Apostrophe

Apostrophe (pronounced uh-pos-truh-fee)

(1) The punctuation mark (') used variously: (1) to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether pronounced or unpronounced, (2) to indicate the possessive case or (3) to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols.

(2) In formal rhetoric (as the literary apostrophe), a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea.

(3) In sociolinguistics & orthography, the text character (’) which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.

1525–1535: The use as a rhetorical device was from the Late Latin, from the Classical Latin apostrophe, from the Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ) (a turning away; a digression), the construct being apostroph-, verbid of apostréphein (to turn away) + -ē (the noun suffix).  The punctuation mark dates from 1580–1590 and was from the Middle French, replacing the earlier apostrophus, from the Late Latin, from the Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos) (accent of elision) (prosōidía) (eliding (mark) (literally “(mark) of turning away”), noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō) (I turn away), verbid of apostréphein, the construct being ἀπό (apó) (away (which sometimes appeared as aph)) + στρέφω (stréphō or stréphein (to turn).  The now rare alternative forms were apostrophë & apostrophy and in non-US use apostrophise etc is more common than apostrophize etc.  Apostrophe & apostrophization are nouns, apostropher, apostrophizing & apostrophize are verbs, apostrophic & apostrophed are adjectives and apostrophically is an adverb; the noun plural is apostrophes.

Lindsay Lohan with pram, JFK airport, New York, January 2024.  In English, names with apostrophes are uncommon (almost all from other languages) but the punctuation mark is sometimes used as a guide to pronunciation.  Ms Lohan named her son (b 2023) Luai which in the Arabic is pronounced Lou’aye with the apostrophe operating as “a kind of break or a cut”.

There are a number of derived terms.  Some are purely descriptive (such as the “curly apostrophe”, the “perpendicular apostrophe”, “vertical apostrophe” and the “straight apostrophe” which in publishing are distinguished as the “typographic apostrophe” (an apostrophe that has a curved, asymmetrical form) (known also as the printer's apostrophe) and the “typewriter apostrophe” (an apostrophe with a straight, vertically symmetrical form).  In sociolinguistics & orthography, the apologetic apostrophe is imposed upon a Scots word in to lend it the appearance of being a contraction of an English word such as wi' (equivalent to the English “with”) and a' (equivalent to the English “all”).  The humorous apostrophectomy is a clinical procedure used by the grammar nazis ruthlessly to excise incorrect apostrophes, usually those used wrongly to form plurals.  The construct was apostrophe +‎ -ectomy (from the Ancient Greek -εκτομία (-ektomía) (a cutting out of), from ἐκτέμνω (ektémnō) (to cut out), the construct being ἐκ (ek) (out) + τέμνω (témnō) (to cut). The reverse procedure (inserting an apostrophe where one is required) was apostrophplant. the construct being apostroph(e) + (in)plant.  The grammar nazis operate usually on the “greengrocer's apostrophe” one where the symbol is used in error when forming a noun plural.  It’s probably a slight on greengrocers in that others are just as guilty but the most commonly cited examples are usually something like “Banana’s, 99c lb” rather than “Vegetarian Burger’s available”.  Among those in England who speak RP (Received Pronunciation, the “correct” form insisted on by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) until the 1960s (with the odd quirky exception)), the greengrocer's apostrophe is still sometimes known as the “Yorkshire apostrophe”; it’s a form of (southern) linguistic snobbery because the phenomenon certainly isn’t unique to those from the county.

The literary apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person, is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. Classic instances include Oliver Goldsmith’s (1728–1774) opening in The Deserted Village (1770): “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain…”; Antony's cry in William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) Julius Caesar (1599): “'O Judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts…”; William Wordsworth’s (1770–1850) passionate appeal in London 1812: “Milton! Thou should'st be living at this hour…” and the biblical: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55; King James Version (KJV, 1611)).

The star cross'd lovers: Romeo and Juliet (1884), oil on canvas by Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928), Southampton City Art Gallery.

As a mark indicating “an omitted letter”, the apostrophe was in common (though far from universal) use by the early sixteenth century and the origin of use as a possessive marker lay in one representing the loss of -e- in words ending in –es; by the mid eighteenth century, it was being applied to all possessives, whether or not they were ever once spelled with an additional “e”.  Another of the grammar Nazis bugbears (they have many) is the incorrect use of “it’s” as a neuter possessive pronoun, the late sixteenth century construct being it + the genitive/possessive ending “'s”.  The correct use of “it’s” is as a contraction of “it is” etc but as a possessive form it endured until the early nineteenth century and etymologists suggest the decline in use was due to either because the contraction of “it is” had become established or to align use with the general practice of omitting apostrophes in personal pronouns (yours, hers, theirs etc.).  One of the best known instances of a word with a “apostrophe substitution” appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) where “star cross’d lovers” is used to describe the doomed pair.

