Breadvan

Breadvan (pronounced bred-vann)

(1) A delivery vehicle adapted for carrying loaves of bread or other bakery items for delivery to retail outlets, hotels, cafés etc.

(2) As the Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”, a one-off vehicle produced in 1962.

(3) As a descriptor of the “breadvan” style applied to the rear of vehicles to seek aerodynamic advantages in competition, variously applied, mostly during the 1960s.

1840s: The construct was bread + van.  Bread was from the Middle English bred & breed (kind of food made from flour or the meal of some grain, kneaded into a dough, fermented, and baked), from the Old English brēad (fragment, bit, morsel, crumb), from the Proto-West Germanic braud, from the Proto-Germanic braudą (cooked food, leavened bread), from the primitive Indo-European berw- & brew- (to boil, to see).  Etymologists note also the Proto-Germanic braudaz & brauþaz (broken piece, fragment), from the primitive Indo-European bera- (to split, beat, hew, struggle) and suggest bread may have been a conflation of both influences.  It was cognate with the Old Norse brauð (bread), the Old Frisian brad (bread), the Middle Dutch brot (bread) and the German Brot (bread), the Scots breid (bread), the Saterland Frisian Brad (bread), the West Frisian brea (bread), the Dutch brood (bread), the Danish & Norwegian brød (bread), the Swedish bröd (bread), the Icelandic brauð (bread), the Albanian brydh (I make crumbly, friable, soft) and the Latin frustum (crumb).  It displaced the non-native Middle English payn (bread), from the Old French pain (bread), having in the twelfth century replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf.  Van was short for caravan, from the Middle French caravane, from the French caravane, from the Old French carvane & carevane, (or the Medieval Latin caravana), from the Persian کاروان‎ (kârvân), from the Middle Persian (kārawān) (group of desert travelers), from the Old Persian ultimately from the primitive Indo-European ker- (army).  Most famously, the word was used to designate a group of people who were travelling by camel or horse on the variety of routes referred to as the Silk Road and it reached the West after being picked up during the Crusades, from the Persian forms via the Arabic qairawan and connected ultimately to the Sanskrit karabhah (camel).  Breadvan (also as bread-van) is a noun; the noun plural is breadvans.

Horse-drawn breadvan.

The breadvans were first horse-drawn and came into use in the in the 1840s.  These vans were used to transport freshly baked bread from bakeries to homes and businesses in cities and towns in the UK, Europe, North America and Australasia.  The breadvan was adopted as an efficiency measure, being a significant improvement on the traditional system of delivery which was usually a “baker’s boy” carrying baskets of bread on foot to customers.  The horse-drawn breadvans allowed bakers increase production and expand their customer base.  The construction of the vehicles was not particularly specialized but they did need to be (1) waterproof to protect the goods from the elements and (2) secure enough that the bread was accessible either to opportunistic birds, dogs or thieves.

Breadvan: Morris Commercial J-type (1949-1961)

The Breadvans

Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) is famous for the cars which carry his name but his imperious attitude to customers and employees alike led to a number of them storming out of Maranello and creating their own machines.  Some, like Lamborghini survived through many ups & downs, others like Bizzarrini survived for a while and ATS (Automobili Turismo Sport) produced a dozen exquisite creations before succumbing to commercial reality.  Another curious product of a dispute with il Commendatore was the Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”.

Ferrari’s 250 GTO became available to customers in 1962 and one with his name on the list was Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata (b 1938), principal of the Scuderia Serenissima Republica di Venezia (ssR) operation but when Enzo Ferrari found out Volpi was one of the financial backers of the ATS project, he scratched the count’s name from the order book.  Through the back channel deals which characterize Italian commerce. Volpi did obtain a GTO but he decided he’d like to make a point and decided to make something even better for his team’s assault on the 1962 Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic.  In the ssR stable was what was reputed to be the world’s fastest Ferrari GT SWB (serial number 2819 GT) and it was decided to update this to to a specification beyond even that of the GTO, a task entrusted to Giotto Bizzarrini (1926-2023) who, with remarkable alacrity, performed the task in the workshops of noted coachbuilder Piero Drogo (1926–1973).

The Breadvan leading a 250 GT SWB, the car on which it was based.

