Sponson

Sponson (pronounced spon-suhn)

(1) In naval architecture, a structure projecting from the side or main deck of a vessel to support a gun or the outer edge of a paddle box.

(2) In nautical design, (1) a buoyant appendage at the gunwale of a canoe to resist capsizing, (2) a structural projection from the side of a paddle steamer for supporting a paddle wheel and (3) a float or flotation chamber along the gunwale of a boat or ship

(3) In aeronautics, (1) a protuberance at the side of a flying-boat hull, designed to increase lateral stability in the water or (2) a structural unit attached to a helicopter fuselage by fixed struts, housing the main landing gear and inflatable flotation bags.

(4) A semi-circular gun turret on the side of a tank.

1825–1835: Origin unknown but thought a variant of expansion, most likely a form of imperfect echoic related to the regional accents of workers in ship-building yards.  The first sponsons were the platforms on each side of a steamer's paddle wheels.  Sponson is a noun (and curiously so is sponsing because it's an alternative spelling), sponsoning & sponsoned are verbs.  All subsequent derivations are based on the original nautical form. 

Boeing 314 Clipper cutaway.

Re-using some of an earlier design for a bomber which failed to meet the military’s performance criteria, between 1938-1941, Boeing built twelve 314 Clippers, long-range flying boats with the range to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  Although used by the military during World War II, most of their service was with the two commercial operators Pan Am (Pan-American Airways) and BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation).  Very much a machine of the pre-war age, the last Clippers were retired from service between 1946-1948, the advances in aviation and ground infrastructure built during war-time rendering them obsolete and too expensive to maintain.

Passengers boarding Boeing 314 Clipper via port-side sponson.

The sponsons built into the hull structure at the waterline were multi-functional.  They provided (1) a gangway for passengers and crew boarding and departing, (2) a stabilizing platform for the craft while moored or at anchor, (3) were an integral part of the aerodynamics, providing additional lift and thus were a kind of mini-wing al la the biplane and (4) served as auxiliary fuel tanks, the craft carrying some 4,500 gallons (20,460 litres) of aviation spirit.

Lindsay Lohan ascending ladder attached to a yacht's sponson while off the Sardinian coast, July 2016.  Because of the proximity to the water's surface, sponsons are often used for purposes such as ladders and mooring points for dinghies.

On watercraft, a sponson is an architectural feature extending from the hull or other part of the superstructure to aid in stability while floating or as a securing point for equipment.  Sponsons add stability when underway or at rest but some designs, notably those on high-performance craft, are there to make possible sharper changes of direction as they “dig in” (which is probably not the best phrase to use) to the water on the inside of the turn.  On some vessels, sponsons can even be essential to ensure seaworthiness because they can be used to provide additional buoyancy.  In some specialized applications (notably those designed for canals or other internal waterways) there are hull designs which actually wouldn’t float unless fitted with sponsons.  Sponsons can be designed to act as a protective barrier, shielding main hull from damage.  Essentially, this is a structural version of the car tyres often seen strung over the sides of vessels, a useful precaution to prevent damage which might be caused during low-speed docking manoeuvres such as docking.  It may sound an extreme approach but it’s almost always easier & cheaper to repair or replace a sponson than a hull.  When moored, large sponsons can also be used as an ad-hoc addition to deck space and it’s not unusual for them to be used as diving platforms or places from which to fish.

Flaccid

Flaccid (pronounced flas-id or flak-sid)

(1) Soft and limp; not firm; flabby.

(2) Lacking force; weak.

(3) Slang for individuals or institutions tending towards indolence, indecisiveness or bloat.

(4) In the fitness industry, lacking muscle tone.

1610–1620: From the Latin flaccidus (flabby) from flaccus (flap-eared) a construct of flacc(ēre) (to grow weak, to languish) + -idus (the suffix used to denote “tending to” (-idus (feminine); -ida, (neuter)).  English borrowed the word from the French flaccide.  The linguistic process(es) by which the meaning evolved from “flap-eared” is undocumented and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) suggests it was imitative.  Flacid & flaccider are adjectives, flaccidity & flaccidness are nouns and flaccidly is an adverb.

