Underwire

Underwire (pronounced uhn-der-wahyuhr)

(1) A (usually almost semi-circular) metal, plastic or composite “wire” sewn into the underside of each cup of a brassiere, used both as a structural member and shaping device.

(1) A brassiere (or related component in a swimsuit or some other garment) with such wires.

A portmanteau word, the construct being under + wire.  Under is from the Middle English under, from the Old English under, from the  Proto-Germanic under (source also of the Old Frisian under, the German unter, the Old High German untar, the Dutch onder, the Old Norse undir, the Gothic undar and the Danish & Norwegian under), from a blend of the primitive Indo-European n̥dhér (under) and n̥tér (inside).  It was akin to the Old High German untar (under), the Sanskrit अन्तर् (antar) (within) and the Latin infrā (below, beneath) & inter (between, among), influencing also the Sanskrit adhah (below), the Avestan athara- (lower) and the Latin infernus (lower).  The Old English under was a preposition in the sense of "beneath, among, before, in the presence of, in subjection to, under the rule of, by means of and also an adverb in the sense of "beneath, below, underneath," expressing position with reference to that which is above, usage gained from the Proto-Germanic under-.

Under proved as productive a prefix in Old English as had in German and Scandinavian languages, often forming words modeled on Latin ones using “sub-“ and the notion of "inferior in rank, position etc" existed in the Old English and persists in the language of the titles in the UK’s civil service to this day (eg under-secretary).  The idea of it being used as descriptor of standards (less than in age, price, value etc” emerged in the late fourteenth century whereas, as an adjective meaning “lower in position; lower in rank or degree” was known as early as the 1200s.  Mysteriously, the use in Old English as a preposition meaning "between, among," as in “under these circumstances” may be a wholly separate root (eg understand).  The phrase “under the weather (indisposed; unwell) is from 1810.  Under the table was used from 1913 in the sense of "very drunk" and it wasn’t until the 1940s (possibly influenced by the onset of rationing and the consequence emergence of black markets) it came to enjoy the sense of something "illegal" (although the long-extinct “under-board: (dishonest) is attested from circa 1600.  To keep something under the hat (secret) is from 1885 and use seems not to have been affected by the post 1945 decline in hat-wearing; to have something under (one's) nose (in plain sight) is from 1540s; to speak under (one's) breath (in a low voice) dates from 1832.

Wire is from the Middle English wir & wyr (metal drawn out into a fine thread), from the Old English wīr (wire, metal thread, wire-ornament), from the Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz (wire), from the primitive Indo-European wehiros (a twist, thread, cord, wire), from wei & wehiy- (to turn, twist, weave, plait).  The Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz were the source also of the Old Norse viravirka (filigree work=), the Swedish vira (to twist) and the Old High German wiara (fine gold work).  A wire as marking the finish line of a racecourse is attested from 1883; hence the figurative down to the wire.  Wire-puller in the political sense dates from 1839, an invention of American English (though used first to describe matters in the UK’s House of Commons), based on the image of pulling the wires that work a puppet; the phrase “pulling the strings” replaced “pulling the wires” late in the nineteenth century.

Casting a practiced eye: Lindsay Lohan assessing the underwires.

In the technical sense familiar to a structural engineer, the bra’s underwire is a specific instance of the earlier verb (1520s) “undergird”, the construct being under + gird.  Gird (to bind with a flexible rope or cord; to encircle with, or as if with a belt) was from the Middle English girden, gerden & gürden, from the Old English gyrdan (to put a belt around, to put a girdle around), from the Proto-Germanic gurdijaną (to gird), from the primitive Indo-European gherdh.  It was cognate with the West Frisian gurdzje & girdzje, the Dutch gorden, the German gürten, the Swedish gjorda, the Icelandic gyrða and the Albanian ngërthej (to tie together by weaving, to bind).  The related forms were undergirded & undergirding.

As a familiar mass-manufactured commodity item, the bra is a relatively new innovation although many of the various functionalities afforded to the wearer are noted in illustrations and surviving garments worn since antiquity, interest in the physics of gravity long pre-dating Newtonian mechanics.  The most obvious immediate ancestor, the corset, began to be widely worn by the late 1400s, the shaping and structure of many underpinned by struts made either of metal or, more commonly, animal bone, a method of construction which, in simplified form, would later return as the underwire.  The first patent issued for a recognizably modern bra was issued in New York in 1893 for a “breast supporter” and it included all the features familiar in the mass-produced modern product: separated cups atop a metal support system, located with a combination of shoulder straps and a back-band fastened by hook and eye closures.  On the basis of the documents supplied with the patent application, the design objective was for something not only functional and practical but, unlike the often intimidating corsets then in use, also comfortable.

