Cinque

Cinque (pronounced singk)

(1) In certain games (those using cards, dice, dominoes etc), a card, die, or domino with five spots or pips.

(2) As cinquefoil (1) a potentilla (flower), (2) in heraldry, a stylized flower or leaf with five lobes and (3) in topology, a particular knot of five crossings.

1350–1400: From the Middle English cink, from the Old French cinq (five), from the Vulgar Latin cinque, from the Latin quīnque (five).  The archaic spelling cinq was from the modern French cinq, whereas the standard spelling probably emerged either under the influence of the Italian cinque or was simply a misspelling of the French.  In typically English fashion, the pronunciation “sank” is based on a hypercorrect approximation of the French pronunciation, still heard sometimes among what use to be called “the better classes”.  The alternative forms were cinq (archaic), sinque (obsolete) and sink & sank (both misspellings).  The homophones are cinq, sink, sync & synch (and sank at the best parties); the noun plural is cinques.

Cinque outposts, attested since the 1640s was a term which referred to the five senses.  The noun cinquecento (written sometimes as cinque-cento) is used in (as noun & adjective) criticism & academic works when describing sixteenth century Italian art and literature.  It dates from 1760, from the Italian cinquecento (literally “500”) and was short for mil cinquecento (1500).  The use to describe "a group of five, five units treated as one," especially at cards or dice, dates from the late fourteenth century and in English was borrowed directly from the French cinq, a dissimilation from Latin quinque (five) which in Late Latin also picked up the familiar spelling cinque.  The ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European penkwe (five).

Cinquefoil housing stained glass (leadlight) window.

In architecture, a cinquefoil is a ornament constructed with five cuspidated divisions, the use dating from the late fifteenth century, from the Latin quinquefolium, the construct being quinque (five) + folium (leaf), from the primitive Indo-European root bhel- (to thrive, bloom).  In Gothic tracery, there was a wide use of circular shapes featuring a lobe tangent to the inner side of a larger arc or arch, meeting other lobes in points called cusps projecting inwards from the arch and architects defined them by the number of foils used, indicated by the prefix: trefoil (3), quatrefoil (4), cinquefoil (5), sexfoil (6), multifoil etc.  Although used as stand-alone fixtures, bands of quatrefoils were much used for enrichment during the Perpendicular period and, when placed with the axes set diagonally, quatrefoils were called cross-quarters.

Porsche "phone-dial" wheels, clockwise from top left: 1981 911SC, 1988 924S, 1987 944S & 1985 928S.  With a myriad of variations, the cinquefoil motif was a style for wheels used by a number of manufacturers, the best known of which were the ones with which Porsche equipped the 911, 924, 944 & 928 where they were known as the “phone-dial”, a reference which may puzzle those younger than a certain age.  Because these have five rather than ten holes, they really should have picked up the nickname "cinquefoil" rather than "phone-dial" but the former was presumably too abstract or obscure so the more accessible latter prevailed.  

Lamborghini likes the phone-dial still, Left to right: Huranan, Gallardo, Countach, Diablo and Silhouette.

Plastic wheelcover for the Ford Fairmont XE (left), a circa 1949 British GPO standard telephone in Bakelite (centre) (globally, the most produced handset in this style was the Model 302, manufactured in the US by Western Electric between 1937-1955 with a thermoplastic case) and plastic wheelcover for the Ford Fairmont XF (left).

Probably some are annoyed at the “five-hole” wheel design coming to be known as the “phone-dial” because of course the classic rotary-dial mechanism had ten holes, one for each numeral.  Ford Australia actually stuck to the classics when designing a plastic wheel-cover for the XE (1982-1984) Fairmont (the next rung up in the Falcon's pecking order) because it featured the correct ten holes and it was re-allocated as a “hand-me-down” for the Falcon when the XF (1984-1988) was introduced, the Fairmont now getting an eight-hole unit.  None of these seem ever to have been dubbed “phone-dials”, probably because plastic wheel–covers have never been a fetish like the older metal versions or aluminium wheels (often as “rims” in modern usage, a practice which also annoys some).

The origin of the hubcap was, fairly obviously, “a cap for hub”, something which dates from the age of horse-drawn carts.  Although they would later become something decorative, hubcaps began as a purely function fitting designed to ensure the hub mechanism was protected from dirt and moisture because removing a wheel when the hub was caked in mud with bolts “rusted on” could be a challenge.  In the twentieth century the practice was carried over to the automobile, initially without much change but as wheels evolved from the wooden-spoked to solid steel (and even in the 1920s some experimented with aluminium), the hubcaps became larger because the securing bolts were more widely spaced.  This meant they became a place to advertise so manufacturers added their name and before long, especially in the US, the humble hubcap evolved into the “wheel-cover”, enveloping the whole circle and they became a styling feature, designs ranging from the elegant to the garishly ornate and some were expensive: in 1984 a set of replacement “wire” wheel covers for a second generation Cadillac Seville (the so-called “bustle-back”, 1980-1985) listed at US$995.00 if ordered as a Cadillac part-number and then that was a lot of money.  By the late 1980s, most wheel covers were plastic pressings, other than in places like the isolated environments behind the Iron Curtain.

Lindsay Lohan in 2004 using touch-dial wall-phone.

