Argyle

Argyle (pronounced ahr-gahyl)

(1) A diamond-shaped pattern of two or more colors, used in knitted socks, sweaters and a design motif for other purposes.

(2) Specifically, a sock made with this pattern (often in the plural); now increasingly used also of sweaters.

1790s: A adapted variant of the surname Argyll, so called because the original design closely emulated the clan tartan associated with the name.  Argyle does exist as a surname & given name where it is capitalized but this is now sometimes also the practice when referring (as a noun) to garments (though never as a adjective).  The surname Argyle was from the Middle English erguil & erguile, a variant of the Middle English orguil & orguile, from the Old French orguel (pride arrogance), thus the variation of Argill and Argile with Orgill.  There is an alternative suggestion of a link to Arkell (with a voicing of “k” to “g”) but it’s thought either speculative or an unjustified generalization from what may have been a genealogical cul-de-sac.  Nor is there evidence has to support the notion of it being a habitational name from Argyll, the county of south-west Scotland although folk etymology may have influenced the modern spelling of the surname, something not uncommon, even as late as the nineteenth century.  Argyle is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is argyles.

Lindsay Lohan in an argyle-patterned Harlequin Sequin Tunic (a long vest or mini-dress depending on pairings or circumstances) by Topshop, the shoes are Lanvin platform peep-toe pumps in suede: New Year's Party at the Mansion nightclub, South Beach, Miami Beach Florida, 31 December, 2008.

As a given name, Argyle’s origins are Scottish, meaning “from the land of the Gauls”.  When used as a locality name outside the British Isles, Argyle was usually a borrowing from there although the Canadian municipality of Argyle was named after Governor-General of Canada, John Campbell (1845-1914), ninth Duke of Argyll.  Argyle socks were first so described in that form in 1935, the use as a general descriptor for other garments (mostly sweaters but also shirts, skirts etc) emerged in the post-war years.  It’d long been used with fabric sold in bolts and other products (blankets, table cloths, mufflers etc).  The argyle (diamond-shaped in two or more colors in fabric) pattern was influenced by the tartan which came to be associated with the Argyll branch of the Campbell clan of Argyll, Scotland.  The place name translates literally as "land of the Gaels", the first element from the Old Irish airer (country).  The surname Campbell was from the Scottish Gaelic Caimbeul, the construct being cam (crooked) + beul (mouth) and is often compared with Cameron, the construct being the Scottish Gaelic cam + sròn (nose).  Etymologists have concluded crooked in this context was a literal rather than a figurative reference.

Despite the perception of many (encouraged by the depictions in popular culture), tartan in the sense of specific color & pattern combinations attached to specific clans is something of recent origin.  Tartan (breacan (pɾʲɛxkən) in Scots Gaelic) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours.  The word plaid is now often used interchangeably with tartan (particularly in North America and when not associated with anything Scottish (especially kilts)), but technically (and always in Scotland), a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth, worn as a type of kilt or large shawl although it’s also used to describe a blanket.  During the disputes between England and Scotland, the wearing of tartan became a political expression and the Dress Act (1746) was part of the campaign to suppress the warrior clans north of the border; it banned tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. The law was repealed in 1782 and tartan was soon adopted as both the symbolic national dress of Scotland and in imagery more generally.

Argyll No.230.  Records from 1850 lists the pattern Argyll No.230 as Cawdor Campbell and it was in the pattern books of a Bannockburn weaver printed in 1819 and the earliest known reference to an (un-illustrated) “Argyll tartan” dates from 1798.  In documents from 1906 it was referred to as the “Argyll District tartan” and was said to have been adopted by other clans but this is disputed.

Although there’s now an industry devoted to the tartans of the clans, the specific association of patterns with clans and families began only in the mid-nineteenth century.  This history was both technological and economic deterministic.  Unlike some fabrics, tartans were produced by local weavers for local sale, using only the natural dyes available in that geographical area and patterns were just designs chosen by the buyer.  It was only with a broader availability of synthetic dyes that many patterns were created these began (somewhat artificially) to become associated with Scottish clans, families, or institutions wishing to emphasize their Scottish heritage.  The heritage was usually real but not often specific to a particular tartan, the mid-nineteenth century interest in the fabrics a kind of manufactured nostalgia.

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert (b 1982)) in Mean Girls (2004) liked the diamond look, wearing two different argyle sweaters and one skirt with the pattern.

One aspect of the fashions of Mean Girls which did attract comment was that the Plastics, despite having many self-imposed rules on matters sartorial, apparently placed no restrictions on repeating a outfit within a short time although the argyle sweater was one of the few pieces of note worn by the protagonists which made a second appearance.

