Caffeine

Caffeine (pronounced ka-feen, kaf-een or kaf-ee-in)

A white, crystalline, bitter alkaloid with the chemical compound C8H10N4O2.

1830: From the French caféine, the construct being café (coffee) + ine (the chemical suffix).  The earlier German was kaffein, from kaffee (coffee); the adjective is caffeinic.  Technically, caffeine is a trimethyl-derivative of xanthine, a coining as Kaffein in 1830, from German Kaffein, by German analytical chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794–1867).  He chose the name because the alkaloid was found in coffee beans; its presence accounting for the stimulating effect of coffee and tea.  The noun caffeinism was coined as medical jargon in 1880 to describe the "morbid state produced by prolonged or excessive exposure to caffeine" although the condition had for centuries been noted by doctors and others.

Of coffee

Caffeine's molecular structure.

Methyltheobromine (or caffeine) is a central nervous system stimulant and the most widely consumed psychoactive drug which works, inter alia, by reversibly blocking the action of adenosine on its receptor and consequently prevents the onset of adenosine-induced drowsiness.  Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline purine, a methylxanthine alkaloid, chemically related to the adenine and guanine bases of DNA and ribonucleic acid RNA.

Human caffeine consumption is said to date from circa 3000 BC when, according to Chinese legend, the mythological Emperor Shennong (Divine Farmer) serendipitously invented tea, a story derived from an early book on the history of tea.  Coffee drinking first became common in the mid-fifteenth century in the Sufi monasteries of Yemenin Arabia and it spread first to North Africa and by the sixteenth century was widely consumed throughout the Middle East, Persia and Asia Minor.  The first European coffee houses were in Italy and they soon became common throughout the continent.

Voltaire (1760) by Théodore Gardelle (1722–1761); he doubtlessly agreed with de Fontenelle.

In its pure form, caffeine can be fatal in tiny quantities although in the form usually enjoyed, coffee, one would need to drink over a hundred cups in a day to approach toxicity.  Voltaire (1694–1778), often at the Café de Procope in Paris, drank sometimes as many as forty cups a day, enjoying it so much he ignored the advice of his doctors to stop.  He lived to eighty-four but there’s no evidence the often attributed quotation: “It may be poison, but I have been drinking it for sixty-five years, and I am not dead yet” was his.  The more likely source is French author Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) whose actual words were: “I think it must be [a slow poison], for I’ve been drinking it for eighty-five years and am not dead yet.”   Fontenelle died a month short of his hundredth birthday.

Depiction of seventeenth century London coffee house.

Whatever the concern about coffee the drink, the coffee house the place attracted its own concerns.  There’s some evidence coffee houses were welcomed by the authorities when first they became popular in seventeenth century London because they seemed a desirable alternative to the ale house where men would drink beer and later gin, leading to all the notorious social ills.  However, it seemed soon to kings and ministers that while having drunken men brawl or beat their wives was hardly good, it was a more manageable problem than having them cluster, share the newly available cheap newspapers and pamphlets, talk and think.  Men taking and thinking might lead to them getting ideas which was worse than them fighting in the street and government made repeated attempts to suppress the coffee shops.  Ultimately, caffeine prevailed.

Johann Sebastian Bach (circa 1760) by Johann Eberhard Ihle (1727–1814).

On the continent, the Habsburgs were no more impressed than the Stuarts in England, the government there encouraging the idea of coffee was a subversive societal vice and there was something of a minor moral panic among good citizens disturbed at the corrupting influences of such places.  This didn’t amuse a German composer famously associated with the late Baroque, JS Bach (1685–1750) who was fond of taking his frequent shots in his favorite coffee shops and, although never noted for his light-heartedness, he took an amusing poem mocking the public’s concerns, written by his frequent collaborator Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700–1764; pen name Picander), and set it to music as Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Be still, stop chattering).  Composed between 1732-1735, it’s usually called the Coffee Cantata, although, it’s really a comic operetta.  A satirical commentary, the work makes fun of the concerns respectable folk had about coffee and coffee houses.  In Vienna as in London, caffeine triumphed.

