Auburn

Auburn (pronounced aw-bern)

(1) A reddish-brown or golden-brown color.

(2) Of something colored auburn (most often used to describe hair).

(3) A widely used locality name.

(4) As the Auburn system (also known as the New York system and Congregate system), a notably severe penal method created in the early nineteenth century and implemented in Auburn Prison, Auburn, New York.

1400–1450: From the late Middle English abron, abrune aborne & abourne (light brown, yellowish brown), a sixteenth century alteration (because of a conflation with the later spelling auburne with the Middle English broune & brun (brown) which also changed the spelling) of the earlier auborne (yellowish-white, flaxen) from the Middle French & Old French auborne & alborne (blond, flaxen, off-white) from the Medieval alburnus (fair-haired, literally “like white or whitish”) and related to alburnum (the soft, newer wood in the trunk of a tree found between the bark and the hardened heartwood, often paler in color than the heartwood) from alba & albus (white).  Since the meaning shifted from blonde to hues of red, auburn has tended to be used exclusively of women’s hair.  The noun use dates from 1852.  Auburn is often associated with the Venetian painter Tiziano Vecellio (circa 1490-1576; known usually in English as Titian), especially the works of his early career when the colors tended to be more vivid but the modern practice is to apply auburn to darker shades although there’s much imprecision in commercial applications such as hair dyes and what some call some sort of auburn, others might list as some variation of burgundy, brown, chestnut, copper, hazel, henna, russet, rust or titian.

The term “medieval scholar” is not of course oxymoronic though the language is replete with errors of translation and misunderstandings replicated and re-enforced over a thousand-odd years.  However, as English began to assume its recognizably modern form, nor were errors unknown and it does seem strange such a well-documented Latin word as alburnus (fair-haired, literally “like white or whitish”) which had evolved in Middle English as auburne could be conflated with the Middle English broune & brun (brown), leading eventually to the modern auburn having morphed from blonde to a range of reddish browns.  Some etymologists however suggests it was deliberate, the late fifteenth century blond being preferred while auburne was re-purposed to where it could be more useful in the color-chart.  The modern blond & blonde were from the Old French & Middle French blund & blont (blond, light brown, feminine of blond) thought most likely of Germanic origin and related to the Late Latin blundus (yellow) from which Italian picked up biondo and Spanish gained blondo.  It was akin to the Old English blondenfeax (gray-haired), derived from the Classical Latin flāvus (yellow) and in Old English, there was also blandan (to mix).  There exists an alternative etymology which connects the Frankish blund (a mixed color between golden and light-brown) to the Proto-Germanic blundaz (blond), the Germanic forms derived from the primitive Indo-European bhlnd (to become turbid, see badly, go blind) & blend (blond, red-haired)).  If so, it would be cognate with the Sanskrit bradhná (ruddy, pale red, yellowish).  In his dictionary (1863-1873), Émile Littré (1801–1881) noted the original sense of the French word was "a color midway between golden and light chestnut" which might account for the notion of "mixed."  In the Old English beblonden meant "dyed," so it is a possible root of blonde and the documentary record does confirm ancient Teutonic warriors were noted for dying their hair.

However the work of the earlier French lexicographer, Charles du Fresne (1610-1688), claimed that blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin flāvus (yellow) but cited no sources.  Another guess, and one discounted universally by German etymologists, is that it represents a Vulgar Latin albundus from the Classical Latin alba & albus (white).  The word came into English from Old French where it had masculine and feminine forms and the English noun imported both, thus a blond is a fair-haired male, a blonde a fair-haired female and even if no longer a formal rule in English, it’s an observed convention.  As an adjective, blonde is now the more common spelling and can be applied to both sexes, a use once prevalent in the US although most sources note the modern practice is to refer to women as blonde and men as fair.  Even decades ago, style guides on both sides of the Atlantic maintained, to avoid offence, it was better to avoid using blond(e) as a stand-alone noun-descriptor of women.

