1923-1977)  and Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), back-stage after the "Happy Birthday Mr President" performance, Madison Square Garden, New York, 19 May 1962.  Within three months, Marilyn Monroe would be dead.

December 2 2023 marked the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the singer Maria Callas, the soprano who remains still more famous than any other and the subject of a cult, something attributable certainly to her art but the tempestuous life she led off the stage attracted many; in the very modern sense of the word, Callas was a celebrity.  What Callas is in 2023 is thus a construct, a mix of myth, discography, and public persona although it’s more correct to say she’s a number of constructs; the criteria of trained musicians and critics likely to differ from those who just listen.  She was neither the most technically accomplished nor the most refined singer and yet, as Sir Rudolf Bing (1902–1997; General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York (the Met)) famously noted, “having once heard Callas, it was difficult to listen to anyone else sing the same music”.  That was because whatever the technical flaws or deliberate departures from what had become the accepted techniques of the mid-twentieth century, Callas brought to every performance a thrilling intensity which made the characters come alive in a way even the most virtuosic of her contemporaries couldn’t quite match.

The critics impressed only by technical ecstasy liked to label Callas a “singing actress” and there’s something in that but not in the way they mean; the “acting” wasn’t there to compensate for the voice, it was a part of the voice.  There are several recordings of the “madness” scene in Gaetano Donizetti's (1797–1848) Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) in which, as an exercise in singing, the performances are more accomplished yet it’s the Callas version which is the definitive because only she can send a shiver down the spine.  It was in the interpretation, just as it was when, in Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813–1901) Otello (1886), she played with layers of vocal tones variously to convey feelings of warm nostalgia, paranoia, depression and impending death.  Whatever was in the score to be expressed, it’s there but it wasn’t done with vocal pyrotechnics, indeed Callas, in both studio recordings and live performances often eschewed the cadential trills and appoggiature which, although unwritten, had entered Opera in the seventeenth century and become a signature of sopranos since at least the early nineteenth.  What she did with her voice has been called a kind of “operatic word-painting”, a lending of emotional depth which enabled her, more than any other to transcend the theatrical artificiality of opera and it’s this quality which means even roles for which she seemed an improbable choice (such as Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) Madam Butterfly (1904)) demand attention.

Audacity

Audacity (pronounced aw-das-a-tee)

(1) Boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

(2) Effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness.

1400–1450: From the late Middle English audacite, from the Latin audacis, from audāc, stem of audāx (bold; daring, rash, foolhardy).  The –ity suffix is an import from Latin via French and is used to form a noun from an adjective, especially to form nouns referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.  The other Latin forms were audacitas (boldness) and audeō (I am bold, I dare).  In English, the meaning "presumptuous impudence", implying a contempt of moral restraint, is from 1530s.  Audacity & audaciousness are nouns, audacious is an adjective and audaciously is an adverb; the noun plural is audacities (the rarely seen audaciousnesses is a real word). 

HMS Audacity

HMS Audacity was an example of the improvisation required of the Admiralty during the early years of the Second World War when the Navy’s resources were stretched.  The first of her kind, she was originally the German merchant ship SS Hannover, which the Royal Navy captured in 1940, renaming her first Sinbad, then Empire Audacity.  Under the prize laws of war, her cargo, including twenty-nine barrels of pickled sheep pelts, was sold.

HMS Audacity at sea with her Wildcat fighter aircraft secured on the after end of the flight deck, 1940 (left) and the wreck of HMS Audacity (right).  Such was the urgency that there was no time to construct hangers so the aircraft were exposed to the elements at all times.

A minimalist conversion typical of wartime necessity, the early escort carries were true flattops, having no superstructure above the flight deck.  As HMS Empire Audacity, she was commissioned as an "Ocean Boarding Vessel" but in early 1941 was quickly converted to an “escort carrier”, a rudimentary aircraft carrier used to cover shipping vulnerable to submarine attack in the "mid-Atlantic Gap" where there was no air cover from land-based aircraft.  The navy was short of such craft and re-launched her as HMS Audacity.  Traditionally superstitious, sailors have long held that it’s bad luck to rename a ship and so it proved.  Audacity’s pilots had inflicted losses on both German submarines and aircraft and in December 1941, a U-Boat wolf-pack stalking the convoy Audacity was escorting attacked the carrier which sank in little more than an hour, the wreck lying some 500 miles (430 nautical miles; 800 km) west of Cabo Finisterre (Cape Finisterre), a rocky peninsula on Spain's Galician coast.  One notable thing Audacity's brief service did was provide to the Admiralty the needed proof of concept of the inprovised Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier (AAC).  Using very few pilots and aircraft, she proved highly successful in countering the menace of the Luftwaffe's long-range Focke-Wulf Fw 200 (Condor) aircraft and was effective also against the U-Boats.

Lindsay Lohan’s 2012 photo-shoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) was labelled by admirers as “audacious” although many others were less approving.  A decade on it’s interesting to speculate whether the gun or the cigarette would now be more controversial.