Biomimic

Biomimic (pronounced bahy-oh-mim-ik)

(1) A synthetic substance, material or device which mimics the formation, function, or structure of biologically produced substances & materials, biological mechanisms or processes.

(2) The act or processes involved in the creation of such substances, materials or devices.

1969: The construct was bio(logy) + mimic.  The bio- prefix was from the Ancient Greek βίο- (bío-), a combining form and stem of βίος (bíos) (life) used widely to construct forms in some way (even if in emulation) related to organic life (ie biological organisms in general).  Mimic was from the Latin mīmicus, from the Ancient Greek μῑμικός (mīmikós) (belonging to mimes), from μῖμος (mîmos) (imitator, actor), the source also of the modern mime.  It was used variously to mean (1) to imitate (applied especially to acts intended to ridicule), (2) to take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage (originally from zoology and other biological sciences but later more widely applied) and (3) in IT systems for a range of purposes.  The alternative spelling was mimick which persisted into the nineteenth century.  Biometric is a noun & verb, biomimicry & biomimesis are nouns, biomimetic is an adjective and biomimetically is an adverb; the noun plural is biometrics.

1955 D-Type (XKD510) with tailfin used on the tracks with unusually long straights (left), image of a great white shark (centre) and 1948 Tatra T87 II with stabilizing fin (right).

Jaguar’s experience in 1954 running the D-Type on the long Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans had proved the effectiveness of the re-designed bodywork, the cars more than 10 mph (16 km/h) faster in a straight line than the winning Ferrari but all the drivers reported that at speeds above 160 mph (257 km/h), straight line stability had suffered and in the cars not fitted with a tailfin, the lateral movement could sometimes be measured in feet.  Aerodynamics at the time was still in its infancy and most attention had been devoted to reducing drag in the pursuit of speed and much of the available data was from aviation where lift was a virtue; it wouldn’t be until the next decade with the advent of more available wind tunnels that designers began to understand how a compromise between slipperiness and down-force could be attained and even then, the increases in speed for years outpaced the test facilities.  Jaguar’s solution was a tailfin, something which fulfilled essentially the same function as a shark’s dorsal fin; the fish’s tailfin was used for propulsion and directional change, in a car, those dynamics are handled by other means.  The purpose of a dorsal fin is to stabilize, to prevent the rolling action which would otherwise be induced by movement through the water and Jaguar’s device likewise provided stability.  The fin was enlarged in 1955 and better integrated with the bodywork.

The Czech Tatra 87 (1936-1950) is regarded as a mid-century modernist masterpiece (as least visually, its configuration proved a cul-de-sac) and one thing which always attracts attention is the tailfin, something Tatra first put on a car in 1934.  What the fin did was split and equalize the air pressure on both sides at the rear, something designed to ameliorate the behavior induced by physics, the T87 enjoying the unfortunate combination of swing-axles and a rear-mounted V8 engine.  That configuration delivered some specific advantages but also a tendency for the back end of the car to “wander a bit”.  At speed, the fin helped but didn’t eliminate the problem and if corners were approached with too much enthusiasm, the swing axles certainly swung and it wasn’t uncommon for them to slide off the road or even overturn.  The effects of the fin can be emulated by a car towing a trailer at speed.  If a heavy load is placed in the front of the trailer, stability is usually good but if moved to the rear, there’s the danger of fishtailing which, if left uncorrected, can result in both car and trailer overturning.

The legend exists that such was the Tatra accident rate after the country was occupied in 1938-1939 that Germans there as part of the imposed administration were forbidden from driving the things.  A car must be truly evil for use by the SS to be declared verboten but historians have never unearthed the smoking gun of a documented order and declare it probably apocryphal although words of caution doubtlessly were spread.  Some versions of the story claim the order came from the Führer himself and it seems certain, whatever his tendency to micromanage, that definitely is fanciful although he was well acquainted with Tatra’s designs and their influence on the Volkswagen, the so called “peoples’ car” intended to bring to Germany the mass-market automobile which the Ford Model T (1908-1927) had delivered to US society.

Biomimicry: Lindsay Lohan in leopard-print.

Humans have been practicing biomimicry long before the emergence of any form of culture recognizable as a civilization; the use of animal skins or fur for warmth was an early example of what would later evolve into a technology.  Presumably, at least some of those who fashioned some of the early canoes and boats might have been influenced by the appearance of fish when choosing the shape a hull was to assume.  In architecture too nature seems to have provided inspiration and evidence exists of prehistoric structures which seem to owe something to both beehives and termite mounds although there’s obviously no extant documentation to verify the speculation.  Later architects and engineers did leave notes and natural structures including eggshells & mushrooms served as models of how strength and the volume of internal space could be optimized.  However, probably the best known of the early studies of biomimicry was the observation of birds undertaken in the age-old quest for human flight, many of Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) sketches of the physiology of both men and birds part of the research for his designs of “flying machines”.  For centuries, others would look to birds for inspiration although it wasn’t until the 1950s that the word “biomimic” began to evolve and that happened not among engineers or architects but in the biology labs, and at the time, what was called “bionics” was conceived as a practical application, a synthetic emulation of natural systems, then usually referred to as “biophysics”.  In the following decade, “biomimetic” came to be preferred because it exactly represented the concept and thus the discipline of “biomimmetics” was formalized: the engineering of a device, substance or material which mimics those found in the natural environment.