It was an immediate success although, lacking the capacity to manufacture at scale and unwilling to become involved in the capital raising which that would have demanded, the inventor sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1500 (at a time when a new Ford car cost around US$400).  Warner Brothers Corset Company (later Warnaco Group, in 2012 acquired by Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), which over the life of the patent is estimated to have booked profits of almost US$40 million from its bra sales, got a bargain.  English borrowed the word brassiere from the French brassière, from the Old French braciere (which was originally a lining fitted inside armor which protected the arm, only later becoming a garment), from the Old French brace (arm) although by then it described a chemise (a kind of undershirt) but in the US, brassiere was used from 1893 when the first bras were advertised and from there, use spread.  The three syllables were just too much to survive the onslaught of modernity and the truncated “bra” soon prevailed, being the standard form throughout the English-speaking world by the early 1930s.  Curiously, in French, a bra is a soutien-gorge which translates literally and rather un-romantically as "throat-supporter" although "chest uplifter" is a better translation.  The etymological origin of the modern "bra" lying in a single garment is the reason one buys "a bra" in the same department store from which one might purchase "a pair" of sunglasses or shoes. 

The booming popularity of the bra in the 1920s and 1930s encouraged innovation and not a few gimmicks and it was in this era that manufacturers first began to develop systems of cup sizes although there was there no standardization of dimensions and, technically, that’s still the case with remarkable variations between manufacturers; it’s an industry crying out for an ISO.  It was in 1931 a patent was issued for what was described as a bra with a pair of integrated “open-ended wire loops”, semi-circular pieces of metal enclosed in protective fabric which partially encircled each breast, sitting against the chest-wall at the bottom of the breasts.  This is the origin of the modern underwire and during the 1930s, while designers would develop more elaborate versions, the concept didn’t change and as late as 1940, the underwire bra remained something of niche product being, at this stage of development, both more expensive and often less comfortable.  Wartime necessity also imposed an evolutionary delay, the use of metal during wartime being limited to essential production and carefully rationed.  Bras by then probably had become essential but apparently not underwired bras.

Hughes H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose) on its only test flight, 2 November 1947, Long Beach, Los Angeles Harbor.  It flew for abou1 1 mile (1.6 km) and achieved a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

Howard Hughes (1905—1976), the industrialist knew about the wartime limits on the use of metals because the War Production Board had insisted his H-4 Hercules, a huge, eight-engined flying boat designed to transport 750 troops across the Atlantic, be built using “non-strategic materials" which precluded the industry’s preferred aluminum, Hughes using birch wood almost exclusively.  The H-4, which wasn’t completed until after the end of hostilities flew, briefly, only once and was nicknamed the Spruce Goose, which obviously was arboreally inaccurate but thinking of something as funny and rhyming with “birch” wasn’t easy.  So, in 1942 Hughes knew he’d never get approval for enough metal for his big flying boat, but in 1941, before the entry of the US into the war, more than enough metal was available to create a specialized part to be used in another of his ventures: film director.

Jane Russell, promotional picture for The Outlaw (1941).

In 1941, while filming The Outlaw, Hughes wasn’t satisfied with what sympathetic lighting, camera angles and provocative posing could make of Jane Russell's (1921—2011) bust.  A skilled engineer, he quickly designed and had fabricated a kind of cantilevered underwire bra to lend the emphasis he though her figure deserved.  What Hughes did was add curved steel rods which functioned as actual structural members, sewn into the bra under each cup and connected to the shoulder straps, an arrangement which simultaneously pushed upwards the breasts and allowed the shoulder straps to be re-positioned, exposing to the camera much more skin.  In engineering terms, it was a device which achieved a fixture with no visible means of support.  Hughes was delighted with the result and completed filming though it wasn’t until much later Ms Russell revealed the cantilevered device was so uncomfortable she wore it for only a few minutes, reverting to her own bra which, to please Hughes, she modified with those trusty standbys, padding and a judicious tightening of the straps.  The result was much the same and Ms Russell waspishly added that the engineering prowess which had served Hughes well in aviation didn’t translate well to designing comfortable underwear.  The Outlaw was completed in February 1941 but, because of the focus on Ms Russell's breasts, faced opposition in obtaining the required certificate of release from the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (the MPPDA which administered the Hays Code) which was demanding cuts to thirty seconds odd of offending footage.  Hughes reluctantly complied and there was a brief showing in 1943 but the film’s distributer, unwilling to be dragged into any controversy, withdrew from the project and it wasn’t until 1946 there was finally a general release on cinema screens.  Given the pent-up demand, it was a commercial success but the critics were at the time unimpressed and it only later gained a cult following, at least partly on the basis of the gay undertone in the plot-line.

Lindsay Lohan in underwired demi-cup bra, photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine, 2012.  The "demi-cup look" can be achieved by choosing a bra with the correct band size and a smaller cup.  Someone who usually wears a full-cup 32D would use a 32C or even 32B to get the effect although, given the variation in cup shapes between manufacturers, some experimentation will likely be required and fitters caution this should be done in a physical store rather than shopping on-line. 

