Succedaneum

Succedaneum (pronounced suhk-si-dey-nee-uhm)

(1) Something used as a substitute, especially any medical drug or agent that may be taken or prescribed in place of another (obsolete).

(2) One who takes the place of another.

1635–1645: From the New Latin succēdāneum, a noun use of the neuter singular of the Classical Latin succēdāneus (succeeding, following after; acting as substitute), the construct being suc(cēdō) (succeed, follow) +‎ -āneus (the composite adjectival suffix).  The notion of a succedaneum exists in many contexts and there are descriptions which are exactly synonymous and some which are merely similar or functionally overlap to some extent surrogate, backup, understudy, replacement, stand-in, locum, alternate, deputy, expediency, proxy, stopgap, body-double, sub, makeshift, fill-in, delegate, temporary, assistant, nominee, replica, successor and substitute.  Succedaneum is a noun and succedaneous is an adjective, the noun plural is succedanea.

Lindsay Lohan body-doubles: The Parent Trap (1998) (left) and Irish Wish (2023 (right).

The understudy is a term from the performing arts (theatre, ballet, opera et al) and describes someone who rehearses a part and is available to perform if the designated character becomes unavailable (illness, injury, tantrum, death etc).  In some cases an understudy may become a replacement if a temporary substitution becomes permanent.  A backup is essentially the same concept as an understudy but is used more generally.  Locum was a seventeenth century adoption of the Medieval Latin locum tenens (literally “one holding a place”) and has evolved as a class-based description of “a temporary replacement”, being by convention restricted to the professions (doctors, dentists, lawyers, vets etc (and for historic reasons the clergy)) whereas a replacement plumber is simply a replacement.  A body-double is used in film & television production to take the place of an actor for a variety of reasons (dangerous stunt work, scheduling conflicts, nudity scenes etc).  Alternates are usually those appointed to some sort of deliberative body, typically a judge appointed to some sort of enquiry or tribunal expected to last a long time, the idea being that in the case the primary judge becomes unavailable (illness, injury, tantrum, death etc), the matter may proceed without interruption.  In this context a nominee is someone nominated to fulfill some role which is for whatever reason (ex-officio, inheritance etc) in the gift of the nominator.  A proxy is particular example of a nominee who is authorized to exercise some right (usually a vote or votes) on behalf of the nominator.  A stopgap or makeshift is a description of something or someone temporarily substituted until a permanent arrangement is made. A delegate is an appointment made to exercise authority held by another but also carries the special value in that the extent of the delegation can be split.  In granting authority to a delegate, the delegated authority can be restricted to a single instance with all other matters reserved for the delegator.  In many cases a deputy or assistant will be able to exercise all or some of the authority held by the higher office but there are no set rules and things will vary from place to place.  As successor is simply a replacement and such situations the word substitute usually isn’t applied.

The issue of the appropriateness of the notion of succedaneum in legal proceedings was explored in the hearings of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) during the first trial of the leading Nazis at Nuremberg (1945-1946).  The first matter considered was whether others could be substituted if a preferred defendant wasn’t available for trial (ie they were dead or missing).  Because of the teleological nature of the trial insisted on by the Americans (who were providing the bulk of the resources and paying most of the bills) which was best served by a thematic approach to the choice of defendants, at least one representative of each defined area of interest was needed.  In the case of the army and navy that was simple because senior officers were to hand and the matter of the air force was fudged by indicting Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) although his role as notional head of the Luftwaffe’s and indeed its role in the war received very little attention during the trial; given the Allies carpet bombing campaign had laid waste to German cities which indisputably were treated as civilian targets, it wasn’t something on which the prosecution wished to dwell although the opening address did include the admission the Germans not alone in reducing European cities to rubble and that “… the ruin that lies from the Rhine to the Danube shows that we have not been dull pupils”.  Despite that prosecutorial gesture however, it was make clear to counsel the defense of tu quoque (best translated as “you did it too” (literally “and you also”)) would not be permitted.

The defendants in the dock listening to Kaltenbrunner’s cross-examination, Nuremberg, 1946.

Dead or missing however were three of the most notorious figures from the security apparatus: Heinrich ("Gestapo") Müller (1900-1945 (presumed); head of the Gestapo 1939-1945), Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) and Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945; Reichsführer SS 1929-1945).  However it was unthinkable a trial of the Nazis could be conducted without the Gestapo and the SS being represented so Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1943-1945) was substituted and it proved a wise choice because of all the defendants, he was the one with absolutely no defense, his guilt established beyond any doubt by the wealth of documents signed in his own hand (his cross-examination a remarkably brief 2½ days).  He was a trained lawyer and simply denied everything although given the evidence his protests didn’t convince even the others in the dock.  He also wasn’t happy about the use of succedaneum, saying more than once he was not prepared “…to be an ersatz for Himmler” although that did him no good and he was condemned to hang.