Remarkably, although touch-dial (ie buttons) handsets appeared in the consumer market as early as 1963 and soon became the standard issue, in 2024 it’s possible still to buy new, rotary-dial phones although only the user experience remains similar; internally the connections are effected with optical technology, the “sound & feel” emulated.  There’s also a market for updating the old Bakelite & Thermoplastic units (now typically between 70-90 years old) with internals compatible with modern telephony so clearly there’s some nostalgia for the retro-look, if not the exact experience.  Even after the touch-dial buttons became ubiquitous the old terminology persisted among users (and in the manufacturers' documents); when making calls users continued to "dial the number".  The same sort of linguistic legacy exists today because ending a call is still the act of "hanging up" and that dates from the very early days of telephony when the ear-piece was a large conical attachment on a cord and at a call's conclusion, it was "hung up" on a arm, the weight of the receiver lowering the arm which physically separated two copper connectors, terminating the link between the callers.  

Ms Justine Haupt (b 1987) with custom rotary-dial cell phone in aquamarine.

Ms Justine Haupt, an astronomy instrumentation engineer at New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory went a step further (sideways, some might suggest) and built a rotary-dial cell phone from scratch because of her aversion to what she describes as “smartphone culture and texting”, something to which many will relate.  In what proved a three year project, Ms Haupt used a rotary-dial mechanism from a Trimline telephone (introduced in 1965 and produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System), mounted on a case 4 x 3 x 1 inches (100 x 75 x 25 mm) in size with a noticeably protuberant aerial; it uses an AT&T prepaid sim card and has a battery-life of some 24-30 hours.  Conforming to the designer’s choices of functionality, it includes two speed-dial buttons, an e-paper display and permits neither texting nor internet access.  Although she intended the device as a one-off for her own use, Ms Haupt was surprised at the interest generated and in 2022 began selling a kit with which others could build their own (US$170 (Stg£130)), all parts included except the rotary-dial mechanism which would need to be sourced from junk shops and such.  Unlike the larger mechanism on the traditional desk or wall-mounted telephone, the holes in the Trimline’s smaller rotary-dial used the whole circle so the ten-hole layout is symmetrical and thus the same as the XE Fairmont’s wheelcover, something doubtlessly wholly coincidental.

The rough-fruited cinquefoil or sulphur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta).

In botany, the potentila is a genus containing some three-hundred species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose (rosaceae) family.  Since the 1540s it’s been referred to as the cinquefoil (also “five fingers” or “silverweeds”), all distinguished by their compound leaves of five leaflets.

The Confederation of Cinque Ports was a group of coastal towns in Kent, Sussex and Essex, the name from the Old French which means literally “five harbors”.  The five were Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, and Hythe, all on the western shore of the English Channel, where the crossing to the continent is narrowest.  Because of (1) their importance in cross-channel trade and (2) being in the region ,most vulnerable to invasion, they were granted special privileges and concessions by the Crown in exchange for providing certain services essential for maritime defense, dating from the years prior to the formation of the Royal Navy in the fifteenth century.  The name was first used in the late twelfth century in Anglo-Latin and the late thirteenth in English.

An early version of a public-private partnership, with no permanent navy to defend it from sea-borne aggression, the crown contracted with the confederation to provide what was essentially a naval reserve to be mobilized when needed. Earlier, Edward the Confessor (circa 1003–1066; King of England 1042-1066) had contracted the five most important strategically vital Channel ports of that era to provide ships and men “for the service of the monarch” and although this was used most frequently as a “cross-Channel ferry service” and was not exclusively at the disposal of the government.  Under the Norman kings, the institution assumed the purpose of providing the communications and logistical connections essential to keeping together the two halves of the realm but after the loss of Normandy in 1205, their ships and ports suddenly became England’s first line of defense against the French.

The earliest charter still extant dates from 1278 but a royal charter of 1155 charged the ports with the corporate duty to maintain in readiness fifty-seven ships, each to be available each year for fifteen days in the service of the king, each port fulfilling a proportion of the whole duty.  In return the ports and towns received a number of tax breaks and privileges including: An exemption from tax and tolls, limited autonomy, the permission to levy tolls, certain law enforcement and judicial rights, possession of lost goods that remain unclaimed after a year and of flotsam (floating wreckage and such) & jetsam (goods thrown overboard).  Even at the time this was thought to be a good deal and the leeway afforded to the Cinque Ports and the substantial absence of supervision from London led inevitability to smuggling and corruption although in this the Cinque Ports were hardly unique.

The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was something like a viceroy and the office still exists today but is now purely ceremonial and, although technically relict, remains a sinecure and an honorary title, regarded as one of the higher honors bestowed by the Sovereign and a sign of special approval by the establishment which includes the entitlement to the second oldest coat of arms of England.  The prestige it confers on the holder is derived from (1) it being the gift of the sovereign, (2) it being England’s most ancient military honor and (3), the illustrious standing of many of the previous hundred and fifty-eight holders of the office.  It is a lifetime appointment.

