Cokebottle

Cokebottle (pronounced koke-bott-el)

A descriptor for a design where objects either resemble or are inspired by the shape of the classic Coca-Cola bottle.

1965: From an unsuccessful trademark application file in the US by the Chevrolet division of General Motors (GM), cokebottle thus word that never was.  The Coca-Cola name was a deliberately alliterative creation which referred to two of the original ingredients (leaves of the coca plant and kola nuts (source of the caffeine).  Coca is from the Erythroxylaceae family of cultivated plants native to western South America and renowned as the source of the psychoactive alkaloid.  Used since the drink’s debut in 1886, the cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola in 1903, the remainder of the recipe remaining famously secret.  Coke dates from 1908 in US English and was a clipping of clipping of cocaine although it’s not known when the word was first used to refer to the drink but given the rapidity with which slang forms emerge to describe popular products, it’s at least possible it pre-dated the drug reference although the company did not lodge a trade-mark application for Coke until 1944 although in internal company documents it appears at least as early as 1941.  While the drink produced a number of derived forms (Diet Coke, Coke-Bottle, frozen Coke, Coke-float, Coke Zero and the most unfortunate New Coke), those attached to the narcotic are more evocative and include coke dick, cokehead, coke whore and coke-fucked.  Bottle was from the Middle English botel (bottle, flask, wineskin), from the Old French boteille (from which Modern French gained bouteille), from the Medieval Latin butticula, ultimately of uncertain origin but thought by most etymologists to be a diminutive of the Late Latin buttis (cask, barrel).  Buttis was probably from a Greek form related to the Ancient Greek πυτίνη (putínē) (flask) and βοῦττις (boûttis), from the imitative primitive Indo-European bhehw (to swell, puff).

Between its unpromising origin in 1926 as a lower-cost alternative to the anyway non-premium Oakland brand and its demise (with a whimper) in 2010, Pontiac in the 1960s did enjoy a brief shining moment of innovation and style.  Pontiac had been one of a number of companion brands introduced by GM as part of a marketing plan to cover every price segment with a distinct nameplate, Cadillac gaining LaSalle, Oldsmobile gaining Viking, Oakland gaining Pontiac and Buick gaining Marquette; only the high-volume Chevrolet stood alone.  The effects of the Great Depression meant the experiment didn’t last and GM would soon revert five divisions the newcomers Viking and Marquette axed while Pontiac, which had proved both more successful and profitable than the shuttered Oakland, survived, joined LaSalle which lingered until 1940.  Pontiac also returned to the line-up when car production resume late in 1945 and benefiting from the buoyant post-war economy, enjoyed success although much of the engineering was based on the Chevrolet and the side-valve engines were obsolescent.  Things began to change in 1955 when a new overhead-valve (OHV) V8 was introduced, a power-plant which faithfully would serve the line for a quarter century in displacements between 265 cubic inches (4.3 litres) and 455 (7.5L) and unusually for US manufacturers during the era, Pontiac used the one basic block for all iterations.  By 1955, all Pontiacs sold in the US were V8 powered (some sixes were still made for overseas markets) and the division began to become more adventurous, joining the power race, fielding cars in competition and moving up-market.  However, the first real master-stroke which would be one of several innovations which would contribute to such stellar growth in both sales and reputation in the decade to come was the introduction in 1959 of the wide-track advertising campaign.

1959 Pontiac convertibles:  A Canadian Parisienne (left) built on the Chevrolet X-Frame and a US Catalina (right) on Pontiac’s wide-track frame; note the gaping wheel-wells on the Canadian car.

There were not a few visual exaggerations in the wide-track advertising campaign but the underlying engineering was real, the track (the distance between the centre of the tyre-tracks across each axle-line) increased by 5 inches (125 mm).  This improved the handling, giving the Pontiacs a more sure-footed stance than most of the competition and an attractive low-slung look and if anyone had any doubts about the veracity of the “wide track” claim, the Canadian Pontiacs were there for comparison.  Because of internal corporate agreements, the bodies of the Canadian Pontiacs were mounted on the Chevrolet X-frame with its narrow track and the difference is obvious, the wheels looking lost inside the cavernous space created by the overhanging bodywork.  In the US, sales soared although the comparison with the recession-hit 1958 is probably misleading but the success of the wide-track programme did propel the division from sixth to fourth place in the industry and for much of the 1960s Pontiac Motor Division (PMD) was one of the industry's most dynamic name-plates.

1960s Pontiac Wide-Track advertising graphic art by Art Fitzpatrick (1919–2015) & Van Kaufman (1918-1995).

Memorable as the 1960s Pontiacs were, of note too was the graphic art produced by Art Fitzpatrick & Van Kaufman whose renderings were ground-breaking in the industry in that rather than focusing on the machine, they were an evocation of an life-style, albeit one which often bore little relationship to those enjoyed  by typical American consumers.  Still, that was and remains the essence of aspirational advertising and Fitzpatrick & Kaufman influenced their industry with techniques still seen today.  Truth-in-advertising rules in the 1960s were not as demanding as they would become, and although the big Pontiacs after 1959 were genuinely wide-tracked, they weren’t quite as wide as Fitzpatrick & Kaufman made them appear.  Never had longer, lower & wider been so wide.

