Soccer

Soccer (pronounced sok-er)

(1) A form of 11-a-side football played between two teams, in which the spherical ball may be advanced by kicking or by bouncing it off any part of the body (excluding the arms and hands unless re-starting the game by throwing in the ball from the sideline), the object being to score points by putting the ball in the opponent’s goal-net. The special position of goalkeeper may, within certain positional limitations, use their arms and hands to catch, carry, throw, or stop the ball.

(2) In the slang of Australian Rules Football (AFL, the old VFL), to kick the football directly off the ground, without use of the hands.

1888 A coining in British English, a colloquial abbreviation for association football, the construct being (As)soc(iation football) + -er.  The other forms were socker (1885) & socca (1889), the first known instance of "soccer" noted in 1888, the word coming into general use between 1890-1895 and it evolved from slang to a standard noun.  Soccer is a noun & verb and soccered & soccering are verbs.  The special use as a verb happens in Australian Rules Football and describes a player kicking the football directly off the ground, without the use of the hands.

The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius and reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant was -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  Usually, the –er suffix was added to verbs to create a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb; used to form an agent noun and if added to a noun it usually denoted an occupation.  However, there was also the special case of the “slang –er”, which etymologists sometimes call the “Oxford –er” because of the association (though not the origin) of the practice with the university in the nineteenth century.  The slang –er was used as a suffix to make jocular or convenient formations from common or proper names and appears to first have been English schoolboy use in the 1860s before entering the vernacular via its introduction to Oxford University slang from Rugby School, the Oxford English Dictionary even identifying the first documented instance “at University College, in Michaelmas Term, 1875".  The first coining was probably rugger (the game of Rugby) and constructs on the same model include brekker (breakfast), fresher (freshman), leccer (lecture), footer (football), fiver (five-pound note) and tenner (ten-shilling note).  The practice continued in the twentieth century and some coinings endured in the plural such as preggers (pregnant), bonkers (behaving as if bonked on the head) and starkers (stark naked).  Given it was originally the work of schoolboys, some have expressed surprise they didn’t instead render a verbal shorthand of “Association Football” in a form using “ass” (although at Oxford it briefly was assoccer before quickly being truncated).

Football-type games have been documented for centuries and it seems likely something similar was probably played in prehistoric times on occasions when young people congregated but the point of Association Football was that in 1863 it codified a set of rules, allowing structured competitions to be formed.  Prior to that, clubs abd schools played many variations of the game and this caused difficulties when the young men met at university, finding no general agreement on the rules.  The University of Cambridge did create their own rule book but it was but one of many and it was this proliferation which lead to the formation of the association, the discussions eventually producing not only the rules of what would emerge as modern football (soccer) but also the schism which saw some schools and clubs go in another direction and play what became known first as rugby football and later simply rugby.  Later still, when it suffered its own schism and begat rugby league, the name “rugby union” emerged although “rugby” remains most common.

To most in the US, the word "football" means something different than in much of the world so it's not clear what Lindsay Lohan thought she was being invited to when Carolyn Radford (b 1982; Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mansfield Town Stags) extended the offer of a seat at a match.  It’s not known if Ms Lohan did manage to catch a game but the promise of her presence clearly inspired the players because the Stags, then languishing in the non-League (fifth level) division of the English football league system, in 2024 gained promotion to League One (the old third division).  

In most parts of the world, the game is known as football but in places where other forms of (closely or vaguely) similar ball sports had become popular and referred to either officially or casually as “football”, soccer was adopted as the preferred term for what was, at the elite level, a minority sport.  Thus in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Ireland the game came to be called soccer although, in New Zealand, beginning in the late twentieth century, “football” increasingly supplanted “soccer”, the assumption being that because the volume of overseas matches televised (with the native commentary) vastly exceeded that of local content, the word became accepted.  Additionally, because the rugby codes (historically rugby union and increasingly after the 1980s rugby league so dominated) and the common slang was “footie” rather than “football”, the latter in that sense never achieved the critical mass needed to entrench use.

It was different in Australia because of Australian Football which, while occasionally called “Aussie Rules” has long been commonly known as football (or footie) so the round-ball game became soccer and the name Socceroo (the construct being socce(r) + (kanga)roo)) was adopted as the official name for the national team.  In Japan, where the dominant influence on the language in the twentieth century was the US, the most common form is サッカー(sakkā, from soccer).  In the US, a hybrid (with a few unique innovations) of rugby and association football emerged and was soon more popular than either.  The early name was “gridiron football” but in the pragmatic American way, that quickly became simply “football” although curiously, “gridiron” has survived among many foreign audiences.  Realizing the linguistic batter was lost, the United States Football Association, which had formed in the 1910s as the official organizing body of American soccer, in 1945 changed its name to the United States Soccer Football Association before deciding the advantages of product differentiation should be pursued, deleting entirely any use of “football”.  The other great US contribution to the language was the “soccer mom”, an encapsulation of a particular (usually white), middle-class demographic describing (1) a woman who often drives her school-age children to sporting activities and (2) in a quasi-disparaging sense, a white, middle-class woman who obsessively talks of her children’s successes and achievements.  There are derivative terms such as soccer dad & ballet dad but they’ve never achieved the same cultural traction.