Underwires essentially fulfill part of the function of an exoskeleton in that, being designed to fit snugly against the ribcage, they provide a basic mechanism of location which means the back-strap, cups and shoulder-straps can provide the shape and support without having to compensate for excessive movement or changes in weight distribution.  The mathematics of structural engineering is really that of making push equal pull and what a well-designed (and properly fitted) underwire does is minimize the risk of movement in an unwanted direction (down) so the least energy is required to maintain the desired movement (up).  There are other ways of achieving this but such constructions typically are much bulkier and use often stiff, unaccommodating fabrics and thick straps.  The underwire is a simple technology which, in the abstract really can’t be improved upon although there are problems.  Washing machine service technicians note the frequency with which errant underwires end up in the mechanism and, being metal, damage can result.  For this reason, most bra manufacturers recommend they be placed in a sealed bag for washing.  Detachment can also happen while in use, a protruding underwire sometimes passing through the material in which its supposed to remain enclosed, giving the wearer a painful jab in a soft, fleshy spot.  Although the tips are usually plastic coated, repeated jabbing is still uncomfortable.  Being traditionally made of metal (usually stainless steel) brings it's own issues, most obviously with metal detectors but for frequent flyers, bras with plastic underwires (and hooks & clasps) are available off the shelf and plastic underwires are even sold as stand-alone part-numbers to modify existing models or for use by the small but devoted class of users who make their own.

Not all underwires are created equal: The Lingerie Addict explains.

Bra underwires typically are made from a non-ferrous metal (inside a plush casing surrounding the cup) such as stainless steel although there are some fabricated from some form of plastic which had appeal for frequent flyers not wanting to trigger the metal detectors at airports and a perhaps unanticipated market sector was among lawyers visiting prisons.  Although they might be presumed to achieve their structural effect by virtue of their rigidity, underwires actually have in them a very slight “spring” so they will splay just a fraction of an inch as the bra moves, something which enhances comfort and fit.  In that sense, an underwire can be thought of as a “torsion bar” which essentially is an unwound spring stretched straight.  The underwire has two functions: (1) to provide the superstructure with a secure location against the ribcage and (2) to distribute forces (downward, upward & lateral) in the same way the cables on a suspension bridge (which connect the towers to the deck) transfer the downward force from traffic up the cables to the towers, diffusing and distributing the stresses to the strongest point.  In a bridge, that’s the tower which, being anchored to the earth, means the forces end up moving from the structure to the ground while in a bra, they’re absorbed partially by the frame (mostly the band if well-designed and also to the shoulder straps if not) and partially by the wearer’s ribcage.  Manufacturers also use the comparison with bridges to illustrate the inherent limitation (at least when dealing with mass above a certain point) of wire-free construction.  Usually, they compare the wire-free design with a simple “rope bridge”, anchored on each side of the waterway or gap crossed but which sinks down as weight (which manifests as downward pressure) is applied.  The physics of this is that because there is no rigid support infrastructure to transfer the downward pressure away from the deck, there’s a direct relationship between the downward pressure and the sag of the deck.  For that reason, it’s important to distinguish between wire-free bras which are little more than an underwire bra without an underwire and those using a design which emulates what an underwire does, usually with a layered array of thicker, stiffer materials in the band and the lower parts of the cup.  In theory such an approach can achieve the same level of support as the most formidable underwire bra but the level of rigidity in the structure would likely render such a creation too uncomfortable to be tolerated by most although variations of the idea are used in short-duration sports such as boxing.

Playtex 18Hour (4745) wire-free bra (left) and 1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 fitted with car bra.  Car bras are also wire-free. 

Although common, not all bras use an underwire, the “wire-free” design used for a number of reasons.  For those with small breasts who require something merely decorative or desire only coverage rather than support, the wire-free bras are a popular choice and the majority of sports bras also use other methods of construction.  Like just about any form of engineering, there are trade-offs, the advantages gained in not using an underwire needing to be assessed by wearers considering whether they outweigh whatever limitations may be imposed.  Sometimes, the wire-free devices are marketed as a niche product such as maternity, nursing, post surgical or nightwear (ie for sleeping in, it really does seem a thing).  However, modern materials and forms of reinforcing do make the wire-free bra a viable choice for a wide range of wearers although the physical dimensions of the fabric do tend to be greater (the frame, straps etc), the principle much the same as when aluminium is used for an engine block rather than cast iron, the volume of the lighter material needed to be greater to compensate for its reduced strength.  In a sign of the times, although historically bras without an underwire often were advertised as “wireless”, the ubiquity of the word to describe various forms of digital connectivity (over WiFi, Bluetooth etc) means the industry had shifted mostly to calling them “wire-free” which may seem unnecessary given few would confuse a bra with a router but the internet-enabled bra can be only a matter of time so it’s good manufacturers are thinking ahead.  IT nerds actually already have proved they can deal with linguistic overlap and know about BRAS (broadband remote access server, known also as BBRAS or B-RAS), a device which routes traffic to and from devices such as DSLAMs (digital subscriber line access multiplexer) on an ISP’s (Internet Service Provider).

