Niche

Niche (pronounced nĭch (U) or nēsh (Non-U))

(1) In architecture, a cavity, hollow or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall and usually semicircular in plan and arched, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament; in interior decorating the synonym is nook.

(2) Any similar recess, such as one in a rock face.

(3) Figuratively, any similar position such as (1) a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing or (2) a distinct or specialised segment of a market.

(4) In ecology, the role of a plant or animal within its community and habitat which determines its activities and relationships with other organisms.

(5) In contrast radiography, an eroded or ulcerated area.

(6) In Islam, sn arrow woven into a Muslim prayer rug pointing in the direction of Mecca (qibla).

(7) In the funeral industry, as cremation niche; a columbarium.

1605-1615: From the Middle English niche (shallow recess in a wall), probably from the Old & Middle French niche (recess (for a dog), kennel), a back formation from nicher (to make a nest), from the unattested Vulgar Latin nīdiculāre, from the Classical Latin nīdus (nest), the words niche & nicher enduring in Modern French.  Niche was a doublet of nidus and nide via the Latin and the related nest via the primitive Indo-European and was related also to nyas.  Some etymologists are not convinced by the notion of a direct Latin root and trace the French niche (recess (for a dog), kennel) to a fourteenth century borrowing from the Italian nicchia (niche, nook) derived from nicchio (seashell).  The dissidents note the link to the Latin mitulus (mussel) but also the lack of any documentary evidence for the change of -m- to -n-.  The origin in the Old French noun derived from nichier is said to come via the Gallo-Romance nidicare from Latin nidus (nest) but it remains one of those insoluble disputes in linguistics.  The figurative sense was first recorded in 1725, the use in ecology dating from 1927 and the contemporary coinings like niche market, multi-niche & niche player are all from the twentieth century.  Niche is a noun and nicher, nichering & nichered are verbs; the noun plural is niches.

Pronunciation

While the origin of niche is of interest only to the profession, the dispute over pronunciation has a wider audience: nĭch (the U version and phonetically nich) or nēsh (non-U and neesh)?  Many dictionaries (especially the descriptive) list both but those which offer only one (the prescriptive) insist on nitch.  The descriptive (and thus linguistically promiscuous) Merriam-Webster’s on-line presence lists several pronunciations for niche: nitch, neesh and nish, in a deliberate attempt to reflect English as it’s actually spoken while Webster’s more prescriptive print edition continues to insist on nich.  The Gallic-influenced neesh is said now to be the preferred US use.

Lindsay Lohan in Falling for Christmas (left) and Irish Wish with Triumph TR4 and body double (right).

In film, a niche differs from a franchise in that the former is a conceptual genre and independent of the characters, the latter thematic and generally dependent on the continuity of at least one character.  Lindsay Lohan’s two recent Netflix productions, Falling for Christmas (2022) & Irish Wish (slated for 2023) are in the rom-com (romantic comedy) niche.

There are two types of dictionaries: prescriptive and descriptive and most modern dictionaries are descriptive, meaning they attempt to describe the language as it’s used, including, explicitly or by implication, all pronunciation variants of a word used by educated speakers.  This approach does upset some purists but this is how English has always evolved, a slut of a language which picks up words which seem useful, uses them as required and dumps them when they’re outlived their usefulness.  It’s tempting to suggest those who read Trollope say nith, those who watch TikTok prefer neesh but if ever that was true,, it probably no longer is so, when in doubt, stick to the classics; niche should be pronounced nich.

Niche, nitch & the W113 notch

So things started with niche and later there came nitch which was (1) an alternative form of knitch (a small bundle), (2) a blend of nick + notch (a dialectal form meaning "a small notch or incision") and (3) a simple misspelling of niche which caught on.  In the collector car market there are many niches and while there’s overlap and some multi-niche players, niches are often siloed, one being the Mercedes-Benz W113.  The W113 was a small roadster of spare, elegant lines which was produced in 3 versions (230 SL, 250 SL & 280 SL) between 1963-1971 and is known among the cognoscenti as the “pagoda” an allusion to the unusual curve of the detachable hard-top, the arc described by the raised side-windows.  The successor roadster (the R107, 1971-1989) used a similar roof design but the pagoda moniker is unique to the W113.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (W113, "pagoda").

