Binge

Binge (pronounced binj)

A period or bout, usually brief, of excessive indulgence in something, historically strong drink but later food and of late, popular culture in digital form.

1854: Etymologists regard binge an adaptation of the northern English dialectical binge, of unknown origin and noted originally as a Northampton dialect word with meanings in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire including “drinking bout, drink heavily & soak up alcohol” although the original meaning was likely “soak” in the sense of "to soak in water a wooden vessel, that would otherwise leak" to make the wood swell (a meaning free of any association with alcohol), a use noted in Leicestershire Words, Phrases and Proverbs (1848) by English academic Arthur Benoni Evans (1781–1854) who recorded it was "extended locally to excessive drinking", usually in the form "soaking".

During World War I (1914-1918), it came to be applied to eating as well as drinking and binge-eating is now a recognized disorder although the phrase is casually used in a non clinical context.  In the twenty-first century, after the roll-out of fast broadband reached critical-mass, real-time streaming services became viable and binge watching came to be used to describe the practice among youth of streaming many hours of the one programme in one session, something which historically would have been done over weeks or even months.  "Binge watching" however pre-dates the mass-adoption of broadband, recorded first in 1996 when the technology (of necessity) tended to be tapes, or for the early adopters, the DVD (digital versatile disc), introduced that year.  The related forms are binged & bingeing.

Binche: Binging in Belgium

The modern construct which today is Belgium wasn’t created at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), emerging as an independent country only in 1830 after the Belgian Revolution when it it seceded from the Netherlands, itself a political creation of the congress.  Having borders with France and Germany always focused Belgium thoughts on defense and in Medieval times, walls were constructed around many cities.

Of these, the city of Binche retains the longest remains of walls, with some 1¼ miles (2.1 km) of fortifications, some dating from as early as 1230.  Binche is also known for its annual beer festival which takes place just before the start of Lent each year, the highlight the surreal sight of men in clown masks parading through the streets, drinking beer, beating drums and throwing oranges into the crowd.  Visiting foreigners, often unaware Belgium beers are brewed with alcohol content four or five times greater than that to which they’re accustomed, especially enjoy Binche.  Despite that, the alleged connection between Binche drinking and the English term binge drinking is apocryphal; just fake news.

Sleeping beauty re-imagined.

According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), binge drinking is associated with many health problems including (1) unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, burns, and alcohol poisoning, (2) violence including homicide, suicide, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault, (3) sexually transmitted diseases, (4) unintended pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage and stillbirth, (5) fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, (6) sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), (7) chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and liver disease, (8) cancer of the breast (among females), liver, colon, rectum, mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus (9) cognitive decline and (10) memory and learning problems.

Anorexia

Anorexia (pronounced an-uh-rek-see-uh)

(1) In clinical medicine, loss of appetite and inability to eat.

(2) In psychiatry, as anorexia nervosa, a defined eating disorder characterized by fear of becoming fat and refusal of food, leading to debility and even death.

(3) A widely-used (though clinically incorrect) short name for anorexia nervosa.

1590–1600: From the New Latin, from the Ancient Greek ἀνορεξία (anorexía), the construct being ἀν (an) (without) + ὄρεξις (órexis) (appetite; desire).  In both the Greek and Latin, it translated literally as "a nervous loss of appetite".  Órexis (appetite, desire) is from oregein (to desire, stretch out) and was cognate with the Latin regere (to keep straight, guide, rule).  Although adopted as a metaphorical device to describe even inanimate objects, anorexia is most often (wrongly) used as verbal shorthand for the clinical condition anorexia nervosa.  The former is the relatively rare condition in which appetite is lost for no apparent reason; the latter the more common eating disorder related to most cases to body image.  Interestingly, within the English-speaking world, there are no variant pronunciations.  Anorexia & anorexiant are nouns, anorexic is a noun & adjective and anorexically is an adverb; the noun plural is anorexics

Anorexia Nervosa and the DSM

A classic pro-ana image.

The pro-ana community has created its own sub-set of standard photographic angles, rather as used car sites typically feature certain images such as the interior, the odometer, the engine etc.  Among the most popular images posted on "thinspiration" pages are those which show bone definition through skin and, reflecting the superior contrast possible, there's a tendency use grayscale, usually converted from color originals.  The favored body parts include the spine, hip bones, clavicles (collar bones) and the shoulder blades.  Although documented since antiquity, the condition in its modern form wasn't noted in western medical literature until an 1873 paper presented to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) called “Anorexia Hysterica”, a description of a loss of appetite without an apparent gastric cause.  That same year, a similar condition was mentioned in a French publication, also called “l’anorexie hystérique”, and described food refusal combined with hyperactivity.  Although the author of the earlier work had within a year changed the descriptor to “Anorexia Nervosa”, the implication in all these papers was of an affliction exclusively female, something very much implied in “l’anorexie hystérique”, hysteria then a mainstream diagnosis and one thought inherently "a condition of women".

A slight Lindsay Lohan (during "thin phase") demonstrates the "anorexic look" which is something distinct from the clinically defined condition "anorexia nervosa" although there's obviously sometimes overlap.

