Concatenate

Concatenate (pronounced kon-kat-on-ate)

(1) In biology, joined together, as if in a chain.

(2) In general use, to link things together; unite in a series or chain.

(3) In computing, the joining together of two or more objects stored in different places; most familiar as the spreadsheet command(s) invoked to join cells.

(4) In formal language, as string concatenation, the operation of joining character strings end-to-end.

1425-1475: From the late Middle English (as a past participle) from the Late Latin concatēnātus, from the perfect passive participle stem of concatēnāre (to link together), the construct being con- (com-) (with, together) + catenare, from catēnō (chain, bind) or catēna (chain) + -ātus (from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European –ehztos and was the suffix used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality).  Related forms include concatenator & concatenation (nouns), concatenated & concatenating (verbs & adjectives) and concatenative (adjective).  Those who use the undo function on their spreadsheet after concatenating are using the verb deconcatenate and the adjective unconcatenating.  Concatenate the adjective has a longer history than the verb. The adjective first appeared in English in the fifteenth century, the not until the seventeenth.  Catenate, a verb in its own right meaning "to link in a series" also has origins in the 1800s.  Concatenate is a verb & adjective, concatenated, concatenating are verbs and concatenation is a noun; the noun plural is concatenations.

Lotus 123/G running under OS/2 1.2, 1989.

Concatenate is the favorite big word of most accountants, the others preferring avoidance.  For most people not engaged in certain specialised fields, it’s only when using a spreadsheet that the chance exists to use the word concatenate although it’s now often optional, Microsoft in Excel 2016 having added the CONCAT function which does all that CONCATENATE ever did.  The old command remains as a courtesy to those (1) who think the old ways are best or (2) have a stash of macros and add-ins laden with the text but there’s no guarantee both will continue to co-exist in future versions.  Both IBM and Microsoft have often had short and long versions of commands in software.  From the earliest versions of PC-DOS and MS-DOS, there were pairs like copy/cpy and delete/del which behaved identically.

The spreadsheet is regarded as the original “killer app”; the software which suddenly made rational the purchase of a computer for those not before seduced or at least convinced.  The first spreadsheet which really was a viable piece of horizontal-market shrink-wrap was Visicalc which, like the hardware on which it ran now seems limited but, unlike the operating system on which it ran, is conceptually identical and visually, vaguely similar to the latest releases.  Visicalc, launched in 1979 on the Apple II, two years before the IBM PC went on sale, came first but it was the more ambitious Lotus 1-2-3 which gained critical mass, assuming almost from its 1983 debut a market dominance which would last more than a decade.  By 1989, the standard office environment for those running PCs was overwhelmingly the Lotus 123 2.x / WordPerfect 5.x combination, the nerdiest operations perhaps adding the dreaded dBASE III Plus.

Microsoft Windows 3.0, 1990.

In what was one of the early disruptions in the business, things quickly changed.  In 1990, Microsoft Windows 3.0 was introduced, an unstable operating environment bolted on to DOS and soon famous for its UAEs (Unrecoverable Applications Errors), the BSODs (blue screen of death) of the era.  Fragile it may have been but it made the PC usable for real people in a way a command-line based user interface like DOS never did and by the time Windows 3.1 arrived in 1992, the move was on.  Microsoft were ready and Windows 3.1, combined with the updated Excel and Word for Windows sounded the death knell for Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect, both of which were murdered, dBASE more of a suicide as any user of dBASE IV will attest.  The old programs would struggle on, under new ownership, for years, Lotus 1-2-3 lasting until the twenty-first century and a much diminished WordPerfect to this day though neither would ever regain their place in the commercial mainstream.

A concatenation of images of variations in Lindsay Lohan's hair color.

Both failed adequately to react to Windows 3.0, WordPerfect pursuing an evolutionary development of their text-based platform while Lotus followed what turned out to be the right technology but the wrong company.  Almost from the start, Lotus had been besieged by user requests for a way to allow spreadsheets to be bigger and that needed a way for the program to access more memory.  Because of (1) the way DOS was written and (2) the memory address limitations of the early (80x86 & 80x88) hardware, not even all of the 1 MB nominally available could be used and it took not long for spreadsheet users to exhaust what was.  New hardware (80286 & 80386) made more memory available but DOS, really a brutish file-loader, couldn’t see it and the costs of re-equipping with more capable hardware and software combinations were, in the 1980s, high.  There were quick and dirty fixes.  One was a cooperative venture between Lotus, Intel & Microsoft which published an expanded memory specification (LIM EMS), a clever trick allowing access to 4 MB of memory but which brought problems of its own.  Most users continued to create multiple sheets, linking them in a variety of ways, a complexity which was often error prone and, as things grew, increasingly difficult to debug.  It wasn’t just megalomaniacs who longed for everything in one big sheet.

IBM OS/2 2.1, 1993.