Dead too was Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) but the trial was not simply about the armed conflict which was fought between 1939-1945; the Americans in particular wanted the trial to be a platform to explore the role of propaganda in totalitarian societies and the way it was exploited by the Nazis in the 1930s.  Goebbels however had been a dominant figure in propaganda and the only official from the ministry of any status who could be found was Hans Fritzsche (1900–1953) who while not exactly “the newsreader” some claimed, was not someone ever concerned with matters of high-policy and he was available for the trial only because, in the haphazard ways things happened at the end of the war, he’d fallen into the hands of the Russians.  Certainly, his voice was well-known to Germans but nobody on the British or US prosecution teams had heard of him and, perhaps more tellingly, neither had some of his fellow defendants.  Despite this unpromising background however, a case was prepared but compared with the mass-murderers and plunderers which whom he shared the dock, the tribunal wasn’t convinced he could be convicted of war crimes or crimes against humanity and ordered his acquittal.  Unlike the substituted Kaltenbrunner who was guilty as sin of horrific crimes, Fritzsche seemed little more than a clerk, guilty of something but not war crimes.  Arrested shortly afterwards by the German authorities, he was convicted as a “major offender” by a denazification court and sentenced to nine years imprisonment.  In the early Cold War however, attitudes were shifting and like many others, he was soon released.

Courtroom during the Krupp trial, Nuremberg, 1947.

By far the most troubling act of (attempted) succedaneum was that of Alfried Krupp (1907–1967).  Krupp was an industrialist and had been head of the Krupp concern (steel works and related production) which was a major supplier of weapons and other materiel to the Nazi war machine, much of it produced using slave labor under appalling conditions.  It was important to ensure a representative of industry be included in the trial and no operation was more dominant in the Nazi economy than Krupps.  In one of those curious mistakes which just can’t be fixed, although it had been intended to indict Alfried Krupp, at some point in the process, a filing error or something happened and instead his father Gustav Krupp (1870–1950) was listed.  The father had actually been “retired” to the titular position of Chairman because of physical and mental incapacity and the error wasn’t noticed until it was too late and the indictment had been issued.  Were it in any other context, an apology could have been made and the paperwork amended but “substitution” in criminal law is a special case and no civilized legal system permits it.  The court had already been made aware that the elder Krupp was physically and mentally not fit to attend a trial which prompted the suggestion he might be tried in absentia but this the tribunal declined.  The prosecution’s alternative plan was therefore to “add” the name of the son to the indictment but this appalled the tribunal even more because it was so obviously as substitution.  By now it was too late to run the argument that the “addition” was simply to correct the earlier filing error and the trial proceeded without either Krupp.

At things turned out, the mistake merely delayed things.  At the time, it wasn’t certain there would be subsequent trials but the success of the main trial encouraged the prosecutors and twelve hearings (referred to usually as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials") were conducted including three concerned with the crimes committed in the course of industrial production (Krupp, Flick & IG Farben).  After the trial (1947-1948), Alfried Krupp received a twelve year sentence and the forfeiture of property although he served only a few years before the sentence was commuted.

Genius

Genius (pronounced jeen-yuhs)

(1) An exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as applied to creative and original work in science and art.

(2) A person having such capacity.

(3) As applied collectively, usually to a nation or period, a descriptor of characteristics said to have produced something exceptional.

(4) The guardian spirit of a place, institution etc (now rare), derived from Roman mythology, the guiding spirit who attends a person from birth to death.

(5) In Islamic (Arabic) mythology (as jinn or genie), a demon (often plural).

1350–1400 (for its adoption in English; 1640s for its modern sense): From the Middle English, from the Latin genius (inborn nature; a tutelary deity of a person or place; wit, brilliance) from gignere (to beget) or gignō (to beget, produce) from the Old Latin genō from the primitive Indo-European root ǵenh & gen(e)-yo- from gene- (give birth, beget) with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.  The sense of "characteristic disposition" of a person is from 1580s, the modern meaning "person of exalted natural mental ability" was first recorded in the 1640s.  In English, as in the French genie and the German Genius & Genie, the “talent” senses of genius were likely influenced by the Latin ingenium (innate quality, nature, character, temperament, talent, intellect).  Ingenium supplied both ingenious and engine, its stem sharing a parent in genius’s gignere.  That French derivative, genie, was used to translate the jinn in the English translation (1706-1721) of the One Thousand and One Nights (أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ‎ (Alf Laylah wa-Laylah), the collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age; this was because of its resemblance in sound and, to some extent, sense.  Genius is a noun & adjective and geniusness is a noun; the noun plural is geniuses when applied to people and genii when otherwise used.