1967 Ford Mustang (left), 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda (the 1971 grill an aesthetic choice), the apostrophe indicating a clipping of “Barracuda”, the model designation used on the non high-performance models) (centre) and 1968 Chevrolet Camaro (right) at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) (the “Race to the Clouds”).  The three compete in the "Vintage Car" class.  The PPIHC is a marvelously anarchic event, run continuously since 1916 (except in 1917-1919 & 1942-1945 because of wartime restrictions) and an example of how good things can be if the FIA (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation), world sport’s dopiest regulatory body) isn’t involved.

Pikes Peak in the US state of Colorado was in 1820 named (as Pike’s Peak) after Brigadier General Zebulon Pike (1779–1813) who led an earlier expedition (which failed to reach the summit).  It a shame the landmark wasn't named "Zebulon's Peak"; so much more evocative.  The name Zebulon was from the Latin Zabulon, from the Ancient Greek Ζαβουλών (Zaboulṓn), from the Biblical Hebrew זְבוּלוּן (z'vulún).  In the Hebrew, Zebulon was a male name meaning “exalted house,” “dwelling,” “lord,” or “prince” (the alternative spelling was Zebulun.  In biblical times, Zebulun was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and it was the given name for the sixth son of Jacob and his wife, Leah.  Prior to European settlement, the native peoples of the region called the peak variously Tava (Sun) or Heey-otoyoo' (Long mountain).  In 1890, the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) introduced a policy avoiding the use of apostrophes in the possessive form in place names, the intent being: (1) a standardization convention to remove confusion, (2) to simplify the printing of maps by ensuring there were fewer clashes with special characters and (3) to remove another source of imaginative interpretation by lawyers.  An additional benefit was realized when computer databases began to be created and, especially in the early post-war years, many problems in indexing and formatting were avoided by restricting entries to letters & numbers.  In 1890, Pike’s Peak thus became Pikes Peak and just to make sure no grammar Nazis ever attempted a revival, in 1978 the Colorado state legislature outlawed the use of an apostrophe in Pikes Peak, apparently one of the world’s few laws about punctuation.  The BGN does make the odd exception in the case of places of historical significance and Martha's Vineyard was one of the few places to emerge with apostrophe intact.  

It’s a pity the BGN doesn’t set the other rules for the use of the apostrophe, a matter which so concerned Henry Fowler (1858–1933) that he devoted several paragraphs to the topic in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926).  One helpful reform would be to standardize the placement when making a possessive of names ending in “s” and that rule should be: (1) when a name ends in a letter other than “s” the apostrophe sits before the appended (plural) “s” (Lindsay Lohan’s car) and (2) when a name ends in “s” the apostrophe follows (the so-called “trailing apostrophe”) (Britney Spears’ car).  That has the benefit of simplicity and would mean one wouldn’t have to choose between the various options published in style guides, some of which are based on the number of syllables and some on the sound of the word when pronounced.  It’s a layer of complication as unnecessary as adding pronunciation guides to printed numbers (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th etc) in that it’s a needless tribute by the written to the spoken; the human brain can manage without them.

Kamala Harris (b 1964; US vice president since 2021) and Tim Walz (b 1964; governor of Minnesota since 2019), on stage, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 August 2024.

The issue flared when Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 US presidential election for not only does “Harris” end in “s” but “Walz” when spoken sounds like it too ends thus, something which style guides variously suggest should exist in the possessive either as Walz’s or Walz’.  Clearly, he’s a trouble-maker.  Most of the grammar nazis (X (formerly known as Twitter) their natural home where debate ensued) seemed to conclude “Walz’s” was correct but Harris’ or Harris’s divided opinion, the factions forming to defend either (1) if the “s” is sounded, spell the “s” and (2) if it ends in an “s” regardless of pronunciation, it’s a trailing apostrophe.  Most dictionaries say either practice is acceptable provided use is consistent which is fence-sitting but reflects reality although there is the sense many editors would be happy if a universal appended “’s” was the “rule” so the tiresome debate would go away.  Presumably that would also please the Harris-Walz campaign team which has issued press releases which included “Harris’s positive vision” and “Harris’ seventh trip to Nevada.”

Henry Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage has been influential for almost a century and it’s the original and the second edition (1965) edited by Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966) which remains the standard (the third (1996) and fourth (2015) editions less helpful although some readers might appreciate being “spoken with” rather than “dictated to” as was Henry Fowler’s way).  However, in the TikTok age, it may prove the singer Taylor Swift (b 1989) is now the final arbitrator of the language’s squabbles.  In mid 2024, Ms Swift released the album The Tortured Poets Department and while most (Swifties and others) focused on the music, some couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be the “missing apostrophe”.  However, whether or not it’s missing depends on how the title is read:  If it's a possessive form then one should appear but if “poets” is operating as descriptive modifier of “department” then none is required.  Understanding the distinction is easiest if the phrase is deconstructed and imagined as a department in a university which contains tortured poets; there morosely they sit for a time but they don’t “possess” the department; instead, tortured poets come and go and over generations the membership changes but the department endures.  In that sense, Ms Swift’s "Tortured Poets Department" is like a "Farmers Market" rather than a "driver’s license".  So, it’s really a matter of what Ms Swift intended and she seems a bit of a word nerd so it may be assumed she says what she means and means what she says.