Paintings by Titian (left to right), Portrait of a Lady (circa 1511), National Gallery, London, Flora (1515), Uffizi Gallery, Florence, St Margaret and the Dragon (circa 1559) Museo del Prado, Madrid & Portrait of a Lady in White (circa 1561), Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

Even the understanding of auburn as “reddish brown” or “golden brown” has changed over the years.  The Venetian painter Tiziano Vecellio (circa 1490-1576 and known in English usually as Titian) lent the name “titian auburn” to the tint of reddish-brown hair which appeared so often in his work.  As so often happens in art, his output darkened as he aged so the term “titian auburn” as a literal descriptor of a particular tincture needs to be understood as a spectrum.  While his fondness for redheads seems not to have diminished with age, the vivid hues which characterized the flowing locks he favored in his youth were later sometimes rendered in more subdued tones.

Lindsay Lohan illustrates the shift from the Latin alburnus to the modern English Auburn.

(1) Alburnus as a Roman would have understood the description; now called blond or blonde depending on context.

(2) The classical understanding of “titian auburn”, a light and vivid shade reddish-brown.

(3) A more cooper-tinged hue, representative of what the hair-dye industry would call something like “light auburn”.

(4) This is a dark alburn; any darker and depending on the tint, it would be described either as burgundy or chestnut.

The Auburn Speedster

1935 Auburn 851 SC Speedster.

Under a variety of corporate structures, the Auburn company produced cars in the US between 1900-1937 and is remembered now for the Speedster 851 & 852, one of the most romantic designs of the mid-1930s.  Although Auburn, along with its corporate stablemates Cord and Duesenberg, succumbed to the affects of the Great Depression, the company’s financial problems long-predated the 1929 Wall Street crash, the conglomerate of the three manufacturers assembled in 1925 as a restructuring.  After this, in the growing economy of the 1920s Auburn began again to prosper and it was in 1925 the company introduced the model which would be the basis of the later 851 & 852.  Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg (A-C-D) actually enjoyed a logical structure in that the brand-names existed at different price points but it lacked any presence in the low-cost mass-market, relying instead on lower volume vehicles which relied on their style, engineering and value for money for their appeal.  Had the depression not happened, the strategy might have worked but, given the austerity of the 1930s, what’s remarkable is that A-C-D endured until 1937.             

1932 Auburn 12-160.  The color is said to be a 1932 factory option and is similar to the apple green with which Duesenberg painted their 6.9 litre (420 cubic inch) straight-eights.

Although now celebrated for their stylish lines, A-C-D’s cars were at the time also noted for innovation and the quality of their engineering.  Cord’s front-wheel-drive proved a cul-de-sac to which US manufacturers wouldn’t for decades return but other aspects of their designs were influential although A-C-D’s trademark quixotic offerings sometimes suggested a sense of disconnection from economic reality; in 1932, in the depth of the depression, Auburn announced a model powered by a 391 cubic inch (6.5 litre) V12, a perhaps questionable approach in an environment which had seen demand collapse for the twelve and sixteen cylinder Lincolns, Packard and Cadillacs.  Elegant and powerful, in less troubled times it would likely have succeeded but was wholly unsuited to the world into which it was released despite being priced from an extraordinary US$1,105; while that was 40% more than even the most expensive Ford V8, it was a fraction the cost of the more comparable Packard or Lincoln V12.

