Purpose

Purpose (pronounced pur-puhs)

(1) The reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.

(2) An intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.

(3) Determination; resoluteness.

(4) The subject in hand; the point at issue.

(5) Practical result, effect, or advantage.

(6) To set as an aim, intention, or goal for oneself.

(7) To intend; design.

(8) To resolve to do something.

(9) To have a purpose.

1250-1300 (noun): The noun form with the meaning "intention, aim, goal" was from the Anglo-French & Middle English purpos from the twelfth century Old French porpos (aim, intention) from porposer (to put forth), the construct being por- (forth) (from the Latin pro- (forth) + the Old French poser (to put, place).  The phrase “on purpose” dates from the 1580s.  The verb followed soon, the first citations noted in the fourteenth century, from the Anglo-French purposer in the sense of "to design" and the Old French porposer (to intend, propose), a variant of proposer.  It’s from the same root Latin gained prō (forth) + pono (hence propono & proponere with conjugation altered based on poser).  Purpose is a noun & verb, purposer is a noun, purposeful & purposeless are adjectives, purposefully is an adverb, purposing is a verb and purposed is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is purposes.

The General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG)

Although the manually-cranked Gatling gun (1861) was the first practical rapid-fire (200 rounds-per-minute (rpm)) battlefield weapon, the fully automatic, water-cooled, Maxim machine gun (1884), with a fire-rate of 600 rpm, revolutionized war.  By the end of the First World War, machine guns had been deployed by all sides, in some battles accounting for over ninety percent of the small-arms ammunition expended.  The concept became entrenched in all branches of the military and a number of forks developed from the original design, each with their own set of special features depending on their application.  Machine guns used by armies, navies and air-forces became increasingly specialized.

Mauser Maschinengewehr 42 (MG 42) (7.92×57mm rounds).

The General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) came later, originating in an innovative 1934 design by Germany’s Mauser which cleverly circumvented restrictions imposed by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.  Highly adaptable to all military applications, it could be deployed in a traditional infantry role, used either on aircraft or as an air defense weapon, mounted on anything from light vehicles to tanks and just about any warship.  Development was accelerated by the demands of the Second World War, the GPMG an ideal product to which the techniques of mass-production and production-line standardization could helpfully be applied.  Attaining a fire-rate of up to 1500 rpm, the WWII GPMGs represent a technological plateau and there’s been little change since, all the design elements of the 1940s still present in today’s weapons, innovations restricted mostly to improved materials and add-ons such as laser-assisted sighting.  Like the shark and the pencil, the GPMG evolved to attain perfection and possible improvements to the design are not immediately obvious.

Lindsay Lohan with submachine gun.

A GPMG is not simply any machine gun used for “general purposes” (and a definition of that in this context would be impossible exactly to codify) and in the military the GPMG is a specific class of weapon.  A submachine gun (SMG) and a GPMG differ in design, purpose and application although there can be some overlap in the use of parts, tool kits and (less commonly), ammunition.  The classic SMG is (in relative terms) light, compact and those appropriately trained can fire some of them using only one hand although most are fitted with a (sometimes foldable or detachable) shoulder to enhance stability.  Many SMGs feature selective fire modes permitting a choice between a single shot, bursts (typically 3 shots) or fully automatic, continuous firing.  SMGs with an effective maximum range between 100-150 m (300-500 feet) are intended for close-quarters combat (they were designed during World War I (1914-1918) and intended to be decisive in trench warfare but the conflict ended before they could be deployed) in which, with a higher rate of fire than a rifle and a longer range than most side arms, they can be ideal.  Conveniently they often use the same ammunition as a sidearm although with a higher capacity.

