Assimilate

Assimilate (pronounced uh-sim-uh-leyt (verb) or uh-sim-uh-lit (noun))

(1) To take in and incorporate as one's own; absorb.

(2) To bring into conformity with the customs, attitudes, etc., of a group, nation, or the like; adapt or adjust.

(3) In physiology, to convert (food) to substances suitable for incorporation into the body and its tissues; to transform food into living tissue by the process of anabolism.

(4) To cause to resemble (usually followed by to or with).

(5) To compare; liken (usually followed by to or with).

(6) In phonetics, to modify by assimilation (usually followed by “to”); to change a sound into another under the influence of one adjacent to it.

Early 1400s: From the Middle English verb assimilate (first used in early fifteenth century physiology in the sense of "absorb into and make part of the body), from the Latin assimulātus, from the Classical Latin assimulātus (likened to, made similar; imitated), past participle of assimilāre & assimulāre (to make like, copy, imitate, assume the form of; feign, pretend) and perfect passive participle of assimulō), from the assimilated construct ad (to) + simulare (make similar), from similis (like, resembling, of the same kind).  The meaning "make alike, cause to resemble" and intransitive sense "become incorporated into" date from the 1620s.   In linguistics, the technical meaning "bring into accordance or agreement in speech" was adopted in 1854 and the related forms are assimilated & assimilating.  The very common adjective unassimilated, a creation of the biological sciences also used in chemistry, was first noted in 1748.  The adjective assimilative is from the 1520s, the alternative assimilatory not formed until 1775.  The adjective assimilable was from the Latin assimilabilis, from assimilāre & assimulāre (to make like; assume the form of) and the related form is assimilability.  The noun assimilation, from the Old French assimilacion, from the Latin assimilationem (nominative assimulō) (likeness, similarity) a noun of action from the past-participle stem of assimilāre e (to make like), was an early fifteenth century creation meaning "act of assimilating" and used in the medical field in reference to the body's use of nutrition,   The meaning "process of becoming alike or identical, conversion into a similar substance" is from the 1620s. It came into figurative use from circa 1790 and became part of the jargon of psychology in 1855.  It was in the mid-late twentieth century that as "cultural assimilation" it became controversial.  Assimilate is a noun & verb, assimilation & assimilator are nouns, assimilation, assimilable, assimilatory & assimilative are adjectives, assimilationist is a noun & adjective, assimilated is a verb and assimilating is a verb & adjective; the most common noun plural is assimilations.

Assimilation in speech elements

Phonetic assimilation describes a sound-change where some phonemes (more typically consonants) shift to become more similar to other nearby sounds.  A common phonological process across languages, assimilation can occur within a word or between words.  Although often heard in normal speech, the frequency increases as delivery becomes more rapid.  Interestingly, assimilation can cause the spoken sound to differ from the accepted correct pronunciation or, to become the accepted form (usually because it makes pronunciation smoother and more "natural"), the latter often making the list of canonical or received speech.  There are various classes of the phenomenon:

Frequently, the word "handbag" is phonetically assimilated (as han-bag).  Lindsay Lohan with Gucci Mini Trapuntata Zumi Dome Bag (left) with Hermes Tote Bag (with assimilated hair color) (centre) and with Chanel Flab Bag in black (right). 

Place assimilation happens typically in rapid speech but in many cases the influence becomes the default for all but the most fastidious.  The classic example is "handbag" where the "n" sound assimilates to the place of articulation of the following "b" sound rendering it more like "m" (nasal assimilation) or the frequently heard "han-bag" (phonetic assimilation).

Progressive Assimilation describes instances when, followed by a bilabial sound A speech sound articulated with both lips, such as in "impossible" or "incredible," the "n", assimilating to the following sound.  It's sometimes cited as an "consonant harmony": is the prefix "in-" becoming assimilated to the following consonant: In "impossible", the "n" sound becomes a bilabial "m" to match the following bilabial "p" sound.  This differs from "vowel harmony" which is less common.  In vowel harmony, the vowel sound in a prefix can assimilate to the following vowel: In words such as "react" or "rearrange," the "i" sound in the prefix "re-" becomes more like the following "i"/ sound in the root.

