Legging

Legging (pronounced leg-ing)

(1) A covering for the leg, usually extending from the ankle to the knee but sometimes higher, worn by soldiers, riders, workers, etc. 

(2) The pants of a two-piece snowsuit.

(3) In the plural, as leggings, (1) close-fitting trousers worn by mostly by women and girls (as fashion items) & (2) close fitting trousers worn as support in sporting competitions.

(4) In slang, as “legging it”, (1) to proceed somewhere by foot or (2) to proceed somewhere by any means with some alacrity, a variation of the latter being “shake a leg”.

1745–1755: The construct was leg(g) + -ing (the more illustrative alternative spelling being leggin (leg(g) + in).  The noun leg was from the Middle English leg & legge, from the Old Norse leggr (leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk), from the Proto-Germanic lagjaz & lagwijaz (leg, thigh) which may have been from the primitive Indo-European (ǝ)lak- or lēk- (leg; the main muscle of the arm or leg).  It was cognate with the Scots leg (leg), the Icelandic leggur (leg, limb), the Norwegian Bokmål legg (leg), the Norwegian Nynorsk legg (leg), the Swedish Swedish lägg (leg, shank, shaft), the Danish læg (leg), the Lombardic lagi (thigh, shank, leg), the Latin lacertus (limb, arm) and the Persian لنگ‎ (leng).  It almost wholly displaced the native Old English sċanca (from which Modern English gained shank) which may have been from a root meaning “crooked”.  The origin of the Germanic forms remains uncertain and the Old Norse senses may be compared with Bein (“leg” in German) which in the Old High German meant "bone, leg".

A pair of lappet-faced vultures.  Native to parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, there's no evidence the lappet-faced vulture (Nubian vulture (Torgos tracheliotos)) influenced the development of the early leggings.

The slang use is derived from the circa 1500 verb which from the start was usually in the form “leg it”, meaning “proceed on foot by walking or running”.  The meaning "part of pants which cover the leg" is from 1570s and by the 1870s as an adjective it had a acquired the salacious hint of artistic displays focused on the female form with most of the leg exposed.  In the jargon of the theatre, leg-business was slang for "dance; ballet."  The idea of a leg as "a part or stage of a journey or race" dates only from 1920 and was based on the earlier sense (from 1865) applied to sailing ships which meant "a run made by a ship on a single tack when beating to windward" which sailors defined as long leg or short leg, the notion being the leg ending when the direction had to be altered.  The theatre slang “shake a leg” by 1869 meant “dance” and this by 1800 spread to the general population where it meant "hurry up".  To be “on (one's) last legs” meant “close to death”, the earliest known instance in print being from the 1590s.  To take “leg bail” was late eighteenth century underworld and legal slang for "run away" in the sense either of escaping from apprehension or not appearing in court as summonsed.  The phrase “having the legs” meant “enduring success, staying power" emerged in the late 1960s to describe Broadway shows which enjoyed an extended session while “long legged” was an automotive term which referred to a vehicle with an ability effortlessly to cruise at high speed.  Leg-side and off-side are the two hemispheres of a cricket ground, divided down the middle of the batting pitch.  The leg-side is that closest to a batsman's legs while the off-side is that closest to the bat when the normal batting position is adopted; leg and off-side thus swap identities depending on whether the batsman is left or right-handed.  The distinction explains the origin of many fielding positions (long off, deep backward square leg, leg slip etc) but, confusingly, the leg designation is only used for the "leg quarter" of the field, positions forward of square leg using "on" (as opposed to "off") thus long on, long off etc.   

The suffix –ing was from the Middle English -ing, from the Old English –ing & -ung (in the sense of the modern -ing, as a suffix forming nouns from verbs), from the Proto-West Germanic –ingu & -ungu, from the Proto-Germanic –ingō & -ungō. It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian -enge, the West Frisian –ing, the Dutch –ing, The Low German –ing & -ink, the German –ung, the Swedish -ing and the Icelandic –ing; All the cognate forms were used for the same purpose as the English -ing).  Legging & leggings are nouns, legging (in its slang sense) is a verb and legginged is an adjective.  The noun plural is leggings.

Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) & Lindsay Lohan illustrate the enduring appeal of leggings.

