Discombobulate

Discombobulate (pronounced dis-kuhm-bob-yuh-leyt)

To confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate.

The most frequently used derived forms appear to be the verbs (used with object), discombobulated & discombobulating.  Discombobulation is the noun and discombobulated the adjective.

1834: An Americanism, one of a number of fanciful creations which were coined during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mostly mock-Latin, discombobulate presumably a whimsical alteration of a blend of discompose or discomfit, the implied meaning “to confuse; to frustrate”.  It was an alteration of the equally fake discombobricate & discombobracated, first attested in the early 1800s and driven extinct by its usurper; the other spellings from the era (discombulate & discomboberate) never gained traction and etymologists assume discombobulate prevailed because it offered the easier pronunciation.  The US school of mock-Latin and other creations, believed associated with students at the better universities of the era, included confusticate (confound & confuse), absquatulate (run away; make off), spifflicate (confound; beat), scrumplicate (eat), bloviate (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) & blustrification (the act of celebrating boisterously).

Lindsay Lohan looking discombobulated, New York City, 2014.  The bag is Givenchy’s Disney-inspired Antigona Bambi tote from Riccardo Tisci’s (b 1974) Autumn-Winter 2013 collection.

Because the English vocabulary offers so many easy ways to say much the same thing as the five-syllable discombobulate (befuddle, bewilder, confound, disconcert, fluster, addle, baffle, disturb, frustrate, fuddle, muddle, perplex, puzzle, ruffle, throw, upset, mix up et al), all became more popular.  Discombobulate was rare and indeed sometimes listed as extinct until revived in the early twenty-first century when it became a frequent addition to the lists of interesting, neglected or bizarre words which flourished as the world wide web gained the internet a critical mass, the American Dialect Society in 2009 naming it the most creative word of the year which might not have been the most appropriate category given the creation dated from 1834 but one could see what they meant.  Since, it’s found a niche, perhaps helped by the age of pandemic to which it seems well-suited.

Recombobulation Area, Mitchell Airport terminal, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It hasn’t (yet) spawned derivatives; there’s no indication the happily contented are describing themselves as “combobulated” any more than they self-label as "gruntled" but for some years Mitchell airport in Milwaukee has provided in the terminal, a “Recombobulation Area” where passengers can gather their thoughts and recover from whatever ghastly experience they’ve just suffered.  Given the nature of modern air travel, it seems a good idea.

Baryon

Baryon (pronounced bar-ee-on)

(1) In physics, a proton, neutron, or any elementary particle that decays into a set of particles that includes a proton; any of a class of elementary particles that have a mass greater than or equal to that of the proton, participate in strong interactions, and have a spin of 1/2 . Baryons are either nucleons or hyperons. The baryon number (baryogensis) is the number of baryons in a system minus the number of antibaryons.

(2) In astronomy, a specific description for objects in the universe composed of conventional atomic matter.

1950–1955: From the Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús & barý(s)) (heavy) +‎ -on (the Ancient Greek -ον (-on) suffix ending neuter nouns and adjectives).  The word was coined by Dutch-American physicist Abraham Pais (1918–2000) and chosen because at the time, most known elementary particles had lower masses than baryons. Baryons are significant in cosmology because the standard model assumes the Big Bang produced a state with equal amounts of baryons and antibaryons.  Baryon is a noun & baryonic is an adjective; the noun plural is baryons.

Of matter

For experts only: The baryon number.

By definition, baryonic matter should only include matter composed of baryons. It should include protons, neutrons and all the objects composed of them (ie atomic nuclei), but exclude things such as electrons and neutrinos which are actually leptons.  Astronomers however apply the term ‘baryonic matter’ rather more liberally, arguing that on astronomical scales, protons and neutrons are always accompanied by electrons (in appropriate numbers for astronomical objects to possess all but zero net charge).  Astronomers therefore use ‘baryonic’ to refer to all objects made of normal atomic matter, essentially ignoring the presence of electrons (which represent less than 0.0005% of the mass).  Neutrinos, on the other hand, are considered non-baryonic by astronomers and physicists alike.  Another of astronomy’s quirks is that black holes are often included as baryonic matter although physicists insist that while most of the matter from which black holes form is baryonic matter, once swallowed by the black hole, this distinction is lost and, although still subject to speculation, the current orthodoxy is that black holes cannot possess properties such as baryonic or non-baryonic.  Objects of baryonic matter include clouds of cold gas, planets, comets, asteroids, stars, neutron stars and (possibly) black holes.  Non-baryonic matter includes neutrinos, free electrons, dark matter, supersymmetric particles, axions, and (possibly) black holes.

