Pandemic & Epidemic

Pandemic (pronounced pan-dem-ik)

(1) Of a disease, prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area (in modern use, now usually restricted to diseases spread over several continents, reaching epidemic level in at least two.

(2) In figurative use, general; universal.

1660-1670: From the Late Latin pandēmus (affecting all the people, public, general) from the Ancient Greek pandēmos (general) and the Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân) (all; equivalent to English pan-) + δῆμος (dêmos) (the people); the suffix –os was the adjectival form.  The suffix –ic is from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European –kos.  The form existed in the Ancient Greek as -ικός (ikós), in the Sanskritas as श (śa) & क (ka) and in the Old Church Slavonic as -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); a doublet of -y.  The suffix –ic is often added to words of Greek or Latin origin, but may be used regardless of source.  In modern English, there is sometimes the creation of redundant forms such as veganic (from vegan).  Related words include the nouns pandemia & pandemicity and the adjective interpandemic.

Epidemic (pronounced ep-i-dem-ik)

(1) Of a disease and affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.

(2) Extremely prevalent; widespread; a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something.

1595-1605: From the French épidémique, from épidémie, from the Latin epidemia, from the Ancient Greek ἐπιδήμιος (epidḗmios), from ἐπί (epí) (upon) + δῆμος (dêmos) (people) the Ancient Greek epidēmía translates literally as “among the people” but is often cited as “staying in one place”.  The early alternative forms epidemy and epidemick are long obsolete and related forms include the noun epidemicity, the adjectives interepidemic & preepidemic and the adverb epidemically.

Noted Pandemics

HIV/AIDS Pandemic (2005-2012)

Death Toll: 36 million; Cause: HIV/AIDS

First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic with some 35 million people living with HIV, the vast majority in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population (circa 21 million) is infected.  The AIDS death toll is thought to be understated because (1) dubious validity of statistical record-keeping in some countries (there are places where many deaths are not accompanied by a death certificate) and (2) a cultural reluctance among families to have AIDS recorded as the cause because of the association with homosexuality and IV drug use, hence the 1980s spike in recorded deaths from pneumonia.     

Flu Pandemic (1968)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Influenza

A category 2 Flu also known as “Hong Kong Flu,” it was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, an offshoot of H2N2.  It took only days to reach Singapore and Vietnam, and, within three months, had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the US.  Although wide-spread, it had a low mortality rate under 1%.  Worst affected was Hong Kong where 500,000 died, some 15% of the population.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.  Note the proxemics.

Asian Flu (1956-1958)

Death Toll: 2 million; Cause: Influenza

A pandemic of Influenza A of the H2N2 subtype, it originated in China, spreading from the province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.  Estimates for the death toll vary but the World Health Organization (WHO) lists 2 million deaths, 69,800 of them in the US.

Flu pandemic (1918-1919)

Death Toll: 20-50 million; Cause: Influenza

The best known pandemic, it infected over a third of the world’s population, killing between 20–50 million.  The mortality rate was a high 10-20% and unusually, where influenza had previously killed mostly juveniles, the elderly or already weakened patients, the 1918 pandemic disproportionally killed robust and healthy young adults, leaving children and those with weaker immune systems still alive.  The movement of vast numbers of people around the world at the end of WWI assisted the spread.

Sixth Cholera pandemic (1910-1911)

Death Toll: 800,000+; Cause: Cholera

Like its previous five incarnations, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic originated in India where it killed over 800,000, before spreading to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia.  It was the source of the last American outbreak of Cholera although effective public health measures there restricted the death toll to eleven.  Cholera, a classic Medieval disease, remains endemic in India.

Flu pandemic (1889-1890)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Influenza

Know at the time as Asiatic or Russian Flu and though once to be a strain of the Influenza A H2N2, it was an outbreak of H3N8.   The first cases were observed in May 1889 in three distant locations, Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan), Athabasca in north-western Canada, and Greenland. The rapid growth in urban populations provided vectors for the spread and although the first true pandemic in the era of bacteriology, while much was learned from it, it claimed over a million lives.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.

Third Cholera pandemic (1852–1860)

Death Toll: 1 million; Cause: Cholera

Probably the most deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, it was the third major outbreak in the 19th century.  Like the first and second, the third originated in India, before spreading with extraordinary rapidity through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.  A physician in England, where over 20,000 died, discovered contaminated water was the means of transmission.

Lindsay Lohan mugshot facemasks available through Redbibble.

The Black Death (1346-1353)

Death Toll: 75 – 200 million; Cause: Bubonic Plague

The Plague ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a death toll of 75-200 million, killing up to half the population of some European countries.  Thought to have originated in Asia, Plague was most likely spread by fleas living on the rats of merchant ships and in some countries, populations didn’t recover until the nineteenth century.  Now unknown in most parts of the world, outbreaks still happen in various places.

