Telegram

Telegram (pronounced tel-i-gram)

(1) A message or communication sent by telegraph; a telegraphic dispatch.

(2) To send a telegram across a telegraphic service.

(3) As Telegram, a freeware, cross-platform, instant messaging (IM) service, launched in 2013 and noted for its secure end-to-end encryption (including an innovative approach to message self-destruction).

1852: A creation of American English, the construct being tele- + -gram.  Tele- was from the Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle) (at a distance, far off, far away, far from).  Gram was from the Ancient Greek suffix -γραμμα (-gramma), from γράμμα (grámma) (that which is drawn; a picture, a drawing; that which is written, a character, an alphabet letter, written letter, piece of writing), from γράφω (gráphō) (to scratch, to scrape, to graze), from stem of graphein (to draw or write).  Although some words with the element are Greek compounds, others are modern formations.  The alternative -gramme was a French form which is now extinct in English except as an affectation or in commerce.  As a noun word-forming element it was used in the sense of “that which is written or marked, drawn or otherwise recorded”.  Telegram is a noun or verb (used with or without object), telegrammed & telegramming are verbs and telegrammatic & telegrammic are adjectives; the noun plural is telegrams.  The alternative spelling in English was the rare and now extinct telegramme.  As a descriptor of a new technology, telegram (sometimes even without localized variations in spelling) was around the world assimilated into many languages as the cables were extended and wires connected.

Recorded first among US Marines in the South Pacific in 1944, latrinogram was a jocular reference to barracks gossip, reliable or otherwise, which tended to be exchanged while using the latrines.  The element was later abstracted for commercial purposes such as the proprietary constructs Candygram (1959), Gorillagram (1979) & Stripagram (1981).  The most famous of all, Instagram, (operating first in 2010 and acquired by Facebook (Meta) in 2012) was actually a construction which violates Greek grammar which didn’t permit an adverb properly to form part of a compound noun; it should however be regarded as correct in English. There had before Instagram been controversy.  After the telegram service was first advertised in 1852, the classically schooled and appalled lost little time correcting the less learned, informing all the proper formation would be telegrapheme.  However, for neither the first time nor the last, English choose the handy vernacular over a mouthful of correctness and when the instant messaging (IM) service Telegram was launched in 2013, nobody objected to the name.  In both commerce and slang, other words related to wired telegraphy were created or emerged including telegraph, buzzer, cable, cablegram, call, flash, wire, teletype & eventually, “telegram” came usually to mean something quite specific: a short message (charging was by the word or letter) sent across a wire and printed by the receiving office, then delivered to the door of the receiver.

Telegrams have figured in many instances of historical significance, not because of anything inherent in the process of the telegram but because the wire services were at the time the quickest means by which information might be sent over distance from one place to another.  As technology improved, the transmission of urgent messages migrated to whatever was fastest:  When Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; US president 1861-1865) was assassinated, the news, sent by trans-Atlantic steamship took twelve days to reach Europe.  When William McKinley (1843–1901; US president 1897-1901) was assassinated, the news was within minutes transmitted around the world to anywhere with a cable connection.  When John Kennedy (1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated, the wire services carried the news almost at once but visual footage of the event wasn't seen in many places within the US for some hours and in many places overseas for a day or more until the canisters of films were air-freighted to TV stations.  When in 1981 there was an attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; US president 1981-1989), within minutes there was a live feed of the scene of the event relayed by satellite to TV channels around the world.

Hawley Crippen (1862–1910; a US born homeopath who styled himself “Dr” Crippen) is thought to have been the first murderer captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.  After killing his wife in London, he absconded with his lover to Canada.  Although both were in disguise, he was recognized by the ship’s captain who sent a telegram to Scotland Yard just before the ship moved beyond wireless range.  The police sent an officer to Canada aboard a faster ship and he was in port to arrest Crippen.  Convicted, Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison.

The Zimmermann Telegram (referred to in some historical sources as a note or cable) was a diplomatic message sent in January 1917, in code, by Arthur Zimmermann (1864–1940: German foreign minister 1916-1917) to the German ambassador to Mexico.  It proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico under which Mexico would recover the territories of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, lost in the Mexican–American War (1846-1848).  The publicity generated contributed to the anyway swelling support for US participation in the Great War, the American declaration of war on Germany coming in April 1917.  The Zimmermann Telegram is of interest also in the history of espionage and cryptography because it was the British intelligence services which decoded the text and passed the content to the Washington.  That was fine but also required some subterfuge because, with many trans-Atlantic cables cut due to war-time restrictions, most traffic now went by the one circuitous route, the British had to concoct a story so it appeared they could intercept German messages but not those of the US.

Telegram (still listed in corporate registries in varies places with references to its original name (Telegram Messenger), is a cross-platform, instant messaging (IM) service.  First offered on iOS in 2013, in the way such (surviving) platforms of its type have evolved, it has grown to encompass many of the file-sharing and other features which have come to define “social media”.  Perhaps because of Telegram’s origin as essentially a exile from the Russian state, it has an unusually distributed corporate structure and it seems data blocks routinely are moved between server farms and data centres in different jurisdictions, apparently to muddy the waters, making harder intrusion from government oversight.  The nature of its security model has made it an attractive platform for both dissident groups and the agencies of the state seeking to counter their activities.

Telegram’s messages can be set to self-destruct.

