Chic

Chic (pronounced sheek)

(1) Attractive and fashionable; style and elegance, especially in dress (particularly when applied to women).

(2) Modishness, a casual and understated style, as in dress or décor, that expresses a specified trendy lifestyle or activity.

(3) As a noun, when used with an attributive noun or adjectival modifier, a descriptor for just about any defined style (shabby chic, boho chic etc).

1856: Adopted in English with the general sense of “style in fine art, artistic skill, faculty of producing excellence rapidly and easily”, from the French chic (stylishness; elegant (the original sixteenth century meaning was "subtlety")), of unknown origin but probably from the German Schick (elegant appearance; tasteful presentation) & Geschick (tact, skill, aptness), from Middle Low German schikken (arrange appropriately), from the Middle High German schicken (to outfit oneself, fit in, arrange appropriately), causative of the Middle High German geschehen & geschēn (to happen, rush), from the Old High German giskehan (to happen), from the Proto-West Germanic skehan, from the Proto-Germanic skehaną (to run, move quickly), from the primitive Indo-European skek- (to run, jump, spring).  The Germanic forms were akin to the Dutch schielijk (hasty) & schikken (to arrange) and the Old English scēon (to happen).  The alternative etymology is a link to the French chicane, from chicanerie (trickery) which in the 1610s English picked up as chicanery (legal quibbling, sophistry, mean or petty tricks).

The meaning "Parisian elegance and stylishness combined with originality" emerged in English by 1882, used to convey the sense of a style which was tied specifically to the most identifiably elegant street wear of the ladies of Paris, the influencers of the day noting chic was "an untranslatable word, denoting an indispensable quality"; something of the je ne sais quoi then.  The use as an adjective to describe the appearance of individuals dates from 1879 in English but interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) pointed out the use of chic was nowhere near as frequent among French speakers in France although Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) in Madame Bovary (1857) used chicard (one who is chic), the then current Parisian slang for "classy" before waspishly adding that it was “bourgeoisie”, one indication of why it's as rewarding (and less time-consuming) to read Flaubert as it is Proust (Marcel Proust (1871–1922; author of the multi-volume À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927))).

One adjectival variation was chi-chi (extremely chic, sophisticated) which by 1908 was recorded also as a noun meaning “pretentious fussiness", from the French chichi (airs, fuss).  Etymologists think this, like frou-frou (showy or frilly ornamentation but in its original sense "the rustling of a woman's skirt as it swishes around the legs"), likely imitative.  Chic is either used invariably, in which case the spelling of the plural is chic, or has the plural chics for both the masculine and the feminine forms.  While the spelling chic is correct for the uninflected adjective, all inflected forms are nonstandard (to be correct, inflected forms must be derived from the preferred spelling schick).  The accepted homophones are sheik & sheikh, the pronunciation “chik” is non-standard except when used facetiously.

Lindsay Lohan, 2013 Jingle Ball, New York City.

Chic fills a most narrowly specific niche and is thus without no exact synonym.  Words like exclusive, mod, modern, current, sharp, smart, dap, dapper, dashing, faddish, modish, natty, with it, elegant, stylish, dapper, fashionable, natty, trendy, voguish, fancy, posh, or swank tend in the direction and in many cases run at least in parallel but none quite capture the sense of chic.  Nor are the likely antonyms (inelegant, unfashionable or unstylish helpful; there is unchic but is so rare as to be probably obscure and it’s unnecessary: someone or something is either chic or not.  Chic is a verb & noun, chicly an adverb, chicness a noun and chicer & chicest are adjectives.  The noun chic is very often used with an attributive noun or adjective modifier, indicating the kind of style, such as boho-chic, heroin-chic, shabby-chic, eco-chic, geek-chic, radical-chic, porno-chic, communist-chic, terrorist-chic, Ayatollah-chic, scruffy-chic, super-chic, uber-chic, goth-chic, ultra-chic, industrial-chic et al.  There were also forms designed deliberately to insult such as chav-chic (also in the form council house-chic), gypsy-chic & hillbilly-chic.  Chiconomics was a clever coining which deconstructed the ways of looking chic on a budget and très chic was a way to emphasize the French connection.

