Malefic

Malefic (pronounced muh-lef-ik)

(1) Productive of evil; malign; doing harm; baneful.

(2) In astrology, as malefic planet, those heavenly bodies believed to exert a negative or challenging influence on individuals when prominent in a person's birth chart or during specific planetary transits.

1645–1655: From the Latin maleficus (evil-doing, wicked), the construct being male- (badly; wrongly) + -ficus (the suffix denoting making or doing).  The Latin male was from malus (bad, wicked), from the Proto-Italic malos and related to the Oscan mallom and mallud (bad) which wqs probably related to the primitive Indo-European mel- (to deceive) and cognate with the Lithuanian melas (lie) and the first element of the Ancient Greek βλάσφημος (blásphēmos) (jinx).  The alternative etymology is that the source was the primitive Indo-European smal- & mal- which would make it a cognate with the English "small".  Historically, it was thought associated with the Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas) (black, dark), but modern etymologists increasingly doubt this and any link with either the Avestan (mairiia) (treacherous) and the Sanskrit मल (mala) (dirtiness, impurity) remains uncertain.  The most familiar modern use of the form is probably the word maleficence.  Malefic is a useful word to have in one’s vocabulary because it’s a handy substitute for “evil” and its rarity adds interest to a text.  Malefic is a noun & adjective, maleficent is an adjective, malefically is an adverb and maleficence is a noun; the plural forms are malefic & malefics depending on the context.

The 2016 US presidential election: malefactor vs malefactress.

A malefactor is “a man who violates the law or is an evildoer”.  It was from the Middle English malefactour, from the Late Latin malefactor, from the Latin malefaciō, the construct being male (evilly) + factus (made or done), past participle of facio (I make or do).  The feminine form is malefactress (a woman who violates the law or is an evildoer).  The -ess suffix was from the Middle English -esse, from the Old French -esse, from the Late Latin -issa, from the Ancient Greek -ισσα (-issa) and was appended to words to create the female form.   It displaced the Old English -en (feminine suffix of nouns).

Lindsay Lohan’s birth chart; malefically speaking, it could have been worse.

In astrology, malefic planets are those believed to exert a negative or challenging influence on individuals when prominent in a person's birth chart or during specific planetary transits, astrologers noting these planets bring difficulties, obstacles, and adverse effects in various aspects of life.  Historically, the malefic planets were Saturn, Mars, Rahu (North Node of the Moon), and Ketu (South Node of the Moon):

Saturn: The most malefic planet in astrology, it’s associated with limitations, delays, restrictions, and hardships while governing areas such as discipline, responsibility, karma, and the lessons of life.

Mars: Mars is associated with energy, aggression, and assertiveness. It can bring forth conflicts, accidents, impulsiveness, and aggressive behavior if poorly positioned or afflicted in a birth chart.

Rahu: The North Node of the Moon, it represents worldly desires, obsession, and illusion.  If well placed in one’s chart, it can bestow material success and create opportunities but when malefic, it induces confusion & makes one a likely victim of deception.

Ketu: The South Node of the Moon, it represents spirituality, detachment, and karmic lessons so it can confer spiritual growth and liberation but its malefic influence will manifest as separation, torment or loss.

Egregious

Egregious (pronounced ih-gree-juhs)

(1) Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant.

(2) Extraordinary in some good way; distinguished or eminent (archaic).

1525–1535: From the Middle English, from the Latin ēgregius (preeminent; outstanding, literally “standing out from the herd”), the construct being ē- (out (and in Latin an alternative to ex-)) + greg-, stem of grēx (flock, herd) + -ius.  Grēx was from the primitive Indo-European hzger- (to assemble, gather together) which influenced also the Spanish grey (flock, crowd), the Lithuanian gurguole (mass, crowd) and gurgulys (chaos, confusion), the Old Church Slavonic гроусти (grusti) (handful), the Sanskrit गण (gaṇá) (flock, troop, group) and ग्राम (grā́ma) (troop, collection, multitude; village, tribe), and the Ancient Greek ἀγείρω (ageírō) (I gather, collect) (from whence came ἀγορά (agorá)).  The link to the Proto-Germanic kruppaz (lump, round mass, body, crop) is contested.  The English –ous was a Middle English borrowing from the Old French -ous and –eux from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of) and is as doublet of -ose in unstressed position; it was used to form adjectives from nouns and to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, most commonly in abundance.  Egregious is an adjective, egregiously is an adverb and egregiousness is a noun; the noun plural is the delicious egregiousnesses.