WhatsApp added the feature too but Telegram’s option is more configurable.  The self-destruct mode can be attached only to a secret chat and the menu is accessed through the usual three-lined menu through which a secret chat is enabled.  From here, through the dots at the top-right, the self-destruct timer will appear and this, for obvious reasons, is not on by default and must manually be selected.  Users have the choice to set their messages last as little as one second or as long as a week, the timer countdown starting at the point when the receiver sees the message.  Telegram will mark the message with two green checkmarks to confirm the countdown has begun.  As a word of caution, the self-destruct mechanism is invoked also on replies to the message, the length of time still to elapse before a message vanishes is displayed at the bottom of the chat.  The rules for images and videos vary a little but the principle is the same.

The Long Telegram

Telegrams also made famous a number of very short messages, noted for their succinctness, the brevity of the medium encouraged by the sender being charged per letter or word.  A celebrated exception to tendency for telegrams to be short was that in February 1946 sent to the US State Department by diplomat George Kennan (1904–2005) then attached to the US embassy in Moscow.  It’s remembered in history as the “Long Telegram” and Kennan choose the telegram as the medium, ostensibly because of the urgency of the matters he wished to discuss but also because, being uniquely long (5,363 words), it would gain attention; he would later note that his views until that point had been ignored.  After James Byrnes (1882–1972; US Secretary of State 1945–1947) received this telegram, his views were more widely discussed and although this wasn't the start of the Cold War (which to a degree has already begun), it contained most of the elements of what would for a generation constitute US policy towards the Soviet Union.

Page one of the Long Telegram, 22 February 1946 (de-classified 10 August 1972).

What Kennan advocated was a policy of containment.  He noted the Russian people were "...by and large, friendly to outside world, eager for experience of it..." and that the threat presented by the USSR was that of the "...apparatus of power (party, secret police and government)..." but that it was "exclusively with these" that the governments of the West were forced to deal.  The implications of this he illustrated by pointing out that while the history of the early twentieth century had shown "...peaceful and mutually profitable coexistence of capitalist and socialist states is entirely possible...", at the "...bottom of Kremlin's neurotic view of world affairs is traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity…” and  “…they have always feared foreign penetration, feared direct contact between Western world and their own, feared what would happen if Russians learned truth about world without or if foreigners learned truth about world within. And they have learned to seek security only in patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power, never in compacts and compromises with it."  Among the tactics he identified as distinctly Russian was that of setting "Western Powers against each other. Anti-British talk will be plugged among Americans, anti-American talk among British. Continentals, including Germans, will be taught to abhor both Anglo-Saxon powers. Where suspicions exist, they will be fanned; where not, ignited."

Because memories of the war were so recent, Kennan felt compelled to point out that “Soviet power, unlike that of Hitlerite Germany, is neither schematic nor adventuristic.  It does not work by fixed plans. It does not take unnecessary risks. Impervious to logic of reason, and it is highly sensitive to logic of force. For this reason it can easily withdraw-and usually does when strong resistance is encountered at any point.  Thus, if the adversary has sufficient force and makes clear his readiness to use it, he rarely has to do so. If situations are properly handled there need be no prestige-engaging showdowns.”  Tellingly (this was before the USSR gained nuclear weapons), he added that “gauged against Western World as a whole, Soviets are still by far the weaker force. Thus, their success will really depend on degree of cohesion, firmness and vigor which Western World can muster. And this is factor which it is within our power to influence.”

Containment became US policy but the reaction to Kennan’s views, later published in extended form (anonymously as “X Article”, a method which would later be reprised as the QAnon myth), were mixed, some claiming he was advocating little more than a maintenance of a nineteenth century “balance of power” while others could envisage his system working only by the US subsidizing and maintaining its own system of client states, something which later was said to be something of a description of NATO.  In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in capitals of both sides of the Atlantic, there’s probably been some re-reading of the Long Telegram (probably in summary form; even at the time some admitted it was a bit too long) but then in Moscow some might also have looked up the words used by Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974; Soviet WWII general & Marshal of the Soviet Union) in which he explained the failure of the German offensive in 1942 as being “…due to an under-estimation of the forces and potentialities of the Soviet State, the indomitable spirit of the people.  It also stems from an over-estimation by the Nazis of their own forces and capabilities.”

Dysmorphia

Dysmorphia (pronounced dis-mor-fiah)

(1) In clinical anatomy, characterized by anatomical malformation.

(2) In general medicine, having or exhibiting an anatomical malformation.

(3) In psychology and psychiatry, the perception of anatomical malformation; any of various psychological disorders whose sufferers believe that their body is wrong or inadequate, such as anorexia, bulimia, and muscle dysmorphia (bigorexia).

(4) As Dismorphia astyocha, a butterfly in the family Pieridae, found in both Argentina & Brazil.

From Ancient Greek δυσμορφίᾱ (dusmorphíā) (misshapenness, ugliness), the construct being δυσ- (dus-) (hard, difficult, bad) + μορφή (morphḗ) (shape, form) + -ίᾱ (-íā).  The prefix dys- was from the New Latin dys-, from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-), (hard, difficult, bad”) and was used to convey the idea of being difficult, impaired, abnormal, or bad.  Morph was a back-formation from morpheme & morphism, attested since the 1950s, from the Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ) (shape, form) and related to the German Morph, from Morphem (although dating only from the 1940s).  It’s probably now most familiar in (1) formal grammar & linguistics as a physical form representing some morpheme in language (it exists as a recurrent distinctive sound or sequence of sounds), (2) in linguistics as an allomorph (one of a set of realizations that a morpheme can have in different contexts) and (3) in digital image processing where shapes are changed from one form to another with the use of specialized software, a popular type being that which wholly or (especially) partially blends two images.  The plural is dysmorphias and, in clinical use, the synonym is dysmorphosis.