1989 Porsche 911 Silver Anniversary with car bra and mirror bras.

The Silver Anniversary edition was released in 1989 to mark the 25^th year of 911 production, a run of 500 (300 coupés & 200 cabriolets) made available for the US market.  Available only in silver metallic paint or satin black metallic, all were trimmed in silk grey leather with black accent piping & silk grey velour carpeting.  In the usually way these things are done, the package included a bundle of options including a stitched leather console with an outside temperature gauge and a CD or cassette holder, a limited-slip differential, a short shifting gear lever and the inevitable “25^th Anniversary Special Edition” badges, stamped in bronze.

The other wire-free bras are “car bras” (hyphenated and not).  Car bras are “protective garments”, vinyl covers designed to fit snugly over the front of a vehicle, stopping stones or other debris chipping the paint.  Their origin appears to line in the “cover masks” used by car-manufacturers in the 1970s as a means of concealing the appearance of vehicles being tested (a “shake-down” the preferred phrase) on closed tracks or public roads prior to their release and the purpose was to stop photographers getting pictures of upcoming models to sell to magazines, anxious to scoop the competition with news of what would soon be in the showrooms.  The practical advantages however were obvious and in the 1980s when chrome plated bumpers began rapidly to disappear and be replaced by painted surfaces, stone chips became more of an issue, the vulnerable frontal area in many cases more than tripled.

Wire-free: Covercraft's "Lebra" car bra for 2010-2013 Chevrolet Camaro.

The early implementations of the car bra were utilitarian but those who were (1) obsessive about such things, (2) drove frequently on roads where stone damage was more common or (3) owned a vehicle with a design which made such damage more likely (the Porsche 911 a classic example) were soon able to buy vinyl (nearly always black) covers which came to be called “car bras”.  In the 1980s they were very popular and the better ones were both easy to fit and fitted well but problems were soon observed, notably the trapping of moisture which, in conjunction with dust or tiny fragments of stone which tended to be caught around the edges, acted as a kind of sandpaper as the vinyl moved slightly while the vehicle was in motion; over time, this could damage the paint, the very thing the car bra was there to prevent.  As women wearing bras understand, chafing can be a problem.  For that reason, car bras fell from favour, especially as paint technology improved and finishes became more durable and less susceptible to being chipped.  Additionally, clear protective coatings became available which offered “extra layers” which were undetectable by the naked eye and by the time adhesive “wraps” (opportunistically now also marketed as "clear bras") in just about any color became a thing, the appeal of the car bra diminished although they remain available and the newer versions have been revised to reduce "chafing".  However, unlike other symbols of the 1980s (leg-warmers, shoulder pads et al), a revival of the fashion seems unlikely.  Car bras don’t use an underwire but some of the advertising does have something in common with the underwear business, one manufacturer listing some of the features of their car bra as including (1) double padding to prevent wear-thru, (2) a top double-stitch for better body-hugging fit and (3) double-covered & reinforced hooks which won’t scratch.  The available materials include both the basic vinyl and “textured carbon fibre vinyl”.

Orchid

Orchid (pronounced awr-kid)

(1) Any terrestrial or epiphytic plant of the family Orchidaceae, often having flowers of unusual shapes and beautiful colors, specialized for pollination by certain insects and associated with of temperate and tropical regions.

(2) The flower(s) of any of these plants.

(3) A bluish to reddish purple.

1845: It was English botanist John Lindley (1799–1865) who in School Botanty (1845) coined the word orchid from the New Latin Orchideæ & Orchidaceae (Linnaeus), the plant's family name, from the Latin orchis (a kind of orchid), from the Ancient Greek orkhis (genitive orkheos) (orchid, literally "testicle") from the primitive Indo-European orghi-, the standard root for "testicle" (and related to the Avestan erezi (testicles), the Armenian orjik, the Middle Irish uirgge, the Irish uirge (testicle) and the Lithuanian erzilas (stallion).  The plant so called because of the shape of its root was said so to resemble testicles.  The earlier English (in Latin form) was orchis (1560s) and in the thirteenth century Middle English it was ballockwort (literally “testicle plant” and source of the more recent ballocks).  The extraneous -d- was added in an attempt to extract the Latin stem.  The construct was orch(is) (a plant) + -idae.   The noun plural is orchids, the field is called orchidology and an obsessive is called an orchidologist.

The irregular suffix –idae is the plural of a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek -ίδης (-ídēs), a patronymic suffix.  In Medieval writing, it was sometimes interpreted as representing instead the plural of a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek adjectival suffix -ειδής (-eidḗs) from εἶδος (eîdos) (appearance, resemblance).  It was adopted in 1811 at the suggestion of British entomologist William Kirby (1759-1850), to simplify and make uniform the system of French zoologist Pierre André Latreille (1762–1833) which divided insect orders into sections; in taxonomy, it’s used to form names of subclasses of plants and families of animals.  