Plague of Justianian (541-542)

Death Toll: 25 million; Cause: Bubonic Plague

Thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities.  The first verified and well-documented incident of the Bubonic Plague, it reduced the population of the Eastern Mediterranean by a quarter and devastated Constantinople, where, at the height of the pandemic, 5,000 a day were dying.

Lindsay Lohan thanking the Dubai Police for their helpfulness during COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai, April 2020.

Antonine Plague (165 AD)

Death Toll: 5 million; Cause: Unknown

Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague affected Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is unknown. The disease was brought to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia.  The pandemic significantly weakened the Roman army.

Ensorcell

Ensorcell (pronounced en-sawr-suhl)

(1) To bewitch; to cast a spell.

(2) Figuratively, (ie not involving witchcraft proper), a  woman's ability to captivate or enchant another (historically a man or men).

1535–1545: From the French ensorceller, from the Middle French ensorceler (to bewitch), a dissimilated variant of the Old French ensorcerer, the construct of which was en- (from Old French en-, a prefixation of Latin in (in, into)) + the verb from sorcier (sorcerer; wizard).  The ultimate root of sorcier was the Latin sors (fate, lot; oracular response; destiny, fate or fortune of an individual), from the primitive Indo-European ser- (to bind).  The alternative spelling is ensorcel.  Ensorcell & ensorcelling  are verbs, ensorcelled is a verb & adjective and ensorcellment is a noun; the noun plural is ensorcellments.  In English, the French verb ensorceler has been used as a noun.  

Despite the pedigree of the words from which it comes reaching back to antiquity. the verb ensorcell (to cast a spell or bewitch) didn’t appear in English until the sixteenth century and then only briefly, use not revived until the nineteenth century when the explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) included it in The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince, a translation of a title of one of the Arabian Nights Tales (1885).  Ensorcell had appeared in Henry Torrens’ (1806-1852) earlier (partial translation) The Book of The Thousand Nights and One Nights (1838) which Burton had read and admired.  Prior to this, the only known instance in English was in George Puttenham's (1529-1590) Arte of English Poesie (1589), which was reprinted in the early nineteenth century and Torrens may have picked it up from there.  Thanks to the efforts of Burton, Torrens and others, in the imagination of the West, the art of ensorcellment became much associated with the women of the East, one of the themes Edward Said (1935-2003) would explore in his still controversial Orientalism (1979).

Victims

“She came forward swaying from side to side and coquettishly moving and indeed she ravished wits and hearts and ensorcelled all eyes with her glances.”  (The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince in Arabian Nights stories (1885) by "Scheherazade", translated by Sir Richard Burton).

Ensorcell is one of those words in English which may have proved useful had it ever come into general use but it remained rare and now inhabits the niche of translations of exotic texts or tales of witchcraft and sorcery.  For most purposes the many alternatives are preferable:  hypnotize, fascinate, enthrall, stupefy, tickle, bewitch, captivate, please, delight, beguile, cajole, wow, enrapture, attract, mesmerize, enamor, gratify, charm, entice & thrill.  However, the word can be used to discuss men who are victims of beguiling women and there have been many:

Men who have been victims of ensorcellment, clockwise from top left: Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) with Monica Lewinsky (b 1973); Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022) with Vikki Campion (b 1985), Welsh actor Richard Burton (1925–1984) with Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) (depicted here by Grant Bowler (b 1968) with Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) on-set in Cleopatera (1963) (Liz & Dick, 2012); & Daryl Maguire (b 1959, MLA (Liberal) for Wagga Wagga 1999-2018) with Gladys Berejiklian (b 1970; Premier (Liberal) of New South Wales 2017-2021).

Bill Clinton was one of the best & brightest minds ever to become POTUS but he was way too simple for Washington DC.  Anyone from New York could have told him there are low-risk ways to have affairs but if you have a fling with with a Jewish girl from Beverly Hills it's going to cost you something sometime.  So he's a victim but has only himself to blame, having already been ensorcelled by crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

Barnaby Joyce was a happily married man with four daughters until ensorcelled by his media advisor (a profession which appears to regard ensorcellment as a calling given their history with other National Party politicians).  Still, the adulterous couple later married and their two children were able to attend the wedding so all's well that end's well.

The other Richard Burton was the Welsh actor ensorcelled by fellow thespian Elizabeth Taylor.  As his turbulent life would suggest he wasn't one to learn from his mistakes because she managed twice to ensorcell him, their first marriage (1964-1974) enduring a little over ten years, the second (1975-1976) a bare ten months.  It was Dr Johnson (Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)) who said “A second marriage is a triumph of hope over experience.” and Burton doubtless knew of the quote so he too has only himself to blame.  When he died at 58 after decades of heavy drinking, it was said of him his body was like that of Randolph Churchill (1911-1968) who expired at 57: "Everything was just worn-out."

