Coronet

Coronet (pronounced kawr-uh-nit, kawr-uh-net, kor-uh-nit, or kor-un-net)

(1) A small crown.

(2) A crown worn by nobles or peers (as distinct from those worn by sovereigns).

(3) A crown-like ornament for the head, as of gold or jewels.

(4) An ornament, tending to the pedimental in form, situated over a door or window.

(5) The lowest part of the pastern of a horse or other hoofed animal, just above the hoof.

(6) In heraldry, a crown-like support for a crest, used in place of a torse; also called crest coronet.

(7) The margin between the skin of a horse's pastern and the horn of the hoof.

(8) The knob at the base of a deer's antler.

(9) The traditional lowest regular commissioned officer rank in the cavalry (the equivalent of an ensign in the infantry or navy).

(10) Any of several hummingbirds in the genus Boissonneaua.

(11) A species of moth, Craniophora ligustri.

1350–1400: From the Middle English crownet & corounet, from the Middle French couronnette, from the Old French coronete (little crown) a diminutive of corone (crown) from the Latin corona (third-person singular present active subjunctive of corōnō) (crown), from the Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē) (garland, wreath; a type of crown; a type of sea-bird, perhaps shearwater; a crow; anything curved or hooked (like a door handle or the tip of a bow).  Related in form, if not always function are diadem, wreath, crown, chaplet, circle, tiara, headdress, headband & anadem (a headband, particularly a garland of flowers).  Coronet is a noun; the noun plural is coronets.

Lindsay Lohan in coronet: Mean Girls (2004).

Crowns and coronet are both types of headgear worn as symbols of authority but there are technical differences between the two.  The crown is the traditional symbolic headpiece worn by a monarch and (in some cases) certain other members of royal families.  Fabricated usually from precious metals and adorned with jewels, crowns are by convention taller and more ornate than coronets but this is not an absolute rule and the symbolism of a crown as something representing sovereign power and regal authority doesn’t rely on its size.  Despite that, coronets tend to be smaller, less elaborate versions of crowns and they’re worn by members of the nobility who do not hold the rank of monarch and the consort of a monarch.  According to authoritative English sources, the general specification for a coronet dictates a small crown of ornaments  fixed on a metal ring and, as a general principle, a coronet has no arches and unlike a tiara, it wholly encircles the head.  Helpful as that may be, coronets in the wild are obviously rare (although that depends on the circles in which one moves) but commonly see as rank symbols in heraldry, adorning a coat of arms.  More opportunistically, they’re a popular symbol used in commerce.

Coronets of the United Kingdom.

In the UK, a country where there are more coronets than most, those worn by members of the House of Lords are of a defined designed according to the notch on the peerage one inhabits but surprisingly, they’re worn only for royal coronations so the 2023 event will be their first appearance en masse since 1953.  Outside of royalty, they were once exclusive to dukes but the right was granted to marquesses in the fifteenth century, to earls in the fifteenth, to viscounts (of which there are surprisingly few) in the sixteenth and barons in the seventeenth.  Coronets may not bear any precious or semi-precious stones.

1959 Dodge Silver Challenger

Chrysler’s Dodge division used the Coronet nameplate in a way typical of Detroit’s mid-century practices.  Between 1949-1959 it was a full-sized Dodge, beginning as a top-of-the-range trim before in 1955 being shifted downwards, seeing out its first iteration as an entry-level model.  One mostly forgotten footnote of the first Coronets is the 1959 range saw the first use of the Challenger name.  In 1959 the Coronet-based Challenger was an early example of a model bundled with a number of usually optional accessories and sold at an attractive discount.  The concept would become popular and the Challenger name would later be twice revived for more illustrious careers as pony cars (although the first attempt (1969-1974) was a financial disaster, the cars now much sought-after which, in their most desired configurations trade in the collector community well into six figures with the odd sale above US$1 million).

1979 Dodge Challenger (a "badge-engineered" Mitsubishi).

Although the Mopar crew don't much dwell on the matter, between 1978-1983, Dodge applied the Challenger name to a "captive import" (the then current term describing an overseas-built vehicle sold under the name of domestic manufacturer through its dealer network), a Mitsubishi coupé sold in other markets variously as the Sapporo, Lambda and Scorpion.  Although somewhat porcine (until a mid-life facelift tightened things up), it was popular in many places but never achieved the same level of success in the US (where Plymouth also sold it as the Sapporo), even though that was where the "personal coupé" had become a very lucrative market segment.   