The changes were actually quite radical.  To obtain the ideal centre of gravity, the 3.0 litre (180 cubic inch) V12 engine was shifted 4¾ inches (120 mm) rearward, sitting entirely behind the front axle and mounted lower, something permitted by the installation of a dry sump lubrication system.  Emulating the factory GTO, six downdraft, twin choke Weber carburetors sat atop the inlet manifold, the tuned engine generating a healthy 300 bhp.  Given the re-engineering, on paper, the car was at least a match for the GTO except it lacked the factory machine’s five-speed gearbox, running instead the standard four-speed.  What really caught the eye however was body Bizzarrini’s striking bodywork, the sharp nose so low Perspex cover had to be fabricated to shield the cluster of a dozen velocity stacks of the Webers that protruded above the bonnet-line.  Most extraordinary however was the roofline which extended from the top of the windscreen to the rear where it was sharply cut-off to create what remains perhaps the most extreme Kamm-tail ever executed.

The count was impressed, the creation matching the GTO for power while being 100 kg (220 lb) lighter and aerodynamically more efficient.  Accordingly he included it in the three-car Ferrari team he assembled for Le Mans along with the GTO and a 250 TR/61 and it appearance caused a sensation, the French dubbing it la camionnette (little truck) but it was the English nickname “Breadvan” which really caught on.  To a degree the count proved his point.  Under pressure from Ferrari the organizers forced the Breadvan to run in the prototype class against pure racing cars rather than against the GTOs in the granturismo category but in the race, it outpaced the whole GT field until, after four hours, a broken driveshaft forced its retirement.  It was campaigned four times more in the season scoring two GT class victories and a class track record before being retired.  Volpi sold the car in 1965 for US$2,800 and its current value is estimated to be around US$30 million.  It remains a popular competitor on the historic racing circuit.

1965 Ford GT40 Mark I (left) 1966 Ford J Car (centre) & 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV (right).

As well as the ATS, Lamborghinis and Bizzarrinis, Enzo Ferrari’s attitude to those who disagreed with him also begat the Ford GT40, a well-known tale recounted in the recent film Ford vs Ferrari (20th century Fox, 2019).  In 7.0 litre (427 cubic inch) form, the GT40 Mark II won at Le Mans in 1966 but Ford’s engineers were aware the thing was overweight and lacked the aerodynamic efficiency of the latest designs so embarked on a development program, naming the project the “J Car”, an allusion to the “Appendix J” regulations (one of the FIA’s few genuinely good ideas) with which it conformed.  The aluminum honeycomb chassis was commendably light and, noting the speed advantage gained by the Ferrari Breadvan in 1962, a similar rear section was fabricated and testing confirmed the reduction in drag.  Unfortunately, the additional speed it enabled exposed the limitation of the breadvan lines: Above a certain speed the large flat surface acted like an aircraft’s wing and the ensuing lift provoked lethal instability and in one fatal crash in testing, the lightweight chassis also proved fragile.  The “J Car” and its breadvan was thus abandoned and a more conventional approach was taken for both the chassis and body of the GT40 Mark IV and it proved successful, in 1967 gaining the second of Ford’s four successive victories at Le Mans (1966-1969).

Ford Anglia, Rallye Monte-Carlo, 1962 (left) & Ford Anglia "breadvans" built for New Zealand Allcomer racing during the 1960s. 

Marketing opportunity for niche players: A Lindsay Lohan breadvan, Reykjavik, Iceland.

In the US, Ford spent millions of dollars on the GT40’s abortive breadvan but in New Zealand, it doubtful the amateur racers in the popular “Allcomers” category spent very far into three figures in the development of their “breadvans”.  In the Allcomer category, the “breadvans” (again a nod to the Count Volpi’s 1962 Ferrari) were Ford Anglias with a rear section modified to gain some aerodynamic advantage.  The English Ford Anglia (1959-1968) had an unusual reverse-angle rear-window, a design chosen to optimize the headroom for back-seat passengers.  That it did but it also induced some additional drag which, while of no great consequence at the speeds attained on public roads, did compromise the top speed, something of great concern to those who found the little machines were otherwise ideal for racing.  In the spirit of improvisation for which New Zealand Allcomer racing was renowned, “breadvans” soon proliferated, fabricated variously from fibreglass, aluminum or steel (and reputedly even paper-mache although that may be apocryphal) and the approach was successful, Anglias competitive in some forms of racing well into the 1970s by which time some had, improbably, been re-powered with V8 engines.

Ziggurat

Ziggurat (pronounced zik-kur-at, zik-u-rat or zig-oo-rat)

(1) In the architecture of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, a temple of Sumerian origin in the form of a pyramidal tower, consisting of a number of stories and having about the outside a broad ascent winding round the structure, presenting the appearance of a series of terraces.

(2) In architecture, any structure similar in appearance.

(3) In statistics and mathematical modeling, as ziggurat algorithm, an algorithm for pseudorandom number sampling, relying on an underlying source of uniformly-distributed random numbers as well as computed tables.

