Rubricate

Rubricate (pronounced roo-bri-keyt)

(1) To mark or color with red; to adorn with red; to redden.

(2) To furnish with or regulate by rubrics.

(3) To write in the form of a rubric.

(4) In publishing, to print (a book or manuscript) with red titles, headings etc; to illuminate a manuscript with red letters.

1560–1570: Either from the perfect passive participle of the Latin verb rūbrīcō (to paint red) or from the Late Latin rūbrīcātus, past participle of rūbrīcāre (to color red), the construct being rūbrīc(a) (red ocher; red earth) + -ātus.  The Latin suffix -ātus was from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European -ehtos.  It’s regarded as a "pseudo-participle" and perhaps related to –tus although though similar formations in other Indo-European languages indicate it was distinct from it already in early Indo-European times.  It was cognate with the Proto-Slavic –atъ and the Proto-Germanic -ōdaz (the English form being -ed (having).  The feminine form was –āta, the neuter –ātum and it was used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality.  Rubricate & rubricating are verbs, rubricated is a verb & adjective and rubrication & rubricator are nouns.

Rubic (rubrick the obsolete spelling) was from the Middle English rubriche & rubrike, from the Old French rubrique, from Latin rūbrīca (red ochre; red earth), the substance used to make red letters, from ruber (red), from the primitive Indo-European hrewdh.  Rubic came widely to be used, derived mostly from the sense of “giving emphasis or illumination to the text”.  In ecclesiastical printing, a “church text with rubrics” was one with the directions for a religious service printed in red.  This extended to secular publishing when used of a heading in a book or something highlighted in red which led to the general use as (1) a title of a category or a class, (2) an established rule or custom; a guideline.  By extension it came to describe (3) in education, a set of scoring criteria for evaluating a pupil’s work and the associated comments and (4) the flourish appearing after a signature.

The comparative is more rubricate and the superlative most rubricate.  Lindsay Lohan illustrates the nuances:

(1) Naturally rubricated.
(2) De-rubricated.
(3) Re-rubricated.
(4) Highly rubricated.

The popularity of red among Ferrari buyers has declined from the highs of the 1990s (and it was in this decade the phrase “resale red” was popularized) when fewer than two in ten were ordered in any other color but even today some 40% of Ferraris leave the factor finished in some shade of red.  Sliver, black, bright yellow and darker blues now attract buyers and noting this, the factory has in recent years launched new models in a variety of colors, the debut of the 488 Pista Spider at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance using a white car trimmed in black in Alcantara and leather, an unfortunately neglected combination.

Ferrari 488 Pista Spider, 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

Recent trends notwithstanding, red probably still is lodged in the public imagination as the color of a Ferrari and the origins of that long pre-date the brand, the motor-car and perhaps even the Italian state.  Quite how red became the Italian national color is contested among historians but the tale most Italians prefer is that of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), an Italian nationalist general and politician.  Already famous for his exploits in Brazil, Uruguay and elsewhere in Europe, the legend of Garibaldi was created by his personal command of many of the military campaigns which led eventually to Italian unification in 1871 and his reputation as a romantic revolutionary has flourished because historians have seemed always anxious to present his military adventures as noble causes; unlike many pragmatic politicians of his time, Garibaldi longed for a united country and believed in miracles.

Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi (wearing garibaldino) during the landing of Thousand at Marsala (1860), oil on canvas by Induno, Gerolamo (1827-1890), Museo del Risorgimento, Turin.

Garibaldi’s part in the movement for Italian unification (known as il Risorgimento (Rising Again)) also added to the lexicon of paramilitary fashion.  His followers were known as the Garibaldini and in lieu of a uniform, they wore the red shirts he favored, the popular legend being it was to ensure they weren’t distracted from fighting were their blood to be spilled although it’s said that during his time in Uruguay, he wore the red shirts used by the butchers from a nearby slaughterhouse.  It was also an indication the campaign was a popular insurrection, not one fought by conventional military maneuvers or with traditional formations because, as the red-coated British soldiers had discovered, red wasn’t a good color to wear on a battlefield.  The word Garibaldino (plural Garibaldini) is used to refer to any volunteer soldier who served in the cause and the red shirts (which were never standardized in shade, style or cut) are often called garibaldino shirts or just garibaldinos.  From that point onwards, red began to be adopted as a symbol of many things Italian.