Windows 3.0 may not have impressed Lotus but OS/2, Microsoft’s slated long-term replacement for both DOS and Windows certainly did.  Available already with 16 MB of memory, later versions of OS/2 promised 4 GB, a big number then and enough even in 2021 for what most people do with spreadsheets, most of the time.  Lotus nailed 1-2-3’s colors to the OS/2 mast, the first version for the new platform, 123/G (for graphical), released in 1989 and running only on OS/2, did what it claimed and users were soon delighted by the sight (if not the speed) of the spread of their giant sheets.  Unfortunately, users were few because buyers of OS/2 were scarce, their reluctance not helped by Microsoft’s sudden change of operating system direction.  As surprised as everybody else at the massive success of Windows 3.0 and 3.1, Microsoft announced that instead of continuing their co-development of OS/2 with IBM, they were proceeding with Windows as a stand-alone product; existing versions of OS/2 on sale and under development (versions 1 & 2) would be handed back to IBM to pursue while Microsoft would work on their next release which was to have been called OS/2 3.0.  This was the product which would in 1993 be released as Windows NT 3.1. 

It was a high-risk strategy.  In the early 1990s, IBM was years away from its near-death experiences and was the industry behemoth; having them as a partner was not without difficulties but to make an enemy of them was riskier still.  The potential reward however was compelling.  The revenue stream from Windows would flow wholly to Microsoft and, more conspiratorially, having exclusive control of the operating system and its secrets meant the possibility to tweak its own software offerings so they would run better than the competition.  There is of course no suggestion Microsoft ever did that.  All depended on (1) Windows continuing its sales success and (2) the newer versions maintaining the cost/performance advantage over OS/2 which would prevent IBM’s product gaining critical mass.  That is exactly what happened.

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, 1997.

While OS/2 technically was good and the compatibility issues feared by many never existed to the extent claimed, it simply didn’t offer enough of an advantage over Windows 3.x to justify what would for many be a significant cost in hardware, software and training.  Nor, as the track record with thing like the PCjr demonstrated, were IBM very good at selling stuff unless it was in lots of thousands to big corporations.  Microsoft offered things users were actually interested in, like free fonts whereas IBM fiddled around with exotica like installable file systems (IFS), a concept remote from the lives of most.  Compared with the actually clunky looking Windows 3.x, OS/2 with its IFS, pre-emptive multi-tasking and object-oriented user interface looked like the future of computing and so it was but Windows NT (ex OS/2 3.0) turned out to be a better path.  By the time Windows 95 was released in 1995, Microsoft had won the consumer war and within two years, Windows NT had laid the foundation not only to dominate the desktop in the twenty-first century but to displace Novell and others in the lucrative server market which underpinned the rapidly growing parts of the market, networks (WANs and LANs) and the internet.  In this clash of titans, WordPerfect, dBASE and Lotus were collateral damage.

Incarnadine

Incarnadine (pronounced in-kahr-nuh-dahyn, in-kahr-nuh-din or in-kahr-nuh-deen)

(1) A color classically blood-red but for commercial purposes also described as variations in the range of crimson, flesh-colored, pale pink etc.

(2) To make incarnadine; to tinge or stain with a reddish hue.

(3) In figurative use, bloodstained, bloody

1585–1595: From the Middle French, the feminine of incarnadin (flesh-colored), from the dialectal Italian incarnadino, a variant of incarnatino (carnation; flesh-colored), the construct being incarnat(o) (embodied; made flesh (the sense most familiar in ecclesiastical use in the form “incarnate”, from the Late Latin incarnātus (made flesh, incarnate)) + -ino.  The Italian suffix -ino was from the Latin -īnus, from the primitive Indo-European -iHnos (and comparable with the English -ine).  It was used (1) to form adjectival diminutives, (2) to indicate a profession, (3) to indicate an ethnic or geographical origin and (4) to indicate tools or instruments.  Incarnato was from Ecclesiastical Latin and the Late Latin incarnātus (having been made incarnate), the perfect passive participle of incarnō (to become or make incarnate; to make into flesh), the construct being in- (in, inside, within) + carō (flesh, meat; body (and ultimately from the primitive Indo-European ker & sker- (to cut off)) + -ō (the suffix used to form regular first-conjugation verbs).  The noun and verb were derived from the adjective and the senses (1) of the blood-red colour of raw flesh, (2) the figurative blood-stained; bloody (most famously as “blood on one’s hands”) and the noun use (blood-red colour of raw flesh) are the legacy of William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) use of the word as a verb in the blood-soaked Macbeth (circa 1606).  In the technical language of the Roman Catholic Church, incardinate has the specific technical meanings (1) to raise someone to the rank of cardinal & (2) to enroll someone as a priest attached to a particular church.  Incarnadine is a noun, verb & adjective and incarnadined & incarnadining are verbs & adjectives; the noun plural is incarnadines.

