Axe

Axe or Ax (pronounced aks)

(1) An instrument with a bladed head on a handle or helve, used for hewing, cleaving, chopping etc.  Axes appear to date from circa 6000 BC.

(2) In the slang of jazz musicians, various musical instruments.

(3) In slang, dismissal from employment.

(4) In slang, any usually summary removal or curtailment.

(5) In rock music, twelve or (especially) six-string electric guitars, a device with both is called a “doubleneck”.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English ax, axe, ex & exe (edged instrument for hewing timber and chopping wood; battle weapon), from the Old English æx and æces (ie ces (the Northumbrian acas)) (axe, pickaxe, hatchet), from the Proto-Germanic akusjo, related to the Old Frisian axa.  All were akin to the Gothic aquizi, the Old Norse øx & ǫx, the Old Frisian axe, the Old High German accus, acchus, akus & ackus (from which modern German gained Axt) and the Middle High German plural exa.  Source was the Germanic akwiz, (which existed variously as akuz, aksi, ákəs, áks) from the Latin acsiā and the Ancient Greek axī́nē, from the primitive Indo-European agwsi & agwsi- (axe).  The word hatchet (a smaller axe) was an imperfect echoic, an evolution of the earlier axxette.  Squabbles surrounded the spelling in the twentieth century and in Modern English Usage (1926), Henry Fowler (1858-1933) noted with regret that while ax, though “…better on every ground, of etymology, phonology and analogy” appeared so strange to modern eyes that “…it suggests pedantry and is unlikely to be restored.”  The phrase "my grandfather's axe" explores the nature of authenticity, the expanded quotation being "This is my grandfather's axe; my father replaced the handle and I replaced the head."

The Axeman Cometh: Eighteenth century line engraving of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587; Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland 1542-1567) at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, 8 February 1587.  Perhaps remarkably, this image is available as a greeting card.

Although there was a long history of regicide, this was the first lawfully sanctioned killing of an anointed European monarch but it joined the roll call of botched executions, the decapitation requiring three blows with the axe rather than the “best practice” single strike.  The executioner’s first blow was misdirected and struck the back of her head and although the second almost completely severed the neck, a third attempt was needed for a last, recalcitrant piece of sinew.  Following protocol, the executioner took the head by the hair and held it aloft and spoke the words: “God save the Queen” (Elizabeth I (1533–1603; Queen of England & Ireland 1558-1603).  At that moment, it was revealed the luxuriant auburn tresses in his hand were part of a wig and the head tumbled to the floor, the deceased 44 year old having cropped, grey hair.  The reports of the aftermath of her death are contradictory with one account saying as she lay dead, a tiny dog she’d concealed in her petticoats scrambled from the folds, curled up in a pool of her blood and died but what is not disputed is the garment’s fabric was velvet in crimson brown, the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Roman Catholic Church to which she’d remained attached.  Her last words were: “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum” (Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit).2009. 

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin with Gibson EDS-1275 Doubleneck, Earl’s Court, London, May 1975.

The sense of an axe as a "musical instrument" dates from 1955, originally from the jazz scene where it referred to the saxophone, the now more common use to describe electric guitars emerging only in the summer of love (1967).  The phrase "to have an axe to grind" was first used in 1810 in a matter involving the US politician Charles Miner (1780-1865) but has since the late nineteenth century been often misattributed since to Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the latter in this case a victim of the phenomenon of "quotation celebrity" which affects also figures such as William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955).  In the case of the bard that always seems strange because all his words exist in print but it does seem that when some see a familiar fragment containing a word like "hath", they assume it comes from Shakespeare.

An Auburn haired Lindsay Lohan in crop top, AXE Lounge, Southampton, New York, June 2009. 

Battleaxes (don't call them old).  Bronwyn Bishop (b 1942) (left), Nancy Pelosi (b 1940) (centre) & crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947) (right).

The verb axe dates from the 1670s in the sense of "to shape or cut with an axe" and was a direct development from the noun.  The figurative use meaning "to remove" (a person, from a position) or "severely reduce" (expenditure) began circa 1923 and soon extended to the sense of severely cutting the levels of anything to do with money.  Surprisingly, there seems to be no reference to the noun axe-handle or ax-handle prior to 1798.  The noun battleaxe (also as battle-axe & battle-ax) was a military term which referred specifically to a weapon of war, typically a double headed device which cut when swung in either direction although, despite the way they're often depicted in popular culture, they weren't always large and heavy, something not surprising given soldiers' traditional preference for lightweight tools.  The figurative sense meaning "formidable woman" was US slang, dating from 1896.  Unlike most gender-loaded (this one by historical association) terms, it may in some circumstances be still OK to use because "formidable" does have positive connotations although anyone brave enough to try might be well-advised to field "battleaxe" rather than "old battleaxe" and let it do its work synecdochally.

Comrade Stalin (left), an ice axe (centre) and comrade Trotsky (right).

