Auspicious

Auspicious (pronounced aw-spish-uhs)

(1) Promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable.

(2) Favored by fortune; prosperous; fortunate (rare).

1590s: From the Latin auspicium (divination by observing the flight of birds), the construct being auspex (augur) (genitive auspicis) + -ous (the suffix used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance.  It's from the Middle English -ous, borrowed from Old French -ous and -eux, from Latin -ōsus (full, full of); Doublet of -ose).  The usual modern rendering of the Latin auspicium is “augury” which reflects the influence of French on the adoption of Latin forms in English.  Auspicious has long been understood to mean “of good omen” and, although it’s still sometimes used to mean “fortunate”, this probably indicates a misunderstanding.  The related forms are the adverb auspiciously and the noun auspiciousness.  Unfortunately, most may be more familiar with the companion adjective inauspicious (ill-omened, unlucky, unfavorable), dating from the 1590s, from the Latin inauspicatus (without auspices; with bad auspices) which briefly enjoyed a place in seventeenth century English as inauspicate.

The Auspicious Incident

Janissary soldiers in the red and white colors dating from the pre-firearms era.

The Auspicious Incident (in the Turkish Vaka-i Hayriye (fortunate event) and spoken of in the Balkans as Vaka-i Şerriyye (unfortunate incident)) was the forced disbandment of the Janissary corps by the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826.  Formed during the fourteenth century, the Janissaries (in Ottoman Turkish يڭيچرى‎ (yeñiçeri) (new soldier)) were an elite formation, essentially the Sultan's private army and, remarkably for such blood-soaked soil, the first standing army in the region since antiquity.  Although, as a military unit, the Janissaries were for centuries indispensable to sultans, the character of the corps changed over the years with the creation of bureaucratic and mercantile structures, both run by civilians and thus creating an independent power-base.  It was the kind of mission-creep not dissimilar to the evolution of the Sturmabteilung (the Storm Troopers (SA) or brownshirts) in the Third Reich or the Praetorian Guard in Ancient Rome and like both of them, the Janissaries came to be seen a threat to the leader rather than a protective guard.

Depiction of Janissaries during the slave era.

Curiously, the origin of the Janissaries was in a group of slaves, bound for their lives personally to the sultan after being captured as children and forcibly converted from Christianity. Despite this unpromising beginning, the Janissaries gained a reputation for bravery and loyally and were a critically important military component in many of the Ottoman’s most celebrated battles, most famously the fall of Constantinople in 1453.  The battle-readiness however was affected as a gradual decline in the standards of recruitment and training diminished both their effectiveness and loyalty to the sultan; by the early nineteenth century the Janissaries were effectively an armed political party focused on extending their economic interests and controlling the empire by implied military threat which sometimes was expressed in the several coups in which they were implicated, their oath of loyalty which once had been to a sultan personally instead arbitrarily re-interpreted as being to the throne which left them free to overthrow any tiresome sultan and replace him with one more compliant.  From being the king’s protectors, they had become the king-makers.

Depiction of Janissary soldiers in the age when battlefield skirmishes were decided by the "blade of the sword and the splutter of musketry".

The character of the formation had certainly changed but Ottoman law had not been amended to reflect what had happened.  As slaves the Janissaries had no money and were thus untaxed but after the rules began to allow those with an established income to become Janissaries, these recruits brought their businesses and profits with them, thus becoming part of an elite military force yet still exempt from tax, an imbalance which sparked jealously and resentment throughout the empire.  Sultans and their advisors had long been aware of the problem and the threat posed but attempts at reform had always been resisted.

Mahmud II.