The Shakespeare effect

William Shakespeare: Macbeth Act 2, Scene 2, 54–60:

[Knocking within] Macbeth:

Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appalls me?
What hands are here? Hah! They pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

Shakespeare wasn’t actually unusual in his inventive ways with words, English then far from standardized and such “dictionaries” as existed sometimes offering different spellings and conflicting meanings.  Shakespeare probably felt no more entitled than any other writer to kick the language around but because what he wrote is celebrated as a core of the Western literary canon, what he did is both better remembered and granted a certain authority.  His attitude was probably something like the “low-level peaks & pokes” database administrators used to be able to use to solve immediate problems, even if such tricks weren't in the manual.  So, in the early 1600s, “the multitudinous seas incarnadine” would have been novel and what Shakespeare did was make a verb of incarnadine, a sixteenth century adjective meaning "pink", the sense derived from the Latin root carn- ("of flesh" and thus, in its derivatives, "the color of flesh").  “To incarnadine” thus meant turn something pink or light red and in the bard’s vivid imagery Macbeth imagines his bloodied hands turning Neptune's green ocean.  Under the influence of Shakespeare’s text, the verb and adjective have both come to refer to the color of blood itself (a range of crimson tones) rather than to the light red of a blood-stained sea.  This extends to the play as psychological drama, Macbeth coming to realize that no matter what, his guilt can never be washed off, even if the blood can be cleaned from his hands.  Instead, his guilt will poison the world around him for which the wide ocean is a metaphor and already in his hallucinations he sees his hands plucking out his eyes in retribution for the murder of Duncan.

Shakespeare would have approved the verbing: Lindsay Lohan incarnadining her lips, Playboy magazine photo-shoot, 2011.

However, for whatever reason,  Shakespeare didn’t use the word again although there was no shortage of death and blood in the dozen-odd plays he wrote after Macbeth and in all that he wrote, it’s the only occasion on which the word appears.  Maybe he didn’t like the effect or perhaps his critics were critical but it's surprising it didn't re-appear because his opportunities to seek some alternative to “red”, “crimson” or “scarlet” were not infrequent, some 74 unfortunate souls dying in his plays in the stage-scenes alone with the inherently bloody business of stabbing a popular means of dispatch.  Not surprisingly then, the word “blood” appears in Shakespeare's works 673 times.  The author’s neglect of incarnadine was matched by that of the general population and since the nineteenth century its most usual appearance in text has been in lists of obsolete and antique words and were it not for lexicographers preserving it thus, it might now be regarded as extinct which, for most practical purposes, it otherwise is.

Crooked Hillary Clinton in incarnadine pantsuit, a practical color in that one can wipe the blood from one’s hands without it showing.

Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth a central character responsible for much violence and bloodshed yet one who avoids blood literally ending up on her hands.  It’s Lady Macbeth who goads and manipulates her husband into killing King Duncan so he may seize the throne of Scotland and make her queen.  She even plans the murder, taking part in the plot by making it appear others are responsible.  After the foul deed, Lady Macbeth begins to suffer from her role in the murder, haunted by visions of blood on her hands which she tries to wash off, symbolizing her inability to rid herself of the guilt she feels.

Color contrast ratios of incarnadine against while and black backgrounds.

It is a truly lovely color, a deep rich red less orange than the classic brick, darker than a bright cherry and lighter than a Merlot although those disturbed by such things might see also the color of raw steak and spilled blood.  It has survived as a technical term used in color charts, incarnadine listed as Hex #aa0022 (Color Mixture: Pink and Red & Color Hue/Base color: Red).  In the RGB color code model, Hex #aa0022 Color Code is created after adding 66.67% red color, 0% green color and 13.33% blue color.  Hex #aa0022 Color code in the CMYK color (process color) code model is generated after subtraction of 0% cyan, 100% magenta, 80% yellow and 33% black.  It’s a handy word for the manufacturers because it provides something different for the color charts, other variations of red including blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, ruddle, maroon, misty, mantle, rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, flush, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, rust, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, rubricate, bloody, blooming, Venetian red, vermillion, vinaceous, vinous, violet & wine.

Xenodochial

Xenodochial (pronounced zen-oh-dok-e-al)

Of or about being friendly to strangers.

From the Ancient ξενοδοχή (xenodokhḗ) (strangers' banquet), derived from ξένος (xénos), (guest, stranger, foreigner).  The –al suffix is from the Middle English -al, from the Latin -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al.  The Latin is though formed from the Etruscan genitive suffix -l (as in the Etruscan ati (mother) & atial (mother's)) + the adjectival suffix -is (as in fortis, dēbilis et al).  The suffix was appended to many words, often nouns to create the sense “of or pertaining to”, thereby creating the adjectival form.  It was most commonly added to words of Latin origin and used also to form nouns, especially of verbal action.  The adjectival form xenodochial is the most frequently used form, often in the abstract sense of describing a functionally effective structure or a pleasingly ergonomic design.  In general though, all forms allude to being hospitable to strangers which is perhaps why the antonym xenophobic (unfriendly to strangers) seems more widely used.  As xenodocheionology, it’s the study of the lore and history of hotels and hospitality.  The noun xenodochium (the plural forms xenodochia or xenodochiums) was used to describe a room (or separate structure; a guesthouse) in a monastery for the temporary accommodation of guests or pilgrims and was from the Ancient Greek ξενοδοχεῖον (xenodokheîon), (place for strangers, inn) from ξένος (xénos), (guest, stranger, foreigner) + δέχομαι (dékhomai) (receive, accept).  Xenodochial is an adjective, xenodochy is a noun and the related xenophilia is the antonym of xenophobia.

