Swap

Swap (pronounced swop)

(1) To exchange, barter, or trade, as one thing for another.

(2) To substitute (one thing) for another (sometimes used in the forms swap-out & swap-in).

(3) To make an exchange.

(4) In finance, the verbal shorthand for a number of transactions (credit default swaps, currency swaps etc).

(5) In computer programming, exchanging two variables in the memory of a computer

(6) In computer operating systems, as swap partition, a partition of the physical data storage media used for paging to augment random access memory (RAM).

(7) In instrumentation as the acronym SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System Detector and Image Processing), a space instrument used on solar satellites.

(8) In instrumentation as the acronym SWAP (Solar Wind At Pluto), a space instrument used in the observation of Pluto (which should still be a planet).

(9) In international development as the acronym SWAp (Sector-Wide Approach), a paradigm in the sector.

(10) In Cambridge University slang, a social meal at a restaurant between two university societies, usually involving drinking and banter; commonly associated with fining and pennying; the crewdate is the Oxford University equivalent.

Circa 1200: From the Middle English swappen (to swap (the original meeting was “to hurl, to strike, strike hands (in bargaining)”) and cognate with the dialectal German schwappen (to slosh, slop, to clap, box (the ears)).  Swap is a noun or verb, swapper a noun, swapped & swapping are adjectives or verbs (used with or without objects).  The alternative spelling, restricted mostly to the UK is swop.  The plural is swaps,

The seemingly strange etymological path from Middle English swappen ("to hurl" or "to strike") to the modern meaning of “swap” is thought to be an allusion to striking hands together when making an exchange, the handshake sealing the deal (ie the swap) as it were; the evolution of the word thus imitative of the sound of hitting or slapping.  The origin of swappen was the Middle English swippen (to strike, hit), from the Old English swipian (to scourge, strike, beat, lash), from the Old English swappian, a secondary form of the Old English swāpan (to swoop), from the Old Norse svipa (to swoop, flash, whip, look after, look around) which begat also swipe.  The verb (circa 1200) was the first form in the sense of "to strike, strike the hands together.  The sense of "to exchange, barter, trade" dates from the 1590s, the noun in this sense first recorded in the 1620s. Although swap-meets are an ancient institution of the barter economy known to many cultures and pre-dating antiquity, the term “swap-meet” seems not to have existed prior to 1968 when added to American English.

Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) leaving the Martha's Vineyard Annual Swap Meet.

In 1890, the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) introduced a policy avoiding the use of apostrophes in the possessive form in place names, the intent being: (1) a standardization convention to remove confusion, (2) to simplify the printing of maps by ensuring there were fewer clashes with special characters and (3) to remove another source of imaginative interpretation by lawyers.  An additional benefit was realized when computer databases began to be created and, especially in the early post-war years, many problems in indexing and formatting were avoided by restricting entries to letters & numbers.  The BGN does make the odd exception in the case of places of historical significance and Martha's Vineyard was one of the few places to emerge with apostrophe intact.

Swap files and operating systems

A swap file (known also as virtual memory) is a file (with special attributes) stored on a hard disk (or SSD) where data is written if the physical random access memory (RAM) available becomes insufficient for the stable functioning of the operating system.  RAM is preferable for operations because, being essentially static electricity, it is so much faster than even the fastest forms of hard disk or SSD.  

Older versions of Windows used pagefile.sys as a page file but since Windows 10, the function has been split into pagefile.sys and swapfile.sys which by default reside in the root of the system (c:\) drive and, for good reason, are hidden from the user.  Pagefile.sys stores data from installed (third-party) applications while swapfile.sys handles data from Windows and applications installed from the Microsoft Store.  In years gone by, there were advantages to be had in terms of speed and storage by tweaking swapfile settings (the size and the volume on which it sat) and some disabled it entirely if they had a surfeit of RAM.  Those with long memories will recall even a time when Windows permitted a choice between a temporary and permanent swap file and there were reasons why one could be preferable to the other.  However, with modern versions of Windows, it shouldn’t be disabled because many applications require it to exist and without one, simply won’t start.  For what most people do most of the time, it’s best to ignore the settings and just allow the operating system to set the configuration, even though on a machine with much RAM, the swap file is used seldom.

However, for nerds and megalomaniacs, it remains possible to tinker although, unless simulating one’s own thermonuclear explosions or modelling the global climate, few are likely to notice much difference.  It needs to be done with caution because if the swap file is too big then system will slow because RAM is often ignored whereas if it is too small, there comes a point at which that becomes functionally the same as disabling feature.  Computer magazines used to publish ways to calculate the ideal size, either by (1) a calculation based on the size of the hard drive and installed RAM and (2), a calculation which involved assessing a typical use of physical RAM but most now concede that on modern PCs (ie 8 or more GB RAM), it’s best to allow the operating system handle the allocation.  Users can still experiment but Microsoft cautions the swap file size should never be set to more than twice the size of physical RAM; instability is assured.  There are different rules and parameters for Windows Server; because of the way Windows is written, there are special settings and system administrators have to make allowances so in event of system crashes, there’s sufficient space for dump files which can reveal much.  For those who don’t, in another context, wish anything to be revealed, page files can be encrypted although, while secure, that does impose some overhead on disk input/output.