Meaning adaptation & shift

There are many words in English where meaning has in some way or to some degree shifted but egregious is one of the rarities which now means the opposite of what it once did.  There are others such as nice which used to mean “silly, foolish, simple”; silly which morphed from referring to things “worthy or blessed” to meaning “weak and vulnerable” before assuming its modern sense; awful which used to describe something “worthy of awe” and decimate, once a Roman military term to describe a death-rate around 10% whereas it implies now a survival rate about that number.  In English, upon its sixteenth century adoption from Latin, egregious was a compliment, a way to suggest someone was distinguished or eminent.  That egregiously clever English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was flattering a colleague when he remarked, "I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are…" which would today be thought an insult.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that in 1534, egregious unambiguously meant "remarkable, in a good sense" but as early as 1573, people were also using it to mean "remarkable, in a bad sense."  The documentary evidence appears sparse but the OED speculates the meaning started to switch because people were using the word sarcastically or at least with some gentle irony.  In the linguistically democratic manner in which English evolves, the latter prevailed, presumably because people felt there were quite enough ways to compliment others but were anxious always to add another insult to the lexicon.  Shakespeare, with his ear for the vernacular, perhaps helped.  Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) employed it in the older sense in his Tamburlaine (1590), writing of “egregious viceroys of these eastern parts…” but within a generation, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) has Posthumus condemn himself in Cymbeline (1611) in the newer condemnatory sense: “egregious murderer”, echoing his earlier use in All's Well That Ends Well (1605).  Both meanings appear to have operated in parallel until the eighteenth century which must have hurt a few feelings or perhaps, in an age of dueling, something more severe.

Imogen Sleeping (from Shakespeare's Cymbeline), circa 1899 by Norman Mills Price (1877–1951).

In southern Europe however, the bard’s words failed to seduce the Romance languages.  The Italian formal salutation egregio is entirely reverential, as are the both the Spanish and Portuguese cognates, egregio and egrégio.

Submerge

Submerge (pronounced suhb-murj)

(1) To put or sink below the surface of water or any other enveloping medium.

(2) To cover or overflow with water; to immerse.

(3) Figuratively, to cover over; suppress; conceal; obscure; repress.

(4) To overwhelm (with work, problems etc).

(5) To sink or plunge under water or beneath the surface of any enveloping medium.

(6) Literally & figuratively, to be covered or lost from sight.

1600–1610: From the fourteenth century submerger or the Latin submergere (to plunge under, sink, overwhelm), the construct being sub- + mergere (to dip, to immerse; to plunge), the construct in English thus sub + merge.  The sub- prefix was from the Latin sub (under), from the Proto-Italic supo (under), from the primitive Indo-European upó.  The transitive form was the original, the intransitive (sink under water, sink out of sight) dating from the 1650s and becoming common in the twentieth century because of the association with submarines.  Used by submariners and others, the derived forms (resubmerge, resubmerged, resubmerging, unsubmerging et al are coined as needed and the word submerge is a little unusual in that it can be used to describe both an object going underwater (like a submarine) and water flooding somewhere (like a valley when a dam is built).  Submerge, submerged & submerging are verbs, submerse is a verb & adjective, submersible & submergible are nouns & adjectives, submersion, submerger & submergence are nouns and submersive is an adjective; the noun plural is submersibles.

The noun submersion in the sense of “suffocation by being plunged into water” was first noted in the mid-fifteenth century and was from the Late Latin submersionem (nominative submersio) (a sinking, submerging), the noun of action from the past participle stem of submergere; the general sense emerged in the early seventeenth century.  The transitive verb submerse (to submerge, plunge) was an early fifteenth century form, from the Latin submersus, past participle of submergere and etymologists suggest the modern use (dating from the 1700s) was a back-formation from submersion. The adjective submersible was formed from submerse and was noted first in 1862, the creation necessitated by the building of one of the early “submarines” used by the Confederate forces in the US Civil War (1861-1865).  The term “submersible craft” lasted for a while in admiralty use but was in the early 1900s supplanted by submarine and the alternative adjective submergible (dating from 1820) is probably extinct although there may be the odd technical niche in which it endures.

Lindsay Lohan, partially submerged, Miami, Florida, May 2011.

Fairly obviously, the construct of submarine was sub + marine.  Marine was from the early fifteenth century Middle English marin, from the Middle French marin, from the Old French, from the Latin marinus (of the sea), from mare (sea), from the primitive Indo-European móri (body of water, lake).  It was cognate with the Old English mere (sea, lake, pool, pond), the Dutch meer and the German Meer, all from the Proto-Germanic mari.  Just as obviously then it means “underwater” and that certainly accords with the modern understanding of the concept of a submarine (which the Admiralty once called “submarine-boats” and ever since, submarines, regardless of size, “boats” they have been even though some, such as the Russian Navy’s Typhoon-class submarines with a length of about 175 meters (574 feet) and a displacement of around 48,000 tons (when submerged) are larger and heavier than many ships in the surface fleet) but for the first few decades of their existence, they were better understood as “submersible boats”.  That was because they were compelled to spend most of their time on the surface, submerging only while attacking or when there was fear of detection.  However, despite them being “boats” both the US Navy and Royal Navy continue respectively to prefix their names with USS (United States Ship) and HMS (His Majesty’s Ship), ignoring anyone who points out the inconsistency.