2022 Mercedes-Maybach 600 Pullman (left), after-market seat covers (centre) and 2005 Bentley Arnage T Mulliner (right).

Early in the twenty-first century, high-end car manufacturers embraced quilted leather with great enthusiasm and the trend, although criticized by some, shows little sign of fading.  Some third-party manufacturers of seat-covers have, with variable results, embraced two-tone color schemes in variants of the traditional argyle but, perhaps fortunately, this seems not to have inspired emulation by the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) which for a while seemed fixated on the "quilted" look.

High-priced plaid

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198) trimmed in blue-grey plaid.  The factory option codes for the plaid were L1 Blaugrau (blue-grey), L2 Rot-Grün (red-green) & L3 Grün-Beige (green-beige).

Buyers of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198, 1954-1957) had the choice of seats covered in leather or plaid cloth.  In the years since, many Gullwings originally fitted with plaid upholstery were re-trimmed in leather during refurbishment or restoration, partly because the leather was thought to have more of a allure but also because for decades fabrics exactly matching what was available in the 1950s had become unobtainable ("unobtainium" thus the preferred industry term).  However, in 2018, in what was said to be a response to "demand", Daimler announced bolts replicating exactly the original three designs (L1 Blaugrau (blue-grey), L2 Rot-Grün (red-green) & L3 Grün-Beige (green-beige)) would again be available as factory part-numbers.  Manufactured to the 1955 specification using an odor-neutral wool yarn woven into a four-ply, double weave twill, it’s claimed to be a “very robust material”.  In the era, the blue-grey fabric was the most popular, fitted to 80% of 300SLs not trimmed in leather while the red-green and green-beige combinations were requested respectively only by 14 & 6% of buyers.  The price (quoted in 2018 at US$229 per yard) was indicative of the product’s niche market but for those restoring a 300 SL to its original appearance, it's a bargain.  The fabric may be ordered from the Mercedes-Benz Klassisches Zentrum (Classic Center).

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198; chassis 5500428; Engine 198.980.5500455 & body 5500411 and factory-fitted with the Rudge Wheel option), refurbished by Paul Russell & Company, Essex, Massachusetts (Leder rot (red leather) 1079 (left) and non-original Rot-Weiß (red-white plaid) (right)) .  Note the strapped-down luggage in the "head-rest" position.

Now bolts of fabric replicating the construction and appearance of the originals are available, restorers are able even more closely to replicate the appearance of seven-odd decades ago.  With chassis 5500428, Paul Russell & Company re-painted and re-trimmed to the original factory specifications (Graphitgrau (Graphite Grey) DB190 over Leder rot (red leather) 1079) but also included an interchangeable set of seat cushions and squabs in a non-original red-white plaid.  The company also fabricated a reproduction of the matching luggage set and while restorers have long been able, at a price, to recreate just about anything constructed from metal, timber and metal, in recent years the industry has been transformed with the advent of large scale 3D printers meaning even plastic parts can be formed from either specifications of scans of an original.  The 1955 design for the location of the luggage was thoughtful and a fine example of space utilization but, cognizant of Sir Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) laws of motion, today's regulators would be less than pleased.  In April, 2025, the car was offered for sale on the Bring-a-Trailer on-line auction site.

The part-numbers for the bolts of fabric: L1 Blue-Grey (A 000 983 44 86 / 5000), L2 Red-Green (A 000 983 44 86 / 3000) & L3 Green-Beige (A 000 983 44 86 / 6000).

Vogue, January 1925, cover art by Georges Lepape.

Triangles (and the diamond shapes they could combine to create) were one of the notable motifs of the art deco era.  From the start, Vogue was of course about frocks, shoes and such but its influence extended over the years to fields as diverse as interior decorating and industrial design.  The work of Georges Lepape (1887-1971) has long been strangely neglected in the history of art deco but he was a fine practitioner whose reputation probably suffered because his compositions have always been regarded as derivative or imitative which seems unfair given there are many who are more highly regarded despite being hardly original.  His cover art for Vogue’s edition of 1 January 1925 juxtaposed one of French artist Sonia Delaunay’s (1885–1979) "simultaneous" pattern dresses and a Voisin roadster decorated with an art deco motif.