In the West, so ubiquitous for so long have been leggings that they seem less a trend than a fixture but historians of fashion have noted that leggings have been in and out of style since first they were worn in the fourteenth century, “going out” and “coming back” for hundreds of years.  Although now (except in sport or hidden under layers when worn by scuba-divers, mountaineers or those on ski fields) associated almost exclusively with women and girls, leggings appear first to have been worn by men in fourteenth century Scotland.  The early leggings were two separate, hip-high, boot-like apparatuses made of either leather or chainmail, intended for both civilian and military use and they evolved into thick garments (like tights), worn under cotehardies (a kind of blend of a cardigan, coat and hoodie (ankle-length for women, shorter for men), from the Old French cote-hardie, the construct being cote (coat) + hardie (hardy)) for the mid-Renaissance until the late eighteenth century (although they fell from favor with women more than a hundred years earlier.  Men abandoned them too as the combination of trousers, shirts and jackets became the standard form of dress, something which endures to this day.

Audrey Hepburn in capri pants, 1954.

The first modern day revival was stimulated by fashion designers in the 1950s using the capri pants in their early post-war shows, the slender waist-defining cropped black pants ideal emphasizing the preferred shape of the era and while they weren’t the now familiar skin-tight leggings, they offered a dramatic contrast with the wider-leg styles associated with the 1940s.  It was the debut of Lycra (spandex) in 1959 which made possible leggings in their modern form and fashion photographers soon honed techniques best suited when they were paired with the new generation of mini-skirts, the lines and allure of leg, paradoxically, emphasized when covered.

Bella Hadid (b 1996) in leggings coming from and going to the gym.  She looks good, coming or going.

The industry notes a brief lull in their popularity during the hippie era when many restraining devices were discarded (and sometime even ceremonially burned) but by the late 1970s they were back and the trend accelerated in the 1980s when the new popularity of active-wear spread beyond the gym to the street and, significantly, the new influencer platform of the music video and the stretchy things survived the onslaught of leg warmers.  Lycra was well suited to bright, shiny colors and the leotard over leggings look became a motif of the decade.  It was perhaps a bit much and things got darker and baggier in the 1990s but the practicality of the things was ultimately irresistible and the innovation of stirrup-leggings was a harbinger of the new century.  It does seem they’re now here to stay and full-length, liquid leggings have in a sense replaced pants, something which upset some Middle-Eastern airlines which were compelled to remind passengers their dress code allowed pants for women but that “leggings are not pants”, a rule enforced in the West on female visitors to some men’s prisons.

Gym pants are a variation of leggings.  Cut usually to calf-length, the design is optimized for exercise.  Ina-Maria Schnitzer (b 1986; who modeled as Jordan Carver) demonstrates the advantages.

Paean

Paean (pronounced pee-uhn)

(1) A hymn of invocation or thanksgiving, sun in Ancient Greece to Apollo or some other deity.

(2) By extension, a song of praise, joy or triumph, especially if sung loudly and joyously).

(3) By extension, an expression of reverential or enthusiastic praise.

1535–1545: From the Latin paean, (religious or festive hymn; hymn of deliverance, hymn to a help-giving god), from the Ancient Greek (παιάν (also παιήων or παιών)) (paiān) (hymn to Apollo), from his title Paiā́n (or Paiōn) (denoting the physician to the gods), from the phrase Ἰὼ Παιᾱ́ν (Iṑ Paiā́n) (“O Paean!, Thanks to Paean!).  As well as the name (from Homer) by which the divine physician was known, paiān was later an epithet of Apollo and thus of interest is the literal translation "one who touches" (in the sense of “curing by a touch of the hand”), perhaps from a word in the hymn like paio (to touch, strike).  English picked it up as paean (as did Middle French) which was adopted in many languages but variations include the French péan (although the Middle French paean peacefully co-exists), the Italian peana and the Portuguese peã & péan.