1936 Auburn 852 SC Speedster.

The Boattail Speedster was less ambitious but had already carved its niche.  It was designed in 1928 to create the signature product that encapsulated what A-C-D wished the Auburn marque to represent: fast, sleek, stylish and a value for money no other could match; had the company anticipated the slogan “grace, space & pace” it would have been well understood for what is now called a mission statement was exactly what made Jaguar such a success in the post-war years.  Using Lycoming's smooth, powerful and reliable straight-eight cylinder engine, sleek Speedster delivered the performance the lines promised, a genuine 100 mph (160 km/h) roadster which set speed records when taken to Daytona Beach.  The Speedster’s classic iteration was the 851 (the subsequent 852 all but identical), introduced in 1934, the design clearly a homage to the much-admired (if infrequently purchased) Duesenberg Weymann Speedster though where the Duesenberg was long and elegant, the Auburn was squat and sporty and for those who wanted something more charismatic still, the 280 cubic inch (4.6 litre) straight-eight could be ordered with a Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger.  The market responded to the speed and the art deco style but the investment had been considerable, something the under-capitalized A-C-D undertook only because the improving economy provided some confidence sales would be sufficient to ensure profitability.  Had the recovery been sustained, A-C-D may have survived, unemployment in 1937 still high but significantly lower in the demographic which was their target market.  As in was, in mid-1937, the US economy suffered a sudden, sharp, recession which would last over a year, the effects lingering until late 1940 when the combined effected of increased armaments production and a presidential election had a simulative effect.  A-C-D, its finances in a perilous state since the Wall Street Crash, couldn’t survive and the companies all entered bankruptcy, Auburn succumbing in 1937.

A-C-D’s fate provides a cautionary tale which for decades was often ignored by those unable to resist the siren call to make beautiful, fast cars bearing their name.  Unless volumes were sufficient (thereby diluting the lure of exclusivity which tended to be much of the attraction) or else subsidized by the profits of some mass-market offering, enduring success was rare and few of those which did initially flourish were capitalized to the extent necessary to survive the inevitable downturns which disproportionally affects those depending on the more self-indulgent sectors sustained by discretionary expenditure.

Ranga

Ranga (pronounced rang-ah)

In Australian slang, a person with red (ginger, auburn etc) hair

1990s: Based on the name orang-utan (pronounced aw-rang-oo-tan, oh-rang-oo-tan or uh-rang-oo-tan), either of two endangered species of long-armed, arboreal anthropoid great ape, the only extant members of the subfamily Ponginae, inhabiting Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatra (P. abelii).  The alternative spellings are orangutan, orangutang & orangoutang, all of which are used with the same pronunciation variation as the standard form.  In Western zoology, the orang-utan was added to the taxonomic classifications in the 1690s, from the Dutch orang outang, apparently from the Malay ōrang hūtan and translating literally as “forest man”, the construct being ōrang (man, person) + hūtan (forest).  Found in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, it was noted immediately for its shaggy, reddish-brown hair and this coloration is the source of the Australian slang.  Ranga is a noun; the noun plural is rangas.

A ketchup of gingers?  Roodharigendag in the Netherlands.

Since 2005 (except in 2020 when COVID-19 stopped such things), the Netherlands has hosted what is described as the "world's largest gathering of redheads".  Unadventurously, the three-day festival (which attracts participants from over eighty nations) is known as Roodharigendag (Redhead Day).  There are a variety of events including lectures and pub-crawls; presumably, coffee shops are visited.

An Orangutan in Sumatra.  International Orangutan Day is 19 August.

Because, once deconstructed, to call someone a ranga is to compare them to a sub-human primate, it would seem the word probably would be thought offensive but it remains widely used and is one of the additions to English which has spread from Australia.  It certainly can be offensive and is often (though apparently mostly by children) used that way but it can also be a neutral descriptor or a form of self-identification by the redheaded.  It may be that many of those who deploy ranga (for whatever purpose) are unaware of the origin with a sub-human primate and treat it as just another word and in that sense it’s actually less explicit than some of the many alternatives with a longer linguistic lineage including ginger minge, firecrotch, carrot top, fanta pants, rusty crutch, & blood nut.  There was also the curiously Australian moniker “blue” (and the inevitable “bluey”) to describe the redheads, an adoption in the tradition of “lofty” sometimes being applied to the notably short.  Whether ranga is more or less offensive than any of those (none of which reference apes) is something on which not all redheads may agree but in 2017 (some months on from ranga being added to the Australian Dictionary), presumably so there was a forum to discuss such matters, RANGA (the Red And Nearly Ginger Association) was formed, finding its natural home on social media where it operates to provide social support rather than being a pressure group.