The well connected Sepp Blatter (b 1936; President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 1998-2015).

(1) With Silvio Berlusconi (b 1936; thrice Italian prime minister 1994-2011).

(2) With Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001).

(3) With Elizabeth II; Queen of the UK and other places, 1952-2022).

(4) With the FIFA World Cup trophy (which hasn’t actually been a cup since 1974).

(5) With Vladimir Putin (b 1952; Russian president or prime-minister since 1999).

(6) With Benjamin Netanyahu (b 1946; thrice Israeli prime-minister 1996-2022).

(7) With David Cameron (b 1966; UK prime-minister 2010-2016).

(8) With Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani (b 1988; chief of Qatar's 2022 World Cup Bid).

(9) With Nicolas Sarközy (b 1955, French president 2007-2012).

(10) With Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; Turkish president or prime-minister since 2003).

(11) With Boris Johnson (b 1964; UK prime-minister 2019-2022).

(12) With Kevin Rudd (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2007-2010 & Jun-Sep 2013).

Unlike some sports where the influence of technology or improvements in this and that are so significant it verges on impossible usefully to compare players from different eras, probably few would disagree that among sports administrators, Sepp Blatter has achieved some of the most extraordinary things.

In office as president of FIFA between 1998-2015, Blatter devoted much of his time (and FIFA’s money) to building his power base among football’s influential in Asia and Africa.  This attracted some comment from the football community in places like Europe and South America but it was in May 2015 he really made the headlines when a joint operation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Swiss investigators staged a raid on the Zürich hotel where FIFA were about to conduct their annual congress.  Seven FIFA executives were arrested and charged with racketeering & money laundering while a further seven officials and sports-marketing figures were indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for offenses reaching back more than two decades.  Shortly afterwards, the DoJ revealed four other executives and two companies had already pleaded guilty in the international probe, which involved the payment of some US$150 million in what were alleged to be bribes and kickbacks.  Despite it all, two days after the arrests, Blatter was re-elected president by nearly a two-thirds majority of the 209-member FIFA voting body.  Contrary to the president’s expectations, a public outcry ensued which in just a few days escalated so rapidly that Blatter called for a special session of the FIFA congress to be convened, vowing to resign once a successor had been elected.  In October 2015, following the announcements of further investigations of Blatter’s conduct, FIFA’s ethics committee suspended him from the organization for 90 days, appointing an acting president.

Two months later Blatter was found guilty of ethics violations and barred from football-related activities for eight years.  Some of the charges were pursuant to a US$2 million payment Blatter made in 2011 to Michel Platini (b 1955; president of Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA, the peak body controlling football in Europe) 2007-2015), the supporting documentation associated with the payment said to be about as extensive as that attached to the receipt in the petty-cash tin for a packet of biscuits.  Platini had long been assumed to be Blatter’s successor.  Blatter appealed the decision and in February 2016 FIFA’s appeals committee reduced the ban to six years, a ruling upheld by the Tribunal arbitral du sport (Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)) in December.  Under new FIFA President Gianni Infantino (b 1970; FIFA president since 2016), further investigations were undertaken and in December 2020, FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Blatter relating to his role in the FIFA Museum project before, in March 2021, citing financial wrongdoing in the payment of huge “bonuses”, imposing a fine of just over US$1 million and extending his ban from football for a further six years, beginning as soon as the original ban expired in October 2022.  That was bad enough but his life appeared to be getting worse when, in November 2021, Swiss authorities brought to trial fraud charges associated with the falsification of documents relating to the mysterious payments to Platini.  Some eight months later, Blatter and Platini were cleared of all charges.  Sepp Blatter has achieved extraordinary things.

Rubber

Rubber (pronounced ruhb-er)

(1) Also called India rubber, natural rubber, gum, gum elastic, caoutchouc, a highly elastic solid substance, light cream or dark amber in color, polymerized by the drying and coagulation of the latex or milky juice of rubber trees and plants, especially Hevea brasiliensis and Ficus species.  In pure form, it is white and consists of repeating units of C5H8.

(2) A material made by chemically treating and toughening this substance, valued for its elasticity, non-conduction of electricity, shock absorption, and resistance to moisture, used in the manufacture of erasers, electrical insulation, elastic bands, crepe soles, toys, water hoses, tires, and many other products.

(3) Any of a large variety of elastomers produced by improving the properties of natural rubber or by synthetic means

(4) Of various similar substances and materials made synthetically.

(5) A casual term for an eraser of this (or other) material, for erasing pencil marks, ink marks, etc.