Heroin chic

Anjelica Huston photographed by Bob Richardson, 1971.

Heroin chic, an aesthetic characterized by a painfully thin (preferably tall) build, pale skin, dark circles under the eyes, disheveled hair and a vacuous, haunted expression, was first noted in the late 1980s before the following decade becoming prominent in the modeling industry, an allusion not only to (a not actually typical) the look of an addict but also the alleged popularity of the drug in the business.  However, the look wasn’t new, examples existing from the early twentieth century and Bob Richardson (1928-2005) photographed Anjelica Huston (b 1951) very much in the mode as early as 1971.

When first coined, heroin chic was intended as a criticism but, in the democratic way English works, it was quickly embraced by popular culture and soon, even in the early days of the internet and long before even embryonic social media platforms, guides were soon circulating, detailing how to achieve the look which, proved so popular they were reprinted in mainstream magazines.  Had it been just a fashionable look it might not have attracted the disapprobation but, for all sorts of reasons (in part related to the symbiotic economics of drug production, distribution and enforcement regimes), the look happened at a time when heroin use in the West spiked, along with a sudden increase in overdoses and drug-related deaths.

Echoes of an earlier chic:  Models at the BCBGMAXAZIRA show, New York Fashion Week, 2012.  BCBGMAXAZIRA (bon chic, bon genre max azira) was created as a Max Azira sub-brand.  Bon chic, bon genre (literally "good style, good attitude") in this context translates as something like the philosophical statement  “dress stylishly and you'll feel self-assured and project confidence".

Itself a reaction to the more voluptuous models in the 1980s, heroin chic departed the catwalks rather abruptly, 1997 noted as the end-point, induced by what was a classic moral panic, ostensibly in reaction to a general concern about heroin use and overdoses but really triggered by the drug-related deaths of a number of white pop-culture celebrities.  Although seemingly oblivious to the the death-rate among ethnic minorities and the poor, the toll of the high-profile caught the attention of the White House staff and in May 1997, President Clinton became involved, his speech on the subject a carefully choreographed interruption to a prayer breakfast in which he condemned heroin chic, saying “You do not need to glamorize addiction to sell clothes, the glorification of heroin is not creative, it’s destructive. It’s not beautiful; it’s ugly. And this is not about art; it’s about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society.”

Still, the thought police can only suppress but not kill an idea.  Given the political pressure, the industry remains too timid to reprise the look on covers or cat-walks but there remains a counter-culture which finds irresistibly alluring the sight of a slender models walking as if in a drug-induced stupor and although it never entirely went away, impressionistically, it does appear heroin-chic is enjoying, on-line and on the street, a post-pandemic renaissance.  The pro-ana community, always supportive of forks of fashion which build on their framework, will sometimes include style-guides but does caution it’s an aesthetic which works only on the thin (you need not be statuesque; any height can work but not any weight).  So, the first goal is to be thin and pro-ana is there to help with any number of guides available and all work but only if rigidly they’re followed.  Techniques can vary but an indicative approach to the mechanics of heroin-chic is:

(1) Get thin.

(2) Begin the process formerly when able successfully to shop in the (US) size zero to one section.  Clothes need to be loose and baggy (if they’re not, return to step (1)).

(3) Never buy anything clingy or with a bare back.  Structurally, the core elements you’re trying to achieve are emaciation and androgyny.

(4) Never buy anything with giant polka dots or made with fabrics of bright colors.  It sounds an unimportant point but is essential; heroin-chic simply doesn’t work with vibrant colors or certain designs.  The preferred colors are black, white, grey, the darker purples and navy blue.

(5) Buy layered items or those made with fluffy fabrics.

(6) Avoid vertical lines unless the stripes are really wide and the color contrasts distinct.

(7) Wear boots wherever possible.

(8) Prime the eyelids, then use a medium to dark brown eye shadow, packing it on to the eyelids.  Unlike the conventional approach to eye-styling, using the fingers is best because it creates an inherently messy finish and the result will inevitably be asymmetric which is good.  When content, add some eye shadow under the eyes and again, strive to achieve coverage but not neatness.

