Frivol

Frivol (pronounced friv-uhl)

(1) An unserious person.

(2) An idle diversion or pastime; a frivolity.

(3) To behave frivolously; to trifle; to squander time; to waste on frivolous pursuits (historically followed by away).

(4) To spend money frivolously (historically followed by away).

1865–1870: A back formation from frivolous, from the French frivole, from the Latin frīvolus (trifling, worthless).  The word exists in Romanian where it’s used in the same sense as in English but in German there’s been a meaning shift and it’s now an adjective meaning saucy; sleazy; ribald (sexual in a frivolous way), the comparative being frivoler and the superlative am frivolsten (in the matter of frivolous sex, the Germans have grades).  The adjective frivolous emerged in the mid-fifteenth century, from the Latin frivolus (silly, empty, trifling, worthless), a diminutive of frivos (broken, crumbled), from friare (break, rub away, crumble).  In courts of law, frivolous was in use by the mid- 1730s to describe arguments (or entire cases) as “so clearly insufficient as to need no argument to show its weakness”.  The related forms were the adverb frivolously and the nouns frivolousness & frivolity.  Dating from the 1790s, frivolity was from the French frivolité, from the Old French frivole (frivolous), from the Latin frivolus.  Frivol is a noun & verb, frivoler (also frivoller) is a noun, frivoled (also frivolled) & frivoling (also frivolled) are verbs; the noun plural is frivols.  Frivol is all contexts is now rare (some sources suggest it is extinct) which is interesting because in English there’s usually a tendency for a short form to prevail over the long; for whatever reason frivolous & frivolity flourished and frivol floundered.

Of the frivolous and the vexatious

In legal proceedings, “frivolous” & “vexatious” are terms used to describe certain classes of argument or even an entire case.  An action or claim is labeled frivolous when it self-evidently lacks any merit or basis in law and has no reasonable prospect of success.  An action or a litigant is labeled as vexatious when they engage in persistent, repetitive, or burdensome litigation, often with the primary goal of annoying, harassing, or frustrating the opposing party.  Like the frivolous, a vexatious action is often one with little prospect of success but is characterized by a pattern of behavior rather than the lack of merit in a specific claim and the phrase “abuse of process” is often used in conjunction with “vexatious”.  If a litigant is found repeatedly to commence such actions, courts sometimes declare them a “vexatious litigant” and intervene to prevent them filing new suits without the permission of the court.  The terms “serial litigant” is also sometime used in this context but the courts will not move against a party simply on the basis of the frequency with which actions are brought; provided a actions are on sound legal grounds and have a reasonable prospect of success, as a general principle, there is no limit on their number.

Courts do act more harshly against the vexatious than the frivolous because the former (often involving the legal system in repetitive and burdensome litigation) are being used as a weapon, sometimes as devices to harass or annoy and sometimes as a way of attempting to cause the other party to have to spend so much in legal fees that they will discontinue the case.  Each matter is dealt with on its merits but courts can impose sanctions on both litigants and counsel; it’s not unusual for litigants declared vexatious to be self-represented because no lawyer will agree to run the action.  Although there can be nuances, a case is frivolous if it has no reasonable chance of succeeding, and is vexatious if the court finds it would be unreasonable to ask the other party to defend the matter.  Lindsay Lohan went through a “serial litigant” phase and the makers of GTA were not the only plaintiffs to suggest she was running frivolous cases, the accusation usually that the legal proceedings were being commenced only to seek publicity:

Lindsay Lohan v Take-Two Interactive Software Inc et al, New York Court of Appeals (No 24, pp1-11, 29 March 2018)

In a case which took an unremarkable four years from filing to reach New York’s highest appellate court, Lindsay Lohan’s suit against the makers of video game Grand Theft Auto V was dismissed.  In a unanimous ruling in March 2018, six judges of the New York Court of Appeals rejected her invasion of privacy claim which alleged one of the game’s characters was based on her.  The judges found the "actress/singer" in the game merely resembled a “generic young woman” rather than anyone specific.  Unfortunately the judges seemed unacquainted with the concept of the “basic white girl” which might have made the judgment more of a fun read.

Beware of imitations: The real Lindsay Lohan and the GTA 5 ersatz, a mere "generic young woman".

Agreeing with the 2016 ruling of the New York County Supreme Court which, on appeal, also found for the game’s makers, the judges, as a point of law, accepted the claim a computer game’s character "could be construed a portrait", which "could constitute an invasion of an individual’s privacy" but, on the facts of the case, the likeness was "not sufficiently strong".  The “… artistic renderings are an indistinct, satirical representation of the style, look and persona of a modern, beach-going young woman... that is not recognizable as the plaintiff" Judge Eugene Fahey wrote in his ruling.  Judge Fahey's words recalled those of Potter Stewart (1915–1985; associate justice of the US Supreme Court 1958-1981) when in Jacobellis v Ohio (378 U.S. 184 (1964) he wrote: “I shall not today attempt further to define… and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.  But I know it when I see it…”  Judge Fahey knew a basic white girl when he saw one; he just couldn't name her.  Lindsay Lohan's lawyers did not seek leave to appeal.