1969 Dodge Hemi Coronet.  By 1969 the writing was on the wall for engines like the Hemi and just 97 Coronet hardtops and 10 convertibles were built.  In 1970, when the last two-door Coronets were made, production had dropped to 13 hardtops and a solitary convertible.

The Coronet’s second run was as an intermediate between 1965–1976 and it’s the 1968-1970 models which are best remembered, based on the corporate B-body platform shared with the Plymouth Belvedere and Dodge Charger.  Plymouth gained great success with their take on the low-cost, high-performance intermediate when they released the Road Runner, a machine stripped of just about all but the most essential items except for its high performance engines, including the 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) HEMI V8.  It was a big hit, the sales wildly exceeding projections and it encouraged Dodge to emulate the approach with the Coronet Super Bee although for whatever reason, it didn’t capture the imagination as had the Road Runner and in the three seasons both were available, sold less than a third of its corporate stablemate.

1967 Dodge “Road Runner” advertisement.

Curiously though, Dodge may have missed what proved to be the priceless benefit of using the Road Runner name, in 1967 running advertisements for the Coronet R/T (“Road & Track” although “street & strip” would have been closer to the truth), which used the words “Road” & “Runner” although spaced as far apart as perhaps the lawyers advised would be sufficiently distant to avoid threats of litigation.  Plymouth solved that problem by legitimization, paying Warner Brothers US$50,000 for the Road Runner name and the imagery of the Wile E Coyote and Road Runner cartoon depictions, spending a reputed (though unverified) additional US$10,000 for the distinctive "beep, beep" horn sound, the engineering apparently as simple as replacing the aluminium strands in the mechanism with copper windings.

Donald Trump admiring the coronet worn by Miss USA Kristen Dalton (b 1986), Miss USA 2009 Pageant, Las Vegas, Nevada.  Although the beauty contest business called them crowns or cornets, most, like that worn by Ms Dalton were technically tiaras.

Consortium

Consortium (pronounced or kuhn-sawr-tee-uhm or kuhn-sawr-shee-uhm)

(1) A combination of financial institutions etc, for carrying into effect some financial operation requiring large resources of capital.

(2) Any association, partnership, or union.

(3) In law, the legal right of partners in a marriage to companionship and conjugal intercourse with each other.

(4) In biology, two or more microbial groups living symbiotically; they can be endosymbiotic or ectosymbiotic.

1820–1830: From the Classical Latin consortium (partnership; association; society), derived from consortis & consors (partner), the construct being con- + -sors- + -ium.  Con is from the preposition cum (with; together) +‎ sors (lot; fate) from the Proto-Italic sortis, from Proto-Indo-European ser- (to bind) + -ium, the neuter singular morphological suffix from the Latin –um, based on Latin terms for metals such as ferrum (iron).  It was cognate with serō, seriēs and sermō.  Words (often imprecisely) used as synonyms include conference, group, society, club, company, union, organization, merger, wedding, patent, trust, cartel, holding, ownership, body, league, federation, business, institute & corporation.  Consortium is a noun and consortial an adjective; the noun-plural is either consortia or consortiums (the latter more common in English-speaking countries).  

Although it has technical meanings in law and science, in general use consortium has evolved to apply particularly to aggregations of corporations or individuals for purposes of some commerce.  It can however be used as a generic to apply to any partnership or union although such use has become increasingly rare as the mercantile association tends to dominate.  Other descriptors of aggregations are nuanced (such as federation vis-à-vis confederation) but consortium is an absolute; at law either it is or is not although from the outside, it can be hard to tell.

Consortia or consortiums?

In English there are neither rules nor even established conventions which decide whether original Latin plurals or manufactured English inventions are preferred but popular use has produced several practices.  Firstly there are words where either may be used but, because the classical forms are now rare, they should probably be avoided unless there’s some compelling case for their adoption (such as historical, technical or legal writing) but, whichever is chosen, that style should consistently be applied.  Then there are words which really demand the Latin plural be properly used because (1) it’s not possible to invent a pleasing Modern English form and (2) the originals tend to be better known so incorrect use can make for a jarring read.  Those often used interchangeably as both singular and plural include criteria and phenomena, the singular forms being criterion and phenomenon.  