Bottle

Bottle (pronounced bot-l)

(1) A portable vessel, usually of plastic or glass (the original containers of this type were of leather) and typically (though by no means exclusively) cylindrical with a narrow neck that can be closed with a cap or cork, for containing liquids

(2) The contents of such a container; as much as such a container contains.

(3) As “the bottle”, a verbal shorthand for alcohol, strong drink, intoxicating beverages; liquor.

(4) To put into or seal in a bottle.

(5) To preserve (usually fruits or vegetables) by heating to a sufficient temperature and then sealing in a jar (not a common use in the US).

1325–1375: From the Middle English botel (bottle, flask, wineskin), from the Anglo-French, from the Old French boteille (the Modern French is bouteille), from botel, from botte (bundle) probably from the Vulgar Latin butticula (literally “a little cask”), the construct being the Late Latin butti(s) (cask) + -cula (ultimately an alternative form of -ulus; added to a noun to form a diminutive of that noun) although etymologists note the origin remains disputed and there may be a Germanic link (although some maintain it was actually from Archaic Greek), possibly with the Low German Buddel and the Old High German būtil, the latter the source for the German Beutel).  The Latin was the source also of the Spanish botella and the Italian bottiglia.  The third-person singular simple present is bottles, the present participle bottling and the simple past & past participle bottled.  The noun plural is bottles.

The borrowings by other languages make an impressive list including the Assamese বটল (botol (which may be via the Portuguese botelha)), the Bengali বোতল (botôl), the Bislama botel, the Cornish botel, the Brunei Malay butul, the Dutch bottel, the Ese butorua, the Fiji Hindi botal, the Gamilaraay baadhal, the Georgian ბოთლი (botli), the Gujarati: બાટલી (bāṭlī), the Hindi: बोतल (botal (which may be via the Portuguese botelha)), the Dari بوتل‎ (bôtal), the Jamaican Creole bokl & bakl, the Kannada: ಬಾಟಲಿ (bāṭali), the Malay & Indonesian botol, the Min Nan 帽突 (bō-tu̍t), the Papiamentu bòter, the Maori pātara, the Marathi: बाटली (bāṭlī), the Nepali बोतल (botal), the Pashto بوتل‎ (botál), the Pennsylvania German Boddel, the Persian بطری‎ (botri), the Punjabi: ਬੋਤਲ (botal), the Samo botolo, the Sranan Tongo batra, the Scottish Gaelic botal, the Shona bhotoro, the Sinhalese: බෝතලය (bōtalaya), the Swahili libhodlela, the Tok Pisin botol, the Welsh potel, the Xhosa ibhotile & imbodlela, the Yiddish: באָטל‎ (botl) and the Zulu bhodlela.

Bottle features much in UK slang.  The phrase “to bottle” refers to (1) a bottle as a weapon (usually involving it either as a blunt instrument or (when broken) as an improvised bladed weapon to slash or stab (“glassing” the equivalent if a glass drinking receptacle is used), (2) to pelt (a musical act on stage, a sporting team on the field of play etc) with bottles as a sign of disapproval, (3) to refrain from doing something at the last moment because of a sudden loss of courage (that use based on the cockney rhyming slang "bottle and glass" (meaning "ass" as an expression of courage or nerve)) or (4) money collected by street entertainers or buskers.  In printing, it can refer to (1) pages printed several on a sheet (to rotate slightly when the sheet is folded two or more times) or (2) as “bottle-arsed”, the old printers' slang for a typeface wider at one end than the other.  Bottle (with variations such as bottle-fed & bottle-baby) is also a general term to reference infants fed from a bottle with baby formula or some milk other than the mother’s natural supply; that from which the infant is fed is the baby-bottle (wholly replacing the suckling-bottle from 1844).  A bottle-neck is any point in a system which is a cause of inefficiency or congestion, based on the idea of the neck of a bottle being the narrowest part and thus establishing the maximum flow-rate; use in this context dates from 1896 in the specific sense of “narrow entrance, spot where traffic becomes congested”, extended to “anything which obstructs a flow” by 1922, the verb in this sense used since 1928.  To “bottle (something) up” is not to deal with problems or emotions; letting something “out of the bottle” is the less common companion term.  Interestingly, the figurative use “bottling-up” in this context is from the 1620s, pre-dating the literal use (putting stuff in bottles for storage) by two decades.  In a variety of forms (“on the bottle”, “hitting the bottle”, “to drown one’s troubles in the bottle” et al), bottle has since the seventeenth century been a generalized reference to alcohol and its (usually excessive) consumption.