(9) Wait a few minutes (which isn’t a necessity with all eye shadows but there are variations even within the ranges of the one manufacturer.  When ready, run jet-black eye shadow along the top and bottom lash-lines.  This is best done with a small eye shadow brush and, once applied, smudge as desired using the fingers.  Experienced users claim Nyx Cosmetics eyebrow cake is the best product available and for touch-ups or quick corrections, recommend Urban Decay’s 24/7 pencils.

(10) The look is convincing only with clumpy eyelashes.  Take a mascara and use the tip to stick the lashes together, forming something which looks vaguely what you imagine spider legs so treated might resemble.  What you’re after is a variation of what eyelash stylists call “the spiky” except instead of being neatly separated, the lashes are in irregular clumps.

(11) The rest of the make-up should tend to the neutral.  The aim remember is pale skin (avoid exposure to sunlight) so use just a BB cream rather than foundation, accentuated only with just a bronzer to emphasize the shape of the cheekbones.  Illamasqua’s cream pigment is highly regarded.

(12) Perhaps counter-intuitively, the hair needs to be washed and conditioned according to the normal routine (heroin-chic is a look, not a consequence).  The idea is to achieve a stringy, un-kept look but, again counter-intuitively, that can really be constructed only if the hair is clean and well kept and with most hair-types, it’s not difficult using nothing more exotic than inexpensive product such as spray, wax or fudge.  In most cases the styling technique is a variation of what hair-dressers call the JBF but because hair types vary, you may need to experiment.  However it’s done, heroin-chic works best with straight hair so, if you’re after the optimal look, straighten first.

(13) There’s no consensus about which color should be used on the lips or even if it should be glossy or matt.  However, unlike the eyes, lip-stick should be applied with precision; it’s just a convention of use.

(14) Juxtaposition.  As a look, heroin-chic works only if at a second glance it's apparent everything is expensive (think of it as a sub-set of shabby chic); it's not something done with cheap clothing and needs a pair of diamond studs and a good watch to complete the effect but jewelry should be chosen with some restraint, too much and it detracts from what is a very specific construction and silver will always work better than gold. 

Rapture

Rapture (pronounced rap-cher)

(1) Ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy; bliss, beatitude, exaltation.

(2) The carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence.

(3) In Christian theology, the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to earth.

(4) The act of carrying off (archaic).

1590: A compound word, the construct being rapt + ure (the suffix -ure was from the Middle English -ure, from the Old French -ure, from the Latin -tūra and was used to create a word meaning (1) a process; a condition; a result of an action or (2) an official entity or function).  Rapt was from the Medieval Latin raptūra, (seizure, rape, kidnapping), from the Classical Latin raptus (a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape (the future active participle of rapiō)).  In the sense of “carrying off”, the English use was in parallel with the Middle French rapture with the meaning drawn from the Medieval Latin raptura (seizure, rape, kidnapping, carrying off, abduction, snatching away) and the word rape is a cognate of this.  The sense of "spiritual ecstasy, state of mental transport or exaltation" is recorded by circa 1600 (as “the raptures”), the connecting notion being a sudden or violent taking and carrying away.  The meaning "expression of exalted or passionate feeling" in words or music is from the 1610s and from here it became frequently used in sacred music and art.

El rapto de Europa (The Rape of Europa (1628-1629)), oil on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Prado Museum, Madrid.  It follows a 1562 work in the same vein by Tiziano Vecelli (circa 1489-1576 and known in English as Titian).