Envious of what Pontiac had achieved in trade-marking wide-track for the wide track advertising campaigns, GM’s Chevrolet division attempted to claim both cokebottle and coke-bottle for similar purposes, wishing to run a campaign to tie in with their new styling idea for its big cars, using similar curves to those seen on the classic coke bottle. The authorities in Detroit declined the application and legal advice to Chevrolet suggested there was little chance of success against likely opposition from the Coca-Cola Corporation.

Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtops: 1965 (left), 1966 (centre) & 1967 (right).

However, along with much of the industry, Chevrolet did produce cars inspired by the shape which came to be known as coke bottle styling and on the big cars, the cokebottle motif was expressed mostly in the curves applied to the rear-coachwork.  Chevrolet toned-down the look in 1968-1969 but by then it had spread to other manufacturers, including those across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and although by the early 1970s it was dated, the realities of production-line economics meant the look in some places lingered, even into the 1980s, the odd revival (usually in the rear-fender shape) still seen from time-to-time though modern interpretations do tend to be more subtle than the exuberant lines of the 1960s.  Essentially bodies with outward curving fenders with a narrow centre, the technique had also been adopted by the aeroplane designers as a necessary means of dealing with the aerodynamic challenges created by supersonic speeds and although the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labelled the design principle area rule, most engineers referred to it as coke bottle or, among themselves, the Marilyn Monroe.

Lindsay Lohan seems to tend to prefer her Coca-Cola in cans but occasionally is seen drinking from the bottle.

1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88 convertible.  The classic example of cokebottle styling is the third generation (S3) Chevrolet Corvette (1968-1982) where the idea is executed at both the front and rear.  In the design of twenty-first century sports cars, the motif is still used.

Coca-Cola bottles and a replica of the 1914 A.L.F.A. Aerodinamica Prototipo which used the shape of the bottle introduced in 1900 (in reverese). 

In the narrow technical sense, cokebottle styling had been done (admittedly in reverse) as early as 1914 although there’s nothing to suggest Coca Cola's bottle design of 1900-1914 provided any inspiration.  The A.L.F.A. 40/60 HP Aerodinamica Prototipo was built by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Castagna in 1914 on a commission from Milanese Count Marco Ricotti.  Although relatively large & heavy, the aerodynamic properties of the teardrop-shaped body permitted an impressive top speed of 86 mph (138 km/h).

Exsanguinate

Exsanguinate (pronounced eks-sang-gwuh-neyt)

(1) To kill by means of blood loss.

(2) To die by means of blood loss.

(3) To drain a body (living or dead) of blood.

1610–1620: From the Late Latin exsanguinātus (bloodless, deprived of blood), past participle of exsanguināre, the construct being ex- (out) + sanguinem, from sanguis (blood).  The construct in English was ex- + sanguine, + -ate.  The ex- prefix was from the Middle English, from words borrowed from the Middle French, from the Latin ex (out of, from), from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs- (out).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex) (out of, from), the Transalpine Gaulish ex- (out), the Old Irish ess- (out), the Old Church Slavonic изъ (izŭ) (out) & the Russian из (iz) (from, out of).  The “x” in “ex-“, sometimes is elided before certain constants, reduced to e- (eg ejaculate).  Sanguine was from the Middle English sanguine, from the Old French sanguin, from the Latin sanguineus (of blood), from sanguis.  The Latin sanquis, perhaps surprisingly, is of uncertain origin but may be from the primitive Indo-European hsh-én- from hésh₂r̥ (blood).  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.  Exsanguinate & exsanguinating are verbs, exsanguinated is a verb & adjective, exsanguination is a noun; the noun plural is exsanguinations.

As an adjective, exsanguine (bloodless) is attested from the mid-seventeenth century in both literal and figurative use and is now probably a technical word used only by embalmers, in clinical pathology, in the veterinary sciences or in slaughterhouses.  The word being a bit cumbersome, use never extended to kitchens, despite much exsanguination historically being part of the workings of production kitchens (before modern supply chains); where required, chefs prefer the punchier “drain”.  In use the verb is intransitive in the sense of “to die by means of blood loss” and transitive in the sense of “to kill by means of blood loss” or “to drain a body (living or dead) of blood”.

Gory: Lindsay Lohan was photographed in 2011 & 2013 by Tyler Shields (b 1982) in sessions which involved knives and the depiction of blood.  The shoot attracted some attention and while the technical achievement was noted, it being quite challenging to work with blood (fake or real) and realize something realistic but it was also criticized as adding little to the discussion about the pornography of violence against women.  There was a time when such photographs would has shocked but that moment has long passed and the most thoughtful comments on the photographs were that while it's a necessary discussion, it's one that should be conducted with words and such staged images do nothing but add to cultural desensitization.

Technical notes on the process of stunning & exsanguination in a slaughterhouse.  Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

(1) Stunning process

Criteria for a good slaughter method:

(1) Animals must not be treated cruelly or unnecessarily stressed.

(2) Exsanguination must be as rapid and as complete as possible.

(3) Damage to the carcass must be minimal, and the method of slaughter must be hygienic, economical and safe for abattoir workers.