Confederate States of America man-powered underwater boat CSS H. L. Hunley (1863-1864).

Quite when man first pondered the possibility of an “underwater boat” isn’t known but just as flight fascinated the ancients as they gazed at birds, presumably so did the fishes intrigue.  Sketches from the medieval period which appear to be “designs” for “underwater boats” have been discovered but as far as is known, it wasn’t until the 1500s that prototypes were tested and a proof-of-concept exercises some can be considered a qualified success and there were even innovations still used today such as ballast tanks but the limitations imposed by the lack of lightweight, independent power sources meant none appear to have been thought useful, certainly not for the (predictably) military purposes for which so many were intended.  The idea didn’t die however and over the centuries many inventors were granted patents for this and that and the what all seem to have concluded was that, given the available technology, an underwater boat would have to be a short range weapon capable of limited duration while submerged and man-powered by a crew of probably no more than two.  Given that, development stagnated.

The planned German Type 50 U-boat which was never launched (1918).

However, improvements in metallurgy continued and by the mid-nineteenth century, several underwater boats had been built in Europe although the admirals remained sceptical, an attitude which by many wasn’t revised even after 1864 when the one which entered service with the Confederate Navy during the US Civil War succeeded in sinking a warship nearly 200 times her displacement of 7-off tons.  However, because the method of attack was a explosive device on a long spar (the technique to ram the charge into the ship’s hull), the explosion damaged both craft to the extent both were lost.  That seemed to confirm the admirals’ view but technology moved on and by the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918), submarines were an integral part of many navies, their usefulness made possible by the combination of diesel-electric propulsion and the development of the torpedo which meant charges detonated at a safe distance.  However, they remained submersible boats which could operate underwater only briefly.  Despite that, they proved devastatingly effective and in 1917 the Imperial German Navy’s Unterwasserboot (underwater boat (usually clipped to U-Boat)) flotillas were a genuine threat to the UK’s ability to continue the war.

German Type XII Elektroboot (1945).

In World War II (1939-1945), the course of the war could have been very different had OKM (Oberkommando der Marine; the high command of the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy 1935-1945)) followed the advice of the commander of the submarines and made available a fleet of 300 rather than building a surface fleet which wasn’t large enough to be a strategic threat but of sufficient size to absorb resources which, if devoted to submarines, could have been militarily effective.  With a fleet of 300, it would have been possible permanently to maintain around 100 at sea but at the outbreak of hostilities, only 57 active boats were on the navy’s list, not all of which were suitable for operations on the high seas so in the early days of the conflict, it was rare for the Germans to have more than 12 committed to battle in the Atlantic.  Production never reached the levels necessary for the numbers to achieve critical mass but even so, in the first two-three years of the war the losses sustained by the British were considerable and the “U-Boat menace” was such a threat that much attention was devoted to counter-measures and by 1943 the Allies could consider the battle of the Atlantic won.  The Germans’ other mistake was not building a true submarine capable of operating underwater (and therefore undetected) for days at a time.  It was only in 1945 when the armaments staff and OKM were assessing their “revolutionary” new design that it was concluded there was no reason why such craft couldn’t have been built in the 1930s because the capacity and technology existed even then.  It was a classic case of what Donald Rumsfeld (1932–2021: US defense secretary 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) would later call an “unknown known”.  The Germans in 1939 knew how to build a modern submarine but didn’t know that they knew.  Despite the improvements however, military analysts have concluded that even if deployed in numbers, such was the strength of forces arrayed against Nazi Germany that by 1945, not even such a force could have been enough to turn the tide of war.

Royal Navy Dreadnought class SSBN (Submarine, Ballistic Missile, Nuclear-powered), due to enter service in the 2030s.The concept the Germans in 1945 demonstrated in the Type XXI Elektroboot (electric boat) provided the model for post-war submarines which, once nuclear-powered, were able to remain submerged theoretically for decades, the only limitations in functional duration being the supply of food and the psychological strain on the crew.  This ability explains why they’re used by members of the “nuclear club” such as China, France, Russia, the UK & US operate them as part of their independent deterrents, equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), armed with nuclear warheads.  At this time, the boats are undetectable and they’re still been updated or replaced but there are suggestions advances in the capability of underwater sensors might erode or even remove this advantage which would mean the submarine would follow the big bomber, the battle ship and debatably the aircraft carrier as a once dominant weapon, the time of which has passed.  Already there are those in think tanks pondering whether the loss invulnerability of the SLMB platform would make war more or less likely.  Certainly, such a situation might change the math of the preemptive strike.

