Booby

Booby (pronounced boo-bee)

(1) A bird, a gannet of the genus Sula, having a bright bill, bright feet, or both; some are listed as threatened or endangered.

(2) A slang term for someone thought stupid or a dunce, ignorant or foolish (although still used in the mid-twentieth century, it's probably now obsolete, the meaning crowded out by intrusion of newer slang, some of which has also fallen victim to the linguistic treadmill).

(3) The losing player in a game (historic UK usage as "booby prize", now largely obsolete except in informal use).

(4) One of the many slang terms for the human female's breasts and related to the more common boob, boobs and boobie.

(5) In croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket. 

1590s: From Spanish Latin from the earlier pooby, apparently a blend of (the now obsolete in this context) poop (to befool) and baby, perhaps by association with Spanish bobo (stupid person, slow bird), thought to be from an imitative root of the Latin balbus (stuttering).  Balbus was from the primitive Indo-European balb- & balbal- (tongue-tied) and was cognate with the Ancient Greek βαμβαίνω (bambaínō) & βαμβαλύζω (bambalúzō) (I chatter with the teeth), the Russian болтать (boltatʹ) (to chatter, to babble), the Lithuanian balbė́ti (to talk, to babble), the Sanskrit बल्बला (balbalā) (stammering) and the Albanian belbët (stammering).  The booby prize dates from 1883, a prize given to the loser in a game as concept which persists in some sporting competitions as "the wooden spoon", the idea being something as removed as possible from the usual silverware given as trophies.  The booby trap was first noted in 1850, originally a schoolboy prank (ie something only a "boob" would fall for); the more lethal sense developed during World War I and remain common military and para-military use.  Booby and boobyism are nouns, boobyish and (the non-standard but potentially useful)  boobyesque are adjectives; the noun plural is boobies.

Found usually in pairs

A nice pair of boobies.

A booby is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the Sulidae family. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (Morus), which were formerly included in Sula, the genus created in 1760 by the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson (1723-1806).  The name is derived from súla, the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.  The English name booby was based on the Spanish bobo (stupid) as the tame birds often landed on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten.  As well as a popular addition to the diet of sailors for whom meat other than fish was a rarity, it was fortuitous for many, the Admiralty's archives revealing boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors.  In taxonomic classification, variations include Abbott's booby (Papasula abbotti), blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii), brown booby (Sula leucogaster), masked booby (Sula dactylatra), Nazca booby (Sula granti), Peruvian booby (Sula variegata), red-footed booby (Sula sula) & Tasman booby (Sula dactylatra tasmani).

Boobies in time, in step.

Based on the use by mainstream internet sites (including nominally reputable news organizations), boob (more commonly in the plural as boobs) seems to have emerged as the preferred slang for breasts, probably because it seems the term women find most acceptable and the one they most often use, not infrequently as their default descriptor.  The origin appears to lie in bubby (plural bubbies), a slang term for the female breast dating from the 1680s which is thought to be imitative of a baby's cry or the sucking sound heard during lactation.  It was most associated with south-east England although that may reflect more extensive documentation rather than proof of regionalism.  Inherently anyway a form in oral use, the alternative pronunciations included buhb-ee, boo-bee & boob-ee so the evolution to boob was perhaps not unexpected although most dictionaries list the earliest known instance as a late 1930s Americanism with the back-formed clippings boob & boobs not appearing until the early post-war years, initially as a vulgarism, women not embracing use for decades although that their approval seems to have coincided with late second-wave feminism is presumably coincidental.

Fully loaded: Lindsay Lohan in boobie-top with crash helmet, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005).

In fashion, the boobie top (less commonly as booby-top) is a style of clothing (including dresses) which in some way draws attention to or emphasizes the breasts.  The design is most associated with generous displays of cleavage or skin but is used also to refer to garments which wholly cover the breasts in such as way as to highlight the size, shape or movement.

