Sabre (pronounced sey-ber)
(1) A stout single-edged cavalry sword, having a curved
blade.
(2) A sword used in fencing, having a narrow V-shaped
blade, a semicircular guard, and a slightly curved hand.
(3) In historic military slang, a cavalry soldier.
(4) To injure or kill with a sabre.
1670s: From the French sabre (heavy, curved sword), an alteration of sable (dating from
the 1630s), from the 1630s German dialectal Sabel
& Säbel, from the Middle High
German sebel, probably from the perhaps
from the fourteenth century Hungarian (Magyar) szabla (rendered laser as száblya)
(saber, literally "tool to cut with" from szabni (to cut) and it’s thought the spread of the Hungarian word
to neighboring languages occurred during the Ottoman wars in Europe of the fifteenth
to seventeenth centuries. The origin of
the Hungarian word is mysterious. It was
long thought most likely from the South Slavic (the Serbo-Croatian сабља or the
Common Slavic sablja) which would mean
the ultimate source is Turkic but more recent scholarship suggests it may
ultimately be from the Tungusic, via the Kipchak Turkic selebe, with later metathesis (the letters transposing l-b to b-l)
and apocope changed to seble, which would have changed its vocalization
in Hungarian to the recorded sabla (perhaps under the influence of the
Hungarian word szab- (to crop; cut
(into shape). It was cognate with the Danish
sabel, the Russian са́бля (sáblja) and the Serbo-Croatian сабља. The Balto-Slavic words (Russian sablya, Polish and Lithuanian šoblė) may have come via German, but the
Italian sciabla is said to have been
derived directly from Hungarian. The US spelling
since the late nineteenth century was saber but sabre is also often used by
those who prefer the traditional spellings for archaic nouns (eg theatre is in
learned use sometimes used to distinguish live high-culture performances from popular
forms). Sabre is a noun and verb and the (omninous sounding) sabring & sabred are verbs; the noun plural is sabres.
Sabrage is the opening of a bottle, traditionally champagne,
by striking with a sabre, the annulus (the donut-shape ring of glass between
the neck and cork) of the bottle, held at an angle of about 30o, slicing
off the bottle's neck. The trick is said
to be to ensure the bottle is as cold as possible and the practice is claimed
to be safe, any shards of glass being propelled away under pressure. For those
for whom a sabre might not conveniently fall to hand, another heavy-blade can
be used, even a meat-cleaver. The sabre-tooth
tiger, dating from 1849, is but one of a species of saber toothed cats from the
genus Smilodon, noted for the pair of elongated teeth in the upper jaw although
“sabre-tooth tiger” is often incorrectly used to describe all of the type,
correctly known as saber-tooth cats and them a subset of a number of extinct
groups of predatory therapsids with the famous teeth. Saber-toothed mammals roamed the planet for
over forty-million years until driven to extinction, presumably by modern humans,
towards the end last period of glacial expansion during the ice age, an epoch
which, by one definition, remains on-going.
Although some sources maintain “saber-rattling” (ostentatious or threatening display of military power; implied threat of imminent military attack; militarism) is derived from certain interactions between civilian government and the military in South American in 1924, the phrase had been in the English newspapers as early as 1879, spreading across the Atlantic early in the next century. However, even before “saber-rattling” emerged as such an enticingly belligerent semantic mélange, the elements were often in close proximity usually as “the rattling of sabres”, used to describe the clatter a sabre in its scabbard is wont to make as its wearer proceeds on foot or horseback. The use dates from a time when in many a European city a sword-carrying soldier was not an uncommon sight and bother phrases are used to describe bellicose posturing but only “sabre rattling” is exclusive in this sense. It’s the sound which matters rather than the particular bladed weapon; the phrase “mere sword rattling” is attested in a US publication in 1882 and, strictly speaking, the use of naval forces in a threatening manner should presumably be “cutlass rattling” but that never caught on. The figurative use could presumably exist in just about any dispute but seems most documented when threatening legal proceedings, often in cases of alleged defamation.
The strong association of sabre rattling with events in Chile
in 1924 has led some to suppose the phrase dates from this time and place; that’s
not so but what happened in Santiago was one of the few occasions when the
sabers were literally rattled. It was a
time of heightened political conflict between the government and one of the few
laws which seemed likely to proceed was a pay-rise for the politicians. This wasn’t received well by most of the
population, including the army officers who had long be denied any increase in
their salaries. Accordingly, several
dozen officers, mostly subalterns, attended the congressional session at which the
politician’s pay was listed for discussion, sitting in the public gallery. Among the politicians, their presence caused
some disquiet and the president of the chamber, noting the air of quiet intimidation,
ordered the public gallery cleared, as the discussion was to be secret. As the officers departed, they rattled the
scabbards (chapes) against the floor, interpreted as a threat of military
intervention. The fears were not
unfounded and by September that year, a military Junta had been established to
rule the country and not until 1932 would it relinquish power to a civilian
government.