Gladys Berejiklian's ensorcellment of Daryl Maguire didn't end well with the former premier resigning after being found by the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) to have acted corruptly for, inter alia, an act of Billigung.  In the court of public opinion she did rather better, the consensus being something between "she was too good for him" and "what on earth was she doing with him?"  On-line and in print, there was much sympathy for her from other ensorcelers, anxious to assure her she wasn't alone and "every woman has had a Daryl"  Nobody seemed to express any sympathy for Mr Maguire so clearly the verdict was to "blame the victim".

Cyclops

Cyclops (pronounced sahy-klops)

(1) In Greek Mythology, a member of a family of giants having a single round eye in the middle of the forehead.  They forged thunderbolts for Zeus, built the walls of Mycenae and were encountered by Odysseus in The Odyssey.

(2) A freshwater copepod of the genus Cyclops, having a median eye in the front of the head (used with lower-case).

(3) A nickname (the literal translation of Antigonos ho Monophthalmos (382-301 BC) (Ἀντίγονος ὁ Μονόφθαλμος) being “Antigonus the one-eyed”) for Antigononso, a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great.

(4) A slang term for the brief (1940s-1950s) fashion for cars having a third, central headlamp.

1510s: From the Latin Cyclōps, from the Ancient Greek Kýklōps (round-eye), the construct being kýklo(s) (a circle, round) + ṓps (eye); the similar Latin construction was kuklos (circle; circular body) + ōps (eye).  The Greek and Latin forms for “round” were both from the primitive Indo-European root kwel (revolve, move around) while the words meaning “eye” were from the primitive Indo-European root okw (“to see”).  Among classics scholars, there is a faction which suggests the word is derived from an older source which originally meant “sheep thief.”  Both etymologies describe the Cyclopes suspiciously well and it’s not impossible the very name of the Cyclopes may have influenced and even distorted their original portrayal.

The adjectives cyclopean & cyclopic (of or characteristic of the legendary Cyclopes of Greek mythology) were from the 1640s and came to be applied in architecture and engineering to designs with a centrally located lamp or light although it was for a time in the nineteenth century used also to refer to vast or fabled gigantic structures of ancient masonry, irregular or unhewn, associated with the legends of the works created by the Thracian race of giants.  The plural form of cyclops has long caused disputes in English and modern style guides recommend using cyclops as both singular & plural.  Pendants of course ignore this and, depending on inclination make a point of using the unfortunate cyclopses but those who really want to display their learning will double down by using Cyclō’pes if writing of the creatures of the myths and cyclopes for all other purposes.

The so-called cyclopes cars were those (produced mostly in the late 1940s & early 1950s) with a centrally mounted headlamp, one of the many styling fads which flourished briefly.  Aesthetically, it didn’t work as well as the various arrangements with four headlamps and probably for that reason it’s never attracted designers looking for a retro-project.  On the 1948 Tucker 48 (Torpedo), the cyclopes light was connected to the steering a turned as the front wheels changed direction, an idea seen on the Cord L-29 as early as 1929 and which would be revived by Citroën in 1967 when the DS (1955-1975) was updated.

The Legend of the Cyclopes

The Cyclopes (the more familiar Cyclops is the singular) were gigantic, one-eyed beings with enormous strength. Originally, there were three of them: Arges (Thunderer), Steropes (Lightner), and Brontes (Vivid); blacksmiths the sons of Uranus and Gaea and the brothers of the Hecatoncheires and the Titans.  They were imprisoned by Cronus but released by his son Zeus, for whom they forged his famous thunderbolt as a sign of gratitude. However, later, poets would speak of a different type of Cyclopes, a race of dim-witted and violent one-eyed shepherds dwelling in the caves of the island of Sicily, the most famous of whom was Polyphemus, the Cyclops who fell in love with Galatea and was eventually blinded by Odysseus.

Rover 75 (P4) 1949-1953 (left) & 1950 JET1 gas turbine test bed.  The P4 in various versions was produced 1949-1964 but only the original 75 and the gas turbine test car were fitted with the cyclops headlamp.

Hesiod: Cronus and the Cyclopes

Fragment of wall painting in the ruins of Pompeii depicting the Cyclop Polyphemus and the Nymph.

Incited by his mother Gaea, the youngest of the Titans, Cronus, castrated and overthrew his father Uranus, establishing himself as the supreme ruler of all gods.  Fearing the might of his brothers, he imprisoned both the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus, setting the dragoness Campe to guard them for all eternity.  Terrified of his children as well, Cronus tried devouring each of them as soon as they were born.  There were various tellings of the Hesiodic legend but what is common to all is that there were three Cyclopes of the race of Titans, sons of Uranus and Ge, who forged the thunderbolts of Zeus, Pluto's helmet, and Poseidon's trident, and were considered the primeval patrons of all smiths. Their workshops were afterward said to be under Mount Etna.