Ginger, copper, auburn & chestnut are variations on the theme of red-headedness: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibilities.  Red hair is the result of a mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene responsible for producing the MC1R protein which plays a crucial role also in determining skin-tone. When the MC1R gene is functioning normally, it helps produce eumelanin, a type of melanin that gives hair a dark color.  However, a certain mutation in the MC1R gene leads to the production of pheomelanin which results in red hair.  Individuals with two copies of the mutated MC1R gene (one from each parent) typically have red hair, fair skin, and a higher sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) light, a genetic variation found most often in those of northern & western European descent.

Just as blonde women have long been objectified and derided as of limited intelligence (ie the "dumb" blonde), redheads have been stereotyped as sexually promiscuous (women) or having fiery tempers (men & women) but there is no evidence supporting any relationship between hair color, personality type or temperament.  The sample sizes are inherently small (redheads less than 2% of the global population) but there are populations in which the predominance is higher, so further research would be interesting but such questions are of course now unfashionable.  Most style guides list "red-haired”, “redhead” & “redheaded” as acceptable descriptors but the modern practice is wherever possible to avoid references which apply to physical characteristics, much as the suggestion now is not to invoke any term related to race or ethnic origin.  That way nothing can go wrong.  If it’s a purely technical matter, such as hair products, then descriptors are unavoidable (part-numbers not as helpful at the retail level) and there’s quite an array, ranging from light ginger at the lighter end to chestnuts and and auburns at the darker and there was a time when auburn was used as something of a class-identifier.

Jessica Gagen, Miss England, 2022.

Recently victorious in the Miss England 2022 pageant, Jessica Gagen (b 1995) is the first redhead to take the title.  Having been subject to bullying as a child, Ms Gagen has indicated she’ll be using her platform to spread a positive message to those who have also suffered cruel taunts about being red-headed and she’ll represent England at the 71st Miss World in the (northern) spring of 2023.  After leaving school, Ms Gagen discovered one advantage of her hair color was it attracted modeling agencies and she pursued a lucrative international career.  Now studying for a masters degree in aerospace engineering at Liverpool University, she’s involved in a programme to encourage girls to take up the study of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and notes her engineering course has made her aware of the extent to which these fields remain male-dominated.

Peak Jessica: Jessica Gagen pictured cooling off during England’s recent heat-wave when temperatures reached a record 42^o C (108^o F), something long thought impossible because of the interplay of the movement of seawater and sea currents around the British Isles.  It's an urban myth that redheads (being "hot-headed" in the popular imagination) need to "cool down" more than most in some conditions. 

Interestingly, Ms Gagen says her participation in beauty contests changed her perception of them as sexist displays, regarding that view as archaic, noting the women involved all seemed to have their own motives, usually involving raising awareness about something of great personal interest.  Being part of the cohort likely to do well in beauty contests is of course just a form of comparative advantage in the way some have a genetic mix which makes them suitable to play basketball.  The beauty contest is thus an economic opportunity and choosing to participate in one can be a rational choice in that one's allocation of time and resources can yield greater returns than the alternatives.  Another notable thing about Jessica Gagen is that being born in 1995, she is part of that sub-set of the population called “peak Jessica”, the cohort which reflected the extraordinary popularity of the name between 1981-1997, overlapping slightly with “peak Jennifer” which occurred between 1970-1984.

Tincture

Tincture (pronounced tingk-cher)

(1) In pharmacology, a solution of alcohol or of alcohol and water, containing animal, vegetable, or chemical drugs (an alcohol solution of a non-volatile medicine (obsolete)).

(2) A slight infusion, as of some element or quality; the dipping of something into a liquid to gain to color.