William Lygon (1872-1938), seventh Earl Beauchamp, in uniform of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

The office of lord Warden has not been without the whiff of scandal.  William Lygon, who in 1891 succeeded his father as the seventh Earl Beauchamp, was at twenty-seven appointed governor of New South Wales, a place to which he would later return, happily and otherwise.  In 1913, Beauchamp, well-connected in society and the ruling Liberal Party’s leader in the House of Lords, was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and, fond of pomp, ceremony and dressing-up, he enjoyed the job.  However, in 1930, he embarked on a round-the-world tour which included a two-month stint in Sydney, where he stayed, accompanied by a young valet who lived with him as his lover.  This, along with other antics, did not go unnoticed, and the Australian Star newspaper duly reported:

“The most striking feature of the vice-regal ménage is the youthfulness of its members … rosy cheeked footmen, clad in liveries of fawn, heavily ornamented in silver and red brocade, with many lanyards of the same hanging in festoons from their broad shoulders, [who] stood in the doorway, and bowed as we passed in … Lord Beauchamp deserves great credit for his taste in footmen.”

The report found its way to London when Beauchamp’s brother-in-law, the second Duke of Westminster (1879–1953), hired detectives to gather evidence, hoping to destroy him and damage the Liberal Party, the Tory duke hating both.  Evidence proved abundant and not hard to find and in 1931 Westminster publicly denounced Beauchamp as a homosexual to the king (George V 1865–1936; King of the United Kingdom & Emperor of India 1910-1936), who was appalled and responded that he “…thought men like that always shot themselves.”  Westminster insisted a warrant be issued for Beauchamp’s arrest and that forced him into exile.

Lady Beauchamp seems to have shown some confusion upon being informed of her husband’s conduct.  Although he had enjoyed many liaisons in their (admittedly large) residences, his partners including servants, socialites & local fishermen and his proclivities were an open secret known to many in society, his wife remained oblivious and expressed some confusion about what homosexuality was.  Leading a sheltered existence, Lady Beauchamp had never been told about the mechanics of "the abominable crime of buggery" and baffled, thought her husband was being accused of being a bugler.  Once things were clarified she petitioned for divorce, the papers describing the respondent as:

“A man of perverted sexual practices, [who] has committed acts of gross indecency with male servants and other male persons and has been guilty of sodomy … throughout the married life … the respondent habitually committed acts of gross indecency with certain of his male servants.”

Beauchamp decamped first to Germany, a prudent choice given that although homosexual acts had been illegal since the unification of Germany in 1871, under the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), enforcement was rare and a gay culture flourished blatantly in the larger German cities, the Berlin scene famous even then.  After the Nazis gained power in 1933, things changed and Beauchamp contemplated satisfying George V’s assumption but was dissuaded, instead spending his time between Paris, Venice, Sydney and San Francisco, then four of the more tolerant cities and certainly places where wealthy gay men could usually bribe their way out of any legal unpleasantness.

After the death of George V, the warrant for Beauchamp’s arrest was lifted and, in July 1937, he returned to England.  What did come as a surprise to many was that soon after his arrival, invitations were issued for a Beauchamp ball, ostensibly a coming-of-age celebration for Richard Lygon (1916-1970; the youngest son) but universally regarded as an attempt at a social resurrection.  In a sign of the times, much of London society did attend although there were those who abstained and made it known.  Still, it seems to have appeared a most respectable and even successful event, Henry "Chips" Channon (1897-1958) noting in his diary it was a bit dull, the “only amusing moment when Lord Beauchamp escorted… a negress cabaret singer into supper.  People were cynically amused but I was not surprised, knowing of his secret activities in Harlem.  It is never a long step from homosexuality to black ladies.”  Beauchamp didn’t long enjoy his return to society, dying within a year of the ball.  The vicissitudes of his life were helpful to Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) when writing Brideshead Revisited (1945), the character of Lord Marchmain based on Beauchamp himself while the ill-fated Sebastian Flyte was inspired by Beauchamp’s son Hugh (1904-1936) who shared and (with some enthusiasm) pursued some of his father’s interests.  Despite it all, an appointment as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is for life and Lord Beauchamp remained in office until his death.

Quire

Quire (pronounced kwahyuhr)

(1) A set of twenty-four (24) uniform sheets of paper (in commerce, sometimes sold as twenty-five (25) sheets, analogous with baker’s dozen); a twentieth of a ream.

(2) In bookbinding, a section of printed leaves in proper sequence after folding; gathering; usually four sheets of paper folded once to form a section of 16 pages.

(3) An alternative spelling of choir (archaic except in church architecture).

(4) A book, poem, or pamphlet (archaic).

(5) In church architecture, one quarter of a cruciform church, the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and singer of the choir (choir & quire used interchangeably until the mid-nineteenth century when the former began to prevail, providing a useful distinction between the singers and the place they stood).

1175–1225: From the Middle English quayer, from the Anglo-Norman quaier (a short book) & quier, from the Old French quaier & caier (sheet of paper folded in four (which evolved into the Modern French cahier)) & quaer, from the Medieval Latin quaternum (set of four sheets of parchment or paper, from the Vulgar Latin quaternus, from the Classical Latin quarternī (four each)).  The root of the Latin quater (four times) was the primitive Indo-European kwetwer (four).  The meaning “a standard unit for selling paper" was first recorded in the late fourteenth century and the phrase “in quires” is attested from the late fifteenth, meaning "unbound."  The meaning "a standard unit for selling paper" (which became typically 24 (two dozen) or 25 (one twentieth of a ream)) sheets is recorded from the late fourteenth century and by the mid fifteenth-century, quires had come to mean also "unbound" in the sense of loose-leaf.  Quire was also an early form and later variant spelling of the Middle English choir from the Old French quer & queor, variants of cuer and the related word was the Medieval Latin quorus, a variant of chorus.  The word is a homophone of choir and doublet of cahier.  Quire is a noun and quired & quiring are verbs; the noun plural is quires.