One collector in 2015 was so taken with Pepape’s image that when refurbishing his 1927 Voisin C14 Lumineuse (literally “light”, an allusion to the Voisin’s greenhouse-inspired design which allowed natural light to fill the interior), he commissioned Dutch artist Bernadette Ramaekers to hand-paint a geometric triangular pattern in sympathy with that on the Vogue cover in 1925.  Ms Ramaekers took six months to complete the project and in 2022 the car sold at auction for £202,500 (US$230,000).  Produced during the whole inter-war period (1919-1939), the Voisin cars were among the most strikingly memorable of the era although for a variety of reasons, commercial viability was often marginal.  The demise was unfortunate because a manufacturer which once contemplated production of a straight-twelve engine deserved to survive.

Galactophagist

Galactophagist (pronounced gal-a-toph-agyst or ga-lact-o-fay-jist)

(1) One who drinks milk.

(2) One who subsists on milk.

Circa 1870: A Modern English construct from the Ancient Greek γαλακτικός (galaktikós) (milky), the construct being γάλα (gála) (milk) + phago (to eat; a glutton) from φαγών (phagṓn) or φάγος (phágos) + -ist (the suffix used to create noun forms, from the Old French -iste and the Classical Latin -ista, from the Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs) from the verbal suffix -ίζω (-ízō) and related to -τής (-tḗs) (the agent-noun suffix)).  Other useful words in the family include galactagogue, galactic, galactin, galactodensimeter, galactometer, galactophagous, galactophorous, galactopoietic, galactose, galactosemia, galactosis and galactoid.

Lindsay Lohan in the 2004 advertising campaign “got milk?” by US dairy farmers and milk processors.

Lindsay Lohan v E-Trade Securities LLC, New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County, No. 004579/2010

In 2010, one of Lindsay Lohan’s more unusual forays into litigation was settled prior to reaching trial.  In the Supreme Court of New York, Ms Lohan had filed suit for US$100 million against online investment site E-Trade, in connection with their Super Bowl ad featuring a "milkaholic" baby girl named Lindsay.  The claim was based on the allegation the commercial was mocking her on the basis of some drug and alcohol related matters which had involved the police, saying the work additionally improperly invoked her “likeness, name, characterization, and personality” without permission, violating her right of privacy.  In the statement of claim, the actress sought US$50 million in compensatory damages and US$50 million in exemplary damages as well as demanding E-Trade cease and desist running the commercial and turn over all copies to her.  One interesting technical legal point raised was that Ms Lohan enjoyed the same “single-name” recognition as celebrities such as talk-show host Oprah (Winfrey) or the singer Madonna (Ciccone).

The E-Trade commercial had been broadcast during the Super Bowl on 7 February 2010 as part of a series built around the theme “babies who play the markets”, and attracted an audience of around 106 ½ million viewers in the US market, then a record number.  E-Trade filed a statement of defense in which it said the claims were “without merit”, and that Lindsay Lohan wasn’t the world's only Lindsay, noting Lindsay was in 2008 the 380th most popular name for new-born American girls,, down somewhat from 241th in 2004 when Mean Girls was released.  Grey Group, the advertising agency which produced the commercial later added the “milkaholic Lindsay” was named after a member of its account team although this apparently wasn’t added to the statement of defense.  After some months, a settlement was reached between the parties, both sides bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Ogee

Ogee (pronounced oh-jee)

(1) A double curve, resembling the letter S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions so that the ends are parallel.   An ogee is a kind of sigmoid curve, technically formed by the union of a concave and a convex line.

(2) In architecture, a molding with such a curve for a profile; cyma, also called gula or talon.

(3) In fluid mechanics, a specific aerodynamic profile.

(4) In mathematics, an inflection point.

(5) In cosmetic surgery, a desired shape for the curve of the malar or cheekbone prominence transitioning into the mid-cheek hollow.

(6) In distillation, the bubble-shaped chamber of a pot still connecting the swan neck to the pot which allows distillate to expand, condense and fall back into the pot.

1275-1325: From the Middle English ogeus (plural oggez), ogeve, egeve & egeove, variants by assimilation from the French oggif (diagonal rib of a vault) from the Old French œgive, ogival, ogive & augive, from the Late Latin augiva of uncertain origin.  In the Late Latin there was ogis (a support, prop), thought derived from the Classical Latin augeō (to increase, strengthen) from which Spanish gained auge (highest point of power or fortune; apogee); a doublet of ogive.  The use in architecture to describe regular & irregular S-shaped moldings began in the 1670s, supplanting the earlier augive, from the Late Latin augiva of uncertain origin but perhaps related to the Latin via (way; road).  In the Middle English, the late thirteenth century ogif was "a stone for the diagonal rib of a vault", derived from the French and the Medieval Latin ogiva.

An Ogee arch.