The word dysmorphia first appeared in the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus (circa 484–circa 425 BC) when he referred to the myth of the “ugliest girl in Sparta”.  Herodotus, even in his lifetime, was criticized for making an insufficient distinction between legend and historical fact but the veracity of much of his work, subject to forensic analysis by modern archeologists and archivists, has been established.  The story of the “ugliest girl in Sparta” however, Herodotus acknowledges as “a magical myth” in which a baby girl, born in Sparta, was terribly disfigured (which he described as dysmorphia (meaning “misshapenness” or “ugliness”).  Fortunately, she was from a well-connected family and her nanny suggested taking her to the shrine of Helen of Troy on hilltop of Therapne, and there pray for a cure.  There the nurse sat with the baby and while praying before the agalma (a carved image of Helen), from nowhere a apparition of Helen appeared and smiling, laid her hand upon the child’s head.  As the years passed, the disfigured infant would grow to become the most beautiful girl in the kingdom.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental disorder.  It’s defined as an individual’s obsession with the idea that some aspect of their appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or rectify the offending part(s).  In BDD's delusional variant, the flaw is imagined and if some minor imperfection exists, its importance is severely exaggerated.  Sufferers find the symptoms of BDD pervasive and intrusive, symptoms including excessive attention to the perceived defect, social avoidance, camouflaging with cosmetics or apparel, the seeking of verbal reassurances, avoiding mirrors, repetitively changing clothes or restricting eating.

Italian physician Enrico Morselli (1852-1929) in 1886 reported a disorder he termed dysmorphophobia, a term still sometimes used in European literature to describe BDD.  Use spiked in academic literature in the 1950s although it wasn’t until 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognized the condition in the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).  The APA classified it as a distinct somatoform condition (characterized by symptoms suggesting a physical disorder but for which there are no demonstrable organic findings or known physiological mechanisms) and in 1987 replaced dysmorphophobia with body dysmorphic disorder as the preferred descriptor.

With the 1994 publication of DSM-IV, the APA noted BDD was a preoccupation with an imagined or trivial defect in appearance, one causing social or occupational dysfunction, and not better explained as another disorder such as anorexia nervosa but in DSM-5 (2013), it was reclassified as an obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorder, adding diagnostic criteria including repetitive behaviors and intrusive thoughts.  Although the World Health Organization's (WHO) current International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10 (1994)) described BDD as just another hypochondriacal disorder, the revised ICD-11 (2019) aligned for all functional purposes with the DSM-5.

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for BDD requires the following:

(1) A preoccupation with appearance: The individual must be preoccupied with one or more nonexistent or slight defects or flaws in their physical appearance and “Preoccupation” is usually defined as thinking about the perceived defects for (in aggregate) at least an hour a day.  A distressing or impairing preoccupation with real and obvious flaws in appearance (anything easily noticeable such as obesity) is not diagnosed as BDD, being instead classified with “Other Specified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.”

(2) Repetitive behaviors: Repetitive and compulsive behaviors must manifest in response to the concern with appearance.  These compulsions can be behavioral and thus observed by others (such as either excessively standing before or avoid a looking-glass, frequent grooming, skin picking, reassurance seeking or repeatedly changing clothes.  Other BDD compulsions include mental acts, the most often diagnosed being an individual frequently comparing their appearance with that of other people.  The DSM-5 included the note for clinicians cautioning that subjects meeting all diagnostic criteria for BDD except this one are not diagnosed with BDD; they are diagnosed with “Other Specified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorder.”

(3) Clinical significance: The preoccupation must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important aspects of functioning.  This criterion was included to differentiate the disorder BDD, which requires treatment, from more normal appearance concerns that typically do not need to be treated with medication or therapy.  This has been one of the more controversial revisions because of concerns it may exclude from helpful treatment some who have developed better coping mechanisms while still suffering from the underlying condition.

(4) Differentiation from an eating disorder: If the appearance preoccupations focus on being too fat or weighing too much, it may be that the appropriate diagnosis is an eating disorder and this applies especially if the subject’s only concern with their appearance focuses on excessive weight; provided the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder are otherwise met, that should be the diagnosis, not BDD.  If not, BDD can be diagnosed, as concerns with fat or weight in a person of normal weight can be a symptom of BDD and it’s not uncommon for subjects to have both an eating disorder and BDD.

There are specifiers to BDD and following diagnosis, the subject should be sub-classified using the two (DSM-5) BDD specifiers:

(1) Muscle dysmorphia: Muscle dysmorphia is the (predominately male) concern that the build of their body is too small or insufficiently muscular, something which not untypically manifests with preoccupations with other body areas; the muscle dysmorphia specifier should still be used in such cases.  Studies have shown that among those diagnosed with BDD, those with muscle dysmorphia suffer the highest rates of suicidality and substance use disorders, as well as poorer quality of life.  Accordingly, the DSM-5 notes their treatment regimes may require some modification.

(2) Insight specifier: This specifier indicates the degree (not directly frequency although this is a factor in the analysis) of a subject’s insight regarding their BDD beliefs (eg “I look ugly”; “I look deformed”), an expression of how convinced the subject is that their beliefs about the appearance of the disliked body parts is true.  The DSM-5 levels of insight are (2a) with good or fair insight, (2b) with poor insight and (3), with absent insight/delusional beliefs (which are to be diagnosed as BDD, not as a psychotic disorder.

BDD has often been misdiagnosed, most often as one of the following disorders:

(1) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: If preoccupations and repetitive behaviors focus on appearance (including symmetry concerns), BDD should be diagnosed rather than OCD.

