Hedgehog

Hedgehog (pronounced hej-hog or heg-hawg)

(1) An Old World, insect-eating mammal of the genus Erinaceus, especially E. europaeus, and related genera, having a protective covering of spines on the back (family Erinaceidae, order Insectivora (insectivores)).  They’re noted for their tactic of rolling into a spiny ball when a threat is perceived.

(2) Any other insectivore of the family Erinaceidae, such as the moon rat.

(3) In US use (outside of strict zoological use), any of various other spiny animals, especially the porcupine

(4) In military use, a portable obstacle made of crossed logs in the shape of an hourglass, usually laced with barbed wire or an obstructive device consisting of steel bars, angle irons, etc, usually embedded in concrete, designed to damage and impede the boats and tanks of a landing force on a beach (an Ellipsis of the original Czech hedgehog (an antitank obstacle constructed from three steel rails)).

(5) In military (army or other ground forces) use, a defensive pattern using a system of strong points (usually roughly equally distant from the defended area) where there exists neither the personnel nor materiel to build a defensive perimeter.

(6) In (informal) military use, a World War II (1939-1945) era, an anti-submarine, spigot mortar-type of depth charge, which simultaneously fired a number of explosive charges into the water to create a pattern of underwater explosions, the multiple pressure waves creating a force multiplier effect.

(7) In Australia & New Zealand, a type of chocolate cake (or slice), somewhat similar to an American brownie.

(8) In water way engineering & mining, a form of dredging machine.

(9) In botany, certain flowering plants with parts resembling a member of family Erinaceidae, notably the Medicago intertexta (Calvary clover, Calvary medick, hedgehog medick), the pods of which are armed with short spines, the South African Retzia capensis and the edible fungus Hydnum repandum.

(10) To array something with spiky projections like the quills of a hedgehog.

(11) In hair-dressing, a range of spike hair-styles.

(12) An electrical transformer with open magnetic circuit, the ends of the iron wire core being turned outward and presenting a bristling appearance.

(13) To curl up into a defensive ball (often as hedgehogging).  

(14) In catering, a style used for cocktail party food, consisting of a half melon or potato etc with individual cocktail sticks of cheese and pineapple stuck into it.

(15) In differential geometry, a type of plane curve.

(16) In biochemistry & genetics, as hedgehog signalling pathway, a key regulator of animal development present in many organisms from flies to humans.

(17) In biochemistry, as sonic hedgehog, a morphogenic protein that controls cell division of adult stem cells and has been implicated in the development of some cancers (sometimes capitalized).

1400–1450: From the late Middle English heyghoge, replacing the Old English igl.  The construct was hedge + hog, the first element from the creature’s habit of frequenting hedges, the second a reference to its pig-like snout.  Hedge was from the Middle English hegge, from the Old English heċġ, from the Proto-West Germanic haggju, from the Proto-Germanic hagjō, from the primitive Indo-European kagyóm (enclosure) and was cognate with the Dutch heg and the German Hecke.   Hog was from the Middle English hog, from the Old English hogg, & hocg (hog), which may be from the Old Norse hǫggva (to strike, chop, cut), from the Proto-Germanic hawwaną (to hew, forge), from the primitive Indo-European kewh- (to beat, hew, forge).  It was cognate with the Old High German houwan, the Old Saxon hauwan, the Old English hēawan (from which English gained “hew”).  Hog originally meant “a castrated male pig” (thus the sense of “the cut one” which may be compared to hogget (castrated male sheep)).  The alternative etymology traces a link from a Brythonic language, from the Proto-Celtic sukkos, from the primitive Indo-European suH- and thus cognate with the Welsh hwch (sow) and the Cornish hogh (“pig”).  In the UK, there are a number of synonyms for mammals with spines, all of which evolved as historic regionalisms and those which have endured include urchin (listed as archaic but still used in fiction), furze-pig (West Country), fuzz-pig (West Country), hedgepig (South England), hedgy-boar (Devon) and prickly-pig (Yorkshire).  Hedge-hog is the alternative form.  Hedgehog is a noun & adjective, hedgehogged & hedgehogging are verbs and hedgehogless, hedgehoglike & hedgehoggy are adjectives; the noun plural is hedgehogs.

Hedgehog slice.

A conjecture by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), the hedgehog's dilemma, is a metaphor about the people’s simultaneous long for and the dangers posed by the quest for human intimacy and social interaction.  Schopenhauer illustrated the problem by describing a group of hedgehogs who in cold weather try to move close together to share body-heat.  However, because of the danger they pose to each other by virtue of their sharp spines, they are compelled to maintain a safe distance.  As much as they wish to be close, they must stay distance for reasons beyond their control.  Thus it is with humans who either known instinctively or learn from bitter experience that it’s not possible to enjoy human intimacy without the risk of mutual damage and it is this realization which induces caution with others and stunted relationships.  The most extreme manifestation is self-imposed isolation.