(6) Slang term for a rubber tire or set of rubber tires (usually in motorsport).

(7) A term for water-resistant shoe covers, galoshes, gumboots, wellington boots or overshoes (US & Canada).

(8) An instrument or tool used for rubbing, polishing, scraping; also applied to the person using this device.

(9) Slang term for a person who gives massages; masseur or masseuse.

(10) In baseball, an oblong piece of white rubber or other material embedded in the mound at the point from which the pitcher delivers the ball.

(11) Slang term for a male contraceptive; condom.

(12) In certain card games such as bridge and whist, a series or round played until one side reaches a specific score or wins a specific number of hands.

(13) In competitive sport, a series consisting of a number of games won by the side winning the majority; the deciding game in such a series.  Also called rubber match, especially a deciding contest between two opponents who have previously won the same number of contests from each other.

(14) One employed to rub (usually rub-down) horses.

(15) In mechanical engineering, the cushion of an electric machine (obsolete).

(16) In slang, a hardship or misfortune (archaic).

1530-1540: From the Middle English rubben, possibly from the Low German rubben & rubbeling or the Saterland Frisian rubben.  The alternative etymology suggests it’s of North Germanic origin, a form such as the Swedish rubba (to move, scrub), all from the Proto-Germanic reufaną (to tear).  It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian rubje (to rub, scrape), the Low German rubben (to rub), the Low German rubblig (rough, uneven), the Dutch robben and rubben (to rub smooth; scrape; scrub), the Danish rubbe (to rub, scrub) and the Icelandic & Norwegian rubba (to scrape).  An agent-noun from the verb rub, the construct is rub + -er.  The –er suffix is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from the Latin -ārius.  It was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.

Burning rubber.  1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird, a replica of the race cars used in NASCAR’s Grand National series that year.  One of these won the 1970 Daytona 500 but the sanctioning body changed the rules for 1971, limiting the engine capacity for cars with the wild aerodynamic modifications to 305 cubic inches (5.0 litres) while allowing others to continue to use the full 430 cubic inches (7.0 litres).

The meaning "elastic substance from tropical plants" (short for India rubber) was first recorded in 1788, having been introduced into Europe 1744 by French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701–1774) and so called because it originally was used as an eraser, having proven its utility for erasing the strokes of black lead pencils; for a time it was known also as the “lead-eater”.  Use to describe the waterproof overshoe is US English from 1842, the slang sense of "condom" unknown before the 1930s.  The sense of a "deciding match" (later any match) in a game or contest is from the 1590s and and may have a wholly different etymology.  The rubber stamp in the literal (noun) sense is from 1881, the figurative use to describe and “individual or institution with formal authority but no power" was noted from 1919; the verb in this sense used first in 1934.  Rubber cement is attested from 1856 (having existed since 1823 as India-rubber cement).  The rubber check (to describe one which bounces) is from 1927.

Lindsay Lohan in wetsuits, the one in pastel blue with pops of yellow, pink & royal blue by Cynthia Rowley was worn in the short film First Point (2012); it used the motif of a stained glass window.  It was made from a 2 mm fiber-lite neoprene, a synthetic rubber of the family polychloroprene, dating from 1930 and produced by polymerization of chloroprene.  Wetsuits maintain body-heat by trapping a thin layer of water between the neoprene and the skin, the thing gaining its name from the wearer being always wet, the body's heat warming the trapped water which is why a wetsuit must be tight, otherwise the gap will be too wide and heat will dissipate.

The Dead Rubber

A dead rubber in a sports series is a game, the result of which cannot affect the outcome of a series.  Thus, if one side is 3-0 up in a five match series, the remaining two games are dead-rubbers.  The origin of rubber as descriptor of a game is unknown but consensus is it’s probably the notion from bridge that when one pair is 1-0 up, if the opposing pair win the next deal, that “rubs out” the earlier advantage and the vernacular form to emerge describing this was likely “a rubber”.  To this day, the most popular form of bridge is known as rubber bridge.

The word in its original form certainly had nothing to do with the rubber extracted from trees.  Both Dr Johnson's Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) dictionary (1755-1756) and John Kersey's earlier (1702-1708) works express no doubt the term comes from the word rub and includes the meaning “to play rubbers, or a double game at any sport”.  The sports recorded as being counted in rubbers are those where there are a number of rounds, deals or games within the one match or series such as bowls and bridge.  Both make it clear rubber in the context of sport is derived from “to rub out”.

A more speculative explanation for the etymology is from the sixteenth century English game of lawn bowling.  Somewhat similar to bocce ball, the object of lawn bowling is to roll wooden balls across a flat field toward a smaller white ball so they stop as close as possible to the smaller ball without hitting it.  Theory is that the term refers to two balls rubbing together, a game-losing mistake although it’s just as likely that, as in bridge, it references the final game's potential to "rub out" or the opposing team’s earlier score.