During World War II (1939-1945), the US military kept up with evolution of slang, something reflected in advertising which lent a new definition to "booby trap", a familiar concept in which soldiers were well-drilled.  Until well into the twentieth century (and the beginning of the antibiotic era), it wasn't unusual for the losses of combat-ready troops to illness & disease to exceed those caused by battlefield causalities and although the numbers were dwarfed by conditions such as malaria, preventing and treating sexually transmitted diseases (STDs, then called venereal disease (VD)) was an important component of military medicine.  It wasn’t until the 1970s the initialism VD began to be replaced by STD (VD thought to have to have gained too many specific associations) but fortunately for AT&T, in 1951 they renamed their STD (Subscriber Toll Dialing) service (for long-distance phone calls) to DDD (Direct Distance Dialing), apparently for no better reason than the alliterative appeal although it's possible they just wanted to avoid mentioning “toll” with all that implies.  Many countries in the English-speaking world continued to use STD for the phone calls, even after the public health specialists had re-purposed the initialization.  In clinical use, "Sexually Transmitted Infection" seems now to be the preferred term.  

Pineapple

Pineapple (pronounced pahy-nap-uhl)

(1) The edible, juicy, collective fruit of a tropical, bromeliaceous plant (Ananas comosus), native to South America, consisting of an inflorescence clustered around a fleshy axis and surmounted by a tuft of leaves; the flesh is juicy, sweet and usually yellow.

(2) The plant itself, having a short stem and rigid, spiny-margined, recurved leaves, the flesh housing ovoid in shape.

(3) In military slang, a fragmentation hand grenade (originally applied to those devices with a resemblance to the fruit, later applied more loosely).

(4) In slang, the Australian fifty dollar (Aus$50) note (dated and probably archaic).

(5) A web burrfish (Chilomycterus antillarum (or Chilomycterus geometricus)).

(6) In commercial paint production, a light yellow colour, reminiscent of the flesh of a pineapple (also called pineapple yellow on color charts).

(7) A hairstyle consisting of (1) a ponytail worn on top of the head, imitating the leaves of a pineapple or (2) the whole hair gathered and assembled at the top, there to sit like the leaves of a pineapple.

1350-1400: From the Middle English pinappel (pine cone (literally “pine apple” or “pine fruit”)), the conifer cone (strobilus (plural: strobili)), the seed-bearing organ of gymnosperm plants so named as a jocular comparison with fruit trees).  After being introduced to Europe, the fruit of the pineapple plant picked up the name because of the resemblance to pinecones, this use noted from the 1660s (pine cone adopted in the 1690s to replace pineapple in its original sense except in so regional dialects.  Elsewhere, the forms included the Middle Dutch and Dutch pijnappel, the Middle Low German pinappel, the Old High German pīnapful, the Middle High German pīnaphel, and the early Modern German pinapfel (all developed from the same notion of the “pine cone”.  Related too were the post-Classical Latin pomum pini, the Old French pume de pin, the Middle French and French pomme de pin and the Spanish piña.  To describe the pine-cone, Old English also used pinhnyte (pine nut) and pine-apple appears in some late fourteenth century biblical translations for “pomegranate”.  Pineapple is a noun; the noun plural is pineapples.

Ashley Ferh's Pineapple Crisp

Pineapple Crisp is made with chunks of fresh pineapple, topped with a brown sugar streusel baked until golden.  It is served usually with vanilla ice cream or thickened cream.  The classic recipe uses only pineapple but variations are possible, most adding either mango or orange although where a contrast in taste is desired, it nan be made as pineapple & rhubarb crisp.  Preparation time is 15 minutes; cooking time 45 minutes and as described in this recipe, it will serve six.

Ingredients

4 cups chopped fresh pineapple about one average pineapple

2 tablespoons plus ½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon corn starch

1/2 cup cold butter cubed

1 cup large oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour for Gluten-Free: gluten-free all purpose flour or ground gluten-free oats

Instructions

(1) Preheat the oven to 350^o F (175^o C)

(2) Combine pineapple, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and corn starch. Place pineapple in an 8 x 8″ (200 x 200mm) baking pan, or in individual baking dishes if preferred.

(3) In a large bowl, combine butter, ½ cup brown sugar, oats and flour until combined.  The texture will be that of cookie dough (easily pressed and held together).  Crumble topping over the pineapple in baking dish and press down gently.

(4) Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges and golden brown on top. Serve with vanilla ice cream or thickened cream as desired.

The pineapple hairstyle is distinctive and, once done, of low maintenance but the very wildness means it’s not suitable for all hair; those with perfectly straight hair will likely find it just too much trouble because while it can be done, it would demand a lot of product.  There are two variations, (1) a ponytail worn on top of the head, imitating the leaves of a pineapple (left) or (2) the whole hair gathered and assembled at the top, there to sit like the leaves of a pineapple (left).  The pineapple is ideal for those with curly hair and for others, is a less stylized, more naturalistic version of what hairdressers call “the spiky”.