The quire, Westminster Abbey, London.

Poop

Poop (pronounced poop)

(1) In naval architecture, as “poop deck”, a structure at the stern of a vessel.

(2) In nautical jargon, (1) as of a wave, to break over the stern of a ship or (2) to take to take seas over the stern (especially repeatedly).

(3) As “pooped”, a slang term expressing exhaustion or fatigue; has been used as a noun in this context as “an old poop”.

(4) As “pooped out”, a slang term applied usually to machinery which has failed.

(5) As “poop sheet”, military slang for information updates circulated on paper; later adopted as “get the real poop” (get the true facts on something).

(6) As a noun, excrement; as a verb, the act of defecation, both described by most dictionaries as informal and often childish; also recorded as a child’s expression of disappointment; was also used as a euphemism for flatulence, apparently as a more polite replacement for the earlier fart. 

(7) As “party pooper”, a stupid, fussy, or boring person.

(8) As onomatopoeia, to make a short blast on a horn.

Circa 1350: Origin uncertain but possibly from the Middle English powpen, popen & poupen (to make a gulping sound while drinking, blow on a horn, toot) and perhaps influenced by the Dutch poepen (to defecate) and the Low German pupen (to fart; to break wind”); the English adoption of the latter sense dating from 1735–1745.  The sense of information began as the US Army slang “poop sheet” to refer to anything on paper, distributed by the authorities, one of many ways soldiers had to disparage military intelligence, this one comparing official documents to toilet paper, presumably used.  The sense of “information collated on paper” continued in US journalism circles as “get the poop” in the post-war years but was later displaced by other slang as technology changed.  “Party pooper” was first recorded in 1910–1915 which some suggest is derived from nincompoop but not all etymologists are convinced.  The sense from which the poop desk of ships evolved happened independently, although in parallel with, the various onomatopoeic meanings.  Dating from 1375-1425, it was from the Middle English poupe & pope, from the Old French pope, poupe & pouppe, from the Italian poppa, from the Vulgar Latin puppa, from the Classical Latin puppis, all meaning “stern of a ship”.  All alternative spellings are long obsolete.  Poop & pooping are nouns & verbs and pooped is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is poops. 

A costal carpet python pooping.

In humans and other animals, although the general principle remains (if not exactly accurately) “What goes in, must come out”, there are a number of variables involved in the parameters of poop production, most obviously diet.  This coastal carpet python was seen on the Sunshine Coast in the state of Queensland, Australia and experts in such things commented there was nothing unusual in the behavior.  As they explained: “Carpet pythons will usually eat one big meal, such as a possum”, the meal lasting “...a while as slowly it's digested..." whereas “...smaller snakes, like tiger snakes, eat smaller prey like frogs.  So they will relieve themselves more regularly and with smaller stools.”  Ophiologists (those dedicated to the study of snakes) note also that there's not of necessity any direct correlation between the size of a snake and the volume of their poop, factors such as diet, climate and age all influencing the outcome and observational studies in zoos have concluded that some snakes seem simply to prefer to poop more often than others.  Now we know. 

The Poop Deck

In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck which forms the roof of a cabin or other enclosure built in the aft (rear) of a ship’s superstructure.  On larger vessels, the cabin was usually called either the “poop cabin” or “navigation cabin”.

The significance of the poop desk is that it was from here the ship was sailed; it was for centuries the highest point of a ship’s main structure and so offered the best visibility.  The captain or officer of the watch would from the poop desk instruct the helmsman how to steer with the rudder and relay instructions to those trimming the sails, to change both speed and direction.  The helmsman turned the rudder using a big wheel mounted on the quarter deck, adjacent to and within earshot of the captain on the poop deck.  The placement of poop and quarter decks was dictated by the need for the wheel to be directly above the rudder’s controls because there was no electronic or hydraulic assistance; movements of the wheel acted on the rudder through a system of ropes and pulleys so distances between the two had to be kept as short as possible.

On modern, motorized ships, the navigational functions once directed from the poop deck have been moved to the bridge, usually located towards the bow (front).  Poop desks still exist on some naval and commercial vessels and it's not merely as a term of naval architecture because many ships (such a tankers and other bulk carriers) continue to be constructed with the bridge located in the stern area.  There's no longer the need for the bridge to be so close to the rudder but the older architecture is used to maximize the space available for cargo.  On larger pleasure craft such as the big yachts billionaires like, the poop deck is usually allocated variously as a viewing area (sometimes with a diving platform), an entertainment space or a helicopter pad.

Lindsay Lohan on the poop deck of a yacht cruising of the coast of Sardinia, July 2016.

Poop porn: A scorpion having a poop.

Otiose

Otiose (pronounced oh-shee-ohs or oh-tee-ohs)

(1) Being at leisure; idle; indolent (rare).

(2) Ineffective or futile.

(3) Having no reason for being (raison d’être); having no point, superfluous or useless, having no reason or purpose.