Under Linux, the golden rule long was that a swap size should be double the installed RAM but that hardly applies to modern machines, indeed, on some boxes, that may no longer even be possible.  Many Linux distributors are actually silent on the matter, perhaps reflecting the not improbable assumption their users are nerdier than the Windows crowd and will likely work things out themselves but some do provide guidance.

(1) Red Hat suggest a swap size of 20% of RAM for modern systems (which they define as 4GB or more RAM).

(2) CentOS suggests (2a) twice the size of RAM if RAM is less than 2 GB or (2b) size of RAM + 2 GB if RAM size is greater than 2 GB.

(3) Ubuntu notes (3a) if hibernation is used, a swap of the size of RAM plus the square root of the RAM size is necessary, (3b), if RAM is less than 1 GB, swap size should be at least the size of RAM and at most double the size of RAM & (3c) if RAM is more than 1 GB, swap size should be at least equal to the square root of the RAM size and at most double the size of RAM.

In their hearts, all Unix guys really long for the world of the mainframes where the distinctions between ram and disk space really didn’t exist and for most users, the same thing applies under Linux: it’s usually best just to let the system decide.

Swap Films

“Swap” films are a common trope in commercial cinema, done so often one wonders if the screen-writers might not be ungrateful were the scripts for such things handed to AI (artificial intelligence) bots; it must be a thankless task to try to come up with some original take on the concept.  Probably, every twenty-odd years, scripts could be recycled and few except pedantic critics would notice.  Swap films with the Freaky Friday title have appeared four times since 1976 (another is threatened) and at least two others have been made which follow variations of the plotline.  The Parent Trap franchise is built around a different sort of swap, one which doesn’t depend on any aspect of the supernatural.  Using the title there have been two feature-length films and three made television features with Disney said to have another release in the pipeline.  This swap theme (two characters changing places for some purpose) has been used in fiction (in print and on screen) literally dozens of times in genres as varied as rom-coms (romantic comedy), fantasy and horror.

Swap Movie DVD twin-packs: The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday.

Transom

Transom (pronounced tran-suhm)

(1) In architecture, a crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it.

(2) In glazing, a window above such a crosspiece, also called transom light, transom window or fanlight.

(3) A crossbar of wood or stone, dividing a window horizontally.

(4) A window so divided.

(5) In naval architecture, a flat termination to a stern, above the water line.

(6) In shipbuilding, a framework running athwartships (from one side to the other of a vessel at right angles to the keel) in way of the sternpost of a steel or iron vessel, used as a support for the frames of the counter.

(7) In the design of artillery pieces, a metal piece connecting the sidepieces of the tail or the cheeks of a gun carriage.

1325–1375: From the late Middle English traunsum and traunsom, an evolution of the Middle English transyn (crossbeam spanning an opening, lintel).  It was probably dissimilation from the Latin trānstrum (crossbeam, especially one spanning an opening), the construct being trāns (from the primitive Indo-European terh (through, throughout, over) and tere (cross over, pass through, overcome) which was cognate with the English through, the Scots throch (through), the West Frisian troch (through), the Dutch door (through), the German durch (through), the Gothic þairh (through), the Albanian tërthor (through; around) and the Welsh tra (through) + trum (the instrumental suffix).  The Old French traversin (crosspiece) was derivative of travers (breadth) and drawn from the Middle French traversayn and the Old French traversing.  The meaning "small window over a door or other window" was first recorded in 1844.

Windows

In architecture, used for both external and interior work, a transom is a transverse horizontal crosspiece separating a door from the window above and, in modern application, may be structural or merely decorative.  A similar device, if installed vertically is a mullion.  The adoption in England of the more evocative synonym fanlight followed the early Victorian fashion of forming transom windows in a semi-circular shape, the ribs segmenting the slats to resemble a folding hand fan.

Although now almost always a decorative affectation, the origin lies in architectural necessity at a time when structural engineering was less advanced.    In early Gothic ecclesiastical work, transoms were used in the unglazed windows of belfries or spires where they strengthened the mullions in the absence of the iron stay bars of glazed windows.  In the later Gothic, and especially the Perpendicular Period, transoms became common in many designs of windows, whether or not a structural need.

Lindsay Lohan at the stage door of the Playhouse Theatre London, June 2014 for rehearsals for Speed-the-Plow (1988) by David Mamet (b 1947).  This is a two-panel transom.

Front door of the UK prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street.  This style of transom window is called a fanlight.

Viscount

Viscount (pronounced vahy-kount)

(1) In the peerage of the UK, a nobleman ranking below an earl and above a baron.

(2) In medieval Europe, the deputy of a count.

(3) In historic English use, a sheriff.