Flaccidity in Surrealist Art

La persistència de la memòria (The Persistence of Memory) is Salvador Dalí’s (1904-1989) most reproduced and best-known painting.   Completed in 1931 and first exhibited in 1932, since 1934 it’s hung in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  In popular culture, the work is often referred to as the more evocative “melting clocks”.

Surrealism’s intellectual undercoating was patchy, some of the latter output being openly imitative but with Dalí, critics seemed often ready to find something.  His "theory of softness and hardness" has been called "central to his artistic thinking" at the time The Persistence of Memory was painted and some suggested the flaccidity of the watches is an allusion to Einstein's theory of special relativity, a surreal pondering of the implications of relativity on our once-fixed notions of time and space.  Dalí was earthier, claiming the clocks were inspired not by Einstein but by imagining a wheel of camembert cheese melting in the Catalan sun.

Floret

Floret (pronounced flawr-it or flohr-it)

(1) A small flower.

(2) In botany, one of the closely clustered small flowers that make up the flower head of a composite flower, as the daisy or sunflower.

(3) One of the tightly clustered divisions of a head of broccoli, cauliflower. or similar vegetables

1350-1400: From the Middle English flouret & flourette (a little flower, a bud), from the Old French florete (little flower, cheap silk material), diminutive of flor (flower, blossom), from the Latin Latin flōrem, accusative singular of flōs, from the Proto-Italic flōs, from the primitive Indo-European bhel or bleh- (flower, blossom; to thrive, bloom), from bel- (to bloom).  The specific botanical sense "a small flower in a cluster" (as in something like a sunflower), dates from the 1670s.  The alternative spelling florette has been obsolete since the seventeenth century; in Italian the word became fioretto and in Dutch, floret.  Floret & floretum are nouns; the noun plural is florets.  

Cauliflower and Stilton Soup

Ingredients

80 gm butter, chopped
1 brown onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1¼ kg cauliflower, cut into florets
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 litre of vegetable stock
200 gm Stilton, crumbled (for soup)
200 gm Stilton cheese (for toast)
1 cup full-cream milk
2 tablespoons double-whipped cream

Instructions

(1) Melt butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add onion, garlic and oregano, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper, then stir over medium heat for five minutes or until onion is soft.

(2) Add cauliflower and parsley, then cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes. Add stock and simmer for fifteen minutes or until florets are tender, then reduce heat to low, add Stilton, and stir until well combined. Add milk and cook until just heated through.

(3) Ladle soup among bowls, top with a dollop of cream and serve with toast thickly spread with room-temperature Stilton cheese.

Serve with:

Small glass of Dry Sack Sherry before, glass of Pinot Noir after.

Floret fashion: Lindsay Lohan in an embroidered Valentino gown at the premiere of Netfilx’s Falling for Christmas (2022), Paris Theater, Manhattan, New York City (left) (the pairing of the gown with a metallic quilted shoulder bag was much admired) and strand of Delphinium in salmon pink (right).  The genus name was from the New Latin Delphinium, from the Ancient Greek δελφίς (delphís) from δελφίνιον (delphínion) (dolphin), the name adopted because the florets were thought to recall the shape of a dolphin’s back.  The name was chosen by the Swedish zoologist & physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778 and styled as Carl von Linné after 1761) who first codified binomial nomenclature (the system of naming organisms), thus gaining the tag “the father of modern taxonomy”.  The genus is within the family Ranunculaceae and in common use they’re often referred to by the Dutch name larkspur.

Confectionery & Confectionary

Confectionery (pronounced kuhn-fek-shuh-ner-ee)

(1) Confections or sweets collectively.

(2) The work or business of a confectioner.

Confectionary (pronounced kuhn-fek-shuh-ner-ee)

(1) A place where confections are kept, made or sold (obsolete except in retro-branding).

(2) A historic alternative spelling of confectionery (obsolete for centuries in this context).