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (Stealth Bomber) and the Peregrine Falcon.

Popular culture played a part in the evolution too.  The word “bionic” fell from academic favor because in the 1970s it was used in science fiction (SF) of sometimes dubious quality and in television programmes which were distant from what was scientifically possible.  The term biomimicry however flourished as products (such as Velcro) which owed much to models observed in the natural environment appeared with increasing frequency and the techniques came to be described as “reverse engineering”, a term later co-opted in IT to refer to the process of deconstructing a piece of compiled software in order to be able to understand the source code which underlay to program.  Biomimicry was also of interest in the social sciences.  Although there had for more than a century been studies of the organization of animal societies including bees, ants and primates, the simultaneous rise of the economist and the power of computers to construct big-machine models meant that it came to be understood there might be a financial value in observations, beyond the academic interest of the behaviorists and psychologists.

Three models: Pop artists have often been attracted to similarities between various animals and the human form, either static or in motion but Japanese painter & sculptor Showichi Kaneda san (b 1970) was much taken with the structural alignment between the hammerhead shark and the modern open wheel racing car of which the Formula One machines are the highest evolution (even if in their present form about the most boring yet regulated).

Cobalt

Cobalt (pronounced koh-bawlt)

(1) A brittle, hard, lustrous, silvery-white-gray element (a ferromagnetic metal) which is found principally in cobaltite and smaltite and is widely used in (1) the rendering of both heat-resistant and magnetic alloys, (2) in clinical oncology and (3) as a blue pigment used to color ceramics, glass and other materials.

(2) As cobalt blue, a deep blue pigment derived from cobalt; zaffre.

(3) As cobalt therapy (known colloquially as the “cobalt ray”), a gamma ray treatment first used in the early 1950s in clinical oncology executed with external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines using the radioisotope cobalt-60 with a half-life of 5.3 years.

1675–1685: From the German Kobalt & Kobold (a variant of Koboldkobold), from the Middle High German kobolt (household goblin), the name derived from the belief held by silver miners in the Harz Mountains that malicious goblins placed it in the silver ore, based on the rocks laced with arsenic and sulfur which degraded the ore and caused illness.  The construct was the Middle High German kobe (hut, shed) + holt (goblin) from hold (gracious, friendly), a euphemistic word for a troublesome being, designed to avoid offending the creature and thus inviting retribution.  It thus became part of German folk culture as an earth-elemental or nature spirit.  Although much rarer, the metallic element closely resembles nickel and was documented by but much rarer) was extracted from this rock. It was mentioned in the alchemy notes of Paracelsus (the Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance Theophrastus von Hohenheim (circa 1493-1541)), but as an element its discovery is credited to the Swedish chemist and mineralogist Georg Brandt (1694–1768) who in 1733 gave it the name.  Although it has since the mid-sixteenth century been used as a coloring agent for glass and ceramics, “cobalt blue” didn’t come into formal use until 1835.  There is also cobalt green (A variety of green inorganic pigments obtained by doping a certain cobalt oxide into colorless host oxides.  Cobalt & cobaltite are nouns and cobaltic, colbaltous & colbaltesque are adjectives; the noun plural is cobalts.

Cobalt ore.

Chemical symbol: Co.
Atomic number: 27.
Atomic weight: 58.93320.
Valency: 2 or 3.
Relative density (specific gravity): 8.9.
Melting point: 1495°C (2723°F).
Boiling point: 2928°C (5302.4°F).

Currently, most of the world's cobalt is supplied by mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC, the old Republic of Zaire (1971-1997)) which account for some 60% of annual production.  Because of (1) industry economics and (2) the natural geological occurrence of the minerals, cobalt typically is extracted as a by-product of copper or nickel mining operations.  Smaller-scale mining is also undertaken in Canada, Australia, Russia and the Philippines.

Bugatti Type 35 (1924-1930) in Bleu de France (Blue of France, at the time often called Bleu Racing Français (French Racing Blue)) (left) and Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport Vitesse (2012–2015) in bleu cobalt over Bleu de France (right).  The factory still offers a variety of blues including bleu cobalt.

In the early days of motorsport, cars were painted in accord with their country of origin (the corporate liveries reflecting the source of the sponsorship didn’t reach all categories until the late 1960s) and the French chose blue.  Originally it was the exact shade used on the tricolore (the national flag) but teams soon adopted various shades.  The British were allocated green which became famous as the dark shade used on the Bentleys which raced at Le Mans in the 1920s but it too was never exactly defined and over the decades lighter and darker hues were seen.  The Italians of course raced in the red best represented by Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa (Racing Red) although in the era red at least once appeared on the bodywork of the car of another nation.  The winner of the 1924 Targa Florio in Sicily was a bright red Mercedes Tipo Indy and, being German, should have been painted in their racing color of white but, noting the rocks and other items the Italian crowd was inclined to throw at any machine not finished in Rosso Corsa, the team decided subterfuge was justified and the use of white by German entrants anyway didn’t last even a decade after the victory.