After its acceptance as a psychogenic disorder in the late nineteenth century, anorexia nervosa (AN) was the first eating disorder placed in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  In the first edition (DSM-I (1952)), it was considered a psycho-physiological reaction (a neurotic illness).  In the DSM-II (1968), it was listed with special symptoms & feeding disturbances, which also included pica and rumination.  In DSM-III (1980), eating disorders were classified under disorders of childhood or adolescence, perhaps, at least in part, contributing to the under-diagnosis of later-onset cases.  At that time, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) created two specific categories that formally recognized the diagnosis of eating disorders: AN and binge eating (called bulimia in DSM-III and bulimia nervosa (BN; the obsessive regurgitation of food) in both the revised DSM-III (1987) and DSM-IV (1994).  In the DSM-IV, all other clinically significant eating disorder symptoms were absorbed by the residual categories of eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) and binge-eating disorder (BED), noting the disorders were the subjects for further research.  Subsequently, When the DSM-IV was revised (2000), eating disorders moved to an independent section.  The DSM-5 (2013) chapter for eating disorders added to the alphabet soup.  In addition to pica, AN, BN and BED, DSM-5 added  avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED), the latter including some other peculiar pathological eating patterns, like atypical AN (where all other criteria for AN are met, but weight is in the normal range).

Logo of the Butterfly Foundation for Eating Disorders.

Strikingly, although there are Western countries in which anorexia kills more people than road trauma, even within among mental health clinicians there appears to be some reticence in dealing with patients.  Despite it being a mental health condition with a high fatality rate, there seems still a perception the root cause is “mere vanity” and something of a self-indulgent among young, white, middle class females who spend too much time on TikTok and Instagram middle; essentially, they’re often thought exemplars of the “worried well”.  The problem is acknowledged by some specialists who claim because of these perceptions within the mental health community; treatment regimes have in recent decades shown few advances.  Among psychiatrists and psychologists the notion of anorexia being a “self-inflicted problem of the privileged” is not universal but critics do say that despite the disturbing death toll (some studies claiming a fifth of patients die within 20 years), there is still some tendency to trivialise the condition.  In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is a national charity offering services to those affected by eating disorders and body image issues, the coverage not limited to sufferers but available also to friends, families and support communities.  Although Anorexia Nervosa is the best known of the eating conditions, Butterfly Foundation functions as a kind of clearing house for all, listing the most frequently diagnosed as:

Anorexia Nervosa is characterised by restrictive eating that leads to a person being unable to maintain what is considered to be a normal and healthy weight. People experiencing Anorexia Nervosa possess an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming overweight, no matter their current weight and appearance.

Bulimia Nervosa is characterised by repeated episodes of binge eating, followed by compensatory behaviours, such a purging or excessive exercise. People experiencing Bulimia Nervosa often place an excessive emphasis on their body shape or weight.

Binge Eating Disorder is characterised by episodes of eating large amounts of food over very short periods of time, with no compensatory behaviours. People who experience binge eating often feel a loss of control during episodes of binge eating.

Unspecified Feeding or Eating Disorder (UFED) refers to disordered feeding or eating behaviour that causes clinically significant distress but which does not meet the full criteria for any of the other eating disorder categories. UFED is one of the most common eating disorders.

Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED) may present with many symptoms of other eating disorders, but where the person doesn’t meet the full criteria for diagnosis of those eating disorders. OSFED is no less serious and with treatment, recovery is possible.

Disordered eating is a disturbed and unhealthy eating patterns. They can include restrictive dieting, compulsive eating or skipping meals. Disordered eating behaviours, and in particular dieting are the most common indicators of the development of an eating disorder.

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) involves significant aversion and avoidance of food and eating, and may include highly selective eating habits, disturbed feeding patterns, or both.

PICA is an eating disorder where people eat things that aren’t considered food. For example, they may eat dirt, chalk, soap, hair, laundry detergent, among other things.

Orthorexia isn’t currently recognised as an official eating disorder diagnosis, however there is growing recognition that this may be a distinct eating disorder. It involves an obsession with healthy, or “clean” eating. People will often obsess about the benefits of healthy foods, food quality, but not necessarily quantity of food.

Fringe

Fringe (pronounced frinj)

(1) A decorative border of thread, cord, or the like, usually hanging loosely from a raveled edge or separate strip; an edging consisting of hanging threads, tassels etc.

(2) In architecture, engineering, gardening, interior decorating etc, anything resembling or suggesting this (sometimes used loosely).

(3) An outer edge; margin; the periphery.

(4) In political science, something regarded as peripheral, marginal, secondary, or extreme in relation to something else; Those members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views (famously as the “lunatic fringe”).

(5) In optical physics, one of the alternate light and dark bands produced by the diffraction or interference of light.

(6) In tax law, as “fringe benefit”, a non-cash element of earning treated as income for taxation purposes (sometimes at a concessional rate).

(7) To furnish with or as if with a fringe; to serve as a fringe for, or to be arranged around or along so as to suggest a fringe; to be a fringe.

(8) In hairdressing, a style in which hair sits vertically across the forehead (synonymous with “bangs”, the predominant US form although the latter describes a wider range of cuts and, under the influence of social media, is now widely used).

(9) In botany, the peristome or fringe-like appendage of the capsules of most mosses.

(10) In structured performance art, a series of events conducted in parallel with (though not formerly a part of) an established festival (Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe etc).