The Greek παιάν was from παιάϝων (paiáwōn) (one who heals illnesses with magic) but the origin is contested.  Some etymologists link it with παῖϝα & παϝία (blow), related to παίω (beat), from the primitive Indo-European pēu-, pyu- & pū- (to hit; to cut)- or παύω (paúō) (withhold; to bring to an end; to abate, to stop), from the primitive Indo-European pehw- (few, little; smallness).  Paiān remains however mysterious and may be from the Archaic Greek or indeed be pre-Greek.  Paean (present participle paeaning & past participle paeaned) & paeanism are nouns, paeanic is an adjective, paeanically seems to have been used as an adverb and paeanize is a verb (apparently first used by philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in the early seventeenth century).  The noun plural is paeans and the alternative spelling (in occasional US use) is pean (pæan the traditional form).  A paean may variously be referred to variously as a hymn, acclamation, anthem, ode, praise, psalm, song, laud or laudation and, outside the technical use in texts from Antiquity, the choice is probably dictated by context and desired literary effect.

A fresco of Apollo playing the kithara, from a building in the Forum of Rome (Augustan period), Museum of the Forum Romanum, Rome.

As the lyrical phrase “O Paean!” hints, in Antiquity, a Paean was a song of joyful triumph.  Most surviving texts suggest the paean was written usually in the ancient Greek Dorian mode and was accompanied by the kithara, the instrument of Apollo, god of music.  The military, when paeans were sung on the battlefield, augmented the kithara by the aulos and kithara.

Confusion still sometimes surrounds the understanding of the Greek Dorian Mode because it was long confused with the modern use of “Dorian” mode.  Like many of the tangled constructions and interpretations from Greek & Latin which endure to this day, the fault lies mostly with medieval ecclesiastical scholars.  Some of the names of musical modes in use today, (Mixolydian, Dorian et al), are direct borrowings in spelling but not meaning, the scribes of the Church misunderstanding the mechanics of Greek texts.  In Athens and beyond, intervals were counted from top to bottom whereas the practice during the Middle Ages was (sometimes) to work from bottom to top, hence the jumble.  The error was recognized by the seventeenth century but such had been the proliferation of the new conventions of use that the misinterpretations were allowed to remain, labelled “Church Modes” to distinguish them from the ancients.

The problems began with the translation of a treatise on music (De institutione musica (The Structure of Music (circa 507)) by Boethius (Saint Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius; circa 478-524, a Roman and historian and philosopher) which was neglected until unearthed by scholars during the ninth century who found it so compelling it was soon the most widely translated and disseminated medieval work on the subject.  The influence of Boethius was immense, his De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy (523)) one of the classic works through which the classical age was understood during the centuries which followed although modern historians do caution the medieval (and later) reverence of antiquity did lead to some idealized and romantic visions of the lost world taking hold.

Both Plato & Aristotle fancied themselves as musicologists and thought the ancient Greek Dorian the most "manly" of all the musical modes, suggesting it could move soldiers to heroic acts in battle.  The famous Battle of Thermopylae, a paean composed for a solo lyre, was inspired by the tale of two-thousand-odd Spartans, Thespians & Thebans, a rear-guard which for two days defied a whole Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.  Professional musicians today note that to convey the martial spirit which should be summoned in performance, it’s vital to understand the ancient Greek Dorian mode so it’s played with the vigor Plato & Aristotle described when writing of the technique.

The USS Pueblo, moored on the Taedong River in Pyongyang, part of the DPRK’s Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

The USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a lightly-armed, US Navy scientific research vessel which in January 1968 was attacked and captured by the DPRK (North Korean) military which alleged she was engaged in espionage activities while in their territorial waters.  One US sailor was killed during the attack, the surviving 82 seized and not released for almost a year, a period described variously as the Pueblo “affair”, “incident" or “crisis".  The Pueblo is still held in the DPRK as a war-prize (although the legal status of that is dubious) and the US Navy has never struck the vessel from the active list, Washington’s position that it was seized illegally and should be returned.

Bowing North Koreans make their grateful paeans before the statue of Kim Il-sung (1912-1994, Great Leader of the DPRK 1948-1994).

The word paean came in handy as a diplomatic device.  As part of the deal securing the sailors’ release, the captain issued a statement "confess(ing) to his and the crew's transgression."  Before he recorded the brief speech, the text was checked by the DPRK government and they were presumably pleased at the capitalist lackeys saying: "We paean the DPRK.  We paean the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung.  We paean the DPRK flag" but missed an essential nuance, the captain pronouncing "paean" as "pee on".  Nor did seizing the hardly imposing Pueblo achieve the Great Leader’s strategic objective, the US increasing its diplomatic and military support for the ROC (South Korea).