In 1934, with the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union factory teams supported by the Nazi state as a propaganda project, the Mercedes-Benz W25s appeared in silver, the bare aluminum polished rather than painted.  For decades, the story told was that after a practice session, upon being weighed, the cars were found to be a kilogram-odd over the 750 KG limit for the event and the team had to work overnight to scrape off all the carefully applied, thick white paint, the weigh-in on the morning of the race yielding a compliant 749.9.  It was a romantic tale but has since been debunked, the race in question not being run under the 750 KG rule and in the 1990s, a trove of photographs was uncovered in an archive showing the cars arriving at the track unpainted, already in bare silver.  The authorities did request the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams revert to white but already motorsport’s prime directive of the 1930s was operative: "Give way to the Germans".  That race in 1934 was the debut of the “silver arrows” but it happened not quite as the legend suggested.  Even the factory now refers to the tale as "the legend".

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has issued standard (ISO 11664-3:2019) which defines the technical terms and the colorimetric equations necessary for colorimetry and in that cobalt blue has been defined as Hex triplet #0047AB; sRGBB (r:0; g:71; b:171) & HSV (h: 215°; s: 100%; v:67%).  However, among manufacturers it’s often just a vague descriptor on the color chart and like many colors is treated as a spectrum with hues varying in shade and tone.  In the fashion industry there’s no attempt whatever at standardization or even consistency and the same house has been known to describe the fabric used in one range “cobalt blue” while in another line it might be “ultramariine”, “Prussian blue” “royal blue” or anything else which seems to suit.

Lindsay Lohan in cobalt blue dress at Nylon Magazine's launch of the Young Hollywood Issue, Tenjune, New York, May 2007.

The cobalt bomb is a speculative nuclear weapon, first suggested in 1950 by one of the leading physicists associated with the Manhattan Project which during World War II (1939-1945) developed the world’s first atomic bombs.  It was the implications of the cobalt bomb which first gave rise to the doomsday notion that it might be possible to build weapons which could kill all people on earth.  The device would be constructed as a thermo-nuclear weapon consisting of a hydrogen (fusion) bomb encased in cobalt which upon detonation releases large quantities of radioactive cobalt-60 into the atmosphere and from the site of the explosion it would be dispersed worldwide by atmospheric processes.  Because of its half-life, were the volume of the release to be sufficient, the entire planet could be affected well before radioactive decay reached the point where human (and almost all animal) life could be sustained.  It’s believed no full-scale cobalt bomb was ever built but the British did test the concept on a tiny scale and few doubt the major nuclear weapons powers have all simulated cobalt bombs in their big computers and, awesome of awful depending on one’s world view, the thing has long been a staple in science fiction and the genre called “nuclear war porn”.

The descendent of the idea was the neutron bomb which, like the cobalt device, relied for its utility on fall-out rather than the initial destructive blast.  The Pentagon-funded work on the first neutron bomb was conducted under the project name “Dove” (which seems a nice touch) and the rationale was that for use in Europe, what was needed was a weapon with a relatively low blast but which produced a nasty but relatively short-lived fallout, the idea being that there would be a high death-rate among an invading army but little physical damage to valuable real estate and infrastructure.

Nudiustertian

Nudiustertian (pronounced noo-dee-uhs-tur-shuhn or nyoo-dee-uhs-tur-shuhn)

Of or relating to the day before yesterday (obsolete).

1647: From the Latin nudius tertius, formed from the phrase nunc dies tertius est, (literally “today is the is the third day”).  It was coined by the author Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652) and used in his book The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (1647).  Nudiustertian is an adjective and no other forms seem to have evolved although the noun nudiusterianist would presumably be a slang term for one who "lives in the past" and the noun nudiusterianism would be the movement which advocates that lifestyle choice.  

Words long and short

Depending on the extent of one’s pedantry, English contains probably between a quarter and three-quarters of a million words but only a few thousand could be said to be in common use.  English speakers have been so fickle that whether a word survives, even if only as a rare and obscure thing, or become obsolete, seems random.  Constructions can of course be specific to a time, place or personality and words like Lohanic (something of or pertaining to Lindsay Lohan), Lohanistic & Lohanesque (something in the style of Lindsay Lohan) or Lohannery (a behavior ascribed to or associated with Lindsay Lohan) may end up stranded in their era whereas Orwellian (pertaining to the ideas discussed in certain novels by George Orwell (1903-1950)) will probably endure because the concepts involved transcend the people or events associated with their coining. 

Puritan lawyer and clergyman Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652), author, inter alia, of the first (1641) constitution in North America, coined nudiustertian and it quickly went extinct, despite being a handy five syllable substitute for the phrase “the day before yesterday” which demanded an extra syllabic brace.  He also invented the evidently self-referential nugiperous (given to inventing useless things (from the Latin nugae (nonsense or foolish)) which suffered the same fate.  Yet penultimate (from the Latin paenultimus, the construct being paene (almost) + ultimus (last)) survived and flourished despite needing an additional syllable compare with the punchy “second last”.  Even the once more popular “last but one” was more economical, as was the more modern creation “next to last” but penultimate kept its niche.  People must like the way or rolls of the tongue.