Exchequer

Exchequer (pronounced eks-chek-er or iks-chek-er)

(1) A treasury, as of a state or nation.

(2) The governmental department in charge of the public revenues (often initial capital letter).

(3) A now disestablished English office administering the royal revenues and determining all cases affecting them.

(4) An ancient English common-law court of civil jurisdiction in which cases affecting the revenues of the crown were tried, now merged in the King's Bench Division of the High Court.  It was usually styled as the Court of Exchequer.

(5) Informal slang for one’s personal finances.

1250-1300: From Middle English escheker and eschequier, borrowed from the Anglo-French escheker and eschekier, derived from the Old French eschequier and escheccheck (chessboard, counting table).  Source was the Medieval Latin scaccarium (chess board).  The meaning with which it’s now most associated (government finances), emerged under the Norman kings of England, the basis the design of the cloth (divided in squares), covering the tables on which accounts of revenue were reckoned with counters; these reminded all who saw them of a chess board and the name was adopted.  The English respelling with an -x- was because of the erroneous medieval belief that it originally was a Latin ex- word (the old alternative spelling exchecker is long obsolete).  The most common modern use is the UK office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, equivalent variously to finance ministers or treasurers in other systems.  Confusingly for those not political junkies, the UK's prime-minister is formerly styled First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor, the Second Lord.  Exchequer is a noun & verb; the noun plural is exchequers.  When used to refer to an established institution (such as the UK's department of treasury), it's correct to use an initial capital.

Court of Exchequer Chamber

Although its origins date from the fourteenth century, it was the statute of 1585 which established the Court of Exchequer Chamber in essentially the form it would remain until its abolition by the Judicature Acts of 1873-1875 when it was absorbed into the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court.  Always an appellate court for common law civil actions, the court heard references from the King's Bench, the Court of Exchequer and, from 1830, directly rather than indirectly from the Court of Common Pleas.  It was a classic English appeal court in that it was constituted by four judges belonging to the two courts that had been uninvolved at first instance although, in matters of especial importance, twelve common law judges, four from each division below, sitting in Exchequer Chamber, might be asked to determine a point of law, the matter being referred by the court hearing the case rather than the parties.  Appeals from its judgments were, by leave, to the House of Lords but, because the Exchequer Chamber was regarded as a specialist and authoritative body, this was rare before the nineteenth century and rules of judgment by the Chamber were considered definitive statements of the law.

Court of Exchequer (1808) by William Henry Pyne (1769-1843).

Most appeals to the chamber were from the Exchequer of Pleas or Court of Exchequer, a court which dealt with matters of equity and expanded in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries because the doing business in the Court of Chancery was a slow and expensive business.  In the manner of the evolution of the English courts, the Exchequer's jurisdiction, at various times, was common law, equity, or both, the prevailing trend being for discretionary areas of its jurisdiction to expand.  By the nineteenth century, Exchequer and Chancery enjoyed similar jurisdictions and with the Judicature Acts, the Exchequer was formally dissolved as a judicial body by an Order in Council of 16 December 1880.

The style of cloth spread across the tables of the courts of Exchequer has proved durable in fashion, the bold pattern working especially well with stark color contrasts, white with black, red, purple or navy blue the most popular combinations.  The gingham Macy midi dress (left) is a classic example but Lindsay Lohan (right) demonstrates how the look can be achieved using one’s own skin, using a Black Pash shirt & Alaia skirt combo (the t-strap sandals were by Miu Miu but an opportunity was missed by not adding a sympathetic clutch purse), The World's First Fabulous Fund Fair in aid of The Naked Heart Foundation, The Roundhouse, London, February 2015.

Endurance

Endurance (pronounced en-doo r-uhns or en-dyoo r-uhns)

(1) The fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.

(2) The ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.

(3) Lasting quality; duration.

(4) Something endured, as a hardship; trial.

1485-1495: From the Middle English enduren from the Old French endurer, from the Classical Latin indūrō (to make hard).  Enduren displaced the pre-900 Old English drēogan (congnate with the Gothic driugan (to serve in arms) which survives dialectally as dree (tedious; dreary)).  The meaning "ability to endure suffering" was first noted in the 1660s. The older forms, enduraunce, indurance, induraunce are all long obsolete.  Construct was endure + ance; the suffix –ance (a process or action) added to the stem of verbs to form a noun indicating a state or condition, such as result or capacity, associated with the verb, this especially prevalent with words borrowed from French.  Many words ending in ance were formed in French by alteration of a noun or adjective ending in ant; ance was derived from the Latin anita and enita.