Evolution of genius

Over two millennia the meaning of “genius” shifted from a guiding spirit which lived in everyone to a description of the intellectual brilliance known only to a few.  The idea began in Ancient Rome; a person’s “genius” dictated their unique personality and disposition but it was more than a thousand years before the word came to be used to describe not a spirit inspiring a talent but also the talent itself.  In Antiquity, every person had a genius, a kind of guardian spirit who guided them from birth to death. The male genius was a kind of incarnation of Jupiter, the chief male deity; the female, Juno.  Places (genius loci), objects, events, and institutions also had their own genii, and Romans would propitiate their genii at important moments in their lives.

A scoop from Just Jared.

When first used in English, people still spoke of “having a genius” but as more rational understandings of mental ability evolved, it became increasingly common to describe them as “being a genius”.  The two meanings ran in parallel for centuries and echoed the Christian concept of guardian angels.  The “good” spirit was called the bonus genius (1606), the bad the malus genius (1538), giving rise to the seventeenth century “evil genius”, conceived originally as a malevolent spirit which tries to make someone do evil and the evil genius persists and remains prevalent among both historians (it does seem often applied to certain figures in the Third Reich (1933-1945)) and popular culture.  In English, the early use of genius as a label tended to favor poets, the most popular writing of the age.  Poet and scholar Philip Sidney (1554-1586) wrote that poetry “…must not be drawn by the ears: it must be gently led, or rather, it must lead, which was partly the cause that made the ancient learned affirm it was a divine, and no human skill, since all other knowledges lie ready for any that have strength of wit; a poet no industry can make, if his own genius be not carried into it.”  It later became used about great composers and authors although some thought it might be too liberally applied, essayist and playwright Joseph Addison (1672–1719) noting in 1711 there “...is no character more frequently given to a writer, than that of being a genius. I have heard many a little sonneteer called a fine genius.”  Now, the best footballer, tennis player etc might often be called "a genius" although there is the occasional echo of the ancient tradition: an exceptional goal or point might be described as an "act of genius".  

Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) on Twitter 6 January 2018.

In the modern age, it’s applied to scientists, artists and, perhaps sometimes hyperbolically, to some of the better backs (though of course never the forwards) in rugby.  In 2018, Donald Trump tweeted he was not merely a genius but “…a very stable genius”.  Reaction was mixed but as a title it tempted Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker (b 1984) & Carol Leonnig (b 1966) who in 2020 published A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America.  It focused on the first three years of his presidency, a period during which things seemed at the time to be a bit erratic but was tranquil compared with what was to follow.  Three years to the day after the famous tweet, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol Building in Washington DC in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.  As a coda, Rucker & Leonnig in 2021 published I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.

Hoop

Hoop (pronounced hoop)

(1) A circular band or ring of metal, wood, or other stiff material.

(2) Such a band for holding together the staves of a cask, tub, barrel etc.

(3) A large ring of iron, wood, plastic, etc., used as a plaything for a child to roll along the ground; the hula hoop was a later variation.

(4) A circular or ring-like object (apart, figure, component etc).

(5) In jewelry, the shank of a finger ring (the part of a finger ring through which the finger fits).

(6) In croquet, the wicket (the iron arches through which the ball is driven).

(7) In fashion, a circular band of stiff material used to expand and shape a woman's skirt (sometimes a hoop skirt or petticoat although technically, some don’t contain actual hoops).

(8) In basketball & netball, an informal term for the metal ring from which the net is suspended (the rim).  Also used to refer to the metal ring and net taken together (the basket) and (now less commonly) the game itself (always in the plural).

(9) In pottery (and the products of those which emulate the styles), a decorative band around a mug, cup bowl, plate etc.

(10) To bind or fasten with or as if with a hoop or hoops.

(11) To encircle; to surround.

(12) In circuses etc, a large ring through which performers or animals are trained to jump.

(13) In horse racing, slang for a jockey (Australia).

(14) A style of earring consisting of one or more circles of some substance (metal, plastic et al) and classically a single strand although some have several circles.  They’ve come to be associated with Gypsies (Roma; Romany; Travelers) but this may reflect depictions in popular culture).

(15) A variant spelling of whoop; a whoop, as in whooping cough; to utter a loud cry, or a sound imitative of the word, by way of call or pursuit; to shout (now rare).