Natural red-head Lindsay Lohan during bottle-blonde phase with bottle of Fiji Water.  As a modifier for various hair-colors (though almost always blonde if applied to women and something more youthfully dark with men), “bottle” was a suggestion of the use of dye, bottle-blonde the most frequently used.

First sold in 1996, Fiji Water quickly became a celebrity favorite, many attracted presumably by the claim that, coming from an “ancient artesian aquifer”, it was "Earth's finest water" but it attracted controversy because at the time when the company began shipping to high-income countries what was a high-priced, premium product, almost half the Fijian population lacked access to clean drinking-water (the Fijian government claims fewer than 10% are now so deprived).  Analysis also revealed an extraordinary environmental impact by the time it reached the consumer, more water consumed in the extraction, production and distribution processes to produce one bottle of Fiji Water than was in the delivered product.  A combination of the use of diesel-fueled machinery, plastic packaging and the vast distances over which what is a very heavy product was shipped meant a effective carbon footprint per litre well over a thousand time higher than the safe tap water available just about anywhere it was sold.

A magnetic bottle is a machine created by placing two magnetic mirrors in close proximity; they’re used in experimental physics temporarily to trap charged particles, preferably electrons because they’re lighter than ions, the best known use of the device to isolate high energy particles of plasma in fusion experiments.  A message in a bottle is literally that, a written note placed in a sealed bottle and cast to the ocean currents, hopefully to be found somewhere some day; these may be distress messages requesting rescue or for no particular purpose.  Although long obsolete, a bottle was once also something tied in a bundle, especially (hay), the link being to the Old French botte (bundle).  The zoological term bottle-nose dates from the 1630s, applied to the porpoise from the 1660s although as a general descriptor in engineering and architecture, it’s noted from the 1560s.  The bottle-washer is from 1837, the bottle-shop a surprisingly recent 1929 and the first mechanical bottle-opener was advertised in 1875.  A jar, jug, urn, vial, canteen, carafe, cruet, decanter, ewer, flagon, flask, phial, soldier, dead soldier or vacuum bottle can also be used to store liquids and certain designs of some of these are in some cases classified as bottles but the use is technical and a bottle is usually defined and understood in its most simple and traditional form.  

The UK dialectal use to describe a dwelling, building or house is obsolete.  It was from the Middle English bottle, botel & buttle, from the Old English botl (building, house), from the Proto-West Germanic bōþl, from the Proto-Germanic budlą, buþlą & bōþlą (house, dwelling, farm), from the primitive Indo-European bhow & bow (literally “to swell, grow, thrive, be, live, dwell”).  It was cognate with the North Frisian budel, bodel, bol & boel (dwelling, inheritable property), the Dutch boedel, boel (inheritance, estate), the Danish bol (farm), the Icelandic ból (dwelling, abode, farm, lair) and related to the Old English bytlan (to build).

The anatomy of the bottle

The finish (also called the closure) is the very top where the bottle is sealed with a cork (natural, composite or some alternative) or screw-top cap, the latter increasingly popular but now that the problem of cork taint (caused usually by trichloroanisole (TCA)), appears to have been solved, cork is making something of a comeback, aided perhaps by the tactile experience of opening a bottle with a corkscrew.  Collectively, the finish is made of a lip and collar, the collar the lower part of the finish, below the lip.  Structurally, the finish is all that is above the distinctive upper terminus of the neck, the term “finish” a glassmakers reference to the final process of making a mouth-blown bottle (ie the final step or the "finishing") and it’s sometimes also referred to sometimes as a "top," "lip" or "mouth".  The wrapping (metal or some form of composite) which is applied around the finish is called the capsule.

The bore (also called the aperture, corkage, opening, mouth, orifice or throat) is the opening at the top of the finish from which the bottle's contents are poured.  The relationship between bore & stopper in a bottle is exactly the same as that of cylinder & piston in an internal combustion engine.  The neck is the (almost always) constricted part of a bottle that lies above the shoulder and below the finish.  The sealing surface sits atop the bore and is where the closure and finish mesh to seal the contents inside.  The extreme top portion of the finish (rim) is sometimes referred to as the sealing surface though that is dependent on the type of finish.  It varies with the technology, the sealing surface on a cork finish is primarily the inside of the bore whereas if an external threaded finish combination is used, the rim becomes the sealing surface against which the screw cap twists down and seals.

An embossed bottle.