1325–1375: From the Middle English frenge (ornamental bordering; material for a fringe), from the Old French frenge (thread, strand, fringe, hem, border) (which endures in Modern French as frange), from the Vulgar Latin frimbia (a metathetic variant of the Late Latin plural fimbria (fibers, threads, fringe)), from the Latin fimbriae (fringe) of uncertain origin.  It was related to the German Franse and Danish frynse and came to replace the native Middle English fnæd (fringe), byrd (fringe) & fasel (fringe) from the Old English fæs (fringe) & fnæs (fringe).  As a verb which described “to decorate with a fringe or fringes”, use emerged in the mid-fifteenth century.  The meaning “a border, a boundary, an edge” dates from the 1640s while the figurative sense of “an outer edge, the margin” didn’t come into use until the 1890s although fringe had been an adjective since 1809.  The use of the technical term “fringe benefits” was first recorded in 1952.  Fringe is a noun, verb & adjective, fringed & fringing are verbs and fringeless, fringelike & fringy are adjectives; the noun plural is fringes.

For those seeking an example of the fecundity of the human imagination, Urban Dictionary has a listing of their contributors' suggestions in which fringe is an element including: mini-fringe, fringe fries, Tetris fringe, stoner fringe, wannabe fringe, minge fringe, vagina fringe, fringe of wisdom, fringe sex, clunge fringe, stu fringe, fringed purse, fringe flicker, pube fringe, fringe binge, fanny fringe, block fringe, fringed unicorn, fringe wizzle, chocolate fringe, box fringe, fringe of darkness, fringe sleeper, fucking fringe & grunge fringe.  Especially in those with some anatomical reference, there may be some overlap in meaning but it remains an impressive list.

Slides from the research which identified the Beta-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase lunatic fringe gene (now called LFNG), an an essential mediator of somite segmentation and patterning.

In the science of genetics, “lunatic fringe” was too tempting to resist. As in many fields in science, the privilege of allocating a name for a gene is granted to whomever discovered it and those working on fruit flies and other creatures concocted, inter alia: Tinman (fruit flies with a mutated Tinman gene do not develop a heart); Casanova (Zebrafish with a mutation in the Casanova gene develops two hearts); INDY (I’m not dead yet (a reference to a line in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail) a mutation in the INDY gene prolongs the lifespan of fruit flies; Cheap Date (fruit flies with a mutation in the Cheap Date gene become highly sensitive to alcohol); Dracula (Zebrafish with a mutated Dracula gene are hyper-sensitive to light and soon die; Sonic Hedgehog (Fruit fly embryos with mutated Sonic hedgehog gene develop spikes that resembles a hedgehog); Pinhead (a fruit fly gene which resembled humans colloquially called "pinheads"); Groucho Marx (a gene in metazoa that induces excess facial bristles); Ken & Barbie (Mutations in Ken and Barbie result in fruit flies without external genitalia; Grim & Reaper (the genes Grim & Reaper regulate the death process (apoptosis) in fruit flies).  Even the names of some of genes discovered in fruit fly (and other non-human) research proved to be controversial because so many were shared with humans and accordingly the Human Genome Organization’s (HUGO) gene naming committee was petitioned to change them.   As part of this linguistic sanitization, three christened during the decoding of the human genome (Lunatic Fringe, Manic Fringe & Radical Fringe) were anonymized respectively as LFNG, MFNG & RFNG.

Lunatic Fringe, Canterbury, England.

In parts of the English-speaking world, it’s not uncommon to find a hairdressing salon called Lunatic Fringe but it’s less common in North America where the preferred term for what in the UK, Australia etc was traditionally called a fringe, is “bangs”.  Under the influence of social media and other cultural exports, the Americanism has spread and bangs is now commonly heard everywhere and it’s proved technically useful for professional hairdressers who often distinguish between the classic fringe and a variety of cuts called bangs (which might be considered partial fringes), typically a cut which involves some strands cut short in front of the face or longer, usually thicker strands at the sides to “frame the face”.  The origin of the use of “bangs” in this context is mysterious, some claiming it was a clipping of the hairdresser’s phrase “bang off” which meant to cut the hair in front of the face short, straight & even while others suggest a link with “bang tail”, a dressage cut done to horsetails for equestrian events where the tail hairs would be cut straight across.

Lindsay Lohan with fringe cut with the alluring “dangling in the eyes” look, known as early as 1875 as "the lunatic fringe" (left), in costume as Cleopatra in Liz & Dick (2012) with straight cut fringe (centre) and with curtain bangs which are layered but not quite a bottleneck (right).

There is art & science associated with bangs because not all variations suit all face shapes and certainly aren’t suitable (or even technically possible) with all types of hair.  Additionally, some really work only if complementary makeup is applied but the core base for the decision is almost always the shape of the face, particularly the curve of the jaw-line and essentially they pivot from four points: above the brows, at eye level, at cheekbone level and at the jaw-line.  As a general principle, the hairdresser’s four point rule for bangs is (1) square or heart-shaped faces look best with something wispier or feathered fringe to add softness, (2) oblong face shapes work well with blunt-cut bangs, (3) round faces can gain the effect of elongation with side-swept or curtain bangs and (4) oval-shaped faces will usually accommodate any bang.  In the jargon of professionals there are curtain bangs, bottleneck bangs, blunt bangs, curly bangs, side-swept bangs, layered bangs, choppy bangs, braided bangs, wispy bangs, wavy bangs, micro bangs, shaggy bangs, piecey bangs, JBF bangs & clip-in bangs.

Ali Lohan (b 1993) photographed with her pregnant sister wearing Sandal-Malvina Fringe Tank Dress (left).  The shoes are Alexandre Birmen Clarita Platforms although, as the pregnancy progresses, the Instagram feed can be expected increasingly to feature sensible and comfortable footwear such as Nike’s Air Vapormax Multicolor sneakers (right).