1875–1880: Various cited as from the Akkadian word ziqquratu; from the Assyrian ziqqurati (summit, height) or from an extinct Semitic language, derived from a verb meaning "to build on a flat space." The various spellings were zikkurrat, ziqqurrat, ziqqurat (rare) and ziggurat.  Ziggurat is a noun and zigguratic & zigguratical are adjectives; the noun plural is ziggurate or ziggurats.

The Chogha Zanbil ziggurat was built circa 1250 BC by Untash-Napirisha, King of Elam, probably to honour the Elamite god Inshushinak.  Destroyed in 640 BC by Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, part of it was excavated between 1951-1961 by Roman Ghirshman (1895-1979), a Ukrainian-born French archeologist who specialized in ancient Persia.  It was the first Iranian site to be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Ziggurats were massive structures with particular architectural characteristics.  They served as part of a temple complex in the various local religions of Mesopotamia and the flat highlands of what is now western Iran.  Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria were home to about twenty-five ziggurats.  The shape of a ziggurat makes it clearly identifiable.  It has a platform base which is close to square with sides that recede inward as the structure rises and a flat top presumed to have supported some form of a shrine.  Sun-baked bricks form the core of a ziggurat, with fire-baked bricks used for the outer faces and unlike the Egyptian pyramids, a ziggurat was a solid structure with no internal chambers, an external staircase or spiral ramp provided access to the top platform.  The handful of ziggurats still visible are ruins, but, based on the dimensions of their bases, it’s estimated they may have been as much as 150 feet (46m) high.  It’s possible the terraced sides were planted with shrubs and flowering plants, and some scholars have suggested the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), was a ziggurat.  Ziggurats were some of the oldest structures of ancient religions, the first examples dating from circa 2200 BC and the last circa 500 BC; only a few of the Egyptian pyramids predate the oldest ziggurats.  The Tower of Babel is thought to have been a ziggurat.

Depiction of Lindsay Lohan in ziggurat dress, part of the Autumn-Winter 1994-1995 "Staircase Pleats" collection by Japanese designer Issey Miyake (1938-2022).  Miyake San was noted for his technology-focused clothing designs.

Caduceus

Caduceus (pronounced kuh-doo-see-uhs, kuh-doo-syoos, kuh-doo-shuhs or kuh-dyoo-shus)

(1) In Classical Mythology, the staff entwined with two serpents and bearing a pair of wings at the top, carried by Hermes (Mercury) as messenger of the gods.

(2) The official wand carried by a herald in ancient Greece and Rome.

(3) A symbol (☤) representing a staff with two snakes wrapped around it, used to indicate merchants and messengers.  It is often substituted for the staff of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine and the medical profession, the basis for this apparently the adoption of the caduceus by the US Army Medical Corps (USAMC).

1585–1595: From the Latin, a variant of cādūceus & cādūceum, from the Doric Ancient Greek καρύκειον (kārȳ́keion) (herald's wand or staff), this and the Attic Greek κηρύκειον (kērúkeion) derived from κῆρυξ (kêrux) (herald, public messenger), the construct being kārȳk- (stem of kârȳx) (herald) + -eion, neuter of -eios (the adjectival suffix).  The word was related to κηρύσσω (kērússō) (I announce).  Caduceus is a noun and caducean is an adjective; the noun plural is caducei.

Staff of Caduceus.

A long tradition of use seems to have created the impression the caduceus is the true symbol of medicine rather than the classically correct staff of Asclepius.  Winged with two serpents coiling around it, it represented Hermes (and the Roman Mercury), the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.  By extension, the caduceus became also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals (if not always common practice).  However, nothing in the Classical tradition associated the caduceus with medicine or physicians.

Staff of Asclepius.

The true symbol of matters medical was the Staff of Asclepius.  In Greek mythology, Asclepius, the son of Apollo the physician, was the deity associated with healing and medicinal arts.  Such was his skill he surpassed his reputation of his father and was believed to be able to evade death and to bring others back to life from the brink of death and beyond.  There has long been debate about the significance of the serpents and although in Greek mythology snakes were considered sacred, there have been many theories offered to account for the association with healing.  One idea was the snake may symbolize rejuvenation (on the basis of the way in which the reptiles shed their skin) while an alternative explanation was it represented the healing of snakebites. 

Asclepiusian: Lindsay Lohan as a compelling (if unconvincing) nurse, Maroon 5 Halloween Bash, October 2011.