The Mark II hand-grenade.

The military slang to describe hand grenades dates from World War I (1914-1918) and was coined because of the shape of the Mk II grenade (re-named Mk 2 in 1945 as the US military dropped all designations involving Roman numerals as part of the computerization project), a fragmentation-type anti-personnel hand grenade first issued to US armed forces in 1918.  In the Allied forces, it was standard issue anti-personnel device grenade until the end of World War II (1939-1945) and during the was replaced by the M26-series (M26/M61/M57), first used during the Korean War (1950-1953).  However, because supply contracts issued in 1944-1945 had envisaged the conflict with Japan lasting well into 1945, the production levels were such that the US stockpiles of the Mark 2 meant that the inventory wasn’t exhausted until late 1968, by which time the standard-issue item was the M33 series (M33/M67).  In the military way, the American slang was adopted by Japanese soldiers as パイナップル (painappuru).

Reasons to eat pineapple

A member of the bromeliad family, the pineapple is a genuine rarity in that it’s the only edible bromeliad which has survived into the modern era.  Traditionally, it’s eaten by cutting away the spiky casing, then slicing the flesh into bite-sized pieced but it’s actually a multiple fruit, one pineapple actually made up of dozens of individual flowerets that grow together to form the entire fruit.  Each scale on a pineapple is evidence of a separate flower and in a TikTok video which changed the life of some pineapple people, user Dillon Roberts showed how the flowerets can be pealed-off and eaten piece by pyramid-shaped piece, obviating any need to chop and slice.  Not all pineapples have a skim which permits the approach but for those which do, it’s most convenient.  Unlike many fruits, pineapples stop ripening the minute they are picked and no techniques of storage will make them further ripen and although there’s much obvious variation, color is relatively unimportant in assessing ripeness, pineapples needing to be chosen by smell; it the fragrance suggests something fresh, tropical and sweet, it will be a good fruit and, as a general principle, the more scales, the sweeter and juicier it will be.  For those who live in an accommodatingly tropical region, the top can be planted and in most cases it will grow.

Health food advocate Lindsay Lohan with purchased pineapple.

Pineapple has always been prized because of the taste and texture but there are genuine health benefits and it has long be valued for easing the symptoms of indigestion, arthritis and sinusitis, the juice also offering an anthelmintic effect which helps rid the body of intestinal worms.  Pineapple is high in manganese, a mineral critical to bone development and connective tissue, a cup of fresh pineapple enough to provide some 75% of the recommended daily intake and it’s especially helpful to older adults, the bones of whom tend to become brittle.  The essential component of pineapple is bromelain, a proteolytic (literally breaks down protein”) enzyme known to be both an aid in the digestive process and an effective anti-inflammatory, a daily ingestion purported to relieve the joint pain associated with osteoarthritis.  In the Fourth Reich, bromelain is approved as a post-injury medication because of the documented reduction in swelling.  Fresh pineapple is also a good source in Vitamin which, combined with the effect of the bromelain, reduces mucous in the throat which is why it’s a common component in hospital food because it reduces the volume of mucous after sinus and throat surgery.

There is evidence to suggest pineapple consumption can assist with troublesome sinuses and for those who wish to experiment, pineapple is one of the safer fruits because it’s low-risk for allergies.  More speculative is a possible role in reducing a propensity towards blood-clotting which would make pineapple a useful dietary addition for frequent fliers or others at heightened risk from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) but it may be that any increase in the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables would show similar benefits.  Also unproven is the efficacy of the old folk remedy which suggests pineapple juice is helpful in countering the symptoms of morning sickness.  Of late, there’s also the suggestion the effect is heightened if the juice is taken with a handful of nuts but at this stage that seems a new folk remedy added to the old.  Still, as long as one’s stomach has no great sensitivity to the acidic nature of the fruit, most can take it in small doses without any problems and, because the fresh juice discourages the growth of plaque, it’s makes for a healthier mouth.

Outlandish

Outlandish (pronounced out-lan-dish)

(1) Freakishly or grotesquely strange or odd, as appearance, dress, objects, ideas, or practices; bizarre.

(2) Having a foreign appearance (archaic).

(3) Remote from civilized areas; out-of-the-way (archaic).