(16) In cheese production (as cheese hoop), the cylinder in which the curd is pressed in making wheels of cheese.

(17) A circular band of metal, wood, or similar material used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.

(18) A quart pot, so called because originally it was bound with hoops, like a barrel (used also as a measure of the portion of the contents measured by the distance between the hoops).

(19) A now obsolete (pre imperial system) measure of capacity, apparently between 1-4 pecks.  (In US customary use, a peck was equal to 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints (8.80977 litres).  In the Imperial system, it was equal to 2 Imperial gallons or 8 Imperial quarts (9.09218 litres).)

(20) In embroidery, a circular frame used to support the thread.

(21) In sports (usually in the plural) a series of horizontal stripe on the jersey.

1125–1175: From the Middle English hope, hoope & hoop (circular band, flattened ring), from the late Old English hōp (mound, raised land; in combination, circular object), from the Proto-Germanic hōp (circular band, flattened ring) & hōpą (bend, bow, arch (which was related to the Saterland Frisian Houp (hoop), the Dutch hoep (hoop), the Old Church Slavonic кѫпъ (kǫpŭ) (hill, island), the Lithuanian kabẽ (hook) and the Old Norse hóp (bay, inlet)), from the primitive Indo-European kāb- (to bend).  Etymologists conclude the original meaning would have been “curve; ring” but the evolution is murky.  The verb was derived from the noun and emerged in the fifteenth century, apparently from the barrel-making business undertaken by coopers (who handled the timber) and hoopers (who fashioned the steel hoops).  Hoop is a noun & verb, hooper is a noun (the surname Hooper a proper noun), hooped is a verb & adjective hoopless, hooplike & unhooped are adjectives; the noun plural is hoops.

Lindsay Lohan wearing hooped earrings.

Although it’s clear hoops as playthings for children date back to antiquity, they weren’t again documented in Europe until the 1400s (where they were used in an early form of physiotherapy) and seem not to have been commercially available only after 1792.  The sport of basketball dates from 1891 and the term hoops (both for the physical components and the game itself) was certainly in use by 1893 although oral use may have preceded this.  The use in circuses (a large ring through which performers or animals are trained to jump) was noted in 1793 but there are journals from travelers in Spain, the Middle East and North Africa which confirm the same devices were being used to train military horses as early as the 1100s.  From this, developed the figurative form “jumping through hoops” which was used from circa 1915 to refer to the obstacles which must be overcome in order to proceed (one being forced to perform time-consuming, pointless tasks in order to gain a job, qualify for acceptance to something etc).

Structural engineering: How the hoop skirt is done.

The hoops (circular band serving to expand and shape the skirt of a woman's dress) used in fashion became popular in the 1540s but similar ideas in structural engineering has been used for thousands of years.  Until the twentieth century, the style never really went away but the size of the hoops certainly waxed and waned as tastes shifted.  The hoops were used for both skirts and petticoats and were fabricated variously from ratan, whalebone, bamboo and even steel and sometimes shapes beyond the purely circular were used, notably the bustle-back style which used the same technique of fabric over a framework.  The term hoop-petticoat appears to date from 1711 while the hoop-skirt is documented since 1856.  A hooptie (less commonly as hooptee or hoopty) is US slang for a dilapidated motor vehicle, dating from the 1920s but achieving popularity when used in hip-hop culture during the 1980s.

1958 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith touring limousine by Hooper.

The hoop snake, a native of the southern US & northern Mexico, was so named in 1784 in recognition of its ability to take its tail in its mouth and roll along like a hoop.  The phrase “cock-a-hoop” (delighted; very happy) was first noted in the sixteenth century and is of unknown origin but may be derived from either (1) the earlier “to set the cock a hoop” (prodigally to live) which implied (literally) “to put a cock on a hoop” (ie, a full measure of grain).  The surname Hooper (maker of hoops, one who hoops casks or tubs) dates from the thirteenth century and was the companion occupation of the cooper who made the barrels.  Hooper & Co (1805) was a UK coach-builder which in the twentieth century moved into the automobile business, catering for the top-end of the market including those supplied to the Royal Mews.  In the 1950s it was noted for its signature “knife-edge” style which, somewhat incongruously, applied one of the motifs of modernity to what was by then an antiquated design idea.  It was also associated with the extravagant Docker Daimlers but it was the end of an era because the move to unitary construction by the manufacturers meant the end for traditional coach-building and their production lines were closed in 1959 although business continued in various forms and in the 1980s, a few one-off Bentleys and Rolls-Royces were made.  Hoopla (also a hoop la) was a coining of US English (originally as houp-la) dating from the 1870s meaning “exclamation accompanying quick movement” and thought derived from the French phrase houp-là (“upsy-daisy” in the English sense), used in Louisiana.  It has come generally to mean “a great fuss”.