(2) Social anxiety disorder (social phobia): If social anxiety and social avoidance are due to embarrassment and shame about perceived appearance flaws, and diagnostic criteria for BDD are met, BDD should be diagnosed rather than social anxiety disorder (social phobia).

(3) Major depressive disorder: Unlike major depressive disorder, BDD is characterized by prominent preoccupation and excessive repetitive behaviors. BDD should be diagnosed in individuals with depression if diagnostic criteria for BDD are met.

(4) Trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder): When hair tweezing, plucking, pulling, or other types of hair removal is intended to improve perceived defects in the appearance of body or facial hair, BDD should be diagnosed rather than trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder).

(5) Excoriation (skin-picking disorder): When skin picking is intended to improve perceived defects in the appearance of one’s skin, BDD should be diagnosed rather than excoriation (skin-picking disorder).

(6) Agoraphobia: Avoidance of situations because of fears that others will see a person’s perceived appearance defects should count toward a diagnosis of BDD rather than agoraphobia.

(7) Generalized anxiety disorder: Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety and worry in BDD focus on perceived appearance flaws.

(8) Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: BDD-related psychotic symptoms (ie delusional beliefs about appearance defects or BDD-related delusions of reference) reflect the presence of BDD rather than a psychotic disorder.

(9) Olfactory reference syndrome: Preoccupation with emitting a foul or unpleasant body odor is a symptom of olfactory reference syndrome, not BDD (although these two disorders have many similar characteristics).

(10) Eating disorder: If a normal-weight person is excessively concerned about being fat or their weight, meets other diagnostic criteria for BDD, and does not meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, then BDD should be diagnosed.

(11) Dysmorphic concern: This is not a DSM diagnosis, but it is sometimes confused with BDD.  It focuses on appearance concerns but also includes concerns about body odor and non-appearance related somatic concerns, which are not BDD symptoms.

One aspect of the condition BDD is that it’s not uncommon for subjects to be reticent in revealing their concerns or BDD symptoms to a clinician because of embarrassment or being negatively judged as vain or too concerned with trivial matters.  Case notes do suggest there is a pattern of subjects hinting at their issues and clinicians should thus be encouraged to respond by explicitly asking about BDD symptoms.

Although the brand-name is, strangely, no longer used, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chubbettes was a fashion-house supplying “slenderizing designs… designed to make girls 6 to 16 look slimmer” and therefore become “as happy and self-assured as her slimmer schoolmates”.  With a target market including those with eating disorders or BDD as well as the naturally chubby, Chubbettes helpfully offered with its fashion catalog a free booklet, Pounds and Personality.  Intended for parents of a chubby girl and written by Dr Gladys Andrews of New York University’s School of Education, it was packed with helpful hints about “understanding her problems, talent development, shyness, tactless remarks & the “game” of dieting etc.).  Chubettes’ clothing range was said to be “available, coast to coast at stores that care”; the parent company was L Gidding & Co Inc, 520 Eighth Avenue, New York City.

Times certainly have changed and with them the perception of body shapes.  Parents who would now regard young ladies of the type pictured in the Chubbette advertisements as being chubby might now be suspected of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP).  In the mind of the girl herself, a similar perception wouldn't necessarily alone be enough for a diagnosis of BDD but might be considered in the context of other behaviors.  

Crooked Hillary Clinton, the Hamptons, August 2021.

Paradoxically, although in the early twenty-first century there’s a larger than ever market for what Chubbettes once served as a niche, the brand is long gone and a revival seems unlikely.  Many factors including more sedentary lifestyles and a higher consumption of processed food, the sugar content of which has risen alarmingly, means demand for more accommodating clothing will likely continue to increase but many manufacturers have stepped into the Chubbette void and customers enjoy a wide choice.

Basic

Basic (pronounced bey-sik)

(1) Of, relating to, or forming a base; fundamental.

(2) In chemistry, pertaining to, of the nature of, or containing a base; alkaline.

(3) In metallurgy, noting, pertaining to, or made by a steelmaking process (basic process) in which the furnace or converter is lined with a basic or non-siliceous material, mainly burned magnesite and a small amount of ground basic slag, to remove impurities from the steel.

(4) In geology, descriptor of a rock having relatively little silica.

(5) In military use, the lowest or initial form of anything (chiefly US).

(6) In popular culture, the adjectival part of a slang term for a sub-set of females characterized by predictable or unoriginal style, interests, or behavior.

(7) Of things elementary in character, essential, key, primary, basal, underlying.

(8) As a computer industry acronym, (BASIC and its forks, QBASIC, BASICA et al), a long-lived programming language: B(eginner's) A(ll-purpose) S(ymbolic) I(nstruction) C(ode).

1832:  Originally from chemistry (base + ic) and adopted by about every other field.  The programming language was created in 1964 by Hungarian-born US-based computer scientist John Kemeny (1926-1992) and US computer scientist Thomas Kurtz (b 1928).  Use to describe a female sub-set dates from 2005.

The Basic Bitch

Basic bitch, often truncated to the (sometimes affectionate) "basic", is a US pop-culture term.  Although use outgrew its origins, it was intended as a pejorative descriptor of white, middle class females with boringly predictable, mainstream tastes in consumer goods and culture.  Variously interpreted as a variation on the earlier airhead, a general expression of misogyny and another unsuccessful attempt to invent a term white people would find offensive, basic bitch briefly generated a sizable critique.  Although expressions of disapproval of hollow consumer culture had became common even before publication of JK Galbraith's (1908–2006) The Affluent Society (1958) made it a bit of a thing, basic bitch seemingly offended just about all the usual suspects in the grievance industry.