Plant porn

The lure of the orchid seems to attract a certain sort of obsessive, drawn by the beauty of the flowers and their sensual fragrance, they speak of its blatant sexuality and leaf slowly through the specialized catalogues which, to them, is botanical pornography.  It’s also a business and a cut-throat one, the retail value of the trade is estimated at US$9 billion annually and, with some of the plant’s natural habitats under threat, the rarest are becoming more expensive.  Governments and quangos have become involved too, imposing regulations and limits on harvesting, the Geneva-based CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) rumored to be threatening even to seek the power to raid the private greenhouses of amateur collectors who may have violated their rules.  The idea of squads of international bureaucrats, escorted by police, turning up outside the potting shed and demanding to inspect the plants may sound Kafkaesque but according to some lawyers, there are international treaties, if ratified and recognized in domestic law, which might permit exactly that.  It's of particular interest in countries with a federal constitutional arrangement in which sub-national governments (states & provinces etc) guarantee certain protection.  In those systems, (1) international treaties are sometimes entered into by national governments which tend to be vested with the head of power encompassing foreign affairs and (2) federal constitutions usually provide that when any conflict exists between national and sub-national laws, the former shall prevail.

A Lindsay Lohan selfie with orchid, October, 2014.

Useful introductions to the weird world of the orchid-obsessed include The Orchid Thief (2000) by Susan Orlean. Orchid: A Cultural History (2016) by Jim Endersby and Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy (2000) by Eric Hansen.  Photographs can only hint at their sensual beauty but the obsessed differ on the best way to experience orchids, some saying nothing compares to their natural environment while others like to mix with them en masse, in a humid hothouse with sufficient air-flow to make them happy and permit the scent of the flowers to waft about.   

Planet

Planet (pronounced plan-it)

(1) In astronomy (now also as “major planet), any of the eight large spherical bodies revolving about the sun in elliptical orbits and shining by reflected light: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune, in the order of their proximity to the sun.

(2) A similar body revolving about a star other than the sun.

(3) A celestial body moving in the sky, as distinguished from (the apparently fixed) stars, applied also to the sun and moon (obsolete except in historic reference).

(4) In astrology, the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto: regarded as sources of energy or consciousness in the interpretation of horoscopes.

1250-1300: From the Middle English planete, from the late Old English planete, from the Old French planete (which endures in Modern French as planète), from the Latin planeta & planetes (found only in plural planētae), from the Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs) (wanderer), (ellipsis of πλάνητες ἀστέρες (plánētes astéres (literally “wandering stars”)), from the Ancient Greek πλανάω (planáō) (to wander about, to stray), from planasthai (to wander), of uncertain etymology.  It was cognate with the Latin pālor (to wander about, to stray), the Old Norse flana (to rush about), and the Norwegian flanta (“to wander about”); from here English ultimately gained flaunt.  The source may have been a nasalized form of the primitive Indo-European root pele- (flat; to spread) on the notion of "spread out" but it’s speculative, etymologists noting a similarity of meaning in the Greek plazein (to make devious, repel, dissuade from the right path, bewilder) the evidence simply doesn’t exist to permit a conclusion to be drawn.  Planets were originally so-called because, viewed by the astronomers from Antiquity, they display apparent motion, unlike the stars which seemed “fixed” in space, the word derived from the Ancient Greek phrase plánētes astéres (literally “wandering stars”), ultimately from planasthai (to wander).  Thus the earliest definitions of planets encompassed both the Moon and Sun but not the Earth.  The sense define by modern science of a “world which orbits a star" was first noted in English in the 1630s.  It wasn’t until the Copernican revolution that the Earth was recognized as a planet, and the Sun was seen to be fundamentally different.

The noun planetoid (one of the asteroids, or minor planets, revolving about the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) is from 1803, the adjectival form planetoidal adopted in 1809.  Strangely, there’s never been an accepted definition of planetoid.  Within astronomical circles, it was initially a synonym for asteroid, "asteroid" referring to the star-like image seen through a telescope while "planetoid" described the object’s planet-like orbit.  In the literature, by the early twentieth century “planetoid” and “asteroid” were both widely used but the latter had prevailed almost wholly by the late 1970s.  This decline in use as a synonym is because it had instead become handy as a word to describe a subset of the larger members of the asteroid community, used to mean “planet-like in form or geology”.  Improvements in observational capacity in the early twenty-first century saw a surge in use as so many more planetary bodies were discovered in the Kuiper belt and beyond.  Within the astronomical community, there was a consensus most were hardly asteroids and concomitant with doubts as to the appropriate definition of "planet", planetoid was the label of choice.