The earliest attested use in English is with women as objects and in the seventeenth century it sometimes carried the meaning of the verb “rape”.  The use of the word “rape” in the sense of “carrying off” in so much art and sculpture from Antiquity and the Middle Ages is the cause of much misunderstanding in modern audiences.  Sense of "spiritual ecstasy or state of mental transport” was first recorded in the 1630s and rapture as a verb meaning "to enrapture, put in a state of rapture" (implied in raptured) became widely used.  The adjective rapturous (ecstatically joyous or exalted) dates from the 1670s, the adverb rapturously having emerged a decade earlier.  The verb enrapture, a creation apparently of the church, is attested from 1740.  The adjective ravishing, dating from the mid fourteenth century and meaning "enchanting, exciting rapture or ecstasy" (present-participle adjective from the verb ravish) is now probably associated with Mills & Boon romances but the origin was sacred, the figurative notion being "carrying off from earth to heaven"; the adverb was ravishingly.

A Rapture, by Stereo Alchemy, starring Lindsay Lohan, Petey Wright, and Sofia Boutella (from the album God of love).  Directed by Yu Tsai.

In Christian eschatology, the rapture refers to the end of days when all Christian believers (both the living and resurrected dead) will rise into the sky and join Christ for eternity, a vision in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 4:17)). 

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Rapturists prefer this to less exclusive second comings such as those mentioned in Second Thessalonians, Matthew, First Corinthians and Revelation.

Home Thoughts from Abroad (1845) by Robert Browning (1812–1889)

I

Oh, to be in England now that April’s there

And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

II

And after April, when May follows

And the white-throat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—

That’s the wise thrush: he sings each song twice over

Lest you should think he never could re-capture

The first fine careless rapture!

And, though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children’s dower,

Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Rapture (2019) by Roberta J Heslop (b 1973), oil & acrylic on canvas.

Ping

Ping (pronounced ping)

(1) To produce a short, high-pitched resonant sound, like that of a bullet striking a sheet of metal (as a verb used without object).

(2) In computing, to send an echo-request packet to an IP address and use the echo reply to determine whether another computer on the network is operational and the speed at which the data is being transferred.

(3) Informally, to make contact with someone by sending a brief electronic message (text messages and later variations).  A ping can also be a notification in response to a message.

(4) A pinging sound.

(5) An infrasonic or ultrasonic sound wave created by sonar in echolocation or an acoustic signal transmitted to indicate a location.

(6) The Lord Chancellor, one of the courtiers in Giacomo Puccini's (1858-1924), opera Turandot (1926).

(7) In colloquial use, to flick something, usually with a finger-tip.

(8) In colloquial use, to be detected committing an offence (by a police officer, an umpire or referee) and subsequently penalized.

(9) In internal combustion engines (also referred to as pinking, knocking or detonation), when the combustion of the fuel/air mixture in the cylinder does not begin correctly in response to ignition by the spark plug.  The usual form in this context is the adjective "pinging".

1835: Partly onomatopoeic (imitative of the sound of a bullet whistling through the air or striking something sharply) and partly reflecting the influence of the (continuing) Middle English pingen (to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite), from the Old English pyngan (to prick); used as a verb since 1855.  The meaning "short, high-pitched electronic pulse" is attested from 1943, the reference being to the sonar systems used on both submarines and surface vessels.  The noun plural was pings, the present participle pinging, the past participle pinged.  The non-standard forms are pang & pung (past participle) although one can understand why those learning English might assume they should exist.  Pingdemic was an invention of computer programmers.

The noun ping-pong was also based on sound and dates from 1901 as Ping-Pong, the trademark for table tennis equipment registered by Parker Brothers, both words imitative of the sound of the ball hitting a hard surface (said by some to have been attested since 1823; the game was much in vogue in the US 1900-1905.  In the figurative sense of "move or send back and forth without progress, resolution, or purpose", use dates from 1952, later extended (though a little more hopefully) to “ping-pong diplomacy” which referred to the US and the PRC (Communist China) agreeing to exchange ping-pong teams before sending diplomats.  The electronic arcade game “Pong” (1972) was an abbreviation of ping-pong although there is evidence pong had for some years been a truncated reference to the game proper.

Example of using ping to identify the ip address using the host name.