Finally (3), there are words which have been not merely assimilated, but been wholly absorbed to become English.  Data is now an English word which is both singular and plural for all except for pedants and a handful of nerds for whom the distinction between data (plural) and datum (singular) is important.  Agenda, which once was plural, is now so established as a singular that the classical agendum is, if not extinct, is certainly archaic and perhaps obsolete; agendas is the accepted plural.  One great advantage of preferring English plural formations is that the rules are simple.  Classical Latin has a complex system of endings in which there are five categories or declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns (some with sub-categories).  The earlier Ancient Greek had a simpler system, but one still more complicated than that of English.

When describing business structures, the terms consortium & conglomerate are often used interchangeably although technically they’re quite different.  The confusion arises because to the casual observer (certainly the customer and probably not a few shareholders), they can from the outside look the same and some regulatory systems are so opaque it can take an expert to wade through a labyrinth of trusts and registrations to work out just how some of the more elaborate structures should be described.  Famously, the South Korean 재벌(chaebols (literally “financial cartel” or “rich family” or “financial clique”)), although usually regarded as conglomerates appear in at least part of their operations to function sometimes as a consortium (or even a number of parallel consortiums) but whether such arrangements are ad hoc or a permanent convenience can be difficult to determine.  With the chaebols, it’s no easy task to determine where one state ends and another begins.

A consortium is a group of independent organizations or individuals which join forces to collaborate on a specific project or objective (which can be a one-off, a time-limited agreement or permanent). In a consortium, each member retains their independence and autonomy, but all work together towards common goals.  Typically consortiums involve technology (such as the LIM (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft) which was formed to develop specifications for EMS (Expanded Memory Specification) & XMS (Extended Memory Specification) computer RAM (random access memory)), manufacturing (such as PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) which collaborated on a V6 engine few admired)) & education (such as the G8, the eight “old” Australian universities (sort of the equivalent of the US Ivy League) which formed an ongoing alliance to try to maximize their share of the nation’s research funding).  Consortium arrangements can be formal or informal and most exist to permit projects of common interest to be completed more quickly and avoid duplications of effort.

In business, a conglomerate is a corporation composed of multiple diverse and often unrelated businesses operating in various sectors.  The typical structure is to have a holding company which holds a controlling interest in several subsidiary companies, each of which operates with at least some degree of independence and such is the nature of international tax law that each may be registered in a place different from where their commercial activities are physically transacted.  Conglomerates may be planned or can grow organically through M&A (mergers and acquisitions) or from splitting up existing structures, either for some commercial or tax advantage or if ordered by regulators.  There can be real advantages in the conglomerate model because diversification can mean the structure can withstand downturns in one sector of the economy because of participation where demand remains strong.  Classic conglomerates include General Electric (GE) with fingers in pies like energy, aviation & healthcare and Berkshire Hathaway, which controls a portfolio in industries as diverse as insurance, finance, retail & manufacturing.

Lindsay Lohan, JFK Airport, New York, December 2011.

French-based LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is a conglomerate formed in 1987 through the merger of Louis Vuitton & Moët Hennessy and as well as the eponymous names their portfolio now includes over seventy “luxury” brands including Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, and Bulgari.  LVMH technically is thus a holding company but does from time to time enter into consortium arrangements to collaborate on projects (which in some cases have become acquisitions and therefore part of the conglomerate).

Summit

Summit (pronounced suhm-it)

(1) Highest point or part, as of a hill, a line of travel, or any object; top; apex; peak, pinnacle; acme, zenith, culmination.

(2) One’s highest point of attainment or aspiration.

(3) A meeting of heads of government.

(4) In mountaineering, any point higher than surrounding points (distinguished by topographic prominence as subsummits (low prominence) or independent summits (high prominence)).

(5) In mountaineering to ascend to the peak.

1425–1475: From the Late Middle English somete, borrowed from the Middle French and drawn from the Old French sommette, diminutive of som (highest part, top of a hill).  Ultimate source was the Latin summum, the noun use of neuter of summus (highest) + -ete or -et as the suffix and it’s from here English ultimately picked-up super.  Summit is a noun & verb; subsummit & summiteers are nouns, summital & summitless are adjectives and summited & summiting are verbs; the noun plural is summits.  The nouns minisummit & presummit are creations of twentieth century diplomacy and have (not always happily) been applied adjectivally.