The shoulder is the portion of the bottle which lies between the point of change in vertical tangency of the body and the base of the neck.  In the design of bottles, the shoulder is the upper of the two transition zones between portions, the other being the heel, the body the part where most of a bottle’s contents are stored.  The body lies between the shoulder and heel (insweep) and it’s on the body that most labels appear.  Some bottles feature an embossing, raised lettering, designs, or graphics on the surface of the bottle that are formed by incising or engraving on the inside mold surface(s).  The embossing was often effected by the use of interchangeable (usually cast-iron) engraved plates which could be swapped in the same bottle mold so runs of different embossing patterns could be applied to the same type bottle.  The use of these transformed the economics of bottle production; simply with a swap of the plate, the same mold could be used to produce scores of unique and individually embossed bottles of the same shape and design.  The plates are collectables and are called "slug plates" by collectors although the industry insists they were for centuries never known as anything but “plates”.  Bottles thus produced are said to have emerged from a "plate mold".  Mold seams are raised lines on the body, shoulder, neck, finish, and/or base of the bottle that are formed where the edges of different mold sections parts came together, some manufacturers preferring "mold line(s)" although in the long history of glass-making, they’ve also been known as "joint-marks" & "parting lines".

Pol Roger Vintage Brut (1947).

The heel (also called the insweep) is the lowest portion of the bottle where the body begins to curve into the base, terminating usually at the resting point of the bottle (ie the extreme outer edge of the base so the heel may be thought of as the transition zone between the horizontal plane of the base and the vertical plane of the body).  Wine aficionados like to call this the "basal edge", a kind of masonic code-word with which they identify each-other.  The base, as the name implies, is the very bottom of the bottle; the surface upon which it stands.  Traditionally, manufacturers’ quoted measurements of a base are of the greatest diameter (round) or greatest width and depth (non-round) and the "resting point" of a bottle is usually the extreme outside edge of the base.  The kick-up (also called the punt or push-up) is the steep rise or pushed-up portion of the base which slightly reduces the internal volume of the bottle.  Originally, kick-ups were included certainly to enhance strength & stability but historians remain divided on whether the shape was crafted to collect any sediment in the liquid.  In the early twentieth century, some US glassmakers called this feature a "shove-up" but the term never caught on.

Conversation

Conversation (pronounced kon-ver-sey-shuhn)

(1) A (usually) informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc, by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.

(2) Association or social intercourse; intimate acquaintance.

(3) In tort law, as criminal conversation, an action variously available (according to circumstances), pursuant to adultery.

(4) Behavior or manner of living (obsolete).

(5) Close familiarity; intimate acquaintance, as from constant use or study (now rare).

1300–1350: From the Middle English conversacion & conversacioun, from the Old French conversacion (behavior, life, way of life, monastic life), from the Latin conversātiōnem (accusative singular of conversātiō) (conversation) (frequent use, frequent abode in a place, intercourse, conversation), noun of action from the past-participle stem of conversari (to live, dwell, live with, keep company with), the passive voice of conversare (to turn about, turn about with (conversor (abide, keep company with) a frequently used derivative)), from an assimilated form, the construct being com (with, together) + versare, frequentative of vertere (to turn), from the primitive Indo-European root wer (to turn, bend).  Both the mid-fourteenth century meanings (1) "place where one lives or dwells" and (2) "general course of actions or habits, manner of conducting oneself in the world" are long obsolete.  Those senses were picked up from the Old French conversacion and directly from the Latin conversationem.

The modern sense of "informal interchange of thoughts and sentiments by spoken words" dates from the 1570s but this for a long time ran in parallel with being a synonym for "sexual intercourse", in use since at least the late fourteenth century.  Depending on the circles in which one moved, that might have been the source of misunderstandings.  In common law, the tort of criminal conversation emerged in the late eighteenth century.  The "conversation-piece" was noted from 1712 in the sense of "painting representing a group of figures arranged as if in conversation" al la "still life"; by 1784 it had come to mean "subject for conversation, something about which to talk".

The tort of criminal conversation

Like “knowing” (of biblical origin), "conversation" was a euphemism for illicit sex and in this sense has long been obsolete except as “criminal conversation”. which, at common law, is a tort which can be used in proceedings pursuant to certain types of adultery.  Dating from the eighteenth century, although abolished in England in 1857, the tort survived in Australia until 1975 when the Family Law Act replaced the old Matrimonial Causes Act, a piece of law reform which much disappointed Liberal Party lawyers, not a few moralists (professional & amateur) and readers of the Melbourne Truth, a most disreputable tabloid noted for its outstanding racing form guide and publication of salacious photographs (often taken through the windows of St Kilda motels) used as evidence in divorce cases.  The action remains available in a handful of jurisdictions in the United States where the rules can be more liberal than permitted in English courts in that women are entitled to sue.  The name has always been misleading; although called "criminal" conversation, the action was only ever strictly a claim for damages in money.