The significance of the staff was even more practical and may have been an allusion to the traditional treatment of a parasitic nematode called Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm) in which, doctors would cut a slit in the skin right in its path and, when it poked its head from the wound, take a small stick and slowly wrap the worm around it until it was fully removed. The infection is relatively rare today, but the same method of extraction is still used.  The erroneous use of the caduceus as the symbol of medicine appears dates from its adoption in 1902 as the insignia of the US Army Medical Corps (USAMC), many commercial, academic and governmental institutions following the military’s lead.  The choice in 1902 however was no mistake and the caduceus was the deliberate choice of Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg (1838-1915; US Army Surgeon General 1893-1902) who was attracted to the idea of it as a symbol of neutrality and non-aggression, as it was also used as a flag of truce and safe passage (a token of a peaceful embassy, it was originally an olive branch).  A bacteriologist dedicated to the scientific method, he believed that the caduceus would be a more fitting symbol for the medical corps than the Rod of Asclepius, which he felt was too closely associated with mythology and religion.

Official portrait of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (b 1947; governor of Massachusetts 2003-2007, junior US senator (R-Utah) since 2019) unveiled in a ceremony on the Grand Staircase at the Statehouse, Boston, July 2009.

Governor Romney’s official gubernatorial portrait was notable for the inclusion of a nested image of his wife (Ann, b 1949, the one with the “two Cadillacs”), something not included in the paintings of his 69 predecessors in the governor’s mansion.  That would have made the 52 x 37” (1320 x 920 mm) painting interesting enough for amateur psychiatrists but it included also a leather-bound folder carefully placed on the desk and embossed with a gold-colored caduceus.  This the governor wanted as a representation of the Massachusetts health-care bill he signed into law in 2006.

The artist, Richard Whitney (b 1949), was interviewed and revealed working the symbol into the work presented a greater challenge to the painting’s composition than the inclusion of Mrs Romney.  He sketched concepts with the symbol in a frame on the desk and another with it mounted on the wall but neither proved satisfactory and it was only a chance viewing of the leather folder used to hold legislation awaiting the governor’s signature which provided the inspiration.  That proved artistically uncontroversial, unlike the nested image of Mrs Romney, the state art committee which oversees official portraits objecting on the basis it had never been done before.  This was however the United States and in the spirit of the Medici, Governor Romney reminded the committee members he was paying for the portrait and he could have on it whatever he wanted.  His wishes prevailed but the artist did insist only one of them could be smiling; both would have been too much.

Bilateral

Bilateral (pronounced bahy-lat-er-uhl)

(1) Pertaining to, involving, or affecting two or both sides, factions, parties, or the like.

(2) Located on opposite sides of an axis; two-sided, especially when of equal size, value etc.

(3) In anatomy and biology, pertaining to the right and left sides of a structure (especially in the region furthest from the median plane).

(4) In contract law, binding the parties to reciprocal obligations.

(5) In anthropology, relating to descent through both maternal and paternal lineage.

(6) In the British education system, a course combining academic and technical components.

(7) In physics, acting or placed at right angles to a line of motion or strain.

(8) In phonetics and phonology, of a consonant (especially the English clear l), pertaining to sounds generated by partially blocking the egress of the airstream with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, leaving space on one or both sides of the occlusion for air passage.

1775: The construct is bi + lateral.  Bi-, in the sense of the word-forming element (two, having two, twice, double, doubly, twofold, once every two etc) is from the from Latin bis (twice) or bīnus (double), from the Old Latin which was cognate with the Sanskrit dvi-, the Ancient Greek di- & dis-, the Old English twi- and the German zwei- (twice, double), all from the primitive Indo-European PIE root dwo- (two), ultimate source also of the Modern English duo.  Bilateral is a noun & adjective, bilateralist, bilateralization, bilaterality & bilateralism are nouns and bilaterally is an adverb; the common noun plural is bilaterals.

It may have been in use before but was certainly nativized during the sixteenth century.  The occasionally bin- before vowels was a form which originated in French, not Latin although it’s suggested this may have been influenced by the Latin bini (twofold), the familiar example being “binary”.  In computing, it’s most associated with zero-one distinction in the sense of off-on and in chemistry, it denotes two parts or equivalents of the substance referred to although there are rules and conventions of use to avoid confusion with stuff named using the Greek prefix di- such as carbon dioxide (CO₂).  In general use, words built with bi- prefix can cause confusion.  While biennial (every two years) seems well understood, other constructs probably due to rarity remain, ambiguous: fortnightly is preferable to biweekly and using “every two months” or “twice a month” as required removes all doubt.