Martyr

Martyr (pronounced mahr-ter)

(1) A person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religious faith, most notably those saints canonized after martyrdom.

(2) A person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause.

(3) A person who undergoes severe or constant suffering (often applied informally to those subject to chronic conditions such as rheumatism or migraine headaches).

(4) A person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation (fake martyrdom) or who willingly assumes some sort of easily avoidable (self-imposed martyrdom), both usually applied in a facetious or derogatory manner.

(5) To make a martyr of someone (especially by putting to death); to persecute, to torment or torture.

Pre 900: From the Middle English noun marter, from the Old English martir & martyr, from the Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from the Doric Greek μάρτυρ (mártur (martus & mártyr)) (witness), a later form of the Ancient Greek μάρτυς (mártus (mártys & mártyros)) (witness).  The verb was from the Middle English martiren, from the Old English martyrian, from the noun.  The noun martyr referred to one who bears testimony to faith, especially one who willingly suffers death rather than deny their religious faith and specifically one of the Christians who put to death because they would not renounce their beliefs.  The verb developed in the sense of "put to death as punishment for adherence to some religious belief (especially Christianity) and was from the Middle English martiren, from Old French martiriier (and influenced by the Old English gemartyrian, from the noun martyr) and Middle English also had the mid-fifteenth century verb martyrize.  The general sense of "constant sufferer, a victim of misfortune, calamity, disease, etc" was in common use by the late sixteenth century while the Martyr complex (an exaggerated desire for self-sacrifice or assuming burdens) dates from 1916.  The noun martyrdom ("torture and execution for the sake of one's faith) emulated the use in the Old English and in the more abstract sense of "a state of suffering for the maintaining of any obnoxious cause", came to be used in the late fourteenth century.  The word has proved productive in its proliferation.  Martyr is a noun, martyrization, martyrdom, martyrology, martyry, martyrer, martyrship, martyrion, martyrium, martyrologe, martyrologue, protomartyr are nouns, martyring, martyrize & martyrizate are verbs, martyrish & martyresque are adjectives, martyred is a verb & adjective and martyrly is an adverb & adjective; the noun plural is martyrs.

Self-help for one's self.

The word was adopted directly into most Germanic languages (Old Saxon, Old Frisian Old High German et al), but fourteenth century Norse used the native formation pislarvattr (literally "torture-witness" meaning "one who suffers death or grievous loss in defense or on behalf of any belief or cause" (which could be personal, devotional or political).  Danish, French, Norwegian & Swedish all used the modern English spelling (some language groups in the old British Empire modified the spelling (notably under the Raj) while others picked it up unaltered).  Among other languages there was the Proto-Brythonic merθɨr, the Dutch martelaar, the Estonian märter, the Finnish marttyyri, the Old French martire, the Scots mairtyr, the Maori matira, the German Märtyrer, the Hungarian mártír, the Old Irish martar, the Old Italian martore, the Italian martire, the Lombard màrtul, the Neapolitan marture, the Catalan màrtir, the Occitan martir, the Galician, Spanish & Portuguese mártir, the Romanian martor, the Sardinian màrturu, the Sicilian màrtiri, the Scottish Gaelic martai and the Tagalog martir.  The origin of the Greek word is uncertain but may have been connected to mermera (care, trouble), from mermairein (be anxious or thoughtful), from the primitive Indo-European smrtu & mrtu-, source also of the Sanskrit smarati (remember) and the Latin memor (mindful).  Not all etymologists support the theory, usually because the phonetic relationships are dubious, suggesting a more likely origin lies in Archaic or Pre-Greek, perhaps even as a loan-word.  The Arabic شهيد (shaheed or shahid) (witness) in Islam refers to a martyr and appears often in the Quran (in the sense of "witness") but in only one instance can it be understood as  "martyr", the sense it acquired in the Ḥadīth, the vast body of work produced by authors which documented the words and thoughts attributed to the prophet.  The variations in the translations of these texts are legion and there has been cynical exploitation of this by the recruiters to jihadist causes who tend to seek out and merge the most punitive of the translations and the rewards to martyrs of 72 (the number varies) dark-eyed virgins appears with frequency.

Self-help for those with a difficult mother.

Martyrdom was of great interest to the Church, illustrated by the frequency with which martyrs to their faith were canonized (made into saints).  As a branch of theological academia, martyrology (history of the lives, sufferings, and deaths of Christian martyrs) became a district thing in the 1590s, either as a native formation from the noun martyr + -ology, or from the Ecclesiastical Latin martyrologium, from Ecclesiastical Greek martyrologicon.  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  In the Roman Catholic Church (an institution long given to making lists of stuff), an important part of martyrology was the index (or calendar) of martyrs, arranged according to their anniversaries (ie of their martyrdom).  In Middle English there was the late fourteenth century martiloge (the register of martyred saints), from the Medieval Latin martilogium; the related coining was martyrological.