Despite the joys of a Bach cantata and the persuasive (if misattributed) endorsement of Voltaire, the killjoy editors of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) weren’t sure ordinary folk could be trusted to decide how many cups of coffee daily to enjoy and declared more research was needed.  They often conclude more research is needed.  Strangely, the DSM’s editors appear to be less trusting than most clergy, caffeine a drug to which even normally condemnatory priests, rabbis and mullahs don’t object, the only famously abstemious among the major faiths being the Church of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons), the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Rastafarians, the last perhaps a surprise given how well a long black complements some good weed.

Simple pleasure: the long black.

Widely consumed, caffeine is a psychoactive drug which produces its psychomotor stimulant and reinforcing effects through antagonism at adenosine receptors and indirect effects on dopaminergic neurotransmission.  The editors of DSM-5 (2013) were prepared to concede consumption of caffeine at recommended dietary doses is usually at least harmless and may even have some benefits such as the enhancement of analgesia but do caution some may experience caffeine-related health effects and functional impairment and that this can manifest in different people at different levels of consumption.  Higher doses can produce dysphoric subjective effects and caffeine intoxication, including restlessness, nervousness, insomnia and an irregular heartbeat.  It’s also associated in some with gastrointestinal problems, urinary incontinence and anxiety, use during pregnancy said to be associated with especially poor outcomes.

Lindsay Lohan leaving Coffee Bean, Los Angeles, December 2007.

Cold turkey may not be the solution either, the editors documenting withdrawal symptoms which some may experience if abruptly discontinuing regular use, including headaches, fatigue, irritability, a depressed mood, difficulty concentrating, and even flu-like symptoms, the DSM-5 codifying the conditions as (1) caffeine intoxication, (2) caffeine withdrawal, (3) caffeine-induced anxiety disorder and (4), caffeine-induced insomnia.  These are listed as the potential diagnoses when symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment and, because some individuals report an inability to reduce their consumption despite clinically significant problems even after seeking treatment, caffeine consumption can be said to lead to substance dependence.

Caffeine is an essential part of the recommended pro ana breakfast.

Thus the DSM-5 proposed three necessary diagnostic criteria for caffeine use disorder: (1) a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to reduce or control caffeine use, (2) continued caffeine use despite knowledge of (it’s not specified if an explicit acknowledgment is needed) having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by caffeine and (3), withdrawal, as manifested by the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for caffeine, or caffeine or a closely related substance being taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms. Six additional diagnostic criteria included in other substance use disorders, such as craving, tolerance, and taking caffeine in larger amounts or over a longer period of time than intended, were also included as markers for greater severity beyond the three key criteria for caffeine use disorder.  Because caffeine is so widely consumed, to reduce any potential for over-diagnosis, the proposed diagnostic strategy for caffeine, despite sounding onerous, is actually more conservative than for other substances.

One can see the attraction of energy drinks.

The editors did note the paucity of data relating to the prevalence and clinical significance of caffeine use disorder and the suspicion is the interest may have been triggered not the usual suspect, coffee, but the newer generation of energy drinks and diet supplements.  Previous research was apparently too focused on specific, small-subsets rather than the general populations, some of the studies so specialized as to be thought unrepresentative of the general population.  One (very small) study of caffeine use disorder in the United States (reported in the DSM-IV (1994)) found that 30% of caffeine consumers fulfilled the generic DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence as applied to caffeine but this fell to 10% under (the supposedly more realistic) DSM-5 criteria, a hint the concerns of clinical over-diagnosis do need to be taken seriously.  Again, the point was made that more research is required, the extent to which caffeine use disorder is associated with markers of clinical significance such as self-reported caffeine-related distress or impairment, psychological distress, sleep problems, or other drug use is wholly unknown.

The documented study the editors reviewed was the most thorough evaluation yet conducted of the prevalence, clinical significance and correlates of meeting proposed criteria for caffeine use disorder yet it was extensive enough only to inform future research and considerations regarding risk and differential diagnosis, technical points about the parameters of control group populations especially noted.  Despite the apparent lack of robustness, the editors were persuaded the findings did support the inclusion of caffeine use disorder in future editions of the DSM.  Although only a small percentage of sampled caffeine consumers met the proposed key diagnostic criteria, where the standards were met, there were clinically meaningful effects.