SLAPP

SLAPP (pronounced slap)

1980s: An acronym: Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.  A lawsuit filed strategically by a corporation against a group or activist opposing certain action taken by the corporation, often to retaliate against an environmental protest.

The purpose of filing a SLAPP is to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.  Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds they impede freedom of speech.  In legal terms, a suit found to be a SLAPP can be dismissed as an “abuse of process”.

The acronym was coined in the 1980s by two University of Denver academic lawyers.  It meant originally a “lawsuit involving communications made to influence a governmental action or outcome, which resulted in a civil complaint or counterclaim filed against nongovernment individuals or organizations on a substantive issue of some public interest or social significance."  The idea that a government contact had to be about a public issue, protected by the First Amendment, was later dropped and in the US, different jurisdictions attach different definitions, some even having legislated that it includes suits about speech on any public issue.  In Australia, the Protection of Public Participation Act (2008), unique to the Australian Capital Territory (essentially Canberra), protects conduct intended to influence public opinion or promote or further action in relation to an issue of public interest.  SLAPP suits existed long before the acronym was coined, the oldest involving the right to petition government in tenth century Britain and there is a clear nexus between First Amendment rights in the US and the seventeenth century English Bill of Rights.  Later, in the American colonies, the Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765) emerged as an outgrowth of the reaction to the hated Stamp Act (1765), and included the right to petition King and Parliament.

The US Institute for Free Speech's (IFS) 2023 map of US states which have enacted "functionally robust" anti-SLAPP laws.  The IFS report card rated the states using the tradition school marking system (from "A" (excellent) to "F" (fail (in this instance "non-existent")) and interestingly, there is no clear Republican state / Democratic state divide.  The trend is though encouraging because in 2024 Maine, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have all enacted robust anti-SLAPP statutes.

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 it’s 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 the only piece 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 have, with variable results, embraced two-tone color schemes but not in the traditional argyle style although third-party manufacturers of seat-covers have offered a few.  Perhaps fortunately, this seems not to have inspired the majors.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198) trimmed in blue-grey plaid.

Buyers of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198 1954-1957) had the choice of seats covered in leather or plaid cloth (in the US in 1956 the hide was listed as a US$165 option).  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 (blue-gray, red-green & green-beige) would again be available as a factory part-number and, 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-gray 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 (US$229 per yard) is indicative of the product’s niche market but for those restoring a 300 SL to its original appearance, it's a bargain.

The part-numbers:  Blue-Grey: A 000 983 44 86 / 5000, Red-Green: A 000 983 44 86 / 3000 & 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).

Fork

Fork (pronounced fawrk)

(1) An instrument having two or more tines (popularly called prongs), for holding, lifting, etc., as an implement for handling food or any of various agricultural tools.

(2) Something resembling or suggesting this in form or conceptually.

(3) As tuning fork, instruments used (1) in the tuning of musical instruments and (2) by audiologists and others involved in the study or treatment of hearing.

(4) In machinery, a type of yoke; a pronged part of any device.

(5) A generalized description of the division into branches.

(6) In physical geography and cartography, by abstraction, the point or part at which a thing, as a river or a road, divides into branches; any of the branches into which a thing divides (and used by some as a convention to describe a principal tributary of a river.

(7) In horology, (in a lever escapement) the forked end of the lever engaging with the ruby pin.

(8) In bicycle & motorcycle design, the support of the front wheel axles, having the shape of a two-tined fork.

(9) In archery, the barbed head of an arrow.

(10) To pierce, raise, pitch, dig etc, with a fork.

(11) Metonymically (and analogous with the prongs of a pronged tool), to render something to resemble a fork or describe something using the shape as a metaphor.

(12) In chess, to maneuver so as to place two opponent's pieces under simultaneous attack by the same piece (most associated with moves involving the knight).

(13) In computer programming, to modify a software’s source code to create a version sufficiently different to be considered a separate path of development.

(14) To turn as indicated at a fork in a road, path etc.

(15) Figuratively, a point in time when a decision is taken.