Penultimate must then have occupied a linguistic sweet-spot because antepenultimate (last but two), preantepenultimate (last but three) and propreantepenultimate (last but four) are essentially unknown.  Also long extinct are hesternal (from the Latin hesternus (of or pertaining to yesterday)), hodiernal (from the Latin hodiernus (today, present), ereyesterday (from the Old English ere (before) + yesterday) and overmorrow (from the Middle English overmorwe, from Old English ofermorgen (on the day after tomorrow)).

Context

Context (pronounced kon-tekst)

(1) In structural linguistics, the factors which may define or help disclose the meaning or effect of a written or spoken statement including (1) the words preceding or following a specific word or passage, (2) the position of the author, (3) the identity of the author, (4) the intended audience, (5) the time and place in which the words were delivered and (6) such other circumstances as may be relevant.

(2) The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that might determine, specify or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.

(3) In mycology, the fleshy fibrous body (trama) of the pileus in mushrooms.

(4) In Novell’s Netware network operating system, an element of Directory Services (the hierarchical structure used to organize and manage network resources), one’s context being a specific level within the directory tree.

(5) To knit or closely bind; to interweave (obsolete).

(6) In archaeology and anthropology, the surroundings and environment in which an artifact is found and which may provide important clues about the artifact's function, age, purpose, cultural meaning etc.

(7) In formal logic (for a formula), a finite set of variables, which set contains all the free variables in the given formula.

1375–1425: From the late Middle English context (a composition, a chronicle, the entire text of a writing), from (and originally the past participle of) the Latin contextus (a joining together, scheme, structure), the construct being contex(ere) (to join by weaving; to interweave) + -tus (the suffix of a verb of action).  The construct of contexere was con- + texere (to plait or braid, to weave), from the primitive Indo-European root teks (to weave; to build; to fabricate).  The prefix con- was from the Middle English con-, from the Latin con-, from the preposition cum (with), from the Old Latin com, from the Proto-Italic kom, from the primitive Indo- European ḱóm (next to, at, with, along).  It was cognate with the Proto-Germanic ga- (co-), the Proto-Slavic sъ(n) (with) and the Proto-Germanic hansō.  It was used with certain words to add a notion similar to those conveyed by with, together, or joint or with certain words to intensify their meaning.  The verb contex (to weave together) was known as early as the 1540s and was also from the Latin contexere; it was obsolete by the early eighteenth century.

The meaning "the parts of a writing or discourse which precede or follow, and are directly connected with, some other part referred to or quoted" developed in the mid-late sixteenth century.  The adjective contextual (pertaining to, dealing with the context) dates from 1822, on the model of textual and the phrase “contextual definition” appeared first in works of philosophy in 1873.  Contextualization from 1930 & contextualize from 1934 were both products of academic writing.  Many of the derivations (acontextual, contextual criticism, contextual inquiry, contextualist, contextuality, contextualize, metacontextual, non-contextual, sub-contextual) are associated with academic disciplines such as linguistics and anthropology but, predictably, the verb decontextualize (study or treat something in isolation from its context) emerged in 1971 and came from postmodernism where it found a home, along with the inevitable decontextualized, decontextualizing & decontextualization.  Context is a noun, verb & adjective, contextual & contextualistic are adjectives, contextualism, contextuality & contextualization are nouns, contexture is a noun & verb, contextualist is a noun & adjective, contextualize, contextualizing & contexualized are verbs and contextualistically & contextually are adverbs; the noun plural is contexts.

Contextual truth

In the law of defamation law, “contextual truth” describes one of the defences available to a defendant (ie the party accused of defaming the applicant).  It’s an unusual aspect of defamation law (and there are others) in that while it acknowledges certain statements may literally be false yet may still convey a broader truth or accurate meaning when considered in the context in which they were made or considered in the context of other statements (dealing usually with matters more serious) which were part of the case.  Although there have been reforms in many jurisdictions, as a general principle, defamation happens if statements found to be false have harmed the reputation of an individual or entity (although in some places, including some with respectable legal systems, it’s possible to defame with the truth).  Typically though, successfully to establish a claim of defamation, a plaintiff needs to prove (1) a statement was false, (2) that it was published or communicated to a third party and (3) that the plaintiff suffered harm as a consequence.  The defense of contextual truth essentially “runs on top” of the traditional rules in that while the some (or even all in legal theory) of the specific details of a statement may be factually incorrect, but when considered in context, they can be found to convey an underlying truth.

For example, if someone publishes an article stating that a public figure was involved in a scandalous incident, and it later emerges that some of the specific details in the article were incorrect, the defendant might argue contextual truth. They may claim that while the specific details were inaccurate, the overall implication of wrongdoing or impropriety by the public figure was true or substantially true.  Successfully to invoke the defense requires a defendant must demonstrate the impression conveyed by the statement was substantially accurate, even if specific details were incorrect and the form this takes is often that the statement alleged to be defamatory statement was not intended as a recounting of specific facts but rather a representation of a larger truth.  Despite the terminology, the defences of justification and partial justification really don’t sit on a continuum with contextual truth which demands at least one or more imputations complained of to be substantially true, and in light of the substantial truth of those imputations, the remainder of the imputations complained of do no further harm to the plaintiff’s reputation.  Like justification, contextual truth can be a complete defence to a claim and is often invoked as a defense where other statements being considered allege conduct much more likely to damage a reputation.