Of course most in modern societies interact with many others and Schopenhauer wasn’t suggesting total social avoidance was in any way prevalent but that most relationships tended to be perfunctory, proper and distant, mediated by “politeness and good manners” part of which is literally “keeping one’s distance”; what is now called one’s “personal space”.  Even among German philosophers with their (not always deserved) reputation for going mad it was a particularly Germanic view which recalls the musing of Frederick II (Frederick the Great, 1712–1786, Prussian king 1740-1786) that “The more I know of the nature of man, the more I value the company of dogs”.  It appealed too to other Teutons.  From Vienna, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) quoted Schopenhauer’s metaphor in Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse (Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921)) and heard in the tale the echoes of what so many of his patients had said while reclined on his office sofa.  He’d certainly have recognized as his own work the concept of “basic repression” explored by Berlin-born philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) in explaining the mechanisms by which people maintained the “politeness and good manners” Schopenhauer suggested were necessary.  Marcuse’s contribution was the idea of “surplus repression”, those restrictions imposed on human behaviour “necessitated by social domination”, a consequence of the social organization of scarcity and resources in a way not “in accordance with individual needs”.  Some Germans however found some additional repression suited their character.  Albrecht Haushofer (1903–1945), an enigmatic fellow-traveller of the Nazis and for a long time close to the definitely repressed Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941) wrote during the early days of the regime that “…I am fundamentally not suited for this new German world… He, whose faith in human society approximately agrees with Schopenhauer’s fine parable of the hedgehogs – is unsuitable for the rulers of today.”  That notwithstanding, his faith in the Nazis appeared to overcome his doubts because he remained, off and on, in their service until 1945 when, during the last days of the war, he was murdered by the regime.  

Variations of the hedgehog look.

There little to suggest that German habitué of the British Library’s reading rooms, Karl Marx (1818-1883), much dwelled upon hedgehogs, zoological or metaphorical but those who wrote of his work did.  In The Hedgehog and the Fox (a fine essay on Tolstoy published in 1953), Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) quoted a fragment from the Greek lyric poet Archilochus (circa 680–circa 645 BC): “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing”.  Hedgehogs, wrote Berlin, were those “…who relate everything to a single central vision, one system, less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think and feel—a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance” while foxes “…pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related to no moral or esthetic principle”.  The hedgehog then is like the scientist convinced the one theory, if worked at for long enough, will yield that elusive unified field theory and is “…the monist who relates everything to a central, coherent, all-embracing system” while the fox is the pluralist intrigued by “the infinite variety of things often unrelated and even contradictory to each other”.  Berlin approved of foxes because they seemed to “look and compare” before finding some “degree of truth” which might offer “a point of view” and thus “a starting-point for genuine investigation”.  He labelled Plato, Lucretius, Pascal, Hegel, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Proust as hedgehogs (to one degree or another) while Herodotus, Aristotle, Montaigne, Erasmus, Moliere, Goethe, Pushkin, Balzac, Joyce were foxes.  To Berlin, Marx was a hedgehog because he pursued a universal explanatory principle in his advocacy of a materialist conception of history.  Berlin’s thesis was attracted much interest including from Marxists and neo-Marxists and their priceless addition to English was the “quasi-hedgehog” to describe their view being there were more shades to Marx than those of a hedgehog but lest than those of the fox.  Presumably the term quasi-hedgehog was coined because a hybrid of a fox and hedgehog was either unthinkable, unimaginable or indescribable.

Mercenary & Condottiere

Mercenary (pronounced mur-suh-ner-ee)

(1) Working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal; influenced by greed or desire for gain (now less common except in fields like professional politics or corporate structures).

(2) Hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization etc; a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.

(3) Any hireling (now rare).

(4) In figurative use, one paid to use skills in an ideological, political or commercial conflict in which they have otherwise no interest (often applied in a derogatory sense).

1350–1400: From the Middle English mercenarie (one who works only for hire, one who has no higher motive to work than love of gain), from the thirteenth century Old French mercenaire (mercenary, hireling) from the Latin mercēnnārius (working for pay, hired worker, mercenary, thought perhaps related to the earlier mercēnārius, the construct being mercēdin- (stem of mercēdō, a by-form of mercēs (wages), from mercēd- (payment, wage (akin to merx (goods) and source of the modern merchant)) + -ārius- (ary) (feminine -āria, neuter -ārium), the Latin first/second-declension suffix used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals. 