Fringe “festivals” (Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe etc).are events which “piggy-back” on mainstream “official” events (Edinburgh Festival; Adelaide Festival etc).  They began as “pirate events” but often became so popular they really came to be considered part of the event and schedules of both came to be designed in conjunction.  The notion of them being “fringe” referenced (1) their components being exhibited or preformed not in the main performance spaces but in places on the periphery and (2) their content being (allegedly) avant-garde (“edgy” in arty talk) or too controversial to be staged in the main event.

Theodore Roosevelt in fringed jacket with Winchester Model 1876, customized with a half-round octagonal barrel, pistol grip, deluxe checkered wood, case-hardened receiver and a shotgun-style butt.

The “lunatic fringe” is really not a phrase from political science (although not a few academics seem to enjoy using it); and in this context it was coined by a politician and is a favorite in popular journalism.  Although many dictionaries early in the twentieth century are said to have described “lunatic fringe” as “a splendidly prejudicial British phrase, with its suggestion of hair dragged villainously low over the forehead or edging the circumference of the face in the way that magistrates disapprove of”, it seems first to have been used of political matters by Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; US president 1901-1909) in a letter to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924) on 4 November 1913.   In the letter, he wrote: “I have got some very amusing letters from the lunatic fringe. . . . It is extraordinary how they take hold of people who are just a little mad themselves.”

Thereafter, the phrase became widely known and has since been used of extremist groups or individuals with radical or unconventional views.  It’s in a sense a successor to the way “ultra” was earlier used (ultimately as both noun and adjective) as a prefix (ultra-Tory, ultra-revolutionary etc) before emerging in its own right as a “curtailed word”.  In modern use, it’s handy in that it’s politically agnostic: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) could say of his Democratic Party challenger, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) that he was “…a candidate that will destroy this country and he may not do it himself. He will be run by a radical fringe group of lunatics that will destroy our country” as effortlessly as earlier Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) could describe the Republican Party’s Tea Party faction as “… a lunatic fringe which the Republican leadership should reign in or else the country would suffer.”  However, although President Roosevelt may have thought he was coining something original, some forty years earlier the phrase had some currency among hairdressers in West Virginia, the Wheeling Daily Register in July 1875 reporting “…lunatic fringe is the name given to the fashion of cropping the hair and letting the ends hang down over the forehead.”

Lindsay Lohan with "lunatic fringe" (left), a lion (centre) in China's Guangzhou Zoo with fringe-cut said to be induced by "high humidity" and a piece (right) by Miguel Castro Freitas from his first collection for Mugler, Paris Fashion Week, October, 2025.

In May 2022, a woman visiting Guangzhou Zoo in China was so taken by the sight of a lion’s mane she posted images to her Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) page.  Xiaohongshu is a Chinese social network and is most often compared with Instagram although the e-commerce focus does seem more overt.  Her posts of the impressively coiffed big cat wasn’t immediately deleted so it may be assumed the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) didn’t deem them a threat to national security.  The lion’s look was so obviously untypical the Xiaohongshu user must have assumed the zoo-keepers were student’s of Lindsay Lohan’s hair styles and speculated, possibly on the basis of her own experience, that “…cutting alone is not sufficient to achieve this look, which would need a combination of washing, cutting, and blow-drying to have this effect.”  Comments on her post mused either the lion was “very docile” or the zoo-keepers were “particularly gutsy”.  Noting the interest, the Guangdong media outlet Viral Press requested a comment from the zoo which issued a statement confirming “…the hairstyle was purely nature’s magic” and a product of “recent days of “high humidity in Guangzhou.”

A fragment from Fashion Feed’s take on Paris Fashion Week, 2025.

Miguel Castro Freitas’s (b 1980) first collection for Mugler was called “Stardust Aphrodite” and the designer described the pieces as “a trilogy of glorified clichés”, the three elements being (1) oversize and bulky, with big fluffy fabrics or shoulder pads, (2) severely tailored with extreme hourglass figures or (3) lightweight, sheer dresses; critics detected some overlap in the use of the motifs.  Although there were a number of nods to Mugler’s historic use of materials in bulk for dramatic effect, the collection otherwise tended to the “less”, one eye catching piece a gown with sparkly silver stars, its straps hung from bare-breasted nipple piercings.  To re-assure those whose toes had curled, critics noted that one was made from “a very lightweight fabric”.  The technique had be seen before, a “nipple grown” the best-remembered thing from the catwalk from one of Mugler’s shows in 1998 and this year’s model was an acknowledged homage but apart from that, it certainly was on-theme, Victoria’s Secret unlikely to see much business generated from those taken with Stardust Aphrodite.

Vomitory

Vomitory (pronounced vom-i-tawr-ee or vom-itohr-ee)

(1) Inducing vomiting; to make vomitive.

(2) An emetic (a vomitory agent).

(3) Of or relating to vomiting.

(4) An aperture through which matter is ejected or discharged.

(5) In architecture, an opening, as in a stadium or theater, designed to permit large numbers of people to enter or leave (also called vomitorium).

(6) A container for receiving vomitus (whatever is discharged) (obsolete except in historic context).

