Cabriolet

Cabriolet (pronounced kab-ree-uh-ley)

(1) A light, two-wheeled, one-horse carriage with a folding top, capable of seating two persons.  It's from cabriolet the term "cab" (in the sense of taxi) was derived).

(2) An automobile based usually on a two-door coupé but with a folding top.

(3) The equivalent continental term for the (mostly UK) drophead coupé (DHC) or the more generic convertible.

1766: from the French cabriolet, the construct being the Italian cabriole (horse caper) +‎ -et (the suffix here used in the sense of “smaller version”).  The Italian cabriole was from the Latin capreolus (wild goat), from the primitive Indo-European kápros (buck, he-goat) and related to the Old Norse hafr (he-goat), the Old English hæfr, the Welsh gafr and the Old Irish gabor.  The seemingly strange relationship between the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat) and the eighteenth century horse-drawn carriage is explained by the French cabriole (little caper), the meaning derived from its light movement, from cabrioler (to leap, caper), from the Italian capriolare (to somersault), from the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat), the idea being of something light and agile in movement.  The larger, more upscale version of the lightweight carriages the French named cabriolet, “cab” being the common form in the vernacular.  The –et suffix, indicating diminution or affection, was from Old French -et, and its feminine variant -ette, both derived from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta, -ittum).  In English use, “cab” was picked up to describe the small carriages for hire in urban use and it was the descendants of these which became “taxicabs” when the French taximètres (automatic meter that records distance and fare) were adopted in the late 1890s, the word from the German Taxameter, from Taxanom, the construct based on Taxe (tax, charge or scale of charges), from the Medieval Latin taxa (tax, charge) + mètre.  Cabriolet is a noun, the noun plural is cabriolets.

The application of cabriolet to describe convertible cars emerged in the early years of the continental motor industry because of the conceptual similarity to the earlier, light horse-drawn two-seater carriages but as the years went by, although there was never all that much exactitude in the nomenclature, the terms to describe the variations in convertible coachwork became merely model names (except for the much later targa which Porsche had the foresight to register as a trademark) and if a car was called a roadster, drophead coupé, phaeton, cabriolet or landau, it was an indication only that the roof could (usually) be removed or folded back.  In Detroit, the industry cheerfully used the historic names just as ways to impart "a certain association with something" and produced both "cabriolets" & "landaus" with fixed roofs and that trickery wasn't confined to the US, it being common practice in pre-war Europe for coupés to appear with non-functional "landau irons"; these were early "faux cabriolets".  One exception to that looseness was Daimler-Benz which tightly defined the specifications of roadsters and landaulets and, with Teutonic thoroughness, in the mid-twentieth century codified the five variations of Mercedes-Benz cabriolets as Cabriolet A, B, C, D & F (if ever there was a Cabriolet E, the factory’s definition has never surfaced).

The classification of cabriolets by Daimler-Benz

Cabriolet A coachwork: 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K (left), 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SC (centre) & 2017 Mercedes Maybach 6 (right).

A cabriolet with two doors and room for two passengers.  Occasionally, the cabriolet As would be built with provision for one additional passenger, seated sideways behind the front seats, an arrangement the factory would late use in the "Pagoda" roadsters (W113, 1963-1971) until outlawed by increasingly stringent US safety regulations.  With Mercedes-Benz, the tradition of the cabriolet A in the big, open two-seat convertible would survive only until the 300 S & 300 SC (W188, 1951-1958) although in 2017, the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet was displayed, probably the most extravagantly self-indulgent two-seater seen since the pre-war years.  That was mitigated somewhat by the electric powertrain but production was never considered.

Cabriolet B coachwork: 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 (left), 1993 Mercedes-Benz 300 CE (centre) & 2017 Mercedes-AMG S 650 (right).  As the S 650 illustrates, while the use of CAD (computer aided design) and wind tunnels can make shapes more aerodynamically efficient, they doesn't guarantee they'll emerge as more elegant.   

A cabriolet with two doors and room for four or five passengers, fitted with a rear-quarter window for the rear seat.  Other than when interrupted by World War II (1939-1945) and its aftermath, the cabriolet B was long a staple of the Mercedes-Benz line-up but between 1972-1992 there was a hiatus, fears that impending US legislation would outlaw convertible sales in that lucrative market meaning no two door variations were constructed on the new S-Class (W116, 1972-1981) platform and no convertible version of the mid-range (W123, 1976-1984) cars was ever offered.  In those years, the R107 (1971-1989) roadster was the sole convertible available, it's sales outside the US sufficient to maintain profitability if the ban eventuated.  As things turned out, the ban never was imposed and the cabriolet B returned in the form of the E-Class A124 (1991-1997).  Models in that segment have remained available since although the brief return of a big Cabriolet B (the A217 S-Class, 2015-2020) seems an experiment unlikely soon to be repeated.