Zeus, the Cyclopes, and the Titanomachy

Polypheme (circa 1880) by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898).

In time however, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires were released from Tartarus by the only one of Cronus’ children not to be eaten by him at birth: Zeus.  Zeus did this at the advice of Gaea, who had informed him that he wouldn’t be able to depose Cronus without their help.  True to Gaea’s words, the Cyclopes played a crucial part during the Titanomachy.  Not only did they side with Zeus in his war against the Titans, but they also forged Zeus’ mighty thunderbolt, along with a trident for Poseidon and a helmet of invisibility for Hades.  With the help of these weapons, Zeus and his party emerged triumphant from the Titanomachy, banishing the Titans to Tartarus once and for all.

The Works of the Cyclopes

Now that Zeus had become the ruler of the world, the Cyclopes could dedicate themselves fully to their talents.  They installed themselves in the forges of the divine artificer Hephaestus (under the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily), and, under his direction, they went on forging Zeus’ thunderbolts in addition to fashioning pieces of some of the other gods’ equipment (Athena’s armor, Ares’ chariot).  The Cyclopes were also believed to have built numerous monumental works all around Greece and Italy. Among the famous buildings attributed to them were the immense walls of Tiryns and the Lion Gate at Mycenae.

Death of the Cyclopes

It seems all three of these original Cyclopes met an untimely death at the hands of the Olympians.  First Arges was killed by Hermes while guarding Io against the lust of Zeus; then Apollo killed both Steropes and Brontes in an act of vengeance for the death of his beloved son, Asclepius.  In truth, the Cyclopes had nothing to do with his death, other than forging the thunderbolt which Zeus hurled in the direction of Asclepius.  But, obviously enough, Apollo couldn’t exact his revenge on Zeus himself, so Steropes and Brontes had to suffer his wrath in Zeus’ stead.

1948 Tucker 48 (Torpedo) (left), 1938 Tatra 87 (1936-1950) (centre) & 1951 Maserati A6G2000 Spider by Frua (right).

Homer’s Cyclopes

Homer’s Cyclopes were a race of unintelligent, ferocious (and not infrequently cannibalistic shepherds living on the island of Sicily (that’s not undisputed but it’s what’s inferred from the Odyssey and the later works it inspired). The most famous among them was their chief, Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa, and he had a famous encounter with Odysseus.

Portrayal

Cyclope (1924) by Francis Picabia (1879–1953).

Even though they also had only one eye and were as gigantic as Hesiod’s Cyclopes, Homer’s Cyclopes were neither blacksmiths nor obedient. Usually portrayed as violent cannibals, they led an unruly life, possessing neither social manners nor fear for the gods.  The chief representative of Homer’s Cyclopes was the man-eating monster Polyphemus, described by Homer as having been blinded and outwitted by Odysseus. Later authors make him a would-be lover of the nymph Galatea.  Predictably, it was the Nymph who attracted so many painters from the late Medieval period until well into the nineteenth century.

Polyphemus and Galatea

Long before being blinded by Odysseus, Polyphemus had fallen in love with a beautiful nymph called Galatea.  However, as it may be supposed, his actions were neither graceful nor acceptable to the fair maiden, who rejected them in favour of a youth named Acis, the handsome son of Faunus and the river-nymph Symaethis. Polyphemus, enraged and with his usual barbarity, killed his rival by throwing upon him a gigantic rock.  The blood of the murdered Acis, gushing from the rock, formed a stream which bears his name to this very day.

Polyphemus and Odysseus

Upon landing on the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus and his sailors found themselves entrapped in the cave of Polyphemus.  The Cyclops ate six of Odysseus’ men, and Odysseus had no option but to devise a quick escape plan.  So, one night, he intoxicated Polyphemus and pierced his eye with a wooden stake; the next morning, he told his men to hide under the bellies of Polyphemus’ sheep, and thus he managed to smuggle them out of the cave. It was because of this act that Poseidon, Polyphemus’ father, held a decade-long grudge against Odysseus, keeping him away from Ithaca and his beloved wife, Penelope.

1951 ZIL-112/1 Cyklon (experimental Russian car) (left), 1953 Ferrari 166MM/53 Spider by Abarth (centre) & 1958 Volkswagen Microbus (Type 2) with after-market central headlamp.

The texts

Odysseus in the Cave of Polyphemus (1635) by Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (1593–1678).

Hesiod’s Cyclopes are first described in the Theogony where their role in the Titanomachy is also briefly related.  Homer’s Cyclopes and the encounter between Polyphemus and Odysseus is told in full in the ninth book of the Odyssey. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes beautifully the Cyclopes’ workshop, and Euripides has written a whole comedy about the unruly Cyclopes (the only complete satyr play to have survived).