An ogee is a curved shape vaguely like an “S”, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are tangential.  In architecture, it’s used to describe a molding with a profile made by a lower concave arc flowing into a convex arc.  Used first in Persian and Greek architecture from Antiquity, it’s most familiar now as a part of the Gothic style.  Because the upper curves of the ogee arch are reversed, it’s not suitable where the load-bearing rates are high and it’s thus used mostly in self-supporting structures exposed to their own weight and not subject to high external forces.

An inflection point.

In mathematics, an ogee is an inflection point, a point on a curve at which the sign of the curvature (ie the concavity) changes; inflection points may be stationary but are neither local maxima nor local minima.  Inflection Points merely mark the point on the curve where it changes from concave upward to concave downward (or vice versa), it is not a directional measure.  Calculus is needed to find where a curve goes from concave upward to concave downward and for this mathematicians use derivatives, one which determines the slope and a second which defines whether the slope increases or decreases.

The cosmetic surgeon's template.

When cosmetic surgeons speak of the ogee curve, they’re referring to the elongated S curve which, when looking at a patient’s face at a three-quarter aspect, describes the curve from the eye through the cheek down to below the cheek (technically the malar or cheekbone prominence transitioning into the mid-cheek hollow).  As people age, the face loses volume in our face and the ogee curve flattens out. With facelifts and related procedures, the cosmetic surgeon aims to create an ogee curve, restoring the chiseled refinement of youth.

Lindsay Lohan, Cosmopolitan, October 2022 edition (photographs by Ellen Von Unwerth (b 1954)).  The photographs illustrate the ideal ogee curve in the facial structure and Ms Lohan shows how a model's pout can be used to optimize the effect.  The car is a second generation AMC Javelin (1971-1974).

Shapes derived from the ogee curve are popular design motifs used for just about everything where they can be applied but it's most associated with large, flat surfaces because it's in such spaces the geometric repetition can be most effective, thus the prevalence in fabrics, wallpaper and floor-coverings.  The mind visualizes the shape as something like a two-headed onion and it's probably the association with the architectural style so often seen on mosques or other structures in the Arab world that in there's presumed to be some Islamic influence but ogee long pre-dates Islam.  There are few conventions of use except that the designs tend to be displayed in either a horizontal or vertical aspect; diagonal deployment is rare.

In fluid mechanics, the ogee describes the shape used to create certain aerodynamic profiles, the classic example being the delta wing of the Concorde airplane.  The ogee-type wing used on the Concorde one flavor of the compound delta (sometimes called double delta or cranked arrow) where the leading edge is not straight.  Typically the inboard section has increased sweepback, creating a controlled high-lift vortex without the need for a foreplane and the shape of the sweepback is defined by the parameters of the ogee.  On the Concorde, the two sections and cropped wingtip merge into a smooth ogee curve.

Virago

Virago (pronounced vi-rah-goh (U) or vi-rey-goh (non-U))

(1) A rough-mannered, loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; given to undue belligerence at the slightest provocation ("a shrew" probably the closeset verbal shorthand).

(2) A woman who is scolding, domineering, or highly opinionated (ie has a mind of her own and will not be dictated to).

(3) A woman of strength or spirit; strong, brave, or warlike; an amazon.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English from the Old English, from the Latin virāgō (man-like maiden (in the sense of "female warrior, heroine, amazon"), the construct being vir (man) (from the primitive Indo-European root wi-ro (man)) + -āgō (the Latin suffix expressing association of some kind, in this case resemblance).  By the late fourteenth century, the meaning had absorbed the additional meaning of "heroic woman, woman of extraordinary stature, strength and courage" the sense again from the Latin vir (from which is derived virile) rather than being masculine in appearance. Virago & viraginity are nouns and viraginous, viraginian & virago-like are adjectives; the noun plural is viragos or viragoes.  The adjective viraginous is now rare and virago-like the preferred form although the non-standard viragoesque does seem compelling.

Viraginous, one way or another: Lindsay Lohan lights up (The Canyons (2013)).