The on-off ban on convertibles in the US is an amusing tale of interest to political scientists and economists.  FMVSS (federal motor vehicle safety standards) 208 (roll-over protection) was published in 1970 and one its obvious implications was the banning of “real” convertibles in the US market and while the local manufacturers went to court to challenge some of the provisions, they made no attempt to prevent the demise of the convertible, sales of the configuration having fallen to the point the body-style was no longer offered in most lines and even without the intervention of government it’s likely availability would anyway further have been restricted to the odd specialist product.  Indeed, Chevrolet, aware of the coming edict, had in 1968 released the coupe version of the third generation (C3) Corvette as a kind of targa (the so-called “T-top” with removable roof panels), the remaining structure essentially a “roll-bar able to “drive through” FMVSS 208.

Compliant and not with FMVSS 208 as drafted: 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe with T-Top roof (left) and 1978 Chrysler New Yorker, the last of the four-door hardtops (right).  The indefinite extension of the "temporary exemption" of convertibles from FMVSS's roll-over standards created the curious anomaly that Chrysler could in theory have maintained a New Yorker convertible (had one existed) in production while being compelled to drop the four-door hardtop.  Market realities meant the federal court never had to sit to resolve that and no manufacturer sought an exemption for the latter.  The last of the C3 Corvette convertibles was produced in 1975, the style not revived in the line until a C4 (1984-1996) roadster was released in 1986.    

In an example of the way government and industry in the US interact (mostly through the mechanism of “campaign financing” with lobbyists as the intermediaries), in 1971 the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) granted a “temporary exemption” for convertibles from the rollover parameters and originally the sunset clause was set to 31 August 1977 (ie, the end of the 1977 season), a date chosen because by then Detroit’s existing convertible lines were schedule to have reached their EoL (end of life).  The FMVSS 208 standards were otherwise maintained and that was what doomed to four-door hardtops which, lacking a central (B) pillar would have been prohibitively expensive to engineer into compliance.  However, late in 1972 an unexpected ruling from a federal court held that FMVSS 208 existed under the provisions of the NTMVSA (National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act (1966)) and this was found to contain no statutory basis which could extend to the banning of convertibles: As explicitly the judgment stated, the act obligated the agency “to afford such vehicles special consideration.”  Detroit no more expected that than did the NHTSA but while the manufacturers were sanguine about no longer producing convertibles, the regulators were compelled to decide what to do about their regulation and, given Detroit’s attitude, they decided to kick the can down the road and simply extend the “temporary” exemption, nominating no end-date.

1980 Mercedes-Benz 500 SLC.

The SLC (C107, 1971-1980) existed only because it was assumed convertible sales in the US would be banned so no two-door version of the S-Class (W116, 1972-1980) was created, the important "big coupé" role fulfilled by the SLC which was the SL roadster with a long wheelbase (LWB) and a (non-pagoda) fixed roof.  In Europe and the UK, the manufacturers were not so relaxed because their sales of convertibles in the US market had been among their most profitable lines and representations from the lobby group AIA (Automobile Importers of America, a multi-national aggregation representing manufacturers from Europe, the UK and Japan) had also made representations to the court and while they didn’t get all they wanted, they got convertibles and that allowed the life of many (some with roots in the 1950s) to be extended even into the mid-1990s by which time, in a sense, customers were buying "new vintage cars".        

Cabriolet C coachwork: 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K (left), 1950 Jaguar Mark V Drophead Coupé (DHC) (centre) & 2020 Alvis TB60 DHC (continuation) (right).

A cabriolet with two doors and room for four or five passengers with no rear quarter window.  Remarkably, the wedding car used by Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) for his (second) marriage to Emmy Sonnemann (1893-1973) was a 500 K Cabriolet C and the photographs of the happy day do show things were a little cramped once Göring's corpulent form was in place but his more slender bride looked content.  Most German manufacturers and virtually all coachbuilders kept the cabriolet C on the books throughout the interwar period but in the post-war years, it was actually the British which did most to maintain the tradition, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Daimler, Armstrong Siddeley and Alvis all offering the style and Alvis in 2018 actually re-commenced production of what they called their "continuation" series.  While it can lend elegance, one obvious drawback of the design is visibility, the bulk of the fabric creating blind-spots rearward.