Comrade Leon Trotsky (1879-1940; founder of the Fourth International) in The Revolution Betrayed: What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? (1936) had a feeling for the political phrase and labelled the state created by comrade Joseph Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) a “Soviet Thermidor” because although Tsarist era capitalism wasn’t re-created (a la the monarchy in France not being restored in the 1790s), the combination of a bureaucracy supporting a personality cult (even if the latter was in 1936 still somewhat disguised) was “a counterrevolutionary regression” which betrayed what was achieved by comrade Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924; head of government of Russia or Soviet Union 1917-1924) between 1917-1924.  The phrase caught the imagination of many, notably those in the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (The POUM, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), a non-communist Marxist party (a surprisingly populated fork of left-wing thought) which comrade Stalin correctly associated with Trotskyism.  The POUM was highly productive in thought but drifted increasingly far from the moorings of political reality although rhetoric which included polemics like “Stalinist Thermidorians have established in Russia the bureaucratic regime of a poisoned dictator.”  Agents of the Narodný komissariat vnutrennih del (NKVD, The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs and one of the many predecessors to the KGB), answerable only to comrade Stalin, killed dozens of POUM’s Central Committee which ended the organization’s effectiveness for a generation.  In his prodigious memory, comrade Stalin filed away annoying phrases and in 1940 he had comrade Trotsky murdered in Mexico.  The murder weapon was an ice-axe.

Cloak and axe of Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779–1869), official executioner for the Papal States 1796-1864, Criminology Museum of Rome.  Woodcuts and other depictions from the era suggest the blood-red cloak wasn't always worn during executions. 

Giovanni Battista Bugatti began his career at a youthful 17 under Pius VI (1717–1799; pope 1775-1799) and diligently he served six pontiffs before being pensioned off by Pius IX (1792–1878; pope 1846-1878), his retirement induced not by the Holy See losing enthusiasm for the death penalty because one Antonio Balducci succeeded him in the office which fell into disuse only with the loss of the Papal States (756-1870; a conglomeration of territories in the central & northern Italian peninsula under the personal sovereignty of the pope), after the unification of Italy.  Unlike his illustrious predecessor, history has recorded little about Signor Balducci although it’s known he performed his final execution in 1870.  Signor Bugatti was by far the longest-serving of the Papal States’ many executioners and locals dubbed him Mastro Titta, a titular corruption of maestro di giustizia (master of justice) and his 69 year tenure in his unusual role can be accounted for only by either (1) he felt dispatching the condemned a calling or (2) he really enjoyed his work, because his employers were most parsimonious: he received no retainer and only a small fee per commission (although he was granted a small, official residence).  His tenure was long and included 516 victims (he preferred to call them “patients”, the term adopted also by Romans who enjoyed the darkly humorous) but was only ever a part-time gig; most of his income came from his work as an umbrella painter (a part of the labour market which still exists as a tint, artisan niche).  Depending on this and that, his devices included the axe, guillotine, noose or mallet while the offences punished ranged from the serious (murder, conspiracy, sedition et al) to the petty (habitual thieves and trouble-makers).

Cardinal Pietro Gasparri (1852–1934; Cardinal Secretary of State 1914-1930, left) and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943, right), signing the Lateran Treaty, Lateran Palace, Rome, 11 February 1929.

Although as early as 1786 the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became the first Italian state to abolish the death penalty (torture also banned), the sentence remained on the books in the Papal States; then as now, the poor disproportionately were victims of the sanction, similar (or worse) crimes by the bourgeoisie or nobility usually handled with less severity, “hushed-up” or just ignored.  With the loss of the Papal States, the pope’s temporal domain shrunk to little more than what lay around St Peter’s Square; indeed between 1870 and the signing of Lateran Treaty (1929) after which the Italian state recognized Vatican City as a sovereign state, no pope left the Vatican, their status as self-imposed prisoners a political gesture.  The Lateran treaty acknowledged the validity of the sentence (Article 8 of the 1929 Vatican City Penal Code stating anyone who attempted to assassinate the pope would be subject to the death penalty) although this provision was never used, tempted though some popes must have been.  Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) in 1969 struck capital punishment from the Vatican's legal code and the last reference to the sanction vanished in 2001 under Saint John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005).

Catafalque

Catafalque (pronounced kat-uh-fawk, kat-uh-fawlk or kat-uh-falk)

(1) A (temporary or permanent) raised structure on which the body of a deceased person lies or is carried in state.

(2) A hearse (obsolete).

1635–1645: The orthodoxy is that catafalque is from the seventeenth century French catafalque, from the Italian catafalco, from the Late Latin catafalicum (scaffold), the construct being cata- (from the Ancient Greek κατά (katá) (downwards (and used in Medieval Latin with a sense of “beside, alongside”))) + fal(a) (wooden siege tower) + -icum (neuter of –icus; (the suffix used to denote "belonging to; derived from or pertaining to"), from the Etruscan.  However, etymologists are divided on the origin.  Some believe English picked up the word directly from the Italian and not via French and regard the Italian of uncertain origin, the connection with the Late Latin only speculative.  From the Medieval Latin catafalicum Old French gained chaffaut & chafaud (scaffold) which exists in the Modern French échafaud (scaffold).  Catafalque (the rare alternative spelling is catafalco) is a noun; the noun plural is catafalques.

The coffin carrying Queen Elizabeth II, rested on its catafalque for the lying in state, Westminster Hall, London, September 2022.

A catafalque is the platform upon which the body of the dead lies before their funeral.  In the West the modern practice is for the body to be placed in a coffin but historically the body was sometimes wrapped and this remains the practice for burials at sea.  Catafalques can be elaborately decorated or constructed with austere simplicity and can be mobile or stationary.  Although associated with state funerals they are a common fixture in crematoria or chapels and exist so the coffin is permitted to sit at an appropriate height for ceremonial purposes, most obviously during “open-casket” services.  Those used by undertakers (funeral directors) are usually mobile 9on wheels) so the coffin may easily be moved from one place to another, by one staff member if need be.  Thus, any appropriately elevated surface used from the purpose can be thought of (if only temporarily) as a catafalque although the name-proper is attached only to dedicated devices.  A catafalque party is a military formation, traditionally numbering four (though it may be more or fewer) assembled to stand guard over the coffin while the body is lying in state or at some other site of memorial.