Self-help for those with a difficult boyfriend.

Except where it’s unavoidable, the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), tends not to use popular forms like “martyr complex”, bundling the condition in the category of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a cluster B personality disorder considered to be one of the least identified of the class, noting NPD frequently coexists with other psychiatric disorders.  A relatively recent diagnostic category, its development reflected not a distinct set of diagnostic criteria but rather the recognition by clinicians (psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists) that to classify certain difficult (though typically not neurotic) patients as psychotic was counter-productive.  The most often noted characteristics of NPD include grandiosity, the excessive quest admiration and a lack of empathy, coupled with underlying feelings of low self esteem issues and inadequacy.  In the DSM-5-TR (2022), the symptoms of NPD are listed as:

(1) A grandiose logic of self-importance.

(2) A fixation with fantasies of infinite success, control, brilliance, beauty, or idyllic love.

(3) A credence that he or she is extraordinary and exceptional and can only be understood by, or should connect with, other extraordinary or important people or institutions.

(4) A desire for unwarranted admiration.

(5) A sense of entitlement.

(6) Interpersonally oppressive behavior.

(7) No form of empathy.

(8) Resentment of others or a conviction that others are resentful of him or her.

(9) A display of egotistical and conceited behaviors or attitudes.

The early Church celebrated particularly the example of Justin Martyr (circa 100-circa 165, who appears in some texts as Justin the Philosopher).  His name wasn’t actually Martyr but it was adopted because his conduct in the face of suffering was thought exemplary.  He was in all probability a pagan and had sought education from schools in the Peripatetic, Pythagorean and Platonic traditions but was still unsatisfied unit falling into conversation with an elderly man he met on a beach who “…convinced him of the truth as it is in Jesus”.  His conversion to Christianity led to a lifetime of teaching, writing his apologia which culminated with his martyrdom, beheaded with six others under the reign of Marcus Aurelius (121–180; Roman emperor 161-180) although there’s nothing to suggest the emperor was involved in the sentencing.  For his faith he was of course rewarded with eternal life in Heaven but Justin too achieved a kind of earthly immortality, venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern & Oriental Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican community.  Later, the legend arose that Marcus Aurelius became disposed to relax the persecution of Christians after a group of them prayed for rain and the subsequent storm was of such intensity it enabled him to avoid military defeat although, off and on, persecution continued and it wasn’t until the reign of Constantine the Great (circa 272-337; Roman emperor 306–337) began to emerge as the dominant religion of the empire.

The persecution of Christians will seem familiar to minorities living under many authoritarian regimes including the Falun Gong in China and the Baháʼí in Iran and many historians have concluded the reasons tend to be political rather than theological, structuralists summarizing things thus:

(1) Emperors in Rome were much opposed to gods their regime did not recognize, the Bible noting (1 Corinthians 8:5) “there be gods many, and lords many” but the imperial authorities did not own the God of the Christians.

(2) The Christian faith preached One who was God over all the earth, who knew no political frontiers and that pagan gods were mere idols.

(3) Christians could not join in pagan worship or the idolatrous acts which were part of the social or civic occasions of which the state approved. 

(4) Christians met as a secret society and were unsociable in their behavior, the assumption being they might be plotting against the state.

(5) Christians were seen to be threatening the financial and political interests of various powerful classes, priests, the makers & sellers of idols and those who bred and sole sacrificial animals.

(6) Christians and their ways were accused to be arousing the anger of Roman gods who proved vengeful in visiting upon the empire famines, earthquakes, military defeats and other punishments.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1653, the full title Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church) by John Foxe (1517-1587) was a review of the history of martyrdom in European Christianity with a particular focus on the suffering of the early English Protestants.

The persecution continued until the year 311 when the Emperor Galerius (circa 258–311; Roman emperor 305-311) expired, meeting his death in a manner similar to that recorded in Acts (12:3) as that suffered by Herod Agrippa: “He was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost”.  Baffled yet convinced by grace with which Christians accepted their martyrdom, on his deathbed Galerius issued the Edict of Toleration and entreated Christians to pray on his behalf.

Efflux & Afflux

Efflux (pronounced ef-luhks)

(1) Outward flow, as of water.

(2) Something that flows out; effluence.

(3) A passing or lapse of time.

(4) A passing away; expiration; ending.

(5) Death (obsolete).

1635–1645: From the Medieval Latin effluxus, noun use of past participle of effluere (to flow out), from effluō (flow out or away), the construct being ef- (an alternative form of ex- (out of; from) used when combined with f-initial words)) + fluc- (a variant stem of fluere (to flow) from fluō (flow) + -sus, (for -tus;suffix of action).  The synonyms (in the sense of “the process of flowing out”) include outflow, effluxion & effluence; the antonyms is influx (in the sense of “the process of flowing in”).  The present participle is effluxing, the simple past and past participle is effluxed and the plural is effluxes.