To avoid the risk of cruelty, animals must be stunned or rendered unconscious before exsanguination.  When religious reasons do not allow stunning, extra care is needed to ensure exsanguination causes the minimum of distress to the animal.  In the Kosher method of killing, conscious cattle are suspended with the head stretched back, and then the throat and its major blood vessels are severed. Drugs cannot be used in the meat industry to induce unconsciousness in animals for slaughter because unacceptable residues would remain in the meat.

Animals can be effectively stunned by concussion which may be induced by a bullet or a bolt that penetrates the cranium or by the impact of a fast-moving knocker on the surface of the cranium.  In modern abattoirs, the primitive pole-axe has been replaced by devices which use expanding gas, either from an air-compressor or a blank ammunition cartridge. First, the animal is restrained in a narrow pen or knocking box in order to minimize its head movements, then the concussion instrument is then accurately located at a point on the midline of the skull, above the level of the brow ridges of the eye sockets.  Concussion stunning should not be applied on the neck or posterior part of the skull.

The knocker is a heavy instrument held with both hands.  There is a safety catch on the handle, but the actual trigger protrudes from the head of the knocker and is activated as the knocker is tapped against the animal's head.  The captive bolt pistol resembles a heavy hand gun but a blank cartridge rather than a bullet is used to propel a cylindrical bolt into the skull.  After penetration, the bolt is withdrawn into the barrel of the pistol and the pistol is reloaded.  Steers, heifers and cows are normally stunned with a knocker or a heavy captive bolt pistol, but bulls and boars which have massive skulls are sometimes shot with a rifle bullet. Pigs and lambs may be stunned with a light-weight captive bolt pistol.

Thirsty work.  A vampire exsanguinates.

(2) Exsanguination process

Cattle and pigs are usually exsanguinated by a puncture wound which opens the major blood vessels at the base of the neck, not far from the heart (the trade name for this process is sticking).  In sheep, lambs and small calves, the major blood vessels may be severed by a transverse cut across the throat, near to the head.  Poultry can be exsanguinated with a diagonal cut from the corner of the jaw towards the ear on the other side, or by a knife thrust through the roof of the mouth to severe the brain and its major blood vessels. For poultry, the cut may be made on the side of the head if the head is later to be removed automatically by machine.

If the sticking wound is inaccurately placed, exsanguination may be too slow, and it may be almost halted by the formation of large blood clots.  The formation of blood clots is accelerated when large areas of tissue are damaged by repeated inaccurate punctures.  If the trachea is severed by the sticking wound, blood may be drawn into the lungs as the animal breathes. Later in the slaughter procedure, this may necessitate the trimming of blood clots from the pleural membranes after they have been inspected.  If the oesophagus is severed, the vascular system may be contaminated by the entry of food particles into the venous system. If the connective tissues of the shoulder are opened, blood may seep into the shoulder region to form blood clots between the muscles.

Incomplete exsanguination increases the amount of residual blood in the carcass.  The lean meat may then appear unduly dark and the fat may become streaked with blood. On the surface of incompletely exsanguinated poultry, the skin may appear dark and bloody over the breast, neck, shoulders and wings. The microscopic tissue damage that may later be caused by the freezing and thawing of poultry enables residual blood to leak from skin capillaries.  Thus, the results of incomplete exsanguination are often more noticeable to the consumer than to the producer.

The exsanguination or sticking of meat animals in an abattoir is usually performed by severing the carotid arteries and the jugular vein at the base of the neck.  In poultry, these vessels may be cut only on one side of the neck. The sticking knife must be kept clean otherwise bacteria might be introduced into the venous system and spread through the otherwise relatively sterile muscles of the carcass.  Once exsanguination has started, the pulse and mean blood pressure decline rapidly because of the reduced stroke volume of the heart. Blood pressure changes are monitored physiologically by baroreceptors in the carotid sinuses. During exsanguination, respiratory movements of the thorax may be stimulated, and neurogenic and hormonal mechanisms attempt to restore the blood pressure by increasing the peripheral resistance by vasoconstriction.  The heart keeps beating for some time after the major blood vessels are emptied, but stops rapidly if exposed and cooled.  Electrical stunning of pigs may terminate cardiac activity so that, at the start of exsanguination, the blood escapes by gravity rather than being pumped out.  In pigs, cardiac arrest does not affect the rate and extent of exsanguination.  After exsanguination has started, the heart usually re-starts and attempts to pump, until it runs out of energy. Thus, in many cases, there is no reason why animals such as pigs and sheep cannot be killed by electrocution rather than being merely electrically stunned.  In cattle stunned by concussion, more or less complete exsanguination may be obtained without ventricular pumping. Similarly, normal exsanguination is obtained in poultry that have been killed by electrocution rather than by being electrically stunned. In meat animals, "head to back" stunning may be used to stop the heart.

Blood loss as a percentage of body weight differs between species: cows, 4.2 to 5.7%; calves, 4.4 to 6.7%; sheep, 4.4 to 7.6%; and pigs, 1.5 to 5.8%.  Blood content as a percentage of live weight may decrease in heavier animals since the growth of blood volume does not keep pace with growth of live weight. Approximately 60% of blood is lost at sticking, 20-25% remains in the viscera, while a maximum of 10% may remain in carcass muscles. Different stunning methods may modify the physiological conditions at the start of exsanguination and, also, the neural responses to exsanguination.  Electrically stunned sheep lose more blood than those stunned with a captive bolt, but they also have more blood splashes in their carcasses.