(4) Being actually foreign; alien (archaic).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English outlandisch, from the Old English ūtlendisc (of a foreign country, not native) from the Proto-Germanic ūtlandiskaz and related to ūtland (foreign land, literally "out-land").  The meaning in the sense of unfamiliar, strange, odd, bizarre (such as the customs of foreigners may seem to natives) dates from the 1590s and may be compared with the German ausländisch and the Danish udenlandsk.  The Old English utland could also mean "land lying beyond the limits of occupation or cultivation," a sense that survived into Modern English.  The noun outlander (a foreigner, a person who is not a native) came into parallel use in the 1590s as a direct back-construction from outland (foreign land), almost certainly on the model of the Dutch uitlander and the German ausländer.  In South African English, by 1892 it acquired the specific sense of "not of Boer birth" which was a loan-translation of South African Dutch uitlander.  In Old English utlanda meant "an exile", a status which was known in many Medieval legal systems (or at least common practice).  In the Middle English, outland was simply a descriptor for "foreigners" and was a verbal shorthand of straungeres outlondes.  Outlandish is an adjective, outlandishly is an adverb and outlandishness is a noun.

Glass-blowing, the Royal Navy and coal

Many trees required: The architecture of the seventeenth century English ship-of-the-line (the battleships of their day).

In English common law, outlandish retained its original, literal, meaning in as late as the 1690s.  The often persecuted Huguenots, an ethno-religious group of French Protestants had lived in an uneasy relationship with the French state for many years until their rebellions in the 1620s prompted the abolishment of most of their political and privileges and persecution increased, culminating in the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), effectively outlawing them and forcing them to flee France.  Many ended up in England, including a large number of artisans involved in glass and steel production, both of which demanded much energy.  Within a decade, it became apparent the forests of England were rapidly being depleted to provide fuel for furnaces, a matter of concern to a small island dependent for its trade and security on the Royal Navy and merchant marine, both with fleets of ships made from wood; each big warship (known as ship of the line or man-O-War) required the felling of several-thousand trees during its construction.  The government acted and banned the outlandish (foreigners) from leasing, owning or harvesting forests.  Designed to avoid a threat to the supply of timber, the law had the far reaching effect of accelerating the shift of Britain’s source of energy for industrial production from wood to coal, something that would endure almost three-hundred years and it wouldn't be until the early twentieth century that the the Royal Navy's big ships began to switch from coal to oil-fired power.

An outlandish combination which recalls the dazzle camouflage schemes used by several admiralties in the world wars: Lindsay Lohan dressed for ABC network television, Good Morning America, New York City, November 2022.

The interesting ensemble included an Akris color-blocked suit by Law Roach (b 1978) and shoes in gloss burgundy by Giuseppe Zanotti (b 1957).  The flared cut of the trousers hid the shoes' 2-inch (50 mm) soles and 6-inch (150 mm) heels which was a neat stylist's trick but they certainly deserved to be seen.

Arhat

Arhat (pronounced ahr-huht)

(1) In Buddhism, a Buddhist (most usually a monk) who, through rigorous discipline and ascetic practices, has attained enlightenment and upon death passes to Nirvana.

(2) In Buddhism, a title accorded to sanctified Buddhists; a Buddhist saint.

(3) In Jainism, one of the stages of the ascetic's spiritual evolution, when all passions (anger, ego, deception, greed, attachment, hatred and ignorance) are destroyed (the derived terms are arhantam, arhathood & arhatship.

1865–1870: A transliteration of the Sanskrit अर्हत् (arhat) (arahant in Pāḷi) (worthy of worship; meriting respect), from arhati (he merits; he deserves), the construct being the verbal root arh (to deserve), from arah (meriting, deserving of), ahrana (having a claim; state of entitlement) & the past participle arhita (honored, worshipped); a doublet of arahant and the alternative spelling was Arhant (pronounced ahr-huhnt).  Arhat and Arhatship are nouns; the noun plural is Arhats.

A related state in Buddhism (notably Mahayana Buddhism) was Bodhisattva (pronounced boh-duh-suht-vuh).  The word was from the Sanskrit and Pāḷi, translating literally as “one whose essence is enlightenment”, the construct being bodhi (enlightenment) + sattva (essence).  Dating from the early nineteenth century, a Bodhisattva is a person who has attained prajna (Enlightenment) but who postpones Nirvana (ie remaining in earthly existence) in order to help others attain Enlightenment.  In some Buddhist sects, certain Bodhisattvas are treated as living saints and are the subjects of devotion, represented sometimes as divine in artworks (the practice controversial in some Buddhist circles).