All reputable authorities recommend a caffeine intake of not more than 400 mg a day, or two long black coffees.  Many coffee fiends exceed this before breakfast is over.

Caffeine has become more interesting as a drug because of the late twentieth-century phenomenon of the energy drink, the interest not so much in the caffeine content which, can be much more or much less than a cup of coffee but because the pattern of consumption is, in certain sub-groups, so associated with strong alcohol, often on a 1:1 (ie 30-60 ml spirits to 250 ml energy drink) basis, a pattern well known with long-established mixers like Coca-Cola but now in both much greater volume and a much higher caffeine content.  It’s difficult to tell whether a problem has emerged because while the deaths associated with the combination attract attention, the aggregate numbers, impressionistically, seem small and may not be statistically significant.  There's even been the suggestion extreme variations in ambient temperature may have been an at least contributory factor in some deaths.

Zephyr

Zephyr (pronounced zef-uhr (U) or zef-er (non-U))

(1) A gentle, mild breeze, considered the most pleasant of winds.

(2) As a literary device, the west wind personified which should be used with an initial capital letter and not capitalized if referring to some gentle waft.

(3) Any of various things of fine, light quality (fabric, yarn etc), most often applied to wool.

(4) The usual (Westernised) spelling of Ζεφυρος (Zéphuros or Zéphyros), the Greek and Roman god of the west wind.  The Roman name was Zephyrus, Favonius.

(5) A model name used on various cars produced by the Ford Motor Company, including some under the Lincoln and (the now defunct) Mercury brands.

Circa 1350: From the Middle English zeferus & zephirus, from the Old English zefferus, from the Latin zephyrus, from the Ancient Greek Ζέφυρος (Zéphuros or Zéphyros) (the west wind), probably from the Greek root zophos (the west, the dark region, darkness, gloom).  The Latin Zephyrus was the source also of zéphire (French), zefiro (Spanish) and zeffiro (Italian).  The plural is zephyrs and the derived term is zephyrette (capitalised and not); the alternative spellings were zephir & zefir.  The casual use in meteorology dates from circa 1600.  While, as Zephyr, classically something warm, mild and occidental, zephyr can be used to refer to any gentle breeze or waft where the wish is to suggest a wind not strong as in a gust, gale, cyclone, blast, typhoon or tempest, the adjectival form being zephyrean.

Cupid and Psyche (1907) by Edvard Munch (1863–1944).

In Greek mythology, Ζεφυρος (transliterated as Zéphuros or Zéphyros) was the god of the west wind, one of the four seasonal Anemoi (wind-gods), the others being his brothers Notus (god of the south wind), Eurus (god of the east wind) and Boreas (god of the east wind).  The Greek myths offer many variations of the life of Zephyrus, the offspring of Astraeus & Eos in some versions and of Gaia in other stories while there were many wives, depending on the story in which he was featured.  Despite that, he’s also sometimes referred to as the “god of the gay”, based on the famous tale of Zephyrus & Hyakinthos (Hyacinthus or Hyacinth).  Hyacinth was a Spartan youth, an alluring prince renowned for his beauty and athleticism and he caught the eye of both of both Zephyrus and Apollo (the god of sun and light) and the two competed fiercely for the boy’s affections.  It was Apollo whose charms proved more attractive which left Zephyrus devastated and in despair.  One day, Zephyrus chanced upon the sight of Apollo and Hyacinth in a meadow, throwing a discus and, blind with anger, sent a great gust of wind at the happy couple, causing the discus to strike Hyacinth forcefully in the head, inflicting a mortal injury.  Stricken with grief, as Hyacinth lay dying in his arms, Apollo transformed the blood trickling to the soil into the hyacinth (larkspur), flower which would forever bloom in memory of his lost, beautiful boy. Enraged, Apollo sought vengeance but Zephyrus was protected by Eros, the god of love, on what seems the rather technical legal point of the intervention of Zephyrus being an act of love.  There was however a price to be paid for this protection, Zephyrus now pledged to serve Eros for eternity and the indebted god of the west wind soon received his first task.  There are other tales of how Cupid and Psyche came to marry but in this one, with uncharacteristic clumsiness, Cupid accidently shot himself with one of his own arrows of love while gazing upon the nymph Psyche and it was Zephyrus who kidnapped her, delivering his abducted prize to Cupid to be his bride.