The original meaning was "working or acting for reward, serving only for gain", hence the association with "sordid motives; ready to accept dishonorable gain", a sense noted from the 1530s.  The most familiar use in modern English, describing the age-old profession, that of "a professional soldier available for hire by any (often foreign) service able to pay" is from the mid-seventeenth century.  Though once use as a neutral descriptor the connotations, of civilians and the military, now almost always tend to the negative.  Mercenary is a noun and adjective, mercenarily is an adverb and mercenariness is a noun.  While not always exactly synonymous, related words include acquisitive, selfish, unscrupulous, warrior, grasping, hireling, legionnaire, slave, avaricious, bribable, corrupt, covetous, grabby, miserly, money-grubbing, sordid, stingy, unethical, unprincipled & venal; those in the opposite sense being altruistic, idealistic & unselfish.  The noun plural is mercenaries.

Condottiere: (pronounced kawn-duh-tyair-ey, kawn-duh--tyair-ee (Italian: kawn-dawt-tye-re))

(1) A leader of a private band of mercenary soldiers in Italy, especially between the thirteenth & sixteenth centuries.

(2) Often (though technically imprecise) used to describe any mercenary; soldier of fortune.

1794: From the Italian condotto (leadership), from condurre (to lead), the construct being condott(o) (from the Latin conductus (hired man, past participle of condūcere (to conduce (source of the modern conduct)) + -iere (from the Latin suffix –ārius (-ary).  The noun plural is condottieri or the anglicized condottieres.  The verb conduce dates from circa 1400 although the original sense "to lead, to conduct" is now obsolete.  It was from the Latin condūcere (to lead or bring together, contribute, serve), from an assimilated form of com (with, together) + ducere (to lead (from the primitive Indo-European root deuk- (to lead).  The intransitive sense of "aid in or contribute toward a result" is from the 1580s.

Statute of Garibaldi (1895) by Ettore Ximenes (1855–1926) & Augusto Guidini (1853-1928) in Largo Cairoli, Milan.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) was an Italian nationalist general and politician.  As a condottiere, Garibaldi has been called the "hero of the two worlds" because of his military enterprises in Brazil, Uruguay and Europe and is best remembered for his personal command of many of the military campaigns which led eventually to Italian unification in 1871.  His reputation as a romantic revolutionary has flourished because historians have seemed always anxious to present his military adventures as noble causes rather than apply the standards imposed on others, certainly since the Nuremberg trial (1945-1946) codified matters such as “planning aggressive wars” and “waging aggressive wars”.  Clearly, when deciding where things lie on the shifting spectrum of international morality, context matters.

Garibaldi and the Garibaldians (1907) by Plinio Nomellini (1866–1943).

Garibaldi was certainly an appealing actor in a drama-filled century of European history.  Even had he felt the political unification of the peninsular was either desirable or inevitable, Count Cavour (1810–1861), prime ,inister of Piedmont–Sardinia, showed no interest in pursuing the matter because, as an astute politician of what would come to be known as the power-realist school, knew the difficulties were insurmountable and the implications of any attempt to achieve the goal were likely dark.  Garibaldi was interested in a united Italy, believed in miracles and knew they could make real the the impossible.  The unusual combination of circumstances at home and abroad which existed in the aftermath of all that had happened between the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and the revolutions of 1848 were made Garibaldi’s project actually possible but it was the natural genius he possessed as a condottiere which assured success.  Notably, Cavour, sniffing the political winds stirred when suddenly Garibaldi was by revolutionary means unifying Italy from the south in a way Cavour knew couldn’t be achieved by diplomatic means from the north, staged what would now be called a political flip-flop, ceasing trying to thwart Garibaldi and instead claimed the whole campaign was his policy.

Lindsay Lohan in garibaldino shirt.

Garibaldi’s part in the movement for Italian unification (known as il Risorgimento (Rising Again)) also produced a footnote in para-military fashion.  His followers were known as the Garibaldini and in lieu of a uniform, they wore the red shirts he favored, the popular legend being it was to ensure they weren’t distracted from fighting were their blood to be spilled.  It was also an indication the campaign was a popular insurrection, not one fought by conventional military maneuvers or with traditional formations because, as the red-coated British soldiers had discovered, red wasn’t a good color to wear on a battlefield.  The word Garibaldino (plural Garibaldini) is used to refer to any volunteer soldier who served in the cause and the red shirts (which were never standardized in shade, style or cut) are often called garibaldino shirts or just garibaldinos.

The Swiss Guard

One of the oldest military formations in continuous active service, The Pontificia Cohors (Pontifical Swiss Guard; also often referred to as Papal Guard or, most commonly, Swiss Guard) is the ceremonial and armed force of the Holy See.  Based in the Vatican, it provides security for the Pope and Apostolic Palace.  The tradition of The Swiss Guard can be traced back to the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1414-1484; pope 1471-1484) when an alliance was formed with the Swiss Confederacy, barracks built in the Papal States should the need arise to hire Swiss mercenaries.  The treaty was renewed under subsequent popes and the guard did see active service at times when the pope was in alliance with France but it was under the Borgia popes of the late fifteenth century it was reorganized as a conventional military formation, fielded not only by the Holy See but used also to augment the armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire.  Their performance in battle during the war between France and Naples was noted by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (1443-1513; pope 1503-1513), a military-minded priest later nicknamed the warrior pope, his name chosen to render honor unto Julius Caesar.  Upon assuming the papacy as Julius II, he requested the Swiss Diet (parliament) furnish a battalion (about two-hundred soldiers) of mercenaries for his protection.  They entered barracks in 1506 and this is regarded as the formation of the Papal Swiss Guard.