Also unique to the W113 niche is the cult of the notch.  Part of the charm of the W113 and a proof it came from a time when Mercedes-Benz were rather more “hand-made” than now, were the leaded-seam “fender notches”, small creases in the fender, inboard of the headlights, which workers on the assembly line hand-shaped with tin, their purpose being to ensure the notch matched both the knik in the headlight surround and the crease on the outside of the fender.  That ensured perfect alignment (this was a time when the factory took seriously such intricate details of quality control) but were thought at the time just part of the manufacturing process and not publicized.  Thus, in the decades before the W113 became a collectable and long before originality became a fetish, repair shops when replacing fenders (supplied from the factory without a notch) wouldn’t fashion a notch one to match the one replaced, unaware perhaps even of their existence.  There were tales too of the factory’s notches even being smoothed-out as a “fix” when thought a defect although these stories may be apocryphal.  However, those who have had a replacement fender “notched” exactly to match the one removed will probably still not satisfy the originality police because the inner fender spot welds which affix the fender to the structure are said to have been done in a manner almost impossible to replicate.  It’s metal so it can be done but it’s not easy to convince the experts who judge such things.

By their notches they shall be known: Headlight notches (left & right) on 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL.

Tortoise

Tortoise (pronounced tawr-tuhs)

(1) Any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae (mostly North American) or the order Testudines (elsewhere in the English-speaking world), the body of which is enclosed in a shell (carapace plus plastron), the animal able to withdraw its head and four legs partially into the shell, providing some protection from predators.

(2) Another word for testudo.

(3) Figuratively, a very slow person or thing, the idea explored in Aesop’s ambiguous fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.

1550s: A variant of various Middle English words including the late fifteenth century tortuse, the mid-fifteenth century tortuce, the late fourteenth century tortuge and  tortose, & tortuca (all of which may have been influenced by the Old French tortue and the word porpoise), and probably from the mid-thirteenth century Medieval Latin tortūca, from the Late Latin tartarūcha the feminine form of Tartarus, from the Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos) (a mythological spirit, holder of Tartaros (or Tartarus), the land of the dead in ancient stories), the tortoise being regarded as an infernal animal with origins in the depths of the underworld.  The Medieval Latin form was influenced by the Latin tortus (crooked, twisted), that base on the shape of the creatures’ feet.  The Latin tortus was also the source of the English tort (the branch of law dealing with the civil remedies available for wrongful acts).  In Classical Latin the word was testudo, from testa (shell) and the words derived from Latin displaced the native Old English byrdling; the long obsolete synonym was shellpad.  Tortoise is a noun; the noun plural is tortoises.

Detail of an oval multi-foiled dish with chinoiserie motifs, tortoiseshell with gold and mother-of-pearl piqué work (circa 1740) by Giuseppe Sarao (circa 1710-circa 1775) of Naples, once owned by Baron Henri de Rothschild (1872-1947).

The noun carapace (upper shell of a turtle or tortoise; shell of an insect, crustacean etc) date from 1836 and was from the eighteenth century French carapace (tortoise shell), from the Spanish carapacho or Portuguese carapaça, both of uncertain origin but may be related to the Latin capa (cape).  The noun turtle (tortoise) emerged circa 1600, originally in the form "marine tortoise" from the thirteenth century French tortue & tortre (turtle, tortoise) of unknown origin. Etymologists suspect the English turtle may be a sailors' mauling of the French and it was later extended to land tortoises, the sea-turtle noted since the 1610s.

Lindsay Lohan in tortoiseshell-frame sunglasses, Los Angeles. 2012.

The use of the common terms turtle, tortoise, and terrapin vary by geography.  In North America, turtle tends to be the general term while tortoise is used only in reference to terrestrial turtles or those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises.  Terrapin is applied usually to turtles that are small and live in fresh and brackish water.  Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, turtle is used generally of the aquatic while tortoise is applied to land-dwelling members of the order Testudines (regardless of whether they are actually members of the family Testudinidae).  One antipodean linguistic anomaly is that although land tortoises are not native to Australia, freshwater turtles traditionally have been called tortoises.  Non specialists often use tortoise and turtle interchangeably and although the most commonly accepted distinction is that tortoises are terrestrial (land-dwelling) and turtles aquatic, it’s not a zoological rule because the box turtle is primarily terrestrial and confusingly, is also called the box tortoise.  One helpful physical indication is that aquatic turtles (like snapping turtles) have webbed feet or flippers whereas turtles known as tortoises typically have stubby, round feet, and their shells are often more domed.

A sea turtle showing its classic tortoiseshell pattern & coloring.

Tortoises are studied by herpetologists, a field which encompasses reptiles and amphibians, the word from the Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν (herpetón) (creeping animal, reptile, especially a snake) +‎ -ologist.  The relatively rare suffix -ologist is the alternative spelling of -logist (one who studies a subject), the construct being -logy (study of) +‎ -ist (the agent suffix).  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).

In the style of late mid-century modern, a serving tray (circa 1970) by Guzzini of Italy, the platter of acrylic & acrylic glass with brass handles.  The use of the tortoiseshell motif on a large flat surface illustrates the possibilities offered by synthetics.  Such things can now be 3D-printed.