Arhat appears in the Ṛigveda with in the sense of "deserving”.  Rigveda (or Rig Veda, Rgveda, Rg Veda & Rug Veda) was from the Sanskrit ऋग्वेद (ṛg-vedá) (veda of praise), the construct being ऋच् (ṛ́c) (praise, verse) + वेद (véda) (knowledge).  It was an ancient Indian Veda and sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (sūktas) and one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (śruti) known as the Vedas and today, apart for the largely extant Śakalya Shakha, only fragments remain.  The Rigveda is the oldest known of the Vedic Sanskrit texts which date from 1700-1100 BC.

In prayer: A Buddha statue and Lindsay Lohan.  In translation, arhat is sometimes rendered in English as arahat while in the Far East, the transliteration was often phonetic and in the Chinese 阿羅漢 (āluóhàn) it was often shortened to 羅漢 (luóhàn) and, via the Raj, this was picked up in English as Lohan or luohan whereas in Japanese the pronunciation of the Chinese characters was arakan (阿羅漢) or rakan (羅漢).

Semiotics

Semiotics (pronounced sem-e-ot-ics)

(1) The study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.

(2) A general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics and syntactics.

(3) Of or relating to signs.

(4) As a (now archaic) specialized use in medicine, the scientific study of the symptoms of disease (known later as symptomatology).

1660s: From the Ancient Greek σημειωτικός (sēmeiōtikós) (fitted for marking, portending), stem of sēmeioûn (to interpret as a sign), from σημειῶ (sēmeiô) (to mark, to interpret as a portend), from σημεῖον (sēmeîon) (a mark, sign, token), from σῆμα (sêma) (mark, sign).  Semiotics is the sense now understood in English was an adaptation by English physician and philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) on the model of Greek logic to mean “the doctrine of signs”.  The medical sense was from the 1660s, the use to describe the study of signs and symbols with special regard to function and origin dates from the 1880s and the use in psychology began in 1923.

The structural model of semiotics.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, with special regard to function and origin especially as means of language or communication.  Essentially a branch of the study of meaning-making and meaningful communication including the deconstruction of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, allegory, metonymy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication.  Semiotics has evolved to be closely related to linguistics, but can be treated, at least to some point, as a parallel stream.  The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications which can be, but are not of necessity tied to linguistics.  Indeed, semiotics is probably best known for non-linguistic sign systems.  Semiotics became popular with anthropologists who enjoyed the way cultural phenomenon could be studied without any lineal relationship to a specific language.  In a similar vein, zoologists used the method to examine how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world.  In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study including the communication of information in living organisms without structured language in the sense of human text.

Lindsay Lohan in a hotel bathroom, perhaps perplexed by unlabelled taps.

A classic example of semiotics is the convention that red indicates hot water and blue cold but not all manufacturers conform to this standard, some tapware designers apparently offended by the idea of any sort of label making a vulgar intrusion on their carefully crafted shapes.  In the days when Intourist (Интурист in the Russian, a contraction of иностранный турист (foreign tourist); the Soviet Union's notoriously erratic travel agency) enjoyed what was close to a monopoly in the operation of hotels in the USSR, the travel diaries of politicians, journalists and others lucky enough to enjoy a visit would not infrequently comment on the plumbing, taps either not labelled or with labels which would only by apparent coincidence be a reliable guide, faucets which might in the morning have conformed, swapping roles by the evening.

A semiotic convention (left) and examples of variation (right).

It's well understood that Green is for safety (like an exit door) and red for danger (such as a fire).  However, except where stipulated in regulations (which tend to be local rather than national), there's no guarantee the colors used in one place will translate to another and manufacturers' parts lists often include interchangeable components in a variety of colors so users can choose although, where consequences can be both severe and with implications over vast areas (such as sites dealing with nuclear energy), the color-coding and language of signs is done to an international standard.  The reason for danger signs being usually red is likely one of human historical association, red the color of blood and fire so linked with anger and danger.  Plasma physicists point out also that red is the color least scattered by air, water or dust molecules and thus remains visible for longer and at greater distances in adverse environments .  The effect of scattering is inversely related to the fourth power of the wavelength of a given color and because red has the highest wavelength, it gets scattered the least and is thus able to travel the longest distance through fog, rain etc before fading away.  It's the same reason the sky appears blue, the fine particles in the atmosphere scatter blue light most among all the components of white light.