The GPMG is larger, heavier and designed to sustain continuous fire for long periods.  They are now almost always belt fed and use rifle-style & size cartridges, requiring a team of two or three effectively to operate.  As “general purpose” suggests, GPMGs are highly mobile, versatile weapons which can be deployed in a range of combat situations including suppressing fire to sustain either attacks or withdrawals and can engage targets at medium range, something especially useful in theatres where the use of artillery would risk causalities from friendly fire.  GPMG offer a high rate of fire and some Western forces in the late twentieth century concentrated on those using the 5.56 x 45mm NATO load because of the expectation the days of the set-piece, medium-range battle was a thing of the past but experience in recent conflicts confirmed the army’s need for heavier loads and many units were re-equipped with GPMGs using the 7.62 x 51mm NATO round, the latter with an effective range of 800-1220 m (2600-4000 feet) and thus suitable for any form of infantry support.

Font

Font (pronounced font)

(1) In Christianity, a receptacle, usually of stone, as in a baptistery or church, containing the holy water used in baptism (now usually as "fount").

(2) A receptacle for holy water; a stoup (now usually as "fount") .

(3) A productive source (often in the form “a fount of wisdom”).

(4) The reservoir for the oil in a lamp, ink for a pen etc (now usually as "fount").

(5) Figuratively, a spring or fountain; a wellspring (archaic but still appears in poetic & literary use as both "font" & "fount").

(6) In the slang of television production, to overlay text onto the picture.

(7) In typography, a set of glyphs of unified design, belonging to one typeface, style & weight and usually representing the letters of an alphabet, supplementary characters, punctuation marks and the ten standard numerals.

(8) In phototypesetting, a set of patterns forming glyphs of any size, or the film they are stored on.

(9) In digital typesetting, a set of glyphs in a single style, representing one or more alphabets or writing systems, or the computer code representing it.

(10) In computing, a file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a display or printer.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English font, from the Old English font & fant, from the Latin font-, the stem of the Church Latin fons baptismalis (baptismal font, spring, fountain) from the Classical Latin fōns (genitive fontis) (fountain).  The use in printing to describe typefaces dates from the 1570s and was from the Old & Middle French fonte (a founding, casting), the feminine past participle of the verb fondre (to melt), from the unattested Vulgar Latin funditus (a pouring, molding, casting), a verbal noun from the Latin fundere (past participle fusus) (to pour a melted substance) from a nasalized form of the primitive Indo-European root gheu- (to pour).  The meaning was acquired because all the characters in a set were cast at the same time.  Most people use the words font and typeface as synonyms but industry professionals maintain a distinction: the typeface is the set of characters of the same design; the font is the physical means of producing them; that difference was maintained even as printing moved from physical wood & metal to electronics.  The modern practice is for the spelling “font” to apply to use in printing while “fount” is use for receptacles containing liquids.  That must seem strange to those learning the language but it’s how things evolved.  Font is a noun & verb, fonted is a verb & adjective, fonting is a verb and fontal is an adjective; the noun plural is fonts.

The politics of fonts

Great moments in fonts: Always select your font with care.

Dr Stephen Banham (b 1968) is a senior lecturer in typography at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia who has published widely on the subject.  He recently discussed the politics of fonts and offered a number of examples of how fonts have played some significant role in recent history.  He noted the way in which some developments in typefaces have been technologically deterministic, something related not only to the changes in the mechanical devices used in printing (such as the shift from wooden to metal type) but also the speed at which people travelled while reading.  When the development of railways meant people began regularly to travel at speeds beyond that which teams of horses could attain, it meant there was signage which had to be legible to those passing on the train and this was not always simply a matter of scaling-up the existing styles; sometimes new designs were needed with different aspect ratios.

Fonts in transition: Nazi Party poster advertising a “Freedoms Rally” (the irony not apparent at the time), Schneidemuhl, Germany, (now Pila, Poland) in 1931 (left), Edict issued by Martin Bormann (1900–1945) banning the future use of Judenlettern (Jewish fonts) like Fraktur (the irony of the letterhead being in the now banned typeface presumably didn’t disturb the author) (centre) and (in modern Roman script), an announcement in occupied that 100 Polish hostages had been executed as a reprisal for death of two Germans in Warsaw, 1944 (right).