Although from time-to-time the guard has been disbanded, once, after heavy battlefield losses even replaced for a while by German mercenaries, they’ve been an almost constant presence in the Holy See ever since.  Having long ceased to be a military unit, their increasingly ceremonial role was reassessed in the late twentieth century as the threat profile evolved.  The guard is now a professional security and personal protection operation, all members having undergone firearms and related training in the Swiss army.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) inspects the Swiss Guard.

The colors blue and yellow have been used since the sixteenth century and are believed to represent the Della Rovere coat of arms of Pope Julius II (1443–1513; pope 1503-1513); the red added to represent the Medici coat of arms of Pope Leo X (1475–1521; pope 1513-1521).

Verklempt

Verklempt (pronounced fur-klempt, ver-klempt, vuh-klempt, or fuh-klempt)

Someone rendered unable to speak because they're emotionally overwhelmed.

1990–95: From the Yiddish פֿאַרקלעמט‎ (verklempt, farklemt or farklempt (overcome with emotion)), the past participle of verklemen or farklemen (also spelled as verklemmen & farklemmen) (to clamp (in a vise), to pinch, to choke (in the sense of “choke up”)) from the German verklemmt (inhibited, hemmed in, feeling (figuratively) squeezed; uptight (literally, “pinched, squeezed”), the past participle of verklemmen (to become stuck).  Ultimately, the Germanic forms can be traced back to the Old English clam & clom (bond; fetter).

Verklempt is a Yiddish loan word and spellings like ferklempt, fahklempt & farklempt are sometimes seen because it’s only in recent decades it’s has become fashionable and many are familiar with it only through oral use and the variations reflect interpretations of the phonetic perception.  The way English works is that if any of the variations beginning with “f” become prevalent, eventually they’ll be acknowledged as alternative spellings and perhaps even an English word.  For its effect (replete with cultural history), verklempt will remain Yiddish and thus a foreign borrowing and purists will note the advice of the Yiddish Word Dictionary that verklempt is pronounced “fur-klempt”.  The construction followed the usual German spelling and grammatical traditions, the ver- suggesting something happening to the subject (on the model of vergessen (forgotten)).  There are dozens of words related to the behavioural consequences of human emotion but the closest synonyms to verklempt are phrases like “overcome with emotion”, “overwhelmed”, struck dumb”, “rendered speechless” or “choked up”; words like “flustered” or “nervous” aren’t quite right because they refer to cause rather than effect, verklempt being an effect.  The root was from klemmen (which enjoys a range of meanings from “to press, to squeeze” to “to block, to oppress”.  Verklempt is an adjective (the noun use (the noun plural being verklempts) is informal).

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, 2011.

To be verklempt is to be overwhelmed by emotion to the extent one is rendered unable to speak.  In modern use it’s associated with tell-tale phrases such as “choking back tears”, “quivering lips”, “moist eyes” et al but in Jewish tradition the Yiddish farklempt was associated not with any overwhelming emotional response but specifically to depression, loss and grief.  Encouraged by a variety of push & pull influences (notably talk-shows and click-bait), public displays of emotion are now more common than once and, in some circles, probably obligatory.  A state of verklemptness is one of the elements and in video feeds can function well as the “dramatic pause” which, as that phrase implies, should not too long linger or the audience will become impatient.  The comparative is “more verklempt” and the superlative “most verklempt” and subjects can, with the appropriate visual clues, operate anywhere in that spectrum but a frozen silence is essential and, cognizant of the audience’s attention span, it shouldn’t be maintained for more than about 7-10 seconds which doesn’t sound long but on a content-intensive medium like a video feed it’s quite a pause.

A verklempt Lindsay Lohan: Cady Heron and the bus scene (Mean Girls (2004)).

Verklempt is specific to being rendered physically unable to speak because of being emotionally overwhelmed although that’s just one possible reaction and one can be so emotionally overwhelmed one feels compelled to speak; it’s all about the circumstances of the moment.  In a sense verklempt is opposite of that described by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) who in the preface to the 1800 edition of his Lyrical Ballads wrote “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity”.  The poet clearly was fond of the phrase because he’d used it before and it’s endured because probably no other fragment of thought so well captures the moment of the Romantic poets which shifted a whole generation from the Augustan neo-classical style which was eighteenth-century poetry towards something intensely emotional and accessible.