(16) In fulminology, as "forked lightning" the type of atmospheric discharge of electricity which hits the ground in a bolt.

(17) In software development, content management & data management, figuratively (by abstraction, from a physical fork), a departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT) (unintentionally as originally defined but later also applied where the variation was intentional; metonymically, any of the instances of software, data sets etc, thus created.

(18) In World War II era British military jargon, the male crotch, used to indicate the genital area as a point of vulnerability in physical assault.

(19) in occupational slang, a clipping of forklift; any of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.

(20) In saddlery, the upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

(21) In slang, a gallows (obsolete).

(22) As a transitive verb, a euphemistic for “fuck” one of the variations on f***, ***k etc and used typically to circumvent text-based filters.

(23) In underground, extractive mining, the bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains; to bale a shaft dry.

Pre-1000: From the Middle English forke (digging fork), from the Old English force & forca (pitchfork, forked instrument, forked weapon; forked instrument used to torture), from the Proto-West Germanic furkō (fork), from the Latin furca (pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke) of uncertain origin. The Middle English was later reinforced by the Anglo-Norman & Old Northern French forque (it was from the Old French forche which French gained fourche), also from the Latin.  It was cognate with the Old Frisian forke, the North Frisian forck (fork), the Dutch vork (fork), the Danish vork (fork) and the German Forke (pitchfork).  The evolved Middle English form displaced the native Old English gafol, ġeafel & ġeafle (fork) (and the apparently regionally specific forcel (pitchfork) though the use from circa 1200 to mean “forked stake or post used as a prop when erecting a gallows” did for a while endure, probably because of the long-life of the architectural plans for a structure which demanded no change or functional improvement.

Representation of the forks the Linux operating system.  Software forks can extend, die off or merge with other forks.

The forks of The Latin furca (in its primary sense of “fork”) may be from the primitive Indo-European gherk & gherg (fork) although etymologists have never traced any explanation for the addition of the -c-, something which remains mysterious even if the word was influenced by the Proto-Germanic furkaz & firkalaz (stake, stick, pole, post) which was from the primitive Indo-European perg- (pole, post).  If such a link existed, it would relate the word to the Old English forclas pl (bolt), the Old Saxon ferkal (lock, bolt, bar), the Old Norse forkr (pole, staff, stick), the Norwegian fork (stick, bat) and the Swedish fork (pole).  The descendants in other languages include the Sranan Tongo forku, the Dutch vork, the Japanese フォーク (fōku), the Danish korf, the Kannada ಫೋರ್ಕ್ (phōrk), the Korean 포크 (pokeu), the Maori paoka, the Tamil போர்க் (pōrk) and the Telugu ఫోర్క్ (phōrk).  In many languages, the previous form was retained for most purposes while the English fork was adopted in the context of software development.

Forks can be designed for specific applications, this is a sardine fork, the dimensions dictated by the size of the standard sardine tin.

Although visitors from Western Europe discovered the novelty of the table fork in Constantinople as early as the eleventh century, the civilizing influence from Byzantium seems not to have come into use among the English nobility until the 1400s and the evidence suggest it didn’t come into common use before the early seventeenth century.  Historians of food note word seems first to have appeared in this context in an inventory of household goods from 1430 and they suggest, because their influence in culinary matters was strongest, it was probably from the Old North French forque.  It came to be applied to rivers from 1753 and of roads by 1839.  The use in bicycle design began in 1871 and this was adopted directly within twenty years when the first motorcycles appeared.  The chess move was first so-described in the 1650s while the old slang, forks "the two forefingers" was from 1812 and endures to this day as “the fork”.  In the world of cryptocurrencies, fork has been adopted with fetish-like enthusiasm to refer to (1) a split in the blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or (2) a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.

Lindsay Lohan with Tiramisu and cake-fork, Terry Richardson (b 1965) photoshoot, 2012.