Ping is one of a small subset of commands which constitute the lingua franca of computer network administration software, included in almost all network tool bundles regardless of the local or network operating systems.  It is a utility which tests the connectivity and speed of a host running on any Internet Protocol (IP) network by measuring the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer, echoed back to the source.  Originally run exclusively from a command prompt, GUI (graphical user interface) versions have long been available and are handy for infrequent users who have never needed to memorize the syntax.  Ping sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to the target host and waits for an ICMP echo reply, reporting errors, packet loss, and a statistical summary of the results, most usefully the duration (in milliseconds) of the minimum, maximum & mean round-trips.

The name ping was a borrowing from naval sonar terminology that sends a pulse of sound and listens for the echo to detect objects under water to determining their location, direction and speed.  The sonar systems used at sea included audible pings and some computer ping utilities include one as a novelty.  The original software was a Q&D (quick & dirty) utility created in 1983 to diagnose tiresome problems on a network, the name chosen because the method was analogous with sonar's echolocation.  The occasionally mentioned Packet InterNet Groper is a backronym created some years after the first versions of ping were distributed.

Turandot

Turandot (1926) was Giacomo Puccini's (1858-1924) last opera and one which remained uncompleted at his death.  Puccini based the opera on the play Turandot (1762) by Venetian playwright Count Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) which borrowed from one of the seven stories in the epic-length work by Persian poet Nizami (circa 1141–1209), the motif of seven aligned with the days of the week, the Persian seven-color scheme and the seven planets at that time known.  Turandot as told by Nizami is the story attached to Tuesday, the protagonist a Russian princess (Turan-Dokht (daughter of Turan)), a name often used in Persian poetry for Central Asian princesses.  Puccini seems to have moved the site of his Opera to China for no reason other than his interest in incorporating into the work Chinese musical themes, much as he’d been attracted to Japanese sounds for his earlier Madama Butterfly (1904).  Most people on the planet have never heard of Puccini and his operas but many will be at least vaguely familiar with one fragment of Turandot, Nessun dorma (Let no one sleep), among the most famous of the tenor arias, because of the global broadcast of a performance during the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Puccini completed the three-act structure before his death and it was in this form it was first performed at La Scala in Milan in April 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), the conductor refusing to go beyond the point where Puccini stopped.  With an ending added by Franco Alfano (1875-1954), it was presented again the very next evening but performances have varied over the years, a few sticking to the original, some using one of the variations written by Alfano and others with different ending entirely, some better received than others.  Opera buffs and professional musicians have always been drawn to Turandot because it’s Puccini at his most musically innovative but audiences have never embraced it quite as they did the seductive butterfly which is a set-piece love story packed with melodies.  However, it’s now viewed also through a political lens, the specter of cultural appropriation and accusation of racial stereotyping looming over every aria.

From various stage productions: Ping, Lord Chancellor (baritone), Pang, Chief Steward of the Imperial Household (tenor) & Pong, Executive Chef of the Imperial Kitchen (tenor) are the triumvirate of courtiers in Puccini's Turandot.

The critique is that the depiction of a barbaric Chinese princess is an outdated orientalist construct of Chinese people and the idea of white people dressing and being made up as caricatures of those from the far east goes beyond mere cultural appropriation, the use of Chinese music, traditional dress and the perpetuating historical Western imagery being demeaning.  Beyond that, white audiences who are either oblivious to these concerns or dismissive of them are (at the very least) guilty of committing microaggressions and are casually asserting cultural superiority, if not actual white supremacy.

Groyne

Groyne (pronounced groin)

A wall or jetty built out from a riverbank or seashore to control erosion; also known as a spur or breakwater, acting as a "strong, low sea wall".  The US spelling is for all purposes: groin.  The noun plural is groynes.

1580s: Origin contested, some sources claim it’s an alteration of groin, the use based on a vague anatomical similarity.  The alternative etymology, this one linked to porcine proboscis anatomy, traces the origin to the Middle English groyn (snout) from the Old French groign & groin (muzzle, snout; promontory, jutting part) from the Late Latin grunium & grunia, derived from the Classical Latin grunnire (grunt like a pig).  It has troubled etymologists because the use of groin in the sense of "pig's snout" from circa 1300 was obsolete long before the 1580s.  All agree however the link of the Latin and French forms to the colloquial English grunter (a pig).