Example one (Cheryl & Gareth): A man has an affair with a married woman.  

The husband of the unfaithful wife would have been able to sue the unfaithful husband in the tort of criminal conversation.

It was a precisely defined tort which existed to allow wronged parties to seek monetary compensation for acts of unfaithfulness.  Under criminal conversation, within certain limitations of timings and sequence of events, a husband could sue any man who slept with his wife, even if consensual.  If the couple was already separated, the husband could sue only if the separation was caused by the person he was suing.

Example two (Vikki & Barnaby): A man has an affair with an unmarried woman.  

No action would have been possible in the tort of criminal conversation because the woman has no husband to raise the action.  Only a husband could be the plaintiff, and only the "other man" could be the defendant.

Reflecting the moral basis of the tort, each separate adulterous act could give rise to a separate claim for criminal conversation and curiously, the plaintiff, defendant and wife were not permitted to take the stand, evidence being given by other observers, often servants in the employment of one of the parties to the suit.  The tort was a matter wholly a creature of civil law and the definitions of adultery codified in canon law had no relevance to the offence or any subsequent penalty.  Under canon law, someone was deemed to have committed adultery if they enjoyed intimacy with someone while married to another whereas if the other party was also married, the offence was double adultery but neither aggravated the offence or could be offered in mitigation.

Conversation piece: Lindsay Lohan in conversation with her sister Aliana, La Conversation bakery & café, West Hollywood, California, April 2012.  Sadly, La Conversation is now closed.

Conversation piece: The Schutz Family and their Friends on a Terrace (1725) by Philip Mercier, Tate Gallery.  As a genre in painting, the "conversation piece" was a notionally informal (though obviously often staged) group portrait, usually small in scale and depicting families (and sometimes groups of friends) in domestic interior or garden settings.  They were popular for much of the eighteenth century, the most noted artists in the style including Philip Mercier (1689-1760), William Hogarth (1697-1764), Arthur Devis (1712-1787) and Johan Zoffany (1733-1810).

The form is interesting because it reflects the emergence of a new component of the leisured class, the newly rich merchants, or mine and factory owners whose wealth was derived from the profits of industrial revolution and the country’s expanding international trade.  The painters tended to show their subjects in genteel interaction, taking tea, playing games or sitting with their pets.  Conversation pieces were thus different from the formal court or grand style portraits favored by the aristocracy and were an attempt to represent the new middle class behaving as they imagined the old gentry did in everyday life.  Their influence worked also in reverse, aristocratic and royal patrons soon commissioning artist to paint their families in a similar vein.

Voodoo

Voodoo (pronounced voo-doo)

(1) A polytheistic religion practiced chiefly by those in or from the Caribbean deriving principally from African cult worship and containing ritualistic elements borrowed from the Catholic religion.

(2) A person who practices this religion.

(3) A fetish or other object of voodoo worship.

(4) A group of magical and ecstatic rites associated with voodoo.

(5) Generalized slang term for black magic; sorcery.

(6) Of or pertaining to, associated with, or practicing voodoo.

(7) In informal use as pejorative adjective applied as a critique of anything characterized by deceptively simple, almost as if magical, solutions or ideas.

1850s: A creation of US English derived from several words in the Louisiana Creole French vandoux, vandoo and vodun, from the Haitian Creole vodou, the exact origin of which remains uncertain but etymologists conclude the source was West African, such as Ewe vódũ (deity, idol), the Fon vòdún (fetish) or vodũ which existed in a number of Kwa languages although in the anthropological record there are references to Vandoo, said to be the name of an African deity, from a language of Dahomey).  The documentation is sparse but the researchers also recorded vodun (a fetish connected with snake worship in Dahomey) which they linked to vo which had the senses of “to be afraid” & “harmful”.  Use as a verb was first noted in 1880.