Feminists found it misogynistic and weren’t at mollified by the emergence of a term of male equivalence, their general position probably demanding the dismissal of all cultural feminine signifiers.  To them, the specifics were tiresomely irrelevant; basic bitch was just another way to demean women.  The left generally agreed, arguing it was unhelpful to target a stereotype of late capitalist femininity rather than adhere to their critique of consumer culture.  Western capitalism, neutral on the squabble, soon commodified:

Less predictable was the race-based criticism.  Basic bitch was considered yet another attempt to create a term of disparagement to describe the white folk which they would find actually offensive and in that, like all previous attempts, it didn’t work.  However, it clearly made sense only if applied to white, middle-class females so had the effect of creating yet another exclusive enclave of white privilege and one which, by definition, excluded other ethnicities, even if becoming a basic bitch was their aspiration.

First noted in 2005 in a sub-set of popular music, basic bitch entered mainstream use circa 2009 and use appears to have peaked in 2014 although term may persist because it references a mode of behavior rather than anything specific to a time or place; it’s thus adaptable and generationally transferrable.  It’s also an amusing example of one aspect of how Sisyphean battles in the pop-culture wars are waged.  All those who coined the alliterative basic bitch were saying was “our taste in pop music is better than their taste in pop music”.

Veto

Veto (pronounced vee-toh)

(1) In constitutional law, the power or right vested in one branch of a government to cancel or postpone the decisions, enactments etc of another branch, especially the right of a president, governor, or other chief executive to reject bills passed by a legislature.

(2) The exercise of this right.

(3) In the UN Security Council, a non-concurring vote by which one of the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK & US) can overrule the actions or decisions of the meeting on most substantive matters.  By practice and convention, in the context of geopolitics, this is "the veto power".

(4) Emphatically to prohibit something.

1620–1630: From the Latin vetō (I forbid), the first person singular present indicative of vetāre (forbid, prohibit, oppose, hinder (perfect active vetuī, supine vetitum)) from the earlier votō & votāre, from the Proto-Italic wetā(je)-, from the primitive Indo-European weth- (to say).  In ancient Rome, the vetō was the technical term for a protest interposed by a tribune of the people against any measure of the Senate or of the magistrates.  As a verb, use dates from 1706.  Veto is a noun, verb and adjective; vetoer is a noun and in the language of the diplomatic toolbox are the (rare) related forms preveto, reveto, unveto, nonveto & vetoless.

The best known power of veto is probably that exercised by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).  The UNSC is an organ of the UN which uniquely possesses the authority to issue resolutions binding upon member states and its powers include creating peacekeeping missions, imposing international sanctions and authorizing military action.  The UNSC has a standing membership of fifteen, five of which (China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA) hold permanent seats, the remaining ten elected by the general assembly on a regional basis for two year terms.  The permanent five can veto any substantive resolution including the admission of new UN member states or nominations for UN Secretary-General (the UN’s CEO).

The term “united nations” was used as early as 1943, essentially as a synonym for the anti-Axis allies and was later adopted as the name for the international organization which replaced the League of Nations which had in the 1930s proved ineffectual in its attempts to maintain peace.  When the UN was created, its structural arrangements were designed to try to avoid the problems which beset the League of Nations which, under its covenant, could reach decisions only by unanimous vote and this rule applied both to the League's council (which the specific responsibility of maintaining peace) and to the all-member assembly.  In effect, each member state of the League had the power of the veto, and, except for procedural matters and a few specified topics, a single "nay" killed any resolution.  Learning from this mistake, the founders of the UN decided all its organs and subsidiary bodies should make decisions by some type of majority vote (although when dealing with particularly contentious matters things have sometimes awaited a resolution until a consensus emerges).

The creators of the United Nations Charter always conceived that three victorious “great powers” of the Second World War ((1) the UK, (2) US & (3) USSR), because of their roles in the establishment of the UN, would continue to play important roles in the maintenance of international peace and security and thus would have permanent seats on the Security Council with the power to veto resolutions.  To this arrangement was added (4) France (at the insistence of Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) who wished to re-build the power of France as a counterweight to Germany and (5) China, included because Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1940 US president 1933-1945) was perceptive in predicting the country’s importance in the years to come.

This veto is a power however only in the negative.  Not one of the permanent members nor even all five voting in (an admittedly improbable) block can impose their will in the absence of an overall majority vote of the Security Council.  Nor is an affirmative vote from one or all of the permanent five necessary: If a permanent member does not agree with a resolution but does not wish to cast a veto, it may choose to abstain, thus allowing the resolution to be adopted if it obtains the required majority among the fifteen.

The Vatican, the CCP and the bishops

A well-known and economically significant niche in modern Chinese manufacturing is fakes.  Most obvious are fake Rolexes, fake Range Rovers et al but Peking for decades produced fake bishops.  After the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sundered diplomatic relations in 1951, papal appointments to Chinese bishoprics were not recognized by Peking which appointed their own.  In retaliation, popes excommunicated the fakes who in turn ignored him, the amusing clerical stand-off lasting until January 2018 when negotiations appeared to produce a face-saving (sort-of) concordat.  As a prelude, Rome retired or re-deployed a number of their bishops in order to make way for new (once-fake) bishops, nominated by the CCP and, in a telling gesture, Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) re-admitted to "full ecclesial communion" seven living Chinese bishops who were ordained before the deal without Vatican approval, and had thus incurred latae sententiae (the act of automatic excommunication).