On being turned away from the inn

Neither the year nor the day on which Jesus Christ was born is known, Western Christianity celebrating it on 25 December and the Orthodox on 6 or 7 January.  It made administrative sense to slot the celebration into the existing feast calendar, but the date wasn't universally (more or less) standardized until the sixth century although the historic record can be confusing because of changes to the medieval cadendar.

Bethlehem Inn , circa 24 December, 3 BC.  A member of one of the earliest chapters of the Secret Society of the Les Clef d’Or refuses to let Joseph and Mary check-in because they have no booking confirmation number.  In the Bible, Luke (2:4–7) records this lack of the xenodochial.

Christ was probably born circa 3 BC and being born not in a room in a house but in a stable has become important in Christian symbolism.  The tale though may be muddied.  It’s often recounted how Joseph and Mary, while looking for a place to stay the night, were many times turned away by members of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or, either because the inn was full or without reason.  In the bible, the versions differ, Matthew not mentioning them being turned away from inns, that part appearing only in Luke.  As told by Matthew, Mary and Joseph actually lived in Bethlehem so the birth was thus at home; it was only after returning from taking refuge in Egypt they decided to move to Nazareth in order to be further from Herod.  Luke (2:4–7) says they lived in Nazareth, journeyed to Bethlehem for a census, and were there turned away from inns, being forced to stay in a stable and there the birth happened.  It’s suspected by some Luke added the wrinkle to the story to emphasize the lowly birth of Jesus and revisionist theologians have provided alternative facts.  The Reverend Ian Paul, one-time Dean of Studies at St John’s theological college, reviving what's actually an old theory that Jesus wasn't born in a stable and there'd been no search for a room in an inn.  He lets the Les Clefs d'Or off the hook.

Dr Paul bases his position on a mistaken biblical translation of the Greek word kataluma as “inn” which he suggests, in the original texts, was actually used to describe a reception room in a private dwelling, the same term is used to describe the “upper room” where Jesus and his disciples ate the last supper and kataluma appear in that context in Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14.  An entirely different word, pandocheion, is used to describe an “inn” or any other place where strangers are welcomed as paying customers.  Even were there an inn in Bethlehem, Paul argues, Joseph and Mary would not have sought to check-in.  For Joseph, the only reason to travel to Bethlehem, where his family lived, was because it was census time and the custom at the time was to stay with relatives, not with strangers or at an inn.  Given that, goes the argument, the kataluma where they stayed would not have been an Inn, but a guest room in the house of family members and the house was likely already full with other relatives there for the census.

The architecture of Palestinian does support the idea, most families living in a single-room house, with a lower compartment for animals to be brought in at night, and either a room at the back for visitors, or space on the roof.  The family living area usually would have straw-filled hollows dug in the ground at which the animals would feed.  Jesus thus was born not in a stable fit only for beasts but on the lower floor of a peasant house, shared with animals certainly but this at the time something not unusual.  It’s not a new interpretation, the Spanish philologist Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas (1523–1600) having published the same thoughts in 1584.  For his troubles he was dragged before the Inquisition, denounced and reprimanded but not tortured, imprisoned or burned at the stake, the court apparently viewing these things as poor scholarship rather than heresy.

Meet & greet: Lindsay Lohan being xenodochial, opening night of the Lohan Nightclub, Athens, Greece, October 2016.

Dr Paul suggests all this is not of interest only to word-nerds and that there is a theological significance.  It’s not that it diminishes the nature of Christ, quite where the Son of God was born seems a minor point compared with the other aspects of his birth; the important message of Christianity is that he was born of ordinary, humble, parents, it adds nothing to try to present them somehow as outcasts rejected from the comforts of society.  The celebration of the Christmas is not that his earthly life began cast out, but in the midst of his family and the visiting relations, the centre of their attentions.  In recent years, some editors have apparently been convinced, dropping all references to inns and using a translation along the lines of “because there was no guest room available for them.”

Scavenge

Scavenge (pronounced skav-inj)

(1) To take or gather (something hopefully usable) from discarded material.

(2) To cleanse of filth, as in cleaning a street (in the UK “scavenger” was once a term for a municipal street sweeper).