The noun protoplanet (a large, diffuse cloud of matter in the orbit of a young star, regarded as the preliminary state of a planet) dates from 1949, the construct being proto- + planet.  The proto- prefix was a learned borrowing from the Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-), a combination form of πρῶτος (prôtos) (first), superlative of πρό (pró) (before).  The adjective planetary (of or pertaining to a planet) was from the 1590s, probably influenced by the Late Latin planetarius (pertaining to a planet or planets) although the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes the only attested meaning as a noun was "an astrologer".  The planetary nebula, so-called because of the shape as seen through a telescope, is from 1785.  1690s The adjective interplanetary (existing between planets) was used in the sense of "travel between planets” as early as 1897 although the English philosopher and physician John Locke (1632–1704) used intermundane in the same sense, the Roman Epicureans having had intermundia (neuter plural) for "spaces between the worlds", translating from the Ancient Greek metakosmia.  Mundane was from the Middle English mondeyne, from the Old French mondain, from the Late Latin mundanus, from the Classical Latin mundus (world).  The noun planetarium (orrery, astronomical machine which by the movements of its parts represents the motions and orbits of the planets) dates from 1734 and was a creation of Modern Latin, the construct being the Late Latin planeta + Latin -arium (a place for).  The modern meaning "device for projecting the night sky onto the interior of a dome" describe the device developed by the optical engineering company Zeiss in Germany; it was first demonstrated in Munich in 1923, the word planetarium adopted in English in 1929.

#plutoisaplanet: Pluto photographed on 14 July 2015 by the New Horizons interplanetary space probe, launched by NASA in 2006.

The Galileian satellites of Jupiter were initially called satellite planets but were later reclassified along with the Moon.  The first observed asteroids were also considered planets, but were reclassified when became apparent how many there were, crossing each other's orbits, in a zone where only a single planet had been expected.   Pluto was found where an outer planet had been expected, but doubts were soon raised about its status because (1) it was found to cross Neptune's orbit and (2) was much smaller than the expectation had suggested.  The debate about the status of Pluto went on for decades after its discovery in 1930.  The pro-planet faction may have become complacent, thinking that because Pluto had always been a planet, it would forever be thus but, after seventy-six years in the textbooks as a planet, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006 voted to re-classify Pluto as a dwarf planet on the basis that the icy orb failed to meet a set of criteria which the IAU claimed had been accepted for decades.

To be a planet, the IAU noted, the body must (1) orbit a sun, (2) be sufficiently massive to it pull itself into a sphere under its own gravity and (3), "clear its neighborhood" of debris and other celestial bodies, proving it has gravitational dominance in its corner of the solar system.  Pluto fails the third test.  Because it orbits in the Kuiper Belt (a massive ring of asteroids and planetoids that stretches beyond the orbit of Neptune), Pluto is surrounded by thousands of other celestial bodies and chunks of debris, each exerting its own gravity.  Pluto is thus not the gravitationally dominant object in its neighborhood and therefore, not a planet and but a dwarf, a sort of better class of asteroid.  The IAU’s action had been prompted by the discovery in the Kuiper Belt of a body larger than Pluto yet still not meeting the criteria for planethood.  Feeling the need to draw a line in the cosmos, the IAU dumped Pluto.

Lindsay Lohan in Planet Fitness commercial played during Super Bowl 2022.

However #plutoisaplanet is a thing and Pluto’s supporters have a website, arguing that while it’s universally accepted a planet should be spherical and orbit the Sun, the "clearing the neighborhood" rule is arbitrary, having appears only in a single paper published in 1801.  The history is certainly muddied, Galileo having described the moons of Jupiter as planets and there are plenty of other more recent precedents to suggest the definitional consensus has bounced around a bit and there are even extremists really to accept the implications of loosening the rules such as the moons of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn becoming planets.  Most however just want Pluto restored.

The most compelling argument however is probably just that the IAU are a bunch of humorless cosmic clerks, something like the Vogons ("...not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.") in Douglas Adams' (1952–2001) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992) and that Pluto should be restored to planethood because of the romance.  Although lacking the lovely rings of Saturn (a feature shared on a smaller scale by Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune), Pluto is the most charming of all because it’s so far away; desolate, lonely and cold, it's the solar system’s emo.  If for no other reason, it should be a planet in tribute to the scientists who, for decades during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, calculated possible positions and hunted for the elusive orb.  In an example of Donald Rumsfeld's (1932–2021; US secretary of defense 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) “unknown knowns”, the proof was actually obtained as early as 1915 but it wasn’t until 1930 that was realized.  In an indication of just how far away Pluto lies, since the 1840s when equations based on Newtonian mechanics were first used to predict the position of the then “undiscovered” planet, it has yet to complete even one orbit of the Sun, one Plutonian year being 247.68 years long.  The name "Pluto" was from the Roman god of the underworld, from the Classical Latin Pluto & Pluton, from the Ancient Greek Πλούτων (Ploútōn) (god of wealth) from ploutos (wealth; riches (probably originally "overflowing" from the primitive Indo-European pleu- (to flow).  It was the alternative Greek name or epithet of Hades in his function as the god of wealth (precious metals and gems, coming from beneath the earth, form part of his realm).