(4) Done in a careless or perfunctory manner (rare).

1794: From the Latin ōtiōsus (having leisure or ease, unoccupied, idle, not busy, undisturbed), the construct being ōti(um) (leisure, spare time, freedom from business) + -ōsus (the adjectival suffix); source of the French oiseux, the Spanish ocioso and the Italian otioso, from ōtium (leisure, free time, freedom from business) of unknown origin.  The meaning "at leisure, idle" dates from 1850, often quoted in the literature of the time in the Latin phrase otium cum dignitate (leisure with dignity).  The earlier adjective in English was otious (at ease) from the 1610s and Middle English had the late fifteenth century noun otiosity.  The -ōsus suffix was from the Old Latin -ōsos, from -ōnt-to-s, from the Proto-Italic -owonssos, from -o-wont-to-s, the last being a combination of two primitive Indo-European suffixes: -went- (& -wont-) and –to.

Otium cum dignitate: Lindsay Lohan enjoying a dignified rest, Los Angeles, 2014.

Tit

Tit (pronounced tit)

(1) Any of numerous small active old world songbirds of the family Paridae, especially those of the former genus Parus.

(2) Medieval slang for a girl or young woman thought something of a minx.

(3) A small, worthless or worn-out poor horse; a nag (archaic).

(4) Slang for a despicable or unpleasant person (archaic).

(5) Slang for a teat (used in agricultural and other circles).

(6) As tit-bit, a small morsel of food.

(7) One of the many vulgar slang terms for the human female’s breast (mammary gland).

Circa 1600: From the mid sixteenth century Middle English titte, from the pre 1100 Old English titt and cognate with the Middle Low German & Middle Dutch titte, the German as zitze, the Icelandic tittr and the Norwegian titta.  The Scandinavian forms applied to small birds and the Old English titt was a variant of teat.  The modern slang variation, attested from 1928, seems to be a recent reinvention from teat, used apparently without awareness it’s a throwback to the original form although the form is on record from 1746 as an English and Irish diminutive of teat, used in nurseries.

In ornithology, tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds found mostly in Africa and the more temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and Africa.  Most were formerly classified in the genus Parus and in the English-speaking the terms chickadee & titmice tend to be used in North America while its tits elsewhere.  The creatures are mainly small, stocky, woodland species with short, stout bills, some with crests and ranging in length between 4-9 inches (100-220 mm), they have a mixed diet including seeds and insects and have adapted well to co-habitation with humans in urban environments.  It’s a charming linguistic coincidence that ornithological taxonomy has given English the black-breasted tit (Periparus rufonuchalis), the cinnamon-breasted tit (Melaniparus pallidiventris) and the stripe-breasted tit (Melaniparus fasciiventer).

A pair of small tits (Pseudopodoces humilis; left) and pair of great tits (Parus major; right).

The smallest of the tits is the golden-breasted tit (or small tit) (Pseudopodoces humilis).  Genuinely tiny, in some places it’s known also as the ground tit or Hume's ground tit and measures usually between 100-130 mm (4-4.9 inches) in length, weighing around (.56 oz).  The largest of the tits is the widely distributed great tit (Parus major) which measures usually between 135-155 mm (5.3-6.1 inches) in length and weighs between 16 to 21 grams. (6-.81 oz).

The origin of familiar use of “tit” as slang for “breast, human female mammary gland” (now also as "tittie" or "titty" although they also enjoyed other meanings) lies in the Old English titt (teat, nipple, breast), used as a variant of teat or from the dialectal and nursery diminutive plural variant “titties”.  Perhaps surprisingly, it appears the modern slang use in this context (predictably, almost always in the plural) dates only from 1928 (oral use may have pre-dated this) and the adoption (actually a re-invention) is thought unrelated to the original form.  The tradition was however long because in the Middle English the singular was often tete or tate, often used figuratively to mean both “source of (spiritual) nourishment” and by the late fourteenth century, an “object of erotic attraction”.  In modern slang use, it appears the use of “tits” was almost exclusively male until the 1970s when it became of the words “reclaimed” by feminists as a political statement although, as a general principle women seem still to prefer “boobs” although there seems more acceptance of "fake tits" as a critique.

By the 1540s “tit” was used for a small or unproductive horse, the sense of something “diminutive” transferring over later centuries to other small creatures, most enduringly in birds such as the titmouse, tom-tit, titlark, titling, tit-babbler et al although not all survived to be added to modern taxonomy such as the late nineteenth century titty-todger (a wren).  In the Nordic nations, the Icelandic tittr, the Norwegian tita and the Old Norse titling were all used of small birds but etymologists are uncertain about the connection, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) suggesting the link was of either something small rather than anything specific to birds or even onomatopoeic, drawn from the “chip-chipping” sound of small songbirds.  At least by 1706 it was common slang for “titmouse” and by 1734 was used figuratively of persons but between the sixteenth & eighteenth centuries a “tit” could be a “girl or young woman” and while that could be merely descriptive, it was applied often in the deprecatory sense of “a hussy or minx” (though apparently not actually a prostitute).