Official photograph issued by Celtic Football Club (The Hoops) showing team in traditional green-hooped livery (left) and Lindsay Lohan in a similar style (right) although her choice is presumed coincidental.

The Glasgow-based, Scottish football club Celtic is (along with Rangers) part of an effective duopoly which dominates the Scottish Premiership, the nation’s (FIFA says it’s a country) top-level competition.  The club was founded in 1887 and its first game was a “friendly” against Rangers.  In sport “friendly” is a technical term which means only that no trophy or competition points are at stake and (certainly in the crowd), there is never anything friendly about Celtic-Rangers contests.  As well as taking the majority of the cup competitions, since 1985-1986 either Celtic or Rangers have won each season’s top-flight trophy.  Reflecting their Irish-Catholic traditions, Celtic has always played in green and white and the distinctive hooped shirt was adopted in 1903, gaining them the nickname which endures to this day: The Hoops.

Lindsay Lohan recommends salt & vinegar (S&V) Hula Hoops.

Made from processed potatoes & corn (maize), Hula Hoops are fashioned in the short, hollow cylinders about one inch (25 mm) across.  They were first sold in the UK in 1973 and have been sold (under a variety of brands) in Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the English-speaking world (except North America).  Because the distribution model relied on sea transport  from centralized production facilities, the Hula Hoop business was greatly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and in some cases, supplies to some markets weren't wholly restored until 2022, a problem for HH addicts because apparently, there's nothing else quite like them.  The internet noted Ms Lohan's fondness for salt & vinegar (S&V) but the consensus seem to be the most popular flavor was BBQ Beef (Brown).

Hooters is a US cultural and culinary institution and one of its signature features is the beer being served by a hula-hooping waitress.  Hooters provides an instructional video, performed by Jordan from Georgia.

The staff at Hooters of course use a traditional hula-hooping technique, not only to respect the history but because they pour beer while hooping.  However, for those able to perform in "hands-free" mode, the hoop can be made to rotate in any arc which movements of body-parts permit.

Witch

Witch (pronounced wich)

(1) A person, historically either male or female but now especially a woman, who professes or is supposed to practice magic or sorcery; a sorceress (especially popular in mythology and fiction but also associated with certain societies and historical periods and still current in parts of some countries).

(2) In the new age movement, a practitioner of a nature-based religion founded on ancient beliefs, which honors both a male and female divine principle and includes the practice of magic, especially associated with healing.

(3) An informal and derogatory term for an ugly, mean or wicked old woman; a hag.

(4) A fascinating or enchanting woman (usually in the sense of bewitching).

(5) A person who uses a divining rod; dowser (archaic).

(6) In the sense of witch-hunt, an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.

(7) A flatfish, Pleuronectes (or Glyptocephalus) cynoglossus, of North Atlantic coastal waters, having a narrow greyish-brown body marked with tiny black spots.  The family group is Pleuronectidae (plaice, flounders etc)

(8) In geometry, a certain curve of the third order, also known as versiera.

(9) In entomology, the Indomalayan butterfly Araotes lapithis, of the Lycaenidae family.

Pre 900: From the Middle English wicche from the Old English wicce (sorceress, witch (female)) which were the feminine forms and existed in conjunction with wicca (witch, sorcerer, warlock, wizard), the masculine deverbative from wiccian (to practice sorcery) from the Proto-Germanic wikkōną.  Related were the West Frisian wikje, wikke (to foretell, warn), the Low German wicken (to soothsay) and the Dutch wikken, wichelen (to dowse, divine).  Root was the primitive Indo-European wik-néh, derivation of weyk- (to consecrate; separate); akin to the Latin victima (sacrificial victim), the Swedish vicka (to move to and fro), the Lithuanian viẽkas (life-force) and the Sanskrit विनक्ति (vinákti) (to set apart, separate out).  Witch, witcher & witchery are nouns; witching is a verb & adjective and witchy is an adjective, the noun plural is witches.

An obviously guilty witch before the court, lithograph of a witch trial in Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1692.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) does note the generally accepted etymology is not without phonetic or semantic difficulties and suggests some connection with the Old English wigle (divination) and wig & wih (idol), the nouns representing a Proto-Germanic wikkjaz (necromancer) (one who wakes the dead) from the primitive Indo-European weg-yo from weg (to be strong, be lively).  That wicce once had a more specific sense than the later general one of "female magician, sorceress" is suggested by the presence of other words in Old English describing more specific kinds of magical craft.  In the Laws of Ælfred (circa 890), witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman's craft, the practitioners of which were not welcome to live among the Western Saxons.