1595–1605: From the Latin vomitōrius, the construct being vomi- (variant stem of vomere (to vomit) + -tōrius (the suffix added to a participle to create a first- and second-declension adjective).  Vomit as a verb was an early fifteenth century adoption from the Latin vomitus (past participle of vomitare) and was developed from the fourteenth century noun vomit (act of expelling contents of the stomach through the mouth), from the Anglo-French vomit, from the Old French vomite, from the Latin vomitus, from vomō & vomitare (to vomit often), frequentative of vomere (to puke, spew forth, discharge), from the primitive Indo-European root weme- (to spit, vomit), source also of the Ancient Greek emein (to vomit) & emetikos (provoking sickness), the Sanskrit vamati (he vomits), the Avestan vam- (to spit), the Lithuanian vemti (to vomit) and the Old Norse væma (seasickness).  The used of the noun to describe the matter disgorged during vomiting dates from the late fourteenth century and is in common use in the English-speaking world although Nancy Mitford (1904–1973 and the oldest of the Mitford sisters) in the slim volume Noblesse Oblige: an Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956) noted “vomit” was “non-U” and the “U” word was “sick”, something perhaps to bear in mind after, if not during, vomiting.  Vomitory is a noun & adjective (vomitorium is a noun); the noun plural is vomitories.

Predictably, the sight of the words vomitory & vomitorium (and its plural vomitoria) captured the always vivid imaginations of a few medieval “historians” who decided these were specially-built spaces designated for the purpose of allowing an Ancient Roman indulging in epic feats of eating and drinking at an orgy (another medieval favorite when describing the lives of Roman decadents) to stagger off and tickle their throat with a feather, inducing them to vomit up what had just been consumed, emptying the stomach so they might return to gorge more.  The idea of frequent orgies which included binge and purge cycles as an institutionalized feature of Roman life is wholly erroneous.

The correct (sixteenth century) translation of the Latin vomitorium (from the use in Roman architecture) noted the helpfully illustrative derivation from vomere (to vomit) and defined the word as “disgorging the spectators”.  Architects refined the use in the mid-eighteenth century when vomitory first appeared in the literature, then defined as “an entrance piercing the banks of seats of a theatre, amphitheater, or stadium and designed to permit the most efficient ingress & egress of people in volume”.  At the definitional level nothing has since changed although improvements in machinery, engineering and materials have permitted the construction of larger structures with greater human capacity and this has meant the planning and design process in determining the points and process of ingress & egress has assumed increasing importance, to optimize economy of operation, logistical efficiency and, critically, safety, modern building codes especially emphasizing the latter.  In architecture, the word vomitory is often used casually to refer to the whole sub-structure but one is made of components which can includes aisles, cross-aisles (sloped & level walking surfaces), ramps, stairs, tunnels and the particular constructions which are the bulk entry/exit apertures and areas at each end of the system.

Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway, New York City, built wit classic vomitory.

The term “theatre-in-the-round” can be misleading because the arrangement of the performance areas, while central, is rarely executed as an actual circle, the reference instead being to the audience being seated “all around”.  The classic design is a square or polygonal formation and, except in some one-act performances, actors enter through vomitories between the seating, directors moving them as necessitated by the need to relate to an audience viewing from anywhere in the 360^o sweep, the scenery minimal and positioned avoid obstructions.  Because theatre-in-the-round inherently deconstructs the inherently two-dimensional nature of the classical stage, it was long a favorite of the avant-garde (there was a time when such a thing could be said to exist).  The arena theatre is theatre-in-the-round writ large, big auditoria with a central stage and like the sports stadia they resemble, typically rectangular and often a multi-purpose venue.  There’s a fine distinction between arena theatres and hippodromes which more recall circuses with a central circular (or oval) performance space surrounded by concentric tiered seating with deep pits or low screens often separating audience and performers.

Lindsay Lohan descending a vomitory after selecting an audience member to participate in a skit, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, November 2012. 

New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre, originally located in another place, sits now in mid-town Manhattan and is one of only two Broadway theaters which feature a thrust stage extending on three sides into the audience.  The architect’s combination of a tri- thrust stage and a U-shaped seating arrangement was chosen to enable the intimacy associated with the company’s older, smaller performance space to be maintained in what was a much larger room.  The design made possible a configurable seating arrangement for up to 650 in which no member of the audience member would be more than eight rows from the stage and the theatre is also one of the few in Broadway with a vomitory, used in some productions as an entry or exit point for members of the cast.

The rare use as an artistic device aside, the purpose of a modern vomitory remains what it was for Roman architects; a thing of pure functionality, the form of which is dictated by efficiency of operation.  Thus, as the volume of stadiums grew, vomitories needed to become either larger or more numerous and there were a number of factors which compelled architects sometimes to follow both courses.  However, just as skyscrapers can’t practically be built as tall as techniques of structural engineering now permit because beyond a certain point the internal volume which needs to be allocated to lift-shafts and stairwells renders them uneconomic, neither can vomitories be allowed disproportionately to absorb space.

Classic vomitory (left) and latitudinal vomatory (right).

Another approach is the so-called latitudinal vomatory which is not new, the best-known extant example of the tradition seen in Warsaw's Royal Lazienki Park, the Theatre on the water (often referred to as the Theatre on the Isle) designed by Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer (1753–1795) and thought one of the more interesting pieces of eighteenth century theatre architecture.  A striking feature of the latitudinal approach is the complete functional and structural separation of stands & vomitories and visually it appeals to architects because it reduces the number of interruptions to the sweep of the horizontal lines which define the terraced surfaces.  The sympathy with the shape of the terraces mean it’s thought by many a truer representation of vomitories as a stadium’s circulatory system, a favorite expression of architects from Antiquity.