When Mahmud II (Mahmud-u s̠ānī (محمود ثانى in Ottoman Turkish) 1785-1839; Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1808-1839) became sultan in 1808 he was under no illusions, having watched several of his predecessors lose their thrones and lives in Janissary-led coups but he had to be both cautious and furtive for whatever decline in military effectiveness might have afflicted the Janissaries, their intelligence operation had infiltrated much of the state.  Instead of direct conflict, Mahmud choose gradualism, imposing minor reforms which annoyed the Janissaries who resisted things like changes to their uniform which had been suggested as part of a military modernization.  In the face of their opposition to this and other minor matters, the sultan relented, inducing in the Janissaries a complainant assumption that their immunity from change would continue.  Quietly however, Mahmud was forming a modern, Western-style army and when ready, he issued a fatwa which detailed his intended military re-structure, marginalizing the Janissary.  This prompted, as the devious sultan had intended, a Janissary rebellion, the disaffected troops taking to the streets, planning another act of sultanicide.  At this point was executed a brutally efficient plan was using the Sipahi, a cavalry division with a pedigree more ancient even than the Janissaries and with which they shared a bitter rivalry.  Striking without warning, the Sipahi took advantage of their greater mobility to drive the Janissaries back to their barracks which, secretly, Mahmud II had surrounded with artillery imported from Europe disguised as farm machinery.  In a ferocious siege, the barracks were subject to a barrage of such intensity that in the ensuing blaze, over 4,400 Janissaries were incinerated before the survivors scattered, many subsequently exiled while the last were put to death by decapitation in the Thessaloniki fort which Turks came to call the Tower of Blood.  As a reward, the Sipahi formed the core of a new elite force called the Victorious Soldiers of Muhammad and the sultan continued his programme of military modernization.

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

The bloody business came to be known to the Turks as the auspicious incident because it lent the Ottoman army (and therefore the empire) a Turkish rather than multi-national character and the structures endured until the empire was dissolved in 1922 (formally in 1924).  In other parts of the caliphate, the events came to be called the unfortunate incident because the consequential centralization of authority in Constantinople dissipated what had been a hard fought for regional autonomy.

Borderline

Borderline (pronounced bawr-der-lahyn)

(1) On or near a border or boundary; a border; dividing line; line of demarcation.

(2) Uncertain; indeterminate; debatable; an indeterminate position between two conditions.

(3) Not quite meeting accepted, expected, or average standards.

(4) In psychiatry, as Borderline Personality Disorder, a descriptor of a personality disorder characterized by instability in many areas, as mood, identity, self-image and behavior and often manifested by impulsive actions, suicide attempts, inappropriate anger, or depression. The abbreviation is BPD.

1847: A compound word (also as border-line), created to describe a "strip of land along a frontier" as distinct from the actual line of a border, the construct being border + line.  Border was inherited from the Middle English bordure, from the Old French bordure & bordeure, from border (to border), from bort & bord (a border), of Germanic origin akin and to the Middle High German borte (border, trim) and the German Borte (ribbon, trimming); doublet of bordure.  Line, influenced in Middle English by the Middle French ligne (line), was from the Latin linea, from līneus (flaxen; a flaxen thing) from līnum (flax).  The Middle French ligne was from the Old Danish likna, derived with the inchoative suffix -ne from lig (similar) and was related to the Swedish likna, the English liken and the Middle Low German līkenen.  It replaced galīkōną, an older verb without -n, hence the Old English ġelīcian, the German gleichen and the Gothic galeikōn.  As an adjective meaning "verging on" it is attested from 1903, originally in medical jargon to describe various conditions but from the 1930s, it became most associated with metal health, the diagnosis of the condition BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) apparently first mentioned in the medical literature in 1938 and evolving over several decades.  More correctly, that process can be called a "co-evolution" because while in academic and clinical use understanding of the condition was being refined, in the popular imagination BPD became one of the more popular terms used both for self-diagnosis and to apply to others (whether or not known personally).  Because BPD is inherently a spectrum condition, coinings like borderlinelike & borderlineish are superfluous although (of behavior) borderlinesque might be useful; all three remain non-standard.  The adjective nonborderline is used both in political geography (those lines of delineation on maps indicating something other than national or sub-national borders) and mental health (meaning “unaffected by BPD”).  Borderline is a noun, verb, adjective & adverb, borderliner & borderlineness are nouns and borderlined & borderlining are verbs; the noun plural is borderlines.  

Borderline Personality Disorder

On the internet, BPD is one of the more popular of the conditions ascribed to celebrities, politicians and others in the public eye.  As a general principle, places on the web are not recommended as sources of medical advice and that includes mental health although it seems obvious that in many politicians, their personality disorders are well beyond being classified as "borderline", many thresholds long since crossed.

In clinical psychiatry, although the number of borderline conditions has increased, it’s only the concepts of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and the Schizotypal Personality which are claimed to have adequate diagnostic reliability, the parameters of both first codified in the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  The fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR (2000)), established the most commonly followed criteria for BPD and in DSM-5 (2013), these were extended to a remarkable sixteen headings in seven (A-G) categories in what appeared to be a kind of clinical mopping-up of symptoms suffered by those not able, for whatever reason, to be diagnosed with something more specific.  Indeed, the all-encompassing taxonomy appears rendered superfluous by Criterion E which seems just about to sum it up.