Romantic poetry was so appealing to so many because the words summoned the ecstasy of the soul rather than of technique, the latter something understood only by a tiny educated elite.  The public adored the romantic movement because it was so accessible but the among the elitists there was distaste for what they viewed as little more than a tawdry emotional manipulation of the masses and later TS Eliot (1888–1965) (a self-declared “classical poet” in the special sense TE Hulme (1883–1917) used the term) would maintain that after John Donne (circa 1571-1631), a “dissociation of sensibility” afflicted poets, making them unable to  think as keenly as if they were sensing something or experiencing a deep emotion. Thought and feeling, Eliot argued, were as one in John Donne; in later poets, they became “dissociated”.

Not verklempt, something else; Mitch McConnell freezes.  Twice.  July-August 2023. 

Nor is verklempt a suitable word to describe the manifestations of the conditions now on show in the upper reaches of US politics (senile decay, cognitive decline, old age etc) although the symptoms often overlap to the point of being indistinguishable.  Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (b 1942) attracted much recent interest when on two occasions in July & August 2023 he “froze in place”, mid-press conference, standing silent for some 20 seconds, apparently unable to respond until led away by aides.  The senator later informed the press he was “fine” and merely had felt “light-headed”, later releasing a letter from the attending physician of Congress that said that he was “medically clear” to continue his schedule.  Given the senate minority leader doesn’t operate heavy machinery and (at least directly) is probably a danger only to himself if he continues in office, presumably the medical bulletin is correct but the apparent state of his health (and others in the congress) has triggered some debate about whether term limits or retirement ages should be introduced.  Although technically it’s not possible with absolute certainty to define the point at which statutory senility is attained, the increasingly geriatric state of the US body politic suggests it shouldn’t be too hard to make an educated guess about which are afflicted.

To be verklempt might have better.  Joe Biden in Vietnam (not India as he appears to believe), September 2023.

In the White House however, there may be a feeling among his handlers that a verklempt Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) might be something easier to spin that the one they’ve got who just keeps talking, often descending into mumbling incoherence before shuffling off the stage, sometimes tripping over obstacles, real and imagined.  There is a (doubtlessly apocryphal) story told in Washington DC that President Biden was told it was time to meet the cabinet.  After a few minutes it was noticed he was missing but was then discovered in another room talking to a bookcase and arguing with a chair.  The real concern was he lost the argument.     

Mug

Mug (pronounced muhg)

(1) A drinking cup, usually cylindrical in shape, having a handle, and often of a heavy substance, as earthenware; the quantity it holds.

(2) In slang, the face; an exaggerated facial expression; grimace, as in acting; the mouth (mostly archaic).

(3) A thug, ruffian or other criminal (archaic).

(4) To assault or menace, especially with the intention of robbery.

(5) In slang (especially in law enforcement & correctional services), to photograph (a person), especially in compliance with an official or legal requirement.

(6) A stupid, gullible or incompetent person.

(7) In slang (Britain, Australia, Singapore), to learn or review a subject as much as possible in a short time (largely archaic, replaced by cram).

1560–1570: Mug was originally Scots and northern English, denoting an earthenware pot or jug.  In the sense of the small, usually cylindrical drinking vessel, origin was probably Scandinavian; there was the Swedish mugg (earthen cup, jug) and the Norwegian & Danish mugge (pitcher; open can for warm drinks; drinking cup), the sense “face” apparently transferred from the cups because they tended often to be adorned with grotesque faces and from the same source presumably was the Low German mokke & mukke, the German Low German Muck and the Dutch mok.  The relationship to the Old Norse múgr (mass, heap (of corn)) and the Old English muga (stack) is speculative.  The derisive term “mug-hunter”, attested from 1883) was applied to those entering sporting contests solely to win prizes (because they were often in the form of engraved cups).  Mug is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is mugs.

The use to describe a person's mouth or face dates from 1708, thought an extended sense of mug based on the old drinking mugs shaped like grotesque faces, popular in England from the seventeenth century.  The sense of a "portrait or photograph in police records" spread universally with the growth in photography, the first known reference in the Annual Report of the [Boston Massachusetts] Chief of Police for 1873, when it was noted a notorious criminal who had for years been plying his trade all over the country attributed his arrest to “that ‘mug’ of mine that sticks in your gallery”.  Despite that, mug-shot seems to have been used only since 1950.  The meaning "stupid or incompetent person, dupe, fool, sucker" was part of underworld slang by 1851 and was commonly used to describe a criminal in the late nineteenth century, the phrase “mug's game” to describe some foolish, thankless or unprofitable activity emerged around the same time.  The use since 1846 to describe an assault was influenced probably by it meaning "to beat up" (originally "to strike the face) in pugilism since 1818 and this seems to have led to the modern meaning of “mugging” as an attack upon the person of another with intent to rob; that’s noted from 1964.  Some on-line dictionaries list mug in the African-American vernacular as a euphemism for motherfucker (usually in similes, eg "like a mug" or "as a mug").  In Australia, those for whom their only connection with horse racing is to once a year place a bet on the Melbourne Cup are known as "mug punters" but there has been research which suggests choosing a horse on the basis of the horse's name, the color of the jockey's silks (or some other apparently unrelated criterion) can be successful in up to 20% of cases.