Le Mans 24-hour winning 1956 Jaguar D-Type in Ecurie Ecosse livery (known informally as Scottish Racing Blue)  In 2016 it sold at auction for US$22 million.

Il Risorgimento however can’t much in 1900 have occupied the minds of the members of the AIACR (the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs), predecessor of the FIA (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation)) because, displaying an ineptitude the FIA has of late turned into a mission statement, the color red was allocated to the United States as the official shade to be used on their racing cars.  The Belgiums were granted yellow, the French blue, the Germans white and the British Green and it wasn’t until 1907 the Italians were able to claim the right to red and these colors would sometimes be an issue in the years to come.  In 1934, Mercedes-Benz cars appeared in raw aluminum and the myth developed that the mechanics had to work overnight scraping off the thick layers of white paint so the machines would comply with the formula’s weight limit but the truth is less romantic. The factory simply didn’t wish to apply paint and the cars appeared at the track unpainted well before the weight limit was imposed, the company successfully arguing that in heraldry, silver and white are the same tincture (color), known as Argent.  The Nazis having taken power, the attitude “don’t argue with the Germans” was settling over Europe and the authorities relented.  Thus was born the era of the “silver arrows”, the all-conquering, aluminum-skinned grand-prix cars which would dominate the circuits in the 1930s and return for two winning seasons two decades later and the idea that white could be silver may have inspired the Nazis who for years argued (with gradually diminishing returns) that black was white.  The FIA also didn’t push the point in the 1950s when the Edinburgh-based Ecurie Ecosse (Scotland Stable) requested to race in the blue and white livery of the flag of Scotland, noting the pre World War I precedent of a Scottish outfit which had competed under a blue tartan.  Notably darker than French Racing Blue, Ecurie Ecosse argued the color really was a variation of green (although the real reason was they thought British Racing Green (BRG) was too identifiably “English”) and the request was approved, proving that if white can be silver, blue can be green.  In 1968, the system began to be abandoned under pressure from teams which wanted to use the corporate colors of their sponsors and that proved the thin end of the wedge, almost unrestricted advertising appearing within years.

But even when adorned with the logos of sponsors, Ferrari stuck to red.  Ferrari has sold road-cars (initially without great enthusiasm) to customers since 1947 and it’s impossible to compile a definitive list of all of the shades of red used over the decades given (1) the changes in the composition of paint which subtlety have altered the exact tincture, even of colors which retained the same designation (2) the sketchiness of the factory’s early records of such things and (3) the number of vehicles painted to special order, some of which used one-off shades.  However, Rossoautomobili compiled an illustrated guide to a dozen-odd which are said to be representative of the variations in rosso (red), all being rubricated although some are more rubricated than others; their indicative list including:

Rosso Barchetta (Little Boat Red): A darker shade of red.  Barchetta is Italian for “little boat”, an allusion to the shape Ferrari’s early (late 1940s) race cars.

Rosso Berlinetta (Coupé Red): A recent addition which takes advantage of newer techniques, permitting a triple-layer finish which sparkles in direct sunlight.  On the options sheet it lists at €20.000 (US$21,200).  In translation, berlinetta is literally “a small saloon” but in the Italian way of things is to applied to coupés.

1965 Ferrari 275 GTB (short-nose) in Rosso Cina.

Rosso Cina (China Red): Another of the darker hues which many would think of as a burgundy or maroon.  Non-metallic, it was introduced during the 1960s, the era of the 275 and 330 series cars and was reputedly a tribute to the red used on some fine Chinese porcelain held in Italian museums.