Criterion A: Moderate or greater impairment in personality functioning; two or more of the following criteria: (1) Identity: Markedly impoverished, poorly developed, or unstable self-image, often associated with excessive self-criticism; chronic feelings of emptiness; dissociative states under stress. (2) Self-direction: Instability in goals, aspirations, values, or career plans. (3) Empathy: Compromised ability to recognize the feelings and needs of others associated with interpersonal hypersensitivity (i.e., prone to feel slighted or insulted); perceptions of others selectively biased toward negative attributes or vulnerabilities. (4) Intimacy: Intense, unstable, and conflicted close relationships, marked by mistrust, neediness, and anxious preoccupation with real or imagined abandonment; close relationships often viewed in extremes of idealization and devaluation and alternating between over-involvement and withdrawal.

Criterion B: Four or more of the following seven pathological personality traits must be present: (5) Emotional liability: Unstable emotional experiences and frequent mood changes; emotions that are easily aroused, intense, and/or out of proportion to events and circumstances. (6) Anxiousness: Intense feelings of nervousness, tenseness, or panic, often in reaction to interpersonal stresses; worry about the negative effects of past unpleasant experiences and future negative possibilities; feeling fearful, apprehensive, or threatened by uncertainty; fears of falling apart or losing control. (7) Separation insecurity: Fears of rejection by and/or separation from significant others, associated with fears of excessive dependency and complete loss of autonomy. (8) Depressivity: Frequent feelings of being down, miserable, and/or hopeless; difficulty recovering from such moods; pessimism about the future; pervasive shame; feelings of inferior self-worth; thoughts of suicide and suicidal behavior. (9) Impulsivity: Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli; acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes; difficulty establishing or following plans; a sense of urgency and self-harming behavior under emotional distress. (10) Risk-taking: Engagement in dangerous, risky, and potentially self-damaging activities, unnecessarily and without regard to consequences; lack of concern for one’s limitations and denial of the reality of the personal danger. (11) Hostility: Persistent or frequent angry feelings; anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults.

Criterion C: (12) The impairments in personality functioning and the individual’s personality trait expression are relatively inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.

Criterion D: (13) The impairments in personality functioning and the individual’s personality trait expression are relatively stable across time with onsets that can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.

Criterion E: (14) The impairments in personality functioning and the individual’s personality trait expression are not better explained by another mental disorder.

Criterion F: (15) The impairments in personality functioning and the individual’s personality trait expression are not attributable to a substance (eg, a drug of abuse, medication, exposure to a toxin) or a general medical condition (eg, severe head trauma).

Criterion G: (16) The impairments in personality functioning and the individual’s personality trait expression are not better understood as normal for the individual’s developmental stage or the socio-cultural environment.

The wide BPD net cast in DSM-5 pleased the psychiatrists but in recent years, there’s been interest in changing the name of BPD, a movement led not the profession but by those diagnosed with the condition, the creation of pressure-groups now greatly assisted by social media.  The objections seem to be that BPD (1) somehow marginalizes the sufferers in the hierarchy of mental illness, (2) fails to capture the underlying issues and mechanisms involved in producing its symptoms and (3), denigrates and even invalidates the very existence of their condition, the word “borderline” suggesting their symptoms aren’t sufficiently severe to be a “real” condition.  In that sense, the word does have loaded connotations, “borderline” used first by 1930s psychoanalysts to describe patients whose symptoms lay between psychosis and neurosis but to modern lay-persons, a common interpretation is that the condition “borders” on being a “real” illness.  Some even object to “disorder” but most accept it; they’d just prefer to be diagnosed with a more significant, and fashionable, depressive disorder.

Although it seems hardly more respectable, Emotional Intensity Disorder emerged from a survey as the popular choice of patients, beating out Emotional Regulation Disorder, Emotional Dysregulation Disorder, Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, Impulsive Personality Disorder & Impulsive-Emotional Dysregulation Disorder.  The clinicians liked Emotional Regulation Disorder but were out-voted.  Unimpressed by either, the committee working on the revision of DSM-5 proposed Borderline Type (which sounds like a sceptical psychiatrist’s casual dismissal of emos), but noted “no decision has yet been made.”  When in 2022 the text-revision (DSM-5-TR) was released, although there were textual and contextual updates, the diagnostic criteria for BPD did not change so the distinction between the two can be thought terminological rather than structural, the language used reflected the editors’ decades-long attempts at once to be more precise and less stigmatizing.  In DSM-5-TR there was also an obvious focus on editing “now suspect” references to gender but none of this altered the construct of BPD.  As had long been the practice, DSM-5-TR included updated epidemiology data (if newer research or analysis was thought to have provided some refinement) but it was very much a project focused on cultural considerations, terminology and “modernization” of language.

Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin borderline, 1961-1990

Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967; FRG Chancellor 1949-1963) at Checkpoint Charlie in 1962; car is a Mercedes-Benz 300d (W189).

The 300 was produced in four generations (W186: 300, 300b & 300c, 1951-1957 & W189: 300d, 1957-1962) and became known informally as the “300 Adenauer”, the association prompted by the chancellor using six (cabriolets, sedans and a landaulet) 300s during his long term in office.  The 300d is also associated with John XXIII (1881–1963; pope 1958-1963) who was presented with one in 1960 and it served as the official papal vehicle until 1965 when Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) took delivery of a Mercedes-Benz 600; both cars were high-roofed landaulets.  Used only until the mid-1960s, the lower case characters in the model designation appeared only in documents and were never added to the badgework but they are another layer in the intricacy of the factory's model nomenclature which, when first conceived (sort of) made sense but a combination of new technology and range-proliferation (with the same engines appearing in different classes conspired to make the system unmanageable and in the early 1990s there was a structural revision which, as amended (with its own inconsistencies), endures to this day.

Although the most famous, the crossing point in the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) on the borderline between East and West Berlin and named Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C to the military) was one of three, all known by their designation drawn from the NATO phonetic alphabet, the now forgotten pair being Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt and Checkpoint Bravo at Wannsee.  The Soviets (officially) didn't use the NATO designation, instead calling Checkpoint Charlie the КПП Фридрихштрассе (KPP Fridrikhshtrasse (Friedrichstraße Crossing Point)) while the government of the GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic; the old East Germany, 1949-1990) listed it as the Grenzübergangsstelle (Border Crossing Point) Friedrich-Zimmerstraße.

Checkpoint Charlie, 1963.

In one of the charming coincidences of the Cold War, Checkpoint Charlie was located at the intersection of Friedrichstraße, Zimmerstraße & Mauerstraße (Wall Street).  It became the only well-know crossing point because, for reasons of security and administrative convenience, it was the sole designated crossing point (whether for foot or vehicular traffic) for foreigners and members of the three Allied (previously occupying) forces (France, the UK & the US) stationed in the FRG (Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany; the old West Germany, 1949-1990).  The manned structures associated with Checkpoint Charlie were also in a location which lent itself to photography from a number of angles and replicas were built by film studios for the many productions shot in Berlin during the Cold War.  Often dark, gloomy pieces, the "Cold War spy film" was a genre which over the decades as geopolitical tensions waxed & waned but the divided Berlin of the 1960s was its high-point and what was done then "defined the look".  The Cafe Adler (Eagle Café), adjacent to Checkpoint Charlie was for decades one of West Berlin's tourist hotspots.

Checkpoint Charlie in 1982, showing the larger aluminum building which that year replaced the original wooden hut.

To those accustomed to seeing the gargantuan structures the US military tend to erect wherever they take root, Checkpoint Charlie must have been a surprise, a modest (though enlarged in 1962) and obviously temporary wooden hut was for more than twenty years all that stood on the western side, the little building replaced in 1982 only because it had become so dilapidated it was literally falling down around the guards stationed within and even then, the metal structure which replaced it, while larger, was no more permanent.  That obvious impermanence was part of the political messaging, the Western powers never wishing to hint at an acceptance the division of Germany would forever endure.  However, if people were surprised, it’s doubtful many were disappointed, the compact architecture providing a single point of focus and even in the pre-selfie era, at one glance, what tourists could take in was evocative of the Cold War cinema with which so many were familiar.

Checkpoint Charlie, 1970.

The attitude of the allied powers reflected their political position that while obviously a line of control, the Berlin Wall was not a legitimate international borderline and thus only small, temporary buildings were required.  To the authorities in the Kremlin and the GDR, whatever some might suggest was the position in international law, the Berlin Wall was a borderline and thus on their side the infrastructure quickly grew to include watchtowers, a military barracks and a multi-lane, enclosed clearing zone in which those wishing to cross could be interrogated and searched.