The oldest known reference to tortoise shell (also tortoise-shell & tortoiseshell) as a pattern of markings is from 1782 although for decorative purposes it had been prized for centuries.  The material is made from the shell of the larger species of turtles & tortoises and the attractive and unusual combinations of colors and patterning has seen the name tortoiseshell attached to some species, most famously the breed of domestic cat and several butterflies.  The attractiveness of the mottled material, its durability and even the pleasingly natural touch made tortoiseshell a popular material with consumers and it was famously used in inlays by French craftsman André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) who lent his name to the distinctive style.  As a natural product, the some variations in style and color were especially valued and it was one of those commodities men sometimes killed to obtain.  Such was the demand that some species of sea turtles became threatened although trade in the substance, first restricted by treaty under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) process, wasn’t wholly banned until early in the twenty-first century.  The appearance of the natural tortoiseshell is now emulated in a variety of synthetic materials including cellulose acetate and various thermoplastics.

Tortoiseshell kitten.

Despite the way the name is often used, there is no distinct breed of cat called tortoiseshell, the coloring caused by the normal operation of genetics.  The variations are induced by x-linked genes, the process called mosaic expression under which only one x-linked gene for hair color is expressed in each cell, resulting in the mix coloring which is determined by which gene is left “on” in each cell.  In a model familiar in mammals, a female cat has two X chromosomes in each cell (XX) while males have one X and one Y (XY).  In cats, the X chromosome includes much information (genes) including the instructions which determine the color of the coat and female cats, being XX, have two sets of genes for coat color in each cell.  In tortoiseshell cats, these instructions don’t match because there’s one gene for orange one for black fur and during the earliest stages of an embryonic kitten, one X chromosome in every single cell deactivates in a process called lyonization and because the process is entirely random, skin cells retain the instruction for orange fur while others remain coded for black, thus the tortoiseshell pattern.  As a further evolutionary quirk, because the colors are linked to the X chromosome, almost all tortoiseshell cats are female.

Ultra

Ultra (pronounced uhl-truh)

(1) The highest point; acme; the most intense degree of a quality or state; the extreme or perfect point or state.

(2) Going beyond what is usual or ordinary; excessive; extreme.

(3) An extremist, as in politics, religion, sporting team supporters, fashion etc, used semi-formally on many occasions in history.

(4) In the history of military espionage, the British code name for intelligence gathered by decrypting German communications enciphered on the Enigma machine during World War II (initial capital letter).

1690–1700: A New Latin adverb and preposition ultrā (uls (beyond) + -ter (the suffix used to form adverbs from adjectives) + -ā (suffixed to the roots of verbs)).  The prefix ultra- was a word-forming element denoting "beyond" (eg ultrasonic) or "extremely" (ultralight (as used in aviation)) and was in common use from the early nineteenth century, the popularity of use apparently triggered by the frequency with which it was used of political groupings in France.  As a stand-alone word (in the sense now used of the most rabid followers of Italian football teams) meaning "extremist", it dates from 1817 as a shortening of ultra-royaliste (extreme royalist (which at the time was a thing))."  The independent use of ultra (or shortening of words prefixed with it) may also have been influenced by nē plūs ultrā (may you) not (go) further beyond (this point), said to be a warning to sailors inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar.  This legend comes not from Greek mythology but dates from the resurrection of interest in antiquity which began during the Renaissance, influenced by Plato having said the lost city of Atlantis “lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules” and the most useful translations of nē plūs ultrā probably something like "go no further, nothing lies beyond here".

As a prefix, ultra- has been widely appended.  The construct of ultra vires (literally "beyond powers") was ultra (beyond) + vires (strength, force, vigor, power) and is quoted usually by courts and tribunals to describe their jurisdictional limits, something ultra vires understood as "beyond the legal or constitutional power of a court".  In political science, the term ultranationalism was first used in 1845, a trend which has ebbed & flowed but certainly hasn't died.  The speed of light being what it is, ultralight refer not to optics but to very small (often home-built or constructed from a kit) aircraft, the term first used in 1979 although it was (briefly) used in experimental physics in the late 1950s.  Ultrasound in its current understanding as a detection & diagnostic technique in medicine dates from 1958 but it had been used in 1911 to mean "sound beyond the range of human hearing", this sense later replaced by ultrasonic (having frequency beyond the audible range) in 1923, used first of radio transmission; the applied technology ultrasongraphy debuted in 1960.  Ultraviolet (beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum) was first identified in 1840 and in 1870 ultra-red was coined to describe what is now known as infra-red.  First identified in the 1590s, ultramarine (blue pigment made from lapis lazuli) was from the Medieval Latin ultramarinus ("beyond the sea"), the construct being ultra +  marinus (of the sea) from mare (sea, the sea, seawater), from the primitive Indo-European root mori- (body of water), the name said to be derived from the mineral arriving by ship from mines in Asia.  Ultramontane has a varied history and was first used in the 1590s.  It was from the Middle French ultramontain (beyond the mountains (especially the Alps)), from the early fourteenth century Old French, the construct being ultra + the stem of mons (hill), from the primitive Indo-European root men- (to project) and was used particularly of papal authority, though the precise meaning bounced around depending on context.  The acronym UHF (ultra-high frequency) was coined in 1937 although the technology using radio frequencies in the range of 300-3000 megahertz (Mhz) became available in 1932.  Other forms (ultramodern, ultra-blonde et al) are coined as required and survive or fall from use in the usual way English evolves.