(4) In the 華族 (Kazoku) (Magnificent/Exalted lineage), a rank in the hereditary peerage (1869-1947) of the Empire of Japan (1868-1947), the system emulating the English structure.

(5) In the UK and some European countries, a secondary title of the higher ranks of nobility, used by the sons of the primary title holders (and in Europe, sometimes by the younger brother of a count).

1350–1400: From the Middle English viscounte, from the Anglo-French & Old French visconte (which in modern French became vicomte), from the Medieval Latin vicecomitem, accusative of vicecomes, the construct being vis- (vice) (deputy) + comes (a Roman imperial courtier or trusted appointee, source of the modern “count” (although the word originally meant "companion").  The title is called a viscountcy, the feminine form is viscountess.

The first counts were created during the Carolingian Empire (800-888; the first epoch of the aggregation which became the Holy Roman Empire which would endure until 1806).  The functions undertaken by the counts varied greatly according to the military and economic demands to their region but they were essentially governors with both administrative and military responsibilities.  Viscounts (ie vice (deputy) counts) were appointed to assist the counts; although the office carried with it no authority, the viscounts exercised powers delegated by the count, often serving as magistrates administering justice in minor civil and less serious criminal matters.  Unlike later place when they would enjoy a place in the formalized structures of the systems of hereditary peerages, neither a counts nor a viscount was an inheritable title, the kings having no wish to create centres of independent political or economic power; the counts and viscounts were to remain dependent on the king and remained in office only at his pleasure.  By the late tenth century, the title of viscount spread to areas under Norman rule, this time exercising the delegated authority of their duke and as early as the mid 1200s, at least some viscountcies had become hereditary.  As a rank in British peerage, it dates from 1440, initially a royal appointment as sheriff but as in France, evolved into a hereditarily title, Lord Melbourne (1779–1848; UK prime-minister 1834 & 1835–1841) once giving a potted explanation of their origin to Queen Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901), pointing out that the titles viscount or marquess “were not really English (and) that dukes and barons were the only real English titles”.

Marquess entered the system from the Old French marchis (ruler of a border area), from marche (frontier), from the Middle Latin marca (frontier), the significance of that to the English peerage being that the border of a Marquess’s lands were those which bordered potentially hostile territory and the holder, responsible for defense, was thus more important to the Crown that those whose holding lay behind the lines.  The aristocrats without the responsibility of border security were styled as barons, viscounts or earls although Melbourne chose not to burden Victoria with the etymology of earl.  Count was from the Old French conté or cunté (denoting a jurisdiction under the control of a count or a viscount (the modern French comté)) but, after the Norman conquest, the Norman French title count was abandoned and replaced with the Germanic “eral”, the entirely speculative but pleasing suggestion being the unfortunate phonetic similarity with “cunt” although the wives of earls continued to be styled “countess”; perhaps the patriarchy of the time were enjoying a little tautological joke.  Earl was from the Middle English erle & erl, (a strong man) from the Old English eorl, from the Proto-Germanic erlaz (related to the Old Norse jarl, the Old High German & Old Saxon erl), from the Proto-Germanic erōną & arōną (related to the Old Norse jara (fight, battle)), from the primitive Indo-European h₃er- (related to the Latin orior (to rise, get up), from the Ancient Greek ὄρνυμι (órnumi) (to urge, incite) and related to the Avestan ərənaoiti (to move), the Sanskrit ऋणोति (ṛṇóti) (to arise, reach, move, attack.  Earl also ultimately displaced the unrelated ealdorman (alderman) which, in Anglo-Saxon Britain, was applied to those men enjoying political ranking second only to the King; over the centuries, the Danish eorl was substituted and that evolved into the modern earl.

Vickers Viscount ZK-BRD of New Zealand’s National Airways Corporation (NAC) on first publicity flight, 1957.

The Vickers Viscount was produced between 1948-1963 by the British concern Vickers-Armstrongs.  One of a number of the products which emerged from the specifications and design requirements laid down by the many committees the British government established after 1942 to plan for the post-war world, it was medium-range turboprop civilian airliner, the first of its type.  A versatile design and sufficiently robust to operate in environments with severe climatic variations and rough airstrips, it was sold to operators around the world, attracted to its comfort (a pressurized cabin then quite a novelty), speed and low running costs.  By the time the last was delivered in 1963, 445 had been sold, an impressive number given that the volumes in civil aviation were a fraction of today.  For decades a reliable workhorse with an enviable safety record, the last Viscount wasn't retired from commercial passenger service until 2009, over sixty years after the first flight.

Vickers Vanguard of British European Airways (BEA (which begat BOAC & BA)), 1964.