Slavery in the Caribbean had the interesting effect of bringing the religious practices of enslaved West Africans into contact with the ritualistic Roman Catholicism practices in the French and Spanish colonies, and structurally, there were striking similarities, the absorption of the Church’s influence (in form if not theology) resulting in distinct New World religions like Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo.  Voodoo is best known as a form of animism involving trances and other rituals including communicating with the souls of the dead and it remains widely practiced in the Caribbean.  The late nineteenth century word Hoodoo is thought a variation and it may have been an imperfect echoic but there are specialists who list it as a separate practice derived from the Vodun of Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso (formerly the Upper Volta).  The words Voodoo and Hoodoo interact in practice, a Hoodoo often a physical object said to be vested with magical powers or qualities as a result of some Voodoo ritual.  For some time, the common name in English for all these religious traditions was Voodoo and it remains part of the modern English vernacular (sometimes figuratively (eg voodoo economics)) but the capitalized proper noun Voodoo should be used only to describe the religion as practiced in Louisiana, the spellings Vodou and Vodú correct if referring to the traditions in Haiti and Cuba respectively.

However, Voodoo was appropriated by popular culture to describe a number of practices both poorly understood and deliberately exoticized in the West.  In some cases, there were pure inventions and spiritual practices involving charmed objects inspired imaginative authors and script-writers to create the so-called “voodoo doll,” despite there being no record of stabbing an effigy with pins in Africa, the Caribbean or the US slave states.  Hollywood also embraced the zombie.  In Vodou, the zombie is a living but soulless individual whose free will has been taken by a powerful sorcerer or bocor, not the risen dead monster depicted in films, books, and video games.  Ultimately, use of the word voodoo is complicated by widespread familiarity with the appropriated, secular, pop culture mythology of the entertainment industry—a mythology that poorly represents or directly conflicts with the authentic religious and historical core of Voodoo and related spiritual traditions such as Vodun, Vodou, and Hoodoo.

Crooked Hillary Clinton voodoo doll (2016).  Crooked Hillary Clinton has never denied practicing voodoo.

In the 2016 US presidential election, there were plenty who hated one or other of the candidates and a good many who found the choice uninspiring.  These three target markets were served by artist Shane Bugbee (b 1968) who offered voters a practical device with which to visit a plague on either or both their hoses: Donald Trump and crooked Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls.  Hand-made in the US (a small contribution to making America great again (MAGA)) with a screen printed appliqué, each stood six inches (150 mm) tall and was supplied with a handful of stick pins although the blood-thirsty who wished to inflict more severe injuries could certainly use their tools, instruments or devices of choice.  No information was provided as to flammability but anyone wishing to see crooked Hillary burned at the stake (the Lord forbid) wasn’t discouraged from trying.  Each voodoo doll was produced in a run of 666 hand-numbers editions and listed at US$13 each or US$20 for the pair.

In 2005. Mattel released a Lindsay Lohan doll, the accessories including a velvet rope, popcorn, a director's chair, make-up case, designer handbag, shoes, clothes and jewelry.  The doll could be re-purposed for anyone wanting a Lindsay Lohan voodoo doll (the Lord forbid).

Technically, what is in popular culture called a voodoo doll should probably be called a hoodoo doll or even just a hoodoo because it is an inert object transformed by a spell or other ritual.  Although Voodoo priests have for decades confirmed the use of effigies for this purpose has no part in their traditions, the practice does exist in other cultures and voodoo dolls are widely available in shrink-wrap while for those who prefer to make their own, instruction sets are downloadable.  For those with a doll, the process is much the same as the process of consecration familiar in many Christian denominations in that once the ritual of choice is performed, doll becomes voodoo doll.  When it has served its purpose, it may be returned to an inert status by the appropriate ritual (the equivalent of the act of de-consecration).

The Love Me or Die by CW Stoneking (b 1974)

I studied evil, I can't deny,

Was a hoodoo charm called a Love Me or Die,

Some fingernail, a piece of her dress,

Apocathery, Devil's behes'

I will relate, the piteous consequence my mistake,

Fallin slave to passin desire,

Makin' the dreaded Love me or Die.

 

Against a Jungle primeval green,

She had the looks of a beauty queen

No bangles or chain, wearin' broken shoe

Seventy-five cent bottle perfume.

I said, "Good mornin", I tipped my hat,

All the while I was cunning like a rat,

Smilin gaily, looked her in the eye,

I felt in pocket, the Love me or Die.

 

My past history, one to behold,

I studied magic from days of old,

Membership, secret societies,

Power and wealth in my family

But Matilda, Darling,

Why you don't take my wedding ring,

Like a demon under the floor,

I buried the hoodoo down the back door.

 

Lawd, word broke through the town,

That a fever strike Matilda down,

Nine thirty, the doctor arrive,

Priest come runnin, quarter to five.