The 1865 (Abraham Lincoln) catafalque in 2006, after the most recent replacement of its fabric covering.

One catafalque noted for its longevity is that hastily (and, from the point-of-view of a professional carpenter or cabinet maker, rather crudely) fabricated was that used for the coffin of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) US president 1861-1865) and still in use today.  Of simple construction and using plain framing timber, it’s not at all ornate and gains its aura from the long history of use, having being used in the funerals of some four dozen US figures from politics, the judiciary, the military or society (most recently Senator Harry Reid (1939–2021; US senator (Democrat, Nevada).  Over the years, it has been enlarged and strengthened to accommodate increasingly heavy coffins and the fabric covering has several times been replaced but almost all the original structure remains so it’s not a “grandfather’s axe”.  The simplicity has sometimes been emulated with intent, Pope John Paul II’s (Karol Wojtyła, 1920–2005; Pope of the Roman Catholic Church 1978-2005) plain cypress coffin sitting atop a catafalque so basic it might have been built by Christ himself.  It’s thought JPII’s successor might choose something just as simple.

Voltaire's catafalque.

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778), the radical writer of the French Enlightenment, as controversial in death as in life, was buried quietly some way distant from Paris because his friends feared church and state would seek to deny him the proper rites of burial and it was only some thirteen years after his death, just after the French Revolution that his body was disinterred and moved to the Panthéon in Paris, a site created to honor illustrious citizens.  His catafalque was an impressive three tiered construction inscribed: ”Poet, philosopher, historian, he made a great step forward in the human spirit.  He prepared us to become free”.

David Lloyd George's funeral bier, Good Friday (30 March) 1945, Llanystumdwy, Wales.

In the context of funerals, definitionally, there is no difference between a bier and a catafalque.  Bier ((1) a litter to transport the body of a dead person, (2) a platform or stand where a body or coffin is placed & (3) a count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woolen cloth) was from the Middle English beer, beere & bere, from the Old English bēr, from the West Saxon bǣr (stretcher, bier), from the Proto-West Germanic bāru, from the Proto-Germanic bērō, from the primitive Indo-European bher (to carry, bear) and was cognate with the Saterland Frisian Beere (stretcher, bier), the Dutch baar (bier) and the German Bahre (bier, stretcher).  It’s thus functionally the same as a catafalque and the only point of differentiation in modern use seems to be the convention that catafalque is used when the funeral is grand while for more modest affairs (like David Lloyd George’s (1863–1945; UK prime-minister 1916-1922) “farm cart funeral”), bier is preferred.  The pyre (from the Ancient Greek πυρά (pyrá), from πῦρ (pyr) (fire)), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, made almost always of wood, constructed for the purpose of burning a body as part of a funeral rite and thus a form of ceremonial cremation.  Dimensionally, it may be far larger than is required for purposes of combustion because big fires were often an important aspect of the spectacle.

A member of Queen Elizabeth II's catafalque party fainted shortly before his shift was due to end.  He was not seriously injured.

Squoval

Squoval (pronounced sqwoh-vuhl)

(1) In cosmetology, a description applied mostly to describe the shape of certain fingernails and faces; essentially an oblong (a rectangle with partially ovoid shorter sides).

(2) In commerce, a trademark of the bicycle company Cervélo, describing the cross sectional shape of the downtube used in frame construction.

1984: A portmanteau word, sq(uare)- + oval.  Square was from the Middle English square, sqware & squyre from the Old French esquarre & esquerre, (which survives in modern French as équerre), from the Vulgar Latin exquadra, derived from the Latin quadro, from quadrus (square), from quattuor (four).  Oval was from the Late Latin ovalis, from ovum (egg); it was cognate with the French and Italian ovale and the Dutch ovaal.  Used both as noun and adjective, coinage is credited to Paula Gilmore, a noted manicurist (nail technician) and owner of Tips Nail Salon in San Mateo, California.  Squoval is a noun & verb, squovaled & squovaled are verbs and squovallike is an adjective; the noun plural is squovals.

Art of the fingernail

A pleasing creation, sqoval is misleading because it’s used to reference a shape which is actually a rectangle with the shorter sides defined by curves which tend to the semi-circular.  In geometry, such a shape is called a stadium, discorectangle or an obround.  It’s not to be confused with a square with rounded corners which, despite frequent use, is neither a "quartic" nor a "sqound".  A quartic is “an algebraic equation or function of the fourth degree or a curve describing such an equation or function” and sqound (a portmanteau word, the construct being sq(uare) + (r)ound is the ultimate niche word, the only known use by collectors of C4 Chevrolet Corvettes (1984-1996) describing the shift in 1990 from round to "square with rounded corners" taillights.  Mathematicians insist the correct word for a "square with rounded corners" is "squircle" (in algebraic geometry "a closed quartic curve having properties intermediate between those of a square and a circle").  The construct of squircle is squ(are) +c(ircle).  Few etymologists (and certainly no lexicographers) appear to have listed sqound as a "real" word but it's of interest because it's a rare example of a word where a "q" is not followed by a "u"; such constructs do exist but usually in the cases where initialisms have become acronyms such as Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services).  Such words do appear in English language texts but they tend to be foreign borrowings including (1) qat (or khat) (a plant native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, often chewed for its stimulant effects, (2) qi (a term from Chinese philosophy referring to life force or energy), qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying, towards the Kaaba in Mecca and (4) qiviut (the soft under-wool of the musk-ox, valued when making warm clothing).  