The Ultras

The prefix ultra- occurred originally in loanwords from Latin, meaning essentially “on the far side of, beyond.”  In relation to the base to which it is prefixed, ultra- has the senses “located beyond, on the far side of” (eg ultraviolet), “carrying to the furthest degree possible, on the fringe of” (eg ultramodern) or “extremely” (eg ultralight); nouns to which it is added denote, in general, objects, properties, phenomena etc that surpass customary norms, or instruments designed to produce or deal with such things (eg ultrasound).  The more recent use as a noun (usually in the collective as “the ultras”) applied to members of an extreme faction dates from early nineteenth-century English parliamentary politics and is associated also with the most extreme supporters of certain Italian football (soccer) teams.

Although never formally a faction in the modern sense of the word, the ultra Tories (the ultras) operated from 1827 (some political scientists insists the aggregation coalesced only in 1828) as a formal as a loose and unstructured grouping of politicians, intellectuals, and journalists who constituted, in embryonic form, the “extreme right wing” of British and Irish politics.  Essentially reactionary conservatives unhappy with changes associated with the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution and urbanization, they regarded the 1689 protestant constitution as the unchangeable basis of British social, economic and political life and treated all their opponents with a rare obsessional hatred.  In another echo of recent right-wing politics, the ultras showed some scepticism of economic liberalism and supported measures designed to ameliorate the hardships suffered by the poor during the early industrial age.  Like a number of modern, nominally right-wing populist movements, the ultras were suspicious of “free trade” and the destructive consequences these policies had on industries vulnerable to competition from foreign producers.

Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) by Francisco Goya (1746–1828), circa 1812–14, oil on mahogany panel, National Gallery, London.

The previously inchoate ultras coalesced into a recognizable force in the period of instability which followed the death in 1827 of a long-serving prime-minister.  Their first flexing of political muscle, which proved unsuccessful, was an attempt to deny the premiership to a supporter of Catholic emancipation but the ultras emerged as a powerful influence in Tory politics although many claimed to belong to the Whig tradition.  Their annus mirabilis (a remarkable or auspicious year) came in 1830 when the ultras brought down the Duke of Wellington’s government (1828-1830) but the need for reform was unstoppable and while the label was for decades to be applied to the far-right of the Conservative Party, the latter iterations never matched the political ferocity of the early adherents.

Ultra Blonde product.

Although there are packaged products labeled as such and the phrase "ultra-blonde" is far from uncommon, there's no precise definition of such a thing and while some blondes are blonder than others, on the spectrum, there is a point at which going further means the color ceases to anymore to be blonde and becomes some shade which tends to grey, white or the dreaded yellow.  For that reason, some hairdressers prefer to describe platinum as a stand-alone color rather than the usual "platinum blonde", noting that the end result will anyway usually to some degree differ, depending on the shade and physiology of the hair to be treated.  They also caution the idea of ultra blonde isn't suitable for everyone and base their recommendations of whether a client's skin is warm or cool toned, the practical test being to assess the veins visible in the wrist; if they're mostly blue and purple (source of the word "blue-blooded" which was based on the notion of those with obviously blue veins being rich enough not to have to work in the fields), then the undertone is cool, if mostly green then it's warm and if a mix of both, the undertone is neutral.

Lindsay Lohan had an ultra-blonde phase but for her Playboy photo shoot in 2012, wore a blonde wig; many would call this "ultra blonde" but to a professional hairdresser it's a "pale".

The undertone interacts with skin tone, paler, pinky skin tones suit cool, delicate blondes like ash, beige or baby-blonde whereas darker or more golden-toned skins suit honey hues described often as butter, golden or caramel.  For perfectionists, there's also eye color to consider and here the trick is to achieve the desired degree of contrast; soft, multi-tonal shades better complementing lighter colours whereas deeper, richer blondes flatter the darker eye.  Those especially obsessive can use non-optically corrective contact lens, eye color often easier to change than hair.  So, while hairdressers think of ultra blonde as shifting concept rather than a specific color, most agree (whatever the sometimes extraordinary proliferation of imaginatively named products on manufacturers' color charts), there are essentially four stages of blondness and they’re usually described as something like: medium, light, pale & platinum.  In each of those categories, it's possible to be an "ultra" though hairdressers will readily admit their technical distinctions resonate little with customers whose expectation of "ultra" is simply the limit of what's physically possible.