The form “tit-bit” (small, delicate snack of food; a sweet morsel) was in use by the 1630s and was synonymous with “tidbit” which was in concurrent use, the coining of that thought to be the dialectal tid (fond, solicitous, tender (itself perhaps influenced by the relevant sense of “tit”)) + bit (in the sense of “a morsel”).  Also surviving into modern use is “tit for tat”, an expression indicating “a retaliatory return), first documented in the 1550s and from this ultimately came “titfer” which appeared in UK dictionaries of rhyming slang as a substitute for “hat” (in from the “that” element).  “Tit for tat” may have been an variant of the earlier “tip for tap” (blow for blow) which carried the same implication.  The game tick-tack-toe (noughts & crosses) was so named at least by 1892 but according to oral historians, decades before that it had been known as tit-tat-toe (by 1852, in reminiscences of earlier years), the names thought derived from the sound made by the pencil on the slate with which it originally was played by schoolboys.  The modern slang “taking the bull by the tits” is an absurdist variant of “taking the bull by the horns” (confronting a problem and dealing with it in a manner prompt, resolute & effective”); it suggests someone is doing something wrong or has misunderstood (ie they have NFI).

Estuary

Estuary (pronounced es-ture-ee or es-choo-er-ee)

(1) That part of the mouth or lower course of a river in which the river's current meets the sea's tide with a mixing of fresh and salt (tidal) water; an arm or inlet of the sea at the lower end of a river.

(2) By analogy when applied to religion, politics etc, where different tides of opinion intersect.

(3) In behavioral linguistics, as Estuary English, a variety of the English accent, spreading from London and containing features mostly of Received Pronunciation and Cockney.

1530–1540: From the Latin aestuārium (a tidal marsh, mudbeds covered by water at high tides; channel inland from the sea) from aestus (tide (a boiling of the sea; billowing movement; tide, heat)), the construct being aestus (tide) +‎ ārium (place for) + -ary; the suffix –ary (of or pertaining to) was a back-formation from unary and similar, from the Latin adjectival suffixes -aris and -arius; appended to many words, often nouns, to make an adjective form and use was not restricted to words of Latin origin.  The ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European aidh (to burn).  Estuary was related is aestās (summer) and the adjectival forms are estuarial and estuarine (the latter dating from 1835, from estuary on model of marine.  Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, was once called Edo (which translates literally as "estuary").  When the Tokugawa shogunate ended in 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto (literally "western capital") was moved to Edo and renamed Tokyo (literally "eastern capital"). 

Estuary English

Despite a name which suggests a regional association, Estuary English (EE) is a modern variation of the English accent associated more with age and class distinctions although there remains a widespread perception it’s tied to the area along the River Thames and its estuary.  Best imagined as Standard English spoken with some Cockney inflections, there’s no clear point where Cockney ends and Estuary English begins and in the early 1980s, it was suggested EE may eventually replace Received Pronunciation (RP) in the southeast, a linguistic shift which could take a century or more to realize.

The word estuary was adopted as a descriptor to summon a picture of different strains of pronunciation mixing as salt and fresh water does at the estuary where river meets sea but has often, in popular use, been thought geographically associated with the Thames Estuary.  In response to EE, scholars have suggested an alphabet soup of alternatives including LRGB (London Regional General British), PE (Popular English), PL (Popular London), LRS (London Regional Standard), HCMDA (Home Counties Modern Dialect) and SERS (South-Eastern Regional Standard).  None caught on and PL had anyway earlier been used as an alternative to Cockney itself.

EE is (1) not specifically geographic within the south-east, (2) is a blend rather than containing any new elements, (3) should be thought a lower middle-class (rather than working-class) accent and (4), has spread upward in the middle-class to the point where EE is now an accepted alternative to RP, even for those in public life.  Regarding EE’s sometime cynical adoption by those expected to use RP, the derisive term is mockney.  Within the linguistics community EE is on a sociolinguistic and geographical continuum between RP and Cockney, spreading not because it’s a collection of coherent structures and objects but because it’s “…neither the standard nor the extreme non-standard poles of the continuum".  Implicit in that is that EE will continue to evolve, unlike RP or Cockney, both of which are documented, standardized forms.

Sea (Maunsell) Forts built in the Thames estuary during World War II as naval gun platforms and observation stations.  Decommissioned in 1958, they were used in the 1960s as one of the platforms from which pirate radio stations broadcast.  One of the forts has since 1967 been managed by the (internationally unrecognized) Principality of Sealand.

Periscope

Periscope (pronounced per-uh-skohp)

(1) Any of a number of optical instruments used to view objects that are above the level of direct sight or in an otherwise obstructed field of vision, consisting essentially of a tube with an arrangement of prisms or mirrors and, usually, lenses; used especially in submarines and military reconnaissance.

(2) A periscopic lens.

(3) A now defunct live video streaming app for Android and iOS, acquired by Twitter (before launch) in 2015 and depreciated between 2016-2021.

(4) A general or comprehensive view (obsolete).

1815–1825: The construct was peri + scope, a back formation from periscopic from the Ancient Greek periskopein (to look around).  Peri- was from the Ancient Greek περί (perí) (about, around) and was cognate with the primitive Indo-European via.  Scope was from the From Italian scopo (purpose), from the Latin scopus (target), from the Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō) & σκοπός (skopós) (examine, inspect, look to or into, consider), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), from the primitive Indo-European speḱ- and etymologically related to both skeptic and spectrum.  Periscope is a noun (and a largely archaic verb), periscopic is an adjective and periscopically an adverb.  The present participle is periscoping and the past participle periscoped); the noun plural is periscopes.