The Rolex Cyclops

Lindsay Lohan with Rolex Datejust; note the blue eyes.

Rolex regard their Cyclops date window magnifier as among the most iconic and quintessential of their design language characteristics although it began as just another example of normal product development, an innovation which enhanced the functionality of an earlier innovation, the realization the date aperture window could be hard to see and adding a 2.5 times magnifier to the crystal would make it much easier to read.  Introduced in 1945, the Rolex Datejust was the first wristwatch to feature a date aperture window complication and included also the Jubilee bracelet so named because it marked the company’s 40th year in business, the model also the Rolex to feature solid end-links although Datejust didn’t at first appear as a dial designation.  The feature was appreciated but the scale was, of necessity, small and for anyone with less than perfect eyesight, it could be a challenge to distinguish numerals; a 23 from a 28 for example.  The solution was simple but inspired, the “Cyclops” magnifier lens appearing on a new Datejust model, released at the 1948 Basel Fair, the name a borrowing from the one-eyed monster from Classical mythology.

Anatomy of the Rolex Cyclops magnifier lens.    

According to the official company history, it was the Rolex founder himself, Hans Wilsdorf (1881–1960), who developed the Cyclops because his second wife, Betty Wilsdorf-Mettler (1902-1989), found the small numerals “too hard to read”.  That may be true but Herr Wilsdorf was famously adept at marketing and may not have been adding his own myth to the one he’d borrowed from Antiquity.  If so, he certainly embellished the tale as imaginatively as the medieval scribes who invented their own stories about the ancient gods, the story being the solution presented itself one morning in his bathroom when a drop of water landed on his Rolex Datejust crystal directly over the date aperture window and he noticed it magnified the date.  Shouting “I got it, I got it!!!” to his wife, that day he had one of his craftsmen glue a tiny magnifying glass over the date wheel, and with that single prototype, the Rolex Cyclops Date window magnifier was created and almost as soon as patent application CH 298953 was granted, it was followed by a cautionary press release: “To all watchmakers: we draw your attention to the fact that the watch crystal with the specially shaped magnifying glass lens is a Rolex exclusivity protected in Switzerland and abroad. We will not hesitate to instigate legal proceedings against any counterfeiting.”  Proving that celebrity product placement is nothing new, Rolex had in 1948 presented Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961 and then US Army Chief of Staff) with the 150^th officially certified Swiss Chronometer and when it was returned to the then president in 1953 after being serviced, it had been fitted with both an updated dial and a Cyclops magnifier window.

Patent 298953, 2 August 1954.

Structurally, there have been changes as improvements in materials have made new engineering possible.  Vintage Rolex crystals were fashioned from an acrylic with the Cyclops lens molded into the form, rendering it thus unmovable but when the company switched to a synthetic sapphire crystal, the Cylops lens could be manufactured separately and then attached with a “space-age” glue, the last notable refinement being the addition of an anti-reflective coating on the bottom surface, making it visible under a wider range of lighting.  The Cyclops is now fitted almost universally to Rolex professional watches with a date aperture window, the only exception being the Deep Sea See-Dweller.

Attaché

Attaché (pronounced a-ta-shey, at-uh-shey or uh-tash-ey)

(1) A diplomatic official attached to an embassy or legation, especially in a technical capacity (often as a commercial attaché, cultural attaché etc).

(2) A military officer who is assigned to a diplomatic post in a foreign country in order to gather military information (historically usually as air attaché; army attaché; naval attaché, military attaché).

(3) As attaché case, a type of briefcase intended for carrying documents.

1825–1835: From the French attaché (plural attachés, feminine attachée), (junior officer attached to the staff of an ambassador (literally “attached”)), noun use of the past participle of attacher (to attach), from the Old French atachier, a variant of estachier (bind), from estache (stick), from the Frankish stakka (stick) (which was cognate with the Old Occitan estacha, the Italian stacca and the Spanish estaca, from the Gothic stakka).  The attaché case (small leather case for carrying papers) dates from circa 1900.  English, typically, picked up attaché unaltered from the French (although the spelling attache is now common) as did German, Polish and Swedish but other languages adapted as was suited by tradition or pronunciation including Georgian (ატაშე (aṭaše)), Russian (атташе́ (attašé)), Serbo-Croatian (ataše) and Turkish (ataşe).  In sardonic diplomatic humor, attaché was long regarded as a euphemism for “spy” and that, the humor and the practice, remains afoot.  Attaché is a noun and the noun plural is attachés (use in attaché case is not adjectival).

The attaché case and the briefcase.

Meme of Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles, 2013.