In the late 1950s, Vickers would take the Viscount's fundamental design and render it as the larger, faster Vanguard, the rationale being that in the short-medium range, hundred-seat sector, there would continue to be a market for turboprop airliners, their lower operating costs off-setting their speed disadvantage.  That proved not to be the case and in the sector jets prevailed while the turboprops found a role, which endures to this day, in smaller airframes.  The Vanguard entered service in 1960, the timing especially unfortunate as it coincided with the newest generation of jet-airliners better suited to the rapidly expanding short and medium haul market in what was by them the rapidly expanding field of civil aviation.  Consequently, only a few dozen Vanguards were built but they proved as durable and practical as the Viscount and most were converted to freighters and re-christened at the Cargoliner or Merchantman depending on the operator.  Very popular in both Europe and Africa, the freighters continued to fly until 1996.

GM Viewing Auditorium.

In the mid-1960s, General Motors were at their most optimistic, the long post-war boom at its apex and it was, if not indulgent, at least receptive to the ideas of its overseas divisions, Opel (the FRG (West Germany), Vauxhall (UK) and Holden (Australia), then clustered in a unit called General Motors Overseas Operations (GMOO).  Computers were by then widely used in the industry in the production and inventory processes but in the pre-CAD (computer aided (or assisted) design), styling and design was still something done by hand and for final evaluations, full-scale models were rendered in clay or fibreglass.  As part of design process, GM maintained an indoor “Viewing Auditorium” and outdoor “Viewing Terrace”, opened in 1956, where the full-scale models were assessed, often parked next to cars which were either competitors or sometimes just for inspiration.

Vauxhall FD Viscount (FWD) design proposal (D-68927 22 Mar 1966).

One model considered for release in 1969 was a new platform for Vauxhall’s large range, including the top-of-the-range Viscount.  Two radically different proposals were pursued, one with front wheel drive and, as the sessions at the auditorium progressed, increasingly over-wrought styling cues from some of the more lamentable of the era, including rear-wheel spats (technically called fender skirts), the attraction of which some of Detroit’s designers could not for decades shake.  Fortunately, the economics of the approach couldn’t be made to work and attention turned to the second proposal which was to base the Viscount on the German Opel KAD (Kapitän, Admiral, Diplomat) range.

Opel Diplomat design proposal (D-77114 15 Dec 1968).

The Opel KADs range was really rather good and what ended up being released in 1969 as the range-topping Diplomat even had what was then still something of a novelty in Europe: a V8 engine, Opel plucking the 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) small-block Chevrolet from the GM parts bin.  Augmenting this was a de Dion rear axle, a non-independent but usefully sophisticated arrangement uniquely suited to the high power and torque generated by the engine, the great benefit of which was maintaining in all circumstances the wheels in a true parallel.  By the standards of the age it was a good car but it never succeeded in creating the perception it was a competitor for the Mercedes-Benz models at which it was aimed, nor the bigger BMWs which were moving increasingly up-market.  After the first oil-crisis in 1973, it was considered for US production as a smaller Cadillac but for a number of reasons, the project proved abortive, it being prohibitively expensive to integrate the German body-engineering into Detroit’s production system.  Cadillac instead created the first Seville, using a long-wheelbase version of the Chevrolet Nova (itself based on the Camaro) which was sufficiently well-executed to hid its origins to all but the most knowledgeable.  It was expensive but well-received.

Vauxhall FD Viscount design proposal (D-77841 30 June 1967).

The KAD platform would have been suitable for what Vauxhall envisaged as the Viscount’s market position but the economics of adapting it to right-hand drive and using Vauxhall’s existing 3.3 litre (201 cubic inch) straight, in addition to the styling changes deemed necessary meant, given the anticipated sales volumes, profitability was never likely.  It was a different time and the UK was not then a member of the European Economic Community (EEC 1957-1993 which evolved into the modern European Union (EU); it was in English speaking countries also known as the European Common Market (usually just as the “common market”)) and local laws required local production.  In late 1967, the proposal for a Viscount platform was vetoed and the programme cancelled.

Vauxhall PC Viscount, 1967.

The existing Viscount (introduced in 1966 and a tarted-up version of the cheaper Cresta) thus continued in production until 1972, it’s place at the top of the range assumed by the Ventura, a tarted-up version of the smaller Victor.  Vauxhall would not return to the executive car market until later in the decade when, with the UK now in the EEC, the economics of platform-sharing with Opel became viable.

Whirlwind

Whirlwind (pronounced wurl-wind)

(1) Any of several relatively small masses of air rotating rapidly around a more or less vertical axis and advancing simultaneously over land or sea, as a dust devil, tornado, or waterspout.

(2) Anything resembling a whirlwind, as in violent action or destructive force; an impetuously active person

(3) Any rush or violent onward course.

(4) As “like a whirlwind” as in speed or force; to move or quickly travel.

1300-1350: From the Middle English whirlewind & whirlewynde, the construct being whirl +‎ wind.  Source was probably the Old Norse hvirfilvindr which was cognate with the German wirbelwind.  From the Old Norse came the Icelandic hvirfilvindur, the Norwegian Nynorsk kvervelvind, the Norwegian Bokmål virvelvind & the Norwegian Nynorsk virvelvind.  Whirly-wind was (probably now extinct) nineteenth century Australian slang for a whirlwind, cyclone, tornado or dust devil and was from the Yindjibarndi wili wili (and it may have existed also in other First Nations languages in north-west Australia).  Whirlwind is a noun& adjective and whirlwindy & whirleindish are adjectives; the noun plural is whirlwinds.