Warsaw's Theatre on the water (1790-1793) in the Royal Lazienki Park.  The amphitheatre showing the stairs of the latitudinal vomitory (left), the vista from above (centre) & the lobby level entrance to the vomitory (right).  The design of the amphitheatre borrowed from structures built in ancient Herculaneum.

Nudge

Nudge (pronounced nuhj)

(1) To push slightly or gently, especially with the elbow; a gentle push.

(2) To give a nudge.

(3) To annoy with persistent complaints, criticisms or pleas; to nag.

(4) In behavioral economics (and other disciplines), the use of positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence behavior.

(5) In internet use, a feature of instant messaging software used to get the attention of another user, as by shaking the conversation window or playing a sound.

(6) In gambling (slot machines; fruit machines etc), the rotation by one step of a reel of the player's choice.

(7) Slightly to move.

(8) In slang as “giving it a (bit of a) nudge”, high alcohol consumption in the context of binge drinking.

1665-1675: From the Middle English, a variant of the earlier nidge & knidge, akin to the Old English cnucian & cnocian (to knock).  In other languages, there were similar forms.  There was the Yiddish nudyen (to bore), first noted in English in 1877, apparently derived from the Polish nudzić (sometimes written as nudnik in translation (and both from Slavic words meaning "fret, ache”)) and in the 1960s modern Yiddish adapted nudge (nudjh in Modern Yiddish) to mean complainer or nagger (presumably to satisfy the demand from daughters-in-law needing descriptors of Jewish mothers-in-law).  In the Nordic region, dating from the seventeenth century there was the Icelandic nugga (to push, rub or massage) and the Norwegian nugge or nyggje (to jostle, rub, push slightly with the elbow), from the Proto-Germanic hnōjaną (to smooth, join together), from the primitive Indo-European kneh- which may have had some relationship to the Ancient Greek κνάω (knáō) (to scratch, scrape), source of the English noun acnestis (the section of an animal's skin that it cannot reach in order to scratch itself, usually the space between the shoulder blades).  There was also the Scots nodge (to push, poke, nudge), knidge (to push, squeeze), gnidge (to rub, press, squeeze, bruise) & knudge (to squeeze, press down with the knuckles) and the Middle Low German nucke, nücke & gnücke (a sudden push, shock, impetus).  Nudge is a noun & verb, nudged & nudging are verbs, nudger is a noun, nudgy is an adjective and nudgingly is an adverb; the noun plural is nudges. 

Nudge theory

The most famous example of a nudge is the etching of the image of a housefly into the urinals at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport (actually an idea dating back decades).  It’s to nudge men towards “improving the aim" and one feminist critic suggested images of dartboards so “men could keep score.”  She may have been taking the piss.

First appearing in the 2008 book Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by University of Chicago economist & Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler (b 1945) and Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein (b 1954), the concept of nudge theory became part of the orthodoxy of behavioral sciences, political theory and economics (although not without attracting critics).  It suggests the use of positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance with desirable objectives.  Nudge theory attracted criticism from both left and right because it is a form of social engineering although the specifics of the critiques vary but it certainly was organizationally influential, the seemingly radical that government could maintain the freedoms enjoyed by citizens in the democratic West while simultaneously helping them make better choices in matters relating to their health, happiness & wealth.  Within months of publication, over 500 nudge units or departments had been created around the world, including institutions like the World Bank and United Nations (UN).  However, in recent years, critics have challenged the both the effectiveness of the idea and even that nudges by governments are inherently less intrusive and thus more likely to sustain civil freedoms than other approaches (taxes, legislation etc).  One obvious difficulty for both sides of the argument is that any attempt to find a correlation between nudges and alleged outcomes cannot easily be reduced to numbers so conventional economic modeling is often not useful.

Noted nudgers: Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) at dawn, resting in a Cadillac Escalade, Los Angeles, May 2007 (left) and Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) shaking hands with Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974), Westin Galleria ballroom, Houston, Texas, 1989 (right).  The idiomatic Australian phrase “gave it a bit of a nudge last night” is an allusion to having taken too much strong drink.  In one of his less remembered remarks, Richard Nixon observed: “The mark of a leader, is whether he gives history a nudge.”  That Nixon certainly did although, were he to have his time again, some of the nudges would have been in a different direction and Lindsay Lohan too might do things a little differently.  Mr Trump would change not a thing.

Thinspo

Thinspo (pronounced thin-spoh)

(1) Material created, curated or used (distributed almost exclusively in digital form) to inspire thinness or weight loss.

(2) A sub-set of the pro-ana community which exists to support those on a spectrum ranging from obsessive dieters to those who have chosen as a lifestyle a managed form of anorexia nervosa.

2005–2010: The short form of thinspiration, the construct being thin +‎ (in)spiration.  Thin was from the Middle English thinne, thünne & thenne, from the Old English þynne, from the Proto-West Germanic þunnī, from the Proto-Germanic þunnuz (thin) (and related to þanjaną (to stretch, spread out)), from the primitive Indo-European ténhus (thin), from ten- (to stretch).  It was cognate with the German dünn, the Dutch dun, the West Frisian tin, the Icelandic þunnur, the Danish tynd, the Swedish tunn, the Latin tenuis, the Irish tanaí, the Welsh tenau, the Latvian tievs, the Sanskrit तनु (tanú) (thin) and the Persian تنگ‎ (tang) (narrow). A doublet of tenuis, it was related also to tenuous.  Inspiration was from the Middle English inspiracioun, from the Old French inspiration, from the Late Latin īnspīrātiōnem (nominative īnspīrātiō), from the Classical Latin īnspīrātus (past participle of inspīrō).  It displaced the native Old English onbryrdnes (literally “in-pricked-ness”).  Thinspo inspired others forms such as fitspo (encouraging fitness) and blondespo (advocating being blonde) and between thinspo and fitspo, critics noted some overlap, suspecting that in at least some cases the later identity is assumed as an attempt at disguise.  Thinspo & thinspiration are nouns; the noun plural is thinspos.  Derived forms like the nouns thinspirationist & thinspirationism do appear but are non-standard.