Lateral was first adopted as verb in the 1640s from the fourteenth century Old French lateral, directly from Latin laterālis (belonging to the side), a derivation of latus (genitive lateris) (the side, flank of humans or animals, lateral surface) of uncertain origin.  As a noun (and as “bilateral”), the precise definitional meaning "situated on either side of the median vertical longitudinal plane of the body" is from 1722.   Equilateral (all sides equal) was first used in mathematics in the 1560s, a borrowing from the Latin aequilateralis, aequi- being the suffix- meaning “equal”; contra-lateral (occurring on the opposite side) is from 1871; the adjective ipsilateral (on the same side of the body), bolting on the Latin ipse- suffix (self) dates from 1907; the use in US football to describe a lateral pass seems to have appeared in print first in 1934.  Multilateral and trilateral seem to have been seventeenth century inventions from geometry, the more familiar modern applications in international diplomacy not noted until 1802.

Conventions of use

Although one would have to be imaginative, with the Latin, there’s little limit to the compound words one could construct to describe the number of sides of a thing.  The words, being as unique as whole numbers, would also be infinite.  Whether many would be linguistically useful is doubtful; sextilateral may mislead and ūndēquadrāgintālateral (thirty nine sided) seems a complicated solution to a simple problem.

Unilateral             One-sided
Bilateral               Two-sided
Trilateral              Three-sided
Quadrilateral        Four-sided
Quintilateral         Five-sided
Sextilateral          Six-sided
Septilateral          Seven-sided
Octolateral           Eight-sided
Novilateral           Nine-sided
Decilateral           Ten-sided
Centilateral          Hundred-sided
Millelateral           Thousand-sided

The modern convention appears to be to stop at trilateral and thereafter, when describing gatherings of four or more, adopt multilateral or phrases like four-power or six-party.  Trilateral seem still manageable, adopted not only by governmental entities but also by the Trilateral Commission (founded in 1973 with members from Japan, the US, and Europe), a remarkably indiscrete right-wing think-tank.  However, in the organically pragmatic evolution of English, there it tends to stop, quadrilateral now most associated with Euclidean plane geometry (there are seven quadrilateral polygons) and used almost exclusively in that discipline and other strains of mathematics.  Outside of mathematics, it was only in the formal language of diplomacy that quadrilateral was used with any frequency.  The agreement of 15 July 1840, (negotiated between Lord Palmerston (1784-1865; variously UK prime-minister or foreign secretary on several occasions 1830-1865) and Nicholas I (1796–1855; Tsar of Russia 1825-1855) to tidy up things in the Mediterranean) between Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia was formalised as a quadrilateral treaty but the word fell from favour with quadruple alliance preferred for a later European arrangement.

Bilateral diplomacy: Lindsay Lohan meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye since 2003), Ankara, 27 January 2017.

Although many of the wonks in the foreign policy establishment like to dream of a world in which everything is settled by multi-lateral discussions, in the world of the realists, it's understood the core of conflicts (which are the central dynamic of international relations) are bilateral.  Accordingly, most efforts are devoted to bilateral discussions.  In the business of predictions, it's also the relationships between two states which absorbs most of the thoughts of pundits and the long-term projections of those in the field can make interesting reading, decades later.  In 1988, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) published 1999: Victory Without War, which with no false modesty he suggested was "...a how-to guide in foreign police for whomever was elected president in November 1988".  Given that, it's not surprising one passage has attracted recent comment: "...in the twenty-first century the Sino-US relationship will be one of the most important, and one of the most mutually beneficial, bilateral relationships in the world."  Things do appear to have worked out differently but there is a school of thought that the leadership of Xi Jinping (b 1953; general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013) is an aberration and that his replacement is likely to be one who pursues a more cooperative foreign and economic policy because that is more likely to be in China's long-term (ie a century ahead) interest.      

Rare too is the more recent diplomatic creation, the pentalateral (five-power) treaty of which there appear to have been but two.  One was signed on 23 December 1950 between the United States, France, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.  It didn’t end well.  The other pentalateral treaty was sealed in Tehran during October 2007 between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, the littoral countries of the Caspian Sea and was a mechanism to avoid squabbles while carving up resources.  Some assemblies are better described in other ways.  When the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK & the US) plus Germany formed a now defunct standing committee to deal with issues raised by Iran’s nuclear programme, although a sextilateral, it was instead dubbed P5+1 although in Brussels, the eurocrats preferred E3+3.

Six men briefing the media about their sextilateral.  The chief negotiators of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Daioyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing, 23 December 2006.

Tamper

Tamper (pronounced tam-per)

(1) To meddle, especially for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing (usually followed by with).

(2) To make changes in something, especially in order to falsify (usually followed by with).

(3) Secretly or improperly to engage in something; to engage in underhand or corrupt dealings, especially in order to influence improperly (usually followed by with); to use corrupt practices such as bribery or blackmail.