Checkpoint Charlie in 2020, now a replica “1961” hut with new sandbags.

The Berlin Wall “fell” in November 1989 and the checkpoint booth was removed some six months later although, because East and West Germany remained legally separate countries, the checkpoint at the point of the borderline was retained as the designated official crossing-point for foreigners and diplomats, an arrangement which ended in October 1990 when German reunification was formalized in law.  Checkpoint Charlie has since remained one of Berlin's tourist attractions and, just as some parts of the once demolished wall have been re-created because supply of the real thing wasn’t enough to meet demand, the municipal government soon erected an almost exact replica of the checkpoint as it stood in 1961 although the quality of the construction is said to be rather more robust than the original and it’s expected to enjoy a longer life.  Better to capture the flavor, even the sandbags which gradually were removed during the 1970s are back in place, carefully stacked.  During every week of the tourist season, selfies are taken by the thousand.

Syndrome

Syndrome (pronounced sin-drohm or sin-druhm)

(1) In pathology and psychiatry, a group of symptoms which together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease or the like.

(2) A group of related or coincident things, events, actions etc; a predictable, characteristic pattern of behavior, action, etc., that tends to occur under certain circumstances.

1535–1545: From the Medical Latin syndrome (a number of symptoms occurring together), from the Ancient Greek συνδρομή (sundromḗ) (concurrence of symptoms, concourse of people), from σύνδρομος (súndromos) (literally "running together" and often used in the sense of "place where several roads meet"), the construct being συν- (syn-) (with) + δρόμος (drómos) (a running, course), best understood as syn- + dramein + -ē (the feminine noun suffix).  The meaning, beginning in 1540s medical Latin, is thus derived from the Ancient Greek syndromos (place where several roads meet); the psychological sense emerging only in 1955.  In general use, the synonyms include malady, problem, disorder, ailment, sickness, complaint, sign, complex, infirmity, affection, symptoms, diagnostics & prognostics; in medical use, the term syndrome is something also used loosely but in text books or academic use use is more precise.  Syndrome is a noun and syndromic is an adjective; the noun plural is syndromes.

In medicine, a syndrome is a collection of symptoms (some of which clinicians sometimes classify variously as “definitive” & “indicative”) which often manifest simultaneously and characterize a particular abnormality or condition.  The term is commonly used in medicine and psychology and syndromes can either be codified as diagnosable conditions or just part of casual language to describe aspects of the human condition (such as “Paris Hilton Syndrome” or “Lindsay Lohan Syndrome”).  A syndrome describes patterns of observable symptoms but does not of necessity indicate a condition’s cause or causes.  A syndrome does not need to be widespread or even suffered by more than one patient and a single case is all that is required for a syndrome to be defined; the symptoms need only to be specific.  Diagnosing a syndrome typically involves clinicians identifying the common symptoms and ruling out other possible conditions, something often complicated by the variability in severity and presentation among different individuals, many syndromes being classic examples of “spectrum conditions”.  Like any condition, the course of the treatment regime for a syndrome will focus on (1) managing the symptoms and (2) dealing with the underlying causes when known.

COVID-19

Art inspired by the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 syndrome, created by medical professionals: Outsized, Overwhelming Impact of COVID-19 by Lona Mody.

COVID-19 is a syndrome and the name allocated on 11 February 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.  Although its origin remains most associated with Wuhan in late 2019, it may have been circulating earlier.  An acronym, COVID-19 stands for COronaVIrus Disease-2019 but the original working name for the virus causing the syndrome was 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) which the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) changed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).  The name is from the standard nomenclature of the discipline, chosen because the virus is a genetic cousin of the coronavirus which caused the SARS syndrome in 2002 (SARS-CoV).  The public tends not to distinguish between virus and syndrome, the popular names being Covid and corona.

Art inspired by the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 syndrome, created by medical professionals: Pipetting the Sample by Ali Al-Nasser.

First discovered in domestic poultry during the 1930s, coronaviruses cause a range of respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver, and neurologic diseases and are common in both humans and animals.  Only seven are known to cause disease in humans, four associated with the common cold; these have the catchy names 229E, OC43, NL63, and HUK1.  The three coronaviruses which cause serious lung infections (related to pneumonia) are SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) first noted in 2002, MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) which emerged in 2012 and SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 pandemic).

Art inspired by the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 syndrome, created by medical professionals: Naturarte by Angela Araujo.

SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are zoonotic, beginning in an animal, transmitting, either directly or via another species, to people.  SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a mutated bat virus; bats host thousands of coronavirues and exist with them mostly in symbiotic harmony and it remains unclear whether the virus passed directly from bat to human or via some other creature.  Interestingly, while the nature of the COVID-19 syndrome hasn’t changed, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated and now circulates in many strains, one tending to emerge as the dominant means of transmission in a given geographical area.  The dominance of the mutated strain happened because the mutation made the virus much more infectious so, in a classic example of Darwinian natural selection, the entity able more efficiently to multiply is the one which becomes dominant.  Despite early speculation, the mutation seems not to account for reductions in the COVID-19 death rate, a phenomenon virologists attribute to improved treatment the “harvesting effect”, meaning the virus first kills those easiest to kill.  There was also the effect of many dying early in the pandemic because health systems were overwhelmed and unable to provide the treatment which would have ensured their survival.  This has been noted in past wars, epidemics, pandemics and localized disasters.

Cesspool & Cesspit

Cesspool (pronounced ses-pool)

(1) A cistern, or sump for the temporary retention of the sediment of a drain or for receiving the sewage or waste-water from a house or other building; also called a sink.

(2) As a casual description, any filthy receptacle or place.

(3) By extension, any place of corruption, iniquity, moral filth, depravity or immorality:

1670s: From the early Modern English cess-pool & sesspool (cistern or well to receive sediment or filth).  The origin is (perhaps expectedly) murky.  It may be from the Italian cesso (privy) from the Latin secessus & rēcessusrecess (“place of retirement” and, in Late Latin "privy or drain") documented in English since the 1580s.  It seems convincing because the dialectal form was suspool, from suss & soss (puddle; mire) or cess (a bog on the banks of a tidal river).  Another theory of the seventeenth century shift involves the influence of the French cesperalle, an alteration of the Middle English suspiral, from the Old & Middle French souspirail (air hole; a vent for air) from soupirer & souspirer (to sigh, breathe), from the Latin suspirare.  Other speculation is it may have been either an alteration of cistern or a shortened form of recess or the whole may be an alteration of the (circa 1400) suspiral (drainpipe), from the Old French sospiral (a vent, air hole) from sospirer (breathe) from the Latin suspirare (breathe deep).  The fact the meaning extended to "tank at the end of the pipe," does make plausible a possible folk-etymology change in final syllable.  Gongpit was the most attractive of the nicknames, most of the others predictably more overtly scatological.

Pool is from the Middle English pool, pole & pol, from the Old English pōl (pool), from the Proto-Germanic pōlaz (pool, pond), from the primitive Indo-European bōlos (bog, marsh).  It was cognate with the Scots puil (pool), the Saterland Frisian Pol (pool), the West Frisian poel (pool), the Dutch poel (pool), the Low German Pohl & Pul (pool), the German Pfuhl (quagmire, mudhole), the Danish pøl (puddle), the Swedish pöl (puddle, pool), the Icelandic pollur (puddle), the Lithuanian bala (bog, marsh, swamp, pool), the Latvian bala (a muddy, treeless depression), the Russian боло́то (bolóto) (swamp, bog, marsh).

Cesspit (pronounced ses-pit)

(1) A pit for the temporary retention of the sediment of a drain or for receiving the sewage or waste-water from a house or other building; also called a sink.

(2) As a casual description, any filthy receptacle or place.

(3) By extension, any place of corruption, iniquity, moral filth, depravity or immorality:

1860–1865, the construct being cess + pit.  Pit is pre-900, from the Middle English pit, pet & püt, from the Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic puti, from the Latin puteus (trench, shaft, pit, well), the verb derivative of the noun; that seems the consensus although many etymologists note the some phonetic inconsistencies.  The unrelated use as a verb, as pit, pitted, pitting in the sense of removing the pit from a fruit or fruits is an Americanism from 1835-1845, influenced both by pith and the Dutch kernel.

Cesspits, cesspools, and the swamp

A cesspit.

In modern plumbing, cesspits, cesspools and septic tanks are alike in construction, none being connected to a main sewer system, the difference being cesspools and cesspits do not include a treatment system.  Pre-war English legislation best illustrates the difference between cesspits and cesspools which, prior to the Public Health Act (1936), were different things.  Cesspits resembled wells, circular brick chambers built about 6 feet (1.8m) deep in the ground, acting like a soakaway.  The design was flawed because the drains would eventually back up so the Public Health Act prohibited the use of cesspits, requiring other drainage methods to be used so after 1936, only cesspools and septic tanks were installed but, other than professional plumbers or public health specialists, few noticed or cared much to explore the difference so, among the public, cesspit and cesspool came to be used interchangeably and thought to mean much the same thing.