A Lindsay Lohan court appearance in Los Angeles in 2013 attracted the usual commentary (choice of hairstyle, clothes, shoes etc) but the attaché case carried by her lawyer inspired the meme community to create a spoof Louis Vuitton advertisement.  The mock-up, which appeared on the now defunct danielpianetti.com, used a courtroom image in which Ms Lohan’s seemed transfixed, eyes focused on the attaché case recumbent on the defense table.

Lawyer Mark Jay Heller with attaché case and rabbit’s foot.

Ms Lohan was represented by celebrity lawyer Mark Jay Heller (b 1945) who gained fame from representing “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz (b 1953) before becoming a staple of the paparazzi business and he recently resigned from the New York bar due to professional misconduct.  In 2013, his attaché case was notable for the white rabbit's foot key chain attached to the handle which Mr Heller said brought him good luck.  On 17 March 2022, a New York state appeals court accepted his resignation from the bar after he admitted several counts of misconduct including failing to communicate with one client and neglecting another.  The subject of a disciplinary investigation, he acknowledged to the court he had no defense to offer.  Luck had run out.  Mr Heller’s attaché case was a Louis Vuitton Serviette Conseiller Monogram Robusto, fabricated with a cross grain calf leather interior & a natural cowhide handle (part-number M53331).  It's no longer available but a similar item, suitable for tablets and smaller laptops is the Porte-Documents Voyage PM Monogram Macassar Canvas (part-number M52005) at US$1950.

The attaché case and briefcase have not dissimilar histories.  In the diplomatic establishment, attachés were originally junior members of staff (their dual role as covers for spying swiftly a parallel career path) who fulfilled administrative duties which included carrying the ambassador’s papers in as slim case which came to be known as an attaché case.  In the legal community, a brief was a summary of facts and legal positions supporting arguments in judicial proceedings, prepared by a solicitor and provided to the advocate who was to appear in court.  The “brief case” was originally a wooden box in the chambers of barristers in which the bound briefs were deposited but by the early twentieth century it had come to be used to describe the small, rigid bags which had become the usual device used by lawyers to carry stuff to court.  These quickly became an almost obligatory accessory for businessmen either successful or wishing to appear so and they remained part of the informal uniform until the 1990s when laptops and later tablets & smartphones began to supplant paper.  The look remains admired however and high-end laptop bags use many of the design cues from the briefcase, even down to that signature touch of the 1970s, the dual combination locks.

Between manufacturers, there’s no agreement on when the attaché case ends and the briefcase begins but it seems the attaché case is a small, slender suitcase which opens into two distinct and usually symmetrical compartments, made from leather or metal and definitely without a shoulder strap.  By contrast, a briefcase is a flat, rectangular container which opens to reveal one large compartment although the “lid” is likely to have pockets or gussets that expand to accommodate pens, phones and such, generating flexible storage functionality.  Historically a briefcase would not include a shoulder strap but many are now so equipped suggesting the laptop bag is a descendent of the briefcase rather than the attaché case.  For that reason, the attaché case would seem to be thought something slim and stylish while a briefcase must be bigger to accommodate not only documents but also the electronic devices of the modern age including accessories such as charges, power cords and cables.  Other manufactures however claim an attaché case is actually bigger than a briefcase and always includes a shoulder strap but this view seems unfashionable and may relate more to their product differentiation and naming conventions.  However, for those not bothered by fine distinctions in such matters, using the terms interchangeably will likely confuse few.

Although probably thought by many to be something which exists only in the imagination of spy novels, briefcase guns really have been a thing and along with other innovations like the poison-tipped umbrella, there are documented cases of them being used by Warsaw Pact counter-intelligence services.  Remarkably, though unsurprisingly, briefcase guns are available for purchase in the US and can in some jurisdictions lawfully be carried (being luggage this is most literal) provided it’s first registered under the National Firearms Act as an Any Other Weapon (AOW), the relevant clause being 26 U.S.C. § 5845(E): Any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive.

In this example, the weapon is a Heckler & Koch MP5 (Maschinenpistole 5), a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, developed in the 1960s and there have been dozens of versions, both automatic and semi-automatic.  Widely used around the world by both the military and in law enforcement, the MP5 has survived the introduction of its supposed successor (the UMP) and remain popular, a familiar tale in military hardware.  The MP5K (the K stands for kurz (short)) is locked into a claw mount with the muzzle connected to a tubular firing port.  Loading a magazine is said to be a clumsy operation with the MP5 in place but is possible although it’s noted the recommended 30-round clip is a tight fit, barely clearing the bottom of the case.  The trigger is conveniently located in the handle and connected with a mechanical linkage.  There’s a knurled button on the handle which functions as a kind of external safety catch because the fire mode is set prior to closing the case and spent shells are deflected downward so they can’t cause a malfunction by bouncing into the action.  Within, there’s a holder for a spare magazine and the briefcase is lockable (which seems a sensible feature).  It’s said to take some practice to achieve anything like the accuracy one could attain with a conventionally held MP5 but for the section of the target market which wants a sudden, rapid fire over a wide field, it’s presumably ideal.