(3) A trace; a smack or smattering; tinge.

(4) In heraldry, any of the colors, metals, or furs used for the fields, charges etc, of an escutcheon or achievement of arms.

(5) A pigment or other substance that colours or dyes; specifically, a pigment used as a cosmetic (obsolete).

(6) To impart a tint or color to; tinge.

(7) To imbue or infuse with something.

(8) A slight flavour, aroma, or trace

(9) In medicine as "tincture of steel", an alcoholic solution of the chloride of iron (obsolete).

(10) A small flaw, an imperfection; a blemish or stain (now rare except as a literary device).

(11) In Christianity, a synonym of baptism (based on the idea of being "dipped into or sprinkled with Holy Water". 

(12) A (small) alcoholic drink (used humorously).

(13) In alchemy, an immaterial substance or spiritual principle which was thought capable of being instilled into physical things; also, the essence or spirit of something; a material essence thought to be capable of extraction from a substance.

(14) In chemistry, the part of a substance thought to be essential, finer, and/or more volatile, which could be extracted in a solution; also, the process of obtaining this.

1350-1400: From the Late Middle English tincture (dye, pigment; colour, hue, tint; process of colouring or dyeing; medicinal ointment or salve (perhaps one discolouring the skin); use of a medicinal tincture; (alchemy) transmutation of base metals into gold; ability to cause such transmutation; substance supposed to cause such transmutation)), the construct being the Latin tīnct(ūra) (act of dyeing) + the Middle English -ure (the suffix indicating an action or a process and the means or result of that action or process).  The construct of tīnctūra was tīnc(tus) (coloured, tinged; dipped in; impregnated with; treated”) + -tūra (the suffix forming action nouns expressing activities or results) while tīnctus was the perfect passive participle of tingō (to colour, dye, tinge; to dip (in), immerse; to impregnate (with); to moisten, wet; to smear), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European teng- (to dip; to soak), (source also of the Old High German dunkon (to soak) and the Greek tengein (to moisten).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō) and from the Latin Modern English has picked up tint, taint and tainture (an obsolete synonym of tincture).  Tincture is a noun & verb, tinct, tincturation, tincturing & tinction are nouns, verbs & adjectives, tinctured is a verb & adjective, tinctorial & tinctorious are adjectives and tinctorially is an adverb; the noun plural is tinctures.  The noun tinctura is listed by most dictionaries as obsolete but it is still in use poetically.

The fifteenth century use by apothecaries to refer to medicinal ointments (the assumption by historians this use was associated particularly with those used to discolor the skin or from being imbued with the essential principles of the substance).  In pre-modern medicine the meaning lingered, the idea of a tincture being a “solution of medicine in a mixture of alcohol” recorded in the professional texts in the 1640s.  In fashion, parchment preparation and then still rare applications such as wallpaper, the word was used to describe a “process of coloring" from early in the fifteenth century.  The verb was derived from the noun and came into use in the 1610s in the sense of “imbue with color”.  Tincturation (preparation of a tincture) was in use by the mid nineteenth century while tinction has been used to mean “preparation for dyeing, coloring matter ready for use” since the 1890s.

Not following the rules: The Lohan family crest.

In heraldry, the “rule of tincture” (described as “a design philosophy”) is the convention “metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour”.  There appears to be no historical basis for the emergence of this rule in the early fifteenth century and the favored modern explanation is that imposing it simply made it easier for the craftsmen of the era, it being technically challenging to inlay metals in metals, the practical point being a high wastage rate of expensive materials (the client paying only for the finished product).  However, the rule took hold rather in the manner the strictures in some religions (such as prohibitions on the consumption of shellfish or pig products) began as public health measures in the pre-refrigeration age endured to become orthodox articles of faith.  Centuries later, although the application of the “rule” began to be relaxed, such was the enduring influence that artisans' guilds formally codified a list of “exemptions” from the rule.