In 2015, Nylon ran the story Lindsay Lohan had taken up witchcraft and wanted to be consecrated by a coven as a white witch.  Nylon did caution the source of the story was the National Enquirer, referred to as "a normally reliable source" only ever ironically. 

The glossary of the Laws of Ælfred translates Latin necromantia (demonum invocatio) as galdre or wiccecræft and in the Anglo-Saxon poem Men's Crafts, wiccræft appears to mean "skill with horses" so the OED is right to note the contested history.  By the early 1600s, the feminine form was so dominant that the forms men-witches or he-witches began to be used.  Warlock was never a universally accepted masculine form of witch despite the notion in modern popular culture and it’s from wicca that English ultimately gained both wizard and wicked.  Even in the sixteenth century, the implications were blurred, Reginald Scot in his The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) asserting it was synonymous in the English tongue to say either “she is a witch” or “she is a wise woman”.  In the popular imagination there's still a widespread perception witches were burned at the stake and while that was the case in many places (along with many other methods of dispatch), in the English-speaking world, because witchcraft was a felony in both England and the American colonies, witches were hanged and not burned.  Witches’ bodies were burned in Scotland, though they were strangled to death first.  The confusion may have arisen because there were cases of witches being burned at the stake but that was because they'd been convicted also of heresy.

Crooked Hillary Clinton has never denied practicing witchcraft (digitally altered image).

The extended sense of "young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or manners" is first recorded 1740.  It’s said to be an echo of the biblical (Exodus 22:18) rendering of mekhashshepheh, the feminine form of the word, meaning "enchantress" and (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) the masculine form (enchanter).  However, scripture is open to interpretation and the helpful translation in the King James Version: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" has been used by some contemporary ordinary Akan Christians in Ghana to justify praying for the death and destruction of witches and wizards.  Witch doctor is from 1718; applied to African magicians from 1836 and soon became interchangeable with “medicine man”.

Orthogonal

Orthogonal (pronounced awr-thog-uh-nl)

(1) Of, pertaining to or involving right angles; perpendicular

(2) In mathematics (sometimes as orthographic), pertaining to or involving right angles or perpendiculars.

(3) In mathematics, of a system of real functions defined so that the integral of the product of any two different functions is zero; of a system of complex functions defined so that the integral of the product of a function times the complex conjugate of any other function equals zero.

(4) In mathematics, of two vectors having an inner product equal to zero.

(5) In mathematics, of a linear transformation defined so that the length of a vector under the transformation equals the length of the original vector.

(6) In mathematics (and applied fields such as engineering or statistics), of a square matrix defined so that its product with its transpose results in the identity matrix.

(7) In crystallography, referable to a rectangular set of axes.

(8) Figuratively, something having no bearing on the matter at hand; independent of or irrelevant to another thing or each other.

(9) In art, (1) the descriptor of the lines of perspective which can be mapped onto an image pointing to the vanishing point & (2) in the literature of art criticism a technical term which refers to work consisting exclusively of horizontal or vertical line and thus angles which, if they exist, are right angles.

1565–1575: From (the now obsolete) orthogonium (right triangle), from the French orthogonal, from either the Late Latin orthogōnium & orthogōnālis, from the Latin orthogōnius (right-angled).or directly from the Greek orthogṓnion (neuter) (right-angled), the construct being ortho- + -gōn(ion) + -al.  Ortho- (straight, correct; proper), was from the Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós), from the Proto-Hellenic ortwós, from the primitive Indo-European hr̥dwós, from herd- (upright) and was cognate with the Latin arduus and the Sanskrit ऊर्ध्व (ūrdhvá).  The –gon element was from the Ancient Greek γωνία (gōnía) (corner, angle), from the primitive Indo-European ǵónu (knee).  The -al suffix was from the Middle English -al, from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al.  It was use to denote the sense "of or pertaining to", an adjectival suffix appended (most often to nouns) originally most frequently to words of Latin origin, but since used variously and also was used to form nouns, especially of verbal action.  The alternative form in English remains -ual (-all being obsolete).  Orthogonal is a noun & adjective, orthogonality & orthogonalization are nouns and orthogonally & orthonormal are adverbs; the noun plural is orthogonals.