Squoval is thus a commercial descriptor in the fingernail business rather than a precise geometric description.  The basic rectangle metaphor is important in fingernail shaping because manicurists borrow from art and architecture the golden ratio which suggests humans find most aesthetically pleasing, shapes with an aspect ratio of about 1.6:1 which, coincidentally, is the relationship between a kilometre and a mile.  Nails can be shaped beyond the nominally perfect 1.6:1 but tend either to be thought exaggerated or created purely for artistic display, often to create a large surface for designs.  Manicurists, certainly in the Instagram age, are an imaginative profession and there’s been a proliferation of terms to describe species.  However, within the fingernail family, there are eight basic genera, practitioners inventing or classifying species as they emerge.  To date, the lipstick is the only widely-used form which is asymmetric.

The classic oval is said to be a symmetrical ellipse where the curve of the tip exactly mirrors the curve of the cuticle but, in real-world conditions, the former usually only tends to the latter.  The shape is natural, flattering and adaptable to both long and short nails.

Long coffins.

A natural coffin demands long nails with the fragility that implies.  The nail needs to be sufficiently long so both sides can be filed to a tapered point something like a stiletto before the tip is squared-off.  Because of that, they’re often constructed with acrylics.  Coffin in this context is actually a modern appropriation to describe what was historically known as the ballerina, a descriptor some European fashion houses still prefer but the Instagram generation has moved on and like coffin.  Coffins are rare worn in the elongated form.

Square nails provide a shape which is less susceptible to damage than many but doesn’t suit all shapes.  It’s best adopted by those with a narrow nail bed because the flat tip creates an optical illusion of additional width, making nails appear wider than they are.  Rarely seen variations include the cut out (a twin-peaked effect), the lipstick (uniquely, with an asymmetric tip) and the trapeze or flare (where the metaphor is the bell-bottom trouser leg).

A statement shape, something of a triumph of style over functionally, the stiletto gains its dramatic effect from long and slender lines and can be shaped with either fully-tapered or partially square sides.  They’re vulnerable to damage, breaking when subjected to even slight impacts and almost never possible with natural growth.  True obsessives insist they should be worn only with stiletto heels and then only if the colors exactly match.

Squovals in Dior 999.

With straight sides and a curved top, the squoval, while not as dramatic as a coffin, is good, functional engineering because its softer edges are less prone to snagging and tearing than those of a square and break less the more more delicate almonds.  Technically, the squoval is just a species of the square but its popularity meant it came to be classified as its own genus.

Usually very long, the almond has an elongated shape and a tapered tip.  Even when applied to nails with a narrow bed, they’re inherently weak at the tip so most are constructed from acrylics.  It’s a style which attracts many variations on the theme, often tending to a truer emulation of the nut at which point some should probably be classified as pointed.

Realistically, pointed nails, certainly in their more extreme iterations (sometimes called mountain peaks, edges, arrow-heads, claws or talons), are more for short-term effect than anything permanent.  Best used with acrylics, the knife-like style can be a danger to the nail itself and any nearby skin or stockings.  Those contemplating intimacy with a women packing these should first ponder the implications.

Lindsay Lohan with rounds, 2006

Rounds are less a style than a detailing of the natural human shape.  Usually worn short and simple and rarely needing an acrylic overlay, it’s a classic look with the added benefit of durability and low maintenance.

Strake

Strake (pronounced streyk)

(1) In shipbuilding, a continuous course of planks or plates running from bow to stern on a ship forming a hull shell, deck, etc.

(2) An iron fitting of a medieval cart wheel (can be used to describe any metal plate in a rubber tyre but largely obsolete).

(3) In aviation and automotive design, a type of aerodynamic surface mounted to fine-tune the airflow.

(4) In engineering, a shaped piece of wood used to level a bed or contour the shape of a mould, as for a bell.

(5) A trough for washing broken ore, gravel, or sand; a launder.

(6) A streak (obsolete).

(7) The simple past tense of strike (obsolete).

1300–50; From the Middle English strecchen from the Old English strācian or streċċan (to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate), thought derived from the Proto-Germanic straikōną & strakkijaną (to stretch, make taut or tight) and the Old High German streihhōn.  The primitive European root was streg or treg (stiff, rigid) from which also evolved the West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken, the German strecken, the Danish strække, the Swedish sträcka, the Dutch strak and the Albanian shtriqem.

1984 Ferrari Testarossa Monospecchio.

Pininfarina’s use of strakes on the 1984 Ferrari Testarossa was a piece of functional engineering to (1) optimize airflow to the rear-mounted radiators and (2) comply with regulations in some countries which limited the size of openings in bodywork.  The rear radiators replaced the single front-mounted unit used on the Testarossa’s predecessors (the 365 & 512 BB ranges 1973-1984) and that both simplified the plumbing and reduced the heat-soak into the cabin.  Ferrari applied the strakes to subsequent models but public opinion was always divided and the trend didn’t persist although their aerodynamic properties ensured their continued use on racing cars.