Pronunciation can of course be political so therefore can be contextual.  Depending on what one’s trying to achieve, how one chooses to pronounce words can vary according to time, place, platform or audience.  Some still not wholly explained variations in Lindsay Lohan’s accent were noted circa 2016 and the newest addition to the planet’s tongues (Lohanese or Lilohan) was thought by most to lie somewhere between Moscow and the Mediterranean, possibly via Prague.  It had a notable inflection range and the speed of delivery varied with the moment.  Psychologist Wojciech Kulesza of SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland identified context as the crucial element.  Dr Kulesza studies the social motives behind various forms of verbal mimicry (including accent, rhythm & tone) and he called the phenomenon the “echo effect”, the tendency, habit or technique of emulating the vocal patters of one’s conversational partners.  He analysed clips of Lilohan and noted a correlation between the nuances of the accent adopted and those of the person with who Ms Lohan was speaking.  Psychologists explain the various instances of imitative behaviour (conscious or not) as one of the building blocks of “social capital”, a means of bonding with others, something which seems to be inherent in human nature.  It’s known also as the “chameleon effect”, the instinctive tendency to mirror behaviors perceived in others and it’s observed also in politicians although their motives are entirely those of cynical self-interest, crooked Hillary Clinton’s adoption of a “southern drawl” when speaking in a church south of the Mason-Dixon Line a notorious example.

Memo: Team Douglas Productions, 29 July 2004.

Also of interest is the pronunciation of “Lohan” although this seems to be decided by something more random than context although it’s not clear what.  Early in 2022, marking her first post to TikTok, she pronounced her name lo-en (ie rhyming with “Bowen”) but to a generation brought up on lo-han it must have been a syllable too far because it didn’t catch on and by early 2023, she was back to lo-han with the hard “h”.  It’s an Irish name and according to the most popular genealogy sites, in Ireland, universally it’s lo-han so hopefully that’s the last word.  However, the brief flirtation with phonetic H-lessness did have a precedent:  When Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) was being filmed in 2004, the production company circulated a memo to the crew informing all that Lohan was pronounced “Lo-en like Co-en” with a silent “h”.

Flak

Flak (pronounced flak)

(1) Ground-based anti-aircraft fire using explosive shells.

(2) In casual use, criticism; hostile reaction; abuse.

1938: From the German Flak (anti-aircraft gun), condensed from Fliegerabwehrkanone (literally "air defense gun"), the acronym deconstructed from Fl(ieger) + a(bwehr) + k(anone).  The sense of "anti-aircraft fire" became generalized in English from 1940 and the flak jacket is attested from 1956.  The metaphoric sense of "criticism" is American English circa 1963.  The synonym (and military verbal shorthand) is ack-ack, which appears to have developed independently in the German and allied military, the former using (from 1939) acht-acht (eight-eight) as an informal reference to the 88mm canon, the later being World War I (1914-1918) signalers' phonetic spelling of "AA".  Jargon has its own life and even after the NATO Phonetic Alphabet was standardized in 1956, ack-ack was so distinctive and well-known there was no suggestion it should be replaced by alpha-alpha. 

Lindsay Lohan in flak jacket.

The homophone flack (public relations spokesman) was first noted in US use in 1945, initially as a noun but, almost immediately became also a verb and it’s always had the sense of handling adverse criticism; if necessary by lying ("taking the flak" as it were).  The origin is murky; there’s a suggestion it was coined at entertainment industry magazine Variety but the first attested use was in another publication.  Flack was said to have emerged because of a coincidence in existence between flak being used to describe criticism (analogous with anti-aircraft fire) and a certain Mr Flack, said to be a public relations spokesman in the movie business but, given the accepted etymology, most regards this as an industry myth.

The 88mm Flak Canon

Panzer VI (Tiger Tank 1) with 88mm canon, Sicily, 1943.

The German 88 mm anti-aircraft canon was developed during the 1930s and was one of the most versatile and widely used weapons of World War II (1939-1945), deployed as field artillery, in anti-aircraft batteries, in ground assault and anti-tank roles and, on the larger tanks, as canon.  The naval 88, although the same caliber, was an entirely different weapon, dating from 1905.

88mm Flak Gun, Russia, 1941.

However, its stellar reputation belied to some extent, latter-day battlefield reality.  Like much mass-produced German weaponry of World War II, the 88 lost some of its comparative advantage as the allies’ quantitative and (with a few notable exceptions, especially in jet and rocket propulsion) qualitative superiority in materiel became apparent.  As an anti-aircraft gun, the Flak 88 needed high muzzle velocity to reach the altitudes at which bombers flew (20,000+ feet (6000+m)) and to achieve that the projectile itself was relatively small.  The high velocity made the Flak 88 a formidable anti-tank weapon, but did limit its effectiveness as field artillery.  Right to the end however, it remained a potent force wherever the terrain was suitable.

Zoo Flak Tower, Berlin, 1945.

One place the Flak 88s weren’t used was on the three huge concrete structures in Berlin called the Flak Towers.  Because the newer British and US bombers flew at higher altitudes, the bigger 128 mm canon was required.