Meaning shift

The historic meaning of tincture (a synonym for dye or pigment) is now entirely obsolete; a tincture is now a subtle shade, tint or variation of an original colour or a smattering of another.  It can be applied to any field vaguely analogous such as tastes or aromas and can be used pejoratively to suggest someone’s knowledge of something might be less than advertised.  It has also found a niche is recipes printed in up-market publications as a word to use instead of "hint".

Lindsay Lohan tinctures: copper and auburn variations of red.

The Dendrobates tinctorius “Giant Orange” (the common name the "Dyeing Poison Dart Frog" (based on the early belief natives used brightly colored frogs to dye feathers & fabrics)).  Described by retailers as a “great beginner frog” (the reason for that presumably understood by collectors) and “best kept in pairs”, the RRP (recommended retail price) is US$59.99.

The adjective tinctorious dates from the late eighteenth century and appears first to have been used of colorful plants.  Even in horticulture it has become rare but an echo survives in the Dendrobates Tinctorius, a frog much prized by collectors and photographers for its striking colors and patterns.  Unsurprisingly referred to usually as "tincs" (the standard abbreviation of "tincture") Dendrobates Tinctorius are one of the largest species of poison dart frogs, although in global terms still hardly large, the largest some 2 inches (50 mm) length. They are native to the rainforests of South America and appear in dramatic color combinations including hues of blues, blacks, yellows and oranges.  They can safely be kept by hobbyests because in capativity they're not poisonous, their toxicity in the wild by virtue of their preferred diet of small invertebrates, not consumed in a captive environment.  Prices of adults in the most desired color mixes can exceed US$120.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe (pronounced uh-pos-truh-fee)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heckblende

Heckblende (pronounced hek-blend or hek-blend-ah (German)

A moulded piece of reflective plastic permanently mounted between a car’s tail lamp (or tail light) assemblies and designed to make them appear a contiguous entity

1980s: A German compound noun, the construct being Heck (rear; back) + Blende (cover).  As a surname, Heck (most common in southern Germany and the Rhineland) came from the Middle High German hecke or hegge (hedge), the origin probably as a topographic name for someone who lived near a hedge.  The link with hedges as a means of dividing properties led in the Middle Low German to heck meaning “wooden fencing” under the influence of the Old Saxon hekki, from the Proto-West Germanic hakkju.  In nautical slang "heck" came to refer to the “back of a ship” because the position of the helmsman in the stern was enclosed by such a fence and from here it evolved in modern German generally to refer to "back or rear".  The Modern German Blende was from blenden (deceive), from the Middle High German blenden, from the Old High German blenten, from the Proto-Germanic blandijaną, from the primitive Indo-European blend- and was cognate with the Dutch blenden and the Old English blendan.  Because all German nouns are capitalized, Heckblende is correct but in English, heckblende is the usual spelling.

The German blende translates as “cover” so the construct Heck + Blende (one of their shorter compounds) happily deconstructs as “back cover” and that obviously describes the plastic mouldings used to cover the space between a car’s left and right-side tail lamps.  Blenden however can (as a transitive or intransitive) translate as (1) “to dazzle; to blind” in the sense of confuse someone’s sight by means of excessive brightness”, (2) (figuratively and usually as an intransitive) to show off; to pose (try to make an impression on someone by behaving affectedly or overstating one’s achievements) and (3) “to dazzle” in the sense of deception (from the 1680s German Blende (an ore of zinc and other metals, a back-formation from blenden (in the sense of "to blind, to deceive") and so called because the substance resembles lead but yields none (but should not be confused with the English construct hornblende (using the English “blende” in the sense of “mix”) (a dark-green to black mineral of the amphibole group, calcium magnesium iron and hydroxyl aluminosilicate)).