Sometimes though, a color is just a color.  Temporary signs such as those warning of "men at work" or "wet floor" are typically in made in bright (even lurid) colors with the text rendered in a shade with maximum contrast, the object being to attract attention.  Curiously though, manufacturers do offer these in grey and black, perhaps because of the popularity of white and cream as floor colors in commercial spaces.

Viceroy

Viceroy (pronounced vahys-roi)

(1) A person appointed to rule a country or province as the deputy of the sovereign and exercising the powers of the sovereign.

(2) A brightly marked American butterfly (Limenitis archippus), closely mimicking the monarch butterfly in coloration but slightly smaller, hence the analogy with a sovereign and their representative.

1515–1525: From the Middle French, the construct being vice- + roy.  Vice was from the Old French vice (deputy), from the Latin vice (in place of), an ablative form of vicis.  In English (and other languages) the vice prefix was used to indicate an office in a subordinate position including air vice-marshal, vice-admiral, vice-captain, vice-chair, vice-chairman, vice-chancellor, vice-consul, vice-director, vice president, vice-president, vice-regent & vice-principal.  Roy was from the Middle English roy & roye, from the Old French roi (king), from the Latin rēgem, accusative of rēx (king) and related to regere (to keep straight, guide, lead, rule), from the primitive Indo-European root reg- (move in a straight line) with derivatives meaning “to direct in a straight line" thus the notion of "to lead, rule".  It was a doublet of loa, rajah, Rex, rex and rich.  The noun plurals was roys.  The wife of a viceroy was a vicereine, the word also used for female viceroys of whom there have been a few.  The American butterfly was named in 1881.  Viceroy and viceroy are nouns and viceregal is a noun and adjective; the noun plural is viceroys.

The noun viceregent (the official administrative deputy of a regent) attracted the attention of critics because it was so frequently confused with vicegerent (the official administrative deputy of a ruler, head of state, or church official).  Despite the perceived grandiosity of vicegerent, gained from association with offices such as the Pope as Vicar of Christ on Earth or the regent of a sovereign state, it’s merely generally descriptive of one person substituting for another and can be as well-applied to the shop assistant minding the store while the grocer has lunch.  The area of regency can be a linguistic tangle because a regent is a particular kind of viceregent and there was a time when viceregent was used instead of the correct vicegerent and was sometimes used pleonastically for regent.  The grammar Nazis never liked this and attributed the frequency of occurrence to the preference of viceregal rather than vicereoyal as the adjective of viceroy.

Under the Raj, under the pith helmets: King George V, Emperor of India with Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, Government House, Calcutta 1911.

In the rather haphazard way British rule in India evolved, the office of Governor-General of India was created by the Charter Act of 1833 and in an early example of the public-private partnership (PPP), the post was essentially administrative and was both appointed by and reported to the directors of the East India Company, functioning also as an informal conduit between the company and government.  The system lasted until 1858 when, in reaction to the Indian Mutiny (1857), the parliament passed the Government of India Act, creating the role of Viceroy (wholly assuming the office of Governor General), the new office having both executive and diplomatic authority and reporting (through the newly-established India Office) to the British Crown.  The viceroy was appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the parliament (ie the prime-minister) and it is this structure which is remembered as the British Raj (from the Hindi rāj (state, nation, empire, realm etc), the rule of the British Crown on the subcontinent although the maps of empire which covered the whole region as pink to indicate control were at least a bit misleading.

Viceroy butterfly.

The best-known viceroys were probably those who headed the executive government of India under the Raj although other less conspicuous appointments were also made including to Ireland when the whole island was a constituent part of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1922).  As a general principle (and there were exceptions), in British constitutional law, the Dominions and colonies that were held in the name of the parliament of Great Britain were administered by Governors-General while colonies held in the name of the British Crown were governed by viceroys.  Between 1858-1947, there were twenty viceroys of India including some notable names in British politics such as Lord Lansdowne (1888–1894) who introduced the Indian Councils Act and raised the age of consent for girls from ten to twelve, Lord Curzon (1899–1905) who introduced the Indian Universities Act and presided over the partition of Bengal, Lord Hardinge (1910-1916) who was in office during the Mesopotamian Campaign, Lord Irwin (1926–1931) (better known as Lord Halifax) who summoned the first round table conference and Lord Mountbatten (1947), the last Viceroy of India who, reflecting the change in constitutional status upon independence, was between 1947-1948 briefly the new nation's first Governor-General.  He was also the second-last, the office abolished in 1950 when the Republic of India was proclaimed.