English gained the word from Ælfric of Eynsham (circa 995-circa 1010; Ælfrīc the Old English, his name rendered also in the Medieval Latin as Alfricus or Elphricus) an English abbot who proved the most prolific writer in Old English of biblical scholarship, devotional hagiography, homilies and notes on Church law.  Between 990-994, following the structures of the Vulgate Bible, he constructed The Homilies of Ælfric (also published as The Sermones Catholici), translating the Pentateuch and Joshua in 997-998, providing what was then a modern gloss of the name Adam gave to Eve in Genesis II:23: Beo hire nama Uirago, þæt is, fæmne, forðan ðe heo is of hire were genumen (Let her name be Virago, that is woman, because she is taken from man) which is rendered (Genesis II 21:23) in the more familiar King James Version (KJV (1611)) as:

21: And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22: And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23: And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

In Antiquity, virago had positive associations, the implication being that a woman who proved herself especially strong or valorous could be called a virago because she had proved herself somehow as worthy as a man (something like the "honorary white" status the Apartheid regime in South Africa would grant Maori members of touring All Black rugby teams).  The idea is acknowledged in modern dictionaries which usually contain and entry in the spirit of "a woman noted for her stature, strength and courage" but add also "a woman thought loud or overbearing; a shrew" and linguists note the latter definition is now the one most followed, the word long applied in the negative although the Royal Navy sticks to the classics, the Admiralty having named four warships HMS Virago.

The Virago Book of Witches (2022 ISBN-13: 9780349016986) by Shahrukh Husain (b 1950).

Established by Australian Dame Carmen Callil (1938–2022) in 1972-1973 (originally under the name Spare Rib Books, the name borrowed from a magazine associated with second-wave feminism), Virago Press was created to focus on the work of women authors or work which dedicated to aspects of women’s experience ignored by most (mostly male) historians.  Dame Carmen probably had the classical meaning of virago in mind but it’s suspected she also didn’t object to notions of assertiveness or outright bolshiness.  Virago had an undisguised political agenda but, unlike many of the aggregations in the field which over decades had come and gone, it was always structured as a conventional publishing house, run on much the same commercial basis as other imprints.  From the start there was a focus of new work but the creation of a list was assisted greatly by what turned out to be an the extraordinary back-catalog of out-of-print books by neglected female writers, these issued under Virago’s "Modern Classics" insignia and trawling the records from the 1930s and 1940s provided a rich vein of neglected fiction by women.  Publishing is an unforgiving, cutthroat business and Virago has over the decades shunted between various corporations and is currently part of the French publishing conglomerate Hachette Livre, its output still prolific.

Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress (1783), oil on canvas by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842).

In appearance, the virago sleeve may be compared to modern "puffer" clothing; known since the late 1160s, they became fashionable for women early in the seventeenth century.  Seamstresses describe the construction as "full-paned" or "full-pansied" (ie made of strips of fabric gathered into two puffs by a ribbon or fabric band above the elbow).  The adoption of the name virago is thought an allusion to armor women may have worn in combat to assist them in the slaughter of men, doubtless a calling for some.  Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) was Queen Consort of France (1774-1792) to Louis XVI (1754–1793; King of France 1774-1792).  Both were executed by the blade of the guillotine.

HMS Virago (F76) in 1952 after conversion to an anti-submarine frigate.  HMS Virago (R75) was a V-class destroyer commissioned late in 1943.  She saw much action as a convoy escort during 1943-1944 and in 1945 was transferred to the Far East.  Post-war, she was (as F76) converted to a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate (along with HMS Veralum & HMS Venus); decommissioned in 1963, she was sold for scrap and broken up in 1965.

Sesquipedalian

Sesquipedalian (pronounced ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn or ses-kwi-pi-deyl-yuhn)

(1) A person given to using long words.

(2) Of a word containing many syllables or one considered long and ponderous.

1605-1615: From the Latin sēsquipedālis & sesquipedalia (of a person or some object a foot and a half long), the construct being sesqui (half as much again) + pedālis (of the foot) from pēs (foot) from the primitive Indo-European ped- (foot).  Sequipedalian is a noun & adjective, sesquipedal is an adjective, sesquipedality  is an adverb and sesquipedalianism & sesquipedalism are nouns.

Bust of the Roman lyric poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC), Villa Borghese Park, Rome.

There's nothing to suggest the use in English as a noun was ever widespread but it attained a certain popularity as an adjective in the 1650s, deployed by critics who approved not at all of writers over-fond of long (and often obscure) words.  Enjoying the irony, condemning sesquipedalianism was an early example of the admirable work of the "plain English" movement which still has some work to do among lawyers and the universities where tautology and tortured phrasing seems still to impress many.  The sense of the "sesquipedalian word" was coined as the sesquipedalia verba (literally "words a foot-and-a-half long") in Horace's Ars Poetica (thought published circa 8 BC) as a funny way of pointing out the use of many or long words when fewer or shorter will do as well.  Horace unexpectedly included some literary theory and criticism in an earlier work devoted mostly to other matters but returned to exploring the literary theme further in Ars Poetica, written in the form of an epistle.  Sometimes referred to as Epistles 2.3, it’s thought to be his final poem and as a work, it endured well, ranking with Aristotle's (384–322 BC) De Poetica (Poetics, circa 335 BC) in its influence on literary theory and criticism.  Milton (1608-1674) would later commend both works in his treatise Of Education (1644).