Boulle

Boulle (pronounced bool)

(1) In woodworking, furniture design, cabinet making and bibelots, denoting or relating to a type of marquetry of patterned inlays of brass and tortoiseshell (and occasionally other metals such as pewter or silver), widely used in French (and later Italian) furniture from the late-seventeenth century.

(2) Something ornamented with such marquetry; furniture having ornamentation of this kind.

Circa 1680s: Named after André Charles Boulle (1642–1732), the French cabinet-maker much associated with the style although Boulle was noted also for his work in the intarsia (an Italian form of decorative wood inlaying (and (in knitting) a design resembling a mosaic)) of wood.  The alternative spellings are buhl and the less common boule; Boulle (and buhl) are the common short forms for the product (often with an initial capital letter) but among historians of furniture, antique dealers et al, boullework, boulle work & boulle-work are all used as descriptors.  Boulle is a noun & proper noun and an adjective, the verb form usually spelled bouled; the noun plural is boulles.

Armoire (circa 1700) by André-Charles Boulle, Royal Collection Trust, London.

Variation of the type of marquetry which came to be known as boulle work had been around for centuries before it was brought to an extraordinary standard fineness and intricracy by French cabinetmaker André Charles Boulle (1642–1732).  His most memorable creations were veneered furniture with tortoiseshell inlaid primarily with brass, pewter and silver, his elaborate designs often incorporating arabesques.  The large pieces by Boulle and his imitators are a staple of museums and the high-end of antique market but the technique was used also on countless bibelots.  Those personally crafted by Boulle are the most prized but because (1) the sheer volume of the eighteenth and nineteenth century imitations and (2) Boulle not signing or imposing some verifiable marking, it can at the margins be difficult definitively authenticate the works.  For this reason, the sign “attributed to André-Charles Boulle” is often seen in museum collections and is not unknown in antique shops.

Pair of oak cabinets by Pierre Garnier (circa 1726-1806) a Master Ébéniste, veneered with ebony and boulle marquetry in brass, pewter and tortoiseshell, representing a later neoclassical rendering of the Boulle technique, Royal Collection Trust, London.

Boulle was appointed furniture-maker, gilder and sculptor to Louis XIV (1638–1715; le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), King of France 1643-1715) and his work adorned the palaces and other royal places of the L'Ancien Régime but most of the furniture in the Royal Collection made by, or attributed to, Boulle was later acquired by George IV (1762–1830; King of the UK 1820-1830).  A Francophile and noted for the extravagance of his tastes, the king had been furnishing the royal palaces with French furniture since the 1780s and this habit he was able to indulge more and more after the French Revolution (1789) because, for a variety of reasons, in the aftermath of that and during the Napoleonic years, much more fine French furniture came onto the market, much of it shipped to England.

A boulle tortoise shell inkwell with brass inlays, circa 1870.

Marquetry is the use of small pieces of different materials (including burl timber, tortoiseshell, pewter, silver, brass, horn, mother-of-pearl) to create elaborate designs inlaid upon furniture.  So skilled was Boulle at pictorial marquetry he became known as a “painter in wood” but it was his use of tortoiseshell and brass that made his reputation and established him as a favourite of royalty and the nobility.  Pewter or brass inlay on tortoiseshell was known as premier-partie, while tortoiseshell inlay on brass or pewter was contre-partie but the most sumptuous pieces included mother-of-pearl, stained horn and dyed tortoiseshell.

Exuberant

Exuberant (pronounced ig-zoo-ber-uh nt)

(1) Of people (and sometimes applied to animals), very high-spirited; effusively and almost uninhibitedly enthusiastic energetic and enthusiastic; extremely joyful and vigorous.

(2) In literary use, of things that grow, abundant, luxuriant, profuse.

(3) In medicine, profuse in growth or production.

1425-1475:  From the late Middle English, from the Middle French exubérant, from the Latin exūberantem (nominative exūberāns), (overabundance; superfluous; extraordinary),  the present active participle of exūberō (be abundant) snd present participle of exūberāre (be abundant, grow luxuriously).  The construct was ex- (out (though here probably in the special sense of "thoroughly)) + ūberāre (be fruitful) which was related to ūber (udder or fertile), from the primitive Indo-European root eue-dh-r-, the original idea being the image of a cow or she-goat which was producing so much milk it naturally dripped or sprayed from the udder.  From the 1510s it was used to mean "growing luxuriantly, and within decades it picked up the idea of describing "an overflowing", a borrowing from the contemporary French exubérance, from the Late Latin exuberantia (superabundance) the abstract noun from exuberare, this extending to the figurative sense of "affections, joyous emotions etc by the mid-seventeenth century (the noun euberancy noted since the 1610s).  Exuberant is a adjective and, exuberance and (the archaic) exuberancy are nouns, exuberating is a verb and exuberantly an adverb; the noun plural is exuberances