Chloris and Zephyr (1875) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Musee des Beau-Arts of the Musées Mulhouse Sud Alsace.

Zephyros was in classical art most often depicted as a handsome, winged youth and a large number of surviving Greek vases are painted with unlabeled figures of a winged god embracing a youth and these are usually identified as Zephyros and Hyakinthos although, some historians detecting detail differences list a number of them as being of Eros (the god of Love) with a symbolic youth.  Although sometimes rendered as a winged god clothed in a green robe and crowned with a wreath of flowers, in Greco-Roman mosaics, Zephyros appears usually in the guise of spring personified, carrying a basket of unripened fruit.  In some stories, he is reported to be the husband of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow and Hera’s messenger and in others, Podarge the harpy (also known as Celano) is mentioned as the wife of Zephyrus but in most of the myths he was married to Chloris.  Chloris by most accounts was an Oceanid nymph and in the tradition of Boreas & Orithyia and Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus made Chloris his wife by abduction, making her the goddess of flowers, for she was the Greek equivalent of Flora, and living with her husband, enjoyed a life of perpetual spring.

Lincoln Zephyr V12, 292 cubic inches (4.4 litre).  It was the last of the American V12s.

In the inter-war era, the finest of the big American cars, the Cadillacs, Lincolns, Packards and Duesenbergs, offered craftsmanship the equal of anything made in Europe and engineering which was often more innovative.  The 1930s however were difficult times and by mid-decade, sales of the big K-Series Lincolns, the KA (385 cubic inch (6.3 litre) V8) and KB (448 cubic inch (6.3 litre) V12) were falling.  Ford responded by designing a smaller, lighter Lincoln range to bridge the gap between the most expensive Ford and the lower-priced K-Series Lincolns, the intention originally to power it with an enlarged version of the familiar Ford V8 but family scion Edsel Ford (1893–1943; president of the Ford Motor Company 1919-1943), decided instead to develop a V12, wanting both a point of differentiation and a link to K-Series which had gained for Lincoln a formidable reputation for power and durability.  Develop may however be the wrong word, the new engine really a reconfiguration of the familiar Ford V8, the advantage in that approach being it was cheaper than an entirely new engine, the drawback the compromises and flaws of the existing unit were carries over and in some aspects, due to the larger size and greater internal friction, exaggerated.

Lincoln Zephyr V12, 267 cubic inches (4.4 litre).

The V12 however was not just V8 with four additional pistons, the block cast with a vee-angle of 75^o rather than the eight’s 90^o, a compromise between compactness and the space required for a central intake manifold and the unusual porting arrangement for the exhaust gases.  The ideal configuration for a V12 is 60^o and without staggered throws on the crankshaft, the 75^o angle yielded uneven firing impulses, although, being a relatively slow and low-revving unit, the engine was felt acceptably smooth.  The cylinder banks used the traditional staggered arrangement, permitting the con-rods to ride side-by-side on the crank and retained the Ford V-8’s 3.75 inch (90.7 mm) stroke but used a small bore of just 2.75 inches (69.75 mm), then the smallest of any American car then in production, yielding a displacement of 267 cubic inches (4.4 litres), a lower capacity than many of the straight-eights and V8s then on the market.