Groynes are fixed hydraulic structure extending either from a costal shoreline or riverbank which interrupt the natural water-flow, thereby limiting the movement of sediment.  Historically, groynes were made from timber or stone but synthetic materials are now also used.  Ocean groynes tend towards being perpendicular to the shore, extending from the upper foreshore or beach into the water where as riparian structures are often laid at more acute angles.  Groynes may be wholly or partially submerged and the space between two is called a groyne field although they’re generally built in a series, often in tandem with seawalls.

English spelling evolved under many influences and this produced anomalies and absurdities, some of which the Americans corrected and it would be nice if the rest of the English-speaking world could be convinced to adopt the more rational of their innovations.  However, like cheque & check, groin (part of a body or vault) & groyne (a breakwater) share one pronunciation yet more than one meaning so maintaining two different spellings seems useful.  It's one of those examples where the often commendable simplification of US English is not helpful.

Wypipology

Wypipology (pronounced wahy-pee-pol-uh-jee)

A (usually darkly) humorous slang term for the (uncredentialed) branch of cultural anthropology in which a “researcher”, usually a person of color, “observes or studies” the behavior of wypipo (white people).

2017: The construct being wypipo (African-American slang for “white people” generally, especially those perceived to be racist, unaware of their own privilege, or engaging in cultural appropriation) based on African-American colloquial pronunciation of the phrase “white people”) + -ology (formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy).  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  The alternative spelling is wipipology, a practitioner in the discipline is thus a wypipologist or wipipologist.

Michael Harriot, world-renowned wypipologist.

Technically, wypipology is a back-formation from wypipologist, the term coined by journalist Michael Harriot (b 1972), formerly a contributor to the Black-focused website theroot.com and still writing for certain mainstream publications such as the Guardian.  Mr Harriot appears first to have used the word on-line in 2017 although there are unattested references to instances of use in 2016; in his self-edited biographical note on the Root website, Mr Harriot describes himself as a “world-renowned wypipologist.”  The core of wypipology lies in creating something of a parody of (what to some extent may itself be a caricature) the manner in which generations of white cultural anthropologists and sociologists used a language of “otherness” to describe Black societies, contrasting the civilized (white) cultures with those of the Blacks which were characterized variously as uncivilized, primitive, backward, savage etc.

Due for publication in January 2023, Michael Harriot says his Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (HarperCollins, 288 pp, ISBN:0358439167) will be a comprehensive appraisal of American history in which the dominant narrative is directly confronted and corrected to showcase the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.

The point was not that white sub-cultures weren’t studied or observed; indeed, in the era of massive growth in sociology during the post-war years, many sub-sets of white society, divided across many lines, were the subject of many studies.  However, just as Edward Said (1935-2003) in Orientalism (1978) created a critique of the (Western) field of Oriental Studies in which he deconstructed the distorted cultural representations which he claimed were the product of centuries of Eurocentric prejudice against what lies east and south of Suez, Hariott identified the prevalent white attitude as one of cultural insularity which, combined with a feeling of superiority to non-whites, meant the prevailing attitude could be only inherently racist and oblivious to their multi-layered privileges of whiteness.  One advantage of Hariott’s wypipology was that it was couched in the style of darkly absurdist humor, not something that could be said of Said’s inch-thick polemic and the instances cited by an observant wypipologist might range from the ridiculous to the deadly.  In recent years, theroot has given awards to the white folks thought to have committed the most egregious offences but there were none in 2021, perhaps because Mr Hariott ceased his association.  

Variations on the idea of subverting the constructs of white civilization and their comparison with Black backwardness have often used the language of cultural anthropology and sociology to make the point: 

The fictitious tribe Nacirema ("American" spelled backwards) was first described in a satire of academic anthropology in the June 1956 edition of American Anthropologist and is still used in universities to demonstrate to students the extent to which they are racially pre-conditioned.  In a passage describing seemingly ritualistic practices involving cleaning the mouth, because it's written in a style usually associated with that detailing the practices of pre-modern people, most students when asked, associate it with Black people gathered in a clearing in the jungle.  It's actually a description of 1950s middle-class white Americans brushing their teeth.