A heckblende thus (1) literally is a cover and (2) is there to deceive a viewer by purporting to be part of the rear lighting rather than something merely decorative (sic).  If a similar looking assembly is illuminated and thus part of the lighting system, then it's not a heckblende but part of a full-width tail lamp. 

1934 Auburn Boat-tail Speedster.

On cars, the design of tail lamps stated modestly enough and few were in use before 1914, often a small, oil-lit single lens the only fitting.  Electric lamps were standardized by the 1920s and early legislation passed in many jurisdictions specified the need for red illumination to the rear (later also to indicate braking) but about the only detail specified was a minimum luminosity; shape, size and placement was left to manufacturers.  Before the late 1940s, most early tail laps were purely functional with little attempt to make them design motifs although during the art deco era, there were some notably elegant flourishes but despite that, they remained generally an afterthought and on lower priced models, a second tail lamp was sometimes optional, the standard of a left and right-side unit not universal until the 1950s.

A tale of the tails of two economies:  1959 MGA Twin-Cam FHC & 1959 Daimler Majestic (upper) and 1959 Chevrolet Impala (batwing) flattop & 1959 DeSoto Adventurer convertible (lower).

It was in the 1950s the shape of tail lamps became increasingly stylized.  With modern plastics freeing designers from the constraints the use of glass had imposed and the experience gained during the Second World War in the mass-production of molded Perspex, new possibilities were explored.  In the UK and Europe, there was little extravagance, manufacturers content usually to take advantage of new materials and techniques mostly to fashion what were little more than larger, more rounded versions of what had gone before, the amber lens being adopted as turn indicators to replace the mechanically operated semaphore signals often little more than a duplication of the red lamp or an unimaginatively-added appendage.

1961 Chrysler Turboflite show car.

Across the Atlantic, US designers were more ambitious but one idea which seems not to have been pursued was the full-width tail lamp and that must have been by choice because it would have presented no challenges in engineering.  Instead, as the jet age became the space age, the dominant themes were aeronautical or recalled the mechanism of rocketry, tail lamps styled to resemble the exhausts of jet-engines or space ships, the inspiration as often from SF (science fiction) as the runway.  Pursuing that theme, much of the industry succumbed to the famous fin fetish, the tails of their macropterous creations emphasizing the vertical more than the horizontal.  Surprisingly though, despite having produced literally dozens of one-off “concept” and “dream” cars over the decade, it seems it wasn’t until 1961 when Chrysler sent their Turboflite around the show circuit that something with a genuine full-width tail lamp was shown.

1936 Tatra T87 (left), 1961 Tatra T603A prototype (centre) & 1963 Tatra T-603-X5 (right).

That same year, in Czechoslovakia, the Warsaw Pact’s improbable Bohemian home of the avant garde, Tatra’s engineers considered full-width tail lamps for their revised 603A.  As indicated by the specification used since before the war (rear-engined with an air-cooled, 2.5 litre (155 cubic inch) all-aluminum V8), Tatra paid little attention to overseas trends and were influenced more by dynamometers and wind tunnels.  However, the tail lamps didn’t make it to volume production although the 603A prototype did survive to be displayed in Tatra’s Prague museum.  Tatra’s designs, monuments to mid-century modernism, remain intriguing.

1967 Imperial LeBaron four door Hardtop.

If the idea didn’t impress behind the iron curtain, it certainly caught on in the West, full-width assemblies were used by many US manufacturers over the decades including Mercury, Imperial, Dodge, Shelby, Ford, Chrysler & Lincoln.  Some genuinely were full-width lamps in that the entire panel was illumined, a few from the Ford corporation even with the novelty of sequential turn-signals (outlawed in the early 1970s, bureaucrats seemingly always on the search for something to ban).  Most however were what would come to be called heckblendes, intended only to create an illusion.

Clockwise from top left: 1974 ZG Fairlane (AU), 1977 Thunderbird (US), 1966 Zodiac Mark IV (UK), 1970 Thunderbird (US), 1973 Landau (AU) & 1970 Torino (US).