Thinspo's idealized bone definition.

The companion term ribspro (the short form of ribspiration (known also as bonespo)) is a particular genre within thinspo.  Whereas thinspo material can be long or short-form text, diagrams or images, ribspro is almost exclusively visual, the text limited to perhaps a few admiring or encouraging words and, as the names suggest, the focus is on ribcages or other bones proximately defined against taut skin.  Backbones, ribs, clavicles and hipbones seem the most favored, presumably because they tend to provide the most definitional contrast but there’s also the suspicion they're the particular aesthetic construct the thinspo community finds most attractive (unlike a knee or elbow which, however boney, seems not to be thought photogenic).  Another genre (a kind of applied thinspo) within the community is meanspo (the short form of mean inspiration), from the “tough love” or “cruel to be kind” tradition of weight loss and this school of thought advocates issuing critical and insulting comments to those considered “insufficiently thin enough”, the rationale being this will convince them to reduce intake, exercise more, purge and thus lose weight.  The thinspo ecosystem has also proliferated thematic variations such as “vegan thinspo” although that seems at least to some extent opportunistic given the most extreme of the thinspo operatives had long since banished animal products, regarding recommendations like “lean meat” or “chicken strips” as just so much fat.

Thinspo images often are rendered in grayscale, and that may have stated in in a nod to the aesthetic of art-house photography or simply because in monochrome the bone definition is more pronounced, a function of the contrast of light & shadow exploited by artists working with the chiaroscuro technique.  Whatever the origin, "black & white" became a thinspo motif although the B&A (before & after) posters appear to stick to original, full-color images. 

Like much in the pro-ana community, thinspo sites exist on a spectrum, those thought innocuous left to continue while any judged to be encouraging eating disorders subject to being shutdown although the efforts undertaken by (and sometimes imposed on) the platforms is a Sisyphean struggle, content shifting between hosts as required.  It’s also organic in that thinspo, like all that’s curated by the pro-ana community, is just another function of the supply & demand curve.  The supply of pro-ana content exists because of demand and in a manner familiar to behavioral economists, the ecosystem is symbiotic, the two forces acting upon and encouraging the growth of the other.  Like much that is on-line, some of the material blatantly is fake, something most obviously detected in the dubious B&A photos which appear with frequent duplication.  

Whether there were statistically significant differences in the nature of the content of thinspo and fitspo (a clipping of fitspiration (the construct being fit + (in)spiration) sites (featuring images and other material designed to trigger a motivation to exercise and enhance physical fitness) attracted academic interest and there were studies, the results differing in detail (there were widely divergent results depending on the platform analyzed which was thought to be a reflection more of the degree of success a platform achieved in enforcing its policies than any difference in the collective user profile) but displaying the same general trends: Thinspo sites portrayed body parts with more than twice the frequency of fitspo and posts highlighting bony body features and references to mental illness were overwhelmingly almost specific to thinspo.  Interestingly, the differences between fitspo & thinspo relating to sexually suggestive images, appearance comparison and messages encouraging restrictive eating were striking and almost wholly correlated with the platform on which they were posted.  The more extreme of the forks such as self harm (such as the cutter subset) also appear on thinspo sites.

Thinspo Rules

Thinspirationism: A blonde Lindsay Lohan during thinspo pin-up phase, 2005.

(1) Never eat something just because you want to finish it.  Eat only enough to stop the worst of the hunger pangs and don’t eat until sated; those extra bites add up.

(2) Don’t let emotions take over and eat only if hungry.  Stop yourself once you start eating if you know it’s for the wrong reasons.  The right reason is pangs of hunger; there is no other reason.

(3) If you catch yourself in a binge, stop the moment you realize.  Don’t forgive yourself for screwing up; it will only permit you to screw up again.  If you have binged, it must in some way be atoned for and than can be an increased energy burn (ie more exercise) or intake deprivation (eg skipping next meal).

(4) Every calorie counts so review every recipe and remove as many calories as possible.  Where available, choose the low cal version (but study nutritional-content labels because tags like "diet" or "97% fat-free" can be deceptive and misleading) and drink water (unmodified soda water is fine), black tea or black coffee instead of other beverages.  Avoid zero-cal sweeteners because (1) they’re a chemical cocktail and (2) the thinspo goal is completely to cure the body’s natural sugar addiction.  Artificial sweeteners may be equated with opioid substitutes such as methadone and while clinically there may be good reasons for a patient seeking to cease using heroin to be proscribed methadone, sugar is like nicotine: highly addictive but weak and able (chemically) to be withdrawn from within days.  Some will find the psychological addiction lingers longer but often that's associative (as it is with the social link between drinking alcohol and smoking).  The general principle is it's not good to replace one addiction with another so with added sugar the answer is "cold turkey", not packets of powdered chemicals.  The body does of course need sugar (it works essentially by converting intake into sugars the muscles, brain and other organs can use) but your intake should be exclusively in natural (unprocessed) sugars like those in green apples.    