Endurance Racing

There’s no precise definition of endurance racing, it's just a form of competition of greater duration of length than most.  It’s bounced around over the years but events now regarded as endurance races tend to be over a distance of 625 miles (1000 km) or twelve or twenty-four hours long.  Long races existed from the early days of motorsport, the first twenty-four hour event being on an oval circuit at Dayton, Ohio in 1905, followed soon by the opening event at the purpose-built Brooklands circuit in 1907.  One of the epic races was the Targa Florio, first run in 1906.  Held originally on public roads in the mountains of Sicily near the capital Palermo, it was for decades the oldest event for sports cars and a round of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955-1973.  The first few races were a lap of the whole island but as the volume of traffic and competitors increased, it became too disruptive and the track length was reduced to the 72 kilometre (45 mile) Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, each Targa Florio run over eleven laps.  Safety concerns and the oil crisis conspired to remove it from the world championship after 1973 and it was finally cancelled in 1977.  A much toned-down event is now run annually as a round of the Italian Rally Championship.

Further north, the thousand-mile Mille Miglia, also run on public roads, was first staged in 1927 and although soon one of the classic events on the calendar, it's the 1955 race to which a particular aura still attaches.  Won by Stirling Moss (1929-2020) and  Denis Jenkinson (1920-1996), they used a Mercedes 300SLR, a car which technically complied with the sports car regulations but was actually the factory's formula one machine (W196) with a bigger engine and a streamlined body with seats for two.  It wasn't exactly a "grand prix car with headlights" as some claimed but wasn't that far off.  Officially the W196S (Sports) in the factory register, for marketing purposes it was dubbed (add badged) as the 300SLR to add lustre to the 300SL Gullwing coupé then on sale.

Mercedes-Benz W196S (300SLR), Mille Miglia, 1955.

The race was completed in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, a average speed of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph).  The course was never exactly 1000 miles; in 1957 it was 1,597 km (992 miles) and at times, the 300SLR touched almost 290 km/h (180mph) which enabled Moss to cover the last 340 km (211 miles) at an average speed of 265.7 km/h (165.1) mph.  The record set in 1955 will stand for all time because the Italian government banned the Mille Miglia after two fatal crashes during the 1957 event, one of which killed nine spectators and a cursory glace at the photographs showing crowds clustered sometimes literally inches from the speeding cars might suggest it's surprising not more died.  Today, the name of the Mille Miglia endures as a semi-competitive tour for historic racing cars which, run since 1977, is very much a social occasion for the rich.  By contrast, events run on closed courses have survived, the most famous of which is the 24 Heures du Mans (the Le Mans 24 Hour) and well-known 1000 km (625 mile), 12 & 24 hour races have been run at Sebring, Laguna Seca, Daytona, Bathurst, the Nürburgring and Spa Francorchamps.

Endurance racing: Porsche 917Ks sideways in the wet; Vic Elford (1935-2022, right #11) and Pedro Rodriguez (1940-1971, left #10), BOAC 1000km, Brands Hatch, April 1970.  The race was the third round of the 1970 World Sports Car Championship.  Chris Amon (1943–2016) put a Ferrari 512S on pole but the 1000 was won (by 5 laps) by Pedro Rodríguez & Leo "Leksa" Kinnunen (1943–2017) in a Porsche 917K entered by John Wyer (1909–1989).  Amon was impressed by the speed maintained by Rodríguez in atrociously wet conditions (although much improved from the lethally unstable version seen a year earlier, even by 1970 the 917 could be difficult to handle on a dry surface) and is said to have remarked to his pit crew: "Can somebody tell Pedro it's raining?"

Some endurance required: In 2023, the Dowse Art Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, staged the exhibition exploring the 2014 installation at Fort Delta, Melbourne in July 2014 in which New Zealand based artist Claire Harris (b 1982) watched Ms Lohan's entire filmography back to back in a live performance art work over 28 hours.  The issues discussed included “how” and “why” and there were practical tips on developing the stamina required for such feats of endurance.  The companion 34 page illustrated book Happy birthday Lindsay Lohan, 2011-2014 is available on request from the National Library of New Zealand.  The pages are unnumbered, the rational for which is not disclosed.