Reduction of blood flow to the kidneys causes the release of a proteolytic enzyme, renin, which acts on a plasma protein to produce a polypeptide, angiotensin I.  This polypeptide is converted enzymatically to angiotensin II which then causes widespread vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction is important because it decreases the retention of blood in meat. Angiotensin II vasoconstriction is operative in both conscious and anaesthetized animals.  Catecholamines and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) may also enhance vasoconstriction during exsanguination.  Speed of exsanguination may modify the balance between neural and hormonal vasoconstrictive mechanisms, with hormonal vasoconstriction predominating in rapid exsanguination.  However, asphyxia prior to exsanguination may result in vasoconstriction due to the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.

Traditionally it has been maintained that poor bleeding leads to dark meat with poor keeping qualities due to microbial spoilage and rancidity but there is little scientific evidence in support of this view and it may be false, even in animals which retain massive amounts of blood in their carcasses.  Delayed exsanguination of cattle may lead to a slight reduction in the amount of blood removed so that the carcass and spleen are slightly heavier but the effects on meat quality are negligible. It is not suggested poor exsanguination is a good thing, but should it occur, it is not the disaster some meat inspectors suppose.

Bloviate

Bloviate (pronounced bloh-vee-yet)

Pompously to speak or discourse at length in a boastful manner.

1857: A coining in US English, a construction in pseudo-Latin, based on deviate on the pattern of blow (in the senses of “a blowhard” (to boast)) + -ate.  Blow was from the Middle English blowen, from the Old English blāwan (to blow, breathe, inflate, sound), from the Proto-West Germanic blāan, from the Proto-Germanic blēaną (to blow) (linked to the modern German blähen), from the primitive Indo-European bhleh- (to swell, blow up) (linked to the Latin flō (to blow) and the Old Armenian բեղուն (bełun) (fertile).  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.

Bloviate was noted in the US in 1890 by a visiting English lexicographer who traced the origins to 1857 as a Midwestern (apparently in Ohio where it meant "to talk aimlessly and boastingly) word which gained the sense of “to indulge high falutin' language” when applied to politicians.  Bloviate was itself thus something of a bloviation because it was a way of saying “windbag” or “blowhard” with a Latin suffix lending a classical flavor.  It was apparently most used (at least in print; casual oral use would have been more prolific) of politicians (predictably fertile ground one suspects) but it faded from use by the early twentieth century, only to be revived during the administration of Warren Harding (1865–1923; US president 1921-1923) who quickly became notorious for his tangled, ornate and occasionally incomprehensible prose.  The biographical evidence suggests Harding reserved his bloviatory ways for his public persona, his language at the poker table as direct as is expected at such a place, something confirmed in the memoir of one of his many mistresses.  Harding of course is associated also with his alleged invention of “normalcy”, claimed to be a mistake during a speech laden with alliterative flourishes in which he said "not nostrums, but normalcy", the claim being he intended to use “normality”.

“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”

In saying "normalcy" he may have misspoken (ie a mistake rather than as a synonym for lie as crooked Hillary Clinton uses the word) or perhaps Harding liked the word; questioned afterwards he said he found it in a dictionary which probably was true although whether his discovery came before or after the speech wasn't explored.  Harding’s choice was much-derided at the time, normalcy had certainly existed since at least 1857, originally as a technical term from geometry meaning the "mathematical condition of being at right angles, state or fact of being normal in geometry" but subsequently it had appeared in print as a synonym of normality on several occasions.  Still, it was hardly in general use though Harding gave it a boost and it’s not since gone extinct, now with little complaint except from the linguistically fastidious.  Anyway, at the time it did him little harm.  The speech was delivered during the 1920 presidential election and Harding was elected in a landslide, the Republican ticket taking the Electoral College 404-127 with 60.4 against 34.1% of the popular vote.  In an example of how the electoral map has changed over a century, in 1920 the Democratic Party’s successes were almost exclusively south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

The political re-alignment in the US, 1920-2020; Democrats are blue, Republicans red.  

So electoral behavior in the US has changed in a century but the rhetorical habits of politicians probably haven't and bloviate made its second comeback in the 1990s.  Apparently the combination of the emergence of Newt Gingrich et al as neo-bloviators and the novel medium of the internet spread the word, giving it a niche, first on the bulletin boards and later on blogs, twitter and social media as technology unfolded, the 24/7 news cycle and the proliferation of political commentators meaning the ranks swelled.  In every electoral cycle since 1994, bloviators have been identified and shamed or celebrated as required.  Harding was at least self-aware, proud of his skill at “speaking as long as the occasion warrants and saying nothing” but still annoyed critics like the humorist HL Mencken (1880-1956) who dismissed the content of Harding’s English as a “loud burble of words fit only for morons and small-town yokels” although even he acknowledged the technique was so honed that “a sort of grandeur creeps into it.”

Noted bloviator Newt Gingrich (b 1943; speaker of the US House of Representatives 1995-1999 (right)) with Joe Biden (b1942; US president since 2021 (left)).  Biden now doesn’t so much bloviate as ramble and meander.