Summits (meetings between those in charge of tribes, groups, nations etc to discuss issues) predate civilization but the adoption of the word for this purpose is recent.  Usually summits are public but some have been secret and in the age of modern communications, they’re not the novelty once they were.  Some are famous, such as Henry IV’s (1050–1106; Holy Roman Emperor 1084-1105) Walk to Canossa in 1077 to beg the forgiveness of Pope Saint Gregory VII (circa 1015–1085; pope 1073-1085) and seek absolution of his excommunication.  Others were cynical; the notorious 1938 Munich Conference was attended by the heads of government of France, Germany, Italy and the UK.  The meaning "meeting of heads of government" is from Winston Churchill's (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) 1950 metaphor of "…a parley at the summit" and was first widely used in 1955 when the phrase “Geneva Summit” appeared on press releases, menus and the final communiqué.  The classic summits were probably the great set-piece events conducted during World War II (1939-1945) and subsequently those of the high Cold War but there have since been many summits (notably the G5, G7, G8, G20 et al) but the term has somewhat become devalued because it’s not uncommon for events not involving heads of government so to be described.  While treasurer, Paul Keating (b 1944; Prime Minister of Australia 1991-1996) once suggested “a summit” which didn’t include the prime-minister; Bob Hawke (1929–2019; Prime Minister of Australia 1983-1991) soon corrected his error.

Great power summits have over the years excited more expectations than ever they have delivered.  Noted summiteer Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) was aware of this but in his prolific post-presidential career as an author altered his rationalizations depending on the point he wished to make.  While he could write that he was "...well aware that our highly successful summit meeting in 1972 might spawn euphoric expectations among the American people... [and that] I knew knew I stood politically to benefit from such euphoria, I tried to damp it down and keep our successes in perspective", he admitted elsewhere that "...creation of a willowy euphoria is one of the dangers of summitry".  Warming to the idea of a confession (not a feeling which often overcame him), he added of the public atmosphere in 1972 that "... I must assume a substantial part of the responsibility for this.  It was election year and I wanted the political credit."  The contradictions are just part of what makes Nixon the most interesting president of the modern era.          

Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton on the infamous front page in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, 29 November 2006.  The car was a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (C199; 2003-2010).

In mountaineering, a summit is any point higher than surrounding points (distinguished by topographic prominence as subsummits (low prominence) or independent summits (high prominence)) and those who attempts to summit a peak are summiteers.  Thus when summiteers Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (1914-1986) in 1953 summited the summit of Mount Everest, they became the first people ever to stand on the highest point on Earth.  That achievement provided a fun footnote in the long list of crooked Hillary Clinton’s (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) lies (which she calls “misspeaking”), one of which was “My mother named me after Sir Edmund Hillary”.  The claim was based on her finding his climbing of Mount Everest so inspiring, thus explaining the double-l spelling of her name but the assent of the summit came a half decade after her birth.  The story was later “clarified” when a Clinton spokeswoman said she was not named after the famous mountaineer but the account “...was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add.”  Despite this, it remains unclear if crooked Hillary lied about her own name or was accusing her mother of lying.  Still, given everything else, “…at this point, what difference does it make?”

Tu quoque

Tu quoque (pronounce to-koh-cue-e)

(1) In philosophy, an appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the validity of the opponent's logical argument by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion.

(2) In international law, a justification of action based on an assertion that the act with which the accused is charged was also committed by the accusing parties.

From the Latin Tū quoque (translated literally as "thou also" and latterly as "you also"; the translation in the vernacular is something like "you did it too", thus the legal slang "youtooism" & "whataboutism". 

An example of the tu quoque fallacy in philosophy

In formal logic, tu quoque is a type of ad hominem argument in which an accused person turns an allegation back on the accuser, thus creating a logical fallacy.  It happens when for example when one charges another with hypocrisy or inconsistency in order to avoid the substantive matter.

Mother: You should stop smoking; it's bad for your health.

Daughter: Why should I listen to you? You started smoking at fourteen.

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

The daughter's tu quoque fallacy lies in dismissing or avoiding the argument because she believes her mother is being hypocritical or at least inconsistent.  While both may be true, that has nothing to do with and does not invalidate her argument.  In 2012 Lindsay Lohan tweeted a hint she had some sympathy with the tu quoque defence gambit: "Why did I get put in jail and a nickelodeon star has had NO punishment(s) so far?". 