As a general principle, an "endurance event" tends to be a longer version of something so it’s thus a relative as well as an absolute term.  In sport, something like the Marathon, run over 42 kilometres (26 miles) is the endurance event of running where as the shorter contests are sprints (such as the 100 or 200 meters) or “distance” races (such as the 5,000 or 10,000 metres).  However, were the Marathon not to exist, then the 10,000 would be the “endurance” event of the Olympic Games, the tag attaching to whatever is the longest form.  In other fields, “endurance” can be more nuanced because what some find an “act of endurance” to sit through, others relish and long for more.  Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883)'s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, 1876 (usually referred to as “The Ring Cycle”)) is an opera of epic length in cycle consisting of four separate pieces, each of the composer regarded as “an opera”:

Das Rheingold: (The Rhinegold; some 2½ hours with no intermission)
Die Walküre: (The Valkyrie; some 4½-5½ hours with intermissions)
Siegfried: (some 5-5½ hours with intermissions)
Götterdämmerung: (Twilight of the Gods; some 5-6 hours with intermissions)

So, a performance of the Ring Cycle absorbs between 15-17 hours and is thus usually spread over several days, some productions staging the event across a month, each performance (usually three or four) held on a weekend.  Grand Opera really is the West’s greatest artistic achievement and among the aficionados, the Wagnerian devotees are the most dedicated and passionate, some travelling the world to compare and contrast different productions of the Ring.  For them it’s not usually a test of endurance (although a production of which they don’t approve will be a long 17 hours) because they relish every moment but for others it’s probably unthinkable.  Although it’s long been attributed to him, the US humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910) may never have said: “Wagner’s music isn’t as bad as it sounds”, the back-handed compliment reflects the view of the majority, brought up on shorter, more accessible forms of entertainment.  For them, one hour of Wagner would be an endurance test.

The three later individual pieces of The Ring are themselves epic-length operas and Wagner wrote a number in this vein including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, 1868; 5-6 hours), Parsifal (1882; 4-5 hours), Lohengrin (1850; 4 hours), Tannhäuser (1845; 4 hours) and the incomparable Tristan und Isolde (1965; 4-5 hours).  What came to define “epic length” in Opera was: (1) the typical length of other works and (2) the powers of endurance of those on stage, in the orchestra pit or in the audience.  Other composers did tend to write shorter operas although Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864), Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) and Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) all produced works running over four hours and it was not unusual for there to be two or even three intermissions.  For profligacy with time however, none match Wagner although some modern composers have written very long operas although their length seems other to be their only memorable feature.

Epics: On vinyl, tracks did lengthen and if the physical limits of vinyl were exceeded, the piece could be spread over more than one disk.  Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968, left) was 17:05 in length, Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (1972, centre) was 43:46 (over two disks) while Rush’s 2112 (1976, right) was 20:33.

Cast adrift from the moorings of endurance by internet streaming making available infinite playing time, “songs” in the twenty-first century can last literally hours and an illustrative example is The Rise and Fall of Bossanova by PC III (Michael J Bostwick) which weighs in at a Wagarian 13 hours, 23 minutes, and 32 seconds.  It seems between 2016-2020 to have held the Guinness World Record as the longest song officially released although whether this should be thought a proud boast or admission of guilt will be up to those who listen.  Ominously, one of the implications of AI (artificial intelligence) is that in theory, someone could release a song which, without hesitation, deviation or repetition, goes on forever.

Andy Warhol's Empire is occasionally screened but always on the basis that viewers may "come and go" at any point in its eight hour run-time.

In pop music, the “epic length piece” was shorter by virtue of technological determinism.  Modern pop music (as the term is now understood) began in the 1950s and the standard form of distribution by the 1960s was the LP (long-playing) vinyl album, first released in 1948.  Because the technology of the time limited the duration of music which could fit on the side of a LP disk to about 27 minutes, that became the upper limit for a single song and at that length, it could be called “epic length” or just “an epic”.  Some bands and individuals did produce “epics” with varied results and some were probably better enjoyed (or endured) with drugs.  Not discouraged by the limitations of vinyl, others noted the possibilities offered by double (2 disks) or even triple (3 disks) albums and penned “rock operas”, the need to change disks a convenient operatic touch in that it provided a intermission.  Andy Warhol (1928–1987) took the idea of the endurance test to celluloid, in 1965 releasing Empire, a silent film shot in black & white showing New York’s Empire State Building at night (form a single aspect).  Running for some eight hours and designed to be viewed in slow-motion, it received critical praise from the usual suspects and little interest among even those who frequented art-house cinemas.  Warhol issued as statement saying the purpose was “to see time go by” and it can’t be denied he succeeded, perhaps even more convincingly than his earlier five hour epic Sleep (1964) which was an edited collection of takes of a man sleeping.  Similar scenes may have been found among those who found watching Empire beyond their powers of endurance.

Panglossian

Panglossian (pronounced pan-glos-ee-uhn or pan-glaws-ee-uhn)

(1) A naïve or unreasonably optimistic view (can be used negatively, neutrally, or positively).  

(2) Of or relating to the view that this is the best of all possible worlds (can be used negatively, neutrally, or positively).  