It was the idea of “fake grandeur” that saw Barack Obama (b 1961, US president 2009-2017) labeled a bloviator by some but that was as misleading as it was to call Donald Trump “the bloviating billionaire”.  Obama at his worst talked what Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964) would have called “high falutin' nonsense” but was usually quite direct.  Trump too was direct and never tried, like George W Bush (b 1946; US president 2001-2009) or Sarah Palin (b 1964) to lend gravitas to the message with fancy (an in some cases invented) words in the manner of a Norman Mailer (1923-2007), William F Buckley (1925-2008), Gore Vidal (1925-2012), Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Conrad Black (b 1944), Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) and David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), bloviators all.

Noted bloviators William F Buckley (left) and Gore Vidal (right) in one of their famous debates on the ABC network in 1968.

Conducted in the milieu that was the drama of the 1968 Republican and Democratic Party conventions, ABC envisaged it as an exchange between intellectuals of the right and left but what made it a ratings hit was Vidal calling Buckley a "crypto-Nazi" to which he responded, "Listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered".  Overnight, it transformed the way the broadcast media covered politics in the US and it’s from this "debate" that the descent began towards ideological confrontation and partisan commentary.  In political science, there had long been the "politics as theatre" school of thought but it was from this debate that the packaging of politics as entertainment was allowed to evolve undisguised.

Trump is better thought of as a rodomont, the essence of rhodomontade being vain boasting, bragging and blustering without any suggestion of the use of obscure or big words; the undercurrent of everything Trump says is “I’m really rich” and that’s all that matters.  It dates from the 1610s (the earlier rodomontado noted in the 1590s), and was from the French rodomontade, a reference to the vain boasting of Rodomonte, a character who appears in two epic poems of the Italian Renaissance: Ludovico Ariosto's (1474–1533) Orlando Furioso (1516) and Matteo Maria Boiardo's (1440–1494) Orlando Innamorato (1483-1495).  In the dialectal Italian, the name translates literally as "one who rolls (away) the mountain" and it came by the 1680s to be used as a verb imparting the idea of “one who boasts, brags and talks big".

A noted rodomont with a noted bloviatrix: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) with crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947), 2016 presidential election debate.

A non standard variation is bloviatrix (literally “a woman who bloviates”) and now of course it would be less incorrect to call one a bloviator but it was always intended as a jocular coining.  The –trix suffix was from the primitive Indo-European -trih, from -tḗr and was cognate with the Sanskrit suffix -त्री (-trī) (as in जनित्री (janitrī) (mother) though most dictionaries now tag –trix as dated.  It was appended usually to create female agent nouns and for masculine agent nouns ending in -tor, the feminine equivalent ending in -trix was historically preferred (and etymologically consistent) but social forces now operate with some severity in English and the modern practice is to adopt either gender-neutral terms, even other feminine suffixes (-a, -ess, -ette & -ine) falling from favor.  It endures where the meaning conveyed is so specific that any substitution would be either misleading or just silly, dominatrix the most obvious example and it’s usually the case these derived terms were borrowed directly from Latin, rather than formed in English (where in recent centuries the creations tended variously to be jocular, poetic or derogatory).  The Latin forms were just part of the lexicon such as cantrīx (female singer), based on cantor (male singer), from canō (I sing), tōnstrīx (female barber) based on tōnsor (male barber), from tondeō (I shear, shave) & meretrīx (prostitute (literally “she who earns”), from mereō (I merit, deserve, earn).  The Latin suffix was picked up by other European languages including the Catalan -triu, the French –trice, the Italian –trice and the Portuguese & Spanish –triz.

Bloviate is also jocular slang in the engine-building community.  Because of the phonetic similarity to “blown V8” (ie a V8 engine with forced (super- or turbo-charged) induction), it’s used to refer to such machinery.  The comparative and superlative forms presumably are “very bloviated” & “most bloviated” respectively, based on the extent of atmospheric boost delivered.

A noted bloviate: Mopar Direct Connection 1500 HEMI Crate Engine (Part Number: DSR1500-DC) @ US$59,990.  The 1500 is “most bloviated”.

Dodge's Hellephants (as crate engines) are 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8s, based on the Gen III HEMI V8 in five versions ranging from 900 to 1500hp, all using DSR’s 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) IHI supercharger and available with either cast-iron or aluminium blocks.  Not remotely lawful for use in the US in road-registered vehicles built after 1975, most are used in some form of competition and although such things are thought by many to be in their last days, the crate engines may remain available until (1) they’re outlawed, (2) demand falls to the point production is no longer viable or (3) pressure-groups force Chrysler to stop.  As recently as twenty-odd years ago, there was much nostalgia about "the way things used to be done" but, on any objective measure, the Hellephants are better than anything which came before.  Despite that, some things will always be cherished for the flaws and quirks which give them their character and for some, the old ways, while not better, will remain more enchanting.    

Thistle

Thistle (pronounced this-uhl)

(1) Any of numerous perennial composite plants of the genera Cirsium, Cynara, Carduus, Onopordum and related genera, having prickly-edged leaves, pink, purple, yellow, or white dense flower heads, and feathery hairs on the seeds: family Asteraceae (composites).