1941 Lincoln Zephyr coupe in Darian Blue.

The V12 was introduced in 1936 in the new Lincoln Zephyr, the name chosen to emphasize the wind-cheating qualities of the modernist styling which, with a raked windscreen and integrated fenders, was among the more successful of the streamlined, aerodynamic designs which followed the Chrysler Airflows which had encountered such market resistance.  A relatively low-weight and the presumed aerodynamic efficiency permitted more than respectable performance by the standards of the time but the engine did suffer teething troubles.  Because the exhaust system was routed through the block to four ports on each side of the engine, cooling was from the beginning the problem it had been on the Ford V8, only on a larger scale.  Although the cooling system had an apparently impressive six-gallon (22.7 litre) capacity, it quickly became clear this was under certain conditions marginal and the radiator grill was soon extended to increase airflow.  Nor was lubrication initially satisfactory, the original oil pump found to be unable to maintain pressure when wear developed on the many bearing surfaces; it was replaced with one that could move an additional gallon (3.79 litre) a minute.  Most problems were resolved during the first year of production and the market responded to the cylinder count, competitive price and styling; after struggling to sell not even 4000 of the big KAs in 1935, Lincoln produced nearly 18,000 Zephyrs in 1936, sales growing to over 25,000 the following year.  Production between 1942-1946 would be interrupted by the war but by the time the last was built in 1948, by which time it had been enlarged to 292 cubic inches (4.8 litre (there was in 1946, briefly, a 306 cubic inch (5.0 litre) version) over 200,000 had been made, making it the most successful of the American V12s.  It was an impressive number, more than matching the 161,583 Jaguar built over a quarter of a century (1971-1997) and only Daimler-Benz has made more, their count including both those used in Mercedes-Benz cars and the the DB-60X inverted V12 aero-engines famous for their wartime service with the Luftwaffe.  

1969 Ford (UK) Zephyr Zodiac Mark IV.

Lincoln ceased to use the Zephyr name after 1942, the V12 cars after then advertised simply as Lincolns, distinguished in name only by the coachwork.  The Zephyr badge was in 1950 revived by Ford of England for their line of mainstream family cars, augmented after 1953 by an up-market version called the Zodiac, noted for its bling.  The first three generations (1950-1966) were well-regarded (the Mark III (1962-1966) in most ways a superior car to the contemporary US Ford Falcon) and enjoyed success in both the home and export markets but the Mark IV (1966-1972), despite a tantalizingly advanced specification and offering a lot of metal for the money, proved so ghastly the name was retired when the range was replaced.  Not having suffered the tainted Mark IV Zephyrs, Ford felt it safe to recycle the Zephyr name in the US, firstly on the bland Mercury clone (1978-1983) of the (US) Ford Fairmont and finally, for a single year in 2006, on an undistinguished Lincoln which was almost immediately re-branded the MKZ.  There have been no Zephyrs since.

Lindsay Lohan resisting a zephyr's efforts to induce a wardrobe malfunction, MTV Movie Awards, Los Angeles, 2008.

Regent

Regent (pronounced ree-juhnt)

(1) A person who exercises the ruling power in a kingdom during the minority, absence, or disability of the sovereign.

(2) A ruler or governor (obsolete).

(3) In certain schools and colleges in Scotland, the US and Canada, a member of the governing board of a state university or a state educational system.

(4) A university officer who exercises general supervision over the conduct and welfare of the students (now rare); a senior teacher or administrator in certain universities (rare, mostly obsolete).

(5) In certain Catholic universities, a member of the religious order who is associated in the administration of a school or college with a layperson who is its dean or director.

1375-1400: From the Anglo-Norman regent (a ruler), from the adjective regent (ruling, governing (later "exercising vicarious authority")), from the Middle French, from the Old French, from the Medieval  Latin regentem from regēns (ruling; ruler, governor, prince), present participle of regō (I govern, I steer), noun use of present participle of regere (to rule, direct).  The ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European reg- (move in a straight line) derivatives of this carrying the sense “to direct in a straight line" thus eventually the meaning "to lead, rule".  The most familiar meaning "one who rules during the minority or absence of a sovereign" emerged in the early fifteenth century as an alternative to king, not implying legitimacy or permanence of rule; the Latin for this was interrex (plural interreges).  The sense "university faculty member" is attested from late fourteenth century and preserves the original meaning.  When used in any of its adjectival forms, the sense is usually postpositive.

The last King of Italy

Umberto II while Prince of Piedmont, a 1928 portrait by Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip Philip Alexius László de Lombos (1869–1937 and known professionally as Philip de László).  Note the ruffled collar and bubble pantaloons.

Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia (1904–1983) was the last king of Italy, his reign as Umberto II lasting but thirty-four days during May-June 1946; Italians nicknamed him the Re di Maggio (May king) although some better-informed Romans preferred regina di maggio (May queen).  At the instigation of the US and British political representatives of the allied military authorities, in April 1944 he was appointed regent because it was clear popular support for Victor Emmanuel III (1869-1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) had collapsed.  Despite Victor Emmanuel’s reputation suffering by association, his relationship with the fascists had often been uneasy and, seeking means to blackmail the royal house, Mussolini’s spies compiled a dossier (reputably several inches thick), detailing the ways of his son’s private life.  Then styled Prince of Piedmont, the secret police discovered Umberto was a sincere and committed Roman Catholic but one unable to resist his "satanic homosexual urges” and his biographer agreed, noting the prince was "forever rushing between chapel and brothel, confessional and steam bath" often spending hours “praying for divine forgiveness.”  After a referendum abolished the monarchy, Umberto II lived his remaining 37 years in exile, never again setting foot on Italian soil.  His turbulent marriage to Princess Marie-José of Belgium (1906-2001) produced four children but historians consider it quite possible none of them were his.

Lindsay Lohan at the Mr Pink Ginseng Drink Launch Party, Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, 11 October 2012.

Masquerade

Masquerade (pronounced mas-kuh-reyd)

(1) A party, dance, or other festive gathering of persons wearing masks and other disguises, and often elegant, historical, or fantastic costumes.

(2) A costume or disguise worn at such a gathering.

(3) A false outward show; façade; pretense.

(4) An activity, existence etc, under false pretenses.

(5) To go about under false pretenses or a false character; assume the character of; give oneself out to be; a pretentious display.

(6) To disguise oneself.

(7) To take part in a masquerade.

(8) Figuratively, an assembly of varied, often fanciful things.

(9) A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque (obsolete).

(10) A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes (always rare, now obsolete).

(11) In military jargon, to conceal (artillery pieces etc) from the view of the enemy.

1560s: The noun "assembly of persons wearing masks and usually other disguises" was from the Middle French mascarade, masquerade & masquerade (the modern French is mascarade (masquerade, masque; farce)), or the Spanish mascarada (masked party or dance) (sometimes as masquerada & mascarado), from the Italian mascarata (a ball at which masks are worn), a variant of the etymon Upper Italian mascherata (masquerade) from maschera (source of mask), from the Medieval Latin masca (mask).  The English word was cognate with Late Latin masquarata, the Portuguese mascarada and the Spanish mascarada.    Some sources insist the supposedly Spanish derivatives of the French were actually “pseudo-Spanish” but in Spanish mascara was anyway “a mask”.  The spelling maskerade has been obsolete since the late 1600s although the synonym masque endured beyond another two centuries.  The verb was derived from the noun and the extended sense of a "disguise in general; concealment or apparent change of identity by any means" dates from the 1660s; the figurative sense of "false outward show" emerging during the next decade.

The related verb forms (used without object) were masqueraded & masquerading and masquerader was a noun, the adjective masqueradish and the adverb masqueradingly both rare; the plural was masquerades (also attributively).  Words vaguely similar, if not actual synonyms, include carnival, circus, cloak, color, costume, cover, cover-up, deception, dissimulation, domino, facade, festivity, front, guise, impersonation, imposture, mask, mummery, personation & pose.

Curiously, although the word appears not to have entered English for another half-century, the masquerade (masked ball, festive entertainment in which participants wear a disguising costume) was known in French since the 1510s.  It developed to mean an "amateur theatrical performance" in the 1560s, such entertainments popular (and performed originally in masks) with the Elizabethan nobility.  The military sense to describe a type of camouflage used to conceal field pieces such as cannons dates from 1706 and, in the army way of things, was quickly shortened to “mask”.

Masked Ball at the Opera (1873) by Edouard Manet (1832–1883).

Much associated with the tradition of the Venetian Carnival, masquerade balls (maschera in the Italian) moved from the ballroom to become costumed public festivities in Italy during the sixteenth century Renaissance although they never lost the perception of the link with the upper classes.  As they spread to France and England, they also took with them their fashionable status and, expensive & exclusive, they soon became one of the most preferred gatherings for the urban elite of Paris and London which constituted a genuinely new economic and social structure but, although symbolizing extravagance, whether there was ever the extent of sexual frivolity, debauchery, and gender subversion that was suspected then and has often been the depiction in latter-day popular culture, is at least uncertain.