As a set-piece of sabre-rattling, the Kremlin’s deployment of around eight army divisions to the Ukraine border and six amphibious ships with a supporting flotilla to the Black Sea, is the loudest heard since the end of the Cold War yet it has the curiously nineteenth century feel of those old stand-offs between two colonial powers, squabbling over some patch of desert somewhere, building seemingly towards a war which never quite happened. Perhaps the true state of tension was revealed by a statement a German military spokesperson: “We are ready to go”, the Luftwaffe remarked of their deployment of three Eurofighter aircraft.
Still, few know Mr Putin’s (Vladimir Putin, b 1952; leader of Russia as president or prime-minister since 1999) thoughts on how the crisis should be encouraged to unfold although the Western political establishment is making sure the possibilities are spelled out. The US president has his motives for doing this as does the British prime-minister and, to be fair, there is some overlap and imaginative suggestions have included the trick the Nazis in 1939 used to trigger Fall Weiss (plan white), the invasion of Poland, Germany staging a fake “attack” by the Poles, complete with German “victims”, the corpses conveniently available from the nearby concentration camps. Quite whether there are many well-informed politicians who actually believe Russian armored divisions will be unleashed across the Ukrainian border isn’t clear but the alacrity with which many have been beating a path to Mr Putin’s door (or screen), certainly suggests they've reacted well to a growing crisis, the Russian president, in a nice touch, conducting some of the meetings in Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Palace, the last neoclassical Imperial pile built by the Tsars. Thought pragmatic rather than romantic, conventional wisdom would suggest Mr Putin will be not much be attracted to a massed invasion, even one with a bit of pretext, but the rebel regions in the east are attractive building blocks for the construction of a land bridge to the already annexed Crimean peninsular and from there, it's not that far to Odesa and the tantalizing prospect of sealing off Ukraine from the Black Sea, a more with critical economic and strategic implications. Political recognition would be a handy prelude and one likely to provoke only a manageable reaction, the West probably as enthusiastic about sanctions which might be self-harming as they were in 1935 when League of Nations tried to do something about Italy's invasion of Abyssinia and it may be when things settle down a bit and the sabre rattling subsides, the Kremlin's strategy will remain the same but the tactical emphasis will switch. As thinkers of such diverse subtlety as the wickedly clever Talleyrand (Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1754–1838; French diplomat whose career lasted from Louis XVI to Louis-Philippe) and the slow-witted Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945) understood, between some states there's always a war going on; sometimes with guns and bombs, sometimes by other means and there are more "other means" than once there were. Still the concerns about an invasion (which presumably would be styled a "state of armed conflict" rather than a "war") are not unfounded and the recent success of the Russian military in the Crimea and Belarus are probably as encouraging as the subdued Western reaction to these adventures. How "prompt, resolute and effective" would be the response to invasion by the Ukrainians is the subject of speculation in many capitals, the professional military opinion seemingly that if the pattern of battle is an old-style contest of artillery and armor (Battle of Kursk) then the advantage will lie with the attacker but if fought street by street (Battle of Stalingrad), with the defenders.
Advanced in
technology have meant that most uses of the phrase “sabre rattling” are now figurative and even when used in the
context of the threat of armed force, “sabre” is acting not literally but as a
synecdoche for “military power”. Other figurative use can be more remote
still, including the threat of litigation.
Although her dabbling in cryptocurrency markets would later attract the
interest of US regulators, it’s believed Lindsay Lohan's name has been
mentioned only once during the hearings conducted by the US Senate’s Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and that was in October 2017. During that hearing, Senator John Kennedy (b
1951; junior senator from Louisiana (Republican) since 2017), searching for a
phrase to illustrate the inappropriateness of a US$7.25 million IRA (Internal
Revenue Service) for identity verification services being awarded to a Equifax (a company
which had just suffered a massive hack resulting in the release of sensitive
data belonging to 145 million people), settled on it being akin to “giving Lindsay
Lohan the keys to the mini-bar.”