The best known of the structures was the Berlin Zoo Flak Tower (Flakturm Tiergarten), the construction of which was induced by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) first bombing raids on the city in August 1940.  Even by the standards of the time, these attacks were small-scale and of no obvious military value but, like the raid on Tokyo staged by the US in 1942 and the seemingly quixotic cross-border incursions by forces of indeterminate origin probing Russia’s “special military operation”, they compelled a disproportionately large re-allocation of civilian and military resources.  Early in the war, Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) in his capacity as head of the air force (Luftwaffe) had been asked if the industrial Ruhr was at risk of being bombed and he assured the nation: “No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr… if one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Göring. You can call me Meyer.”  The Reichsmarschall might have believed his own publicity but the RAF did not though few in 1940 thought the more distant Berlin was vulnerable and the first raids, pin-pricks though they were compared with what was to come, embarrassed the Nazi hierarchy and convinced Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) to fear that ominous mantra of the 1930s: “The bomber will always get through”.

Accordingly, needing to retain popular support and well aware of the capital’s lack of air-raid shelters (though the leading Nazis and their families were well provided for), the Führer ordered the construction of huge anti-aircraft gun towers, the designs submitted for his approval as early as the following March.  Construction began immediately and the first, the Berlin Zoo Flak Tower, was made operational within months and in its massiveness was entirely typical of the architectural practices of the Third Reich.  Reflecting Hitler’s preferences, it was rendered in a neo-Romantic style and any medieval soldier would have recognized it as a fortress, albeit one on a grand scale.  It gained its name by virtue of its proximity to the municipal zoo and the term “tower” was a rare instance of modesty of expression during the Nazi era.  The reinforced concrete structure was as tall as a 13-story building with a 70 x 70 m (230 x 230 feet) footprint and in addition to the flak guns on the roof, it housed an 85-bed hospital, extensive storage space for art works & cultural artifacts as well as the capacity to provide shelter for some 15,000 people (a number greatly exceeded later in the war when the raids became both frequent and severe.

The installed armament was a battery of four 128 mm (5 inch) twin Flak mounts, augmented by 20 mm (¾ inch) and 37-mm (1½ inch) guns on lower platforms, the sides of the tower 8 m (26 feet) thick, the roof 5 m (16 feet).  The versatility of the design was proven when in 1945 the city was under assault by the Red Army and the big guns were deployed at low angle, proving highly effective as tank destroyers and according to the estimates of both sides, delaying the entry of Soviet troops by almost two weeks.  Even then, after the city had been occupied and the surrender negotiated, the Germans remained in control of the tower, the thick walls having withstood all attacks.  After the war, it proved difficult to demolish and it was only in 1948, after several attempts and over 100 tons of explosives that finally it was razed, the land eventually returned to the Berlin Zoo.

Spinster

Spinster (pronounced spin-sta (U) or spin-ster (non-U))

(1) A woman still unmarried beyond the usual age (according to the usual social conventions) of marrying.  Except when used historically, spinster has long been thought offensive or at least disparaging.

(2) In law (and still used in some jurisdictions), a woman who has never married.

(3) A person (historically always a woman) whose occupation is the spinning of threads (archaic).

(4) A jocular slang variation of the more common a spin doctor, spin merchant or spin master (one who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to lend a favorable or advantageous appearance.

(5) A woman of evil character who has committed evil deeds, so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction (obsolete).

(6) A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread (a rare, dialectal form).

1325–1375: The construct was spin + -ster.  From the Middle English spynnester & spinnestere (a woman who spins fibre).  The early form combined the Middle English spinnen (spin fibers into thread) with -stere, the Middle English feminine suffix from the Old English -istre, from the Proto-Germanic -istrijon, the feminine agent suffix used as the equivalent of the masculine –ere.  It was used in Middle English also to form nouns of action (meaning "a person who ...") without regard for gender, a use now common in casual adaptations.  Spinster came to be used to describe spinners of both sexes which clearly upset some because by 1640 a double-feminine form had emerged: spinstress (a female spinner) which, 1716 also was being used for "a maiden lady".  Spinster, spinsterishness, spinsterism, spinsterism, spinsterdom, spinstership and spinsterhood are nouns and spinsterish, spinsterly, spinsterlike & spinsteresque are adjectives; the noun plural is spinsters.

The unmarried Lindsay Lohan who would probably have been described as a bachelorette, "Heart Truth Red Dress", Fall 2006 fashion show, Olympus Fashion Week, Manhattan, February 2006.

How prevalent the practice actually was is impossible to say because of the paucity of social histories of most classes prior to the modern age but the public attitude was said to be that unmarried women were supposed to occupy themselves with spinning.  This spread to common law through that typically English filter, the class system.  So precisely was the status of the spinster defined that the cut-off point was actually where one’s father sat in the order of precedence, a spinster "the legal designation in England of all unmarried women from a viscount's daughter downward".  Thus a woman’s father had be on the third rung of the peerage to avoid spinsterhood and that meant to avoid the fate the options were either marriage or to secure him an upward notch (from viscount to earl).  The use in English legal documents lasted from the seventeen until well into the twentieth century and, by 1719, had become the standard term for a "woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age at which it was expected".