Cardigan

Cardigan (pronounced kahr-di-guhn)

(1) A usually collarless knitted sweater or jacket that opens down the front, usually with buttons (sometimes a zip); in some places also called a cardigan sweater or cardigan jacket.

(2) The larger variety of corgi, having a long tail.

1868: Adopted as the name for a close-fitting knitted woolen jacket or waistcoat, named after James Thomas Brudenell (1797-1868), seventh Earl of Cardigan, the English general who led the charge of the Light Brigade (1854) at Balaklava during the Crimean War (1853-1856) although the account of him wearing such a garment during the charge is certainly apocryphal.  The place name Cardigan is an English variation of the Welsh Ceredigion, (literally “Ceredig's land”, named after an inhabitant of the fifth century).  The most usual contraction is now cardi displacing the earlier cardie (cardy the rarely seen alternative). Cardigan is a noun; the noun plural is cardigans.

The cardigan is said to be modelled after the knitted wool waistcoat worn by British officers during the Crimean war but the origin of the design is contested, one story being it was an invention of Brudenell inspired by him noticing the tails of his coat had been accidentally burnt off in a fireplace although the more common version is it was simply something to keep soldiers warm in the depths of a Crimean winter.  Cardigans usually have buttons but zips are not unknown and there are modern (post-war) variations which have no buttons, hanging open by design and reaching sometimes to the knees.  These sometimes have a tie at the waist and the fashion industry usually lists them as robes but customers seem to continue to call them cardigans.  From its military origins, the term originally referred only to a knitted sleeveless vest, the use extending to more familiar garments only in the twentieth century.  Coco Chanel (1883-1971) popularized them for women, noting they could be worn, unlike a pullover, without messing the hair.

Lindsay Lohan in twinset cardigan, Los Angeles, January 2012.

Twinset is the term used when a cardigan is worn with a matching sleeveless or short-sleeved pullover sweater.  Historians note that although the twinset, attributed to both Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973), was a fashion innovation first seen during the 1920s, it didn’t achieve widespread popularity until the early post-war years.  The mildly disparaging term twinset and pearls references both the perceived social class and conservatism of those characterised as especially fond of the combination though it has been reclaimed and is now often worn without any sense of irony.  Fashion advisors note also that the classic mix of twinset and skirt can be leveraged: One set of the garments provides one outfit but if one buys two of each in suitability sympathetic colors, then six distinct combinations are produced while if another skirt and twinset is added, suddenly one's wardrobe contains eighteen.  It's the joy of math.

Kendall Jenner (b 1995), Paris, March 2023.

Few motifs draw the fashionista's eye like asymmetry and in March 2023, model Kendall Jenner (b 1995) wore an all-gray ensemble which combined the functionality of a cardigan, dress, skirt & sweater.   Designed by Ann Demeulemeester (b 1959) and fashioned in a wool knit with a draped neckline and an asymmetrical leg slit, it was worn with a pair of the Row’s Italian-made Lady stretch napa leather tall boots with 2½” (65 mm) stiletto heels.  Despite the extent of the exposed skin, the cut means it possible still to wrap for warmth and being a wool knit, it’s a remarkably practical garment.

Football

Football (pronounced foot-bawl)

(1) As Association Football (soccer), a game in which two opposing teams of 11 players each defend goal-nets at opposite ends of a field, points being scored by placing the ball in an opponent’s net.

(2) As American football, a game in which two opposing teams of 11 players each defend goals at opposite ends of a field having goal posts at each end, with points being scored either by carrying the ball across the opponent's goal line or kicking it over the crossbar between the opponent's goal posts.

(3) By association (sometimes officially and sometimes as an alternative or informal name), any of various games played with spherical or ellipsoid balls, based usually on two teams competing (variously) to kick, head, carry, or otherwise propel the ball in the direction of each other's territory, the mechanisms of scoring varying according to the rules of the code (Rugby Union, Rugby League, Canadian Football, Australian Rules Football, Gaelic Football et al).

(4) The inflated ball (of various sizes and either spherical or ellipsoid in shape and historically made of leather but now often synthetic) used in football, the Rugby codes etc.

(5) Any person, thing or abstraction treated roughly, tossed about or a problem or (in the phrase “political football”) an issue repeatedly passed from one group or person to another and treated as a pretext for argument (often to gain political advantage) instead of being resolved.