Fedspeak, Alan Greenspan and irrational exuberance

Dr Alan Greenspan (b 1926) between 1987-2006 served five terms as chairman of the US Federal Reserve (the US central bank), remarkably, under four presidents from both parties.  Among the Fed’s chairs, he remains the best remembered exponent of a specific fork of officialise: Fedspeak, the jargon-laced technique of expression described by economist Alan Blinder (b 1945) as "a turgid dialect of English" used by Fed chairs to make wordy and vague statements which, while reassuring, are designed not to encourage financial market traders to over-react; some labelled it “constructive ambiguity”.  The coinage is a nod to Newspeak in George Orwell’s (1903-1950) dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the invented language of a totalitarian state constructed around a simplified grammar with a closed vocabulary set suitable for expressing only the ideas and concepts of the regime.

Blowing smoke.  Fed chairman Paul Volcker appearing before a congressional committee in 1986, a time one could smoke a cigar at such events.

Previous Fed chairs were well-aware those in financial markets attributed great value to statements from the governors and that could lead to some self-fulfilling prophecies.  To try to prevent this, in their public statements, governors adopted Fedspeak to deliver ambiguous and cautious statements, purposefully to obscure and detract meaning from the statement, Greenspan describing Fed-speak as learning “…to mumble with great incoherence.”  He may have been thinking of the (possibly apocryphal) remark by one pope: “When one is infallible, one has to be careful what one says”.  Once, when a US senator told Greenspan he understood what he’d just said, the chairman replied “Then I must have misspoken" and was delighted when different organs of the financial press reported his speeches using headlines with diametrically different meanings.  There’s always been the suspicion the style emanating from the Fed was intended also to deflect the attention of politicians, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) sometimes complained about the jargon-laden text issued by Arthur Burns (1904–1987; Fed chairman 1970-1978) and the formidable Paul Volcker (1927–2019; Fed chairman 1979-1987) was known to adopt Fedspeak to bat away unwelcome congressional enquiries although he was noted also for plain-speaking about inflation, the money supply and growing structural imbalances in the US economy, forcefully making his views known even to presidents.  In 1987, Ronald Reagan declined to offer Volker another term; perhaps the chairman should have used more Fedspeak.

It’s something of an irony that Greenspan’s best remembered phrase, "irrational exuberance", is really not Fed-speak although the two words were part of a long, complex speech, much of which certainly belongs to the genre.

Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning assets.  We can see that in the inverse relationship exhibited by price/earnings ratios and the rate of inflation in the past.  But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?  (Tokyo, 5 December 1996).

Rationally exuberance: Lindsay Lohan collecting an award, 2005 MTV Movie Awards, Los Angeles June, 2005.

Immediately after the speech, the local market unexpectedly dropped 3%, exchanges around the world following the Nikkei’s lead.  The reaction however was short-lived and a major slump didn’t happen for another three years, the biggest dip on the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) composite, the tech-heavy board listing many of the stocks Greenspan thought priced at levels induced by irrational exuberance.   It was only in retrospect the phrase became well-remembered and part of colloquial speech.  Given the history of Fedspeak, "Greenspeak" briefly gained currency but never caught on, presumably because “green” was so vested with connotations in its usual (modern) context and thus easily and erroneously associated with concepts such as “greenwash” & "green-sheen".  Indeed, although Greta Thunberg (b 2003; Swedish weather forecaster) in her critique of COP26 (The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Glasgow, October-November 2021) provided "blah, blah, blah" as a memorable sound-bite, "greenwash" remains the preferred (dismissive) term with which to refer to any superficial or insincere display of concern for the environment, especially one issued by individuals or institutions whose activities remained environmentally destructive.  Constructions like "Greenspanspeak", "Greenspannian", "Greenspanistic" or "Greenspanesque" all just too much of a mouthful, Fedspeak had to do.

All the chairman’s men: Dr Greenspan and his presidents

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989).

George HW Bush (George XLI, 1924-2018; US president 1989-1993).

Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1992-2001).

George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009).

Since the Greenspan epoch, the meaning has shifted, Fedspeak now very much in the tradition of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's (1832-1898) Alice Through the Looking-Glass (the 1871 sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)) which are two of the most marvelous books ever written

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

The governors claim post-Greenspan Fedspeak is an exercise in imparting meaning in simple, plain-English with no (intended) attempt to obfuscate.

Anhedonia

Anhedonia (pronounced an-hee-doh-nee-uh)

In psychiatry, the lack of desire for or the capacity to experience pleasure.