Phonetic Assimilation: Mr Abbott (Tony Abbott (b 1957, Prime Minister of Australia 2013-2015)) phonetically assimilates as Mr Rabbit (left), Land-Rover (1950 Series I, SWB (80")) phonetically assimilates as lan-drover (centre) and Eric Abetz (b 1958, Liberal Party senator for Tasmania, Australia 1994-2022, member of the Tasmanian House of assembly since 2024) phonetically assimilates as Erica Betts (right).  In the case of Mr Abbott, phoneticians call this "linking": the final "r" sound assimilating to the following vowel sound.

Voicing assimilation is probably one of the most frequently heard (and criticized) forms of assimilation and it's associated not only with certain dialects or working class speech.  In a world like "have", the "v" sound will often assimilate to the voiceless "f" sound when followed by a voiceless sound ("I have to go" gets pronounced as "I haf to go").  Elocution teachers note that the habit is now so widespread that "haf" is the standard form among entire classes.

Among the homophones and word-plays, the comedic possibilities of phonetic assimilation was explored by the actor Ronnie Barker (1929–2005) in a sketch he wrote (under his pseudonym of Gerald Wiley) for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) called Four Candles (1976).

Braid & Plait

Braid (pronounced breyd)

(1) To weave together strips or strands of; plait.

(2) To form by such weaving.

(3) To bind or confine (the hair) with a band, ribbon etc.

(4) A braided length or plait, especially of hair; a hair style formed by interweaving three or more strands of hair.

(5) To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food (a now rare verb).

(6) To reproach; to upbraid (obsolete).

(7) A narrow, rope-like band formed by plaiting or weaving together several strands of silk, cotton, or other material, used as trimming for garments, drapery, etc; a band, ribbon, etc, for binding or confining the hair.

(8) A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.

(9) A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.

(10) A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a (usually) rubber) tube carrying (cooling or lubricating etc) fluids.

Pre 950: From the Middle English braiden, breiden & bræiden, from the Old English breġdan (to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash), from the Proto-Germanic bregdaną (to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing), from the primitive Indo-European bhrēḱ- & bhrēǵ- (to shine, shimmer).  It was cognate with Scots brade & braid (to move quickly or suddenly), the Saterland Frisian braidje (to knit), the West Frisian breidzje, the Dutch breien (to knit), the Low German breiden, the Bavarian bretten (to move quickly, twitch), the Icelandic bregða (to move quickly, jerk), the Faroese bregða (to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)) and the Faroese bregda (to plaid, braid, twist, twine). From the same root came the Old High German brettan (to draw a sword).

The sense of "a deceit, stratagem, trick" is attested from circa 1300, the related meaning "sudden or quick movement" (in part from the Old English stems gebrægd (craft, fraud) & gebregd (commotion)) noted in the same era.  The Old Norse bragð (deed, trick) existed in the same sense as the Old English.  The meaning "anything plaited or entwined" is from the 1520s and soon cam especially to be associated with hair.  Braided, the past-participle adjective from braid, came in 1901 to be used by geographers to describe the flow of certain rivers and streams.  The Old English upbregdan (bring forth as a ground for censure) the construct being the adverb up + bregdan (move quickly, intertwine) was mirrored by a similar formation in Middle Swedish: upbrygdha.  The meaning "scold" is first attested from the late thirteenth century.  Braid is a noun, verb & adjective, braiding is a noun & verb, braidless is an adjective, braided is a verb & adjective and braider is a noun; the noun plural is braids.  Forms (hyphenated and not regardless of the conventions) such as re-braid, de-braid & un-braid are created as required.

Plait (pronounced pleyt or plat)

(1) A braid, especially of hair or straw.

(2) A pleat or fold, as of cloth.

(3) To braid, as hair or straw.

(4) To make, as a mat, by braiding.

(5) A loaf of bread of several twisting or intertwining parts

(6) A rare spelling of pleat

1350–1400: From the Middle English pleit & pleyt, from the Middle French pleit, from the Old French ploit, from the Latin plicitum, neuter of plicitus, past participle of plicāre (to fold).  The Latin plectō was akin to Old Norse flétta, the Danish flette and the Russian сплетать (spletatʹ).  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European plek- (to plait).  The late fourteenth century spelling of the verb was pleiten, (to fold (something), gather in pleats, double in narrow strips (also "to braid or weave (something)) directly from the noun plait and the Old French pleir (to fold), a variant of ploier & ployer (to fold, bend), again from the Latin plicāre (to fold).

Lindsay Lohan (bottom row, centre) in Sesame Street's "Braid-y Bunch" (episode 3357, 1994).