1758: From the character of the philosopher and tutor Dr Pangloss, in Voltaire's (the nom de plume of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)) satirical novella Candide (1759), the construct being Pangloss +‎ -ian.  Pan in this context is in the sense of “all”, the Modern English from the Middle English panne, from the Old English panne, from the Proto-West Germanic pannā, from the Proto-Germanic pannǭ.  It was cognate with the West Frisian panne, the Saterland Frisian Ponne, the Dutch pan, the German & Low German Panne & Pann, the German Pfanne, the Danish pande, the Swedish panna and the Icelandic panna.  Gloss is probably from a North Germanic language, the influence perhaps the Icelandic where the word was glossi (spark, flame) & glossa (to flame) or the from the dialectal Dutch gloos (a glow, flare), related to the West Frisian gloeze (a glow), from the Middle Low German glȫsen (to smolder, glow), ultimately from the Proto-Germanic glus- (to glow, shine), from Proto-Indo-European gael- (to flourish; be green or yellow); related to the modern glow.  The Greek glōssa translates literally as "tongue”.  The –ian suffix is from the Latin -iānus (the alternative forms were -ānus, -ēnus, -īnus & -ūnus); it was used to which form adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun.  Panglossian is an adjective and Panglossianism is a noun.

Voltaire's Dr Pangloss (an aptronym al la Mr Talkative & Mr Worldly Wiseman in John Bunyan’s (1628–1688) 1678 Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress) was a construct of Pan in the sense of “all” and gloss in the figurative sense of something “superficially or deceptively attractive appearance”.  The comparative is more Panglossian, the superlative most Panglossian; the most commonly used synonym is Pollyannaish (from the eponymous character in the 1913 novel by US author Eleanor H Porter (1868-1920); the little girl who no matter what misfortune befalls her, manages always to find something about which to be glad).  Although a critique rather than anything hagiographic, Candide was very much a work of the Enlightenment, controversial and in some places, like the author, banned.  Voltaire created Pangloss as a parody of the German philosopher Gottfried von Leibniz (1646-1716) who claimed this is the best of all possible worlds (there are those who blame Leibniz for starting the tradition of German philosophers going mad (eg Nietzsche, Weber and (at least debatably) Hegel)).  Just to emphasize the point for English readers, some of the early translations subtitled: Candide: All for the Best (1759) & Candide: The Optimist (1762), the last re-used even in 1947.

Candide was a young man who had led a sheltered, idyllic life being tutored with Leibnizian optimism by Dr Pangloss, “the greatest philosopher of the Holy Roman Empire”.  The theme being what happens when philosophy meets the real world, the work describes Candide's slow and mournful disillusionment as he witnesses and endures the vicissitudes of earthly existence, ending with the realization that while we certainly don’t live in Leibniz’s “best of all possible worlds”, it’s still a place in which “we must cultivate our garden" and make the best of what is which Candide expresses as “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds”.  Panglossianism is thus a byword for excessive, even exuberant, optimism and authors have had fun with it ever since, the cheeky term "panglossian pessimism" describing the idea that because this is the best of all possible worlds, improvement is impossible, a theme Joseph Heller (1923-1999) explored in one of the memorable exchanges in Catch-22 (1961).  Some 260 years on, Candide remains a pleasure to read and such is Voltaire's touch that modern readers will find much with which to identify, scenes such as the glum dinner in Vienna where the guests are all deposed ex-Kings could easily have been written any time in the last century.  One of Voltaire’s many memorable lines is in Candide, his explanation of why the Royal Navy had one of their own admirals, John Byng (1704–1757) executed by firing squad his own quarterdeck: "...mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un Amiral pour encourager les autres.” (...but in this country it is found good, from time to time, to kill one Admiral to encourage the others).  However, like Shakespeare and Churchill, some quotes are attributed to him on the basis merely that they sound Voltairesque.  He really did say the “…agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." but the story that when on his death bed a priest appeared to administer the last rites and asked: "Do you accept God, renouncing the Devil and all his works?", he answered: "This is hardly the time to be making enemies" is apocryphal.  Before it was first attributed to Voltaire in the 1970s, the joke had circulated for over a century, the dying man said variously to be Machiavelli (Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, 1469–1527), the US Author Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) and some unidentified Irishmen and Scotsmen.

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

While one of the seminal texts of the Enlightenment, Candide is also an irony-laden attack on the optimistic hopes and faith of Enlightenment thought. Voltaire’s criticism of Leibniz’s philosophy is directed mostly as his principle of sufficient reason, which maintains that nothing can be so without there being a reason why it is so, the consequence of which is the belief that the actual world must be the best one humanly possible.  Later, structural functionalists would start in much the same place and reach other conclusions.

Pareidolia

Pareidolia (pronounced pair-ahy-doh-lee-uh or pair-uh-doh-lee-uh)

In psychiatry and psychology, the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as seeing shapes in clouds, or hearing hidden messages in music; the perception of meaning in a shape which exists by mere coincidence.