Metadata

Metadata (pronounced met-a-dar-ta)

(1) In computer science (originally from the database discipline), information that is held as a description of stored data; data that describes other data, serving as an informative label.

(2) In surveillance and law-enforcement, an infinitely variable set of parameters about a file, directory or other cluster of data which constitute the structured information about the data.

2000s: A compound word meta + data. Data is the plural of the Latin datum (something given) and some pedants continue to insist on the singular/plural distinction in English though it seems a losing battle.  Data entered English in the 1640s as “a thing given”, technically the neuter past participle of dare to give.  The meaning in the modern sense of "transmittable and storable computer information" was first noted in 1946 and “data processing” dates from 1954.  Despite the origins, metadata is a pure English word to which the rules of English apply; despite the technical possibilities offered by reducing metadata to individual components, there’s no such thing as a metadatum.

Meta comes from the Latin meta cone (turning post) which, in ancient Rome was a column or post, placed at each end of a racetrack to mark the turning places and Meta, as an independent word in English was first recorded in 1875.  In English, meta’s meaning is derived from the Ancient Greek μετά (with, after, alongside, on top of, beyond).  With its wide range of meanings, meta appears in many loanwords from Greek, with the meanings such as “after”, “along with”, “beyond”, and “among,”, the prefix added to the name of a subject and designating another subject that analyses the original one but at a more abstract or higher level.  Related are the Old English mið or mith, German mit, Gothic miþ and Old Norse meth.  In modern use, outside of computer science, it’s something with refers to itself, especially in self-parodying manner.  The notion of "changing places with" probably led to senses "change of place, order, or nature," which was a principal meaning of the Greek word when used as a prefix but which didn’t endure in English.  Other languages picked up the word with localised adaptions: metadados, metadatan, metadatat, metadatahantering, metadataschema and metadatastruktur are all early twentieth-century creations.

Meta’s third sense is defined as "higher than, transcending, overarching, dealing with the most fundamental matters of," exits probably because of a misinterpretation of metaphysics as "science of that which transcends the physical."  This has led to the prodigious erroneous extension in modern use, with meta- affixed to the names of other sciences and disciplines.  It’s especially loved by people like pop-music and movie critics who adopt the academic jargon of literary criticism and affix it whenever possible, particularly, one suspects, when writing about foreign film.

Of Metadata

Metadata is simply data about data and broadly, there are three distinct types: descriptive, structural and administrative metadata.  Descriptive metadata describes a resource for purposes such as discovery and identification and can include elements such as the title, abstract, author and keywords.  Structural metadata is about containers of data and indicates how compound objects are put together such as the way pages are ordered to form chapters.  It describes the types, versions, relationships and other characteristics of digital materials.  Administrative metadata provides information to help manage a resource, such as when and how it was created, file type and other technical information, and rights of access.

The usual sources cite a variety of dates when the word metadata first appeared but all agree it’s an early twenty-first century construction, the most useful metaphor probably the index card from the old days of libraries when only printed material was stored.  An index card would contain what would now be understood as a book’s metadata: author, title, publisher, date of publication, ISBN, number of pages etc.  Interest in the concept by the computer industry increased during the 1980s when the volume of information stored in formats which couldn’t easily be indexed began greatly to grow.  Unlike text, which was inherently easy to index, stuff stored in pixel formats such as images or videos could easily be referenced only by things of limited utility, like file-names or creation date.  The growth of metadata was thus both technologically and behaviorally deterministic, actual metadata varying according to the data referenced.  The metadata of an image might contain information about camera model, lens type and exposure whereas software binaries might include internal revision numbers, compiler versions and external dependency links.

Three wise men, Australian experts in metadata.  George Brandis QC (b 1957; attorney-general-2013-2017), Eric Abetz (b 1958; Liberal Party minister 2001-2007 & 2013-2015) and Tony Abbott (b 1957; prime-minister 2013-2015).

For those unaccustomed to data-handling and the protocols of digital-storage, the idea of metadata could be difficult to visualize.  Unfortunately, those a bit baffled included some of the politicians who were passing laws imposing on internet service providers (ISPs) and others a mandated requirement to retain and subsequently make available to the authorities the metadata referencing the internet use of their customers.  Seeking clarity about the government’s new metadata retention laws, Sky News on 24 June 2014 interviewed the then attorney-general, George Brandis QC and the discussion was certainly revealing.  It appears someone had briefed the attorney that a good metaphor for the relationship between metadata and the referenced data was that between the addresses of sender and receiver written on an envelope (which could be read by anyone) and the letter inside which could be read only the recipient.  That was good, to the extent it was, but Senator Brandis seemed to think it meant the government could simultaneously record the web addresses (URLs) accessed by people yet have no idea of the content viewed.  There was a pythonesque quality to the interview.