Cabriolet D coachwork: 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300d (left), 1967 Lincoln Continental (centre) & 2006 Mercedes-Benz Concept Ocean Drive (right). 

A cabriolet with four doors and room for four to six passengers.  Common in the 1930s, the four door convertible was rare by the mid 1950s and even Mercedes-Benz removed the 300c (W186, 1951-1957) Cabriolet D from the range when the 300d (W189, 1957-1962) was released in 1958.  However, although demand for such a machine was tiny, it wasn't non-existent and in 1959 it was announced the Cabriolet D would again be available to special order, the price on application (POA) and depending on specification; eventually, a further 65 were made.  That was the last of the line however and when "semi-convertible" coachwork was introduced for the 600 (W100, 1963-1981), the term "landaulet" was preferred; apart from the mouth-watering Concept Ocean Drive displayed in 2006, the factory has never hinted such things might return.  Apart from truck-like off-road machines, nor has any other manufacturer since the last convertible Lincoln Continental was made in 1967.  Remembered also for its connection to the limousine in which President John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated, the connection didn't dissuade his successor (Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1969-1969) from owning one but even a the presidential imprimatur didn't stimulate sales sufficiently and the four-door convertibles didn't appear for 1968.  They were the last convertibles ever built by Lincoln.

Cabriolet F Coachwork: 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150) (left), 1961 Lincoln Continental (X-100 by Hess & Eisenhardt) (centre) & 1966 Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet in four-door, short roof configuration (right, which is not really a cabriolet F). 

A cabriolet with four doors, built on an extended wheelbase, usually for state or formal use with room for six or more passengers.  The rare cabriolet Fs were almost exclusively state or parade vehicles (although as used cars, they've been sometimes imaginatively re-purposed in the secondary market) and are now effectively extinct, driven from the market by security concerns and the lack of appropriate new vehicles upon which they could be based.  Politicians now feel much safer in armored cars, built sometimes on a light-truck chassis.

1966 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet.

In the collector-car market, the Mercedes-Benz W111 (1961-1971) & W112 (1962-1967) remain coveted and, as is usually the case, it's the convertibles which are most sought, even though the cabriolet lacks the coupé's lovely roofline.  Pedants note that although the two-door W111s & W112s are technically a Coupé B & Cabriolet B in the factory's naming system, they're never referred to as such because no other configuration was offered in the model.  The W112 (300 SE) is of interest too because of the chrome moldings around the wheel arches, a feature which had been seen on some earlier cars and would be shared by the 600 Grosser (W100, 1963-1981).  Criticized by some when they appeared on the 600, the additional chrome on the W112 wasn't to everyone's taste (and it was a "delete option" when new) but it clearly had an enduring appeal because for decades after-market suppliers found a read market among those with later model Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Jaguars and some others.  This is not approved of by the purists and whether in chrome, stainless steel or anodised plastic (!) it makes no difference: the originality police insist if it wasn't done by the factory, it shouldn't be done.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet (a converted coupé).

This is one really to upset the originality police because (1) it started life as a coupé, (2) the chrome (actually anodized plastic) wheel-arch moldings were never available on this model and (3) the Fuchs (Bundt) aluminium wheels have been chromed (and may anyway be reproductions).  Such is the price premium the cabriolets command compared with the coupés, over the years, many have been tempted to cut but exactly to replicate what the factory did is harder than at first glance it seems.

Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150; 1938-1943), Cabriolet D (top) and Cabriolet F (bottom).