Periscope concepts using mirrors and lens.

Although variations of the device had existed for decades, the word periscope either wasn’t used or was at least not in general use before 1899 but as early as 1865 it attested as a technical term in photography.  The concept of the periscope (then called the polemoscope) and using two angled lens had been described as early a 1647 in a work discussing the geological nature of the moon although then it was envisaged as device suitable for military observation.  Undocumented and undated sketches thought to date from decades earlier have also been unearthed but, although conceptually accurate, their exact purpose is unclear and they may have been architectural drawings.

Kim Jong-un (b circa 1994, Supreme Leader or DPRK (North Korea) since 2011), looking through the periscope of DPRK submarine.

The first naval periscopes appeared in 1854, constructed by placing two mirrors in a vertical tube, fixed at each end at a 45° angle and were a noted feature of the early submarines used in the US Civil War (1861-1865); by the dawn of the twentieth century they’d begun regularly to be part of the design although the great innovation was the retractable periscope in 1902, then known as the skalomniscope or omniscope.  The retractable periscope quickly became a standard fitting to submarines and proved an important factor in the success they enjoyed during the First World War.

Kim Jong-un looking at South Korea through infantry observation periscopic binoculars.

Surprisingly, given how simple the adaptation would have been, periscopes were little-used by nineteenth century armies but proved to be an invaluable addition to the kit in the trench warfare of 1914-1918, providing a wide vista for observation without exposing the viewer to the risk of attracting sniper fire.  One invention which proved of less utility was the so-called periscope-rifle, a kind of remote-controlled infantry rifle mounted atop the trench parapet, aimed and fired by a soldier in a safe position below.  Success was limited.  More useful were devices called stereoscopic rangefinders, periscopic binoculars with grids which enabled trained observers to estimate the distance to a target.

The Lamborghini Countach "Periscopio"

1971 Lamborghini Countach LP500 concept (note periscopio bulge in the centre of roof).

When shown at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, the Jaguar E-Type (XKE) created a sensation.  At the same event, ten years later, the Lamborghini Countach LP500 created almost as much excitement and its lines have been the template for most Lamborghinis since.  In a sense, progress in the design of such machines paused at that point, everything since (and not just by Lamborghini) a refinement of the yellow wedge.  Although it was a small and functionally unsatisfactory aspect of the dramatic LP500, it was the abortive periscopio (periscope) which would be used to characterize the first 157 (some sources insist 158) LP400 production cars, the periscopio rear view concept lending the roof its distinct shape.  The factory’s documents don’t reveal whether the idea of the periscope was the inspiration of an individual or emerged from a committee but the thought was that in such a low-slung vehicle, the driver would be afforded a better view from a lens mounted atop the roof than would be provided by a conventional rear-view mirror aligned with the rear-window.  Donnelly Corporation in the US delivered a working version of the periscope mirror system, a number of which had actually be built in the era for use in the ESV (Experimental Safety Vehicle) projects which a number of manufacturers had developed to test their implementation of the engineering which would be required to conform with the safety regulations soon to come into force.

1974 Lamborghini Countach LP400 roof detail.

However, during testing, it became obvious it was not a desirable solution, the positioning dictated by the then unique profile requiring the driver too often to avert their eyes from what was ahead adequately to focus on what lay behind.  Nor did the designers warm to the small bulge which would have to be added to the roofline to accommodate the hardware; aesthetics meant little to those who penned ESVs but they were prized by Italian stylists and consequently the periscope was abandoned.  However, whether for reasons of economy or constraints of time, although the bulge was deleted, the remaining periscopio roof shape was retained and in 1974 entered production as part of the LP400 although it now provided no obvious functional advantage except making the cabin a little brighter and perhaps adding some rigidity to the structure although there may have been some aerodynamic cost, the interruption to what would otherwise be a smooth surface presumably generating additional drag.  Whatever the drawbacks however, stylistically, it’s always been admired.

1977 Lamborghini Countach LP400.

Those first 157 LP400s were also the closest the production cars would be to the original, unadorned wedge which had made such an impact when displayed at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show as the Lamborghini LP500 concept.  That it was described as a concept was important because the LP500, although fully-functional, was no prototipo (prototype), and the uncompromising original could not without modification be transformed into a practical production car, hence the many scoops to ensure adequate cooling as well as the deletion of the periscope, changes to the construction method used for the frame, a reduced-capacity engine, the substitution of analogue instruments for the space-age electronica and some enlargement of the platform to make the thing more habitable.  Still, the LP400 was remarkably close to the startling original and tellingly, of all two-thousand odd which would in five generations be produced between 1974-1990, it would be the one with the best aerodynamics, the wings, flares and fat tyres added over the years all adding to drag.  If the smooth roof, introduced on the LP400 S in 1978, improved aerodynamics, it wasn’t enough to compensate.