Lindsay Lohan mug-shot merchandise is available in a variety of forms.  There are mouse mats, socks, coasters, throw pillows, T-shirts, coffee mugs, face-masks, A-line dresses, hoodies and throw blankets.

Socks are US$19 a pair or US$17 for two / US$15 for three.  The throw blanket is available in three sizes: Small, 40x56 inches (1010x760mm) @ US$28; Medium, 112x94 inches (152x127 cm) @ US$43; Large, 80x60 inches (203x152cm) @ US$56.  Lightweight hoodies are available in sizes from XS-3XL, all at US$39.  T-Shirts are available in sizes XS-XXL for US$7-17.  Coasters are available in a packs of four for US$15. Mug-shot Mugs are available with either individual (with date of photo on reverse side) or multiple mug-shots from US$10-$22 with a discount for volume purchase.  Facemasks are from US$12 with discounts if purchased in packs of four.  A-Line dresses are available in sizes XXS-4XL for US$56.

Three approaches to the mug-shot aesthetic: Jenna Ellis (left), Rudy Giuliani (centre) & Donald Trump (right).

The recent release of the mug shots of Donald Trump and a number of his co-accused attracted comments about the range of expressions the subjects choose for the occasion.  Legal commentators made the point it's actually not a trivial matter because prosecutors, judges and juries all often are exposed to a defendant's mug-shot and the photograph may have some influence on their thoughts and while judges are trained to avoid this, the effect may still be subliminal.  Also, apart from the charges being faced, in the internet age, mug-shots sometimes go viral and modelling careers have been launched from their publication so for the genetically fortunate, there's some incentive to make the effort to look one's smoldering best.

The consensus appeared to be the best approach is to adopt a neutral expression which expresses no levity and indicates one is taking the matter seriously.  On that basis, Lindsay Lohan was either well-advised or was a natural as one might expect from one accustomed to the camera's lens.  Among Donald Trump's alleged co-conspirators there was a range of approaches and the consensus of the experts approached for comment seemed to be that Rudy Giuliani's (b 1944) was close to perfect as one might expect from a seasoned prosecutor well-acquainted with the RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) legislation he'd so often used against organized crime in New York City.  Many of the others pursued his approach to some degree although there was the odd wry smile.  Some though were outliers such as Jenna Ellis (b 1984) who smiled as if she was auditioning for a spot on Fox News and, of course, some of the accused may be doing exactly that.  However, the stand-out was Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) who didn't so much stare as scowl and it doubtful if his mind was on the judge or jury, his focus wholly on his own image of strength and defiance and the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.  Regaining the White House wouldn't automatically provide Mr Trump with the mechanisms to solve all his legal difficulties but it'd be at least helpful.  In the short term Trump mug-shot merchandize is available, the Trump Save America JFC (joint fundraising committee) disclosing the proceeds from the sales of Trump mug-shot merchandize will be allocated among the committees thus: 90% to Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc (2024 primary election) & 10% to Save America while any contribution exceeding the legal amount that may be contributed to either of the committees will be allocated to Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc (2024 general election).

Catawampus

Catawampus (pronounced kat-uh-wom-puhs)

(1) Out of alignment, in disarray or disorder; crooked, askew, awry.

(2) Positioned diagonally; cater-cornered; obliquely.

(3) Of fierce demeanor or appearance (archaic).

1830s: A US colloquialism which originally meant “utterly” or “of fierce demeanor or appearance”, apparently influenced by (wild)cat + rumpus or the fierce looking catamount (cougar, puma, lynx).  As a noun, the US use described “a fierce imaginary animal, a bogeyman”.  The rapid meaning shift to “positioned diagonally” (which influenced the later use to mean “askew; awry” is explained by the construct being cata- (diagonally (from cater-cornered)) + -wampus.  The alternative spellings recorded include caddywompus, caliwampus, caliwampous, cankywampus catawamptious and (influenced by cat, catty, kitty) cattywampus, catiwampus, cattywampous; kittywampus, kittywumpus.  The synonyms include askew, awry, crooked, off-kilter, skewampus & skiwampus.  Catawampus is an adjective & adverb (and historically a noun); the noun plural was catawampuses.

Kitty corner.