International Military Tribunal Trial  (IMT) Trial #1, Nuremberg, 1945-1946

At law, the classic tu quoque defense is an attempt by an accused to deny the legitimacy of a charge by alleging those mounting the prosecution committed exactly the same offence and thus stand equally guilty.  An interesting variation was raised by German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891-1980), appointed head of state in Hitler's will but on trial for his role as head of the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy) between 1943-1945.  Dönitz argued he should be acquitted because the navies of other (victorious) nations had conducted their operations using exactly the same tactics with which he was charged as war crimes but what was novel was the argument that the conduct in dispute (essentially, unrestricted submarine warfare) was, as practiced by both sides, entirely lawful and within the rules of war at sea.  A great many British & US sea captains and admirals agreed (“admirals are a trade union” Anthony Eden (1897-1977; UK prime-minister 1955-1957) would later remark in another context), some of whom provided affidavits for the defense in which they provided the details of they way they had their submarine forces conduct exactly the same operations which were the basis of the charges against Dönitz.

Defendants in the dock. IMT Trial #1, Nuremberg, 1945-1946.  All were guilty of something but three were acquitted by the IMT and later tried by German courts.  Dönitz (wearing dark glasses) is sitting in the back row (far left of the photograph). 

The tribunal's aversion to a classical tu quoque being even admitted for discussion was not mere legal pedantry.  Hinted at by the prosecution declining to indict the German air force for their wartime conduct, despite pursuing the army, navy, and many other institutions of state, there was no hunger to offer defense counsel the chance to cite, inter alia, the carpet bombing (then often referred to as "area bombing") of Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities (and of course the matter of Tokyo or the later use of A-Bombs).  For the same reason, the Kremlin had no wish to have discussed the secret protocol to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact which had divided the spoils of Poland between Germany and the USSR although, because it had become known to the defense lawyers (who managed to sneak-in a mention) the curious situation came to prevail that the protocol, while not formerly admitted as a document, could be referred to but not in detail.  So, in the narrow technical sense, whether specific acts were justified in law depended (at least for the purposes of the trial) on whether or not they were part of the indictment, a position described by one twenty-first century author as “…hypocrisy permitted by Realpolitik” since the novel and vital ideas behind the creation of Nuremberg trial would have been jeopardized had the IMT cast doubt on the legitimacy of the victors’ actions, strategic or tactical.  That has been criticized but mostly by legal theorists who state, correctly “…there is no moral or legal basis for immunizing victorious nations from scrutiny… [and]… the laws of war are not a one-way street”.  In the abstract they are of course correct but the circumstances and timing of the Nuremburg trial were, and remain, unique and the matters for judgment so grotesquely horrid that it will always be a special case.

Dönitz’s defense appeared to impress the judges (though obviously not the two Russians who were under instruction from comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) to vote to have every defendant hanged).  Although convicted on counts two (crimes against peace) and three (war crimes), he received only a ten-year sentence, the shortest term of the seven imposed on those not hanged or acquitted.  Perhaps tellingly, one has to read the summary of the verdicts to work out against which of the indictment's four counts he had been convicted; it really isn't possible to work it out from the judgment and it wasn't until later it emerged it had been written by one of the judges who had voted for his acquittal.

Phreak

Phreak (pronounced freek)

(1) Illicitly to tamper with or connect to various systems using telephones (in the sense of phone phreaking.

(2) To act as a phone phreak.

1972: An altered spelling of freak, applied by and to the phone phreaks, constructed by blending the ph of phone with freak.  Phone is from the Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ) (sound).  Freak was first used circa 1560 in the sense of a "sudden change of mind or something done on a whim" and is of uncertain origin but thought probably from a dialectal word related to the Middle English frekynge (capricious behaviour; whims) and friken & frikien (briskly or nimbly to move) from the Old English frician (to leap, dance) or Middle English frek (insolent, daring) from the Old English frec (desirous, greedy, eager, bold, daring).  The ultimate root may be the Proto-Germanic frekaz & frakaz (hard, efficient, greedy, bold, audacious) in which case, it would be related to the phreak as a noun.  Related were the Old High German freh (eager) and the Old English frēcne (dangerous, daring, courageous, bold).  In linguistics, words like phreak are known as a sensational spelling and the trend continued in the post-web world from the 1990s onwards with creations such as phat and phishing.  Phreak is a noun & verb, phreaker is a noun and phreaked & phreaking are verbs; the noun plural is phreaks.

The phone phreakers

Digilog Systems Telecomputer II (315), circa 1976, a briefcase-housed acoustic coupler.