(6) In slang (originally in the US military but now widely used), a briefcase containing the codes and options the US president would use to launch a nuclear attack, carried by a military aide and kept available to the president at all times (also as nuclear football, atomic football, black box or black bag) (by convention with an initial capital).

(7) As a modifier, football club, football ground, football fanatic, football pitch, football hooligan, football fan, football match etc.

(8) In commercial use, something sold at a reduced or special price.

1350-1400: From the Middle English fut ball, fotbal & footbal, the construct being foot + ball, the name derived from the games which involved kicking the ball.  Foot was from the Middle English fut, fot, fote & foot, from the Old English fōt, from the Proto-West Germanic fōt, from the Proto-Germanic fōts, from the primitive Indo-European pṓds.  Ball was from the Middle English bal, ball & balle, from the (unattested) Old English beall & bealla (round object, ball) or the Old Norse bǫllr (a ball), both from the Proto-Germanic balluz & ballô (ball), from the primitive Indo-European boln- (bubble), from the primitive Indo-European bel- (to blow, inflate, swell).  It was cognate with the Old Saxon ball, the Dutch bal, the Old High German bal & ballo (from which Modern German gained Ball (ball) & Ballen (bale)).  The related forms in Romance languages are borrowings from the Germanic.

Lindsay Lohan in “gridiron” gear, Life Size (2000).

Apparently in international use now less common than once (“NFL” now preferred), the term "gridiron" remains frequently used in the US describe American football including the NFL (National Football League).  The word refers to the marking originally painted on the field: two intersecting series of parallel lines running the length & breadth of the field which produced a cross-hatched effect recalling the gridirons used on stoves.  After the 1919-1920 season, the grid was replaced with yard lines still in use today but the name has stuck.  In the thirteenth century it was an instrument of torture on which victims chained before being burned by fire and in the same vein (though less gruesomely), in the 1500s it described a similar wrought grate on which meat and fish were broiled over hot coals.  In modern use, it's used of lattice-like structures (though not necessarily of iron) including in ship repair where grid irons are used as an open frame which supports vessels for examination, cleaning and repairs when out of the water and in the slang of live theatre, it's a raised framework from which lighting is suspended.  An interesting (though no longer permitted) use emerged in twentieth century land law in New Zealand where "to grid iron" was to purchase land with the boundaries drawn so remaining adjacent parcels were smaller than the minimum which could be registered in fee simple (freehold), thus preserving the buyers view and excluding the threat of undesirable neighbors.

In Australia & New Zealand, “footy” is the common slang used in all of the four major codes.  Slang terms for footballs include moleskin, pill, peanut, pigskin, pillow & pineapple.  The names are an allusion to the shape and that so many start with the letter “p” is thought mere coincidence.  The figurative sense of “something idly kicked around, something subject to hard use and many vicissitudes” which is the ancestor of the “political football” was in use as early as the 1530s while the US military slang referencing the portable device with which a US president emerged in the 1960s.  Football (in the sense of soccer) is called “the world game”: and like the game, forms of the word have spread to many languages including the Arabic كرة القدم‎ (calque), the Czech fotbal, the Dutch: voetbal (calque), the German Fußball (Fussball) (calque), the Hebrew כדורגל‎ (calque), the Japanese フットボール (futtobōru), the Korean 풋볼 (putbol), the Maltese futbol, the Portuguese futebol, the Romanian fotbal, the Russian футбо́л (futból), the Spanish fútbol, the Thai ฟุตบอล (fút-bɔn) and the Turkish futbol.  Football is a noun & verb, footballer & footballization are nouns, footballing is a verb & adjective and footballed is a verb; the noun plural is footballs.

The Nuclear Football

US Navy Commander walking across the White House lawn, carrying the “Football” onto Marine One (the presidential helicopter).

The “Football” (also as nuclear football, atomic football, black box or black bag) is a briefcase (reputedly made of a reinforced material with a black leather skin) which a military aide to the US president carries so at all times when the commander-in-chief is remote from designated command centres (such as the White House Situation Room), orders to the military can be issued including the command to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons.  The Football contains lists of the codes needed to transmit the launch order and the essential technical documentation required to determine the form a nuclear attack should assume.  Apparently, there’s also a check-list of the domestic measures immediately to be executed in the event of an attack including the imposition of martial law and the closing of US airspace to civilian aviation.  This was an outgrowth of the “SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan) Execution Handbook which codified in one publication all essential information needed in the circumstances, something developed during the administration of John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) but in the way of things familiar to those acquainted with bureaucratic inertia, the physical size (and thus the weight) of the contents grew and there are reports the package now weights in excess of 20 kg (45 lb).  Of course, everything could be contained on a single USB pen-drive (and the Football presumably includes a number of these) but because it’s something of a doomsday device, everything needs to be accessible in a WCS (worst case scenario) in which electronic devices are for whatever reason unable to be used.