Rosso Dino: Another artifact from the 1960s, this one was discontinued in the 1970s before being re-introduced early in the twenty-first century and it remains part of Ferrari’s historical colour palette.  It straddles that area between red and orange, the name a tribute to Alfredo Ferrari (nicknamed Alfredino or Dino) 1932-1956; son of il Commendatore, Enzo Ferrari (1898-1987).

Rosso Fiorano (Fiorano Red): A darker shade named after Ferrari’s test track Pista di Fiorano.

Rosso Magma (Lava Red): A very metallic shade which was originally a Maserati part-number, added through the factory’s "Tailor Made" programme for selected models.  The name summons the image of the red-hot lava which flows from the earth’s magma chambers during volcanic eruptions.

2014 Ferrari LaFerrari in Rossa Vinaccia.

Rosso Vinaccia (Red Wine): The factory insists this must be thought a red although most might at first sight think it a purple.  The link lies in the literal translation as “red wine” but rather than the drops, the inspiration came from the detritus, the remains of the grapes after the juice is extracted.

Rosso Maranello Opaco (Matte Maranello Red): Reflecting the fad in recent decades for matte-finish paints (which seems to date from the idea that the military’s stealth technology could be used to absorb rather than reflect the radar waves police use in speed-limit enforcement), this is based on the metallic triple-layer Rosso Maranello. 

Rosso Metallizzato (Metallic Red): Dark almost to the point of suggesting a hint of purple, it’s one of the darkest shades of red on the option sheet.

Rosso Mugello (Mugello Red): Named after the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, this is both darker and a little more subdued than most reds.

Rosso Portofino (Portofino Red): Introduced as the signature shade of the Ferrari Portofino in 2017, it’s in the traditional vein and probably only experts can pick the difference.

1972 Dino 246 GT by Ferrari in Rosso Corsa.

Rosso Corsa (Racing Red): The classic Italian Racing Red, the original, and to many the definitive Ferrari color.

Rosso Scuderia (Factory Team Red): The especially bright Rosso Scuderia will be familiar to many as the exact color used by the Scuderia Ferrari (the factory racing team) for the Formula 1 cars.  In certain light conditions, it tend to orange.

Rosso Singapore (Singapore Red): Reflecting the increasing importance of the markets in the Far East, Rosso Singapore first appeared on a "Tailor Made" Ferrari commissioned by a dealer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Singapore.

Rubino Micalizzato (Micalised Ruby): A dark and most subdued red (which is described as a “ruby”), it’s available only on request and doesn’t appear on the factory’s color charts.

Italian Racing Red: 1950 Ferrari 375 FI (left) & 1960 Ferrari 246 F1 (right).

The 375 was built to contest Formula One during the immediate post-war era when the rules permitted engines to be either 4.5 liters (275 cubic inch, naturally aspirated) or 1.5 litres (92 cubic inch, supercharged).  Although down on power compared with the supercharged BRM V16, the 4.5 litre V12 Ferrari proved more reliable and was the first in a series of classic front-engined roadsters which endured until 1960.  In 1960, a 246 F1 using a 2.4 litre (147 cubic inch) V6 was the last front-engined machine to win a Formula 1 grand prix, taking the checkered flag at the Italian Grand Prix (most of the mid-engined competition having withdrawn over safety concerns about the fast Monza circuit).

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.    

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.

Crop

Crop (pronounced krop)

(1) In agriculture, the cultivated produce of the ground, both while growing and when harvested.

(2) In aggregate, the yield of such produce for a particular season.

(3) The yield of some other product in a season.

(4) A supply produced in a given (not necessarily annual or seasonal) period.

(5) A collection or group of persons or things appearing or occurring together (often as “current crop”, “this year’s crop etc”).

(6) The stock or handle of a whip.

(7) In equine use, variously (1) a short riding whip consisting of a stock without a lash (also called riding crop) or (2) less commonly, the lashing end of a whip, both styles used in the BDSM community.