(3) In internal combustion engines (1) to expel burnt gases from a cylinder

(4) As “oil scavenger”, a device used to remove excess or unwanted oil from certain areas of various types of engine.

(5) In metallurgy, to purify molten metal by introducing a substance, usually by bubbling a suitable gas through it (the gas may be inert or may react with the impurities).

(6) In democratic politics (in preferential voting systems), to negotiate with other candidates or party machines to obtain preferences (usually on a swap basis).

(7) To act as a scavenger; to search (applied especially to creatures which look for food among the carrion killed by others).

(8) In chemistry, to act as a scavenger (for atoms, molecules, ions, radicals, etc).

(9) In historical UK use, a child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.

1635–45: A back formation from scavenger, from the Middle English scavager, from the Anglo-Norman scawageour (one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector), from the Old Northern French scawage & escauwage (scavenge) and the Old French scavage & escavage, an alteration of escauvinghe (the Medieval Latin forms were scewinga & sceawinga), from the Old Dutch scauwōn (to inspect, to examine, to look at).  The verb scavenge in the 1640s was first a transitive verb in the sense of “cleanse from filth” while the intransitive meaning “search through rubbish for usable food or objects” was in use at least by the 1880s and the idea of “extracting & collecting anything usable from discarded material” dates from 1922.  Scavenge is a verb, scavenged, scavengering & scavenging are verbs & adjectives, scavengeable is an adjective and scavenger & scavengerism are nouns; the noun plural is scavengers.

Lindsay Lohan: Fear of scavengers.

The noun scavenger dates from the 1540s and described originally “a person hired to remove refuse from streets” (a job which would come later to be known as a “street sweeper”, a modification of the late fourteenth century Middle English scavager & scawageour, the title of the employee of London city who originally was charged with collecting tax on goods sold by foreign merchants.  The origin of that title was the Middle English scavage & scauage, from the circa 1400 Anglo-French scawage (toll or duty exacted by a local official on goods offered for sale in one's precinct), from the Old North French escauwage (inspection), from a Germanic source (it was related to the Old High German scouwon and the Old English sceawian (to look at, inspect) and from the same lineage came the modern English “show”.  In the 1590s it came into use in zoology to refer to creatures which look for food among the carrion killed by others.  The game of “scavenger hunt” seems to have gained the name in 1937 and one form of the word which went extinct was scavagery (street-cleaning, removal of filth from streets), noted in 1851.

Oil scavenge systems

In an internal combustion engine, an oil scavenger is a device used to remove excess or unwanted oil from certain areas of the engine, typically from the bottom of the engine's crankcase or oil pan.  The oil scavenger can help to prevent excessive oil pressure or foaming, something to be avoided because in high-performance engines operating under extreme conditions, excessive pressure can collapse pistons, a destructive process.  The core of the system is a scavenge-pump (some even suction mechanisms) which draw the excess oil from the engine and directs it back into the oil pan or an external reservoir.

Internal combustion engine with dry sump and oil scavenging system.

The classic use of oil salvage is in dry sump lubrication systems in which the oil that is supplied by the pressure pump drains off the engine as a frothy, thoroughly-mixed air-oil suspension into a relatively shallow, low-capacity, sump that is often contoured around the rotating crankshaft-assembly.  In this system, there are several scavenge pump stages that pump the aerated oil from the “dry” sump and into the external oil tank that has the dual-assignment of (1) storing the major amount of the engine oil supply and (2) de-aerating the mixture being returned by the scavenge pump(s).  After lubricating the various components, the oil flows into the sump at the bottom of the engine and from here the scavenge stages of the pump retrieves the highly-aerated oil, delivering the mix through a filter and then to a centrifugal and boundary-layer air-oil separation system in the oil tank. The air extracted from the scavenge oil exits the system through the breather and the result is cool, clean oil into the external tank ready for recirculation.

Aircraft turbine engine with oil scavenging system.

Oil salvage systems are especially critical in aviation.  In car engines, used oil is able to drain down into the oil pan, where it can be circulated back through the engine or cooling system but at altitude, gravity or air pressure may not be sufficient for oil to drain on its own and for these reasons aircraft are equipped with scavenge pumps to help pull the used oil out of the engine into a reservoir for cooling, de-aerating, and recirculation.  In hard-to-empty areas that are far from the oil sump (like the rear of the engine) a scavenge pump prevents the pooling of used oil.  The aircraft scavenge pump system does not have its own power source, but operates on a designated line from the main electrical system and on bigger aircraft powered by turbines with large oil capacity, as many as six scavenge pumps may operate in unison.

Niggardly

Niggardly (pronounced nig-erd-lee)

(1) Reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly; sordidly parsimonious.

(2) Mean or ungenerously small or scanty; grudgingly.

(3) In a stingy, miserly, or tight-fisted manner; penurious, miserly, mean, tight.