The perception of there being something wrong surfaced early, clergy and the other usual suspects assuming the anonymity and sexual mixing of the masquerade must obscure the gender restraints they thought proper.  The satirical artists of the time lent weight to the vicars’ vexations, prints of masquerade balls showing women often scantily clad and leaning towards men with immodest intention: gender roles not just fluid but actually reversed, women asserting sexual power.  Henry Fielding’s (1707–1754) first published poem, The Masquerade (1724), highlighted the subversive power of the masks.

here, in one confusion herl'd,

seem all the nations of the world,

Cardinals, quakers, judges dance;

Grim Turks are coy, and nuns advance,

Grave churchmen here at hazard play;

So for his ugliness more fell,

Was H-d-g-r toss'd out of hell,

And in return by Satan made

First Minister of masquerade.

Lindsay Lohan in masquerade mask.

Reading Fielding, that middle-class moralist, it seemed that when masked in the company of masked men, women tainted their innocence and some feared that were women to taste sexual freedom, who knew where that might lead.  The masquerade, like many things which broke barriers of class, gender, and ethnicity by at least appearing to challenge social norms, induced one of the moral panics at which the English excel.  The clergy would preach from their pulpits of the "evils of the masquerade" and if that didn’t get through to the congregation, pamphleteers passed out their papers on the streets, warning of corruption and depravity.  Perhaps conflicted, because their presses printed advertisements and tickets for the very masquerades they claimed to oppose, newspaper editors wrote scathing editorials and the civil authorities responded with a predictably selective suppression, The Weekly Journal of 10 April 1775 describing with some relish the forcible breaking-up of a masquerade described as a gathering of "Chamber-Maids, Cook-Maids, Foot-Men, and Apprentices".  It seems the idea of a massed gathering of the working class in masks was a threatening thing; there’s no record of the events hosted by the gentry being disturbed.

Masqueraders (circa 1880 by Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (1841-1920).

The concerns however persisted and the masquerade was just one example of what was seen as an epidemic of unwholesome foreign influences which had of late landed upon English shores.  Returning to his theme, in a submission to An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, Henry Fielding wrote that, "bad Habits are infectious by Example, as the Plague itself by Contact" and the masquerade being foreign meant it was suspect, like much of the diabolical and unwelcome cultural epidemic spread from Italy, France and the Orient.  In a 1724 sermon, the Bishop of London blamed the presence of the masquerade on English soil on a certain "ambassador of a neighboring nation” and went on to preach that the masquerade was a plot devised by France to "enslave true Englishmen by encouraging in them licentious and effeminacy" and journalists pursued the idea of continental corruption, noting the masquerade began in "hot countries notorious for Lewdness”.  There was even a conspiracy theory, one writer suggesting this “foreign diversion" was a European plot to neutralize the beauty of English women by forcing them to "hide their charms with a mask".

The fear of women enjoying sexual licence was the problem.  Those in the anti-masquerade movement equated attending the masquerade with the sexual act itself, just another expression of the double standards in eighteenth-century English culture, the presence of women at masquerades thought something heinous, while that of men, though hardly condoned, was more or less tolerated.  Some female critics were more pragmatic.  Writing in The Female Spectator Eliza Haywood (circa 1693–1756) advised her female readers that "women of honour" not only should not attend the masquerade but "shun the gentlemen who were so depraved as to offer them tickets".  On the other hand, she advised her male readers not against going to the masquerade themselves but against bringing their wives or sisters, lest their mistress might also be in attendance.  Undeniably sound advice.

Nineteenth century drawing, Lisbon earthquake, 1755.

It was an act of God which drove a stake through the heart of the English masquerade.  On November 1, 1755 an earthquake destroyed much of the city of Lisbon, killing thousands.  As news spread, the anti-masquerade movement spoke out publicly, claiming the earthquake was visited upon the Portuguese for their sin and corruption, the very thing that had spread to England.  Whether those in government took this analysis too seriously isn’t known but they certainly reacted to the public outcry the mob’s rantings summoned and masquerades were banned for a year.  Although there were spasmodic attempts at revivals, the popularity suffered and it was by the late eighteenth century extinct in England, not to return for more than a hundred years.