Covet

Covet (pronounced kuhv-it)

(1) Wrongfully or inordinately to desire, or without due regard for the rights of others:

(2) To wish for, especially eagerly.

Mid 1200s: From the Middle English coveiten (to desire or wish for inordinately or without regard for the rights of others) from the Old French coveitier (desire, lust after) (from which Modern French gained convoiter), thought ultimately derived from Latin cupiditā and cupiditas (passionate desire, eagerness, ambition).  The Latin root was cupidus (very desirous) from cupere (long for or desire).  From this comes also the familiar cupid; The Vulgar Latin was cupidiētāre, a verbal derivative of cupidiētās.  Related forms are covetable (adjective), coveter (noun), covetingly (adverb), uncoveted (adjective), uncoveting (adjective), covetable (adjective) and coveter (noun).  From the mid-fourteenth century, it began to be used without the negative connotations, simply a neutral "desire or wish for eagerly; desire to obtain or possess".

Thought crime

Thou shalt not covet is one of the biblical Ten Commandments (or Decalogue), regarded by most scholars as moral imperatives.  Both Exodus and Deuteronomy describe the commandments as having been spoken by God, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, and, after Moses shattered the originals, rewritten by God on others.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ass, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.

Thy neighbor's ass.

It differs from the other nine in that while they’re concerned with the actions of sinners, the prohibition on being a coveter is about a sinner's thoughts and thus, an early description of thoughtcrime (a word coined by George Orwell (1903-1950) for his dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four).  Indeed Matthew (5:21-21, 27-28) anticipates Orwell in saying that it’s not enough merely to obey the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” because “…anyone who looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart”.  Jimmy Carter (b 1924; US President 1977-1981) quoted this in his Playboy interview, a statement of presidential probity neither shared nor always adhered to by all his successors and predecessors.  In that context, it should be remembered there's an (unwritten) eleventh commandment: "Thou shall not get caught".

Foxbat

Foxbat or fox-bat (pronounced foks-bat)

(1) NATO reporting name for the MiG-25 (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25) high-altitude supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft.

(2) A common name for members of the Megachiroptera (the Pteropus (suborder Yinpterochiroptera), a genus of megabats), some of the largest bats in the world.

Fox is from the Middle English fox, from the Old English fox (fox), from the Proto-West Germanic fuhs, from the Proto-Germanic fuhsaz (fox), from the primitive Indo-European púḱsos (the tailed one), derive possibly from puḱ- (tail).  It was cognate with the Scots fox (fox), the West Frisian foks (fox), the Fering-Öömrang North Frisian foos, the Sölring and Heligoland fos, the Dutch vos (fox), the Low German vos (fox), the German Fuchs (fox), the Icelandic fóa (fox), the Tocharian B päkā (tail, chowrie), the Russian пух (pux) (down, fluff), the Sanskrit पुच्छ (púccha) (source of the Torwali پوش‎ (pūš) (fox) and the Hindi पूंछ (pūñch) (tai”).

Bat in the context of the animal was a dialectal variant (akin to the dialectal Swedish natt-batta) of the Middle English bake & balke, from the North Germanic. The Scandinavian forms were the Old Swedish natbakka, the Old Danish nathbakkæ (literally “night-flapper”) and the Old Norse leðrblaka (literally “leather-flapper”).  The Old English word for the animal was hreremus, from hreran (to shake) and it was known also as the rattle-mouse, an old dialectal word for "bat", attested from the late sixteenth century.  A more rare form, noted from the 1540s, was flitter-mouse (the variants were flinder-mouse & flicker-mouse) in imitation of the German fledermaus (bat) from the Old High German fledaron (to flutter).

In Middle English “bat” and “old bat” were used as a (derogatory) term to describe an old woman, perhaps a suggestion of witchcraft rather than a link to bat as "a prostitute who plies her trade by night".  It’s ancient slang and one etymologist noted the French equivalent hirondelle de nuit (night swallow) was "more poetic".  To “bat the eylids” is an Americanism from 1847, an extended of the earlier (1610s) meaning "flutter (the wings) as a hawk", a variant of bate.