(4) In the profession of blasting, an employee who tamps (to fill a hole containing an explosive with dirt or clay before blasting) or a device used to tamp.

(5) As “jury tampering”, an attempt by various means to influence a member or members of a jury.

(6) A device used to pack down tobacco in a pipe.

(7) In the construction of thermo-nuclear weapons, a casing around the core to increase specific efficiency by reflecting neutrons and delaying the expansion.

(8) In rail transport, a railway vehicle used to tamp down ballast.

(9) In law, to attempt to practice or administer something (especially medicine) without sufficient knowledge or qualifications (obsolete).

(10) In North America, to discuss future contracts with a player, against the rules of various sanctioning bodies in professional sports.

1560–1570: From the Middle English tamper, From the Middle French temprer (to temper, mix, meddle) and a doublet of temper.  The word began in Middle English as a verb, a figurative use of tamper “to work in clay etc, mixing it thoroughly”, probably originally a variant of the verb temper (and that original spelling persisted in places as late as the late eighteenth century), the shift to “tamper” possibly influenced by the dialectal pronunciation of workmen engaged in the process.  The noun tamper (one employed to tamp) emerged circa 1865 as an agent noun from the verb and almost simultaneously was used also as a descriptor of devices used for tamping.  The adjective tamperproof (also tamper-proof) dates from 1886 and the related forms (anti-tampering, tamper-evident, tamper-resistant) were coined as technology evolved.  Tamper & tampering are nouns & verbs, tamperer is a noun, tamperproof is a noun & adjective and tampered & tamperest are verbs; the common noun plural is tamperers.

The (almost) tamper-proof SCRAM

Alcohol monitoring bracelets are claimed by the manufacturer to be tamper-proof (as opposed to the less confident “tamper-resistant” sometimes used) and on the basis of the findings of the last decade-odd they may be close to correct.  The devices used to be marketed as the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM) but SCRAM Systems re-branded as Alcohol Monitoring Systems Inc (AMS) and change the product name to AMS bracelets although in real-world use, both AMS SCRAM bracelets and the old SCRAM remain commonly heard.  Quite why they’ve always been called bracelets when, being attached around the ankle, they should properly be called anklets, is one of the mysteries of modern English.  One reason a SCRAM is so hard successfully to tamper with is its very simplicity: It keeps track of the wearer's alcohol intake by a sample of their sweat.  When someone drinks liquor, some 1% of it is emitted through the skin's pores and when these molecules are detected by a SCRAM’s sensors, the content is measured and recorded.  The sensors pass the data to an analysis chip which is calibrated to gauge exactly how much alcohol was consumed, this information transmitted wirelessly to an AMS server which hourly passes the findings to whichever court (or their agent) ordered the fitting of the SCRAM.

Lindsay Lohan in AMS SCRAM bracelet.

The simplicity of the process means that even if the wearer tampers with it by plunging their foot into cold water (thereby stopping the sweating), even that would flag a waring because the reading would be recorded as aberrant in the hourly data transmission and the inconsistency would trigger a response from the court.  Apparently, offenders are informed of the efficiency of the device when fitted but the manufacturer has noted some innovative attempts to bluff the booze box.  Some have tried to place cellophane, aluminium foil, animal membrane or condoms between skin sensor, others attempting to emulate human skin by using baloney, salami, sliced ham or even chicken skin.  All attempts have been defeated however because SCRAMs include other sensors including one which monitors temperature and another which triggers an alarm if the strap is stretched beyond a certain point.  Human skin has specific properties and if variations on an acceptable range of those parameters are detected, there’s an infrared beam which measures the volume of light reflected by the skin.  Cellophane, foil and other surfaces all trip the infrared alarm as they reflect differently than human skin.

Another popular attempt at tampering turned out to be known as “spiking the bracelet”, the preferred technique being liberally to spray the ankle with a perfume or other topical substance known to have a high alcohol content.  What this does is induce the sensor to report an impossibly high alcohol level and although it certainly masks any actual alcoholic intake, such tampering is itself a violation of the terms imposed by the court and an offender can be brought before a judge who may revoke the order imposing the use of the SCRAM (regarded as a privilege) and impose an immediate custodial sentence.

Ambiguous

Ambiguous (pronounced am-big-yoo-uhs)

(1) Open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal.

(2) In linguistics, of an expression exhibiting constructional homonymity; having two or more structural descriptions.

(3) Of doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, distinguish, or classify.