1535–1545: Both words are constructs: confection + -ery or -ary.  Confection was from the Middle English confescioun, from the Old French confeccion, from the Late Latin cōnfectiōnem & cōnfectiōnārius (one who prepares things by means of combining ingredients according to method), (nominative cōnfectiō), from cōnfectus, past participle of conficere (to prepare), that construct being con- (with) + facere (to make, do).  Originally the meaning was "the making by means of ingredients"; the modern sense of "candy or light pastry" becoming predominant only in the early seventeenth century.  The use of confectionery to mean “excessive architectural ornamentation” dates from 1861 and was later used to condemn the excesses of 1950s US automobiles such as the Edsel although the confectionery played little part in its failure.  The adoption of “confected rage” in political discourse to describe "fake outrage" appears to have begun in the 1980s.  The use of confectioneress (a female confectioner; the plural confectioneresses) is dated and now rarely used but does still appear, apparently as a marketing gimmick including as the trading name of business outlets, their advertising usually featuring much chocolate. 

The suffix -ery was from the Middle English -erie, from the Anglo-Norman and Old French -erie, a suffix forming abstract nouns.  The suffix first occurs in loans from the Old French into the Middle English, but became productive in English by the sixteenth century, sometimes as a proper combination of -er with “y” (as in bakery or brewery) but also as a single suffix (such as slavery or machinery).  The suffix –ary (of or pertaining to) was a back-formation from unary and similar, from the Latin adjectival suffixes -aris and -arius; appended to many words, often nouns, to make an adjective form and use was not restricted to words of Latin origin.  Confectionery is a noun and confectionary are a nouns & adjectives, confectioner is a noun, confection is a noun & verb and confect & confected are verbs; the nouns plural are confectioneries and confectionaries.

Lindsay Lohan in a Michael Kors (b 1959) pussy-bow, polka-dot silk blouse with Valentino sneakers, enjoying a frozen hot chocolate, Serendipity 3 restaurant, New York, January 2019.  One visits a confectionary to admire, purchase or eat confectionery, confected by a confectioner.

1958 Buick Century Convertible: Laden with chrome and other ornamental detail, the 1958 Buicks were actually worse examples of excess than the more expensive Cadillacs of that season.  Although hardly restrained, in 1958 Cadillac laid it on with a smaller trowel than Buick.  Fortunately, 1958 proved "peak confectionery" year for General Motors (GM) although plenty of other excesses lay ahead.  

Convocation

Convocation (pronounced kon-vuh-key-shuhn)

(1) The act of convoking.

(2) The state of being convoked.

(3) A group of people gathered in answer to a summons; an assembly.

(4) In the Church of England, either of the synods of the provinces of Canterbury or York.

(5) In the Protestant Episcopal Church, an assembly of the clergy and part of the laity of a diocese.

(6) The area represented at such an assembly.

(7) A formal assembly at a college or university, especially for a graduation ceremony.

(8) In universities, a term used generally to describe the group (of the institution’s graduates and others) entitled to elect governing bodies such as their senate.

(9) In Indian institutions of learning, a degree-awarding ceremony.

(10) The collective noun for eagles.

(11) In historic Freemasonry, a meeting of companions of a Holy Royal Arch chapter of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.

1350–1400: From the Middle English convocacio(u)n (assembly of persons) from the Middle French convocation from the Latin convocātiōn (stem of convocātiō).  Old French picked up convocation directly from the Latin convocationem (nominative convocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of convocare (to call together), the construct being com (together) + vocare (to call).  Vocare was derived from vox (voice).  The form exists in many modern European languages; as well as the English and French convocation, there’s convocació in Catalan, convocazione in Italian, convocação in Portuguese and convocación in Spanish.  Convocation and convoker are nouns and convoked & convoking are verbs; the common noun plural is convocations.

The Holy Royal Arch

A Masonic faction, within Freemasonry the Holy Royal Arch is described as a degree.  The origins of Royal Arch Masonry and the Holy Royal Arch are murky and it’s known only that it dates back to the mid eighteenth century although fragments of Royal Arch rituals exist in Masonic literature from the 1720s.  The first historically verified appearance of was in 1743 when a “Royal Arch” was carried in a Dublin by “two excellent Masons”.  The appearance of the arch provoked controversy and attracted the disapprobation of Dr Dassigny in his critique “A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland” (1744).