Lindsay Lohan’s NFT for Lullaby with viceroy butterflies.

In 2021, it was announced Lindsay Lohan's non-fungible token (NFT) electronic music single Lullaby had sold for 1,000,001 in Tron (TRX) cryptocurrency (US$85,484.09).   Lullaby featured a vocal track over a beat produced by Manuel Riva and was the first NFT by a woman to be sold on #fansForever, a marketplace created for dealing in celebrity NFTs.  The graphics of the NFT Tron had a viceroy butterfly flapping its wings in unison with Ms Lohan’s eyelids to the beat of Lullaby.  Because of the underlying robustness, the blockchain and the NFT concept has an assured future for many purposes but to date the performance of celebrity items as stores of value has been patchy.

1936 Rolls-Royce Phantom III (7.7 litre (447 cubic inch) V12; chassis 3AZ47, engine Z24B, body 8594 in style 6419) by Hooper, built for the Marquess of Linlithgow (1887-1952) who served as Viceroy of India (1936-1944), seen in its original configuration with a chauffeur (left) and as re-bodied during 1952-1953 (right).  In the centre is a British plumed helmet, circa 1920, this one with a skull in gilt metal, mounted with unusually elaborate gilt ornamentation including helmet-plate (itself mounted with a white metal hobnail star bearing gilt Royal Arms), ornate gilt chins-scales with claw ends and an untypically extravagant white swan's feather plume, notably longer than regulation length.  It was used by the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at Arms, a body formed in 1539 and staffed by former army officers as the “nearest guard” to the sovereign. The helmet is based on the “Albert” pattern for Household Cavalry, a style in use for some 150 years.

Viceroys of India were always rather exalted creatures, their status reflecting India’s allure as the glittering prize of the empire and upon recall to London, were usually raised to (or in) the peerage as marquesses while a retiring prime-minister might expect at most an earldom, one notch down.  Their special needs (and some were quite needy) in office also had to be accommodated, an example of which is Lord Linlithgow’s 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III, built with a capacity for seven passengers (although no luggage which was always carried separately).  The coachwork by Hooper was most unusual, the engine’s side-panels being 1½ inches taller than standard, a variation required to somewhat balance the very tall passenger compartment, the dimensions of which were dictated by the viceroy’s height of 6’ 7” (2.0 m), the plumed hats of his role elongating things further.  Such high-roof-lines were not uncommon on state limousines and have been seen on Mercedes-Benz built for the Holy See and the Daimlers & Rolls-Royces in the British Royal Mews.  Delivered in dark blue with orange picking out lines and coronets on the rear doors, the interior was trimmed in dark blue leather with two sets of loose beige covers, the woodwork in solid figured walnut rather than veneer.  Signed-off 21 July 1936 and shipped to Bombay (now Mubai) on the SS Bhutan on 24 July, Hooper’s invoice to the India Office listed the price of the chassis at Stg£1405, the coachwork at Stg£725 and a total cost of Stg£2130.

After the Raj, the car passed into private hands and in 1952 was returned to the Hooper works in Westminster for re-modeling, the most obvious aspects of which were the lowering of the roof-line and a re-finishing in grey.  The high cowl (scuttle) and hood (bonnet) line were however retained so the re-configuration actually replaced one discontinuity with another but the changes certainly made it an interesting period piece and its now one of three Phantom IIIs in the collection assembled by Pranlal Bhogilal (1937-2011), displayed in his Auto World Vintage Car Museum in Kathwada, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Gaffer & Duct

Gaffer (pronounced gaf-er)

(1) The chief electrician on the set of a movie or television show.

(2) In informal use, a boss, supervisor, or manager.

(3) In informal use, an old man, especially one living in the country (often used affectionately or patronizingly).

(4) A foreman or overseer in charge of a group of physical laborers; the coach or manager of a sports team.

(5) In glassmaking, a master glassblower responsible for shaping glassware.

(6) Slang for boy or youth (unique to Ireland); used in maritime regions to refer to the baby of the house.

(7) A type of tape used usually as a safety device to tape-down cables to reduce the risk of tripping hazards (technically gaffer’s tape).

(8) In slang, as “to gaff”, “gaffered” or ”to gaffer”, a description of some temporary or roughly improvised repair using gaffer tape or some other quick and dirty method; “to make a gaff” as a description of a mistake is a variation of this.