1520-1530: The construct was nig(g)ard+ly.  Nigard was from the Middle English nigard & nygard (miser), from nig (niggardly person), perhaps of Scandinavian origin (the forms in the Old Norse were derived from hnǫggr (miserly, stingy)) and it may have beem cognate with niggle (miser).  In German there was Knicker (niggard) & knickerig (niggardly).  The –ly suffix is from the Middle English -ly, -li, -lik & -lich, from the Old English -līċ, from the Proto-Germanic -līkaz (having the body or form of), from līką (body) (from whence lich). In form, it was probably influenced by the Old Norse -ligr (-ly) and was cognate with the Dutch -lijk, the German -lich and the Swedish –lig; doublet of -like.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun".  Niggardly is an adjective & adverb, niggardliness is a noun and niggard is a noun, adjective & verb; the noun plural is niggards.

The root is very old, the Middle English nyggard (thought derived from Swedish nygg (from old Norse verb nigla (to fuss about small matters)) noted as early as 325-375 and from the Old English hneaw (stingy).  It was rarely used in some biblical translations (2 Corinthians 9:6 & Isaiah 32:6 for example) but does seem to appear less in recent revisions, presumably out of linguistic sensitivity.  Although etymologically, the sixteenth century niggardly is wholly related to the infamous N-word (which emerged only in the eighteenth), there have been a number of incidents in the United States which have caused controversy because of the phonetic similarity to the racial slur.  Because there are a number of useful synonyms, (parsimonious, mean, greedy, penurious, miserly et al), niggardly is probably best avoided.  Even if used correctly, it can cause problems.

Ye (b 1977, the artist formerly known as Kanye West).

So it's not one of those potentially difficult words like "chink" which is so entrenched it can be used as long as the context makes clear (such as "chink in the armor") it's not being used as a racial slur.  Nor does the idea of adopting the N-Word convention (whereby it can in certain circumstances be spelled "niggardly" in written form but orally it might be spoken as "N-wordy") much appeal because it's so much easier (and uncontroversial) just to use an alternative like "parsimonious" or "cheap".  All in all, it's best avoided, like the infamous N-Word as Lindsay Lohan (in town for Paris Fashion Week) found out in 2015 when she used it in an Instagram post after attending a concert by Ye.  She was quoting from the lyrics of one of his songs but that's obviously not an acceptable thing for a white person to do and, in response to criticism, the post was soon edited.  Interestingly, the bar on that might have been raised a bit as the reactions to some of Ye's recent statements indicate.

Adamantine

Adamantine (pronounced ad-uh-man-teen, ad-uh-man-tin or ad-uh-man-tahyn)

(1) Made of adamant, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated.

(2) Utterly unyielding or firm in attitude or opinion.

(3) In informal use, too hard to cut, break or pierce.

(4) Having the luster of a diamond.

1200-1250: From the Middle English adamantine (made of adamant; having the qualities of adamant (hard, unyielding, unbreakable, inflexible)), the vocative masculine singular of adamantinus, from the Ancient Greek adamántinos (hard as adamant), from ἀδάμας (adamas), (genitive ἀδάμαντος (adamantos)) (unbreakable, inflexible and literally “unconquerable, untameable”).  The modern English diamond is from adamas, via the Late Latin diamas and the Old French diamant.  The noun form was used to mean “the hardest material” (a synonym of adamantium).  The most obvious derivative in modern English is adamant.  In classical mythology, adamant was the word used to describe diamond and the meaning was aligned with “metal” to indicate the quality of extreme hardness and, over time, emerged the notion of adamant being used figuratively to allude to attitudes or opinions which were “hard”, the synonyms varying according whether the wish was to convey admiration or disapproval and they included: inflexible, intransigent, uncompromising, inexorable. unbending, firm, unyielding stubborn, obdurate.  Adamantine is a noun & adjective and adamantinely is an adverb; the noun plural is adamantines.

The cuts from the Cullinan Diamond: Cullinan 1 was the largest of the nine stones cut from the rough diamond.  The largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, the Cullinan Diamond was found on 26 January 1905 in South Africa’s Cullinan mine.  The stone weighed 3,106.75 carats (21.91725 oz, 621.35 g).  The Cullinan was cut into nine smaller diamonds, the largest of which is named Cullinan I or Great Star of Africa which, at 530.4 carats (18.7 oz, 106.0 g) is the largest clear cut diamond in the world.

Lindsay Lohan’s engagement ring: The piece was described as a 6-carat cushion-cut diamond set on a classic diamond-accented platinum band.

Harass

Harass (pronounced huh-ras (U) or har-uhs (Non-U))

(1) To disturb or bother persistently; torment, as with troubles or cares; pester.

(2) To intimidate or coerce, as with persistent demands or threats.

(3) To subject another to unwelcome sexual advances.

(4) In military and paramilitary jargon, to trouble by repeated attacks, incursions etc, as in war or hostilities; harry; raid.