On 22 September 2018, a provisional agreement was signed.  It (1) cleared the Chinese decks of any bishops (fake or real) not acceptable to either side, (2) granted the CCP the right to nominate bishops (the list created with the help of a CCP-run group called the "Patriotic Catholic Association”) and (3) granted the pope a right of veto.  Although not mentioned by either side, the most important understanding between the parties seemed to be the hints the CCP sent through diplomatic channels that the pope would find their lists of nominees “helpful”.  If so, it deserved to be a secret protocol to the pact but however the sausages were made, it was a diplomatic triumph for Beijing.  Although Rome at the time noted it was a “provisional agreement”, many observed that unless things proved most unsatisfactory, it was doubtful the Holy See would be anxious again to draw attention to the matter; whatever the political or theological implications, to acquiesce to the pope as cipher would diminish the church’s mystique.

Things may be worse even than the cynics had predicted.  In late 2020 the two-year deal handling the appointment of Chinese bishops was extended after an exchange of notes verbales (in diplomatic language, something more formal than an aide-mémoire and less formal than a note, drafted in the third person and never signed), both sides apparently wishing to continue the pact, albeit still (technically) on a temporary basis.  The uneasy entente seems however not to have lasted, Beijing in 2021, through bureaucratic process, acting as if it had never existed by issuing Order No. 15 (new administrative rules for religious affairs) which included an article on establishing a process for the selection of Catholic bishops in China after 1 May 2021.  The new edict makes no mention of any papal role in the process and certainly not a right to approve or veto episcopal appointments in China, the very thing which was celebrated in Rome as the substantive concession gained from the CCP.

Still, Beijing’s new rules have the benefit of clarity and if Pope Francis was under any illusions about the nature or the CCP, he can now enjoy certainty for the remainder of his pontificate.  Order No. 15 requires clergy of the so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church (CPCC) to “adhere to the principle of independent and self-administered religion in China” and actively support “the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party” and “the socialist system,” as well as to “practice the core values of socialism.”  They must also promote “social harmony” which is usually interpreted as conformity of thought with those of the CCP (although in recent years that has come increasingly to be identified with the thoughts of Xi Jinping (b 1953; paramount leader of China since 2012) which is historically interesting).  Essentially, the CPCC is to be an arm of the authoritarian CCP regime and formalizing this is the requirement for bishops and priests to be licensed for ministry, much the same process as being allowed to practice as a driving instructor or electrician.

All this is presumably a disappointment to the pope though it’s unlikely to be a surprise to his critics, some of whom, when the agreement was announced in 2018 and upon renewal in 2020, predicted it would be honored by Beijing only while it proved useful for them to weaken the “underground” church and allow the CCP to assert institutional control over the CPCC.  At the time of the renewal, the Vatican issued a statement saying the agreement was “essential to guarantee the ordinary life of the Church in China.”  The CCP doubtlessly agreed with that which is why they have broken the agreement, and, if asked, they would presumably point out that, legally, it really didn’t exist.

Beware of imitations.  Joseph Guo Jincai (b 1968) was in 2010 ordained Bishop of Chengde (Hebei) today without the approval of the pope.  He is a member of the China Committee on Religion and Peace and was appointed a deputy to the thirteenth National People's Congress.  Because of the circumstances of his ordination as a bishop, he was excommunicated latae sententiae but later had the consolation of being elected vice-president of Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.  In September 2018, Pope Francis lifted the excommunication of Joseph Guo Jincai and other six bishops previously appointed by the Chinese government without pontifical mandate.

Politically, one has to admire the CCP’s tactics.  The CCP pursued the 2018 deal only to exterminate the underground Catholic Church which, although for decades doughty in their resistance to persecution by the CCP (including pogroms during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)), were compelled to transfer their allegiance to the CPCC once it received the pope’s imprimatur.  After the agreement, Chinese authorities rounded up underground Catholic clergy, warning that they would defy the pope if they continued baptizing, ordaining new clergy and praying in unregistered churches; most of those persuaded became part of the CPCC and those unconvinced resigned their ministries and returned to private life.  According to insiders, a rump underground movement still exists but it seems the CCP now regard the remnant as a terrorist organization and are pursuing them accordingly.

Tango

Tango (pronounced tang-goh)

(1) A syncopated ballroom dance of Latin-American origin, danced in duple time by couples, having many varied steps, figures, and poses and characterized by long gliding steps with sudden pauses

(2) A piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance

(3) A word used in communications to represent the letter "T", most famously in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

(4) In military and paramilitary slang, a code for the enemy, derived from the abbreviation of target using the NATO phonetic alphabet.

(5) A dark orange color shade; deep tangerine.

1913: From the Argentine Spanish tango, originally the name of an African-South American drum dance and most likely of Niger-Congo origin and usually thought derived from the Ibibio tamgu (to dance).  The phrase “it takes two to tango” was from a 1952 popular song; tango first used as a verb in 1952.  Tango & tangoist are nouns, the verbs (used without object) are tangoed & tangoing, the noun plural being tangos.  A 1913 University of Michigan publication noted tango was pronounced either tahn-go or tan-go “depending on your social status”.

Lindsay Lohan in white Kritik sweatsuit, practicing tango moves with instructor, Pacific Palisades, 2007.  It was preparation for her role in Alfonso Arau's Dare to Love Me (2008).

Because of the paucity of documentary evidence, etymologists have long argued over the origin of tango.  Some scholars credit African culture, suggesting the word evolved from the Yoruba shangó which refers to the Nigerian God of Thunder.  This theory holds shangó was morphed through the dilution of the Nigerian language once it reached South America via slave trade.  An alternative theory is that tango is derived from the Spanish tambor (drum) which subsequently was mispronounced by inhabitants of the more impoverished areas of Buenos Aires to become first tambo then ultimately tango.  Less supported is a Portuguese connection, the theory that tango is derived from the Portuguese tanger (to play a musical instrument), a variation of which is the Portuguese tangomão, a combination of the verb tanger (to touch) and the noun mão (hand), resulting in the meaning "to play a musical instrument with one's hands.”  Despite these speculations, most prefer the Niger-Congo origin story.