(2) A common term for many other prickly plants.

(3) The national emblem of Scotland since the fifteenth century.

(4) As the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (1687), a United Kingdom order of chivalry associated with Scotland; the word denoting membership of this order.

Pre 900: From the Middle English thistel, from the Old English thīstel (the earlier form was þistel).  The origin was probably the Proto-Germanic þistilaz & thistilaz, the source also of the Old Saxon thistil, the Old High German distil & thīstil, the German Distel, the Old Norse þistell & thīstill, the Scots thrissel, the Danish tidsel, the Dutch distel and the Icelandic þistill.  The root is uncertain origin but may have been an extended form of the primitive Indo-European (s)teyg & steig- (to prick, stick, pierce).  The adjective is thistly and the noun plural thistles.

Insignia of The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry of the United Kingdom which, unusually, is one of a small class in the personal gift of the sovereign whereas most are conferred on the basis of a recommendation from the various governments where the British monarch remains head of state.  The order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland (1633-1701; James II of England and Ireland) who at the time asserted it was a revival of an earlier order but historians doubt the claim, the royal warrant of 1687 containing some dubious history and most doubtful chronology.  Nor is there any documentary evidence to support the idea an award in some way linked to the thistle was instituted after the Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the earliest vaguely plausible claim dating from the fifteenth century when James III (1451-1488) adopted the thistle as the royal insignia and minted coins depicting thistles.  There’s nothing however to support any link with knighthoods or other orders of chivalry and all that is certain is that the thistle became established as an emblem of Scotland, attached firstly to the royal court and later to the national identity.

The troublesome Bull Thistle.

Not discouraged by tiresome, inconvenient history, in 1687 James VII issued letters patent for an order of knighthood "reviving and restoring the Order of the Thistle to its full glory, lustre and magnificency".  Intended to be exclusive, membership was limited to twelve but James was deposed in the Glorious Revolution (1688) and no appointments to the order were made beyond the original eight although the exiled House of Stuart continued to issue what came to be referred to as “the Jacobite Thistle”, these not acknowledged by the British Crown.  The award of the Thistle resumed in 1704, before even the 1707 Acts of Union under which the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain.  The motto of the order is Nemo me impune lacessit (No one provokes me with impunity), an adoption of that which had been used by the Royal Stuart dynasty of Scotland since at least the 1570s.  It's used also by three of the British Army's Scottish regiments and appears on both the royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland and the version of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom used in Scotland.

In the UK’s order of precedence, Knights and Ladies of the Thistle rank second only to the Order of the Garter and the wives, sons, daughters and daughters-in-law of Knights of the Thistle also can rise a few notches on the order of precedence, a courtesy not extended to any relative of a Lady of the Thistle, something which must be seen as an anomaly in the early twenty-first century but which probably cannot easily be reformed in isolation, any alteration in these things likely to trigger a chain-reaction of events in a system designed to resist change.  The television show Yes Minister did offer an alternative explanation for the mechanism for awarding the Thistle, suggesting “…a committee sits on it”.

Sir Robert Menzies (1894–1978; prime minister of Australia 1939-1941 & 1949-1966) in his Knight of the Thistle robes.

Like the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1348) and the Royal Victorian Order (1896), the Thistle lies in the personal gift of the sovereign rather than being an award made by governments as is the case with most honors.  Unusually too, the Thistle is geographically specific, awarded only to those with some connection to Scotland, although, they need not be actually Scottish.  The equivalent Irish Order, the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick (1783) was for those with an association with Ireland handled in a similar manner to the Thistle but awards were restricted after independence was granted to Eire (southern Ireland) in 1922 and the order has been dormant (though not abolished) since 1936.  This follows the practice applied to imperial honors tied to particular colonies of the Raj and the old British Empire, the Indian (the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (1861) & the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (1878)) and Burmese (the Order of Burma (1940)) orders dormant since the respective grants of independence in 1947 & 1948.  Presumably, were Scotland to become an independent state, the Thistle too would lapse into a similar state of abeyance.

Clan Lindsay car seat covers.

Clan Lindsay is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands although the origins of the Lindsay name lie in England, south of the border.  Lindsay is a toponym (a word derived from the name of a locality), itself drawn from the Old English toponym Lindesege (Island of Lind), a reference to the city of Lincoln, in which Lind is the original Brittonic form of the name, the “island” referring to Lincoln being an island in the surrounding fenland.  Under Roman occupation, the area in Lincolnshire now occupied by the city of Lincoln was known as Lindum Colonia, shortened in the Old English to Lindocolina and later to Lincylene, Lindum a Latinized form of a native Brittonic name which had been reconstructed as Lindon (pool or lake).  In the late nineteenth century, as the modern convention in the Western World (Christian name + Surname) became (more or less) standardized, like many others, surnames Lindsay and Lindsey began to be used as given names although it wasn’t until the mid-1960s that it became common in the Commonwealth to use them for girls, a trend which spread quickly to the US and by late in the century, the use for boys rapidly declined, the two trends presumably not unrelated.

Lindsay Lohan in tartan for Freaky Friday (2003) costume test photos (left), the Clan Lindsay tartan garden flag with swan crest, augmented by the thistle (national flower of Scotland) emblems (centre) and Clan Lindsay T-Shirt with stylized thistle (right).  The Clan Lindsay motto is Endure Fort (Endure Bravely).