Babakiueria (1986) (released on VHS Tape & DVD as Babakiueria (Barbeque Area)) was a satire in which the history of a white invasion of an indigenous nation was reversed.  The events stayed much the same, only the colors were changed.

The 1992 Austrian film Das Fest des Huhnes (The festival of the chicken) was a presentation of the customs and lifestyles of the "native peoples" of Upper Austria, described by a team of Black African anthropologists, using the language and style of white anthropologists.

Collar

Collar (pronounced kol-er)

(1) The part of a shirt, coat, dress, blouse, etc that encompasses the neckline of the garment and is sewn permanently to it, often so as to fold or roll over.

(2) A similar but separate, detachable article of clothing worn around the neck or at the neckline of a garment.

(3) Anything worn or placed around the neck.

(4) In law enforcement, a slang term for securing an arrest.

(5) In metalworking, a piece rolled to wrap itself around a roller.

(6) In biology, a marking or structure resembling a collar, such as that found around the necks of some birds.

(7) In engineering, a section of a shaft or rod having a locally increased diameter to provide a bearing seat or a locating ring

(8) In butchery, a cut of meat, especially bacon, from the neck of an animal.

(9) In ancient chivalric orders, a symbol of membership.

(10) In jewelry, an ornament for the neck, a variant of which is the choker.

(11) In rehabilitative medicine, a device worn around the neck to support the head.

(12) In architecture, a variety of beams and ties which are structural elements in roof framing between rafters.

(13) In baseball, a slang term for a player getting no hits in a game.

(14) In plumbing, a type of sleeve used to join two tubes.

(15) In industrial power generation, a piece of hardware used on power transmission devices as a mechanical stop, locating device, or bearing face.

(16) In the profession of the hangman, the knot of the noose (archaic).

(17) In extractive underground mining, a curb or a horizontal timbering around the mouth of a shaft.

(18) In botany, the neck or line of junction between the root of a plant and its stem.

(19) A ring-like part of a mollusk in connection with the esophagus.

(20) In nautical architecture, an eye formed in the bight or bend of a shroud or stay to go over the masthead; also, a rope to which certain parts of rigging, as dead-eyes, are secured.

(21) In financial market jargon, a trading strategy using options in a ways that there exists both an upper limit on profit and a lower limit on loss, constructed through taking equal but opposite positions in put and call options with different strike prices.

1250–1300: From the Middle English coler from the Anglo-French colier & Old French coler, derived from the Latin collāre (neckband, collar), the construct being coll (truncation of collum (neck)) + āre (neuter (as noun) suffix of āris).  Ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European kwol(o) (neck) which entered both the Old Norse and the Middle Dutch as hals (neck), literally "that on which the head turns" from the root kwel (move round, turn about).

The meaning "border at the neck of a garment” emerged in the fourteenth century and all meanings since are in some way analogous.  Collier exists in Modern French, again from the Latin; cognate with the Gothic hals, the Old English heals and the Spanish cuello.

Collars

Noted for slogans rather than imaginative linguistic flourishes, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian prime-minister since 2018), a confessed meat-eater, was so shocked at the tactics some rabid vegans had used to disrupt the slaughter industry's supply chains, he was moved to describe the protesters, inter alia, as “green-collar criminals”.  He’d likely have preferred to label them eco-terrorists and have them locked-up somewhere but may have been advised that might be unlawful or at least hyperbolic.  Interestingly the phrase “green-collar crime” is used both to describe some of the actions of activists and the environmental damage against which they’re protesting; it’s not clear which meaning will prevail and it's an amusing if confusing co-existence.

It’s among the most recent of the “collar” words, all variations of the old white-blue collar delineation (except the ecclesiastical dog collar which is from the nineteenth century).  Blue collar worker was used first in 1924 to describe the working class, an allusion to the hard-wearing blue denim they stereotypically wore.  White-collar worker was coined in the 1930s by US writer Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) in connection with those absorbed in clerical, administrative and managerial functions.  Used mostly in economics and sociology, the collars have been handy (if imprecise) definitional shorthand in both academic and other writing.