Whirl was from the Middle English whirlen, contracted from the earlier whervelen, possibly from the Old English hweorflian, a frequentative form of the Old English hweorfan (to turn), from the Proto-Germanic hwerbaną (turn) or possibly the Old Norse hvirfla (to go round, spin).  It was cognate with the Dutch wervelen (to whirl, to swirl), the German wirbeln (to whirl, to swirl), the Danish hvirvle (to whirl), the Swedish virvla (the older spelling of which was hvirfla) and the Albanian vorbull (a whirl).  It’s related to the modern whirr and wharve.  Wind was from the Middle English wynd & wind, from the Old English wind (wind), from the Proto-Germanic windaz, from the primitive Indo-European hwéhn̥tos (wind), from the earlier hwéhn̥ts (wind), derived from the present participle of hweh (to blow). It was cognate with the Dutch wind, the German Wind, the West Frisian wyn, the Norwegian and Swedish vind, the Icelandic vindur, the Latin ventus, the Welsh gwynt, the Sanskrit वात (vā́ta), the Russian ве́тер (véter) and, more speculatively, the Albanian bundë (strong damp wind).  It’s related to the modern vent.

The phrase, "They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind", comes from the Old Testament (Hosea 8:7).  It means that for all of us, one’s choices and decisions have consequences; one’s actions will one day return to haunt one.  Cynics tend to phrase it as: “For everything you do there’s a price to be paid”.  It’s sometimes confused with the Epistle to the Galatians (6:7) in the New Testament: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.  Whirlwind is thus popular in figurative use and in saying she had a "whirlwind of garbage around" herself, Lindsay Lohan conveyed the image of a life made difficult by a swirling vortex of undesirable baggage.  In noting her problems were of her own creation she added she was "my own worst enemy" but, at the time, that may have been unfair to Paris Hilton.    

RAF Westland Whirlwind (1939-1943).

A fine, if complex, airframe and a design ahead of its time, the Whirlwind never achieved its potential because of problems, essentially those of the doomed engine around which it was designed.  It was the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) first single-seat, twin-engined fighter, a layout explored by many air forces as a means of fielding a machine with sufficient range, armament and speed to counter the new generation of twin-engined bombers which, by the mid-1930s had proved able to out-pace most fighters then in service.  The prototype flew first in 1938 and had seemed promising, with many innovative features anticipating later designs, the radiators housed in the leading edges of the slim wings and the pilot’s afforded outstanding visibility by virtue of a large, clear bubble canopy.  Intended as a long-range escort fighter, the Whirlwind's firepower was impressive, boasting four 20mm cannons clustered in the nose which made it at the time the most potent fighter in the world.  Test pilots reported excellent handling characteristics, the only deficiencies noted as a lack of power and a very high landing speed which limited the number of airfields from which it could operate.

The Whirlwind was designed to use two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines, a development of the well-regarded Kestrel but the manufacturer, absorbed with the refinement and production of the much more promising Merlin, was unable to devote sufficient resources and development of the Peregrine first stagnated and then ceased, the demand for the Merlins (used by the strategically vital Spitfire & Hurricane) so great that all of Rolls-Royce's productive capacity had to be dedicated to their supply.  As a result, there existed sufficient engines to build only 112 Whirlwinds which equipped two squadrons where they saw limited service between 1940-1943, mostly in a ground-attack role after being converted to (Mark 1A specification) fighter-bombers.  They were used in an escort role on a low-level raid to Cologne in August 1941 but the unsuitability of the then available bombers to undertake daytime operations was exposed when the attacking force lost almost a quarter of their aircraft, an unsustainable rate of loss.  Not suitable as a night-escort and hampered by the underpowered Peregrines which meant they couldn’t be deployed against single-engined fighters in a defensive role, the Whirlwinds were instead allocated to low-level sorties across the Channel, opportunistically attacking shipping, trains and physical infrastructure.

RAF de Havilland Hornet, 1946.

Interestingly, the fine high-altitude characteristics reported by the test pilots when flying the prototypes didn't translate to the production versions but in 1940, such was the urgency of the military situation the Whirlwinds were pressed into service without any attempt at rectification.  Blamed at the time either on the engines or the wing design, it was only years later that private research revealed it was a change in propeller specification which affected the performance, the prototype using Rotol units while the production aircraft were fitted with de Havilland propellers designed for a different aircraft, such mixing and matching far from unusual in wartime conditions.  The replacement propellers were thicker, the issue being that a rotating propeller blade pushes air aside and the thicker a blade, the more air needs to be moved and, all else being equal, that means that the air has to move faster and at a certain point, the air has to move faster than the speed of sound.  At that point (the sound barrier), shock waves are created which induces massive drag.  Propellers are designed to compensate for this effect but on the de Havilland units, the constant speed mechanism would react to the slowdown in airspeed caused by drag by altering the pitch of the blade which would create a feedback loop in the Peregrine, inducing erratic performance and the higher the altitude, the lower the speed of sound, thus the more unsatisfactory the performance of the Whirlwind at altitude.  On the engine for which they were designed, the de Havilland propellers worked well but the Peregrine had different characteristics.