1528: From the late Middle English ambiguous (of doubtful or uncertain nature, open to various interpretations) Latin ambiguus (moving from side to side, of doubtful or uncertain nature, open to various interpretations), from ambigere (to dispute about (figuratively "to hesitate, waver; be in doubt" and literally “to wander; go about; go around”) the present active infinitive of ambigō from ambi (around) +‎ agō or agere (I drive, move).  The first known citation in English is in the writings of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) in 1528 but most scholars maintain the noun ambiguity had been in use since circa 1400 in the sense of "uncertainty, doubt, indecision, hesitation", from the Old French ambiguite and directly from Latin ambiguitatem (nominative ambiguitas) (double meaning, equivocalness, double sense), the noun of state from ambiguus (having double meaning, doubtful),  The meaning "obscurity in description" emerged in the early fifteenth century.  The adjective unambiguous dated from the 1630s while the noun disambiguation (removal of ambiguity) is documented since 1827.  Ambiguous is an adjective, ambiguate is a verb and ambiguity, ambiguation & ambiguousness are nouns; the most common noun plural is ambiguities. 

Structural ambiguity, syntactic ambiguity & lexical ambiguity

One of the core concepts in structural linguistics is that the meaning of many combination or words (ie a compound, sentence or phrase) is derived not merely from the meanings of the individual words but also from the way in which they’re combined.  It’s a simple idea which academics have managed to make sound complex, calling the process “compositionality” (that meaning is a construct of word meanings plus morphosyntactic structures).  So, because a structure can contribute to meaning, it follows that changing the order of the words can lead to a different meaning even if the same words are used.  When a word, phrase, or sentence has more than one meaning, it is ambiguous and “ambiguous” has a specific meaning in structural linguistics because it doesn’t mean simply that a meaning is vague or unclear: It means two or more distinct meanings are available and this is called structural ambiguity or syntactic ambiguity (as distinct from when a word has more than one distinct meaning which is known as lexical ambiguity.  Sometimes, the intended meaning can be unclear but often context can be used to assist the deconstruction.  When in December 2017, several news outlets reported, “Lindsay Lohan bitten by snake on holiday in Thailand”, few actually believed serpents take holidays and assumed instead grammatical standards had fallen since sub-editors went extinct.

China, the renegade province of Taiwan and strategic ambiguity

Taiwan (aka Formosa) is an island off the coast of China which separated, politically, from the mainland in 1949.  The Chinese government regards Taiwan as “a renegade province”; the island’s administration maintains a position of structural autonomy without actually declaring independence.  Since 1950, the US has maintained a security guarantee for the de facto independence of Taiwan which has been sometimes explicit, sometimes vague, the latter paradigm known as a policy of strategic ambiguity.

The origins of the guarantee lie in the Korean War.  In 1950, Dean Acheson (1893–1971; US secretary of state 1949-1953) delineated the US security perimeter in Asia and included neither Taiwan nor South Korea.  Chinese leader Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong 1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976) and Kim Il-sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK (North Korea) 1948-1994), in an interpretation endorsed by their senior partner, Comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), concluded Washington would not defend either country.  The DPRK acted first, invading South Korea in June 1950 which shocked the US into assembling a military response under the flag of the UN and, fearing further Communist incursions in Asia, sent the Seventh Fleet to deter any attempt by Peking to invade Taiwan.

In 1954, China probed US policy by shelling some Taiwanese islands in what came to be known as the First Taiwan Strait Crisis; the US responded by entering into defense treaties with both Taiwan and South Korea.  The probing continued, notably with the second crisis in 1958 and in the 1960 presidential campaign, both candidates, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) and John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963), pledged to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression.  During the 1960s, in a kind of military choreography, US-China standoffs continued.  By 1972, things had changed.  The US sought China’s assistance, both to extricate themselves from the quagmire of the Vietnam War and to become something of a strategic partner against the USSR, Peking having long split from Moscow.  In a communique issued from Shanghai, Washington affirmed Peking’s “one China” principle that Taiwan is part of China saying it was a matter for China and Taiwan to work out the relationship peacefully. 

The nine dash line.

Despite that, the US-Taiwan Treaty remained but it needed now to be viewed in the context of Richard Nixon's Guam Doctrine, issued in 1969, in which the president noted "…the US would assist in the defense… of allies and friends" but would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world."  For Taiwan, and presumably everyone else, strategic ambiguity thus began.  Seven years after the Shanghai statement, later, the Carter administration recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC, the old Red China), severed formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and terminated the treaty.  Strategic ambiguity has shrouded Washington’s position on Taiwan ever since.  US presidents have on occasion suggested both something more robust and something less so it appears to remain the position that the US might defend Taiwan were China to invade but it might not.  It would depend on the circumstances.  For seventy-odd years, the US position has been enough to deter China from exercising the military option to restore the renegade province to the motherland but a multi-dimensional chess game will play-out over the next decade in the South China Sea.