George Brandis QC explains metadata: Edited highlights.

Much ado about meta

A photograph of Lindsay Lohan created 10 February 2017 with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III.  The full metadata appears below.

Facebook’s decision to adopt the brand-name Meta for its holding company aroused some interest along with much fear and loathing.  It does seem a commonsense change given the company’s plans to expand its activities in ways where a brand-name associated with something as specific as a social media platform might not be helpful.  The name Facebook has much history and a niche so defined it might be difficult to nudge perceptions whereas the hope is that meta will come somehow to define whatever it is Meta wishes to be thought of as doing.  Most obviously, that will include the metaverse which, despite the company’s explanations, remains mysterious.  The term metaverse appeared first in Neil Stephenson’s (b 1959) well-received novel Snow Crash (1992) which existed somewhere in the genre of science-fiction, the framework of which was two parallel worlds, physical reality and the on-line, virtual Metaverse.  The Facebook folk presumably read and understood Snow Crash in which the Metaverse is a tool of corporations and beset with corruption, secrecy and exploitation so hopes are that either they have a feeling for irony or they don’t take SF too seriously.

The metadata associated with Lindsay Lohan's photograph.

The possibly cultivated sense of mystery may not be deliberate but may be unavoidable given what Meta plans to do is no different from what would anyway have been done under the Facebook banner which had long been described as the "Facebook ecosystem".  Anyway, the metaverse is said to be something which spans the physical and digital worlds, something which has been the ongoing project of many for some decades and anything Meta has said so far doesn’t suggest anything new in their plans so while the metaverse is perhaps less interesting than some may have hoped, it’s also less threatening than some seem to have feared.  Like Facebook therefore although it's not fair to say it just a piece of re-branding.  The vision is of the internet in 3D with which users will interact through one or more avatars through abstraction layers created by adding to the long-familiar 2D environment a mixture of augmented & virtual reality (AR & VR).  The long-term plan is for the early-adopters to spend hours, days, weeks, months, years etc with the bulky hardware attached to their heads, the data harvested from their interactions training the AI software to be ready for a time when the required devices will no longer be large and heavy and may not even be external.  Assuming a critical mass of users of the desirable demographics find such an ecosystem addictively compelling, it's be a valuable space for a company to dominate.      

The concept of the digital ecosystems is well-understood and one is most valuable in the sense of revenue maximization when the number of users can be both increased and encouraged to stay, making a particular ecosystem their entire online environment.  This is done by giving people what they want and because a high percentage of people want a great volume with surprisingly little variation of type, possibilities exist.  Most people want to do a small range of things on-line, some of which are but variations on others, even much of what is fed to people as news is packaged in a way that it becomes just another form of the entertainment which is the overwhelming bulk of what’s consumed. 

Meta’s metaverse is just the latest attempt to corner an audience in the way that Amazon became a sort of shopping metaverse but the Microsoft Network is the classic case-study of the limits of what’s possible when ambitions are cast adrift from the moorings of behavioral reality.  In the early 1990s, in the days of dial-up connections and bulletin boards, Microsoft launched its own online service with the aim of supplanting the then-dominant CompuServe.  The Microsoft network (MSN) was conceived as a "closed system” with all content stored and maintained by Microsoft, access available only to paying subscribers.  The universe however was about to shift and the availability of browsers, useable by real people and not just nerds, easily to view the growing content of the internet via the world wide web (which recently had been bolted atop) was a momentous change to what on-line meant and rapidly the internet displaced the old private networks.  Had it been a company without the resources and critical-mass of Microsoft, the shock would immediately have been fatal to the project but Microsoft was able to persist, MSN an integral part of the much vaunted Windows 95, both debuting in August 1995.  Typically, the way Microsoft integrated the sign-up process into the Windows interface attracted the interest of competitors and the inevitable anti-trust action began even before the release.  Incredible as it now sounds, such was the faith in the proprietary MSN model that Microsoft by default didn't load the IP stack or include an internet browser with the early build Windows 95, responding only later to pressure with a more expensive version of the operating system with which one was bundled or a stand-alone installation which sold for a then expensive US$49.95.

The Justice Department need not have bothered with their investigation.  Although MSM did attract subscribers, fewer than 8% of Windows 95 users availed themselves of the easy one-click access; interest in the web was much greater.  By 1996, MSM had become a web-based service and Microsoft devoted much money (reportedly well over a US$ billion at a time when a billion dollars was still a lot of money) to making it the complete environment which users would never have to leave; the metaverse of its day.  It never worked although the purchase of hotmail for a then impressive U$400 million proved a useful platform on which things could be built.  By 1998 MSN was just another place to visit on the internet.