The often confused platt is from the Middle English platten, and is an obsolete spelling of plat (material made by interweaving, especially material made by interweaving straw, used to make hats); thus the connection.  The verb plat (to interweave) was a late fourteenth century variant of plait, the related forms being platted & platting.  Pleat (to fold or gather in pleats) was from the 1560s, used as the verb version of the noun plait and may even have represented an alternative pronunciation.  The noun pleat (a fold) is from the 1580s and was another variant of the noun plait.  Curiously, all etymologists note the absence of the word from the printed records of the in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries so either it continued only as an oral form or was revived, most suspecting the former.  Plait is a noun, verb & adjective, plaiting is a noun & verb, plaited is a verb & adjective, plaitless is an adjective and plaiter is a noun; the noun plural is plaits.  Forms (hyphenated and not regardless of the conventions) such as re-plait, de-plait & un-plait are created as required.

Famous weather forecaster Greta Thunberg (b 2003) often appears with either a single plait or a pair.  One of the few questions she’s never been asked is what goes through her mind when deciding which.

Although it’s a modern convention to make a distinction when involving hair, plaits and braids are the same thing.  A braid is a structure created by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.  Whereas weaving usually involves two separate, perpendicular groups of strands (warp and weft), a braid is usually long and narrow, with each component strand functionally equivalent in zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others.  The most simple and common hair braid is a flat, solid, three-stranded structure but more complex braids can be constructed from an arbitrary number of strands to create a wider range of structures.

Honeywell Genesis Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Plenum Communication Cable (Cat6).

In engineering uses such as hoses (typically those which need to withstand high throughput volumes, temperature or pressure) “braided” is a common convention, even if “woven mesh” would often be a more accurate description of the description.  In data cabling (where usually only two strands are involved), the convention is to describe the result as a “twisted” length, a concept of some significance over the last half-century.  In 2023 the industry noted (rather than celebrated) the 50^th anniversary of Ethernet, the networking protocol which prevailed while others died; Ethernet at times wasn’t the best of the fastest of the competing alternatives but it was accessible and it turned out to be adaptable to new technologies with scope for development.  Cables were central to Ethernet and as the protocol evolved, so did the cables which along which travelled most of the packets transmitted: even data sent or received via a WiFi connection has probably spent some time in a twisted pair cable.  The twists are expressed in “twists per inch” (TpI) or (the less common) “twists per centimetre” although surprisingly, this is neither an ISO (a specification set by the International Standards Organization) nor an industry standard, TpIs determined by the manufacturer.  Cables with untwisted wires used to be common (and are fondly remembered by cablers because of the ease of use) but since the advent of the Cat5e standard, twisted pairs have become almost universal, the advantage being the reduction in electromagnetic interference (EMI) and crosstalk between adjacent pairs, twisting also helping to maintain signal integrity over longer distances.

Braided radiator hose on Chevrolet 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 (L89).

Once curious exception is the braided hose.  These are flexible, metallic structures used to strengthen the rubber, synthetic or composite hoses used to carry often pressurised fluids in a variety of machinery.  Fabricated usually with stainless-steel strands, they provide a wrapping around the hose and retain the necessary flexibility of movement while greatly increasing strength, pressure capacity and resistance to wear.  Why the hoses, which technically are a weaved mesh, are called braided is undocumented but it’s presumed the origin was in ad-hoc modifications created out of necessity, probably using braided fibres and the nomenclature became part of the pre-modern engineering vernacular, later to be adopted by commerce.  Used extensively in aviation, they’re popular too with those who build heavy-duty engines and even some who just like the cool visual effect.

A thick, three-strand braid which, by convention, is regarded as a hybrid, becoming a plait at the point at which the construction begins to hang free from the scalp.  The perception of thickness is accentuated by the use of a loose weave.  

Although etymologists insist plait and braid are synonyms, hairdressers distinguish between the two.  To them, a braid is a braiding of the hair where the strands are arranged in a manner which follows the contour of the scalp without hanging free.  A plait is a braid which separates from the scalp and hangs free.  There are also hybrids where the braid begins tightly adhered to the scalp before cascading free.

Celebrity Kim Kardashian (b 1980) with Fulani braids, 2018.