Perpendicular

Perpendicular (pronounced pur-puhn-dik-yuh-ler)

(1) Vertical; straight up and down; upright; normal at right angles to a horizontal plane.

(2) In geometry, meeting a given line or surface at right angles.

(3) Maintaining a standing or upright position; standing up; exactly upright; extending in a straight line toward the centre of the earth, etc.

(4) In architecture, noting or pertaining to the last style of English Gothic, prevailing from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries and characterized by by stiff, rectilinear lines and the use of predominantly vertical tracery, an overall linear, shallow effect, depressed or four-centre arch, fan-tracery vaulting, panelled walls and fine intricate stonework (should be used with an initial capital letter so it’s not confused with being a purely geometric reference).

(5) In rock-climbing, a sharply pitched or precipitously steep mountain face.

(6) Moral virtue or uprightness; rectitude (largely obsolete).

(7) In Admiralty jargon, either of two lines perpendicular to the keel line, base line, or designed water line of a vessel.

(8) In surveying, a device such as a plumb line that is used in making or marking a perpendicular line.

(9) In historic slang, a meal taken while standing at the bar of a tavern (obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle French perpendiculaire, from the Old French perpendiculer, from the Latin perpendiculāris (vertical, as a plumb line), the construct being perpendicul(um) (plumb line), from pendēre (to weigh hang) and perpendere (carefully to balance (the construct of which was per- (thoroughly) + pendēre (to hang, cause to hang; to weigh)) from the primitive Indo-European root spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + āris.  The suffix -aris was a form of -ālis with dissimilation of -l- to -r- after roots containing an l (the alternative forms were -ālis, -ēlis, -īlis & -ūlis); it was used to form adjectives, usually from noun, indicating a relationship or a "pertaining to”.  The French borrowing replaced the Middle English perpendiculer(e) and is the source of the modern pendant.  The noun from existed from the 1570s (the earlier noun was the circa 1400 perpendicle) and in astronomy, navigation and related matters, it was in the late fifteenth century the sense of a line "lying at right angles to the horizon" developed from an earlier adverb referring to "at right angles to the horizon.

The noun perpensity (consideration, a pondering, careful attention) appears first to have been used in the early eighteenth century, the construct being the Latin perpens- (past-participle stem of perpendere (carefully to balance) and has since the late nineteenth century been listed either as archaic or obsolete.  Perpendicular is a noun and adjective, perpendicularness & perpendicularity are nouns and perpendicularly is an adverb; the noun plural is perpendiculars.  Although perpendicular describes what nominally is an absolute value, most dictionaries acknowledge the comparative more as perpendicular & the superlative as most perpendicular, reflecting the use of the word to describe also the “quality of that which tends towards”, hence the existence in geometry, mathematics, architecture & engineering of the presumably helpful adjective quasiperpendicular to refer to the mysterious “partially perpendicular”.

In audio engineering, a perpendicular recording is the technique of creating magnetic data storage using vertical as opposed to longitudinal magnetization.  The synonym used in a technical context is orthogonal (independent of or irrelevant to each other).  To most, the idea of the perpendicular is simple but it’s been borrowed to describe some complex concepts such as the perpendicular universe (though these perhaps by definition seem usually to be referred to in the plural as perpendicular universes) which exists to distinguish it from a parallel universe (which must in some way be different).  The perpendicular universe is thus one of the competing notions (some insist these are legitimate theories) of multiple universes which are in some way parallel (as opposed to sequential or circular) though not of necessity perpendicular.  Seems clear enough.

The Perpendicular Pronoun:  The first-person singular pronoun "I"

There is a general rule defining when to use “I” or “me” in a sentence and that is the first person singular pronoun is “I” when it’s a subject and “me” when it’s an object (the subject is the person or thing doing something, and the object is having something done to it and the often quoted example to illustrate the difference is the sentence “I love you”.  “I” is the subject of the sentence. “You” is the object of the sentence (also the object of one's affection).

Lindsay Lohan and her sister Aliana at the Melbourne Cup, 2019.

In most cases it’s easier to deconstruct the sentence than think about the rule.  To work if one should say (1) “Lindsay and I are going to the Melbourne Cup” or (2) “Lindsay and me are going to the Melbourne Cup”, deconstruction confirms (1) is correct because “I am going to the Melbourne Cup” works and “Me is going to The Melbourne Cup” does not.  That’s fine but because “me” is often wrongly used, something of a perception has evolved to suggest it must always be wrong and “I” must always be correct. However, everything depends on the sentence.  It’s correct to say “Lindsay and I both picked the winning horse” but it’s also right to say “A selfie of the winning horse with Lindsay and me”, something which can be checked by redacting either “Lindsay and” or “and me”.

Lindsay Lohan in Falling for Christmas (Netflix, 2022)

Modern English use has anyway actually banished the perpendicular pronoun from places where once it was a marker of the educated.  To say “It is I” remains supported by historic grammatical correctness but sounds now so strange (because the common form is “It’s me”) that many would it’s wrong.  Pedants fret over things like this but the world has moved on and if in answer to the question “Is that you Ali” the response came “This is she”, the antiquated correctness might discombobulate one while “It’s me” would not.