Lindsay Lohan v E-Trade Securities LLC, New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County, No. 004579/2010

In 2010, one of Lindsay Lohan’s more unusual forays into litigation was settled prior to reaching trial.  In the Supreme Court of New York, Ms Lohan had filed suit for US$100 million against online investment site E-Trade, in connection with their Super Bowl ad featuring a "milkaholic" baby girl named Lindsay.  The claim was based on the allegation the commercial was mocking her on the basis of some drug and alcohol related matters which had involved the police, saying the work additionally improperly invoked her “likeness, name, characterization, and personality” without permission, violating her right of privacy.  In the statement of claim, the actress sought US$50 million in compensatory damages and US$50 million in exemplary damages as well as demanding E-Trade cease and desist running the commercial and turn over all copies to her.  One interesting technical legal point raised was that Ms Lohan enjoyed the same “single-name” recognition as celebrities such as talk-show host Oprah (Winfrey) or the singer Madonna (Ciccone).

The E-Trade commercial had been broadcast during the Super Bowl on 7 February 2010 as part of a series built around the theme “babies who play the markets”, and attracted an audience of around 106 ½ million viewers in the US market, then a record number.  E-Trade filed a statement of defense in which it said the claims were “without merit”, and that Lindsay Lohan wasn’t the world's only Lindsay, noting Lindsay was in 2008 the 380th most popular name for new-born American girls, down somewhat from 241th in 2004 when Mean Girls was released.  Grey Group, the advertising agency which produced the commercial later added the “milkaholic Lindsay” was named after a member of its account team although this apparently wasn’t added to the statement of defense.  The plaintiffs did raise the matter of dismissal as frivolous but the judge said the matters raised were "potentially legally substantive" and allowed the case to proceed.  After some months, a settlement was reached between the parties, both sides bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez, b 1981).

Another of Lindsay Lohan's forays into litigation did however give a judge the opportunity to discuss the parameters a court works with when deciding whether an argument can be ruled "frivolous".  In 2011 she sued hip hop artist Pitbull over the lyrics in his song Give Me Everything, which included the line: So, I’m toptoein’, to keep flowin’, I got it locked up, like Lindsay Lohan.  Ms Lohan cited the lyric as a violation of her publicity and publicity rights which caused her emotional distress, claiming the lyrics “includes an unwarranted, unauthorized, and unfavorable mention of [her] name and personality, and allusions to her physical and mental character.”  The judge dismissed on technical grounds the claim made under New York Civil Rights law, adding that the First Amendment anyway affords full protection.  What was more interesting was the discussion of the argument the song was commercial rather than expressive in nature, the judge ruling that even if the work was created for the purpose of “making a profit”, that does not mean her name was “used for advertising or purposes of trade within the meaning of the New York law“ and that, on the facts of this case, even if that were proved, the “isolated nature of the use of her name” (just one line in the song) would “prove fatal” to the claims.  Putbull’s counsel indicated they wished to have the court sanction Ms Lohan for filing a frivolous lawsuit (an abuse of process) but the judge, noting the paucity of case law in this field, said the lack of precedent meant there was no clear indication the case would be doomed and the claim was therefore not so frivolous as to warrant the imposition of a sanction.  Lindsay Lohan thus remained free to litigate, which she did.

Aesthete

Aesthete (pronounced es-theet or ees-theet (especially British))

(1) A person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.

(2) A person who affects great love of art, music, poetry, etc and indifference to practical matters.

1880–1885: From the Ancient Greek αἰσθητής (aisthētḗs) (one who perceives), the construct being aisthē- (variant stem of aisthánesthai (to perceive)) + -tēs (the Greek noun suffix denoting agent).  It was a Victorian back formation from aesthetics, from either the German Ästhetik or the French esthétique, both from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós) (of sense perception), from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai) (I feel).  There is probably no exact synonym, the closet being connoisseur but it conveys a slightly different implication and the derived noun hyperaesthete is used sometimes as a term of derision directed at the excessively civilized.  The rarely used alternative spellings esthete & æsthete are now used only as literary devices and are otherwise obsolete.  Aesthete is a noun and aesthetic is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is aesthetes.

Aestheticism

View of Amalfi (1844), pencil, ink & water colour by noted aesthete John Ruskin (1819-1900).