A cesspool.

A modern cesspool is a watertight, fibreglass storage tank which holds sewage and is stored underground in a pit. It does not have an outlet or any apparatus to carry out any treatment process, the only piping being that connect to a relief valve which prevents any build-up of hazardous gasses.  Cesspools thus demand regular emptying by a licensed waste disposal company, which is why they’re now usually only a temporary solution.  The frequency with which they must be emptied differs and is predictably dictated by the variables: the size of the tank, and the volume of material it receives, calculations based usually on the number of people serviced by the unit.  Cesspools are normally used in locations which don’t have access to mains drainage, holiday homes, camp sites and places where the discharge of effluent into the ground is not possible because of unsuitable soil.  Although not always required by local ordinances, cesspits should be fitted with an alarm that notifies when the tank is approaching capacity, manufacturers caution it’s not advised to open the lid to check the level because noxious gasses will be emitted, unpleasant at least and potentially hazardous if inhaled.

A septic tank.

A septic tank is similar to a cesspit, the tank construction almost identical and also installed underground and not connected to a main sewer system.  Where a septic tank differs is in being a component of a sewage treatment system where the wastewater, or effluent, drains into a soakaway after treatment.  The tank has two or three chambers which separate waste into liquids and solids, and then the liquids (effluent) move through an outlet into a soakaway chamber or drainage system.  A soakaway, known also as a drainage field, is a system of piping which is designed to spread liquids evenly into the surrounding soil.  To avoid blockages, septic tanks need annually to be emptied of the residual solid waste, again a task which should be undertaken only by a professional.  In the modern, urban environment, cesspools should really be regarded a temporary device because they’re not only expensive to maintain bur are a potential contaminant as untreated effluent can overflow into the surrounding environment. Septic tanks have a treatment system and are thus safer but are still a compromise and the most economic and convenient option is, wherever possible, connect to a mains system.

Washington Post, 13 December 2016.

Because of the stench and squalor summoned by the imagination whenever the words cesspit and cesspool are mentioned, they’ve long been a favorite piece of imagery when speaking of corrupt or morally bankrupt assemblies of politicians or other self-interested souls.  Despite the technical differences in the plumbing arrangements, when used figuratively, cesspool and cesspit are interchangeable, the choice depending only on which best suits the rhythm of the sentence in which it appears.  Both describe a place hidden from view where sewage gathers, a pool full of nastiness, a place swimming with grubs and corruption.  The attraction of using it when speaking of politics is obvious but Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021), in the 2016 presidential campaign instead choose the catchy phrase “drain the swamp” to express much the same idea.  When in office, there was scant evidence of any drainage although he certainly took the opportunity to toss into the swamp a few creatures of his choice.  He did at least mention the problem, something which few professional politicians have ever been interested in doing but the swamp-like nature of electoral politics is a product of incumbency and the more prolonged the longevity, the greater the opportunity further to rig the system to gain even more time in the swamp while gorging at the trough (an unfortunate mix of metaphors but a vivid image).  The core value of democracy is the election but perhaps its most corrupting aspect is the re-election.  Were term limits introduced, preferably as single terms of a reasonable length, perhaps four years, one of the great drivers of political corruption would be removed.  It should be assumed this will never be done.

The notion of Donald Trump cleaning up the cesspool of corruption in politics was one idea.  There have been other suggestions. 

Fissiparous

Fissiparous (pronounced fi-sip-er-uhs)

(1) In biology, reproducing or propagating by fission; propagated by spontaneous fission or self-division (that form of asexual generation in which the parent divides; each part becoming a new individual).

(2) Having a tendency to divide into groups or factions; factious, tending to break into pieces

1825-1835: An adaptation of the New Latin fissiparus, the construct being fissi, from fissus (split, cleft) + parous, from pariō (I bring forth) by mistaken analogy with vīviparus.  Vīviparus was a 1640s adoption from the Late Latin viviparus (bringing forth alive), the construct being vivus (alive, living), from the primitive Indo-European root gwei- (to live) + parire (bring forth, bear) from the primitive Indo-European root pere- (to produce, bring forth).  Outside of physics and biology, fissiparous is rare, the preferred synonyms in general use being  divisive, fractious, fragmenting & unstable; when used it’s often as the collocation "fissiparous tendencies".  Fissiparous & fissipalmate are adjectives, fissiparousness, fissiparity & fissiparism are nouns and fissiparously is an adverb; the most common noun plural is fissiparism.