Sometimes too, the message was the typeface itself; it imparted values that were separate from the specific meaning in the text.  The Nazi regime (1933-1945) in Germany was always conscious of spectacle and although in matters of such as architecture customs there was a surprising tolerance of regional difference, in some things it demanded uniformity and one of those was the appearance of official documents.  Early in his rule their rule, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader), German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) decreed that “German Black Letter” should be used for all official purposes (and it was used in the cover art of most early editions of Mein Kampf); Hitler, who to the end thought himself an “artist”, liked the heavy, angular form for its encapsulation of the Germanic.  Fraktur is probably the best known of these although it’s but one of a number of variations of the typeface and such was the extend of the state support for the font that the party was critical of newspapers, publishers & magazines which used more modern (and easier to read) forms (and they were used by the German military and civil service when legibility was important), a frequent criticism being the “Roman characters” somehow represented a “Jewish influence”.  In one of the ironies of history however, when it became apparent that when used in letters and notices distributed to enforce rule in the occupied territories the use of the font was counter-productive because it was so hard to read, the Nazis suddenly declared that Fraktur had become contaminated wand was thus proscribed as Judenlettern (Jewish letters), official documents thereafter rendered in modern Roman type.  Martin Bormann's edict was issued thus:

I announce the following, by order of the Führer:

It is false to regard the so-called Gothic typeface as a German typeface. In reality, the so-called Gothic typeface consists of Schwabacher-Jewish letters. Just as they later came to own the newspapers, the Jews living in Germany also owned the printing presses… and thus came about the common use in Germany of Schwabacher-Jewish letters.

Today the Führer… decided that Antiqua type is to be regarded as the standard typeface. Over time, all printed matter should be converted to this standard typeface. This will occur as soon as possible in regard to school textbooks, only the standard script will be taught in village and primary schools. The use of Schwabacher-Jewish letters by authorities will in future cease. Certificates of appointment for officials, street signs and the like will in future only be produced in standard lettering…

In the post war years, fonts (the word had come by them to be used generically of typefaces except by printers) reflected the mood of the times and in the unexpectedly buoyant years of the 1950s there emerged in West Germany (the FRG) “Optima”, (1958) intended to convey the optimism engendered by the Wirtschaftswunder (the economic miracle) while in France, “Univers” (1957), the product of a Swiss designer, was in a similar vein and intended to be suitable for all purposes in all languages.  Doubtlessly though, no font compares with the Swiss "Helvetica" (1957) which, by virtue of its elegance, simplicity & adaptability, quickly enjoyed a popularity which endures to this day and it remains the only font which has been the subject of a full-length feature film.  It spawned a number of imitators, especially after it was included in Adobe’s PostScript set, the best known of which is probably the ubiquitous Arial (1982).  The optimism of the 1950s is long gone although Optima remains available and names still reflect something of the concerns of their era: “Exocet” (1981), “Stealth” (1983) and “Patriot” (1986) all part of the late Cold War Zeitgeist.  Fonts can also reflect environment concerns and there are now some which no longer use solid forms, instead being made of lines, thereby reducing the consumption of ink or toner by up to 12%.  The trick isn’t detectable by the naked eye and is actually not new, “outline” typefaces long available although in those the technique was designed to be apparent and there were limitations in their application; below a certain size they tended to fragment.

More great moments in fonts.