Quickly, Lindsay Lohan’s parents declared the comment an “inappropriate, slanderous and unwarranted” and indicated they were seeking legal advice, labelling the senator “unprofessional”. Whether the pair were serious wasn’t clear but their legal sabre rattling was said by experts to be an “empty threat” because (1) the protection available under the first amendment (free speech) to the US Constitution, (2) the immunity enjoyed by senators during committee hearings and (3) Ms Lohan being a living adult of full mental capacity, her parents would not enjoy the legal standing to litigate on her behalf. Ms Lohan didn’t comment on the matter and no legal proceedings were filed.
The saber gained fame as a cavalry sword, having a slightly curved blade with a sharp edge, ideal for slashing from horseback. They were first employed in the early sixteenth century by the hussars, a crack cavalry formation from Hungary and so obvious was their efficiency in the charge or the melee they quickly were adopted by armies throughout Europe. Union and Confederate cavalries carried sabers during the US Civil War (1861-1865) although, with the advent of heavy artillery and rapid-fire weapons (including the limited use of the 600 rounds per minute (rpm) Gatling gun, while still deadly, they were no longer often a decisive battlefield weapon. The glamour however lingered and sabres remain part of many full-dress military uniforms worn on ceremonial occasions.
Built between 1948-1957, the North
American F-86 Sabre was the first US, swept-wing, transonic jet fighter
aircraft. A revision of a wartime jet-fighter
programme and much influenced by the German air-frames and technical material
which fell into US hands at the end of World War II, the Sabre was first used
in combat after being rushed to the Far East to counter the threat posed by the
sudden appearance of Soviet-built MiG-15s (NATO reporting name: Fagot) in the
skies. The Sabre was outstanding success
in the Korean War (1950-1953), credited with nearly eight-hundred confirmed
kills for little more than a hundred losses and the pedigree attracted the interest
of many militaries, the Sabre serving in more than two dozen air-forces, the
last aircraft not retired from front-line service until 1997. Capable beyond its original specification (it
could attain supersonic speed in a shallow dive), it was upgraded throughout
its production with modern radar and other avionics and there was even a naval
version called the FJ-3M Fury, optimized for carrier operations. One footnote the Sabre contributed to feminist
history came in 18 May 1953 when Jacqueline Cochran (1906-1980) became the
first woman to break the sound barrier, accomplished in a Canadair F-86E. The combined Sabre and Fury production
numbered nearly ten-thousand, including 112 built under licence by the
Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in Australia.
It was replaced by the F-100D Super Sabre.
The big Sabre
The Napier Sabre was a H-24 cylinder,
liquid-cooled, aero engine, designed by the British manufacturer Napier before,
during and after World War II. Although
there were many teething problems, later versions evolved to become one of the most powerful piston
aero-engines, rated at up to 2,400 horsepower (1,800 kW) while prototypes with
advanced supercharger designs yielded in excess of 3,500 horsepower (2,600 kW). The H-24 configuration (essentially two flat-12s
one atop the other and geared together) was chosen because it offered the chance
to increase the cylinder count without the excessive length a V-16 or V-24 would
entail and, combined with the combination of a short stroke and big bore,
permitted high engine speeds, thereby yielding more power without the need
greatly to increase displacement and this was vindicated in early testing, the
Napier Sabre in 1938 generating 2,400 horsepower (1,800 kW) with a 2,238 cubic
inch (37 litre) capacity whereas the early Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 produced just over
1,000 horsepower (750 kW) from a 1,647 cubic inch (27 litre) displacement.
Problems
however soon emerged, related mostly to quality control in the hurried
development and manufacturing processes of wartime and inadequacies in the metallurgy
used in the complex cylinder liners required by the sleeve valves. Once these issues were solved, the Napier
Sabre proved an outstanding power-plant, powering the Typhoon, the definitive
British ground-attack fighter of the war.
Development continued even after the problems had been solved with the intention
of using a redesigned supercharged to produce an engine which could power a high-altitude
interceptor but the days of the big piston aero-engined fighters was drawing to
a close as the jet age dawned. Physics
also intervened, whatever power a piston engine could generate, the need to use
a spinning propeller for propulsion was a limiting factor in performance; above
a certain speed, a propeller is simply torn off.
The little sabre
The short stature of Victor Emmanuel III (1869–1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) with (left to right), with Aimone of Savoy, King of Croatia (Rome, 1943), with Albert I, King of the Belgians (France, 1915), with his wife, Princess Elena of Montenegro (Rome 1937) & with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), observing navy manoeuvres (Gulf of Naples, 1938). Note his sometimes DPRKesque hats.