Royal Arch Masonry was the subject of a long factional battle within Freemasonry and by 1751 the factions had coalesced into two, the older body paradoxically known as the Moderns, the newer the Antients (an even then archaic spelling of ancient).  Their disputes became increasingly circular and by 1813, Antients and Moderns agreed on an act of union and formed the United Grand Lodge of England.  The compromise became possible by the creation of a protocol under which the union would recognise the Royal Arch (to placate the Antients) but create it as a separate order (to appease the Moderns).

The recognition can be seen as a pyrrhic victory for the Antients.  By 1817, the faction had faded away and, although never formerly dissolved, the membership was soon absorbed into what had previously been the grand chapter of the Moderns with all forming as a group when members attend a grand chapter convocation.  The Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or has never denied being a faction of the Freemasons.

Sinew

Sinew (pronounced sin-you)

(1) In anatomy, the classical name for a tendon.

(2) Figuratively, that which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting factor or member; mainstay the source or an expression of strength, power or vigor (usually as in the plural).

(3) In literature, an alternative name for muscle.

(4) A string or chord, as of a musical instrument (now rare except poetically).

Pre 900: From the Middle English sinu, from the Old English seonowe, an oblique form of the nominative sionu (sinew) from the Proto-Germanic senawo.  It’s the root also of the Old Saxon sinewa. the Old Norse sina, the Old Frisian sine, the Middle Dutch senuwe, the Dutch zenuw, the Old High German senawa and the German sehne.  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European sai- (to tie, bind), source also of the Sanskrit snavah (sinew) and syati & sinati (to bind), the Avestan snavar and the Irish sin (chain); related was the Hittite ishai- & ishi- (to bind).  By the late fourteenth century, sinewy meant “made of sinews, and by 1570 the sense had extended to "tough and stringy.  Sinew is a noun and verb and sinewy, sinewed & sinewous are adjectives; the noun plural is sinews.

Lindsay Lohan Boxer by solidwheel02 on Deviantart, a little artistic licence taken with the sinews.  Still, either way, she looks good.

Arachibutyrophobe

Arachibutyrophobe (pronounced a-ra-chi-bu-tyr-o-pho-be)

One who suffers from the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth.

1977: A compound word, the construct being the Latin arachis (peanut) + butyrum (butter) +‎ -phobe (fear of).  The –phobe suffix was a combining form used to form personal nouns corresponding to nouns.  It was from the French phobe, from the Latin –phobus (fear; panic), from the Attic Greek -φόβος (-phóbos), combining form of φόβος (phóbos), ablaut variant of φέβεσθαι (phébesthai), middle infinitive of φέβομαι (phébomai), from the primitive Indo-European bhegw.  Cognates included the Slovak bežať (run), the Polish biec (run), the Lithuanian bėgti (run), the Albanian dëboj (throw out, drive away, expel, banish).  The related German form is -phob.  The –phobe suffix can cause confusion because it can mean, depending on context, either “fear of” or “hatred of” and is often used in a political context; an Anglophobe being one with a dislike of the English while an Anglophile is an admirer.  The –phile suffix is from the Latin -phila, from Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos) (dear, beloved).

Phobias

Phobias need not be widely diagnosed conditions; they need only be specific and, even if suffered by just one soul in the world, the criteria are fulfilled.  In this sense, phobias are analogous with syndromes.  A phobia is an anxiety disorder, an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to certain objects or situations.  The phobia may be triggered either by the cause or an anticipation of the specific object or situation.

Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998) introduced the culinary novelty of peanut butter spread on Oreos; an allure appalled arachibutyrophobes avoid.

The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)) made some interesting definitional changes from the earlier DSM-4 (1994):  (1) A patient no longer needs to acknowledge their anxiety is excessive or unreasonable in order to receive a diagnoses, it being required only that their anxiety must be “out of proportion” to the actual threat or danger (in its socio-cultural context).  (2) Symptoms must now, regardless of age, last at least six months.  (3) The diagnostic criteria for social phobias no longer specify that age at onset must be before eighteen, a change apparently necessitated by the substantial increase in reporting by older adults with the DSM editors noting the six-month duration threshold exists to minimize the over-diagnosis of transient fears.