The term “cater-cornered” dates from the early nineteenth century and has an archaic feel but is still in use variously as kitty-cornered, catty-cornered & caddy-cornered, depending on the region; catty-corner is the form most often used in the UK while kitty-corner prevails in North America and although it’s rare anywhere, caddy-corner seems to know no boundaries.  It has nothing to do with felines and refers to something which lies in a position diagonally across from something else and can be applied to streets, rooms, or any other space or place where the requisite corners exist.  As a descriptor of location, it’s dependent not on proximity but the diagonality of the relationship; a building might be within a few feet of the one beside or on the opposite side of the street but to be catty-cornered, it need not be all that close, just in the right place.

Catawampus: At this intersection, buildings one & four and buildings two & three are catawamptic and thus catty or kitty cornered.

Catty-cornered is said to have been the original version, from the French quatre (four), meaning four.  Quatre was from the Old French quatre, qatre & catre, from the Latin quattuor, from the primitive Indo-European ketwóres and was picked up by a number of European languages including the Catalan quatre, the Italian quattro, the Portuguese quatro and the Spanish cuatro.  In English, quatre became cater, used to showcase the four spots on a die or the four legs of a beast and, as cater-cornered, the four corners created where two streets cross.  From here, the term evolved to describe the buildings positioned diagonally from each-other on those corners, like the opposite corners on a square die.  Then, cater-cornered evolved as catty-corner, kitty-corner and caddy-corner, something not uncommon at a time when regionalisms were much more common.  Wampus was US slang for a lout or yokel but the use may have been a corruption of the archaic Scottish wampish which, when used as an intransitive verb, meant “to wriggle, twist, swerve or flop about (a la a swimming fish).

Catawampic mug shots; the concept able to be applied to just about any diagonal relationship: Here, Lindsay Lohan & Donald Trump are kitty-cornered and Bill Gates & Rudy Giuliani are kitty-cornered.

Some sources suggest the earliest use appears to have been the adverbial catawampusly (1834) which expressed no specific meaning but was an intensifier meaning “utterly, completely; with avidity, fiercely, eagerly”.  The noun as catawampus dates from 1843 when it was used as a name for an imaginary hobgoblin, a fierce imaginary animal or a bogeyman (and even a sense of fright), perhaps from influence of catamount (cougar, puma, lynx).  The adjective was used since the 1840s as an intensive but etymologists caution the use was almost exclusively in British publications lampooning the Americanisms in US English.  By 1864 it has come to mean “askew, awry, wrong” but the regionalism which most spread was that in North Carolina (dating from 1873) which meant “in a diagonal position, on a bias, crooked” and that persists to this day.  This orthodox etymology is generally accepted but because documentary evidence of the origin is lacking, it really is all speculative and etymologists note catawampus may well have been one of the many jocular, pseudo-classical formations popular in the slang of mid-nineteenth century America.

Trends of use of "kitty-corner" & "catty-corner" in the US, one of a series of statistical representations by Joshua Katz, Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University.  Catty-corner is the preferred form south of the Mason-Dixon Line but it fades from use in Florida, reflecting presumably the inward migration pattern from the northern states.

Sole

Sole (pronounced sohl)

(1) Being the only one; only.

(2) Being the only one of the kind; unique; unsurpassed; matchless.

(3) Belonging or pertaining to one individual or group to the exclusion of all others; exclusive.

(4) In law, un-married (archaic).

(5) The bottom or under-surface of the foot.

(6) The corresponding under part of a shoe, boot, or the like, or this part exclusive of the heel.

(7) The bottom, under surface, or lower part of anything.

(8) In carpentry, the underside of a plane.

(9) In golf, the part of the head of the club that touches the ground.

(10) A European flatfish, Solea solea.

(11) Any other flatfish of the families Soleidae and Cynoglossidae, having a hook-like snout.

1275-1325:  From the Old French soul & sol (only, alone, just), from the Vlugar Latin sola from the Late Latin sōlus (alone, only, single, sole; forsaken; extraordinary), replacing Middle English soule.  The source was the Classical Latin solea (sandal, bottom of a shoe; a flatfish), derivative of solum (base, bottom, ground, foundation, lowest point of a thing (hence “sole of the foot”)).  The Latin root begat similar words in many European languages: the Spanish suela, the Italian soglia and the Portuguese solha although, technically, the bottom of the foot is the planta, corresponding to the palm of the hand.  The Latin sōlus is of unknown origin but may be related to the primitive Indo-European reflexive root swo- from which English later gained "so".

A fossil flatfish.

The various common European flatfishes (of the ray-finned demersal order Pleuronectiformes) became known as sole in the mid-thirteenth century, an adoption of French use which followed the Latin which named the solea after the sandal because of the resemblance in shape to a flat shoe.  In English, the meaning "bottom of a shoe or boot" is from the late fourteenth century, and the cobbler’s phrase “to heal and sole a boot (or shoe)” to describe a repair or replacement is a verb form from the 1560s.  Another linguistic innovation of boot-makers was the noun insole (an inner lining of a shoe or boot affixed inside to the bottom and following exactly the shape) which appeared in 1838; it soon became known as the inner sole or inner-sole.