1896: From the French anhédonie (an inability to feel pleasure (and an antonym of analgesia)), the construct being the Ancient Greek ἀν (an) (in grammar, the privative prefix, indicating negation or absence) + ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) (pleasure) + -ia (the abstract noun ending).  Hēdonḗ’s better known gift to the language was hedonist (one who seeks pleasure).  The an- prefix was an alternative form of on-, from the Middle English an-, from the Old English an- & on- (on-), from the Proto-Germanic ana- (on).   It was used to create words having the sense opposite to the word (or stem) to which the prefix is attached; it was used with stems beginning either with vowels or "h".  The word was coined in either 1896 or 1987 by French psychologist Professor Théodule-Armand Ribot (1839-1916).  Anhedonia is a noun and anhedonic is an adjective; the noun plural is anhedonias.  Unexpectedly, given the profession's propensity to intricate categorization, anhedonism seems not to exist.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The term anhedonia encompasses a range symptoms related to a reduction in desire for or ability to experience pleasure.  It is a generalized condition which is diagnosed only in those where the experience is universal and does not apply to those with aversion to specific activities, this something (usually) considered healthy and not unusual.  The original model in clinical psychiatry was limited to an inability to experience pleasure but this was later extended to a reduction in motivation even to seek experiences which most would find pleasurable.  The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR (2022)) defines anhedonia as a “lack of enjoyment from, engagement in, or energy for life’s experiences; deficits in the capacity to feel pleasure and take interest in things”.  In modern practice, clinicians distinguish between anticipatory and consummatory anhedonia.  Anticipatory pleasure involves the prediction of pleasure from future reward and the experience of pleasure associated with a positive prediction while consummatory pleasure involves the reward that is the actual moment of experience.  Thus, anticipatory anhedonia is reflects an inability to predict the future experience of pleasure as well as lower motivation to take action toward achieving pleasure and consummatory anhedonia is the lack of pleasure in what’s experienced (ie synonymous with the original definition of anhedonia).

Specific instances usually are not of necessity anhedonic (although an inability to derive any enjoyment from listening to country & western music seems indicative of little more than good taste).  The exception to this seems to be the range of activities clinicians have on their “suspect categories” list including things like sex and human friendship and this view may reflect the long shadow Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) has cast over the profession.  Although in both Western theology and philosophy there's a discernible tradition of what verges on an insistence that humans are social creatures and that interaction with others should be both sought and enjoyed, Freud raised the bar by suggesting every form of sexual behavior among humans was "natural" (though some might be neither lawful or desirable) except the absence of such interest.       

Anhedonia accompanies a range of neuropsychiatric conditions and is frequently associated with depression although it’s not an essential component.  Clinically, anhedonia needs to be suffered as a generalised condition, not as the common phenomenon of losing interest in something specific, something a normal part of the human condition.  There are no specific treatments for anhedonia and there are some dissident psychiatrists and psychologists who suggest this is a tacit admission it may be a normal part of the spectrum of human behaviour.  It is commonly treated alongside the condition of which it’s a part including depression, bipolar disorder (the old manic depression), schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the various anxiety disorders.  This association with schizophrenia is striking, the medical orthodoxy being that up to 80% of those with schizophrenia may experience anhedonia and because it’s classified as a negative symptom (indicative of the absence of something that occurs in most healthy individuals), it’s considered more difficult to treat.

Harmonic

Harmonic (pronounced hahr-mon-ik)

(1) In music, pertaining to harmony, as distinguished from melody and rhythm.  A harmonic is a periodic motion, the frequency of which is a whole-number multiple of some fundamental frequency. The motion of objects or substances that vibrate or oscillate in a regular fashion, such as the strings of musical instruments, can be analyzed as a combination of a fundamental frequency and higher harmonics.  Harmonics above the first harmonic (the fundamental frequency) in sound waves are called overtones. The first overtone is the second harmonic, the second overtone is the third harmonic, and so on.

(2) In music, marked by harmony; in harmony; concordant; consonant; pleasant to hear; harmonious; melodious.

(3) In music, the place where, on a bowed string instrument, a note in the harmonic series of a particular string can be played without the fundamental present.

(4) In physics, of, relating to, or noting a series of oscillations in which each oscillation has a frequency that is an integral multiple of the same basic frequency.

(5) In mathematics (1) (of a set of values), related in a manner analogous to the frequencies of tones that are consonant, (2) capable of being represented by sine and cosine functions and (3) (of a function) satisfying the Laplace equation; used to characterize various mathematical entities or relationships supposed to bear some resemblance to musical consonance; the harmonic polar line of an inflection point of a cubic curve is the component of the polar conic other than the tangent line.

(6) In Australianist linguistics, a technical term, of or relating to a generation an even number of generations distant from a particular person.