Horace’s gift of sesquipedalian was enough for most but there were in the twentieth century those who rose to the challenge, coining hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words) to add to the ever growing list of phobias although it was one of the many formed more in linguistic fun than in response to any great volume of clinical instances.  It was from the earlier jocular construction hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian which built on sesquipedalian with the addition of monstr (from the Latin monstrum (“monstrous being” or something huge or terrifying)) and hippopotamus (chosen presumably both to lengthen of the word and reinforce the fear (the big hippopotamus amphibious (the modern word Hippopotamine meaning “something very large”) actually a dangerous creature annually killing over 500 people whereas lions take only a couple of dozen (although in Greek mythology, Hippô (Ἱππώ or Ἵππωτος) meant "horse" and potámi & potam-os (ποτάμι) meant "river" & "like a swift current") +‎ -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing), from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía); it was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later)).  Even that could be improved (or at least enlarged) and hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia soon emerged as an alternative spelling though presumably it wasn’t adopted by those suffering the neglected (and almost undocumented) mizzpellifobia.

The logophilic Lord Black of Crossharbour (left), taking his seat in the House of Lords, London, 2002.

Anyway, like many of its ilk, the 15-syllable concoction was relegated to the corner of lexicographical curiosities while sesquipedalophobia remains the recognized name for the condition.  Fears and phobias are part of the human condition and the mind is able to develop them towards just about anything or concept.  That sesquipedalophobia is a rare condition does not mean it’s not real because an instance of symptoms doesn’t need to be widespread to be defined; they need only to be specific to at least a single case for the diagnostic criteria to be created.  However, while a phobia can manifest as an aversion, for sesquipedalophobia to be diagnosed the condition must be both enduring and impose on an individual some clinically significant consequences which adversely affect their normal social functioning.  One can dislike the use of long words and (often commendably) avoid the practice but that’s just a preference and a technique of expression, not a phobia.  Perhaps surprisingly, although logophobia & verbophobia are listed as a “fear of words” there is no record of a phobia for “fear of words of unknown meaning”.  Anyone who fears they may suffer this as yet undiagnosed disorder should probably avoid reading the works of Conrad Black (Lord Black of Crossharbour, b 1944), noted for a fondness for the obscure or archaic (though not necessarily the long so it may be safe for sesquipedalophobics to browse).

So those who suffer somewhere on the sesquipedalophobia spectrum are those who tend to experience heightened anxiety when confronted with long words and the extent of the duration and intensity of that anxiety indicates the position on the spectrum (the revision to the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR (2022) notes a specific phobia (classified as an anxiety disorder) as an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity, or person, the fear usually proportionally greater than the actual danger or threat).  Most specific phobias are induced by a causal event or trigger recorded by parts of the brain (amygdala and hippocampus) as dangerous or deadly, the body reacting in sympathy especially if the same thing is perceived as bound repeatedly to happen.  In theory, a patient with the most severe case of sesquipedalophobia could suffer a temporary paralysis or even a seizure although both are unlikely, feelings of anxiety or even panic more probable.  It’s thought the condition is learned behavior, induced by an unpleasant episode, often in childhood and the recommended treatment regime is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on a gradual exposure to long words rather than an exploration of the initial causative event, something which may create additional trauma for no benefit; nor are symptom-masking drugs recommended, these considered a last resort and the DSM also notes a gradual exposure during CBT can assist the patient to recognize their fear is excessive or unreasonable.  Interestingly, sesquipedalophobia seems very much a condition suffered by native English speakers and there seems no evidence those with an early exposure to long words (such as Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg)) and German (Deutsch)) are afflicted disproportionately, presumably an indication of the significance of events in childhood which may cause the syndrome to appear.

Gruntle

Gruntle (pronounced gruhn-tl)

Happy or contented; satisfied (informal; non-standard).

1500s: A frequentative of grunt.  Grunt was from the Middle English grunten, from the Old English grunnettan (to grunt (and a probably imitative frequentative of grunian (to grunt)), from the Proto-West Germanic grunnattjan, from the Proto-Germanic grunnatjaną (to grunt), frequentative of the Proto-Germanic grunnōną (to grunt), from the primitive Indo-European ghrun- (to shout).  It was cognate with the Old High German grunnizon, the German grunzen (to grunt), the Old French grogner & the Latin grunnire (to grunt) and the Danish grynte (to grunt) and the noun senses are all instances of zero derivation from the verb.