Set of the War Room in Dr Strangelove (1964).  It’s presumably apocryphal but it’s said Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, US president 1981-1989) remarked his only disappointment upon becoming president was that the White House Situation Room was more like something in which an insurance company might conduct seminars than the film’s dramatic War Room set.

The first known use of something recognizable as a “Football” was during the second administration (1957-1961) of Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961) although in those days it contained purely the vital information and none of the independent communications connectivity which apparently was added as early as 1977.  Quite when first it was called the Football isn’t known but the term was in use during the Kennedy years and all agree it was based on the idea of the football “being passed” as happens in the game, the link being that it’s carried 24/7/365 by an on-duty military officer.  There’s also the story that “Football” was a refinement (possibly a euphemistic one) of the earlier (and also unattributed) nickname “dropkick”.  In the game of football the dropkick can be used to transfer the ball to another player and it was used as a codename in the film Dr Strangelove, a dark comedy of nuclear destruction.  However whether art imitated life or it was the other way around isn’t known and Football anyway prevailed.

The arrival of the Football in Hiroshima in May 2023 with Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) who was in town for the Group of Seven (G7) meeting was noted on Japanese Social Media although it wasn’t the first time the Football had been in the city which was the target of the first nuclear attack, Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) visiting in 2016.  By the time President Obama stepped off the Air Force One, the Football enabled him to unleash within 30 minutes the equivalent of over 22,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs which, while rather less than in 1969 when the when the size of the US nuclear arsenal peaked, was still quite an increase on the two deliverable weapons available in August 1945.  The thermo-nuclear (fusion) devices in use since the 1950s were also a thousand-fold (and beyond) more powerful than the fission bombs deployed against Hiroshima and Nagasaki although interestingly, while for decades the Hiroshima bomb was a genuine one-off (using uranium rather than plutonium), analysts believe in recent years uranium has again become fashionable with recent adopters such as Pakistan and the DPRK (North Korea) building them because of the relative simplicity of construction.

Glasnost & Perestroika

Glasnost (pronounced glaz-nost, glahz‐nost or glahs-nuhst (Russian))

Openness in the context of politics.

1985 (English adoption): A modern English borrowing from the Russian гла́сность (glásnost) literally meaning “publicity” or “fact of being public” but usually translated as “openness” or something in the vein of what is now referred to as “transparency”.  Although entering English use in 1985, the word had been in the Russian language for centuries and appears in the earliest Russian dictionaries.  Glasnost is a noun, the adjectival forms are glasnostian & glasnostic.

Among Kremlinologists in the West, the word had been familiar since the Glasnost Rally, staged by the embryonic Soviet civil rights movement in December 1965 and appeared in 1972 in reference to a 1969 letter by dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  The word is ultimately from the Old Church Slavonic glasu (voice) from the primitive Indo-European galso-, from the root gal- (to call, shout).  It was first used in a socio-political sense by Lenin and popularized in English after Mikhail Gorbachev used it several times in his speech in March 1985, accepting the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (USSR).

Perestroika (pronounced per-uh-stroi-kuh or pyi-ryi-stroi-kuh (Russian))

Structural economic reform.

1985 (English adoption): A modern English borrowing from the Russian Перестройка (perestróĭka) literally meaning “rebuilding”, “reconstruction” or “reorganization” and gaining currency as an expression of an intent by government to initiate structural economic reform.  Perestroika is a noun, the other noun (and adjectival) form being perestrokian.  It also begat Salinastroika (a blend of Salinas- +‎ -(peres)troika, which referred to the programme of liberalization (which didn’t end well) under Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of Mexico (1988-1994).

Perestroika is an ancient Russian word but was rare and in only technical use until the 1980s.  It was constructed from pere- (re-) from Old Russian pere- (around, again) from the Proto-Slavic per- from the primitive Indo-European root per- (forward) (hence "through, around, against”) + stroika (building, construction) from the Old Russian stroji (order) from the primitive Indo-European stroi-, from the root stere- (to spread).  Entering general use in English in 1985, in the USSR, use in the now familiar context actually pre-dated the Gorbachev era, being discussed during the twenty-sixth Party Congress in 1981.