1610–1620: From the French harasser (to tire out; to vex), the origin obscure but probably from the Middle French harasser (to harry, harass), a verbal derivative of harace & harache from the Frankish hara (here, from this side) which existed in the Old French as harer (to set a dog upon prey) and of Germanic origin; the Old High German was hera & harēn (to cry out), the Middle Dutch was here.  The alternative, less supported, etymology suggests a derivation from the Old French harier (to harry), related to harace (a basket made of cords) & harasse (a very heavy and large shield).  The now obsolete meaning “to lay waste, to devastate” dates from the 1620s whereas the sense "to vex by repeated attacks" from the French harasser (to tire out, to vex) emerged in the early sixteenth century and the noun harassment (action of harassing; state of being harassed) was first noted in 1753.  Harass, as applied to mind or body, suggesting the infliction of the weariness that comes from the continuance or repetition of trying experiences, so that there is not time for rest, appeared in dictionaries first in 1897.  The distinction of meaning is that to feel harassed doesn’t (necessarily) depend on an identifiable act of harassment by others.  Synonyms, varying by context, include badger, vex, plague, hector, annoy, besiege, harangue, beset, burn, raid, tease, intimidate, pester, torment, persecute, heckle, hassle, hound, maraud, bait, distress, exhaust, strain, vex, foray, worry & devil.  Harass is a noun & verb, harassing is an adjective & noun, harasser & harassment are nouns, harassed & harassable are adjectives and harassingly is an adverb; the noun plural is harasses.

Another class-identifier

Harass was traditionally pronounced in English as har-uhs, with stress on the first syllable but a newer pronunciation, huh-ras, with stress on the second, has become more common in the last half-century, especially in North America.  Although there’s no evidence, the speculation is the newer form emerged because it’s easier to say and there’s much support for the view, the feeling it happened just as kuhn-trov-er-see emerged as more palatable alternative to the traditional and proper kon-truh-vur-see.  Most dictionaries now acknowledge both forms are correct, the cross-cutting cleavages being both trans-Atlantic and generational, the inference generally drawn that the younger version will continue to gain adherents while the traditional form will survive among pedants and as a class-identifier.

Cross-vested harassment complaints: Ms Lohan & Mr LaBella.

In what sounded a very New York City sort of affair, Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) and Christian LaBella (b 1987) in September 2012 each filed harassment complaints with against each other after they were interviewed by police about a squabble in a hotel room, the details of which remain contested and sketchy.  Mr LaBell was a former congressional aide and because no charges could be substantiated, no further was taken, the cross-harassment complaints apparently satisfying honor on both sides.  All's well that ends well.

Crook

Crook (pronounced krook)

(1) A bent or curved implement, piece, appendage, etc; hook.

(2) The hooked part of anything.

(3) An instrument or implement having a bent or curved part, as a shepherd's staff hooked at one end or the crosier of a bishop or abbot.

(4) A bend or curve; a bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion of something).

(5) In slang, a person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal; to steal, cheat, or swindle; an artifice; a trick; a contrivance.

(6) To bend; curve; a bend or curve.

(7) In slang, sick; unwell; feeble (Australia & New Zealand).

(8) In slang, out of order; functioning improperly; unsatisfactory; disappointing (Australia & New Zealand).

(9) In etiquette (as “to crook the knee”), a bending of the knee; a genuflection.

(10) A lock or curl of hair (obsolete).

(11) In structural engineering, a support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it; a bracket or truss consisting of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut.

(12) A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (called “the hook”) at one end and used by shepherds to control their flocks (a small scale version of which (as the “pothhook”) is used in cooking to suspend a pot over a heat-source.

(13) In the traditional Christian churches, a bishop's standard staff of office, the shape of which emulates those historically used by shepherds, an allusion to the idea of Christ’s relationship to his followers as that of “a shepherd of his flock”, mentions in several passages in scripture including John 10:11 (I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep) and Psalm 23:1 (The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want).

(14) In music, a small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn etc to change its pitch or key.

1125-1175: From the Middle English croke & crok (hook-shaped instrument or weapon; tool or utensil consisting of or having as an essential component a hook or curved piece of metal), from the Old English crōc (hook, bend, crook (although the very existence of crōc in Old English is contested by some), from the Proto-Germanic krōkaz (bend, hook), from the primitive Indo-European greg- (tracery, basket, bend).  It was cognate with Old Norse krokr & krāka (hook), the Dutch kreuk (a bend, fold; wrinkle), the Middle Low German kroke & krake (fold, wrinkle), the Danish krog (crook, hook), the Swedish krok (crook, hook), the Icelandic krókur (hook) and the Old High German krācho (hooked tool).    Crook is a noun, verb & adjective, crooks is a verb; crooked is a verb & adjective, crooking is a noun & verb, crooker & crookest are adjectives, crookedly is a adverb and crookedness is a noun; the noun plural is crooks.

Lindsay Lohan with crooked Harvey Weinstein (b 1952).