Whether it was already something widely practiced isn’t known but Lindsay Lohan is credited with introducing to the world the culinary novelty Oreos & peanut butter in The Parent Trap.  According to the director, it was added to the script “…for no reason other than it sounded weird and some cute kid would do it."  Like some other weirdnesses, the combination has a cult following and for those who enjoy peanut butter but suffer arachibutyrophobia (the morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth), Tastemade have provided a recipe for Lindsay Lohan-style Oreos with a preparation time (including whisking) of 2 hours.  They take 20 minutes to cook and in this mix there are 8 servings (scale ingredients up to increase the number of servings).

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus more for dusting)
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Filling Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup unsweetened smooth peanut butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of kosher salt (omit if using salted peanut butter)

Filling Instructions

(1) With a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, the butter & peanut butter until creamy.

(2) Gradually add powdered sugar and beat to combine, then beat in vanilla and salt.

Whisking the mix.

Instructions

(1) Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

(2) In small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder & salt.

(3) In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture and beat until just combined (it should remain somewhat crumbly).

(4) Pour mixture onto a work surface and knead until it’s “all together”; wrap half in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

(5) Lightly dust surface and the top of the dough with a 1:1 mixture of cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

(6) Working swiftly and carefully, roll out dough to a ¼-½ inch (6-12 mm) thickness and cut out 2 inch (50 mm) rounds.  Transfer them to the baking sheets, 1 inch (25 mm) apart (using a small offset spatula helps with this step). Re-roll scraps and cut out more rounds, the repeat with remaining half of the dough.

(7) Bake cookies until the tops are no longer shiny ( about 20 minutes), then cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack completely to cool.

(8) To assemble, place half the cookies on a plate or work surface.

(9) Pipe a blob of filling (about 2 teaspoons) onto the tops of each of these cookies and then place another cookie on top, pressing slightly but not to the extent filled oozes from the sides.

(10) Refrigerate for a few minutes to allow the filling to firm up.  Store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.

The manufacturer embraced the idea of peanut butter Oreos and has released versions, both with the classic cookie and a peanut butter & jelly (jam) variation paired with its “golden wafers”.  As well as Lindsay Lohan’s contribution, Oreos have attracted the interest of mathematicians.  Nabisco in 1974 introduced the Double Stuf Oreo, the clear implication being a promise the variety contained twice crème filling supplied in the original.  However, a mathematician undertook the research and determined Double Stuf Oreos contained only 1.86 times the volume of filling of a standard Oreo.  Despite that, the company survived the scandal and the Double Stuf Oreo’s recipe wasn’t adjusted.

Scandalous in its own way was that an April 2022 research paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids wasn’t awarded that year’s Ig Nobel Prize for physics, the honor taken by Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji & Atilla Incecik, for their admittedly ground-breaking (or perhaps water-breaking) work in explaining how ducklings manage to swim in formation.  More deserving surely were Crystal Owens, Max Fan, John Hart & Gareth McKinley who introduced to physics the discipline of Oreology (the construct being Oreo + (o)logy).  The suffix -ology was 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).  Oreology is the study of the flow and fracture of sandwich cookies and the research proved it is impossible to split the cream filling of an Oreo cookie down the middle.

An Oreo on a rheometer.

The core finding in Oreology was that the filling always adheres to one side of the wafer, no matter how quickly one or both cookies are twisted.  Using a rheometer (a laboratory instrument used to measure the way in which a viscous fluid (a liquid, suspension or slurry) flows in response to applied forces), it was determined creme distribution upon cookie separation by torsional rotation is not a function of rate of rotation, creme filling height level, or flavor, but was mostly determined by the pre-existing level of adhesion between the creme and each wafer.  The research also noted that were there changes to the composition of the filling (such as the inclusion of peanut butter) would influence the change from adhesive to cohesive failure and presumably the specifics of the peanut butter chosen (smooth, crunchy, extra-crunchy, un-salted (although the organic varieties should behave in a similar way to their mass-market equivalents)) would have some effect because the fluid dynamics would change.  The expected extent of the change would be appear to be slight but until further research is performed, this can’t be confirmed.  The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will (as a webcast) happen on Thursday 14 September 2023, at 18:00 pm (US eastern time).     

Admiralty

Admiralty (pronounced ad-mer-uhl-tee)

(1) In military use, the office or jurisdiction of an admiral.