Decline and fall, 1953-1991

After comrade Stalin's (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) death in 1953, the USSR entered a period of economic stagnation relative to the West, a situation not wholly understood at the time, disguised as it was by secrecy, Sputnik and the (often over-estimated) strength of the Soviet nuclear arsenal.  After the decade-long, idiosyncratic rule of Comrade Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964) gave way to twenty years of increasingly geriatric government, in 1985, the relatively youthful comrade Gorbachev (1931–2022; Soviet leader 1985-1991) assumed the leadership.  He announced to the party and the world that the USSR’s society and economy were in dire need of reform, the words he chose to describe the necessary processes were respectively glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Glasnost under the gaze of comrade Lenin (1870–1924; head of government of Russia or the Soviet Union 1917-1924).  One of the fruits of reform was that in 1988, the USSR staged its first ever government-approved beauty contest, the Miss Moscow title won by sixteen year-old Maria Kalinina (b 1971) who was later crowned Miss USSR.

Glasnost & perestroika captured imaginations in the West and comrade Gorbachev became something of a political rock star but while the reforms had profound geopolitical consequences, they weren’t what had been intended, the forces unleashed destabilizing the USSR and its satellite states.  In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall triggered a chain-reaction of political upheaval which saw the overthrow of the Moscow-aligned régimes of the Warsaw Pact and in 1991 the USSR was itself dissolved, ending both the cold war and an empire which had endured almost four decades after comrade Stalin’s death.

After glasnost, during Putin: Lindsay Lohan in Moscow, June 2015.

The era of glasnost & perestroika was followed by the frequently chaotic years of the 1990s during which the old Soviet empire fragmented into its historic component states and Russian society and its economy what transformed into what is usually understood as "capitalism with Russian characteristics" with much of what that implies.  However, the 1990s were genuinely a period of glasnost (openness) and in those years Western historians were granted their first access to the Soviet archives and some long held suppositions were confirmed while others were overturned and many books were updated, the revised editions including for the first time original source documents from Moscow.  It was a brief opening of the vault which didn't long stay ajar and what Russia has become under (former) comrade Vladimir Putin (b 1952; president or prime minister of Russia since 1999) represents his view that what Gorbachev did was a mistake and handled differently, the USSR might well have endured to this day.  Mr Putin was under no illusions about the failure of the Soviet economic model and he would have preferred the reforms of the 1980s to have moved towards the Chinese model of state capitalism under the supervision of the Communist Party.

Impressionism

Impressionism (pronounced im-presh-uh-niz-uhm)

(1) In fine art (an appropriated by others), a style of painting developed in the late nineteenth century, characterized by short brush strokes of bright colors in immediate juxtaposition to represent the effect of light on objects and a focus on everyday subject matters (by convention usually with an initial capital).

(2) A manner of painting in which the forms, colors, or tones of an object are lightly and rapidly indicated and there’s sometimes an attempt deliberately to include discordant subjects.

(3) In sculpture, a compositional style in which volumes are partially modeled and surfaces roughened to reflect light unevenly.

(4) In poetry, a style which used imagery and symbolism to convey the poet's impressions

(5) In literature, a theory and practice which emphasizes immediate aspects of objects or actions without attention to details.

(6) In musical composition, a movement of the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries (in parallel with the developments in painting) which eschewed traditional harmonies, substituting lush pieces with subtle rhythms, the unusual tonal colors used as evocative devices.

1880–1885: The construct was impression + -ism.  Impression was from the Old French impression, from the Latin impressio, from imprimo (push, thrust, assault, onslaught; squashing; stamping; impression), the construct being in- (the prefix which usually to some extent nullified but here in its rare form as an intensifier) +‎ premō (to press), from the Proto-Italic premō which may be linked with the primitive Indo-European pr-es- (to press), from per- (to push, beat, press).  The –ism suffix was from the Ancient Greek ισμός (ismós) & -isma noun suffixes, often directly, sometimes through the Latin –ismus & isma (from where English picked up ize) and sometimes through the French –isme or the German –ismus, all ultimately from the Ancient Greek (where it tended more specifically to express a finished act or thing done).  It appeared in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form abstract nouns of action, state, condition or doctrine from verbs and on this model, was used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence (criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism etc).  Impressionism and impressionist are nouns; the noun plural is impressionisms.

The meanings of impressionism are wholly unrelated to impressionistic which is used to describe an opinion reached by means of subjective reactions as opposed to one which was the product of research or deductive reasoning (ie based on impression rather than reason or fact).  As a noun an impressionist is (1) one who in art, music or literature produced work in the tradition of impressionism or (2) an entertainer who performs impressions of others (a mimic).  Although by some used in philosophy since 1839, impressionism really isn’t a recognized field in the discipline, instead used metaphorically (and often critically) to describe certain tendencies which share similarities with the artistic movement.  Those who describe themselves as impressionist philosophers reject the idea that objective knowledge or absolute truths exist and instead stress the importance of individual perception and personal experience, arguing that individual (and debatably collective) understanding of the world is determined only by the wholly subjective: senses and emotions.  They’re thus much concerned with perception, consciousness, and the nature of reality.  In all that there’s obviously some overlap with earlier traditions and mainstream philosophers tend to be dismissive, some suggesting impressionism is less a philosophical school than a mode of which has been explored for millennia.