(7) In phonology, exhibiting or applying constraints on what vowels (eg front/back vowels only) may be found near each other and sometimes in the entire word.

(8) In many contexts, something recurring periodically

(9) In the slang of CB radio, one's child.

1560–1570: From the Latin harmonicus (relating to harmony) from the Ancient Greek ἁρμονικός (harmonikós) (harmonic, musical, skilled in music), from ἁρμονία (harmonía & harmonie).  From the 1660s it acquired the meaning "tuneful, harmonious; relating to harmony", synonymous with the earlier (circa 1500) armonical (tuneful, harmonious), the noun, short for harmonic tone, dating from 1777.  Harmony was first attested in 1602 and was from the Middle English armonye, from Old French harmonie & armonie, from the Latin harmonia, from the Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía) (joint, union, agreement, concord of sounds).  Related forms are the adverb harmonically and the unfortunate noun harmonicalness.  The old alternative spelling, harmonick, although still in use in the nineteenth century, is wholly obsolete.  Harmonic is a noun & adjective, harmonica & harmonicist are nouns and harmonically is an adverb; the noun plural is harmonics.

Harmonica was coined in 1762 by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) as the name for a glass harmonica, from the feminine of the Latin harmonicus.  The use to describe a "reeded mouth organ" is a creation of American English from 1873, displacing the earlier (1825) harmonicon.  The adjective enharmonic (referencing Greek music) is from the Late Latin enharmonicus, from the Ancient Greek enharmonikos, the construct being en- (the intensive prefix) + harmonikos.  From 1794 it picked up a technical use in music criticism to refer to reference to a modern music note that can be indicated in different ways (G sharp/A flat).  The adjective philharmonic (loving harmony or music) was invented in 1813 as the name of a London society founded for the purpose of promoting instrumental music and was from the 1739 French philharmonique, from the Italian filarmonico (literally "loving harmony") the construct being the Ancient Greek philos (loving) + harmonika (theory of harmony, music) from the neuter plural of harmonikos.  Over the centuries, the word philharmonic was adopted by many symphony orchestras and organisations devoted to fine music.

Engine harmony

Harmonic balancers are circular devices, made of rubber and metal, attached to the front-end of the crankshafts of internal combustion engines to help absorb vibrations.  During the combustion process, each piston is forced down the cylinder as a result of a pressure rise (induced by the explosion of the fuel-air mix) within the combustion chamber, the stroke imparting a sudden rotational force to the crankshaft which, although (hopefully) stiff and robust, is not perfectly rigid.  During these events, which happen thousands of times per minute, the crankshaft (in a process called torsional vibration) will twist slightly in response to each application of pressure which can be several tons.  The force of the combustion process causes the crankshaft slightly to deflect in the direction of the force and when that force ceases, the crankshaft springs back.  At certain frequencies the crank can resonate, worsening the vibration.  The harmonic balancer is the dampener which absorbs these forces.

ATI Performance part number 917562 (Super Damper, Standard Harmonic Balancer) for Ford 335 series (370/429/460/514 cubic inch V8).

The name harmonic balancer can be misleading in that most do not balance an engine, rather they absorb and remove unwanted vibration due to torsional twisting of the crankshaft and are thus vibration dampeners which is why some engineers prefer to call them dampeners.  In some engines though, a harmonic balancer can be part of the engine balancing strategy with weights added to the balancer to offset the weight of the pistons and conrods.  This is called external balancing, whereas internal balancing refers to the weight distribution of the crankshaft.

eHarmony

In 2009, a video surfaced of Lindsay Lohan which appeared to be a profile piece for the on-line dating site eHarmony.  Unfortunately, it was a spoof video for the site FunnyorDie.com but delivered with her usual comedic sense, the script included the lines:

Hi. I'm Lindsay and I'm recently single... I think... and I’m looking for someone with whom I can spend the rest of my life with, or at least the rest of my probation.

I’m an actress, a singer, an entrepreneur, and I have single-handedly kept 90 per cent of all gossip web sites in business.

I’m a workaholic, a shopaholic and, according to the state of California, an alcoholic, as well as a threat to all security guards if they work at hotels.  And to put all those rumors to rest, I am not broke.  I actually have over $400 in the bank and 20,000 Marlboro Miles, which I’m very proud of.

I'm looking for a compatible mate who likes a night out on the town (as long as he or she is driving), ankle monitoring bracelets and doesn’t have family members quick to issue restraining orders.

My dream date likes long walks on the beach, car chases on the Pacific Coast Highway, antiquing and passing out in Cadillac Escalades.

So, if you think you can handle a redhead with a little bit of sass, and by that I mean a redhead that’s crazy, we’ll crash a few parties, a car or two, but at the end of the day, I promise you I never lose my Google hits … just my underwear.