Standin in the weeds early next day,

I saw the meat wagon rollin away,

I seen Matilda layin in the back,

Her old mother wearin a suit of black

 

Sound the trumpet, and bang the drum,

I wait for me judgement to come,

I know her spirit is down beneath,

I hear the weepin and gnashing of the teeth.

Flames of Hell licks at my feet,

In the shadow of the Jungle I feel the heat,

Matilda's waiting in Hell for me too,

All cause she died from a bad hoodoo.

Hollywood

Hollywood (pronounced hol-ee-wood)

(1) A locality name shared by some two-dozen locations in the US, most associated the neighborhood in north-west Los Angeles, the historic centre of the US motion-picture industry.

(2) A locality name used by several places in England and Ireland.

(3) As a metonym, the US motion-picture industry (not necessarily restricted to LA) or the various cultural constructs associated with the business.

(4) Of or characteristic of a motion picture which tends to the type most associated with the mainstream US industry.

(5) In the beauty industry, a technique of waxing which removes all of the pubic hair, contrasted usually with the “Brazilian” which leaves a narrow strip.

Pre-1200 (in Ireland): In England and Ireland, Hollywood was used as a place name, based on the existence of established holly plantations in the region and it was adopted for dozens of settlements in North America although it’s not clear if the presence of holly plants was a prerequisite.  The use of Hollywood as a metonym for the US film industry (and by film nerds specifically the “studio system”) dates from 1926, some three years after the big sign on the hills was erected.

Lindsay Lohan photoshoot in the Hollywood hills for Vogue Espana, August 2009.

Standing 45 feet (13.7 m) high and 350 feet (106.7 m) in length, the sign originally spelled-out HOLLYWOODLAND and was intended as a temporary advertisement to promote a real estate development but became so identified with the place it was decided to allow it to remain.  As a temporary structure exposed to the elements, damage or deterioration was inevitable and in 1949, after the “H” had collapsed, restorative work was undertaken, the “LAND” letters demolished.  This work actually endured well but by the 1970s it was again quite dilapidated, a rebuild completed in 1979 and periodic maintenance since has ensured it remains in good condition.  There have been instances of vandalism so perimeter fencing of the site has over the years been increased but, as far as is known, only one soul has ever committed suicide by throwing themselves from one of the letters.  The first known instance of the name being used is in local government planning documents filed in 1887.  Quite why the name was chosen is obscure but there are a number of suggestions:

(1) Of the heteromeles arbutifolia.  It’s said the early residents in the region so admired the prolific holly-like bush (heteromeles arbutifolia, then commonly called the toyon) which grew in the Santa Monica Mountains they fondly re-named it the “California holly” and it was as this the plant lent its name to the neighborhood.  Easy to cultivate, tolerant of the Californian sun and demanding only occasional water, the toyon can grow as high as 18 feet (5½ m) high, the white summer flowers in the fall & winter yielding red berries.  The branches were a favorite for floral centerpieces and during the 1920s their harvesting as Christmas decorations became so popular the State of California passed a law (CA Penal Code § 384a) forbidding collection on public land or any land not owned by the person picking the plant unless with the the landowner’s written permission.

Heteromeles arbutifolia (the toyon or California holly)

(2) More in the spirit of the American dream is that the name was a marketing exercise.  In 1886, Harvey Wilcox (1832–1891) and his wife Daeida (1861-1914) purchased farmland and fruit groves near the Cahuenga Pass, his intention being to sub-divide the land, selling the plots for profit.  A year later, Mrs Wilcox met a passenger on a train who mentioned owning an Illinois estate named Hollywood and she was so enchanted by the name she convinced her husband to use if for his development, sitting on the land now known as Hollywood.

(3) A variation of this story is that Mrs Wilcox met a woman who told her of her home in Ohio named after a Dutch settlement called Hollywood and, without telling her husband, she bestowed the name on the recently purchased land.  Mr Wilcox apparently didn’t demur and had a surveyor map out a grid for the sub-division which was lodged with the county recorder's office on 1 February 1887, this the first official appearance of the name "Hollywood".

Lindsay Lohan photoshoot in the Hollywood hills for Vogue Espana, August 2009

(4) Year another twist to the tale maintains a friend of Mrs Wilcox hailed from a place called Holly Canyon and it was this which induced her to pick the name.  This included the area we now know as Hollywood which was purchased as part of a larger package by land developer Hobart Whitley (1847–1931) although there are sources which give some credit to Los Angeles businessman Ivar Weid, this linked also to the toyon tree.