Phone phreaking was a term coined to describe the activities of the sub-culture of people who explored and exploited public telephone networks.  The term first referred to groups which, since the late 1950s, had reverse engineered the analogue system of audio tones used to route long-distance calls.  By re-creating these tones, phreaks could switch calls from the handset, allowing free calls to be made around the world; this at a time when even local calls could cost money and long distance or international calls could cost hundreds of dollars per hour.  Electronic tone generators known as blue boxes soon became available, making phreaking possible even for those without much technical knowledge.  This early aspect of phreaking effectively ended by the 1980s as most phone networks switched from acoustic tones to digital computer systems.  The phone phreaks are best remembered for their early hacks into the big mainframes of operations like NASA, the Pentagon and the CIA.  The phreaks were pleased to find a military mainframe might be in a secure facility with industrial strength air-conditioning and power supply systems with armed guards on the doors yet be connected directly to the public telephone network.

The idea of phone phreaking has survived phonetically as the phone freak-out; there are are public freak-outs and private freak-outs.

Eschew

Eschew (pronounced es-choo)

To abstain or keep away from; to refuse to use or participate in; stand aloof from; shun; avoid.

1300–1350: From the Middle English eschewen from the Old French eschiver & eschever (shun, eschew, avoid, dispense with (which in the third-person present was eschiu), from the Frankish skiuhan (to dread, shun, avoid), from the Proto-Germanic skeukhwaz (source also of the Old High German sciuhen (to avoid, escape) and the German scheuen (to fear, shun, shrink from), from scheu (shy, timid).  In German the evolution produced the Old High German sciuhen & skiuhan (to frighten away) and the German scheuchen (shoo, shoo away, drive away).  The Italian schivare (to avoid, shun, protect from) from schivo (shy, bashful) are both related loan words from the Germanic.  Eschew, eschewed & eschewing are verbs and eschewal & eschewance are nouns; the most common noun plural is eschewals.

Orson Wells (1915-1985) as Sir John Falstaff, Chimes of Midnight (1965).

The convention of use has evolved to suggest the verb eschew should not be applied to the avoidance or shunning of a person or specific physical object but only to the ideas, concepts, or other intangibles and William Shakespeare (1564–1616), in Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor (1602), though the concept a binary: “What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd”.  Avoid is the most often used synonym, similar but not quite in the same sense are “circumvent”, “boycott” and “forgo”.  Eschew is a verb, the nouns are eschewment, eschewal & eschewer.

Lindsay Lohan eschewing some underwear and the fastening of a couple of buttons, Los Angeles, 2010.

The surviving dialectical variation is the Scots umbechew (umschew & umchew now extinct), the construct being umbe- +‎ eschew.  As a transitive, it meant “to avoid; shun” and as an intransitive “to get away; escape”.  The prefix umbe- is from the Middle English um-, umbe- & embe-, from Old English ymb- & ymbe- (around), from the Proto-Germanic umbi- (around, about, by, near), from the primitive Indo-European hzmbhi (round about, around).  It was cognate with the Dutch om- (around), the German um- (around), the Latin amb- (around, about), the Latin ambi- (both), the Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí) (around, about), the Sanskrit अभि (abhi) (against, about).  The prefix (meaning around; about) is no longer productive, obsolete outside mostly Scots dialects.

Chelengk

Chelengk (pronounced kel-legge)

A headdress or turban ornament traditionally worn by Ottoman and the Mughal rulers in South Asia and Asia Minor.

Circa 1740: From the Ottoman Turkish چـلنك (Çelenk) (wreath or garland).

First awarded during the reign of Mahmud I (Mahmud the Hunchback, 1696–1754; Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730-1754), the model for the Çelenk was the tradition of attaching a bird's feather to one’s turban as a symbol of bravery and by 1798 it had become a stylized decoration awarded for military merit (ranking above the Gallipoli Star and below the Order of Osmanieh in the Ottoman order of precedence) as late as the 1820s.  Çelenks were awarded as a gift to honor distinguished military commanders or other high-ranking officials and, worn usually on a turban or cap, were a noted symbol of honor and prestige in the Ottoman court.  Çelenks were crafted from gold or silver (the most illustrious of which were diamond-studded) and consisted of a central flower with leaves and buds, topped by upward-facing rays and although no longer part of military tradition, the motif remains popular in modern Türkiye where it’s rendered as a wreath or garland, a circular decoration made from flowers and leaves, usually for ornamental purposes.

Lemuel “Francis” Abbott’s (circa 1760–1803) classic portrait of Nelson (1799) with Chelengk pinned to hat; oil on canvas and completed after his victory in the Battle of the Nile.  Historians of art suspect Abbott painted his work despite having never seen the Chelengk because his depiction is far removed from the actual jewel. 