1962 Ford Mustang V4 concept car (left) and the 1964½ production version (right).

Carrozzeria Pininfarina didn’t invent either the concept of strakes nor even the particular form in which they appeared on the Testarossa.  Used for decades on aircraft fuselages to direct airflow, side-mounted grills in various shapes and locations had become common on mid-engined racing and road cars since the 1960s and fake versions appeared too, the original Ford Mustang featuring an entirely non-functional pair in a nod to the 1962 concept car with a mid-mounted V4.  On the original they had actually ducted air and on the production version, racers did find the affectation handy, modifying it to assist with brake cooling.

Willy Koenig’s take on the Ferrari Boxer.

By comparison, the Testarossa’s strakes were a more dominant part of the coachwork and clearly exaggerated to the point where they became a motif.  The blame for this unfortunate style has been attributed to German publisher Willy König (b 1938 (and in the English-speaking world usually spelt Koenig)) who turned his hobby of racing cars into a business, modifying a variety of machines for those who sought either more performance or a more distinctive appearance than that which came from the factory.  The strakes were one of his first flourishes in fibreglass, appearing circa 1975 on his own Ferrari 365 GT4 BB and soon on customers’ cars too.  His strakes and other modifications were much emulated during the 1980s, proliferating curiously on front-engined cars and there was apparently a receptive market which endures to this day in a niche, well-preserved genuine Koenig cars now having a cult-following, sometimes referred to as "drug-dealer chic".  It's an unfortunate association and most unfair to Herr Koenig who deserves fondly to be remembered for the remarkable and extreme machines his operation produced over decades. 

Koenig-modified Ferrari Testarossa, sans strakes.

Later, Koenig would, presumably as an ironic touch, add his custom touch to the Testarossa, removing the strakes to leaving reveal two gaping apertures.

Fibreglass after-market strakes in the 1980s: Some were worse than others.

1995 Ford F-350 XLT (7.3 litre Power Stroke V8, Crew Cab "Dually") with strakes.  

Few lamented the passing of the 1980s fad for glued-on strakes on Jaguar XJSs, Mercedes-Benz SECs, Porsche 911s and such and probably nobody expected a revival on a Ford F-350 ("Dually"), a large pick-up truck even by US standards.  The incongruity of the Testarossa's signature feature appearing on such a thing will polarise opinion but, because it's fitted with Ford's not quite indestructible but legendarily durable 7.3 litre (444 cubic inch) Power Stroke diesel V8 (1993-2003), many will forgive anything.  Whether the choice to fit the strakes was intended to be something ironic isn't known but, given the elongation on such a long chassis, they probably work better than than the stunted units applied in the 1980s on so many unfortunate coupés.  At this scale, the strakes work almost as an art deco motif.

Lindsay Lohan, straked by sunlight & shadow.

Lichtdom

Lichtdom (pronounced lish-dumm)

A visual technique using light to emulate large-scale architecture.

1934: The construct of the German Lichtdom was licht + dom (literally “cathedral of light”).  Licht (variously light, effortless, freely, easy, free; luminous; eye, clear, sparse, bright, light, shiny, light colored; distinct, plain, obvious, explicit, lucid, straightforward) was from the Middle High German lieht and the Middle German līcht), from the Old High German lioht, from the Old Saxon lioht, from the Proto-West Germanic leuht, from the Proto-Germanic leuhtą, from the primitive Indo-European lewktom.  The descendants include the Dutch licht and the English light.  The obsolete alternative spelling was Liecht.  The colloquial uses include describing candles and (in hunting), the eye of (especially ground) game.  The usual plural is Lichter but Lichte operates as a plural when speaking of candles.  Dom (cathedral; church; big church building; dome, cupola) was from the French dôme, from the Italian duomo, from the Latin domus (ecclesiae (literally “house (of the church)”)), a calque of the Ancient Greek οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας (oîkos tês ekklēsías).

Nuremberg Rally, 1934.

Of all that was designed by Albert Speer (1905-1981; Hitler’s court architect 1934-1942), little was built and less remains.  Although he would later admit the monumentalism of the Nazi architectural plans was a mistake, his apologia was always tinged with the regret that in the years to come, all he was likely to be remembered for was his “immaterial lightshow”, used as a dramatic backdrop for the party rallies held at the Zeppelinfeld stadium in Nuremberg.  Compared with what, had things worked out, he’d have been able to render in steel, concrete, marble and granite, Lichtdom (cathedral of light) was of course ephemeral but it’s undeniably memorable.  Speer created the effect by placing the Luftwaffe’s (the German air force) entire stock (152) of 1500 mm (60 inch) searchlights around the stadium’s perimeter and maximized the exposure of the design by insisting as many events as possible be conducted in darkness, the other advantage being the lighting disguised the paunchiness of the assembled Nazis, many of whom were flabbier than the party’s lean, Nordic ideal, something which anyway was suspect, one joke spread by the famously cynical Berlin natives noting that empirically a better description of the Nazi ideal was "as blonde as Hitler, as fit as Göring, as tall as Goebbels and as sane as Hess".

Nuremberg Rally, 1936.

Few were unimpressed.  Sir Neville Henderson (1882-1942; UK ambassador to Germany 1937-1939), the UK’s admittedly impressionable ambassador described the ethereal atmosphere as “…both solemn and beautiful… like being in a cathedral of ice.”  History though has preferred “cathedral of light” and brief views are captured in Hans Weidemann’s (1904-1975) Festliches Nürnberg (Festival of Nuremberg; a 1937 propaganda film chronicling the 1936 and 1937 events) which is mercifully shorter than Leni Riefenstahl’s (1902–2003) better-known works although the poor quality of the film stock used can only hint at the majesty achieved but the use of Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868) as a musical accompaniment helps.  Riefenstahl actually claimed she suggested the idea to Speer and a much better record exists in her film Olympia (1938) which documented the 1936 Summer Olympics at which the technique was also used.  Architects had of course for millennia been interested in light but apart from those responsible for the placement of stained glass windows and other specialties, mostly they were concerned with function rather than anything representational.  It was the advances the nineteenth century in the availability and luminosity of artificial light which allowed them to use light as an aesthetic element not limited by the time of day and thus the angle of the sun.