(8) In zoology, a pouch in the esophagus of many birds, in which food is held for later digestion or for regurgitation to nestlings (also called the craw);  a chamber or pouch in the foregut of arthropods and annelids for holding and partly crushing food.

(9) In agriculture, the act of cropping (including having animals crop by allowing them to eat what’s growing).

(10) A mark produced by clipping the ears (used with cattle and other livestock).

(11) In hairdressing, a close-cropped hairstyle or a head of hair so cut.

(12) An entire tanned hide of an animal.

(13) In mining, (1) an outcrop of a vein or seam or (2) tin ore prepared for smelting.

(14) To cut off or remove the head or top of plants, grass etc; to cut off the ends or part of something; to cut short.

(15) As crop-top (or crop top & croptop), a shirt or top cut high to expose the midriff.

(16) In photography and image manipulation, to cut off unwanted parts of a print, negative or digital image (historically those parts at the edges but the term has long been used for general editing).

(17) The entire tanned hide of an animal.

(18) In medicine and pathology, a group of vesicles at the same stage of development in a disease.

(19) In geology, the shortened form of outcrop.

(20) In architecture, the foliate part of a finial.

Pre 900: From the Middle English crop & croppe, from the Old English crop & cropp & croppa (sprout, or top of a plant, bunch or cluster of flowers, ear of wheat (or other grain), paunch, crown of a tree, craw of a bird, a kidney), from the Proto-West Germanic kropp, from the Proto-Germanic kruppaz (body, trunk, crop), from the primitive Indo-European grewb- (to warp, bend, crawl).  It was cognate with Dutch krop (crop), the German Low German Kropp (a swelling on the neck, the craw, maw), the German Kropf (the craw, ear of grain, head of lettuce or cabbage), the Swedish kropp (body, trunk), the Norwegian kröypa (to bend), the Old Norse kroppr (rump, body) and the Icelandic kroppur (a hunch on the body).  Crop was related to crap and was a doublet of group and croup.  The verb was from the Middle English croppen (to cut, pluck and eat), from the Old English croppian.  It was cognate with the Scots crap (to crop), the Dutch kroppen (to cram, digest), the Low German kröppen (to cut, crop, stuff the craw), the German kröpfen (to crop), the Icelandic kroppa (to cut, crop, pick); the sense of all was literally, to remove the crop (top, head, ear) of a plant.  Crop is a noun & verb, cropping & cropped (cropt was the archaic spelling); the noun plural is crops.

Lindsay Lohan in crop tops.  All these photographs have been cropped to render them in the same aspect ratio.

Crop started modestly enough for a word which evolved to enjoy such a definitional range and use idiomatic form: In the Old English it meant only (1) craw of a bird & (2) rounded head or top of a herb and while the latter is found also in High German dialects, the subsequent developments in the sense of “head or top” generally and of “produce to be harvested from the fields” appear exclusive to English.  The meaning "grain and other cultivated plants grown and harvested" (especially "the grain yield of one year"), having been in Anglo-Latin in the early 1200s, was adopted in Middle English a century later, the sense development thought something which happened under the influence of the early thirteenth century verbal meaning "cut off the top of a plant".  From the notion in agriculture of “top” cam the use to describe the "upper part of a whip" which evolved by the 1560s be the "handle of a whip" (1560s) and thus by 1857 "a kind of whip used by horsemen in the hunting field" (1857).  Unlike traditional whips (which were really one long lash), it proved useful in having a rigid handle and thus could be hand for things like opening gates or other tasks when a wand or stick helped.

Riding crops are a staple device in the BDSM (Bondage, Discipline (although some say Dominance & submission is more indicative of actual practice) & SadoMasochism) community.  The photograph at the right was a "mid-session" promotional shot and has been cropped. 