Blue collar:  Originally, a member of the working class who performs manual work and earns either an hourly wage or is paid a piece rate.  The labor market in recent decades has changed so much that for economists it may now be a useless or al least misleading term although culturally, it is still of real utility.   

White collar:  Historically, salaried professionals, office workers and management; ie clean, safe jobs in pleasant physical environments although for many, salaries were low.

Pink collar: Now probably obsolete, it described a member of the working class in the service industry in occupations such as waiters and retail or other roles involving relations with people.  Origin of the term was the need to describe the rapidly expanding employment in service industries during the 1990s and its overwhelmingly female demographic.  Now treated as sexist, there were suggestions it could morph into something gender-neutral but it didn’t work as well and is now close to extinct although the companion pink collar crime endures and remains a descriptor of white collar crimes committed by women where the loot stolen is of relatively low-value.

Gold collar:  A highly skilled multi-disciplinarian who combines the intellectual and practical skills of both white & blue collar employees.

Red collar:  Government workers of all types.  In China, it refers also to Communist Party officials working in private companies, the implication being they’re placed there for some party purpose; similar in both function and ultimate purpose but different in ideology to the old party commissars.  

Grey collar: Skilled technicians, typically someone whose role is a mix of white and blue collar (although some say the distinction between grey and gold is a bit vague; notion is that gold are higher paid than grey).  Like gold, grey collar is a recent invention which seems not to have caught on; both may die out.

New collar:  Jobs said to require the technical and soft skills needed to work with contemporary technology industry; often associated with a non-traditional education path.  Cynics suggest it’s there to describe university drop-outs whose start-ups work out ok.

Happy times in dog collars.  Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023, left) with his predecessor as Archbishop of Melbourne, Sir Frank Little (1925–2008, right).

Dog collar:  Christian clergy (although, technically, only a sub-set of the whole); now rarely seen outside of churches and courtrooms.  In the public consciousness, such is the association of the male clergy with pedophilia that the clergy, when out and about, usually do so in disguise (mufti).  That's actually not new.  One of the (many) reasons Jesuit priests were once so mistrusted was that they tended not to wear clerical garb, claiming the wearing of everyday clothes permitted them to be closer to the people.  Actually, it was just a trick so they could spy on them.

No collar:  Artists, the precariously employed and others who tend to privilege passion and personal growth over financial gain.

Orange collar:  Prison laborers, named for the orange jumpsuits most associated with inmates in the US prison system.

Green collar:  Workers in a wide range of professions relating to the environment and renewable energy.  Confusingly, green collar crime is used by both sides to describe the actions of their opponents in that activists refer to those accused of causing environmental damage as green collar criminals whereas the slaughter industry uses the same label for the radical vegans who disrupt their production or distribution.

Scarlet collar:  Prostitutes and ancillary staff (brothel receptionists et al included in an example of the way the "collar" labels are sometimes applied to industry sectors as well as specific occupations).

Black collar:  Originally used to describe manual laborers in jobs when workers habitually become very dirty although it has been extended to those working in the illicit black economy.  Of late it’s been applied also to (1) the pro-gun movement in the US, (2) artists who have adopted black clothing by choice and (3) those in insecure, low-paid employment.  The meaning may now be too diluted to be of much use.

Virtual collar:  Robots performing manual repetitive tasks, both physical and virtual but has been used also to describe the cheap, mobile technology capital uses as a tool of control.

Rainbow collar:  Workers in industries which serve or are most identified with the LGBTQQIAAOP community.  This was once a largely volunteer movement but increasing has a paid-labor component.  The adjectival rainbow, in polite society, has now wholly supplanted pink (eg the earlier pink dollar), partly because of the historical use of pink labels or descriptors by repressive régimes.  Pink collar was never linked with the LGBTQQIAAOP community and the earlier lavender collar enjoyed only a brief linguistic career.

Lindsay Lohan in army green, fur-collared jacket over blouse with metal studded collar, New York, March 2014.