Afflux (pronounced af-luhks)

(1) Something that flows to or toward a point.

(2) The act of flowing to or toward; flow.

(3) In medicine, a flowing towards an area, especially of blood or other fluid toward a body part such as the brain or lung.

(4) In hydrology, the rise in water level (above normal) on the upstream side of a bridge or obstruction caused when the effective flow area at the obstruction is less than the natural width of the stream immediately upstream of the obstruction.

1605–1615: From the Medieval Latin affluxus (the flow of blood from the heart to part of the body), from afflūxum (supine of affluō (to flow towards)), noun use of past participle of affluere (present active infinitive of affluō), from fluxus (flux), from fluō (flow) +‎ -tus (the action noun-forming suffix).  The most common related forms in Latin were affluĕre & affluxum.  The plural is affluxes.

The phrase “effluxion of time” is used often as a fancy way to say “the passing of time” but it has a specific technical meaning in law, most often seen in contracts such as leases.  When used in conveyances, leases and similar deeds, it indicates the conclusion or expiration of an agreed length of time specified in the deed or writing, such conclusion or expiration arising in the natural course of events, as opposed to the sundering of the term by the acts of (at least one of the) the parties or by some unexpected event.  This phrase can be used also to indicate the conclusion or expiration of an agreement in simple writing when the conclusion or expiration occurs through a natural course of events.

As nouns the difference between affluxion and effluxion is that affluxion is the act of flowing towards and effluxion the process of flowing out.  The distinction is an important one in the technical language of disciplines such as pathology, hydrology, medicine and others who deal with specifics of fluid dynamics but in the matter of time they should be interchangeable (and therefore one should be unnecessary).  Despite the suggestions of cosmologists, theoretical physicists and other specialists that other possibilities exist, lawyers insist time is lineal, flows in one direction and is, for all legal purposes, constant.  The phrase “effluxion of time” would therefore appear to cover all circumstances but “affluxion of time” does exist in the legal record.  It appears to be a North American variant, noted in at least three examples, two from a lease and a option plan, both apparently drafted in the US, the third appearing in a consulting agreement, executed in Canada. 

Notwithstanding anything herein contained, the Landlord shall be under no obligation to repair or maintain the Tenant’s installations, alterations, additions, partitions and fixtures or anything in the nature of a leasehold improvement made or installed whether by the Tenant or by the Landlord on behalf of the Tenant; and further, notwithstanding anything herein contained, the Landlord shall have the right upon the termination of this Lease by affluxion of time or otherwise to require the Tenant to remove its installations, alterations, additions, partitions and fixtures or anything in the nature of a leasehold improvement made or installed by the Tenant or by the Landlord on behalf of the Tenant and to make good any damage caused to the Leased Premises by such installation or removal.

“Vested” shall mean, in relation to all or any part of the option, as appropriate, when any relevant condition (including, for the avoidance of doubt, the affluxion of time) has been satisfied, as confirmed by the Board of Directors (or, where relevant, waived) and “Vesting” and “Vest” shall be construed accordingly. For the avoidance of doubt, unless stated otherwise, any part of the option which Vests does not automatically become exercisable.

In the event this Agreement is terminated for any reason whatsoever, whether by affluxion of time or otherwise, the Consultant shall forthwith upon such termination return to the Corporation each and every copy of any Confidential Information (including all notes, records and documents pertaining thereto) in the possession or under the control of the Consultant at that time.

An analysis of the text does suggest it may have been a mistake, perhaps a transcription from dictation or a quirky spell-checker because substituting effluxion for affluxion seems not to affect meaning.  Those who found those three paragraphs a bit turgid can be assured things used to be worse and that as written, this text is a reasonable example of legal writing in “plain English”.

Lindsay Lohan's hair styles: Landmarks in the effluxion of time, 2002-2009.

Pixelate

Pixelate (pronounced pik-suh-leyt)

(1) In digital graphics and photography, to cause (an image) to break up (in whole or in part) into pixels, by complete or selective over-enlargement, resulting in blocky blurs.

(2) To blur parts of a digital image by creating unclear, pixel-like patches, for purposes of censorship or to maintain the anonymity of the subject (informal use of the word; technically need not be done by means of pixelation):

1965:  The construct was pixel + -ate.  Pix was a casual form of the abbreviation “pics”, the plural of “pictures”, the spelling with the x in use (initially in magazines and periodicals) since the 1880s.  Pixel dates from 1965 and was a portmanteau word, the blend being pix + el(ement).  It seems first to have been used by taking advantage of advances in the technology of magnification which enabled artists to manipulate images down to the levels of the individual, identifiable, two-dimensional (dots) components.  As the technology moved to screens and the dots became square, single-colored display elements, the word pixel continued to be used.  The noun pixelation (also as pixellation) in the sense of “creation of the effect of animation in live actors" was used first in motion-picture post-production and editing in 1947 and it appears not to have entered general use until the 1990s.  Prior to then, when pixelation was used (typically in newspapers to conceal identities or to obscure body parts or acts thought offensive), the effect was usually described a “blurred” or “blurred-out”.  The suffix -ate was a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee.  Pixelate, pixelize & pixelating are verbs, pixelization & pixelation are nouns, pixelated is a verb & adjective and pixelized is an adjective.