The influential but short-lived service

The evolution of the internet since it began to assume its modern form (after the world wide web was “bolted on” in 1991, gaining something like critical mass around 1993) is characterized by a number of separate, parallel and sometimes intersecting threads and probably no application (although technically it was a service) was so emblematic of the trends than Periscope.  Periscope was created because someone found the then text-only Twitter (now X) compelling but was annoyed at having to go elsewhere look for video feeds relating to what was being tweeted.  The Periscope model was to take advantage of the ubiquity of (1) smartphones meaning high-definition video could, worldwide, be created by billions of users at a moment’s notice and (2) the increasing availability of bandwidth which made real-time streaming practical and what emerged was a system noted for its simplicity; a few taps and whatever one was filming was being streamed.

Send (left) & receive (right): Periscope's simple streaming model.    

In the way corporations sometimes do things, Twitter bought Periscope even before the product’s official release and success was immediate, the service quickly among the most popular with support notably coming from legacy broadcasters including the BBC which used the system as a low-cost form of content dissemination; in effect what used to be an “outside broadcast van” (literally a truck packed with cameras and transmission equipment which, with staff and other overheads cost sometimes millions a year to run and could be in one place at a time) was suddenly in the pockets of every staff member.  It was also in the pockets of everyone else, some of who were entrepreneurial and before long, Periscope streams of live events (for which broadcasters and others had paid sometimes millions for exclusive rights) and content on screens (cinemas, televisions etc) were being packaged for profit, cannibalizing many pay-per-view (PPV) business models.  A flurry of takedown notices (a specialized form of a C&D (cease & desist letter) ensued.  Periscope however became a victim of its own success, its model quickly available in many other ways and its functionality was “folded into” Twitter, the service discontinued in March 2021, much of the (not legally challenged) legacy content remaining available on X to this day.

Blackball

Blackball (pronounced blak-bawl)

(1) To reject (blackball) a candidate for membership of something, secretly by placing a black ball in a ballot box.

(2) In casual use, socially to exclude; ostracize.

(3) Openly to vote against a candidate or applicant for membership of something (non-traditional use).

(4) A hard-boiled sweet with black & white stripes (NZ).

(5) In billiards and related games, the black ball.

(6) In professional surfing, a flag to tell surfers they must clear the water.

(7) A slang term for the US baseball leagues (1920-1958) comprising teams made up predominantly of African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans.  

1760–1770: The construct was black + ball; sometimes written as black-ball.  Black is from the Middle English blak, black & blake, from the Old English blæc (black, dark (also "ink”), from the Proto-West Germanic blak, from the Proto-Germanic blakaz (burnt) and related to the Dutch blaken (to burn), the Low German blak & black (blackness, black paint, (black) ink), the Old High German blah (black), which may be from the primitive Indo-European bhleg- (to burn, shine).  The forms may be compared with the Latin flagrāre (to burn), the Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx) (flame) and Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga) (radiance).  Ball was from the Middle English bal, ball & balle, from the Old English beall & bealla (round object, ball) or the Old Norse bǫllr (a ball), both from the Proto-Germanic balluz & ballô (ball), from the primitive Indo-European bholn- (bubble), from the primitive Indo-European bhel- (to blow, inflate, swell).  It was cognate with the Old Saxon ball, the Dutch bal, the Old High German bal & ballo, and the German Ball (ball) & Ballen (bale).  It’s thought all related forms in the Romance languages are borrowings from the Germanic.  In general use, meaning is now often extended to describing any veto, not just the secret form of the original blackballing and thus it's long been common for "blackballed", "blackballing" etc to be used to describe a pubic vetoing. 

The Secret Veto

A Masonic ballot-box.

Blackballing is a traditional form of secret ballot, used when the constitution of an organization permits applicants for membership to be vetoed by one or more existing members.  Typically members will convene and when asked to vote on the candidate for membership, each places one ball in the ballot box, a white ball signifying a vote in support, a black ball a veto.  The ballot-box is designed in such a way that while it can be seen who has voted, there’s no way to tell which ball they dropped.  Historically, acceptance often demanded unanimity so a single black ball was enough to exercise a veto but some organizations specify two blacks and there are always collateral rules about the process of notification of an applicant’s name and the number of existing members who need to be present to constitute the quorum required to render the vote legitimate.  Originally, the balls were made of ivory, hardwood or marble but composites became popular and in some some Masonic lodges, a black cube was used instead of a black ball so it could more easily be differentiated from a discolored white ball, the lighting in the halls often kept dim further to maintain the secrecy of the process although it's said the Freemasons often conduct their rituals and practices in at least semi-darkness.  Since the seventeenth century, these rules have applied to elections to membership of the Freemasons and many gentlemen's clubs, the practice adopted also by academia in the Soviet Union when members of dissertation panels cast their votes on a thesis defense.  It’s not known if the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or uses the process.

Get Well Soon (Lindsay Lohan) (2007), silkscreen on canvas, by ©Scott Hug on Blackball Projects.

Black Ball Projects is a US-based, non-profit arts collective, founded in 2015 with the mission of providing gallery space for contemporary artists unable to secure exposure through mainstream channels.  Created by and for those described as “working diligently on the periphery of the greater art world”, Black Ball Projects’ charter is to support DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the production and display of art, noting the present inequalities in representation on the basis of gender, race and economic opportunity.  Black Ball Projects has thus far curated some 30 physical exhibitions and three online viewing rooms, the scope of which was expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Black Ball Projects is funded by donations and sales of donated works from participating artists.  In 2019 it was officially declared a Non-Profit Arts Organization (501(c)(3)) and thus granted federal tax-exemption status.