One of the most famous Chelengks was that awarded to the Royal Navy’s Admiral Lord Nelson (1758-1805) by Selim III (1761–1808; Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1789-1807) after the Battle of the Nile in 1798, the thirteen diamond encrusted rays representing the French ships captured or destroyed during the engagement.  A clever aspect of the engineering was that the central diamond star was connected to a clockwork mechanism so it would rotate while being worn and it was a particular distinction, being the first Çelenk awarded to a non-Ottoman and the thirteen rays were a departure from the traditional seven.  The admiral wore the Chelengk on his naval hat in much the same manner as Ottoman officers adorned their turbans and he turned out to be a trend-setter, sparking a demand in England for similar jewels and they became one of the most fashionable accessories of the era.  Selim III also awarded a Çelenk  to Russian Admiral Fyodor Ushakov (1745-1817) after the capture of Corfu from the French in 1799.  After Nelson’s death in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the Chelengk passed to his family and was frequently seen at the royal court until it was sold at auction in 1895, purchased eventually by the Society for Nautical Research in 1929 and placed on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich where it was a star exhibit.  In 1951 the piece was by “an infamous cat-burglar” and has not since been seen.

Lindsay Lohan as she would appear if wearing the replica of Lord Nelson’s chelengk, Paris, March 2015 (digitally altered image).  The replica is said exactly to have duplicated the appearance of the original and features a central flower made of sixteen petals with leaves and buds.  The stalk of the flower is tied by a bow, extending from which are the thirteen rays.  The replica was made for the film Bequest to the Nation (1973) and was subsequently presented to the National Maritime Museum by the production house.

Squirrel

Squirrel (pronounced skwur-uhl, skwuhr or skwir-uhl (UK))

(1) Any of numerous arboreal, sciurine, bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Sciurus, of the family Sciuridae.  Most common are the red (S. vulgaris) and grey (S. carolinensis).

(2) Sometimes applied to any of various other members of the family Sciuridae, as the chipmunks, flying squirrels, and woodchucks.

(3) The meat of such animals.

(4) The pelt or fur of such an animal.

(5) A coat trimmed with squirrel.

(6) To store or hide money, valuables etc, usually for the future (often followed by away).  Used informally to refer to a person who hoards things.

(7) In Scientology, a person, usually a freezoner (who practices Scientology outside of the official structures of the organization), who applies L Ron Hubbard's (1911-1986) technology in a heterodox manner (usually derogatory).

(8) One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.

(9) In LGBTQQIAAOP slang, as "squirrel friend" a trans-female friend or associate who still has functioning testicles (the pun based on the idea of "squirreling away their nuts").

1325–1375:  From the Middle English squirel & squyrelle, a borrowing from the Anglo-French escuirel (derived from the Old French escuireul), from the Vulgar Latin scūrellus or scūriolus, representing the Classical Latin sciurus.  Root was the Greek σκίουρος (skíouros) (shadow-tailed), the construct being ski(á) (shadow) + ouros (the adjectival derivative of ourá (tail); apparently because the tail was large enough to provide shade for the rest of the animal.  It was used with the diminutive suffixes ellus and olus.  Squirrel soon displaced the native Middle English aquerne, from the Old English ācweorna; in the Modern French, word is écureuil.  The use to describe hoarders was first noted in 1939 but, based on the notion of those who "squirrel thing away", it may long have been in informal oral use.  Squirrel is a noun & verb and squirrelly is an adjective (although squirrel-like seems more commonly used; the noun plural is squirrels.

A squirrel squirreling away nuts for the winter.  Most English dictionaries accept this spelling (although some prefer a single l) which makes squirrelled the longest word in English pronounced in one syllable.

In March 2023, Lindsay Lohan posted a "coming soon" picture confirming her rumored pregnancy.  Although it's not known how far advanced is her state, traditionally such announcements are made as a mother-to-be enters the second trimester so she should thus be three-months pregnant.  This means she can use the expression "with squirrel", one of the more curious adaptations of the word.  The origins of "with squirrel" are mysterious but etymologists seem convinced it was used from about the point at which the baby was expected to be delivered in six months, the implication presumably as soon as the "baby bump became apparent".  There are references to it being used at various points in the nineteenth century and it seems to have been restricted to rural communities in the Ozark mountains in the US.  Seemingly one of the many euphemisms employed to avoid saying the confronting word "pregnant", the last known reference to use dates from 1953.