It shouldn’t be confused with the similar but completely unrelated (and usually whimsical) term pixilated, the construct of that being pixi(e) + (titill)ated, the blend of pixie and titillated suggesting an individual behaving in an eccentric manner, as though led by pixies (although it was used for a while by the news media as a euphemism for “drunk” until “tired and emotional” became preferred.  It’s always been rare but in the sense of the eccentric the synonyms include abnormal & eccentric while whimsically it implies the idiosyncratic, outlandish, peculiar, playful, quirky or unconventional.  It dates, as a dialectical form of US English, from the New England region in 1848 but entered general use in 1936 when used in a popular movie.  A pixie in this context was a figure from mythology, fantasy literature & fairy tales and was a playful sprite, elf-like or fairy-like creature.  In slang, it referred to a young, petite girl with a certain short-cut hair-style (or the style itself as “the pixie-cut).  In the technical language of astronomy & meteorology, pixie is the name of an upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.  Titillate was from the Latin tītillātus, from tītillō & tītillāre (to tickle) and was used usually to suggest acts which stimulated desire or excited sensually.

Loewe’s “pixelated glitches”, Paris Fashion Week, October 2022.

In a more convention vein, Loewe also list a crew neck sweater in wool with pixel intarsia in multi-tone brown with ribbed collar, cuffs and hem at Stg£750 (US$905).

Displayed at Paris Fashion Week in October 2022, Loewe's Metaverse Fashion Works IRL (an initialism of “in real life”, borrowed from literary criticism which, in internet slang imparts, “as opposed to online”) was the latest take on the pixelated look and the most obvious attempt yet to emulate IRL the look as it appears on screens.  Although catwalks are noted as a place designers can show pieces which generate much publicity without being likely to attract many buyers, Loewe confirmed the pixelized clothing items (a hoodie, dress, and pair of pants) will be part-numbers and appear in the Spring 2023 collection.  The show notes described the look as "a pixelated glitch" and, photographed sympathetically, the effect was well-executed although there are limitations in the extent to which an inherently 2D look can translate into 3D (IRL).  Whether many of the Minecraft generation are used to paying the prices Loewe’s customer base can afford is unlikely but the way the industry works is that when a thing trends, the sweatshops east of Suez quickly are commissioned to do runs of cheap knock-offs and Meta might actually be grateful the look has generated so many clicks, Loewe’s toe in the metaverse’s stylistic water one of the few supportive gestures which suggests there might be people interested in digital-style clothes.

Pixelation by Anrealage at Japan Fashion Week, 2011 

Shoes (by Kunihiko Morinaga san, out of Picasso).

The idea has though been around for a while.  Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga san’s (b 1980) fall/winter 2011/2012 collection for Anrealage at Japan Fashion Week included some pixelated fabrics in what was a deliberately nostalgic showcase for those who remembered, with a fondness inexplicable except as a memory of a dissolute youth, 8-bit graphics.  The look extended to the heels on shoes but that did display the limitations imposed IRL when a 2D effect is seen in 3D, morphed into cubism circa 1908.

Lindsay Lohan, pixelated.

Loewe's Spring 2023 collection on the catwalk.  Catwalk models are famously the most gloomy-looking souls on the planet but one who must have looked at one of the more bizarre pieces couldn't suppress a smile.  She may have been sent to the fashion gulag.

Slope

Slope (pronounced slohp)

(1) To have or take an inclined or oblique direction or angle considered with reference to a vertical or horizontal plane; slant.

(2) To move at an inclination; obliquely to move.

(3) To direct at a slant or inclination; incline from the horizontal or vertical.

(4) To form or describe something with a slope or slant.

(5) A descriptor of ground or some aspect of the natural or built environment which has an incline, such as a hill.

(6) An inclination or slant, especially downward or upward; to lie or cause to lie at a slanting or oblique angle.

(7) Any deviation from the horizontal or vertical; an inclined surface.

(8) In mathematics, (1) the tangent of the angle between a given straight line and the x-axis of a system of Cartesian coordinates; (2) the derivative of the function whose graph is a given curve evaluated at a designated point.

(9) In slang, a disparaging and offensive term used to refer to a person of East Asian appearance.

(10) As slope off, a slang term (mostly UK, Australia & New Zealand) describing someone moving slowly, or furtively away, usually to avoid work or responsibility; a rare variation is “sloped-in”, used to describe to who arrive somewhere surreptitiously (those late for work etc).