Luddite

Luddite (pronounced luhd-ahyt)

(1) A member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–1816) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment.

(2) Someone opposed or resistant to new technologies or technological change.

(3) Of or relating to the Luddites

1805–1815: Said to be named after a Mr Ned Ludd, a Leicestershire worker who in the late eighteenth century, a fit of rage destroyed mechanical knitting machines he believed were threatening his livelihood by displacing him from his job.  There is doubt (1) whether there was an actual mill worker called Ned Ludd and (2) whether the famous act of industrial sabotage really happened in the circumstances described.  The origin of the name Ludd can be traced to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of the British Isles and was occupational, used by those employed as pages or servants, the Old English Ladde a term which described a household servant.  That’s generally accepted among genealogists but there are sources which note that in the Old English and Scotch, the word lade meant “a canal or duct for water” and that Ludd evolved as a geographical name, used to describe one who worked near or lived on the banks of a waterway.  It’s entirely possible the two forms evolved separately and while the name was probably in use earlier, the first traces of it in the parish records of England appear circa 1100 variously as Ladda, Ladde, le Ladd, Ludd & Ludde.  Variations in spelling were common and it wasn’t until the late Middle English that a widespread standardization can be said to have begun and because elements of Greek, the various flavours of Latin, French and Germanic languages mixed with the native tongues of the British Isles, the influences were many, the differences in pronunciation accounting for at least some of the variations.  Related to what would become the lineage of Ludd included Ladd, Ladde, Laddey, Ladds, Lade, Ladey, Laddy and others.  The -ite suffix was from the French -ite, from the Old French, from the Latin -ītēs, from the Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs).  It had a wide application including (1) the formation of nouns denoting the followers or adherents of a individual, doctrine or movement etc, (2) the formation of nouns denoting descendants of a certain historic (real or mythical) figure (widely used of biblical identities), (3) the formations of demonyms, (4) in geology the formation of nouns denoting rocks or minerals, (5) in archeology, the formation of nouns denoting fossil organisms, (6) in biology & pathology to form nouns denoting segments or components of the body or an organ of the body, (7) in industry & commerce to form nouns denoting the product of a specified process or manufactured product & (8) in chemistry to form names of certain chemical compounds (historically especially salts or esters of acids with names with the suffix –ous).  Luddite & Ludditism are nouns; the noun plural is Luddites.

The Luddites were a social movement of textile workers in England during the early nineteenth century who protested against the introduction into factories of machinery, their concern being their jobs would be lost and they and their families would face destitution because they would be forced into manual labor at a very low rate of pay.  Real though the movement was, there is no documentary evidence to support the suggestion a Mr Ned Ludd was a real figure associated with the Luddites and the English parish records of the era are comprehensive and regarded as accurate.  Historians have trawled through the ledgers covering the relevant decades and have been unable to verify that a Mr Ned Ludd was ever employed in the factories.  The consensus is that the identity of Ned Ludd was a construct with which the cause of the workers could be identified although whether the name emerged organically from the movement or was created by a writer as a narrative device is unknown.

Lindsay Lohan with sledge-hammer demonstrating a Luddite technique by attacking Volvo.  This wasn’t an industrial protest and was actually an event staged to protest about the cancellation of a television show.  Actually, a sledge-hammer or some other suitable tool may have been what the Luddites used for their sabotage.  English picked up sabotage from the French saboter (deliberately to damage, wreck or botch), used originally to refer to the tactic used in industrial disputes by workers wearing the wooden shoes called sabots who disrupted production in various ways.  The persistent myth is that the origin of the term lies in the practice of workers throwing the wooden sabots into factory machinery to interrupt production but the tale appears apocryphal, one account even suggesting sabot-clad workers were simply considered less productive than others who had switched to leather shoes, roughly equating the term sabotage with inefficiency.

Even the extent to which weavers (and other factory workers) actually sabotaged machines in the manner of the legendary of Ned Ludd is unclear and while it clear from the reports of the time there were instances of sabotage, it does appear they were sporadic and opportunistic acts and certainly not part of a planned movement, much less a revolutionary one.  However, the term has endured to be applied broadly to encompass anyone who opposes new technology or social change and it’s now rarely used with any hit the recipient is contemplating violent resistance.  In this sense, the term is often used in a pejorative way to describe individuals or groups who are seen as reactionary or obstructionist.  Ludditism can exist even at high technological levels, some users accustomed to the familiarity of certain apps or operating systems resistant to change, usually on the basis that the change offers no benefits and sometimes even brings disadvantages.