(5) Some of the stories seem imaginative.  One involves divine intervention with Mrs Wilcox naming the area after attending a Mass of the Holy Wood of the Cross on the site though if that’s the case, Hollywood may subsequently have disappointed God.  There’s also a version with a phonetic flavor and it’s said to come from Hobart Whitley's diary: In 1886, while in the area, Whitley came across a man with a wood-hauling wagon and they paused to chat.   The carrier turned out to be Scottish who spoke of "hauling wood" which sounded to Whitley like "Hollywood" and Whitley was attracted by the combination of holly representing England and wood, Scotland; the tale reached Harvey Wilcox, and the name stuck.  An Irish version of this says the name was based on an immigrant's nostalgic memories of his home town: Hollywood in Wicklow, Ireland.  The immigrant was Mathew Guirke (1826-1909) who arrived in the US in 1850 and became a successful Los Angeles businessman, owning even a racetrack.  It’s said he named his new homestead Hollywood in honor of his hometown.

Henry Kissinger (b 1923; US National Security Advisor 1969-1975 & Secretary of State 1973-1977) meets Dolly Parton, 1985.

The noun Bollywood dates from 1977 and was based on the construct of Hollywood.  It references the Indian film industry, the construct being B(ombay) +‎ (H)ollywood, because the city of Bombay was where the bulk of the industry was located’ it’s sometimes truncated as B'wood.  Although the Raj-era name Bombay has formerly been gazetted as Mumbai and the name-change seems to be adhered to in the West, among Indians Bombay continues often to be used and Bollywood is so well entrenched it has assumed an independent life and nobody has suggested Mollywood.  Historically, Bollywood was a reference to (1) the Hindi-language film industry in Bombay and (2) a particular style of motion picture with a high song & dance content but of later it (3) refered to the whole industry in India.  Thus, as use has extended, the specific meaning has been diluted.  By extension, slang terms to describe motion pictures produced in India in languages other than Hindi include Kollywood (Tamil film industry located in Kodambakkam in Chennai, southern India.), Tollywood (Film Nagar, the Telugu film industry located in Hyderabad, Telangana) and Urduwood (anything using the Urdu language), the last often used in a derogatory sense by Hindu Indians after the fashion of substituting “I am going to the loo” with “I am going to Pakistan”.  Predictably, Nollywood (the construct being N(igeria) +‎ (H)ollywood) was coined when a industry of scale became established there.  Located in the Knoxville metropolitan area in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dollywood is a theme park co-owned by country & western singer Dolly Parton (b 1946) and Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE).

Lindsay Lohan, Vogue Espana cover, August 2009.

Other linguistic inventions include hollyweird (said often used by respectable folk in the flyover states to decry the decadent lifestyles and liberal opinions held by those who live close to America's corrupting coastlines (ie not restricted to a condemnation just of a part of LA) and hollywoke, a more recent coining which links the liberal views held by the hollyweird with political correctness and wokeness in general.  The "Hollywood bed" was a marketing invention of the 1950s which described a mattress on a box spring supported by low legs and fitted with an upholstered headboard, so-named because it resembled the beds which often appeared in Hollywood movies although, the term has also been used in the context of Harvey Weinstein's (b 1952) nefarious activities.  Hollywoodian and Hollywoodish are both adjectival forms, applied usually disapprovingly.  Beyond mainstream use, the ever-helpful Urban Dictionary lists a myriad of creations including hollywood hot-pocket, hollywood wife, hollywood hair, hollywood drone, hollywood douchebag, Hollywood zombie, hollywood vitamins, pull a hollywood, hollywood Nap, hollywood snow, hollywood republican & hollywood handler.  Some are self-explanatory (at least to those who enjoyed a misspent youth) while others Urban Dictionary can flesh-out.

Hollywoodland, 1923.

Hollywood is of course inherently associated with glitzy renditions of fiction though it seems a bit rough that on-line dictionaries include as synonyms: bogus, copied, false, fictitious, forged, fraudulent, phony, spurious, affected, assumed, bent, brummagem, crock (as in “…of shit”), ersatz, fake, feigned, framed, imitation, misleading, mock, pirate, plant, pretended, pseudo, put on, queer, sham, wrong, deceptive, delusive, delusory, fishy, not genuine, not kosher (that one a nice touch), pretentious, snide, soft-shell, suppositious and two-faced.  Presumably the Republican National Committee (RNC) didn’t write the list but it’s doubtful they'd much change it.  In the same spirit, the antonyms include actual, authentic, factual, genuine, honest, real, sincere, true, truthful & valid.