As adjectives, orthogonal & orthographic are synonymously and the choice is dictated by preference, habit or the rhythm of the text although, to avoid confusion, they probably shouldn’t both be used in the same document.  The Ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιον (orthogṓnion) and the Classical Latin orthogonium originally denoted a rectangle and it was in this sense the words were used by the early mathematicians although the use was later extended to mean a right triangle.  By the twelfth century (especially among engineers and architects) the post-Classical Latin orthogonalis came to mean a right angle or something related to a right angle.  In the modern era, in science and mathematics, derived forms have been coined as required (biorthogonal, psuedo-orthogonal et al) and there’s also the mysterious semiorthogonal which would seem oxymoronic given orthogonal is a description of a mathematically defined absolute.  In figurative use, orthogonal is used to suggest something is unrelated or irrelevant to whatever is being discussed but because it’s so rarely used outside of mathematics, engineering, architecture or art criticism, it’s probably a term to avoid though it may be worth a point or two in Philosophy 101.

Lindsay Lohan in an unusual cage cutout top, the lines assuming or relaxing from the orthogonal as the body moves (maybe an instance of "a shifting semiorthogonal").  The combo was a Black Pash shirt with & Alaia skirt, The World's First Fabulous Fund Fair in aid of The Naked Heart Foundation, The Roundhouse, London, February 2015.   The t-strap sandals were by Miu Miu) but an an opportunity was missed by not adding a sympathetic clutch purse.

Richard Nixon, the Franklins & the Orthogonians

When Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) attended Whittier College in California (1930-1934), it was still formally affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers), a link it would maintain until the post-war years.  However, in many ways it was little different to wholly secular institutions in the US (except that one hour a day in chapel was mandatory), including the fraternities and sororities, the still almost exclusively single-sex, student-run societies which were established on many a basis and have evolved variously although a number of the male-only ones often attract attention related to their epic levels of alcohol consumption.  As was the case with many colleges until recent decades, many of those which Richard Nixon found when he arrived had been formed as literary societies and while there were four sororities (for women), there was but one fraternity.

That was the Franklin Society which in 1921 had been the first fraternity founded at Whittier College, beginning as a literary society that based itself on the "virtues" espoused by US founding father and polymath (and confessed Freemason) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).  Nixon, then unpolished and obviously a shop-keeper’s son, thought them snobby and elitist, an opinion either formed or reinforced when the Franklins rebuffed attempts to join and readily he accepted the suggestion be assume the presidency of the fraternity formed by other students resentful at being rejected by the Franklins.  This was the Orthogonians, the name (based on the now standard translation “right angles”) meaning “the straight shooters”, their motto an earthy “beans, brains, brawn and bowels”.  The Orthogonians did not enjoy the black tie lifestyle of the Franklins and weren’t invited to the best parties but several of Nixon’s biographers have traced from his fraternity experience many of the characteristics which would remain identifiable throughout this political career.  He learned that in life there are few stars but many supporting players and the man who can align himself with their interests you can gain their loyalty, something of real practical value in systems where everyone has one vote; it was the origin of his idea that elections and contests of ideas can be won by being appealing to the “silent majority”, something which would emerge as a political strategy during his presidency.  It taught him also that being hated was no obstacle to political success as long as one was hated by the right people, something he proved by beating the Franklin’s nominee for the position of student body president.  To this day, the Frankin’s website still boasts: “Among those who have been denied membership to this exclusive society is former president Richard Nixon.”  The Orthogoian Society still exists.

The master and the apprentice: Donald Trump and Richard Nixon, Houston, Texas, 1989.  It’s said the subject of Iran was raised in their discussions.

Some biographers have made much of the Franklin-Orthogonian contrast in the making of Nixon the younger.  In Nixonland (2008), Rick Perlstein’s (b 1969) thesis was that between 1965-1972, Nixon crafted a national conflict by exploiting the the mutual fear and hatred between the country’s elite Franklins and the “ordinary people”, the Orthogonians.  Some criticized the approach but Nixonland was a vivid approach to the era in which the divisions in the US became more exposed than they had been for a century and which was a prelude to the cross-cutting cleavages which have for decades characterized the country’s politics.  Nixon didn’t invent the politics of resentment but he expressed them in a language more easily understood by even the unsophisticated and more offensive than ever to those he labeled “the elites”.  In their own ways, to their radically different constituencies, Bernie Sanders (b 1941; senior US senator (Independent, Vermont) since 2007) and Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) are both inheritors of the Nixon legacy, two Franklins telling the Orthogonians they’re here to help.

Sinister

Sinister (pronounced sin-uh-ster)

(1) Threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous.

(2) Bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell; treacherous, especially in some mysterious way.

(3) Unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable.

(4) Of or on the left side; left-handed (mostly archaic except as a literary device).