A metallic wood-boring beetle (left) and a thornback ray (right).

One alternative to spinster which still shows up in the odd literary novel was the Italian zitella (an older unmarried woman).  Zitella was the feminine form of zitello (an older, unmarried man), which was from zito (a young, unmarried man), from the Neapolitan or Sicilian zitu, both probably related to the Vulgar Latin pittitus (small, worthless).  The feminine form of zito was zita (young unmarried woman) and both in southern Italian dialectical use could be used respectively to mean boyfriend & girlfriend and also a type of pasta (correctly a larger, hollow macaroni but as culinary terms they’ve apparently be applied more liberally).  The Italian zitellaggio (zitellaggi the plural) was the state of spinsterhood, the construct being zitella +‎ -aggio.  The suffix -aggio was from the Latin -āticum, probably via the Old Occitan –atge and was used to form nouns indicating an action or result related to the root verb.  Pleasingly, Zitella is a genus of metallic, wood-boring beetles in the family Buprestidae, containing four species and commonly known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles.  Quite why the name was chosen isn’t immediately obvious but it’s not uncommon for genera and species to be named after an individual or a place associated with the discovery.  It’s therefore wholly speculative to suggest a link between an entomologist’s girlfriend and a wood-boring beetle.  Still, even that connection might be preferred to the archaic English form "thornback" (a woman over a certain age (quoted variously as 26 or 30 and thus similar in construction to the modern Chinese Sheng nu (剩女; shèngnǚ) (leftover women) who has never married and in the eighteenth century a thornback was thought "older than a spinster").

The slang “old maid”, referring to either to a spinster of a certain age or one who, although younger, behaves in a similar way (the implication being negative qualities such as fussiness or undesirability) is from the 1520s and the card game of that name is attested by 1831 (though it may now be thought a microaggression).  Bachelorette or the gender-neutral forms “unmarried” or “single” tend now to be preferred.  Spinster is a noun, spinsterish an adjective and spinsterishly an adverb but the most commonly used derived forms were probably the noun spinsterhood and the adjective spinsterlike.  The noun plural is spinsters.

End of spinsterhood.

On Sunday 28 November, Lindsay Lohan posted on Instagram her notice of engagement to Bader Shammas (b 1987), an assistant vice president at financial services company Credit Suisse.  At that point Ms Lohan should have been styled as betrothed which is the state of being engaged; the terms fiancé (or fiancée) also used.  By tradition, engagement rings are worn on the left hand.  Fortunately (for Instagram and other purposes), the ring-finger, partially severed in a nautical accident on the Aegean in 2016 was re-attached with some swift micro-surgery, the digit making a full recovery.  The couple's marriage was announced during 2022. 

Pontoon

Pontoon (pronounced pon-toon)

(1) In military use, a boat, boat-like device or some other floating structure used as one of the supports for a temporary bridge (often styled as “pontoon bridge) placed over a river, canal or similar waterway.

(2) A float for a derrick, landing stage etc.

(3) In nautical use, a float (often inflatable) for raising a sunken or deeply laden vessel in the water; a camel or caisson.

(4) In aviation, a seaplane’s floats.

(5) In some places (1) an alternative name for the card game blackjack (also as 21 or twenty-one, an alteration of the French ving-un (an obsolete variant of vingt-et-un (twenty-one)) and (2) in the game, the combination of an ace with a ten or court card when dealt to a player as his first two cards.

(6) In nautical freight & passenger handling, a lighter or barge used for loading or unloading ships.

(7) In automotive design, a style in which the coachwork features smooth, flowing curves extending from the front to the rear without interruption.

1585–1595: From the Middle French ponton, from the fourteenth century Old French ponton (bridge, drawbridge, boat-bridge; flat-bottomed boat), from the Latin pontōn-, from pontō (flat-bottomed boat, punt), from pōns (bridge); a pontōnem was a “ferryboat”.  The use in some places to describe the card game (an alteration of the French ving-un (an obsolete variant of vingt-et-un (twenty-one) dates from 1916 and entered English when French & British troops played the game on the Western Front during World War I (1914-1918).  In engineering, the pontoon bridge (a roadway supported on pontoons) was described as early as 1778.  Pontoon, pontooning & pontooneer are nouns and pontooned is an adjective & verb; the noun plural is pontoons.

Bugatti T32s at the French Grand Prix, Tours, 1923.

Attracted by gains to be realized in aerodynamic efficiency, in 1923 Bugatti fabricated four T32 race cars to compete in that year’s French Grand Prix using the pontoon principle.  Bodied in aluminum, the stubby little machines were nicknamed “the Tanks” and there’s certainly a resemblance to the lines of the World War I tanks but, designed without the use of a wind-tunnel, the aviation influenced airfoil shape chosen to increase top speed also possessed that other quality need by aircraft: lift.  The combination of speed and lift was of course a recipe for instability and the T32s showed a marked inclination to leave the track.  Despite this discouraging start, the pontoon approach would ultimately prevail but for decades, instances of aerodynamically-induced instability would plague the tracks, the death toll not small.

Small & large: 1926 Hanomag 2/10 PS Coupé (Kommissbrot) (left) & 1933 Volvo Venus Bilo (right).  The larger the pontoon, the more slab-sided the tendency.