The noun emerged in the 1550s, from the verb.  The name for the fish (now used for any fish of the perciform family Haemulidae dates from 1713 and was so-called because of the noise they made when taken from the water while “grunter” (a pig) was first noted in the 1640s).  The meaning "infantry soldier or enlisted Marine" became US military slang during Vietnam War in the 1960s (and was first noted in print in 1969) although it had been applied to various low-level (and not necessarily manual) workers since early in the twentieth century, the phrase “grunt work” dating from 1977.  Grunt in the sense of horsepower dates from the early 1960s, the first use in print of “grunt machine” noted in 1973.  The dessert of steamed berries and dough (usually blueberries) described as grunt is from North America and exists usually as “blueberry grunt”; “raspberry grunt etc” (although the use takes no account of blackberries, mulberries, and raspberries not actually being berries whereas bananas, pumpkins, avocados & cucumbers are).

Lindsay Lohan looking gruntled.

The more familiar forms are disgruntle (verb), disgruntled (verb & adjective), disgruntling (verb & (occasional) adjective) and disgruntlement (noun) and all reference the sense of “to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction; make discontented”.  Disgruntle dates from circa 1682, the construct being dis- + gruntle.  The dis prefix was from the Middle English dis-, from the Old French des from the Latin dis, from the proto-Italic dwis, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and cognate with the Ancient Greek δίς (dís) and the Sanskrit द्विस् (dvis).  It was applied variously as an intensifier of words with negative valence and to render the senses “incorrect”, “to fail (to)”, “not” & “against”.  In Modern English, the rules applying to the dis prefix vary and when attached to a verbal root, prefixes often change the first vowel (whether initial or preceded by a consonant/consonant cluster) of that verb. These phonological changes took place in Latin and usually do not apply to words created (as in Modern Latin) from Latin components since the language was classified as “dead”.  The combination of prefix and following vowel did not always yield the same change and these changes in vowels are not necessarily particular to being prefixed with dis (ie other prefixes sometimes cause the same vowel change (con; ex)).

Lindsay Lohan looking disgruntled.

The verb disgruntle, dating from circa 1682, means "to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction".  Because the prefix dis- usually means "to do the opposite of", it’s not unreasonable to assume there must first have been the word “gruntle” meaning “happy or contented; satisfied” but there are cases where the prefix operates as an intensifier (in this case in the sense of “utterly” or “completely”) and this was the path of disgruntle, an extension of gruntle which in English use meant "to grumble" and, grumbling being a noted characteristic of the English, it had some history of use, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) listing a 1589 sermon by Robert Bruce of Kinnaird (1554–1631) in which he uttered ''It becomes us not to have our hearts here gruntling upon this earth”.  Use however faded while disgruntled flourished and although the original OED (1884) noting it was “now chiefly US), a view unaltered by 1933 when the Shorter OED (SOED) was published.  Since then however it’s been revived elsewhere and is now a common form throughout the English-speaking world; given the nature of the human condition, most expect it to endure.

The unexpected re-appearance of gruntle in the twentieth century in the sense of “happy or contented; satisfied” (ie an antonym both of the original meaning and of disgruntle) was thus not a revival of something obsolete but a jocular back-formation from disgruntle, most sources indicating the first known instance in print being from 1926 but the most celebrated example comes from PG Wodehouse (1881–1975) who in The Code of the Woosters (1938) penned: “He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”  Long a linguistic joke, some now take gruntled seriously but for the OED to acknowledge that, we may have to wait decades although the editors were quick to verify couth as a late nineteenth century back-formation from uncouth.

The precedent of back-formation has inspired many and other suggestions have included whelmed (from overwhelmed (underwhelmed another more recent coining)), fused (from confused), plexed (from perplexed), fuddling (from befuddling), settling (from unsettling), molish (from demolish), concerting (from disconcerting), wildered (from bewildered), stitious (from superstitious), shevled (from dishevled), gusting (from disgusting), tracted (from distracted) & juvenate (from rejuvenate).  Combobulate (from discombobulate) seems often also longed for but progress there has begun for in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one can recombobulate.

Spiced Blueberry Grunt by Carolyn Beth Weil

Seemingly an unpromising name for a pudding, Grunts get their quirky name from the fruit which is topped with dumplings and cooked on the stove in a covered skillet, a method which can produce a grunting sound as things steam.  The molasses adds sweetness and depth of flavor.