Aestheticism was a nineteenth century movement in European art now best remembered for the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, with no need for it to serve any political, didactic or other purpose.  The modern expression most associated with the movement is l’art pour l’art (art for art’s sake).  The movement is held to have been a reaction to the prevailing utilitarian social philosophies and what was said to be the ugliness of the industrial age and the philistinism of the newly prominent mercantile class.   Its philosophical framework was built in the eighteenth century by German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who argued for the autonomy of aesthetic standards, set apart from considerations of morality, utility or pleasure.  The idea attracted many including Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) and it was the French philosopher Victor Cousin (1792–1867) who, in 1818, coined the phrase l’art pour l’art.  It was at the time controversial.  The establishment regarded art and literature as part of the ethical and social construct, something certainly challenged by what seemed a decadent display of sensuality and a flaunting of sexual and political experimentation.  The phrase art for art’s sake became identified with the energy and creativity of aestheticism but was adopted also by those who feared the implications of a decoupling of art and morality: that the dangerous ideas of art could infect politics and challenge the social order.

Aesthete is now rare and the more familiar related form is the noun & adjective aesthetic (1) concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance; appealing to one's sense of beauty or art & (2) the study of art or beauty; that which appeals to the senses; the artistic motifs defining a collection of things.

Fedora

Fedora (pronounced fi-dawr-uh or fed-dohr-uh)

A soft felt or velvet hat with a curled medium-brim, usually with a band and worn with the crown creased lengthwise.

1887: An invention of American English, from Fédora, an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), the protagonist of which was the Russian princess Fédora Romanoff, played originally by Sarah Bernhardt.  Bernhardt, a noted cross-dresser, wore a center-creased, soft brimmed hat which was adopted by feminists of the age, then known as women's-rights activists.  The name comes from the Russian Федо́ра (Fedóra), feminine form of Фёдор (Fjódor), from the Ancient Greek Θεόδωρος (Theódōros) (gift of god), derived from θεός (theós) (god) and δῶρον (dôron) (gift).  The ultimate root was the Indo-European dhes- (forming words for religious concepts) + dōron (gift) from do- (to give)).

In the Western world, between the demise of the top hat after the First World War and the abandonment of hats in the 1960s, three variations on a theme, the Fedora, the Trilby and the Homburg vied for choice as men’s headgear, all popular in a way the bowler hat never was.  Fedoras used to be made mostly from wool, cashmere, rabbit or beaver felt, some of the more expensive varieties blended with mink or chinchilla (and rarely mohair, vicuña, guanaco or cervelt).  After enjoying a 1990s revival, they came to be made from any available material, including modern synthetics.

The Trilby (left), Homburg (centre) and the Fedora (right).

The Fedora first became fashionable during the 1920s, displacing the less rakish Homburg (named after Homburg in Imperial-era Germany from where it originated as hunting headgear) although it was the similar, though narrow-brimmed, Trilby (also known in the UK as the “Brown Trilby”) which was said to be more popular with the rich.  The Trilby proved attractive to those often at the track, apparently because, with a narrow brim and one slightly turned up at the back, it made more convenient the carrying of a pair of binoculars.  The name Trilby was derived from a hat worn in the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's (1834-1896) 1894 novel Trilby.  Just another hat in most countries, it suffered by association in Germany because a black Trilby was the choice of most Gestapo officers.

Lindsay Lohan wearing Fedora with coat of unknown provenance, Chiltern Firehouse, London, 2014.

The Homburg did make a mid-century comeback after it became the choice of the UK's pre-war foreign secretary Anthony Eden (1897-1977; UK prime-minister 1955-1957).  The highly strung Eden was the most stylish politician of the age, although his sartorial elegance failed to impress the Duce, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) noting he had “…never met a better dressed fool.”  It was his colleague Rab Butler (1902–1982) who, noting the character of Eden's parents, reckoned genetics could explain why Eden was "half mad baronet, half beautiful woman" and he understood that something as distinctive as a hat could convey a political message if the association was widely understood.  At the time when the great dividing line in British politics was the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940; UK prime-minister 1937-1940), Eden was replaced as foreign secretary by the pro-appeasement Lord Halifax (1881–1959; UK Foreign Secretary 1938-1940), Butler becoming his under-secretary.  One thing an under-secretary gets allocated is a parliamentary private secretary (PPS), a member of parliament (MP) keen to stake a claim to advancement and on his first day in the Foreign Office (FO), Butler took the PPS to a quiet corner and told him to discard his homburg since it was "too Edenesque" and to "buy a bowler", the hat almost always worn by Halifax.  The PPS had no great regard for Eden and had adopted the homburg merely because he liked the look but anyway took the advice, delighted to be unexpectedly appointed a FO PPS, noting in his diary "...just think, bowlers are back".

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.

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 etc).

(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.

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.