Troop

Troop (pronounced troop)

(1) An assemblage of persons or things; company; band.

(2) A great number or multitude.

(3) In historic military use, (usually) an armored cavalry, cavalry or artillery battery consisting of two or more platoons and a headquarters group.

(4) As troops, a body of soldiers, police etc.

(5) A unit of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts usually having a maximum of 32 members under the guidance of an adult leader.

(6) A herd, flock or swarm of some living creatures.

(7) A band or troupe of actors (archaic).

(8) To gather in a company; flock together.

(9) To come, go, or pass in great numbers; throng; to walk, as if in a march; go; to walk, march, or pass in rank or order:

(10) To associate or consort (usually followed by with).

(11) In British military use, to carry (the flag or colors) in a ceremonial way before troops (used also by the military in some countries where military traditions have been influenced by the British).

(12) To assemble or form into a troop or troops.

(13) An alternative spelling of troupe (archaic).

(14) In British military slang, formerly to report a soldier for a breach of discipline (archaic).

(15) An alternative word for consort (archaic).

(16) The collective noun for a group of baboons.

(17) In music, a particular roll of the drum; a quick march.

(18) In mycology, mushrooms that are in a close group but not close enough to be called a cluster.

1545: From the French troupe, from the Old French trope (band of people, company, troop, crowd), of uncertain origin but perhaps from the Frankish throp (assembly, gathering of people), from the Proto-Germanic þurpą (village, land, estate), from the primitive Indo-European treb- (dwelling, settlement) or a back-formation of troupeau, diminutive of the Medieval Latin troppus (flock) and Middle French troupe, from which Modern French gained troupeau (herd)), the construct being trop- (from the Germanic form thorp) + -el, from the Latin –ellus, the diminutive suffix.  There may have been some connection with the Old English ðorp or the Old Norse thorp (village) and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) suggest the French form was from the Latin troppus (flock) of unknown origin but may also have been picked-up from the (speculative) Germanic source.  Doublet of troupe, and possibly also of thorp and dorp; it was cognate with the German Dorf (village).

It came to be applied to groups of animals in the 1580s, the military adoption for a “subdivision of a cavalry force" dating from the same time, the general use of ‘troop” to describe any “armed forces” attested from the 1590s.  Troops were part of the structure in the Boy Scouts from the organization's beginnings in 1908, the Girl Scouts emulating this upon formation four years later.  In modern use, the spelling troupe has assumed the exclusive use of describing a company of actors, singers, acrobats or other entertainers and performers.

The noun troop is a linguistic curiosity.  It’s used as a collective noun (a troop of girl-scouts) and in the noun plural (the troops) but not as a noun singular (one doesn’t refer to individual troops as “a troop”) but there is the noun singular “trooper”.

Military and Para-military use

The troop as a military sub-unit continues to exist in some armed and police forces but tends now not in general to be part of military structures.  It was originally a tactical group, a small formation of cavalry, part of a squadron deployed on a battlefield for a specific action and it’s in that sense that use persists, a troop sometimes an alternative term for an infantry section or platoon.  There are historic exceptions in the US Cavalry and the British Army where a troop can be an infantry company or artillery battery.

The Australian Army uses the term, a troop a platoon sized element and the general term for army personnel (and literally the private soldier) is trooper.  Technically, it’s only the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR; special forces) of the Royal Australian Infantry Corps which uses troop to refer to its platoon size formations but it remains common slang.  As a general principle, where used in the military, a troop tends to be platoon-sized except in the US Cavalry, where it’s equivalent to a company (ie three to four platoons) and, when combined, these form a regiment, the change in nomenclature dating from 1883.

Para-military use: A troop of girl scouts (or guides) selling biscuits (or cookies).

In civilian use, many US police forces use troop and trooper because they modelled their command structures along military lines, the same reason the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts adopted the form although, in these less robust times, it’s become common, especially with the latter, to replace troop with company, the now less-fashionable military connection being less overt.

One exception was the Salvation Army which never used troop, either as an organizational unit or in the collective to describe its members although, it was common to refer to them as "Christian soldiers".  They did use military ranks and some of the structural terms (such as corps and division) were adopted but never troop.