It takes two.

The phrase "it takes two to tango" is used often by lawyers, moral theologians (amateur and professional), politicians and diplomats.  It applied usually as a way either of spreading blame for something or (often inaccurately) as shorthand for variations of a Tu quoque (you did it too (literally "and you also")) defense.

President Mobutu in Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet.

That it takes two to tango was a point made more than once by President Mobutu Sese Seko (Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Bangaa, born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, 1930-1997; President of Zaire 1965-1997) when responding to accusations of bribe taking and corruption by African dictators in general and him in particular.  He had a point, up to a point.

Sociolect

Sociolect (pronounced soh-see-uh-lekt (U) or soh-shee-uh-lect (non-U))

In the jargon of sociolinguistics, a variant of a language used by a particular social group (socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group etc); a social dialect.

1970–1975: The construct was socio- + (dia)lect (ie by analogy with dialect, idiolect, etc).  The prefix socio- was from the Latin socius (associated, allied; partner, companion, ally), from the primitive Indo-European sokyo- (companion), from sek- (to follow).  The suffix –lect was adopted from the terminal element of dialect, thus representing the Ancient Greek element -λεκτος (-lektos), ultimately from λέγω (légō) (I say or speak).  The plural was sociolects.

In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a variation of an established language, distinguished by a non-standard dialect or a re-allocation of meaning to elements of an existing dialect and a restricted or extended register).  Most sociolinguists restrict the definition to language used by a socioeconomic class, ethnic group, age group etc but some (somewhat controversially) include the language sub-sets used almost exclusively by trades or professions; few sociolinguists agree with the latter approach and maintain this language of essentially technical terms should be listed just as jargon.  The other significant difference from most other dialects is that it tends to be social class rather than geographical origin which substantiates the (unique or shared (lexical overlap being a noted feature in this field)) linguistic elements.

Sociolects (the companion term ethnolect is sometimes applied to ethnic-based dialects) as a distinct phenomenon are a recent addition to the field of structural linguistics.  There had long been an interest in dialectial variations which usually emerged organically in specific geographical spaces and tended to evolve and become entrenched in when the mobility of people was limited (although recent research does suggest this effect was over-stated) but what began in the late 1960s was the distinct branch of dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to social society.  Unlike the dialects which began and became associated with a particular geographical space, the idea of the sociolect was of a speech which conforms to a social group identity, based usually on age or ethnicity and greatly influenced by socio-economic status.  That sounded environmentally deterministic and at the time that was probably true but what later emerged, especially as new technologies permitted an essentially instantaneous dissemination of popular culture to an increasing number of the global population, the earlier sociolinguistic view that patterns of speech are learned from the surrounding community was modified: people could now mix & match, picking community with which they wished to be associated and adopting their linguistic traits.

One of the best known of the genre is Ebonics (the construct a portmanteau of ebony + phonics), a word re-purposed in the early 1970s by a group of African-American academics, headed by a psychologist, Professor Robert Lee Williams II (1930–2020).  Originally, linguistic anthropologists used Ebonics to refer to the forms of English-based languages used by all those descended from black African slaves, particularly those brought from West Africa to the Caribbean and North America.  For generations, scholars had regarded these variations from Standard English as inferior and essentially a form for the “uneducated” and the assertion of a redefined Ebonics was a reaction to the negative connotations which had long pervaded academia.  It proved of some interest to those working in structural linguistics but within the community of black academics (who turned out to be as diverse and disparate in their opinions as academics of any race), it was a controversial topic because of the view that whatever the merits in recognizing that all dialectical forms (and structurally, in a sense, Standard English was just one of many) deserved to be recognized as equally valid forks, there was the recognition that the use and mastery of the standard forms was a fundamental necessity for social advancement and economic empowerment.

A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess, first edition, signed by the author, AU$18,975.08 on eBay.

Neither widely embraced by the linguistic community nor recognized by most lexicographers (although dictionaries in the era were still substantially in print and acceptance did take longer, mistakes in static documents impossible to correct), Ebonics for years remained little-known outside universities although some police departments did use the word, providing printed guides of phrases used (uniquely it was said) by African-Americans to communicate among themselves while concealing the meaning from outsiders who might be listening.  These phrases used words from the vocabulary of Standard English but with a different grammar and sometimes a re-allocation of meaning.  In this it differed from Nadsat, the argot or fictional register invented by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) for the droogs in A Clockwork Orange (1962), where the words, although often derived from English, were barely if at all unrecognizable.

It was in 1996 Ebonics became widely known in the US.  The Oakland School Board, apparently in an attempt to gain additional funding for the teaching of English to those for whom it was not a first language, listed Ebonics as the primary language of the substantial number of their African-American pupils.  The use of the term seems to have been an attempt to add some academic gloss or gain political favor because the alternative term “African American English”, had been in use for some years and technically, meant the same thing although there may have been the feeling Ebonics carried a favorable political loading.  The board’s view was interpreted as a recognition there was in some senses a separate community of African Americans and to enable them to operate in both cultures it was desirable for them to learn Standard (American) English so they might use both depending on the circumstances, a process called "code switching".

A roaming pack of valley girls.