Gloster Meteor (1944-1984).

The end of Peregrine production meant the Whirlwind was a cul-de-sac, the design of the airframe so tied to the characteristics of the engine that thoughts entertained in 1941 of a re-design with Merlin engines were abandoned as the extent of the engineering required became quickly apparent.  It would have been a time-consuming and labor-intensive task and, recovering from the losses incurred in the Battle of Britain, every Merlin-engined Whirlwind would have meant two fewer Spitfires or three fewer Hurricanes.  Westland pursued the idea, later producing a few dozen Welkins which performed well but by then the allies were well-supplied with long-range, high-speed interceptors.  However, the basic concept had proved impressive and the potential was realized in the later de Havilland Hornet (1946), the lineage visible too in the Gloster Meteor, the UK’s first Jet fighter which, having learned lessons from the Whirlwind, used a very different wing shape to lower the landing speed without compromising other aspects of performance.  Although popular with pilots, the Whirlwinds were retired from active service in 1943 before being declared obsolete and scrapped the following year.

Yugoslav Air Force Westland Whirlwind, 1959.

Between 1953-1966 Westland revived the Whirlwind name for a version of the Sikorsky S-55/H-19 Chickasaw, built under license from the US company.  Over four-hundred were produced and they were used by military and civilian operators in a dozen countries.  Although the early versions were underpowered, a switch to turbine engines transformed the Whirlwind and robust, easy to maintain and reliable, it enjoyed a long service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm as both a carrier-based anti-submarine platform during the High Cold War and latterly in air-sea rescue, the ability to transport six fully-configured stretchers unique in the UK's military inventory.  In Royal Air Force (RAF) service, the last Whirlwinds weren't retired until 1982.

Détente & Entente

Détente (pronounced dey-tahnt or dey-tahnt (French))

(1) A period of lessening tension between two national powers, or a policy, usually by means of negotiation or agreement, designed to lessen that tension.  A détente is not the resolution of disagreement between the powers but a device to reduce the tensions these disagreements induce.

(2) A term used by historians to describe US foreign policy between the first Nixon administration (1969) and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979).  Détente’s companion word in Russian was разрядка (razryadka) (reduction of tension) 

1912: From the French détente (literally “a loosening or relaxation”), from the Old French destente, a derivative of destendre (to relax; to release), the construct being des- (from the Middle French, from the Old French des-, from the Latin dis-, from the Proto-Italic dwis-, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and cognate with the Ancient Greek δίς (dís) and the Sanskrit द्विस् (dvis), the prefix used variously to convey (1) asunder, apart, in two, part, separate, (2) reversal, removal or (3) utterly, exceedingly.) + tendre (to stretch). A doublet of intent.

The French use was influenced by the Vulgar Latin detendita, the feminine past participle of detendere (loosen, release) and as a political term in the sense of "an easing of hostility or tensions between countries", it became more popular in diplomatic discourse after Russia joined the Anglo-French entente cordiale.  In French, the word dates from the 1680s; the earlier detent was a mechanism that temporarily keeps one part in a certain position relative to that of another, which can be released by applying force to one of the parts.  It was used most in engineering to describe a locking mechanism, often spring-loaded to check the movement of a wheel in one direction, the most obvious example of which is a pulley.  In English it was treated as a French word until it was used to describe a theme in US foreign policy 1969-1979.  In English, the spelling detente is often used; the noun plural is détentes.

Entente (pronounced ahn-tahnt or ahn-tahnt (French))

(1) An arrangement or understanding between two or more nations agreeing to pursue shared interests with regard to affairs of international concern but without concluding a formal binding alliance.

(2) The parties to an entente cordiale collectively.

1844: From the French entente (understanding) from the Old French verb entente (intention) a noun use of the feminine of entent, past participle of entendre (to intend).  Although not all agree, there may have been some influence from the Latin intenta, perhaps perhaps through the substantivized Vulgar Latin past participle intendita, as a variant of intenta.  In English, “the entente” has long been used as verbal shorthand for the Anglo-French entente cordiale (1904), the best known of the many ententes, the first apparently document in 1844.  The noun plural is ententes.

Détente

Until the late 1960s, the word détente was rare except in diplomatic circles or the work of historians.  In the language of diplomacy, it came into use around 1912 when there were (obviously not successful) attempts by Germany and France to reduce tensions which may have given it a bad name although it appears often in the archival records of the League of Nations (1920-1946), something which may further have added tarnish.  The revival came when Dr Henry Kissinger (b 1923; US national security advisor 1969-1973 & secretary of state 1973-1977) was appointed national security advisor by Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974), bringing with him a long study of diplomacy and a feeling for the desirability of a “balance of power” between the USSR and US, under which a stable “peaceful co-existence” could be maintained.  The core element of détente was arms-limitation, Kissinger’s idea being there was no surer path to a reduction in tensions than reducing the possibility of conflict escalating to nuclear confrontation.