The use in both Church and common law to mean "single, alone, having no husband or wife” was an appropriation of form reflecting the normal, everyday meaning of the sole (one and only, singular, unique) and was first used in that context in the late fourteenth century and, in some technical uses, appeared still as late as the early nineteenth.  The adjective solely began to appear in the late fifteenth century.  A particular adjectival adoption was the direct borrowing from Latin of solus, used in the theatre for stage directions by 1590s.  It’s a masculine (the feminine is sola) but, as part of an industry-specific jargon, solus was used for both.  In certain circles, including poets and lawyers, use of the word persisted in old Latin phrases such as solus cum sola (alone with an unchaperoned woman) and solus cum solo (all on one's own” (which translates literally as "alone with alone")).

Studies of the soles of the Lindsay Lohan’s feet in three aspects.

Sole and its antecedents proved a a productive source in English, the soleus (muscle of the calf of the leg) a creation in the 1670s in the Modern Latin used in medicine and, like the fish, inspired by the similarity to the Roman shoe.  The adjective solitary (alone, living alone) was a mid-fourteenth century formation from the Old French solitaire, from the Latin solitarius (alone, lonely, isolated) from solitas (loneliness, solitude) from solus (alone).  The meaning "single, sole, only" is from 1742 and the related forms are a solitarily & solitariness.   It was a noun as early as the late 1300s but the most inventive adaptation was probably the 1690s prison slang in which it described the punishment of solitary confinement; in 1854 the phrase became an official part of the administration of jails.

Martin Luther aged 43 (1529) by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1653).

As a Reformation coinage, solus also provided theology with the 1590s solifidian (one who believes in salvation by faith alone), a tenet of Protestant Christianity based on the translation by the dissident, one-time Augustinian monk Martin Luther (1483-1546) of Romans 3:28, the construct being solus (alone) + fides (faith) from the primitive Indo-European root bheidh- (to trust, confide, persuade).  It must have been a success because solifidian was used as an adjective early in the new century; the related form is solifidianism.  Philosophy gained solipsism, the theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing that is real and that all else must be denied.

The solo as a “piece of music for one voice or instrument” dates from the 1690s and was in English a commonly used adjective as early as 1712, although the early uses had nothing to do with music, instead referring to activities undertaken alone or unassisted.  The verb is first attested 1858 in the musical sense, 1886 in a non-musical sense and was adopted in the business of pilot training to describe a pupil’s first flight without an instructor in the cockpit.  Among those who attend rock concerts, there seems to be one faction which regards the drum solo as a highlight and one for which it's a bore to be endured.

A desolate emo.

Desolate, the emo’s standard alliterative companion to devastated, in the mid-1300s meant “a person disconsolate, miserable, overwhelmed with grief, deprived of comfort", extended later in the century to “persons without companions, solitary, lonely".  If the word didn’t exist, emos would have invented it.  By the early fifteenth century, it became applied to the natural environment to describe places, "uninhabited, abandoned" from the Latin desolatus, past participle of desolare (leave alone, desert), the construct being de- (completely) + solare (make lonely).  It’s not clear when it came also to be used as a criticism of urban, built environments (typically industrial or suburban) but it was well-established early in the twentieth century.  Desolation (sorrow, grief, personal affliction), circa 1400 meant the "action of laying waste, destruction or expulsion of inhabitants" is from the twelfth century Old French desolacion (desolation, devastation, hopelessness, despair) and directly from the Church Latin desolationem (nominative desolatio), a noun of action from the past-participle stem of desolare (leave alone, desert).  The sense of a "condition of being ruined or wasted, destruction" is from the early 1400 and the sense of "a desolated place, a devastated or lifeless region" is from 1610s.  Also emo-themed was the adjective sullen, a 1570s alteration of the Middle English soleyn (unique, singular) from the Anglo-French solein, formed on the pattern of the Old French solain (lonely), from the Latin solus.  The emo-inspired sense shift in Middle English from "solitary" to "morose" occurred in the late fourteenth century.  Solitude is from the mid-fourteenth century, from the Old French solitude (loneliness) and directly from the Latin solitudinem (nominative solitudo) (loneliness, being alone; lonely place, desert, wilderness) from solus but didn’t become common use in English until the seventeenth century.  The solitudinarian (a recluse, unsocial person) is recorded from 1690s and it’s perhaps surprising such a modern-sounding word isn’t today more popular.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (circa 1510) by Berto di Giovanni (d 1529).

The noun soliloquy is from the 1610s, from the Late Latin soliloquium (a talking to oneself", the construct being solus + loqui (to speak) from the primitive Indo-European root tolkw- (to speak).  Earlier, it appeared in a translation of the Latin Soliloquiorum libri duo a treatise by Saint Augustine (354-430), who is said to have coined the word, on analogy of Greek monologia.  The related form is soliloquent.