(11) To follow an inclined course down a hillside (applied especially to natural features).

(12) In military use, as slope position, a drill command referring to the position in which a long-arm should be held.

1495–1505: From Middle English slope (go in an oblique direction), from the earlier adjectival meaning “slanting”, an aphetic variant of the Middle English aslope, from the Old English aslopen, past participle of āslūpan (to slip away), the construct being a- (away) + slupan (to slip).  From 1709 slope was used to mean "to be in a slanting position", the transitive sense "place in a slanting position" having been part of the language since circa 1600.  The derogatory slang meaning "oriental person" is attested from 1948.  Slopingly is an adverb, slopingness, sloper & slope are nouns, sloped & sloping are adjectives and sloped & sloping are verbs.

The slippery slope and the thin end of the wedge

Borrowed from political science, the terms “slippery slope” and “thin end (sometimes edge) of the wedge” are sometimes used interchangeably but, while both refer to similar processes, there are nuances which distinguish the two.  The idea is that a small, minor and perhaps innocuous change or innovation affecting something can trigger a chain of events which might result in unintended consequences; in that there are similarities with chaos theory but a slippery slope is much more specific and probably lineal.  There’s often overlap between the two and the distinctions are not always absolute but circumstances usually tends more to one than the other.  Both tend to be used in political discourse by extremists and fanatics and are often example of what is called the “slippery slope fallacy” such as the argument that if gay marriage is allowed, eventually the gay people will be allowed to marry their goats.  That argument really was raised by some who claimed it wasn't an extreme position to take, pointing out that two generations earlier, those who had been opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality because it would put society on a slippery slope towards gay marriage had been accused of raising a “slippery slope fallacy”.  All things considered, goats seem safe.  The slippery slope is also a piece of imagery adopted sometimes by black-letter-law judges who oppose judicial activism.

The difference is essentially in the dynamics driving the process.  On a slippery slope, things happen because of the inherent inertia; the notion that of sitting on a slippery slope, the slide downhill an inevitable consequence of the physics of fluid dynamics and the force of gravity.  The downward path will happen naturally.  By contrast, the model of the thin end of the wedge is that of the wedge driven into the tree.  If left there nothing will happen but if the woodsman continues to hammer the edge into the trunk, at some point, the tree will fall.  An example of the thin end of the wedge was the deployment in the early 1960s by the Kennedy administration (1961-1963) of a small number of military advisors to support the government of South Vietnam.  It had never been intended that large-scale combat operations would be undertaken in Vietnam but, step-by-step, Washington increased the commitment.  An more familiar example of the slippery slope is to adopt a rigorous diet and then allow a weekly “cheat day”.  On the first cheat day, one might have just the one chocolate biscuit but the next week it’s a biscuit and a donut and within weeks it’s packets of both.

Anthony Trollope’s (1815-1882) 1857 novel Barchester Towers is set in a tranquil and leafy town but there are few novels which, without even a threat of bloodshed, so successfully and with such subtlety impart such feelings of incipient evil and a relentless undercurrent of dread.  In Victorian novels there were many characters of dubious virtue but few not actually homicidal managed to induce in readers such feelings of unease and distaste as the slimy Reverend Obadiah Slope.

Although said to be “tall and not ill made”, Slope was “saucer-eyed”, his hair “lank, and of a dull pale reddish hue… formed into three straight lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision, and cemented with much grease.”  His face, “perhaps a little redder” than his hair, not unlike beef “of a bad quality”, a “redeeming feature” his nose which was “pronounced, straight, and well-formed” although marred still by “a somewhat spongy, porous appearance, as though it had been cleverly formed out of red colored cork".  The description of the nose is not without significance for it had by some been asserted that he was of lineal descent from Dr Slop, “that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr Tristram Shandy, and that in early years he added an ‘e’ to his name, for the sake of euphony.”  Shandy, the eponymous character from Laurence Sterne's (1713-1768) nine volume work (1759-1757), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was birthed by the “man-midwife” Dr Slop, who squashes Tristram's nose with forceps as he yanks the baby out.

Slope was the domestic chaplain to Bishop Proudie at Barchester and began as a protégé of the Bishop’s wife (a truly ghastly woman) but later became her enemy as he attempted when he endeavored to wrest the control of the diocese from her hands by becoming an eminence (pâle) rouge, a kind of vicarage Richelieu controlling the Bishop.  The plots and schemes of the calculating chaplain, conducted with much obsequiousness, play out in the novel as a part of a struggle between those of the high church and the evangelicals, a struggle not resolved to this day.  The Trollope aficionados don’t regard Barchester Towers as his best work but few deny it’s one of the most enjoyable and anyone who wishes to sample Trollope should start here.

On the slopes: Lindsay Lohan in Gstaad, Switzerland, 2016.  The experience on skis may have come in handy in 2022 during filming for Netflix's Falling for Christmas.