Détente: Henry Kissinger & Dolly Parton, 1985.

There were regular summit meetings too and even Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 worked as a part of détente with the USSR but détente did not fundamentally change the postwar American strategy of containment.  Instead it was a mechanism of pursuing containment in a less confrontational method, offering inducements such as technology transfers or trade agreements in exchange for Soviet restraint in promoting revolutionary movements.  It was never envisaged as a means by which the USSR might be destroyed and Kissinger assumed the Soviet state would endure indefinitely in a stable bi-polar system where each side maintained its own spheres of influence and tended not to trespass too far into the other’s space.  The lure of détente faded after Nixon’s resignation and was definitely over after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 but Ronald Reagan (1912-2004; US president 1981-1989), even before assuming office, had made clear he regarded détente as defeatist, thinking the very existence of the Soviet system a problem to be solved, not merely managed.  Reagan’s approach was radical; he was the Leon Trotsky (1879–1940; Ukrainian-Russian Marxist revolutionary & theorist murdered by comrade Stalin) of the West, as opposed to détente as the Russian had been to the essentially similar doctrines of “peaceful co-existence” & “socialism in one state”.

Entente

The 1904 Anglo-French entente cordiale is well-remembered as a set of landmark agreements which resolved a number of long-standing territorial, economic, and strategic points of contention between Britain and France, London and Paris both motivated by their concerns of an increasingly assertive Germany.  From the entente of 1904, lay the winding path to 1914 and all that would follow but the first entente cordiale was concluded in 1844 in the wake of Queen Victoria’s (1819–1901; Queen of the United Kingdom 1837-1901) visit to King Louis-Philippe (1773–1850; King of the French 1830-1848) the year before.

The first British monarch to set foot in France since Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547), the gesture was quite remarkable given that only three years earlier, the two countries had been on the brink of war.  Things had changed, with the removal of the long-serving foreign secretary Lord Palmerston (1784–1865; UK foreign secretary or prime-minister variously 1830-1865), relations rapidly improved, assisted by the warm friendship between the two sovereigns and it was Palmerston’s replacement, Lord Aberdeen (1784–1860;UK foreign secretary or prime-minister variously 1828-1855) who conjured-up the phrase “a cordial good understanding” to which the King of France responded with “une sincère amitié” and a spirit of “cordiale entente”, the latter catching on both sides of the channel.

It was however tentative, the entente cordiale was not an alliance confirmed by a treaty, but a concept, a state of mind which the French foreign minister François Guizot (1787–1874; French foreign minister or prime-minister variously 1840-1848) explained by saying “On certain questions, the two countries have understood that they can agree and act together, without a formal undertaking and without renouncing any aspect of their freedom.”  It was in its early days also administered in a very different way, not between ambassadors or bureaucrats but a kind of informal (an actually quite affectionate) back-channel of private correspondence, unknown to other ministers or monarchs, between the French and British foreign ministers.  It was a successful approach and enabled the resolution of difficulties which might otherwise have become crises, including the right of search on their respective ships to prevent slave trading; protectorates in the Pacific, French intervention in Morocco and many squabbles between ambassadors.  It smoothed out much but wasn’t always popular with others in both countries, most of whom brought up in the more gut-wrenching and combative traditions of preceding centuries.

Portrait of Queen Isabel II and her sister the infanta Luisa Fernanda (circa 1843) by Antonio.

One sensitive question was the famous affair of the Spanish marriages, those of the young Spanish Queen Isabella II (1830-1904) and her sister (Luisa Fernanda 1832–1897), something on which the Paris & London had very different views and a satisfactory compromise seemed at hand when, in 1846, the British government fell and old Lord Palmerston returned, bent on confrontation with Paris.  Guizot loathed Palmerston and with brutal rapidity concluded the Iberian marriages to the advantage of France (both marriages proved miserable but among European royalty happy unions were anyway vanishingly elusive) and with that, the entente cordiale was over.  However, although the warmth of the relationship since has fluxuated, the Royal Navy even sinking some of the French fleet in 1940 to prevent ships falling into German hands, France and Britain have not again been at war.

Sequela

Sequela (pronounced si-kwel-uh or si-kwee-luh)

(1) Any abnormal bodily condition or disease related to or arising from a pre-existing disease

(2) Any complication of a disease (technically wrong but widely used).

(3) In general, non-medical usage, the terms sequela and sequelae mean consequence and consequences (rare except in academic writing).

1793: From the Latin sequēla (that which follows, consequence) from sequi (present active infinitive of sequor) (to follow); the plural is sequelae and the original use was in pathology.  From the same root, Middle English gained sequence, a borrowing from the French sequence (a sequence of cards, answering verses).  In Latin the related forms were sequentia (a following) and sequens (following); in English, the most common relation is sequel.