Crooked (bent, curved, in a bent shape) emerged in the early thirteenth century, the past-participle adjective from the verb crook and the figurative sense of “dishonest, false, treacherous, not straight in conduct; To turn from the path of rectitude; to pervert; to misapply; to twist” was from the same era, the familiar synonyms including rogue, villain, swindler, racketeer, scoundrel, robber, cheat, shyster, knave, pilferer and shark.  In that sense it was from the Middle English crooken, croken & crokien, from the Old English crōcian, from the Proto-West Germanic krōkōn (to bend, wrinkle) and was developed from the noun.  It was cognate with the Dutch kreuken (to crease, rumple) and the German Low German kröken (to bend, offend, suppress).

Leading the flock: Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) with his bishop's crook.

The use in the slang of Australia, New Zealand emerged in the nineteenth century and was use variously to convey (1) something or the conduct of someone held to be unsatisfactory or not up to standard, (2) feeling ill or (3) annoyed, angry; upset (as in “to be crook about” or “to go crook at”), the comparative being crooker, the superlative crookest.  The sense of “a swindler” was a creation of late nineteenth century US English and developed from the earlier figurative use as “dishonest, crooked in conduct”, documented since at least the early 1700s, these notions ultimately derived from the use of crook in Middle English to describe a “dishonest trick”, a form prevalent in waring against the means to which the Devil would resort to tempt.  In idiomatic use, “arm in crook” describes two people walking arm-in-arm (ie the arms linked in the crook of the elbow) and “by hook or by crook” means “by any means necessary” although the origin of this has always puzzled etymologists.

Crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

Crooked Hillary Clinton gained, however unhappily, the most memorable of the monikers Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) applied so effectively in his campaigns first to secure the Republican nomination and then win the 2016 presidential election.  It was a novel approach to electioneering but there had before been crookedness in the oval office, some of the conduct in the nineteen century truly scandalous and one of Richard Nixon’s not unjustified complaints about life was he and his administration being subject to a level of scrutiny never inflicted on his (Democratic Party) predecessors.  That was illustrated during one of Nixon’s few happy moments during the Watergate scandal when on 26 September 1973 when his speechwriter Pat Buchanan (b 1938) appeared before a congressional committee investigating the manner.  The committee had taken some delight in conducting lengthy sessions during which various Republican Party figures were questioned but as Buchanan produced the facts and figures documenting decades of dirty tricks and actual illegalities by successive Democrat administrations, committee counsel Sam Dash (1925–2004) got him “…off the stand as quickly as possible”.  So crooked Hillary was part of a long political tradition and the label stuck so well to her because it according with the perceptions of many although, in fairness, there were plenty who’d done worse and suffered less. Presumably, crooked Hillary is watching with interest to see if any branch of the US justice system succeeds in declaring Donald Trump crooked.  One way on another, she could be waiting for some time.  

Richard Nixon (1913–1994, US president 1969-1974) & Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973, US president 1963-1969), the White House, 1968.

Warren Harding (1865–1923, US president 1921-1923).

Unfairly or not, Warren Harding is now often called crooked, primarily because of the link with the "Teapot Dome" scandal which occurred under his administration but he wasn’t personally implicated.  However, Teapot Dome was one of many scandals on his watch so his reputation suffered.  He dropped dead while still in office, probably a good career move.  The 1964 US presidential election in which the candidates were the incumbent Democrat Lyndon Johnson and the Republican Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) was characterized as a contest between “a crook and a kook”, LBJ famously crooked in his business and political dealings in Texas and Barry, probably unfairly, characterised by his opponents as unhinged from time-to time.  The electorate was apparently sanguine about the character traits of the two and, given the choice on election day, voted for the crook, LBJ enjoying one of the biggest landslide victories in history.

Richard Nixon with Checkers (1952-1964), Washington, 1959.  Sometime during the Watergate scandal (if not before) Nixon may have reflected on the remark attributed to Frederick the Great (Frederick II (1712–1786, Prussian king 1740-1786) ): "The more I know of the character of men, the more I appreciate the company of dogs".

Already a national figure for this and that, Richard Nixon added to his notoriety by denying crookedness in his "Checkers speech", made in 1952, refuting allegations of impropriety which had threatened his place on the Republican ticket as General Dwight Eisenhower’s (1890–1969, US president 1953-1961) running mate in that year’s election.  Though not uncriticised, at the time and since, the “Checkers speech” worked and Nixon’s political career survived but two decades later, another speech with the same purpose failed to hold back the Watergate tide.  Held in Florida’s Disney's Contemporary Resort, it was at the 1973 press conference Nixon declared “…in all of my years of public life I have never obstructed justice... People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.”  Little more than a year later, facing impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned although, to be fair, when he said “I’m not a crook”, he wasn’t speaking of the Watergate affair and aspects of his legacy, like that of his predecessors, needs to be assessed separately from his crookedness.