Speer had plenty of time to reflect on the past while serving the twenty years in Berlin’s Spandau prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a sentence he was lucky to receive.  His interest in light persisted and with unrestricted access to the FRG’s (the Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany) technical libraries, he assembled close to a thousand pages of notes for a planned book on the history of the window in European buildings, musing on variables such as the cost and availability of glass at different times in different places, the shifting cost of the labor of glaziers & carpenters and market interventions such as England’s notorious “window tax” which resulted in some strange looking structures.  Ever drawn to the mathematics he’d in his youth intended to study until forced to follow his father into architecture, he pondered the calculations which might produce the changes in “what value a square meter of light had at different periods” and what this might reveal beyond the actual buildings.

It was a shame the book was never written.  He recalled also the effects he applied to the German pavilion he built for the Paris World’s Fair in 1937, bathing it at night with “…skilfully arranged spotlights.  The result was to make the architecture of the building emerge sharply outlined against the night, and at the same time to make it unreal... a combination of architecture and light.”  It was at the Paris event the German and Soviet pavilions sat directly opposed, something of a harbinger and deliberately so.  He was nostalgic too about the Lichtdom, thinking it recalled “a fabulous setting, like one of the imaginary crystal palaces of the Middle Ages” although wryly he would note history would remember his contributions to his profession only for the ephemeral, the “…idea that the most successful architectural creation of my life is a chimera, an immaterial phenomenon.”  Surprisingly, for someone who planned the great city of Germania (the planned re-building of Berlin) with its monumental structures, the news that all that remained in the city of his designs were a handful of lampposts (which stand to this day) seemed something almost amusing.  In all his post-war writings, although there’s much rejection as “a failure” of the plan of Germania and the rest of the “neo-Classical on a grand scale” which characterized Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) vision of representational architecture, it’s not hard to detect twinges of regret for the unbuilt and sometimes he admitted it.  As he was contemplating a return to the drawing board upon his impending release, he noted: “Although I have had enough of monumental architecture and turn my mind deliberately to utilitarian buildings, it sometimes comes hard for me to bid goodbye to my dreams of having a place in the history of architecture. How will I feel when I am asked to design a gymnasium, a relay station, or a department store after I planned the biggest domed hall in the world?  Hitler once said to my wife: ‘I am assigning tasks to your husband such as have not been given for four thousand years. He will erect buildings for eternity!’  And now gyms!”  As things transpired, not even a gym was built and he instead wrote his history in text.  Of that piece of curated architecture, some were fooled and some not.

Tribute in Light annual commemoration, New York.

Dramatic though it was, the exact effect Speer achieved in the 1930s is so tainted by its association with the Nazis that few have attempted to recycle the motif although one pop-star used the effect as a visual backdrop in 1976 when he was going through a right-wing phase which he chose later not to mention.  Isolated or clustered beams are however often used and one display is an annual “Tribute in Light” to commemorate the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  It demonstrates the way the play of light can be used; depending on conditions, the light can bounce off the clouds, creating a very different effect than that afforded by a clear sky and it’s possible to render in those clouds a virtual oculus.

Tribute in Light annual commemoration, New York: The oculus effect.  Note the circling birds.

One problem with high intensity light the Tribute in Light has high-lighted is the way temporarily it messes each year with the migration of hundreds of thousands of songbirds.  The memorial uses 88 focused spotlights, the beams of which reach some 6¼ miles (10 km) into the sky and are visible from as far away as sixty miles (100 km).  Traditionally, the display was illuminated from dusk to dawn but of late it’s been switched off for twenty minute intervals in deference to the songbirds which in mid-September make their long flight from their breeding grounds in Canada's boreal forests to their winter homes in the southern US, Mexico, and Central & South America.  They fly mostly by night and it’s thought they’ve evolved to navigate by the stars but, unfortunately, are much attracted to light.  The Tribute in Light having more light than anything else at altitude, the display seems to confuse the birds and it was noted the death toll from birds crashing into New York windows increased every 9/11.  Observers found there was also an element of sound involved, the birds in the light issuing the call associated with distress, this tending to draw more songbirds to the light.

Tribute in Light annual commemoration, New York: Songbirds caught in the light.

Researchers used radar to quantify the effect.  Typically, the skies within a ¼ mile (400 m) of the un-illumined memorial contained around 500 birds but when lit, within 20 minutes, there were almost 16,000.  Extrapolating the data, it was estimated some 1.1 million migrating songbirds had been affected between 2008-2016, even accounting for the lights since 2009 having been shut-off for twenty minutes whenever volunteers count more than 1,000 birds in the beams.  It’s thought the death–toll from birds crashing into buildings is relatively low but there’s concern also the creatures are compelled to expend energy when circling the site, burning up vital energy needed for their long flights.  Shutting off the lights is thought to allow the birds to re-focus on their guiding stars to find their bearings and continue the migration south.  Bird lovers would prefer searchlights not be used at all and some sites have agreed not to use them during the migration season but there’s obviously much sensitivity around the 9/11 commemoration.  Human development of the built environment has for a long time influenced the migration path, the radar data confirming birds disproportionately choose to fly over cities, the researchers referring to the “almost magnetic pull of birds to light.”  We need to remember that it’s their planet too.