During the Covid-19 pandemic when we were all spend much time in a form of house arrest, the font download sites all noted a spike in demand for script-like fonts, especially those which most resembled handwriting (and it is possible to have one’s own handwriting rendered as a font), the demand presumed to be induced by a longing for a way to express feelings in a more “human” way than the default serif and san serif sets which ship with email and messenger services.  That over arching binary (serif & san serif) has also attracted criticism because humanity’s most obvious binary (male & female) in now under siege as a form of oppression so binaries in general seem no longer fashionable.  With fonts, the most obvious micro-aggression is the way fonts are often categorized as “masculine” (Arial; Verdana etc) and “feminine” (Brush Script; Comic Sans (maybe in fuchsia) etc) and though the relevant characteristics can’t exactly be defined (except for the fuchsia), the differences probably can be recognized although that of course is a product of the prejudices and suppositions of the observer.  Presumably, if offered a third category (gender-neutral), a sample group would put some fonts in there but even that would seem based on the prejudices and suppositions constructed by the original binary.  The mechanics (as opposed to the content) of typology is one of the less expected theatres of the culture wars.

Verzoening, Geffen, the Netherlands.

The simultaneously derided yet still popular font Comic Sans (1984) has been more controversial than most.  The design was intended to recall the sort of writing which appeared in the speech bubbles of cartoons and it first came to wide public attention in 1995 when it was used in Microsoft Bob, the software which was an attempt to use a cartoon-like interface to make navigating Windows 95 easier for neophytes.  Even less popular than Windows Me, Windows Vista or DOS 4.0, Bob was allowed quietly to die but Comic Sans survived and found a niche, much to the disgust of some in major corporations who banned its use, demanding the staff use only “dignified” or “serious” (presumably masculine) fonts rather than something from a comic book.  Unfortunately, this news appeared not to reach whoever it was in the Netherlands who in 2012 approved the use of Comic Sans on the World War II memorial Verzoening (Reconciliation) erected in the town of Geffen.  That attracted much criticism but not as much as the decision to have the names of Jewish, Allied and German military deaths all to be etched (in Comic Sans) on the same stone.  After it was pointed out that reconciliation with the SS was not a national sentiment, the offending names were removed although for the rest, Comic Sans remained, albeit modified by the stonemasons so the text was rendered thicker, the local authorities justifying the retention on the grounds the shape of the text was in accord with the stone (it’s difficult to see the connection) and easily legible at a distance (certainly true).  It may be the only monument in the world, dedicated to the dead, which uses Comic Sans.

Crooked Hillary Clinton updating her Burn Book which, during the primary campaign for the Democrat Party nomination for the 2016 presidential election, probably would have been referred to internally as her "Bern Book" because it would have been so filled with tactics designed to sabotage the campaign of Bernie Sanders (b 1941; senior US senator (Independent, Vermont) since 2007) (digitally altered image).  In Mean Girls (2004), the Burn Book's cover used the "ransom note" technique which involved physically cutting letters from newspapers & magazines and pasting them onto a page, a trick of the pre-DNA analysis age which left no identifiable handwriting.  There are a number of "ransom" fonts which emulate the appearance in software.

Politicians do maintain burn books although few are much discussed.  Richard Nixon's (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) "enemies list" became famous in 1973 when it emerged during congressional hearings enquiring into the Watergate break-in and that such a list existed surprised few although some did expect it to contain more names than the twenty included; it was common knowledge Nixon had many more enemies than that.  That view was vindicated when later lists were revealed (some containing hundreds of names) though had the net been cast a little wider, it could well have run to thousands.  At least one Eurocrat has also admitted to keeping a burn book although Jean-Claude Juncker (b 1954; president of the European Commission 2014-2019) calls his "little black book" Le Petit Maurice (little Maurice), the name apparently a reference to a contemporary from his school days who grew taller than the youthful Jean-Claude and seldom neglected to mention it.  Although maintained for some thirty years (including the eighteen spent as prime-minister of Luxembourg) to record the identities of those who crossed him, Mr Junker noted with some satisfaction it wasn't all that full because people “rarely betray me”, adding “I am not vengeful, but I have a good memory.”   It seems his warning “Be careful.  Little Maurice is waiting for you” was sufficient to ward of the betrayal and low skulduggery for which the corridors of EU institutions are renowned.

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”.