(2) In military use, the officials or the department of state having charge of naval affairs (not all of whom needed to be admirals); it was analogous with an army's general staff and an air force's air staff.

(3) In the UK, the building in which the lords of the admiralty, in England, transact business.

(4) In law, the branch dealing with maritime law; a court dealing with maritime questions (In England, when jurisdiction was under the division of Divorce, Probate & Admiralty, the lawyers' slang was “wives, wills & wrecks”); the system of jurisprudence of admiralty courts.

(5) In (historic) architecture, a frequent descriptor (Admiralty House, Admiralty Arch etc).

1300–1350: A compound word Admiral + -ty, from the Middle English amiralty, from the French amirauté, from the older form amiralté (office of admiral), from the Late Latin admīrālitās.  The best known sense, “naval branch of the English executive" dates from the early-fifteenth century, root of the word being admiral.  Admiral emerged circa 1200 as amiral & admirail (Saracen commander or chieftain) from the Old French amiral & amirail (Saracen military commander; any military commander) ultimately from medieval Arabic amīr (military commander) probably via the Medieval Latin use of the word for "Muslim military leader".  The suffix –ty is from the Middle English -te, borrowed from the Old French -te, from the Latin -tātem, accusative masculine singular of –tās; an alternative form of –ity, it was used to form abstract nouns from adjectives.  The first English admiral to appear in the records appears to have been Admiral of the Fleet of the Cinque Ports, Gerard Allard of Winchelsea, a royal appointment in 1300.  The Arabic amīr was later Englished as emir.  In another example of Medieval error, because in Arabic use, amīr is constantly followed by -al- in all such titles, amīr-al- was assumed by Christian writers to be a substantive word and variously Latinized.  The process thus was a shortening of the Arabic أَمِير اَلبَحْر‎ (ʾamīr al-baḥr) (commander of the fleet; literally “sea commander”) and the additional -d- is probably from the influence of the otherwise unconnected Latin admirable (admīrābilis).  For those stalkers who take selfies at locations used in movies (Instagram made this niche), the The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey (listed as the only waterside hotel in Los Angeles with a Five Diamond rating from the AAA) is at 4375 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey.  It has appeared in a number of productions (film & television), notably Lindsay Lohan's remake of The Parent Trap (1998).  Admiralty & admiral are nouns; the noun plural is plural admiralties.  When used as a proper noun (thus the initial upper case), in Royal Navy use, Admiralty referred (1) the historical naval bases established in the Far East: (1) HMS Tamar (Hong Kong) and (2) HMS Sembawang (Singapore).

Admiralty Arch, London.

An island rather than a continental power and later an empire, for England, the navy assumed an importance in foreign policy standing armies never did and the Royal Navy’s high command, the Admiralty, was for centuries entangled in both military and political matters.  The Admiralty no longer exists, absorbed in 1964, like the high commands of the other services, into the newly created Ministry of Defence.  Over the centuries, the structure of the Admiralty evolved as technology changed, threats and alliances came and went, budgets waxed and waned, political vicissitudes always hovering.  As a bureaucracy, the Admiralty has been staffed by a bewildering array of offices and titles including board members, presidents, sea lords, secretaries, civil lords, controllers, comptrollers, accountants-general, directors-general, storekeepers-general, surveyors, deputy chiefs, vice chiefs & assistant chiefs but in its final incarnation, under a First Lord of the Admiralty (a minister for the navy who sat in parliament and was thus political head of the navy) there were five admirals, known as the sea lords (of which there were eight lords during World War II; things were busy then).  The sea lords each enjoyed a sphere of responsibility for naval operations:

The First Sea Lord (later First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff), directed naval strategy in wartime and was responsible for planning, operations and intelligence, for the distribution of the Fleet and for its fighting efficiency.  He was the military head of the Navy.

The Second Sea Lord (later Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel), was responsible for manning & mobilisation and all personnel questions relating to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

The Third Sea Lord (later the Controller of the Navy) was responsible primarily for ship design and construction and most material matters including the Fleet Air Arm.

The Fourth Sea Lord (later Chief of Naval Supplies) was responsible for logistics, victualling and medical departments.

The Fifth Sea Lord (later the Chief of Naval Air Services) was responsible for all naval aviation.