Ingredients (filling)

4 cups fresh blueberries (from four ½-pint containers)
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
¼ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
¼ cup water
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Ingredients (Dumplings)

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
¾ cup whole milk
Whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream for topping

Step 1 (prepare filling)

Mix all ingredients in 12-inch-diameter skillet. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until berries soften and mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes.

Step 2 (prepare dumplings)

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Add milk; stir just until blended and sticky dough forms.

Step 3 (cooking & serving)

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto simmering berry mixture, placing close together. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover skillet and simmer until dumplings are firm and tester inserted into dumplings comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Scoop warm dessert into bowls and top with whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Ashplant

Ashplant (pronounced ash-plahnt (U) or ash-plant (non-U))

(1) A walking stick made from an ash sapling (mostly Irish)

(2) An ash sapling.

(3) A stick kept for administering corporal punishment, a cane.

(4) The construct was ash +‎ plant

Ash was from the pre-900 Middle English asshe, from the Old English æsc.  It was cognate with the Frisian esk, the Middle Low German & Middle Dutch asch, the Old Saxon & Old High German asc (the German Esche, with an altered vowel from the adjective derivative eschen (the Middle High German eschîn) and the Old Norse askr (akin to the Latin ornus, the Welsh onnen, the Russian yáseń, the Polish jesion, the Czech jasan, the Lithuanian úosis, the Armenian hatshi, the Albanian ah (beech), from the unattested primitive Indo-European ōs & os (ash (tree).  The rare plural axen was from the Middle English axen & axnen, from the Old English axan & asċan (ashes) (the plural of the Old English axe & æsċe (ash)).  Ash in the sense of (residue after burning; remains) was from the circa 950 Middle English aisshe & asshe, from the Old English asce& æsċe, from the Proto-West Germanic askā, from the Proto-Germanic askǭ (related to the Frisian esk, the West Frisian jiske, the Dutch asch & as, the Old Norse & Old High German aska (source of the modern German Asche), the Low German Asch, the Danish aske, the Swedish aska and the Norwegian ask), from the primitive Indo-European hehs.  The Gothic azgo, although apparently from the unattested Germanic askōn-, remain mysterious.  The European forms were akin to the Latin ārēre (to be dry) (related to the modern “arid”) & āra (altar), the Oscan aasaí (on the altar), the Tocharian ās- (to get dry; to dry out), the Sanskrit ā́sa- (ashes), the Hittite hassi (on the hearth), from the unattested primitive Indo-European root as- (to burn, glow).  Plant was from the Middle English plante, from the Old English plante (young tree or shrub, herb newly planted), from the Latin planta (sprout, shoot, cutting).  The extended sense of "vegetable life, vegetation " was from the Old French plante.  Plant was a doublet of clan, borrowed from Celtic languages.  The verb was from the Middle English planten, from the Old English plantian (to plant), from the Latin plantāre (later influenced by the Old French planter).  It was related to the Dutch planten (to plant), the German pflanzen (to plant), the Swedish plantera (to plant) and the Icelandic planta (to plant).

An Irish ashplant.

Except in Ireland and within the Irish diaspora, ashplant is an unfamiliar word and rarely heard except among the Joycians because it’s so memorably a part of James Joyce’s (1882-1941) Ulysses (1922).  In Ulysses, the ashplant is of course a walking stick fashioned from an ash sapling but Joyce uses it to symbolize the holder’s divinity by linking him to the natural and supernatural.  A simple growth from the a tree uprooted from the soil, it’s used both to provide a balance to that ground and as a kind of wand used in religious and quasi-religious rituals; certainly, it’s owner believes it vested with magical powers.  Beyond that, the Joycians have made much of it as an allegorical device but in this, opinions vary, one Joycian often able to find a meaning hidden to others.

The ashplant is probably best remembered for its place in the brothel scene in “Circe” where it’s part of the “dance of death” after which it’s used to smash a chandelier in an act of rebellion against God.  Joyce uses the ashplant also in the literary and historical allusion with which the work is peppered.  In “Proteus” it becomes a Roman "augur's rod of ash" (a curved stick with powers of divination delivered by interpreting the will of the gods by observing the flight of birds) while in the brothel scene it transforms into Nothung, Siegfried's magical sword from the Norse myths familiar from Richard Wagner's (1813–1883) Ring cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) (1869-1876)).  Permeating the entire text is the idea of the ashplant representing the cross carried by Christ but, more practically, the author notes it’s handy to have to protect one against the attacks of wild dogs.