Fragment from Olympia (1938) with Lichtdom.

Funeral

Funeral (pronounced fyoo-ner-uhl)

(1) The ceremonies for a dead person prior to burial or cremation; the obsequies.  Technically, it’s distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the corpse although, for various reasons, this is not absolute.

(2) The processional element of such a ceremony.

(3) The sermon delivered at a burial (obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle English adjective funeral, from the Medieval Latin fūnerālia (funeral rites), originally the neuter plural from the adjective fūnerālis (having to do with a funeral), the construct being fūner- (stem of fūnus (funeral rites; death, corpse) + -ālis (the third-declension two-termination suffix (neuter -āle) used to form adjectives of relationship from nouns or numerals).  The origin of the Latin forms (In Classical Latin the adjective was funebris) is unknown, the common speculation linking to the primitive Indo-European dhew (to die).  The noun emerged in the early sixteenth century, probably from the Middle French plural funerailles, from the Medieval Latin fūnerālia, neuter plural of fūnerālis and the singular and plural were used interchangeably in English until circa 1700.  In Elizabethan times, funeral operated also as transitive verb in the sense of "to mourn".  The adjective funereal dates from 1725, influenced by the Middle French funerail, from the Latin fūnereus, from fūnus.  The Middle English forms from Latin via French displaced the native Old English līcþeġnung (literally the helpfully descriptive “dead body service”).

Funeral differs from burial, cremation, entombment, inhumation, interment & planting in that those words refer to a method whereas funeral concerns the ceremonial aspects; the words obsequies, sepulture & solemnities more synonymous although, historically, the closest was probably the obsolete exequy (the also obsolete exsequy the alternative form), a back-formation from exequies, from the Middle English exequies, from the Old French exequies, from the Latin exsequiās, accusative of exsequiae (train of followers).  Funeral appears in many European languages with the odd variation in spelling but in Portuguese, the velório (wake) is a more common reference.  The adjective funerary (pertaining to funerals or burials) dates from the 1690s, from Late Latin funerarius.  The adjective funest (portending death) emerged in the 1650s and had been obsolete since the late eighteenth century except as a poetic device; it was from the fourteenth century French funeste (unlucky), from the Latin funestus (causing death, destructive; mournful) from fūnus (“funeral rites" in this sense)  The related funestal was from a century earlier and died even sooner.  Funeral is a noun & adjective (the verb long obsolete), funereal, funerary & (the obsolete) funebrial are adjectives, funereally an adverb and funeralize is a verb; the noun plural is funerals.  The adjective funereal is used to refer to anything grim and dour rather than funeral as such and in idiomatic use, to say “it will be your funeral” is to suggest there will be unpleasant consequences if some course of action is followed.

In English, undertaker was an agent noun from the verb undertake, the early meaning, strictly speaking, "a contractor of any sort hired to perform some task" but it was applied mostly to those engaged is some sort of commercial enterprise.  There had long been instances of the use of “funeral-undertaker” but by the 1690s, “undertaker” had come to mean almost exclusively those whose profession was to “embalm and bury”.  Most etymologists conclude this organic shift to linguistic exclusivity came via the word being used as a euphemism for the mechanics of the profession, matters of mortality something of a taboo topic.

Undertaker faded from use as “mortician” and “funeral director” came to be preferred, firstly in the US with the latter soon becoming the standard form in the rest of the English-speaking world.  It was at the July 1895 meeting of the Funeral Directors' Association of Kentucky that it was proclaimed “…an undertaker will no longer be known as an "undertaker and embalmer." In the future he will be known as the "mortician."  This soon spread and the term undertaker is now almost unknown except in historic references or in figurative use in fields such as politics and sport.  In general use, the words "undertake", "undertaken" or "undertaking" are now used to describe just about any activity and with no sense of a taint of association with corpses.

In the narrow technical sense, even in modern use, the terms funeral director, mortician, and undertaker mean the same thing (a person who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals"  Nuances have however emerged, especially in the US where a funeral director tends to be someone who owns or operates a funeral home whereas the term mortician implies a technical role, a person who handles the body (the embalmer) in preparation for a funeral.  Often of course, these roles are combined, especially in smaller operations so for practical purposes, funeral director and mortician are generally interchangeable and the place a funeral director or mortician works is usually called either a funeral parlor or funeral home.  Although it would probably once have seemed a bizarre construction, there are also now funeral celebrants who officiate at ceremonies not (or only vaguely) connected with religious practice and are thus analogous to the civil celebrants who perform secular marriage ceremonies.  They're not directly connected with the school of thought which prefers to "celebrate a life" rather than "mourn a death" at a funeral, an approach which can be taken even in an overtly religious service. 

So it's largely a matter of how those within the profession prefer to style themselves and Funeral Director seems now the most popular choice although mortician remains widely used in the US.  Mirriam-Webster helpful suggests provides:

Funeral Director: A person whose job is to arrange and manage funerals.

Mortician: A person whose job is to prepare dead people to be buried and to arrange and manage funerals.

Undertaker: One whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals.