Hair has been braided for millennia across many cultures although it’s only in recent years the politics of hair-styles have been absorbed into identity politics.  Attempts have been made to assert exclusive cultural ownership of certain styles with the claim their adoption by the hegemonic class constitutes cultural appropriation.  In modern identity politics it means it’s wrong for the dominant group which enjoys inherent privilege to borrow cultural signifiers from minorities if they’re to be used merely for purposes of fashion or any other purpose beyond the original cultural context.  By contrast, defined minorities may adopt from the dominant culture because this is an aspect of assimilation (although within minority communities such acts may be criticized as a kind of "constructive cultural imposition").  Still, some continue to test the waters and Condoleezza Rice’s (b 1954; US secretary of state 2005-2009) performances of the works of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) have only ever been admired while recently, a clip circulated of African American musician Jon Batiste (b 1986) playing the opening notes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (circa 1770–1827) Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano (Für Elise (For Elise)) in the vein of Blues and Gospel Music without (much) adverse comment.

Singer Adele (b 1988), Notting Hill Carnival, 2020.  Instagram responded; posting on X (formerly known as Twitter) would probably have unleashed something worse.

The only exception to the rule appears to be where one is granted a kind of informal certificate as one who practices “cultural appreciation”.  This has no precise meaning and seems to be considered issued when the social media consensus (ie the volume of one pack shouting down another) emerges and is a thing based on the history of the individual who is a suspected appropriator rather than a specific act.  In other words, white folks with runs on the woke board are granted greater leeway.  Conscious perhaps there are no points to be gained from participation in this culture-battle, libertarians have generally stayed uncharacteristically silent but the right has objected.  Generally insensitive to the importance of signifiers to any culture except their own, the prevailing conservative view seems to be (1) that it’s absurd mere hair styles can be taken seriously and (2) part of the culture into which minorities wish to assimilate includes a tradition of tolerance.  The left has also commented, noting that in focusing on matters such as hair braids, activists are allowing themselves to be distracted from the issue of structural economic disadvantage which is the basic causative factor in inequality.  The debate continues.

As a general principle, the longer and thicker the hair, the more spectacular will be the braid or plat.  Ms Alyona Kravchenko (left) from Odessa last had a haircut some 27 years ago, her hair now 72 inches (1.8 m) in length.  Moscow-based Ms Olga Naumova (right) didn't make clear if she was truly an acersecomic but did reveal that in infancy her hair was so thin her parents covered her head, usually with a babushka headscarf.  It's obviously since flourished and her luxuriant locks are now 62 inches (1.57 m) long.  These are both classic three-strand braid-plait hybrids.

Lindsay Lohan with plait, Art Biennale Party, St Regis Venice San Clemente Palace, Venice, May 2015.

Orphan

Orphan (pronounced awr-fuhn)

(1) A person who has lost one or both parents through death (now usually used only if both parents have died); term is used only with children or older minors and in informal use is sometimes extended to an abandoned child.

(2) A young animal left motherless by death or desertion.

(3) Figuratively, a person or thing without protective affiliation, sponsorship, etc.

(4) In typography (applied especially in word processing) the first line of a paragraph when it appears alone at the bottom of a page.

(5) Figuratively, something not (or no longer) authorized, supported, or funded; not part of a system; isolated; abandoned.

(6) In computing, any unreferenced object or a process, the parent of which has terminated.

(7) In medicine, as orphan disease (a rare disease) or orphan drug (something developed under the US Orphan Drug Act (1983) for orphan diseases.

(8) In biochemistry, as orphan receptor, apparent receptor that has a similar structure to other identified receptors but whose endogenous ligand has not yet been identified.

(9) In nuclear physics, as orphan source, a self-contained radioactive source that is no longer under proper regulatory control.

(10) In the automotive industry, cars still in use built by a manufacturer which has entirely ceased operations (applied informally also to vehicles produced to defunct divisions of parent corporations (eg Imperial, Pontiac).

(11) In the matter of technology, literature and other copyrighted material, something abandoned by its owner or where the copyright holder is untraceable; in reference to software the slang term is “abandonware”.

1425–1475: The noun was from the late Middle English, from the Late Latin orphanus (destitute, without parents), from orbus (bereaved), from the Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós) (without parents, fatherless; bereaved (literally “deprived”)), from orphos (bereft), from the primitive Indo-European orbho (bereft of father (also "deprived of free status”), from the root orbh- (to change allegiance, to pass from one status to another), source also of the Hittite harb- (change allegiance), the Sanskrit arbhah (weak, child), the Armenian orb (orphan), the Old Irish orbe (heir), the Old Church Slavonic rabu (slave), the rabota (servitude ( and related to the modern robot), the Gothic arbja, the German erbe, the Old English ierfa (heir), the Old High German arabeit, the German Arbeit (work), the Old Frisian arbed and the Old English earfoð (hardship, suffering, trouble")..  It was cognate with the Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), the Latin orbus, (bereaved), the Old High German erbi, & arbi (hence the German Erbe (heir)) and the Old English ierfa (heir).  The Late Latin orphanós was the source also of the Old French orfeno & orphenin and the Italian orfano.  The extinct alternative spelling was orphane and the plural is orphans.