Whether heckblendes or actually wired assemblies, Ford became especially fond of the idea which in 1966 made an Atlantic crossing, appearing on the Mark IV Zodiac, a car packed with advanced ideas but so badly executed it tarnished the name and when it (and the lower-priced Zephyr which made do without the heckblende) was replaced, the Zephyr & Zodiac names were banished from Europe, never to return.  Ford’s southern hemisphere colonial outpost picked-up the style (and typically several years later), Ford Australia using heckblendes on the ZF & ZG Fairlanes (1972-1976) and the P5 LTD & Landau (1973-1976).  The Fairlane’s heckblendes weren’t reprised when the restyled ZH (1976-1979) model was released but, presumably having spent so much of the budget on new tail lamps, the problem of needing a new front end was solved simply by adapting that of the 1968 Mercury Marquis (the name shamelessly borrowed too), colonies often run with hand-me-downs.

1968 HK Holdens left to right: Belmont, Kingswood, Premier & Monaro GTS.  By their heckblende (or its absence), they shall be known.

In Australia, the local subsidiary of General Motors (GM) applied a double fake.  The "heckblende" on the HK Monaro GTS (1968-1969), as a piece of cost-cutting, was actually red-painted metal rather than reflective plastic and unfortunately prone to deterioration under the harsh southern sun; it was a fake version of a fake tail lamp.  Cleverly though, the fake apparatus was used as an indicator of one's place in the hierarchy, the basic Belmont with just tail lamps, the (slightly) better-appointed Kingswood with extensions, the up-market Premier with extended extensions and the Monaro GTS with the full-width part.  Probably the Belmont and Premier were ascetically most successful.  Exactly the same idea was recycled for the VH Commodore (1981-1984), the SL/E (effectively the Premier's replacement) model's tail lamp assemblies gaining stubby extensions.

Left to right, 1967 HR Premier, 1969 HT Brougham & 1971 HQ Premier.  

The idea of a full-width decorative panel wasn’t new, Holden having used such a fitting on earlier Premiers.  Known as the “boot appliqué strip”, it began small on the EJ (1962-1963), EH (1963-1965) & HD (1965-1966) before becoming large and garish on the HR (1966-1968) but (although not then known as bling), that must have been thought a bit much because it was toned down and halved in height when applied to the elongated and tarted-up Brougham (1968-1971 and intended to appeal to the bourgeoisie) and barely perceptible when used on the HQ Premier (1971-1974).  Holden didn’t however forget the heckblende and a quite large slab appeared on the VT Commodore (1997-2000) although it wasn’t retained on the revised VX (2000-2002) but whether in this the substantial rise in the oil price (and thus the cost of plastic) was a factor isn’t known.

Left to right: 1973 Porsche 914 2.0, 1983 BMW 323i (E30) & 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300E (W124).

Although, beginning with the 914 in 1973, Porsche was an early European adopter of the heckblende and has used it frequently since, it was the 1980s which were the halcyon days of after-market plastic, owners of smaller BMWs and Mercedes-Benz seemingly the most easily tempted.  The additions were always unnecessary and the only useful way they can be catalogued is to say some were worse than others.  The fad predictably spread to the east (near, middle & far) and results there were just as ghastly although the popularity of the things must have been helpful as a form of economic stimulus, such was the volume in which the things were churned out.  Among males aged 17-39, few things have proved as enduringly infectious as a love of gluing or bolting to cars, pieces of plastic which convey their owner's appalling taste. 

2019 Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 with taillight bar.

Fewer manufacturers now use heckblendes as original equipment and when they did the terminology varied, nomenclature including "decor panels", "valances" or "tail section appliqués".  However, although the heckblende may (hopefully) be headed for extinction, full-width tail lamps still entice stylists and modern techniques of design and production, combined with what LEDs & OLEDs have made possible, mean it’s again a popular feature, the preferred term now “taillight bar”.