Outside of the technical use (mostly in physics and biology), fissiparous is used in political science or the study or organizational behavior when discussing the institutions which either inherently posses or are prone to developing factions.  While it’s true that not very helpful in that any institution with more than one member could presumably be vulnerable, the view is that the institutions most at risk are those where ideological differences exist either in objective or the means by which it may be achieved.  However, even if no disputes of this kind may exist, of achieving fissiparousness may manifest simply because of a pursuit for organizational power or authority.  The risk to therefore thought to be greatest in the institutions which (1) exist to pursue some ideological purpose, the parameters of which are variable and (2) the rewards of power are greatest.  That’s why fissiparousness is often displayed in political parties and religions.

Fissiparousness is much associated with the modern Church of England, factions of which some time ago mostly abandoned any interest in God or the message of Christ for the more important matters of championing or decrying gay clergy, getting women into or keeping them out of the priesthood, and talking to or ignoring Rome.  Among those resistant to anything beyond the medieval, there's even an institutional forum, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) which holds meetings at which there is much intrigue and plotting; it's sort of an anti-Lambeth Conference though the cucumber sandwiches are said to be much the same.  Under the stresses inherent in the late twentieth-century, fissiparousness saw the Anglicans coalesce into three factions, the low & lazy, the broad & hazy and the high & crazy.

The Low & Lazy

Like the high churchers, the low lot still believe in God but, their time not absorbed plotting and scheming or running campaigns to stamp out gay clergy and opposing the ordination of women, they actually have time to pray, which they do, often.  The evangelical types come from among the low and don’t approve of fancy rituals, Romish ways or anything smelling of popery.  Instead, they like services where there’s clapping, dancing and what sounds like country & western music with sermons telling them it’s Godly to buy things like big TVs and surf-skis.

The Broad & Hazy

The broad church is more a club than a church, something like the Tory Party at prayer.  The parishioners will choose the church they (occasionally) attend on the same basis as their golf club, driving miles if need be to find a congregation acceptably free of racial and cultural DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).  They’re interested not at all in theology or anything too abstract so sermons need to be brief and sufficiently vague to please the bourgeoisie.  The broad church stands for most things in general and nothing in particular; finding most disputes in Anglicanism baffling, they just can't see what all the fuss is about.

The High & Crazy

The high church has clergy who love dressing up like the Spice Girls, burning incense and chanting the medieval liturgy in Latin.  They disapprove of about everything that’s happened since the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer and believe there’d be less sin were there still burnings at the stake.  Most high church clergy wish Pius IX (1792–1878; pope 1846-1878) still sat on the throne of Saint Peter and some act as though he does.

Of human nature

Cady's Map by Janis Ian.

The human race does seem inherently fissiparousness and wherever cultures have formed, history suggests divisions will form and folk will tend to coalesce (or be allocated or otherwise forced) into factions.  Usually, this is attributed to some defined or discernible difference (ethnicity, skin color, language, tribal affiliation, religion etc) but even among homogeneous groups, it's rare to identify one without sub-groups.  It does seem human nature and has long since become institutionalized and labelling theory practitioners can probably now build minor academic careers just by tracking the segregation as it evolves (boomers, gen-X, millennials etc).  The faction names of the cliques at North Shore High School (Mean Girls, Paramount Pictures 2004)) were Actual Human Beings, Anti-Plastics, The Art Freaks, Asexual Band Geeks, Asian Nerds, Burnouts, Cheerleaders, Cool Asians, Desperate Wannabes, Freshmen, Girls Who Eat Their Feelings, J.V. Cheerleaders, J.V. Jocks, Junior Plastics, Preps, ROTC Guys, Sexually Active Band Geeks, The Plastics, Unfriendly Black Hotties, Unnamed Girls Who Don't Eat Anything, and Varsity Jocks.  Given the way sensitivities have evolved, it’s predictable some of those names wouldn’t today be used; the factions' membership rosters would be much the same but some terms are now proscribed in this context, the threshold test for racism now its mere mention, racialism banished to places like epidemiological research papers tracking the distribution of morbidity.