(5) Don’t feel guilt about wasting food.  The undesirability on environmental grounds is noted but the sooner you change yourself, the better and as you hone your techniques, losses can be reduced to close to zero.  Set a goal always not to eat everything you’re served and gradually increase this quantity.  Before long, you’ll be throwing away food without barely a thought and if you have a garden or outdoor pot-plants, most organic waste can be chopped up or mushed to be mixed with water and added to the soil (plants will use the nutrients and eventually, the residue become soil).

(6) Eat slowly, savoring each bite.  Thinspo does not mean ceasing to enjoy food; it means the opposite because it makes every bite a rare and valued treat.  Thinspo life is like a rugby test in which only one try is scored but it is celebrated whereas "normal" life is like a rugby sevens game in which there may be two-dozen trys: after the first few they cease to be exceptional.  We evolved quickly (in biological terms) from creatures which had to hunt or gather every bite of the fat, salt & sugar we craved to survive but, with the same biology, we now live often sedentary lives among shelves laden with fat, salt & sugar, all within reach and sometimes packaged conveniently for instant consumption.  It is the curse of plenty. 

(7) Drink water during meals, as much as you can manage but, as a general principle, don't go beyond 6 litres (1.3 gallons (UK) 1.6 (US)); this is well short of of water's toxicity threshold but there's both a law of diminishing returns and a point at which water-intake becomes counter-productive.  Water curbs hunger, is filling, aids in digestion and maintains hydration which has many benefits.  Water has zero calories and can be taken as ice.

(8) Chew food more, taking at least one full breath after every bite.  While it will vary according to what’s being eaten, as a guide, chew 20-30 times for each mouthful. This not only assists digestion but slows the pace of eating, reducing consumption.

(9) Cut food into smaller pieces which (1) slows the process of eating, (2) can make you think you’re eating more (there's nothing wrong with fooling yourself if self-aware) and (3) it will make other people think you ate more (in some circumstances it can be helpful to fool others).

Thinspirationist: Actor Lily Collins (b 1989) in a semi-sheer white Calvin Klein ensemble, the cropped spaghetti-strap top and knee-length pencil skirt, both embellished with scale sequins, New York Fashion Week, New York City, September, 2025.  Note the pleasing definition of the sinews (arrowed, centre).  The hair-style is a chin-length bob.

(10) Associate unhealthy food with something else: ice cream with saturated fat, bread with carbs, juice with sugar etc.  Concrete visual examples are also helpful: imagine cake as fat sitting in and adding bulk to your thighs, chips as a permanent lining adding mass to the stomach etc.

(11) Learn from other people eating because while there are individual variations, overall, the patterns should be consistent.  Watch skinny people and apply their principles to your own diet; watch fat people with disgust and revulsion, avoiding what they do.

(12) Decide beforehand how much you are going to eat and never eat more.  If cooking, cook only one serving, so you can’t eat anymore.  The ideal model is to have no food in the house and each day buy only what you’re that day allowed.  It can at first be difficult but can be done and if stuck to, it’s a foolproof diet because you cannot eat what's not there.  If on the day you've not been able to buy food, you must fast and take in only water or black tea and coffee.  You won't enjoy it but it's good for you and may inspire you to add one or two "fast days" to the weekly cycle.

Lindsay Lohan shopping on Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, 2009.  Her thinspo pin-up career long out-lasted her blonde phase.

(13) Always remind yourself of your goals and rewards.  Keep track of daily nutrient and food goals (some use a diet minder journal or tracking app but the best method is whatever works for you).  Weigh yourself twice a day (before morning coffee and just before going to bed), the goal being always to see a lower number than previous weigh-in.  If you have achieved a target weight and operate within a daily variation of +/- 100g, that is acceptable although that's also technologically deterministic: if your digital scales report in 50g increments, reduce your acceptable variability to that level for if God has given us such scales, She's trying to tell us something.

(14) Don’t eat 2½ hours before bed.  This time window can be increased but not reduced.

(15) You’ll be sometimes compelled to eat with friends or family so develop techniques surreptitiously to dispose of food.  You’ll get good at knowing where to sit so one hand can always be unseen and a good trick is to wear clothes with big pockets you can line with plastic bags.  Sit somewhere which makes disposal simple (open windows ideal, large pot plants can work) and develop a suite of reasons to ask to sit in certain spots.

(16) Don't be tempted to take up smoking or vaping.  While it can't be denied smoking often works as an appetite suppressant (all those commendably slender catwalk models can't be wrong), inhaling a known carcinogen is unwise because not only does it shorten lifespan (it seems on average by about a decade although the numbers do bounce around) but even while one remains alive it can induce or worsen many illnesses and other conditions.  While in the long run we're all dead and one should die thin, the object is to live thin for as long as life remains enchanting and what smoking does is tend to reduce life expectancy.  The numbers need to be understood because while dying at 75 rather that 85 may not (vied from decades afar) sound that bad, smoking directly can kill those in their twenties or thirties.  There are better ways (see 1-15 above) to lose weight and the evidence on vaping is mixed.  It's too soon to tell what the long-term health outcomes will be but there is anecdotal evidence flavored vapes can stimulate one's appetite and that makes sense because so many use tastes the mind associates with "sweet".  There's only one acceptable form of addiction: diet & exercise.