Besiege

Besiege (pronounced bih-seej)

(1) In military parlance, to lay siege to (to surround a fortified area, especially a city) with military forces to bring about its surrender.

(2) To crowd around; crowd in upon; surround:

(3) To assail or ply, as with requests or demands.

1250-1300: From the Middle English besegen & bisegen, the construct being be- + siege.  The be- prefix is from the Middle English be- & bi- from the Old English be- from the Proto-Germanic bi- (be-) (near, by), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European hepi (at, near); source of the Modern English by.  Siege is from the Middle English sege from Old French sege, siege & seige (from which Modern French gained siège) from the Vulgar Latin sēdicum from the Latin sēdicŭlum & sēdēcula (small seat), from the Latin sēdēs (seat).  An alternative spelling during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was syege but it didn’t survive the evolution into Modern English.  Although not wholly synonymous, related words include encircle, beleaguer, beset, blockade, trap, harass, hound, plague, pester, invest, attack, congregate, environ, assail, encompass, confine, nag, importune, harry, trouble & harry.  Besiege, besieged & besieging are verbs, besiegement & besieger are nouns and besiegingly is an adverb.  

Historic meanings

Siege is one of the words in English which, purely by organic evolution, now has essentially one meaning (in both a military & figurative sense) but which, from time to time, enjoyed many meanings, all now obsolete.  They included:

(1) A seat, especially as used by someone of importance or authority.
(2) An ecclesiastical office’s geographical limits.
(3) The place where one has their home, residence or domain.
(4) A toilet seat.
(5) The anus; the rectum.
(6) Excrements, stool, fecal matter.
(7) Rank; grade; station; estimation.
(8) The floor of a glass-furnace.
(9) A workman's bench.
(10) A place with a toilet seat: outhouse; the loo, lavatory.

Besieged by demons: St Catherine of Siena besieged by demons, tempera and gold on panel by an anonymous artist from Lesser Poland, circa 1500.  On display in the National Museum, Warsaw since 1947.

Besieged by fan mail: Lindsay Lohan and the "Free Lindsay" campaign, Los Angeles, 2012.

Dispone

Dispone (pronounced dis-pohn)

(1) In common law, to convey legal authority to another.

(2) To arrange or set in order; to dispose (obsolete).

(3) In Scots law, legally to assign, make over, grant; to convey land, until 1868 an essential word in any valid conveyance of land in Scotland. 

Circa 1400: A borrowing from French, from the Latin disponĕre (to arrange), second-person singular future passive indicative of dispōnō, the construct being dis- (a prefix from the Middle English dis-, borrowed from Latin dis-, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and used in Latin and beyond as an intensifier of words with negative valence) +‎ pōnō (place, put); pōnō from the Proto-Italic poznō.  In Latin the construct was thus dis- (apart, away) + ponere (to place, put) and the word was used in Roman administrative law to mean "to arrange, distribute, or dispose of".  Over time, disponere evolved in various Romance languages, including Old French and Middle English.

Memories of the First Earl of Eldon, Bedford Square, London.

Dispone was a technical word in Scottish property law which, historically, implied the transfer of feudal property by a particular deed while not being equivalent to the term alienate.  Technical it certainly was and whatever the legal theory, the distinction seems to have had no practical purpose and Lord Eldon (1751-1838; Lord Chancellor 1801-1806 & 1807-1827), eventually clarified things by noting “with respect to the word dispone, if I collect the opinions of a majority of the judges rightly, I am of opinion that the word dispone would have the same effect as the word alienate.”  From that point on, the disponer or maker of the deed “sells and dispones,” or, where the deed was gratuitous, “gives, grants, and dispones,” the subject of the deed to the receiver, who technically was called the disponee.  As verbs the difference between convey and dispone is that convey is to transport; to carry; to take from one place to another while dispone is to convey legal authority to another.  A pone was conceptually similar but did not involve real property.  A pone was a common law writ, from the Anglo-Norman pone and its source, the Late Latin pone, from the Latin pōne, imperative form of pōnere (to place).  It had two forms, (1) a writ used by the superior courts to remove cases from inferior courts and (2) a writ to enforce appearance in court by attaching goods or requiring securities.