1867 (in English): From the German Pareidolie, the construct being the Ancient Greek παρα- (para-) (alongside, concurrent) + εἴδωλον (eídōlon) (image) + -ία (-ía).  The -ia suffix was from the Latin -ia and the Ancient Greek -ία (-ía) & -εια (-eia), used to form abstract nouns of feminine gender.  It was applied to the names of countries, diseases, species etc and, occasionally, collections of stuff.  In English, the word was re-introduced by UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) debunker Steven Goldstein in 22 June 1994 edition of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, a publication devoted to rational, evidence-based explanations of the para-normal, magic, flying saucers and the many crackpot notions spread by new-agers, spiritualists, conspiracy theorists and other such folk.  Pareidolia is a noun and paradolic is an adjective; the noun plural is pareidolias.  There are circumstances in which the adjectives paradolish & paradolesque might be useful but neither exists.

The German word Pareidolie was in 1866 used by German psychiatrist Dr Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum (1828–1899) in his academic paper Die Sinnesdelierien (On Delusion of the Senses and in 1867, upon re-publication in volume 13 of The Journal of Mental Science, it was translated into English as “pareidolia” and noted as synonymous with the terms “...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, and perception of secondary images.”  The use of “pareidolia” is nuanced because any object (whether constructed or natural phenomenon) which even vaguely resembles something or someone can be pareidolic but the condition of pareidolia exists only when an individual attaches some meaning to the appearance or sound.  The general term is apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things), coined in 1958 by German neurologist and psychiatrist (and one-time Nazi) Dr Klaus Conrad (1905-1961) as Apophänie, from the Ancient Greek verb ἀποφαίνω (apophaínō), the construct being ἀπο- (apo-) and φαίνω (phaínō) (appear).  Herr Dr Conrad’s paper was on the topic of early-stage schizophrenia and he defined Apophänie as the “…unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness.”  In this, he distinguished between Apophänie as the early stages of delusional (and self-referential) over-interpretation of actual sensory perceptions, as opposed to hallucinations which were wholly illusory.

Pareidolia is a form of apophenia where the mind will attempt to find connections in random events, thoughts or patterns where none actually exist.  Pareidolia concentrates the visual and audio aspects of the brain in constructing a perception from a vague stimulus.  Clinically, there are two forms of pareidolia: (1) the “mechanistic”, where man-made objects, by mere coincidence have a resemblance to something else and (2) the “matrixed”, where natural phenomenon such as rock formations, clouds or the surfaces of planets include shapes which can be interpreted as something human, animal or supernatural and instead of being regarded as coincidental and amusing, are treated as having some inherent meaning or being evidence of some theory otherwise unsupported by any evidence.

The vast majority of pareidolias reported resemble the human face.  It’s believed that early in human evolution, the visual system developed specialized neural mechanisms which exist rapidly to detect faces and this “broad tuning” for facial features is thought to underlie the illusory perception of faces in inanimate objects (the phenomenon classified as “face pareidolia”).  There were all sorts of reasons why evolution operated in this way (family and societal relationships, recognition of threats by other creatures with a vaguely similar facial structure) and recent research suggests the mechanisms underlying face processing (certainly during the earliest phase of visual encoding) may treat objects that resemble faces as real faces, prioritizing their detection (this phase operating as something of a “clearing house”; the “positives” further processed, the “negatives” discarded.  What is of interest in psychology is that face pareidolia has been more frequently reported amongst individuals prone to hallucinations.

That the phenomenon of face pareidolia manifests with such frequency as the identification of the human face in various structures prompted some to ponder the evidence from behavioral studies of diminished orientation towards faces as well as the presence of face perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); the research in this aspect of the condition has been criticized but the design of the experimental approach was challenging, interest was taken in the possibility of a relationship between the two.  In ASD research, face-like object stimuli which had been shown to evoke pareidolia in TD (typically developing according defined criteria in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013)) individuals were used to test the effect of a global face-like configuration on orientation and perceptual processes in young children with ASD and age-matched TD controls.  That had demonstrated TD children were more likely to look first towards upright face-like objects than children with ASD, suggesting a global face-like configuration elicit a stronger orientation bias in TD children as compared to children with ASD.  However, once focused on the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, suggesting both perceived it as a face.  The conclusion was the result was in agreement with earlier work in the field of abnormal social orienting in ASD.  The conclusion was something like the usual “more research required”.

Detecting faces in non-face stimuli may have a strong adaptive value given that from an evolutionary point of view, the cost of erroneously detecting a face in non-face stimuli might be less than failing to detect another’s face in the environment.  Pareidolia may thus be just another spectrum condition in that the perception of pareidolic faces or other shapes in a variety of surfaces or spaces may vary little between people, the difference being more the individual’s reaction and the reporting of the event(s).

Sometimes a cloud is just a cloud (left) but when Lindsay Lohan wanted something to encapsulate the spirit of her Instagram post requesting privacy to “solve personal matters” after a tiff with her then with fiancé, she choose a pareidolic cloud in the shape of a “heart” (complete with silver lining, centre).  Before their tiff, Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) fixer and personal counsel Michael Cohen (b 1966) would receive messages (right) from God in the shape of clouds, assuring him Mr Trump was the Almighty's choice as the "people's messenger".