The verb dates from the early fourteenth century in the sense of (1) “to divide in branches, go separate ways" & (2) "disagree, be inconsistent", both derived from the noun.  The transitive meaning "raise or pitch with a fork" is from 1812, used most frequently in the forms forked & forking while the slang verb phrase “fork (something) over” is from 1839 while “fork out” (give over) is from 1831).  The now obsolete legal slang “forking” in the forensic sense of a "disagreement among witnesses" dates from the turn of the fifteenth century.  The noun forkful was an agricultural term from the 1640s while the specialized fourchette (in reference to anatomical structures, from French fourchette (diminutive of fourche (a fork)) was from 1754.  The noun pitchfork (fork for lifting and pitching hay etc.) described the long-used implement constructed commonly with a long handle and two or three prongs first in the mid fourteenth century, altered (by the influence of pichen (to throw, thrust), from the early thirteenth century Middle English pic-forken, from pik (source of pike).  The verb use meaning "to lift or throw with a pitchfork," is noted from 1837.  The spork, an eating utensil which was fashioned by making several long indents in the bowl to create prongs debuted in 1909.

Der Gableschwanz Teufl: The Lockheed P-38 Lightning (1939-1945).  During World War II (1939-1945), the Luftwaffe’s (German air force) military slang for the twin-boomed Lockheed P-38 Lightning was Der Gableschwanz Teufl (the fork-tailed devil).

Novelty nail-art by US restaurant chain Denny's.  The manicure uses as a base a clean, white coat of lacquer, to which was added miniature plastic utensils, the index finger a fork, the middle finger a knife, the ring finger a spoon, and the pinky finger presumably a toothpick or it could be something more kinky.

The idiomatic “speak with forked tongue” to indicate duplicitous speech dates from 1885 and was an invention of US English though reputedly influenced by phases settlers learned in their interactions with first nations peoples (then called “Red Indians”).  The earlier “double tongue” (a la “two-faced”) in the same sense was from the fifteenth century.  Fork as a clipping of the already truncated fork-lift (1953) fom the fork-lift truck (1946), appears to have enter the vernacular circa 1994.  The adjective forked (branched or divided in two parts) was the past-participle adjective from the verb and came into use early in the fourteenth century.  It was applied to roads in the 1520s and more generally within thirty years while the use in the sixteenth and seventeenth century with a suggestion of "cuckold" (on the notion of "horned") is long obsolete.    Applied in many contexts (literally & figuratively), inventions (with and without hyphens) include fork-bomb, fork-buffet, fork-dinner, fork-head, rolling-fork, fork-over, fork-off & fork-up (the latter pair euphemistic substitutions for "fuck off" & "fuck-up).

Spork from a flatware set made for Adolf Hitler's (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) fiftieth birthday, sold at auction in 2018 for £12,500.  The items had been discovered in England in a house once owned by a senior military officer, the assumption being they were looted in 1945 (“souveniring” in soldier's parlance), the items all bearing the Nazi eagle, swastika and Hitler's initials.  Auction houses can be inconsistent in their descriptions of sporks and in some cases they're listed as splayds, the designs sometimes meaning it's a fine distinction.

Großadmiral (Grand Admiral, equivalent to an Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy) or Five Star Admiral (US Navy) Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930; State Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office 1897-1916).

He's remembered now for (1) his role in building up the Imperial German Navy, triggering events which would play some part in the coming of World War I (1914-1918) and (2) being the namesake for the Bismarck class battleship Tirpitz (1939-1944) which although it hardly ever took to the high seas and fired barely a shot in anger, merely by being moored in Norwegian fjords, it compelled the British Admiralty to watch it with a mix of awe and dread, necessitating keeping in home waters a number of warships badly needed elsewhere.  He’s remembered also for (3) his distinctive twin-forked beard and such was the threat his namesake battleship represented, just the mistaken belief she was steaming into the path of a convoy (PQ 17, June 1942) of merchant ships bound for the Russian port or Archangel caused the Admiralty to issue a “scatter order” (ie disperse the convoy from the escorting warships), resulting in heavy losses.  After a number of attempts, in 1944, she was finally sunk in a raid by Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers although, because some of the capsized hull remained visible above the surface, some wags in the navy insisted the air force had not "sunk the beast" but merely "lowered her to the waterline".  It wasn't until after the war the British learned the RAF's successful mission, strategically, had been unnecessary, earlier attacks (including the Admiralty's using mines placed by crews in midget submarines) having inflicted so much damage there was by 1944 no prospect of the Tirpitz again venturing far from its moorings.