Valleyspeak (sometimes shortened to Valspeak) was another interesting form.  It was a socially-specific dialect associated with the stereotypical white, materialistic, upper middle-class, teen-aged girl (hence “valley-girl” being the archetype) in southern California circa 1980-1987, characterised by the adoption (and sometimes re-purposing) of existing words and phrases, delivered with an exaggerated inflection.  Elements of Valleyspeak spread to other demographics and for a certain period in the 1980s and 1990s, it was something of a fad with a peak period from around 1981 to 1985 although some of it has endured in words and phrases now part of much mainstream speech.  The use of “like” as a discourse marker and “whatever”, deployed to covey general dismissiveness have become endemic and “uptalk” or “upspeak” (technically the “high rising terminal” (HRT) or “high rising intonation” (HRI), where declarative sentences can end with a rising pitch similar to that once associated only with yes/no questions) seems to have been infectious in younger, less educated demographics.  The source of the term Valleyspeak is said to have been Frank Zappa’s (1940-1993) parody music single Valley Girl (1982) in which, behind the music, his teenage daughter Moon Unit Zappa (1967), delivered a monologue in what would come to be known as Valleyspeak.  The form was subsequently spread and popularized by US pop-culture, especially film and television.  Valleyspeak includes:

Like = um.
Whatever = dismissively, whatever you say.
Totally = I agree.
As if = unlikely, impossible.
Oh my God = amazing, shocked.
So = very.
Fer shur (for sure) = certainly.
Bitchin’ = excellent.
Filth = excellent.
Gag Me = ick.
Gag me with a spoon = super ick.
Awesome = awesome.
I know, right? = agree.
Grody = somewhat gross.
Gross = disgusting.
Bogus = untrustworthy, sketchy.
Barf out! = An exclamation of encountering something grody.
For sure = absolutely.
Dork = someone uncool & clueless.
Hunk = attractive male.
Spaz = someone clumsy.
To the max = extreme adjective.
Excellent! = excellent.
No way = I don’t believe it, dude.
Yes way = believe it, dude (in response to ‘no way’).
Humongous = very large, bigger than huge.
Humongoid = humongous.
Heinous = ugly.
Nice = an ironic judgement.

Moon Unit Zappa, Valley Girl (1982)

Iconoclast

Iconoclast (pronounced ahy-kon-uh-klast)

(1) A person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc as being based on error or superstition.

(2) A breaker or destroyer of images, especially those set up for religious veneration.

(3) An adherent of the heretical movement within the Greek Orthodox Church from 725-842 AD, which aimed at the destruction of icons and religious images.

1590–1600: From the Middle English, from the French iconoclaste from the Medieval Latin īconoclastēs from the Byzantine Greek εἰκονοκλάστης (eikonoklástēs) (literally image-breaker), the construct being eikono- (genitive eikonos) (icono-) + -klastēs (breaker), equivalent to klas-, variant stem of klân (to break) + -tēs (the agent noun suffix).  The early meaning referred literally to those who, in acts of theological obedience, broke or destroyed idols physically; the figurative meaning in reference to beliefs, cherished institutions etc emerged later, sources variously citing the first use between 1842-1858.  An older word for it was iconomachy (1580s), from the Greek eikonomakhia.  A clast is a technical word in geology to describe a fragment of rock broken from a larger rock or rock unit.  Iconoclast’s most commonly seen synonyms are unbeliever, questioner, dissenter, heretic, radical, dissident, nonbeliever, critic, rebel, revolutionist, cynic, sceptic, ruiner & non-conformist.

The Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy

The Iconoclastic Controversy, an eighth & ninth century dispute over the use of religious images in the Byzantine Empire, was one of the many squabbles in Christendom (and other religions) triggered by arguments between those reading ancient texts literally and those treating then as allegory.  The Iconoclasts, those who rejected images, objected to icon veneration essentially because of the Old Testament prohibition against images in the Ten Commandments and the possibility of idolatry.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4 (KJV 1611)

The defenders of the importance of imagery insisted upon their symbolic nature and the dignity of created matter and the controversy in Constantinople was nothing new.  From the Church’s earliest days, the making and veneration of portraits of Christ and the saints had been opposed by many but the use of icons nevertheless steadily gained in popularity, especially in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.  By the late sixth century, icons had become the object of an officially encouraged cult, sometimes implying a superstitious belief in their animation and the opposition to these practices became especially strong in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).  In 726 the Byzantine emperor Leo III (circa 685–741) took a public stand against the perceived worship of icons, and in 730 proscribed their use, trigging a persecution of icon venerators that was most severe in the reign of Leo’s successor, Constantine V (741–775).  While the emperor’s scholars expressed the theological edit in elegant Byzantine script, on the ground, the smashing of icons and the attacks on the idolaters was done by angry mobs, assembled for the purpose by the social media of the day, events reprised in the sixteen and seventeenth centuries by protestants in the Netherlands who vandalized former Catholic churches in a second burst of iconoclasm.

Byzantine icons

Over the decades, in Byzantine fashion, power shifted between the factions.  In 787, the Empress Irene (circa 752–803) convoked the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea at which Iconoclasm was condemned and the use of images was again permitted.  The Iconoclasts regained power in 814 after the accession of Leo V (circa 755-820) and icons were again banned after a ruling at a council in 815, the prohibition lasting until the death of the Emperor Theophilus (Circa 800-842).  Within a year of his death, his widow, the Empress Theodora (circa 815–circa 870s), finally restored icon veneration, an event still celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Feast of Orthodoxy.  In a piece of theological sophistry which would have impressed any pope, Theodora noted she was permitting only veneration, not worship and in that state, the Eastern Orthodox view of icons has rested for more than a thousand years.