Le pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil (The Railroad Bridge in Argenteuil (1873-1874)), oil on canvas by Claude Monet (1840-1926), Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

Impressionism was an art movement that which emerged in France in the late nineteenth century and was a romantic form, the core of which was the capturing of a fleeting moment (ie an impression) in time and place, characterized by the play of light and color, rendered with what gave the impression of loose (even careless) brushwork, the paint often applied in brief, broken strokes.  Breaking from the intricacy and preciseness which had distinguished high art since the renaissance, the artists sought a feeling of spontaneity rather than the staged effect engendered by meticulously rendered details.  The whole idea was to “capture the moment” those transitory scenes one might view thousands of times a day and their subject matter so often were the vistas of everyday light, the apparent casualness of the composition an important psychological aspect because such visions are so often hazy because the mind tends to remember only the part which has captured the eye while in memory the peripheral surroundings are “burred” or even vaguely “filled in” from memory.  The artists wanted to represent the immediate sensory impressions of a particular moment rather than a polished and composition.  Given all this, it’s not surprising the Impressionists so frequently painted en plein air (ie outdoors) because there natural light and breezes made for an ever-changing environment, idea for a technique dedicated capturing the ephemeral.

The Church at Auvers (1890), oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

In the way of such things, from Impressionism, very late in the nineteenth century came post-impressionism.  Deliberately positioned as a reaction against what had come to be regarded as the strictures and limitations of Impressionism, it was noted especially for an expressive and symbolic use of color which neglected and sometimes even abandoned the link with naturalistic representation, the intensity of shade itself a vehicle of an artist’s personal interpretations.  It also distorted form and perspective, the exaggerations wildly beyond anything in the mannerist tradition and the influence upon the cubists who would follow is undeniable.  Something of a preview of post-modernism, the concerns were more with laying bare the underlying structure rather than showing anything directly representational.  However, despite the perceptions of some, technical innovation was rare and even the techniques most associated with the movement had been seen before although famously, the post-impressionists delighted in non-naturalistic color schemes.  While this was something which caught the eye, it again wasn’t exactly new and the claims it somehow created a heightened emotional impact have always seem hard to sustain although they certainly displeased the Nazis who decried paintings “green skies” and “blue dogs”.  Still, the work influenced Fauvism and Cubism and there are critics who maintain post-impressionism was the first discernible epoch in modern art.

The Seine at Courbevoie (1885), oil on canvas by Georges Seurat (1859-1891).

Although post-impressionism can be seen to some extent as something new, the companion neo-impressionism was really a fork.  The alternative name of the movement was Divisionism which hints at the scientific basis which underlay many of the works, most notably pointillism (the use of tiny dots which blended optically when viewed from a distance) which explored the principles of the physics of color and light by rendering paintings almost as a mathematical exercise and one far removed from the spontaneous brushwork of Impressionism.  Color under this regime came to be understood in itself as a theory, the concept of “simultaneous contrast” expressed in the placement of contrasting or complementary colors explored to exploit the way the brain processed the relationship by either “toning down” or making more luminous the visual experience.  The work was thus in the impressionist tradition of using light and color but it was different in that instead of representing an impression of how nature was seen, it deployed a scientific understanding of how the mind perceived and interpreted light and color to produce something which enhanced the effect.  In that sense it’s understood as a structuralist movement.

Separation (1896), oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1963-1944), Munch Museum, Oslo.

Neo-impressionism should not be confused with Expressionism, a contemporary movement from Germany which some have characterized (not wholly unfairly” as “painting Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) nightmares”.  The expressionists sought to convey the subjective emotions, inner experiences and psychological states of the artist; the viewer was there simply to view and understand the feelings of the artist who seem frequently drawn to the darker aspects of human existence.  They used distorted and exaggerated forms, heavy brushwork, and non-naturalistic colors designed expressly to be discordant.  The classic example of Expressionism is Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893).

Lindsay Lohan (2012), oil on canvas by Lucas Bufi.

Florida-based Lucas Bufi describes himself as “modern Impressionist artist, guided by light and shadows”.  His take on Lindsay Lohan was based on one of the images from a 2011 photo-shoot for the January/February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine which featured her as the cover model.  It can be difficult to determine where impressionism ends and expressionism begins.