Strangely, in oral use, regardless of the details being described, sequela is used usually in the plural.  A sequela is a pathological condition caused by some previous disease, injury, therapy, or other trauma and, typically but not exclusively, is a chronic condition caused by an earlier and more acute condition.  It is different from, but is a consequence of, the first condition.  In medicine, to be defined as a sequela (rather than what is called “late effect”), the onset of the second condition must happen within a relatively (varies with the nature of the first) short time; an interval of decades would see the second dubbed a “late effect”.  Some conditions may be diagnosed retrospectively from their sequelae; an example is pleurisy and the range of symptoms now collectively referred to in medical slang as “Long COVID” is more correctly described as the “Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC)”.  As nouns, the difference between sequela and complication is that sequela is a condition which is caused by an earlier disease or problem.  A complication is something going wrong; an unfavorable result of a disease, health condition, or treatment.

The Sequelae of COVID-19

The novel virus SARS-CoV-2 caused the COVIS-19 pandemic.  Around the world, a subset of patients who sustain an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection subsequently develop a wide range of persistent symptoms that do not resolve, even over many months; the diagnosis is Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), the verbal shorthand for which is the more digestible Long COVID.  Thus far, all findings about PASC are inconclusive but it appears individual patients may have one or more underlying biological factors driving their symptoms, none of which need be mutually exclusive.  Potential contributors to PASC include injury to one or multiple organs, persistent reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 in certain tissues, the induced re-activation of pathogens such as herpesviruses, SARS-CoV-2 interactions with host microbiome communities, clotting or coagulation issues, dysfunctional brainstem or nerve signaling, ongoing activity of primed immune cells and autoimmunity due to molecular mimicry between pathogen and host proteins.

Logo of the Sequela Foundation.

Different PASC symptoms in different patients does imply different therapeutic approaches will likely be required and the identification of individual human genome variants that may augment environment-driven contributions to PASC will contribute to strengthening the effort.  The individualized treatment of PASC will stimulate what was already a growing interest in personalized predictive & preventative medicine.

Farouche

Farouche (pronounced fa-roosh)

(1) Fierce; wild, unpolished.

(2) Sullenly unsociable or shy.

(3) Socially inept.

1760–1770: From the French farouche, from the Old French farouche, faroche & forasche of uncertain origin but which may be related to the Late Latin forāsticus (from without; belonging outside or out of doors (in the sense of not being sufficiently civilized to be welcomed indoors)), a derivative of the adverb and preposition forās (also forīs) ((to the) outside, abroad; out of doors).

In French, the evolution of meaning was organic and included (1) an animal shy of human contact (apprivoiser une bête farouche (to tame a wild beast)), (2) shy, unsociable, retiring, hesitant (un regard farouche (a shy glance)), (3) a women thought distant or unapproachable (Cette femme est bien farouche (this woman is very unapproachable)), (4) stubborn or intransigent, (5) things savage, dangerous & fierce and (6) those whose support is staunch.  Farouchement (fiercely, strongly, bitterly, doggedly, rabidly) is an adverb and the versatile effaroucher (to scare off an animal; figuratively to frighten or alarm somebody; to shock) is a verb.

Lindsay Lohan looking a tad farouche.

The use in French to refer to animals didn’t carry over to English (the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) actually denying the meaning in English doesn’t exist) except among those who like to throw in the odd foreign phrase.  As in French, farouche is used to describe people either habitually difficult or those having a difficult moment and such is the range of application to the human condition that it should be applied with some care, lest misunderstandings occur.  Although farouche can mean “wild, savage or fierce”, it can also mean “unsocial, socially awkward or reticent” while, at the end of the spectrum it can convey the sense of someone merely shy.  So it’s a wide vista and while the breadth is accommodated by the etymology, the Late Latin forāsticus (outsider; belonging outside the house) used in the sense of those lacking the polite manners to be invited into the house, the nuances of use are important.  In the most general sense, in English, farouche is a word for someone thought to be, where pathologically or by whim, an outsider.  For that reason, farouche in English translations needs to be understood in the tradition of French use.  Victor Hugo (1802–1885) in Les Misérables (1862) has Grantaire say “Je suis farouche” (I am farouche) and that's always been translated in the sense of “I am wild”.  In the same novel Enjolras is referred to as an “Antinuous farouche” (a wild Antinous), an allusion to the alluring Greek youth who was something of a companion to Hadrian (76–138; Roman emperor from 117 to 138).  In English, the use is almost exclusively of sullen or difficult people with no connection to beasts of the wild.

Farouche is most often used as an adjective but can be applied as a noun; the noun plural is farouches.  To soften the harshness of the word, most use touches like “a little farouche”, “a tad farouche”, “a bit on the farouche side” or “one of her farouche moments”.  The noun/adverb combination can be handy; farouches bored at dinner noted often farouchely fiddling with their phones.