Pagophagia

Pagophagia (pronounced pag-off-faghia)

(1) The excessive and constant eating of ice, often as part of extreme dieting.

(2) A craving to eat ice, sometimes associated with iron-deficiency anemia.

Pre 900: A compound word, the construct being págo(s) + -phagia.  Págos is from the Byzantine Greek, the perfective stem of ἔφαγον (éphagon) (I ate; I devoured), singular first-person aorist active indicative form (by suppletion) of ἐσθίω (esthíō) (I eat; I devour).  Phagia is from the Ancient Greek πάγος- (phag-) (stiff mass; frost; ice) from pēnunai, (to stick, stiffen), from the primitive Indo-European root pag.  It was used also in a derogatory, figurative sense to describe a cold, unfriendly person (in the sense of one metaphorically cold like ice).

Ice, diet and the DSM

Pagophagia (the excessive consumption of ice or iced drinks), is often regarded as a recent phenomenon and a novel manifestation of pica (a disorder characterized by craving and appetite for non-edible substances, such as ice, clay, chalk, dirt, or sand and named for the jay or magpie (pīca in Latin), based on the idea the birds will eat almost anything) but in texts from Classical Greece are warnings in the writings of both the physician Hippocrates (circa 460–circa 370 BC) and the polymath Aristotle (384–322 BC) concerning the dangers of the excessive intake of cold or iced water.  The cause of the death of Theophilus (Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor 829-842) was officially dysentery but, based on the original texts of Byzantine historians and chroniclers of the era, modern researchers speculate the cause of death may have been related to Theophilus' pagophagia (snow eating), a long-time habit he indulged to relieve the symptoms of gastric inflammation.  In the medical literature, from the sixteenth century on, there are discussions and illustrative case histories about the detrimental effect of immoderate usage of cold water, ice and snow, frequently in the context of eating disorders, another range of conditions with a long history.

A noted feature of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)), was the more systematic approach taken to eating disorders, variable definitional criteria being defined for the range of behaviours within that general rubric.  What may have appeared strange was including the ice-eaters within the psychological disorder Pica which is characterized by the manifestation of appetite for non-nutritive substances including sharp objects (acuphagia), purified starch (amylophagia), burnt matches (cautopyreiophagia), dust (coniophagia), feces (coprophagia), sick (emetophagia), raw potatoes (geomelophagia), soil, clay or chalk (geophagia), glass (hyalophagia), stones (lithophagia), metal (metallophagia), musus (mucophagia), ice (pagophagia), lead (plumbophagia), hair, wool, and other fibres (trichophagia), urine (urophagia), blood (hematophagia (sometimes called vampirism)) and wood or derivates such as paper & cardboard (xylophagia).  DSM-5 also codified the criteria for behaviour to be classified pica.  They must (1) last beyond one (1) month beyond an age in infancy when eating such objects is not unusual, (2) not be culturally sanctioned practice and (3), in quantity or consequence, be of sufficient severity to demand clinical intervention.  Interestingly, when the text revision of DSM-5 (DSM-5-TR, 2022) was released, the sentence “individuals with atypical anorexia nervosa may experience many of the physiological complications associated with anorexia nervosa” was added to the description of the atypical anorexia nervosa example to clarify that the presence of physiological consequences during presentation does not mean that the diagnosis is the (typical) anorexia.

However, it must be remembered the DSM is a tool for the clinician and, while it can be a useful source document for the lay-reader, there are other publications better suited to those self-diagnosing or informally assessing others.  An individual for whom the only symptom of pica is abnormally high and persistent ice consumption doesn’t of necessity need to be subject to the treatment regime imposed on more undiscriminating consumers.

The pro-ana community does recommend the eating of ice, not merely as a food substitute but because the body needs to burn energy both to melt the ice and subsequently restore the body to its correcting operating temperature.  With frozen water, this effect is greatest in negative calorie terms but the discount effect applies even to iced confections.  If a frozen confection is listed as containing a calorie content of 100 (25 grams of carbohydrate @ 4 calories per gram), this does not include the energy the body expends to melt the ice and the net consumption is actually around 72 calories.

All things in moderation: Lindsay Lohan enjoying ice-cream and (an allegedly virgin) iced mojito, Monaco 2015.

Pro-ana does NOT however approve of frozen confections, the preferred one litre of frozen water containing zero calories yet demanding of the body a burn of around 160 calories to process, the energy equivalent of running one mile (1.6 km).  The practical upper limit per day appears to be between 3-5 litres (.8-1.3 gallons) depending on the individual and it’s speculated a daily intake much over eight litres may approach toxicity, essentially because the localized symptoms would be similar to hypothermia and some organs fail optimally to work when body temperature drops too much.  Paradoxically, pro-ana also notes, ice shouldn’t be eaten when one is too hot.  After running, the body actually exerts energy through the active effort of dissipating excess heat and if one were to ingest large amounts of ice as one was cooling off, some of the heat generated would be neutralized by the coolness of the ice, minimizing some of the energy burning benefits.  There’s also the need to avoid dental damage; pro-ana recommending it be allowed to melt in the mouth or consumed as shaved ice.