In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, a pauper's funeral was a funeral for a pauper paid for by the state, originally under the terms of the under the English Poor Law (last codified in 1834 but with legislative antecedents which stretched back centuries.  The common law right of the dead to a dignified burial was first recognized in England in R v Stewart, 12 AD. & E. 773 (1840) and was thus an early recognition of basic human rights.  The phrase "pauper's funeral" is now not widely used in formal discourse but apparently remains undertakers slang and, around the old British Empire, local authorities quietly conduct thousands of funerals a year.  Although not a "State Funeral" as defined, each is a funeral paid for by the state.

Top - Ceremonial funerals: Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) (left), Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021) (centre) & Baroness Thatcher (1925-2013 (right).

Bottom - State Funerals: George V (1865-1936) (left), George VI (1895-1952) (centre) & Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965 (right). 

So, when Lord Salisbury (1893–1972) was asked by one of Winston Churchill’s (1874-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) private secretaries what a State Funeral was, in answering “A funeral paid for by the state” he was only partly correct, a State Funeral in the UK requiring uniquely the consent of both houses of parliament: the Commons and the Lords Spiritual & Temporal.  In the UK, the state funeral has long been a rare thing and in recent years it’s become more exclusive still, Elizabeth II’s upcoming event only the sixth in the last hundred years of which two were not departed sovereigns, the last being Churchill’s in 1965.  The big, set piece, televised events which look like State Funerals such as those of the Queen Mother (1900-2002 and Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) were styled as “ceremonial funerals” and over the same period there have been eight of these.  There has been speculation about the form Elizabeth’s funeral (operation "London Bridge", planned since 1962) will take, some suggesting it will, befitting the end of an era, be a glittering, elaborate spectacle which will contrast with the later coronation of Charles III, that expected to be something simpler than the last in 1953, reflecting the changed times.  It's not known how many people, over the years, have been involved in planning "London Bridge" but as a comparison, some sources claim 277 souls were on the committee which designed the State Funeral of Kim Il-sung (Kim I, 1912-1994; The Great Leader of the DPRK (North Korea (1948-1994)).  

Not all jurisdictions treat them as such rarified events.  While governments have different rules for state funerals, few show the largess of the Australian states which grant them to well-behaved pop singers and reasonably successful football coaches though, being obviously symbolic, they serve many purposes: both Adolf Hitler (1889-1945, Nazi head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) and Comrade Stalin (1878–1953; Soviet leader 1922-1953) attended (as chief mourner) a number of state funerals where the deceased had been murdered on their orders.

Mormon Funeral Potatoes

Although often called Mormon Funeral potatoes (although the same general recipe also produces great potatoes, cheesy potatoes, hash brown casserole, cheesy hash browns & party potatoes), the unusual combination of potatoes and toppings is popular beyond Utah as a traditional potato hotdish or casserole in the US West and Midwest.  The name "funeral potatoes" comes from the frequency with which the side-dish is served at funerals where it's popular not only because of tradition but the ease with which it can be transported and re-heated.  It remains a standard component of funerals conducted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons).  Although there are variations, the recipe usually includes hash browns or cubed potatoes, some type of cheese, onions, a cream soup (chicken, mushroom, or celery) or sauce, sour cream, and a topping of butter with corn flakes or (latterly) crushed potato chips.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 50-55 minutes

Serving time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

20 oz frozen hash browns, slightly defrosted
2 cups of a cheese which melts well (cheddar, mozzarella etc)
1.5 cup of sour cream
1 can of cream soup (alternatively use 1 cup of stock concentrate and increase sour cream to 2 cups)
8 tablespoons of butter, melted
1 cup of corn flakes
1 cup of fried onions
Salt, pepper to taste

Instructions

(1) Pre-heat oven to 330^o F (165^o C) and butter baking tray.

(2) In large bowl, thoroughly mix hash browns, sour cream, chicken soup, dried onion, butter, salt and pepper and cheese.

(3) Put mixture in baking tray, spreading to an even depth.

(4) Evenly sprinkle cornflakes on top by gently crushing them.

(5) Bake for 50-55 minutes.  Allow to cool down for 10 minutes before serving.

The Machete funeral hearse

Lindsay Lohan in habit, emerging from hearse in Machete (2010).  The Machete hearse was based on a 1987 Cadillac Brougham (1987-1992).

Between 1931-1979, General Motors' Cadillac division offered a line called the Cadillac Commercial Chassis, a long-wheelbase, heavy-duty platform which was mechanically complete but with a partially built body (without bodywork rear of the windscreen, doors and other panels included on request).  Produced on the D platform (exclusive to Cadillac), the Commercial Chassis was used by coach-builders to create high-roofed ambulances, hearses (often called funeral coaches in the US) and cleverly designed hybrids which at short notice could be converted from ambulances to hearses or used by a coroner's staff to transport a corpse; they were popular in towns with small populations.  The early Commercial Chassis were based on the Series 355 (1931-1935) and the Series 75 (1936-1992) from 1936 and although there were specific modification to the frame, the mechanical components were always shared with the 75 which, used for the big limousines, meant costs were amortized across the ranges.  After 1980, production continued on the downsized platform but there was no longer a separate D platform, the partially bodied cars structurally identical to the mainstream line.  The landau irons (which some coachbuilders insist should be called "carriage bars") on the rear side-panels emulate in style (though not function) those used on horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles (the last probably the Mercedes-Benz 300 (the “Adenauer”; W186 (1951-1957) & W189 (1957-1962)) Cabriolet D).  On those vehicles, the irons actually supported the folding mechanism for the fabric roof but on hearses they are merely decorative, there to relieve the slab-sidedness of the expanse of flat metal.