1565–1575: Thought likely to be a contraction of godfather, but with the vowels influenced by grandfather.  The use to describe “an elderly rustic" was apparently based on continental analogies (compare gammer and the related French compère and German Gevatter).  It seems originally to have been a term of respect, also applied familiarly; from "old man" and was by 1841 extended to foremen and supervisors generally.  In UK police forces, it’s common slang to describe the officer in charge of a particular section or squad and in Association Football (soccer), the head coach or manager.

In the early twentieth century, it was carried over to the electrician or technician in charge of lighting on a film set because the natural lighting on early film sets was adjusted by opening and closing flaps in the tent, these cloths called gaff cloths or gaff flaps.  Because the technician used a long pole with a hook known as a “gaff hook”, he came to be known as a “the gaff hooker” and, as English does when users find there are too many syllables, this was truncated to “the gaffer”.  The tape later used for electrical cables was almost exclusively in the gaffers' toolboxes and thus became “gaffer’s tape”.  Now it’s known almost always as “gaffer tape”.

Duct (pronounced duhkt)

(1) Any tube, canal, pipe, or conduit by which a fluid, air, or other substance is conducted or conveyed.

(2) In anatomy and zoology, a tube, canal, or vessel conveying a body fluid, especially a glandular secretion or excretion.

(3) In botany, a cavity or vessel formed by elongated cells or by many cells.

(4) In the infrastructure of electricity, a single enclosed runway for conductors or cables.

(5) In a printing press, the reservoir for ink.

(6) Guidance; direction; quotation (obsolete).

1640-1650: From the Latin ductus (conveyance of water; a leading, a conduit pipe), noun use of the past participle of ducere (to lead) from dūcō (I lead, draw), from the primitive Indo-European root deuk (to lead).  Use has endured in the Medieval Latin aqueduct and the high rank of aristocracy, duke, drawn from the past participle of ducere (to lead); the construct was duc (variant stem of dūcere (to lead)) + tus (suffix of verbal action).  The meaning in an anatomical sense (vessel of an animal body by which blood, lymph etc, are conveyed) was first noted in the 1660s while that of a "conduit or channel" dates from 1713.  Use in a variety of architectural and engineering contexts to describe "tubes in a structure" developed after the use to describe an "air tube" in 1884.

Duct tape was in 1894 originally sold under the name duck tape, long, non-adhesive strips of plain cotton duck cloth used in various mechanical processes.  The name was transferred to a plastic-coated adhesive tape used by U.S. soldiers in World War II, probably because of its waterproof qualities (ie the sense of "water off a duck's back").  It continued in civilian use after the war, and the name shifted to duct tape by 1958, perhaps because the most common use was in air ducts, which also accounts for its still standard silver-gray color.

Duct and Gaffer Tape

Duct tape scene: Lindsay Lohan as Tess Conway in Freaky Friday (2003).

Often casually regarded as interchangeable, duct and gaffer tapes are constructed differently because they’re intended for different purposes.  Indeed, using one for the intended application of the other can cause messy or worse results.  They’re similar in that both are hand-tearable, conform well to uneven surfaces and tend to be sold in the same packaging and sizes.  Duct tape is constructed with a polyethylene (PE) cloth backing, a material that makes it waterproof and contains an aggressive, rubber-based glue, allowing it easily to adhere to many of surfaces.   Duct tape has (1) a shiny, reflective backing, (2) is for semi-permanent or permanent applications and (3) tends to leave an adhesive residue when removed.  A specialized variation is a heat-resistant foil (not cloth) duct tape, useful for sealing heating and cooling ducts.  For decades silvery gray, it’s now available in colors and even printed designs.

Lindsay Lohan in duct tape cocktail dress.  Tape is 3M Utility Duct Tape 2929 (Silver).  Shoes are Jimmy Choo Patent Leather Sandals.

Gaffer tape is made with a coated cloth backing and a synthetic, rubber-based glue.  Because it doesn’t have the PE backing, gaffer tape is not waterproof but, the barrier properties in the backing make it moisture resistant in most cases.  This means it shouldn’t be used for waterproofing but is suitable for temporary use in high-humidity and moist environments. The adhesive on gaffer tape is less aggressive than duct tape, rendering it more easily removed when temporary need is over.  Because of its origins in the theatre, gaffer tape traditionally had a matte white or black backing to reduce the reflection of light but is now available in colored gloss finishes.