Technically, Victor Emmanuel didn’t fit the definition of dwarfism which sets a threshold of adult height at 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 m), the king about 2 inches (50 mm) taller (or less short) and it’s thought the inbreeding not uncommon among European royalty might have been a factor, both his parents and grandparents being first cousins. However, although not technically a dwarf, that didn’t stop his detractors in Italy’s fascist government calling him (behind his back) il nano (the dwarf), a habit soon picked up the Nazis as der Zwerg (the dwarf) (although Hermann Göring was said to have preferred der Pygmäe (the pygmy)). In court circles he was know also, apparently affectionately as la piccola sciabola (the little sabre) a nickname actually literal in origin because the royal swordsmith had to forge a ceremonial sabre with an unusually short blade for the diminutive sovereign to wear with his many military uniforms. His French-speaking Montenegrin wife stood a statuesque six feet (1.8 m) tall and always called him mon petit roi (my little king). It was a long and happy marriage and genetically helpful too, his son and successor (who enjoyed only a brief reign) very much taller although his was to be a tortured existence. Still, in his unhappiness he stood tall and that would have been appreciated by the late Duke of Edinburgh who initially approved of the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer (1960-1997) to the Prince of Wales (b 1948) on the basis that she “would breed some height into the line”.
From Sabre to Sabra
The early (left) and later (right) frontal styling of the Reliant Sabre. The catfishesque recalled the Daimler SP250 (1959-1964) and was revised later in 1962, the update conceptually to that used by both MG and Triumph. With the facelift, the bizarre and rather lethal looking dagmars were also retired.
The origins of the Reliant Sabre (1961-1964) were typical of many English sports which emerged during the 19450 & 1960s as designers with alacrity began to exploit the possibilities offered by fibreglass, a material which had first been used at scale for larger structures during World War II (1939-1945). The Sabre was thus the marriage of a chassis from one manufacture with the body of another; that’s how things sometimes were done at a time when there were few design rules or safety regulations with which to conform. The era produced a few successes and many failures, the =attraction being with only small amounts of capital, what would now be called “start-ups” could embark on small-volume production of cars which could be shown at motor shows alongside Aston Martins and Mercedes-Benz.
Reliant, a Stafford-based
niche manufacturer since the 1930s, were contracted to handle the production and
in the normal manner such things were then done, the parts-bins from many
places (not all automotive) provided many components from engines &
transmission to door handles. As a
roadster, the Sabre was launched in 1961 and while on paper the specification
was attractive, it had many of the crudities and foibles which afflicted many
of the low-volume products and it was slightly more expensive than the more
refined, better equipped MGA and later MGB.
Taking a traditional approach to the problem, Reliant in 1962 released
the Sabre Six, fitted with a 2.6 litre (156 cubic inch) straight-six in place
of the 1.7 litre (104 cubic inch) four. That resolved any performance deficit and the
new car was as fast as anything in its price bracket but it remained in many
ways crude and sales were always sluggish; of the 77 produced, all but two were
coupés.
1963 Autocars Sabra Sport GT advertisement with corporate tsabár logo. Note the woman driver, something then done quite selectively in advertising in the West.
So the Sabre was a failure but the chassis was fundamentally sound and it was used as the basis for the Scimitar coupé, a better developed vehicle with enough appeal to remain available until 1970 but it was as a shooting brake, released in 1968 the car found great success, available in a number of versions until 1986. A quirkier second life for the Sabre however came in Israel where in 1961 it entered production as the Autocars Sabra, the Autocars company the operation behind the Reliant version. Sabra was from the Hebrew צַבָּר (tsabár) (prickly pear cactus), the word re-purposed in Modern Hebrew to mean “a Jewish person born in Israel”. In this context, sabra predated the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 and use was widespread during the British mandate for Palestine (1922-1948). Etymologists tracing the history suggest it was used originally as a derogatory term, those from recent waves of immigration were “rough and lacked social polish” but by the 1950s, it had become positive, the new settlers lauded as being like the prickly pear, “tough on the outside, sweet under the skin”. For Autocars, the emphasis was on the “born in Israel” aspect, a bit of a leap considering the international origin of the design and much of the componentry but Autocars (founded in 1957), was at the time the country’s only manufacturer of passenger vehicles so it was something to emphasize. The tsabaassociation of the cactus with such people was intended to be something positive. The tsabár (in the sense of the cactus) also provided the inspiration for the corporate logo.