The term fox-bat or flying fox, (genus Pteropus), covers some sixty-five bat species found on tropical islands from Madagascar to Australia and noth through Indonesia and mainland Asia.  Most species are primarily nocturnal and are the largest bats, some attaining a wingspan of 5 feet (1.5 m) with an overall body length of some 16 inches (400 mm).  Zoologists list fox-bats as “Old World fruit bats” (family Pteropodidae) that roost in large numbers and eat fruit and are thus a potential pest, many countries restricting their importation.  Like nearly all Old World fruit bats, flying foxes use sight rather than echolocation, a physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects (such as prey) by means of sound waves reflected back to the emitter by the objects) to navigate, despite the largely nocturnal habit of most species.  In the database maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), about half of all flying fox species are listed as suffering declining populations, 15 said to be vulnerable and 11 endangered. The fox-bats were previously classified in the suborder Megachiroptera, but most researchers now place them in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, which also contains the superfamily Rhinolophoidea, a diverse group that includes horseshoe bats, trident bats, mouse-tailed bats, and others.

MiG-25 (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25).

Once the most controversial fighter in the skies, there was so much mystery surrounding the MiG-25 that US, British and NATO planners spent years spying on it with a mixture of awe, fear and dread.  Conceived originally by USSR designers to counter the threat posed by Boeing’s B-70 Valkyrie bomber, development continued even after the B70 project, rendered redundant by advances in missile technology, was cancelled.  First flown in 1964 and entering service in 1970, nearly 1200 were built and were operated by several nations as well as the USSR.  Able (still) to outrun any other fighter, only the US Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was faster but fewer than three dozen of those were built and those were configured only for strategic reconnaissance.  When first the West became aware of the Foxbat, it caused quite a stir because, combining stunningly high speed with high altitude tolerance and a heavy weapons load, it did appear to be the long-feared platform which would render Soviet airspace immune from US penetration.  It was the threat the Foxbat was thought to pose which was influential in the direction pursued by US engineers when developing the McDonnell Douglas F15.

The Foxbat however never realized its apparently awesome implications. Because the original design brief was to produce a device which could combat the fast, high-flying B-70, many of the characteristics desirable in a short-range interceptor were neglected in the quest for something which could get very high, very quickly.  At that it was a breathtaking success but there were compromises, the fuel burn was epic and, with a very high take-off and landing speed, it could operate only from the longest runways.  Still, at what it was good at it was really good and its very presence meant the US had to plan any mission within range of a Foxbat, cognizant of the threat it was thought to present.  Unbeknown to the West, at lower altitudes it presented little threat and was no dog-fighter; it was essentially a dragster built for the skies, faster than just about anything in a straight line but really not good at turning.

It wasn’t until 1976 when a Soviet defector landed a new Foxbat in Japan in 1976 that US engineers were able to examine the airframe and draw an understanding of its capabilities.  What their analysis found was that the limitations in Soviet metallurgy and manufacturing techniques had resulted in a heavy airframe, one which really couldn’t maneuver at high speeds, and handled poorly at low altitudes. The surprisingly primitive radar was of limited effectiveness in conventional combat situations against enemy fighters, which, combined with the low altitude clumsiness meant that its drawbacks tended to outweigh the advantage it had in sheer speed at altitude, something which meant less to the US since missiles had replaced the B-70 strategic bomber.

In its rare combat outings, those advantages did however confer the occasional benefit.  In 1971, a Soviet Foxbat operating out of Egypt used its afterburners to sustain Mach 3 for an extended duration, enabling it to outrun three pursuing Israeli F4-Phantoms and one downed a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet during the first Gulf War (1991).  During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Iraqi Air Force found them effective against old, slow machinery but sustained heavy losses when confronted with the Iran’s agile F-14 but most celebrated was probably the Foxbat’s success during the Gulf War in claiming both of the last two American aircraft lost in air-to-air combat.  Otherwise, the Foxbat has at low altitude proved vulnerable, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) shooting down several in the war over Lebanon (1981) although they have of late been used, most improbably, in a ground attack role in the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian Arab Air Force, lacking a more appropriate platform, pressing the Foxbats into a ground support role, in at least one case using air-to-air missiles to attack ground targets.

The Soviet designers took note of the operating environment when developing the Foxbat’s successor, the MiG-31 (NATO reporting name Foxhound), a variant which sacrificed a little of the pure speed and climb-rate in order to produce a better all-round fighter.

Minor modification: 1960 Jaguar XK150 3.4 Shooting Brake (“Foxbat”).

What is claimed to be the planet’s only extant Jaguar XK150 shooting brake was built by industrial chemist and noted Jaguar enthusiast, the late Geoffrey Stevens, construction undertaken between 1975-1977.  It was made by combining a donor XK150 fixed-head coupé (FHC) and a Morris Minor Traveller of similar vintage.  Quite why Mr Stevens gave his project the name “Foxbat” isn’t known but it was in 1976, during the build, that a Soviet air force pilot defected to Japan (arriving with his MiG-25 Foxbat).  Whatever the reason, the name appears to have been deliberately chosen, a hand-cut “Foxbat” badge matching the original Jaguar script added to the tailgate.  Said still to be a matching-numbers example with the FHC’s original drive-train, the chassis number is S825106DN, the engine number V7435-8.