The general sense of "anything gathered when ready or in season" dates from the 1570s and the idea of the “thick, short head of hair" was from 1795, both developed from the late fourteenth century sense of "top or highest part of anything".  In Middle English, crop and rote (the whole plant, crop and root) was figurative of totality or perfection.  The concept of the crop-circle dates from a surprisingly recent 1974 although they had been noted before.  The verb in the sense of “cut off the top of a plant” evolved from the verb around the turn of the thirteenth century, extended by circa 1350 to animals (originally of sheep) feeding on plants.  The general meaning “to cut off” dates from the mid fifteenth century, used from circa 1600 to refer to the practice of “cutting off a part of the ear of an animal as a mark of identification and ownership”.  In tailoring, as a term to describe the clipping of cloth, it’s been in use since 1711 and surprisingly perhaps, in fashion the staple crop top seems first to have been described as such only after 1984.  Crop and harvest can for many purposes be used interchangeably to refer to a season’s produce.  Yield refers to the return in food obtained from land at the end of a season of growth and can also be used in highly technical ways to measure metrics of specific efficiency and output.  Crop also denotes the amount produced at one cutting or for one particular season while harvest denotes either the time of reaping and gathering, or the gathering, or that which is gathered: the season of harvest; to work in a harvest; a ripe harvest.  Produce once described little more than household vegetables and still has that sense but the use has expanded.

Top before & after: The undesirable part of the photo has been cropped-out.  Lower before & after: The undesirable part of the photo has been edited-out.

In photography and image manipulation, cropping is the cutting off of un-wanted parts of a print, negative or digital image.  Technically, a crop is performed only at the edges and the removal of any other part is an edit by "crop" has long been industry slang for just about any modification.

Crop-up (to sprout, appear apparently without design from below the surface), although now most associated with agriculture was actually a mid-nineteenth century borrowing from mining where it referred to the geological phenomenon of the veins of ore or strata of rock “coming to the surface and becoming visible on the ground", that use noted since the 1660s.  The cropper dates from 1858 (usually as “come-a-cropper”) was a fall, originally from horseback and, as it usually involved the rider being thrown over the horse's head, there was always the connotation of failure but it now refers to a fall of any kind and elicits usually sympathy or myth depending on the severity of injury.  Also based on the idea of “head, sprout or top”, outcrop was first use in geology in 1801 to mean “exposure of rocks at the surface”.  The noun sharecropper (and share-cropper) was coined 1887 to describe the particular form of leasehold used in the southern US whereby a land-holder would lease land to a tenant to plant and harvest, also receiving a defined share of the crop. The noun share-crop came into use in 1867 and was used as a verb by 1871 although the noun sharecropping seems not to have been in use before 1936.  The cash-crop was one produced for sale rather than consumption; a bumper crop was a very good harvest (based on an old meaning of bumper as “big, full to the brim”); and crop rotation was a method of agricultural management designed to preserve the fertility of soil and limit the proliferation of pests; crop dusting was the spraying of crops with fertilizer or insecticide from low-flying aircraft dubbed crop-dusters; the cream of the crop is the best of any particular group.

Sterling

Sterling (pronounced stur-ling)

(1) Of, relating to, or noting British currency.

(2) Someone or something thoroughly excellent in quality; genuine and reliable.

(3) The standard of fineness for gold and silver coin in the United Kingdom, 0.91666 for gold and 0.500 for silver (also called sterling silver: silver having a fineness of 0.925, now used especially in the manufacture of table utensils, jewelry etc).

(4) A former English silver penny (about 240 of which weighed 1lb (0.453kg), thus setting the value of the British pound sterling, a measure which lasted until decimal conversion in 1971).

1250–1300: From the Middle English, possibly under the influence of the Old English steorra (star), from the Proto-West Germanic sterrō, variant of sternō, from the Proto-Germanic sternǭ, from primitive Indo-European hzstḗr.  The Middle English sterling, sterlinge, sterlynge & starling remain however of uncertain origin.  It may well be from sterling (starling (the bird)) which at one time was engraved on one quarter of the coin or perhaps from the Middle English sterre ((star) + -ling) (as in shilling), as some early Norman silver pennies featured stars.  Sterling is a noun & adjective, sterlingly is an adverb and sterlingness is a noun; the noun plural is sterlings. 