Parabola

Parabola (pronounced puh-rab-uh-luh)

(1) In geometry, a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point in the same plane or in a parallel plane. Equation: y2 = 2px or x2 = 2py.

(2) In rhetoric, the explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose; a parable.

1570s: From the Modern Latin parabola, from the Late Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ) (a comparison; a setting alongside; parable (literally "a throwing beside" hence "a juxtaposition") so called by Apollonius of Perga circa 210 BC because it is produced by "application" of a given area to a given straight line.  The Greek parabolḗ was derived from παραβάλλω (parabállō) (I set side by side”), from παρά (pará) (beside) + βάλλω (bállō) (I throw); a doublet of parable, parole, and palaver.  It had a different sense in Pythagorean geometry.  The adjectival form parabolic (figurative, allegorical, of or pertaining to a parable) from the Medieval Latin parabolicus from the Late Greek parabolikos (figurative) from parabolē (comparison) is now probably the most widely used.  In geometry, in the sense of “pertaining to a parabola”, it’s been in use since 1702.  A parabola is a curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.  It’s best visualised as a shape consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance.

Monza

On the Monza banking: Maserati 250F (left), Ferrari F555 Supersqualo (centre) & Vanwall VW2 (right).

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (National Automobile Racetrack of Monza) is now the fastest circuit still used in Formula One, the highest recorded speed the 231.5 mph (372.6 km/h) attained during qualifying for the 2005 Italian Grand Prix by a McLaren-Mercedes MP4-20 (in qualifying trim) on the long straight between the Lesmo corners and the Variante del Rettifilo.  Built in 1922, the Italian Grand Prix has been held there every year since 1949 except in 1980 when the track was being modernised and it’s a wonder the track has survived the attention of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation).  Once an admirable body, the FIA has in recent decades degenerated into international sport’s dopiest regulatory body and has for some yers attempted to make motorsport as slow, quiet and processional as possible, issues like DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) now apparently more important than quality of racing.  Set in the Royal Villa of Monza park and surrounded by forest, the complex is configured as three tracks: the 3.6 mile (5.8 kilometre) Grand Prix track, the 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometre) short circuit and the 2.6 mile (4.3 kilometre) high speed oval track with its famous steep bankings which was unused for decades left to fall into disrepair before it was restored in the 2010s.  The major features of the main Grand Prix track include the Curva Grande, the Curva di Lesmo, the Variante Ascari and the famous Curva Parabolica.

On the parabolica: 1966 Italian Grand Prix.

The Curva Parabolica (universally known as “the parabolica”) is the circuit’s signature corner, an increasing radius, long right-hand turn and the final corner before the main straight so the speed one can attain on the straight is determined essentially by the exit speed from the the parabolica; a perfect execution is thus essential for a quick lap.  Although in motorsport it’s common to discuss the lengths of straights, one notable statistic is that even at close to 150 mph (200 km/h) speed with with the fastest cars take the curve, to transit the the parabolica takes just over 7.6 seconds.  Improvements to both the cars and the circuit means it’s now a less dangerous place but many drivers have died in accidents at Monza, some on or approaching the parabolica including Wolfgang (Taffy) von Trips (1928–1961) and Jochen Rindt (1942-1970).  In 2021, the Monza authorities announced the parabolica officially would be renamed “Curva in honor of former Ferrari factory driver Michele Alboreto (1956-2001) who to date remains the last Italian driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari.  It’s likely most will still refer to the curve as “the parabolica”.

The Monza circuit in its configuration for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix (left) and a Mercedes-Benz W196R (streamliner) exiting the parabolica ahead of two W196Rs in conventional open-wheel configuration.  The 1955 Italian Grand Prix was the seventh and final round of the World Championship of Drivers, the French, German, Swiss and Spanish events all cancelled in the aftermath of the disaster at Le Mans.  It was the fourth and last appearance of the Mercedes-Benz W196R streamliners which, after some bad experiences on the relatively tight Silverstone circuit, were restricted to the fast, open tracks.  Mercedes-Benz also withdrew from top-level competition after 1955 and, as a constructor, it would be half a century before they returned to Grand Prix racing.

The parabolic arc: A wheel drops off a Boeing Dreamlifter on take-off, describing a a classic parabolic arc.  The Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighters (LCF) were created using a modified 747-400 airline frame and were most associated with their use carrying Boeing 787 Dreamliner parts between the US, Italy & Japan.  It was an unusual configuration in that it was required to carry components which while large, weren't particularly heavy.