(5) In heraldry, noting the side of an escutcheon or achievement of arms that is to the left of the bearer (as opposed to dexter), ie from the bearer's point of view and therefore on the spectator's right.

(6) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest (obsolete).

1375-1425: From the Middle English sinistre (unlucky), from the Old French sinistra (left), from the Latin sinestra (left hand) from the Proto-Italic senisteros, of unknown origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same primitive Indo-European root as the Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān) (more useful, more advantageous) with the contrastive or comparative suffix -ter, (as in the Latin dexter (on the right-hand)) familiar in the modern “dexterity”.  Sinister is an adjective, sinisterly is an adverb and sinisterness is a noun.  Unlike some other adjectives applied to people, such as exquisite, sinister never evolved into a self-definitional noun.  The alternative spelling sinistre is long obsolete but those for whom historical authenticity matters should note sinister was once accented on the middle syllable by poets including Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.

Evolution of Sinister

The now universal meanings (evil et al), emerged in the late fifteenth century, a sense inherited from the fourteenth century Old French senestre & sinistre (contrary, false; unfavorable; to the left) picked up directly from the Classical Latin sinestra (left, on the left side (opposite of dexter)).  Sinister had been used in heraldry from the 1560s to indicate "left, to the left" and left in heraldry indicated illegitimacy and in that it preserves the literal sense from Latin of "on or from the left side".  In zoology, the botanists in 1856 created the adjective sinistrorse a word to describe the direction of spiral structures in nature, from Latin sinistrorsus (toward the left side) the construct being sinist- (left) + versus (turned), past participle of vertere (to turn), from the primitive Indo-European root wer- (to turn, bend).  In the scientific literature it was paired with dextrorse but a broader adoption was doomed by confusion; it was never agreed what was the correct point of view to reckon the leftward or rightward spiraling.  

Peter Dutton (b 1970; Liberal-National Party MP for Dickson (Queensland, Australia) since 2001).  Sometimes, a sinister look is just a matter of chance, there being nothing sinister about Mr Dutton (although he has never denied being a Freemason).

The former Research Institute For Experimental Medicine, Berlin, Germany.  Built for the purpose of housing live animal testing facilities, and until 2003 known as the Central Animal Laboratories of the Free University of Berlin, its common name among Berliners (long known for their sardonic humor) the Mäusebunker (Mouse Bunker). 

Those working in visual media, photographers, cinematographers and painters use tricks of lighting and angle to convey a sense of the sinister, even buildings and landscapes, carefully framed, can invoke the feeling.  Although it can be because of a structure's historical associations, when a building is described as "sinister" it's a thing usually of subjective perception, induced often by a a dark, eerie, or foreboding appearance. There are a number of elements which may be involved:

(1) The architectural style, lighting and choice of materials can contribute to a perception of sinisterness, buildings in the Gothic or Brutalist tradition with their sharp angles, heaviness and use of slabs of dark stone noted for this.

(2) A notorious historical context can impart a meaning which transcends the actual architecture.  Buildings known to be associated with dark historical events or periods in history can gain a reputation as being sinister.  Places once the sites of suffering, torture or death gain this reputation such as the Lubyanka Building in Moscow.  Although an inoffensive Neo-Baroque structure in yellow brick, for most of its life it's been the home of one branch or other of the Russian internal agency, most famously the KGB.

(3) The surrounding environment can make an otherwise charming building seem mysterious and threatening.  Some will find a building standing alone in an isolated area or surrounded by dark and overgrown vegetation can provoke feeling of unease.

Lindsay Lohan as she would appear if left-handed, signing photographs with Sharpie (as recommended by Pippa Middleton), Rachael Ray Show, New York City, January 2019 (digitally mirrored image).  As a general principle, pink is not associated with sinisterness (although crooked Hillary Clinton in pink pantsuit would be most sinister).

A quirk from antiquity is that in matters of religion, to Romans sinister meant auspicious whereas for Greeks it meant inauspicious.  The curious duplicity arose because the Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky; unfavorable" a natural inheritance because omens, especially the flight of birds seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, adverse".  This was from the influence of Greek, reflecting the early Hellenic practice of facing north when observing omens.  In genuine Roman auspices, the augurs faced south so the left was thought good and favorable.  The Romans were a superstitious lot but seem to have managed this strange dichotomy of meaning without difficulty, sinister suggesting something bad except in the temple when it meant something good.

The salute associated with the Nazi regime (1933-1945) has long been regarded as something sinister or worse.  The pantsuit wasn't thought sinister until it became emblematic of crooked Hillary Clinton.