Disputes

Lindsay Lohan wearing sterling silver Evil Eye necklace, Los Angeles, April 2011.

Not all etymologists accept the orthodox view, noting the starred coins were not especially common among Anglo-Saxon currency and the stars on them tended to be small.  The alternative theory is that sterling was from the Old French estedre (stater) and the meaning broadened by the 1560s to "money having the quality of the sterling," and by circa 1600 to "English money in general", operating as an adjective from the early fifteenth century.  From the 1640s came the general sense of "capable of standing a test" (as a sound currency would).  The small silver coin (the sterling) was instrumental also in the origin of “pound” as a measure of money, a pound sterling being originally "a pound weight of sterlings" equal to about 240 coins.  Still more imaginative is the theory that the Hanseatic League was the origin for both the definition and manufacture for in its name is the German name for the Baltic (Ostsee (East Sea)) and from this the Baltic merchants were called Osterlings, or Easterlings.  In 1260, Henry III (1207–1272; King of England 1216-1272) granted them a charter of protection and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle and because the value of League's money tended to be more stable than that of England, English traders often stipulated their debts should be in pounds of the Easterlings which commercial practice contracted to "'sterling".  Support for this etymology is limited.

Teenage & Teen-age

Teenage (pronounced teen-ige)

In boundary-line construction, a technique of weaving which interleaves brushwood to produce a type of fencing called wattle.  The weave is usually effected horizontally around vertical uprights planted in the ground.

Circa 1700.  The construct was teen + age.  Teen was from the dialectical Kentish variation of tine (enclose within a wattle fence; brushwood for fences and hedges)), from the Middle Dutch tene & teene (plural tenen, diminutive teentje) from the Old Dutch tein & tēn from the Proto-Germanic tainaz, also ultimately the source of twig, which existed in Dutch as twigg.  The –age suffix was from the Middle English -age, from the Old French –age, from the Latin –āticum.  It was used, inter alia, to form nouns with the sense of collection or appurtenance. It was cognate with the French -age, the Italian -aggio, the Portuguese -agem, the Spanish –aje & the Romanian -aj.

Wattle fences built with the teenage method.

Teen-age (pronounced teen-age).

(1) A person aged between thirteen and nineteen.

(2) Of or relating to the characteristics of a teenager.

1911: Used originally in reference to Sunday school classes, the adjectival form teen-aged first noted 1922.  The construct was teen + age.  Teen is from the Middle English -tene, from the Anglian Old English -tēne (a variant was –tīene in West Saxon), from an inflected form of Proto-Germanic tehun (ten).  As a suffix, -teen was used to form the cardinal numbers from thirteen to nineteen, the model being n + ten so, for example, fourteen (4+10) was from the Middle English fourtene, from the Old English fēowertīene, from the Proto-Germanic fedurtehun. It was cognate with the West Frisian fjirtjin, the Dutch veertien, the German vierzehn & the Danish fjorten.  Used in this context as a functional suffix, age (sometimes –age), was from the Middle English age (lifetime, measure of the years), borrowed from the Anglo-Norman age, from the Old French aage & eage (which exists in Modern French as âge), from the (assumed but unattested) Vulgar Latin aetāticum, from the Latin aetātem, accusative form of aetās, from aevum (lifetime), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European hueyu- (vital force).  It displaced the native Middle English elde (age) and the Old English ieldu, eldo & ieldo (age).

Montage of teen-aged Lindsay Lohan photos.

There’s a paucity of material about the specialized form of fence-building called teenage.  Most will go through their lives never reading of the field and thus be never troubled by the distinction between the technique and those of teen-age years.  Usually then it matters not if the word is hyphenated to refer to the latter and even when some possibility of confusion might exist, readers can probably be relied upon to pick up the meaning from context.  Purists still, when writing of the young, the New Yorker magazine continues to insist on a hyphen though whether that's to entice subscriptions from fencing contractors or suggests some concern for baffled readers, isn’t known.