The verb use (to reduce to the state of being an orphan) dates from circa 1814.  It was used as an adjective from the late fifteenth century, the figurative use emerging at the same time.  The syndicated newspaper cartoon strip Little Orphan Annie (1924-2010) created by Harold Gray (1894-1968) was originally titled Little Orphant Annie after the title of James Whitcomb Riley's (1849-1916) 1885 poem Little Orphant Allie (though it was originally titled The Elf Child, the name was changed by Riley for the third printing; it was a typesetting error which substituted “orphan” for “orphant”. Orphant was an old, corrupt form of orphan, attested from the seventeenth century.

The noun orphanage dates from the 1570s and originally meant “the condition of being an orphan", the more familiar modern meaning "a home for orphans" not used until 1850.  Other words for "the condition of being an orphan" have included orphanhood (1670s), orphancy (1580s), orphanism (1590s) & orphanship (1670s) and in Middle English there was the mid-fifteenth century orphanite (desolation, wretchedness).  The early forms to describe the building in which orphans were housed were orphan house (1711), orphan-asylum (1796) & orphanry (1872).  Orphanage prevailed over the others for no good etymological reason (some critics noting homes for girls weren’t called “girlages”) but despite there being a risk of confusion with the sixteenth century sense of “the condition of being an orphan", it was preferred and orphanhood came to be the standard form of description for the state despite the objection of pedants who insisted the English “-hood” should never be affixed to a Greek or Roman root; a long-lost battle even then.  The purists had more success in fighting off "Orphanotrophy" although the less objectionable "Orphanry" (as in “aviary”), although achieving the tick of approval from the lexicographers, seems never to have caught on, people presumably not attracted by the alignment of places for children being linguistically aligned with zoos.

In antiquity, an orphan was one who had lost both parents but in English use, by the seventeenth century, the status of orphanhood was afforded to a child who had lost either.  That lead to constructions which defined the differential state (half-orphan, double orphan, maternal orphan & paternal orphan and all the classifications were applied in a variety of ways, on both sides of the Atlantic, matters applying to children administered usually by local authorities so regional differences were common, some insisting the status of an orphan was created only upon the death of one or both parents while in other places desertion was sometimes sufficient.  The age at which one could, whatever the nature of the loss, cease to be regarded as an orphan was also inconsistent until the modern state evolved but the idea always was it ceased with adulthood but this tended sometimes to be a functional judgment based on prevailing social and economic conditions; it could be as young as fourteen at a time when workforce participation (male and female) was common.

The modern practice has long been an orphan is a minor who has lost both parents but UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund (originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund but the name was changed in 1953, UNICEF retained as the name though no longer technically an acronym), UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS) and some NGOs (non-governmental organizations) label as an orphan any child who has lost one parent.  This is a practical approach which acknowledges the often severe consequences which follow from the loss of one parent.

The verse in the New Testament which imposes on all a duty to care for orphans is often quoted:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…" (James 1:27 (KJV 1611)).

Less often cited are the passages from the Old Testament in which it’s threatened the wrath of God will make orphans of the children of he who mistreats an orphan:

22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

23 If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

24 And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. (Exodus 22:22-24 (KJV 1611)).

The holy Qu'ran has a number of passages which make clear the duty of all to care for orphans and not take from them:

Give orphans their property, and do not substitute bad things for good. Do not assimilate their property into your own. Doing that is a serious crime.  (The Women: 2).

Keep a close check on orphans until they reach a marriageable age, then if you perceive that they have sound judgement hand over their property to them... (The Women: 6).

1932 Studebaker Dictator.  Studebaker used Dictator as a model name between 1927-1937 and there was not political connotation, the word in 1927 not having the associations it would later gain.  By 1937 things had changed and the name was dropped.