Automatism

Automatism (pronounced aw-tom-uh-tiz-um)

(1) A condition in which one is consciously or unconsciously, but involuntarily, compelled to the performance of certain acts; also called telergy.

(2) In philosophy, the doctrine that all activities of animals (or of humans and animals), are entirely controlled by physical or physiological causes in which consciousness takes no part; the doctrine that animals are automata, operating according to mechanical laws.

(3) In certain common-law jurisdictions, a defense available to the accused in certain, limited circumstances (the threshold is high because it can be an absolute defense).

(4) In clinical physiology. the involuntary functioning of an organic process, especially muscular, without apparent neural stimulation.

(5) In psychology, the performance of an act or actions without the performer's awareness or conscious volition.

(6) In early-mid twentieth-century art, a method of producing pictorial art, as paintings and collages, associated chiefly with the dadaists and surrealists, in which the artist strives to allow the impulses of the unconscious to guide the hand in matters of line, color and structure without the interference of conscious choice.

1803: From the Ancient Greek automatismós (a happening of itself), the construct being automat(on) + -ism.  Automaton (αὐτόματον) (autómaton) as the neuter form of αὐτόματος (autómatos) (self moving, self willed).  The –ism suffix is ultimately either from the Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine; from stem of verbs in -ίζειν (-ízein) (whence the English -ize), or from the related suffix Ancient Greek -ισμα (-isma), which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done.  The preferred plural form is automatisms.  The use in 1803 referenced "the doctrine that animals below man are devoid of consciousness; it was extended in 1856 to to humans in the sense of "automatic or involuntary action".  In psychology, automaticism (an action performed subconsciously, without any apparent direction from the mind) is synonymous with the legal construction of automatism.  Automatism, automatist & automaton are nouns and automatistic is an adjective; the noun plural is automatisms (automatons sometimes used in courts).  

At law

Sane automatism is an infrequently used defense in law, rare because the standard of proof required is so high.  If successful, it’s an absolute defense for almost any crime, including murder, even in circumstances where both sides accept a defendant is proved beyond any doubt to have done the deed.  Best thought of as the sleepwalker’s defense, the sane automaton escapes liability because (1) they were sane at the time of the offence and therefore can’t be committed to incarceration by reason of insanity and (2) were wholly unaware of the acts committed in the commission of the offence and can’t be convicted because the law demands, for a criminal prosecution to succeed, the mind must be as guilty as the hand.  This is based on the Roman legal doctrine actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea (the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty).  In English common law, the rule meant there must be actus reus (the guilty act) and mens rea (the guilty mind).  While in modern courts, mens rea is now called "fault elements" or "mental elements" and actus reus is now called "physical elements" or "external elements", the meaning is the same, the welcome changes being made to replace obscure Latin words with plain English.

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

Acceptance by courts of the existence of automatism is relatively common but not its acceptance as a defense of the sane and, on technical grounds, prior fault generally excludes automatism, as does intoxication, even when involuntary.  Automatism is thus more associated with a plea of insanity under the M'Naghten Rules (M'Naghten's Case 1843 10 C & F 200).  Under English law, internal causes of automatism are generally judged to be insane automatism and so result in the verdict not guilty by reason of insanity rather than acquittal.  While the sane automatism defense is available in matters such as murder, there are offences of absolute liability where it’s not allowed, even if evidence proved it could be sustained such as receiving parking ticket after neglecting to feed meter.

Automatist Art

The Garden, (1964), by Hannah Hoch (1889-1978)

Surrealist automatism was first described during the 1920s as a technique in which an artist allows their unconscious mind to prevail over their consciousness; unsurprisingly, the process was sometimes drug-assisted.  Sceptical (ie conservative or traditionalist) critics, at the time pondering the work of the early surrealists and Dadaists made the point it wasn’t immediately (and often not subsequently) obvious whether a piece could be thought the product of an artist’s conscious or unconscious mind but such critiques seem to have made little impact on the movement.  At the technical level, the process of automatism involved an artist “allowing” their hand to create imagery with a randomness, chance (some critics preferred “accidents”) as much an element in composition as whatever remained of rational intent.  As art, a viewer could make of the works what they would but the claim there was some reflection of the artist’s “repressed subconscious” attracted the psychoanalysts, some of who made such “blind drawing” part of their clinical practice although as a purely artistic approach it had earlier been discussed by the English artist Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956) who in The Book of Pleasure (1913) included a chapter titled Automatic Drawing as a Means to Art.  Although he never emerged from the periphery of the art world during his lifetime, Osman worked and exhibited almost to the day he died and in recent years has become a minor cult figure, something accounted for as much as him being a noted occultist as for his paintings and drawings.