In automotive design, term "pontoon" was used to a style in which the coachwork features smooth, flowing curves extending from the front to the rear without interruption.  The use of the word alluded to the nautical term used to describe a floatation device attached to the sides of a boat or ship to provide stability.  The objectives of the early adopters of the motif included (1) aerodynamic efficiency, (2) a reduction in the number of components needed to form a body, (3) enhanced efficiency through the allocation of more usable internal space and (4) a sleek and streamlined appearance.  It took decades of experimentation and there were a number of notable failures in just about every aspect of the pursuit of those objectives but, beginning in the 1920s, literally dozens of recognizably pontoon-like forms entered production, some sold by the thousand but it’s notable the most successful ventures were those which involved smaller (sometimes on the scale which would later be called micro-cars) vehicles.  On those, the styling tended to be less jarring to the aesthetic sensibilities of those who would actually pay for the things; on the larger machines, the most commonly applied epithet was “slab-sided”.

The pontoon would prevail but in one little corner of England, the 1930s lasted until 1968.  Remarkably, when the NSU Ro80 (left) was released in 1967, the Vanden Plas Limousine (right, complete with a divided windscreen made of two flat panes) was on-sale in a showroom in the same street.

Still, as the 1930s unfolded, the trend was certainly gaining strength and had it not been for the blast of war, things might have evolved much as they did although like many of the aspects of science and engineering which benefited from the extraordinary progress realized during those years, the evolution at the very least would probably have taken much longer.  As it happened, in the late 1940s as the first generation of post-war vehicles was released in the US, the pontoon motif was almost universal, only some vestigial traces of the old, separated ways remaining to reassure.  In Europe, some clung longer to the old ways and in the UK, even by the late 1960s there were still traditionalists finding a tiny market still existed for the old ways bit but mostly, during the previous decade the pontoon had taken its place as one of the symbols of mid century modernism.

Bridge on the road to the pontoon: 1948 Mercedes-Benz 170 (left) & 1951 Mercedes-Benz 220 (right).

One range was so definitively pontoonish that it even picked up the nickname “pontoon”.  Daimler-Benz emerged from World War II not so much diminished as almost destroyed and in 1945 the board of directors felt compelled to issue a statement declaring “Daimler-Benz had ceased to exist in 1945” although that proved pessimistic, a modest programme of repair and maintenance soon established and the next year, small scale production resumed of the pre-war 170V although circumstances were challenging and in two years barely 600 left the improvised assembly line.  However, the currency reform and economic stabilization of 1948 transformed things and marked the birth of the post-war Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) and the 170 range, so appropriate to the austere times was soon augmented and then replaced by more advanced models but the pre-war styling was carried over substantially unchanged.

The Mercedes-Benz Pontoons: 1953 180 (left), 1956 219 (centre) and 1959 220 SE cabriolet (right).

Lindsay Lohan on pontoon, Sardinia, 2016.

It was however obvious that the approach was antiquated and in 1951 work was begun on a new range of mass-produced four-door sedans which abandoned the old separate chassis for a unibody.  This was the car which came to be called the pontoon and the first version was released in 1953 as the 180, fitted with 1.8 litre (110 cubic inch) four-cylinder engine in both petrol & diesel forms.  Stylistically, it was among the simplest, least adorned interpretations of the pontoon idea and has been compared both to “three boxes” and “on loaf of bread atop another” and among mainstream vehicles, probably only the contemporary British Fords (the Mark Consul, Zephyr & Zodiac (the so called “three graces”)) enjoyed the same austerity of line.  The pontoon though looked undeniably modern compared with its predecessors and it was a success, soon augmented by the longer 220 fitted with the 2.2 litre (134 cubic inch) straight-six with which more than any other the company rebuilt its reputation.  As the Wirtschaftswunder gathered pace, demand emerged for something more exclusive and a 220 coupé and cabriolet were added although, very expensive, production didn’t reach far into four figures.  More popular was the blend of the six cylinder engine with the short body of the 180, the engineering of which was simple enough but finding the appropriate nomenclature must have required some discussion and, given the way thing were then done by Germans, presumably reached board level for approval.  The solution was to call it the 219 which was a unique departure from the factory’s naming conventions and the only time in recent history the base three-digit model designation has ended in other than a 0 (zero).  Model proliferation would follow and the problem would reoccur and in later years another convention was adopted which lead to a confusing alpha-numeric soup (190 E 2.6, 300 E 2.8 et al so under that regime the 219 would have become the 180 2.2) until in the early 1990s the whole system was re-organized.  The pontoon line lasted until 1963 although by then it looked a relic and had been cut to a few lower-cost utilitarian models.  The pontoons were really the last memory of the austere years before the exuberance of the 1960s affected even Daimler-Benz.

OSI Silver Fox.  Race car designers had before tried the twin-pontoon idea without great success but in 1967, attracted by the uniquely achievable aerodynamic advantages offered by what was essentially a “wing with wheels”, OSI built the Silver Fox for the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race.  Financial difficulties doomed that project and the potential of concept was undermined when the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation (and international sports dopiest regulatory body)) banned “movable aerodynamic aids”).