Studebaker had a long and storied history, its origin in a German blacksmithing business (1736-1750), the family moving to the US and beginning the production of carriages and carts in 1852, its first automobiles actually electric cars offered in 1902 before the sale of petrol-powered models in 1904.  The powered-range grew quickly and by 1919, Studebaker ceased production of horse-drawn carriages, a decision vindicated by its success in the 1920s.  Like many other concerns however, the Great Depression of the early 1930s mauled its business and Studebaker was forced to enter bankruptcy although a reorganization and a financial re-structuring arranged by the venerable Lehman Brothers permitted it soon to resume operating, the improving economic conditions of the mid-1930s ensuring ongoing profitability.

Studebaker US6 truck in Red Army use, configured as mobile Katyusha rocket launcher, circa 1943.

Like many US corporations, some of its golden years came during World War II when industrial capacity was given over to government contracts fulfilling military production.  A variety of materiel was produced but Studebaker’s most notable contribution to the war effort was the versatile US6 (G630 in the government purchasing system) 2½ (short) ton 6x6 trucks, over a hundred and fifty thousand of which were supplied to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease programme.  Built in many configurations, the most memorable adaptation by the Red Army was as a mobile platform for the BM-31-12 (nickname: Andryusha) Katyusha rocket launcher, known to the enemy as “Stalin’s organs” because of the the distinctive sound of the rockets; the Russian army is still using the concept in their invasion of Ukraine.  The US6 proved popular with the army which found it much superior to the locally-made ZIS-5 & GAZ-AA and better even than the captured German trucks with Maybach engines which (belying the German reputation for “good beer, good engines, good sausages"), were prone to overheating under extreme loads, unlike the Studebakers which never boiled.  The tale may be apocryphal but it’s claimed Comrade Stalin (1878–1953; leader of the USSR, 1922-1953) even wrote a letter of appreciation to Studebaker, mentioning how important the US6 had been to the Red Army.

1964 Studebaker Avanti R2.

Studebaker had ups and downs after the war but the long-term trend was down.  By the early 1960s the writing was on the wall but there was one last roll of the dice, a gamble that would be either the savior of the corporation or the final nail in the coffin.  Released in 1962, the Avanti straddled a spectrum of the market, seen mostly as what would come to be called a personal coupe, it was also the company’s halo car and, most unexpectedly, something of a muscle car before that segment really existed.  Offered in three versions: (1) the R1 with a 289 cubic inch (4.7 litre) V8 rated at 240 horsepower, (2) the with R2 with a Paxton supercharger with gained 50 horsepower and, (3) the exotic 304 cubic inch (5.0 litre) R3 with 335 horsepower (only nine of which were built).  Performance was good, the Avanti at least competitive with the competition and to prove the slipperiness of the fibreglass body, styled by French-born, US-based designer Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), the company took an R3 to to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it set 29 production car records, posting a top speed of almost 170 mph (273 km/h).

The Avanti’s appearance at the time was quite startling and the reception it received after being shown in New York in 1962 was generally positive but almost immediately the project encountered problems.  Because the car was expected to sell in relatively low volumes of around twenty-thousand a year and the body was rendered with complex curves, production in steel or aluminum was never considered, the panels instead molded in fibreglass, then still a more respectable material than it would later become.  Each Avanti however needed over one-hundred fiberglass components and the contractor experienced some difficulty in mass-producing them with the necessary tolerances, the ensuing delay meaning that in its first full year on sale, barely 1,200 reached customers, a disappointing debut for a car expected to rescue the corporation from impending bankruptcy.  Studebaker’s parlous finances were by now public knowledge and although things improved in 1963, buyers were scarce and fewer than 4,000 Avantis were sold, well below the volume at which it was economically viable.  The next year, the factory booked orders for fewer than a 1000 and, bowing to the inevitable, Studebaker announced the end of the Avanti and it turned out to be a harbinger, all their production ceasing in 1966, the corporation dissolved shortly afterwards.

At that point the Avanti should, like literally thousands of others, have become an orphan, a model cast adrift by the death of the parent corporation.  However, the Avanti, which should have been Studebaker’s swansong, turned out to be a phoenix, the model attracting no fewer than five subsequent owners who, between 1965 and 2006, produced 3840 Avantis using a variety of drive-train combinations from the Detroit parts bin, some with convertible coachwork and even a handful of four-door sedans.  Even more a niche model than it had been under Studebaker’s parentage, in its best year as an orphan a mere 289 left the factory but for four decades (profitably and sometimes not) it was sustained by a small but devoted clientele and even today the survivors have an enthusiastic following, the most desirable of the early cars typically attracting over US$40,000 at auction.

The orphan Avanti production numbers, 1966-2006.