With a variety of coachwork, all the second generation of the Großers (Grosser (Grand Mercedes)) were built on a chassis with a wheelbase of 3880 mm (152¾ inch).  In some four years, only 88 were built, most of which were allocated to senior figures in the Nazi Party, the Wehrmach (the armed forces) and the German state although a handful were gifted to foreign heads of state.  The 770K will forever be associated with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) because until the outbreak of war the big Cabriolet F was his preferred parade car and one of the quirks in the factory's nomenclature is that while the body-styles Cabriolet A, B, C & D were defined and well-documented, there was a 770K Cabriolet F, but no Cabriolet E.  The Cabriolet F was among the rarest of the 770Ks with only five made and featured the additional rear window in the passenger compartment.  The jump in the factory's designations from "D" to "F" obviously skipped "E" and because that didn't seem the typically precise German way of doing things, there was speculation that another type of open coachwork had been planned (though not necessarily on the 770K chassis) but which was never built because of the outbreak of war in 1939.  That's not impossible (some records were lost during the war) but the archives for the period have revealed nothing which supports the theory and the sometimes repeated assertion the "Cabriolet F" label was an allusion to "Führer" (the car's most infamous customer) is simply wrong because the designation was first used in the 1920s and was applied to the previous 770 Großer, the W07 (1931-1938).  The factory seems never to have commented on the "missing Cabriolet E", despite having a great sense of history; unsurprisingly, Mercedes-Benz doesn't much dwell on the company’s relationship with the state and party between 1933-1945.

Lindsay Lohan alighting from Porsche 911 Carrera (997) cabriolet, Los Angeles, 2012.

Being a German company, Porsche from its early years used "cabriolet" to describe its soft-top models although the Americans never really embraced the idea, habitually calling the open 356s "convertibles".  Strangely, Volkswagen owners in the US took to the term, cabriolet usually preferred for the Karmann-built soft-top beetles.  After their targa (a word they trade-marked) models were introduced, Porsche anyway had a reason to avoid "convertible" as imprecise.   In 1981 they had shown a cabriolet concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show and the 911 Cabriolet was released late the next year, their first full convertible since the last of the 356s in 1965 so to clarify things, Porsche insisted there were no convertibles in the range, just coupés, targas and cabriolets.

Pope Saint John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005) in  Ferrari Mondial cabriolet while on a visit to the Ferrari test track, Fiorano, Italy, 4 June 1988.  This is believed to be the fastest ever Popemobile.

The term "cabriolet" has over the decades been applied to convertible Ferraris but a convention seems to have emerged that it's now used exclusively for the four seaters (which the factory admits are really 2+2s).  The factory has had 2+2 cabriolets in the lineup for a while, most recently the California (2008-2017) and the Portofino (since 2018) but those used a conventional front-engine layout.  The Mondial (1980-1993) was mid-engined, making the accommodation of four within the cabin quite challenging and critics noted one of the compromises imposed was aesthetic, the body lacking Ferrari's usually lovely, lithe lines, something said also of its 2+2 predecessor, the fixed-roof 208 & 308 GT4 (sold as both a Dino and a Ferrari).  However, the practicality of the Mondial much appealed to the market and it was at the time one of the the most successful Ferraris ever made and much thought had been put into the design, not only to ensure the one basic specification could be sold in all markets but also that the cost of ownership would be lower.  It was much improved as the years went by and made in four distinct generations but Ferrari have not since attempted another mid-engined 2+2 (the configuration of the Roma (introduced in 2020) is sometimes described as "front mid-engine" but such things are not listed with the classic "mid-engined" machines, all of which have engines mounted behind the driver).

Taxi

Taxi (pronounced tak-see)

(1) A shortening of taxicab (itself a truncation of taximeter cab), traditionally a light vehicle usually fitted with a taximeter, available for hire (with its driver) to carry passengers to a specified destination; a taxi-truck extends the same concept to freight.

(2) To ride or travel in a taxicab

(3) In aviation, to cause (an aircraft) to move along the ground under its own power, especially before take-off and after landing, or to cause an aircraft to move along the ground in this way.

(4) In military slang, the act of transporting troops or the helicopter or plane used for the transport.

1907: A shortened form of taximeter cab, taximeter (automatic meter that records distance and fare) from the French taximètre, from the German Taxameter, from Taxanom, the construct a coinage based on Taxe (tax, charge or scale of charges), from the Medieval Latin taxa (tax, charge) + meter.  Ultimately however, taxi may be traced back to the Ancient Greek τάξις (taxis) from τάσσω (to place in a certain order (in the sense of “commanding an orderly battle line” or “ordaining the payment of taxes”) to the extent that ταξίδι (taxidi) ("journey" in Modern Greek) originally denoted an orderly military march or campaign (an "operation whereby displaced parts are put back in their natural situation”) noted in 1758 in the Medical Latin , a verbal noun of tassein (arrange), from the primitive Indo-European root tag- (to touch, handle).  Meter (also metre) in this sense was from the Old English meter (versification), from the Latin mētrum, from the Ancient Greek μέτρον (metron) (meter, a verse; that by which anything is measured; measure, length, size, limit, proportion) from the primitive Indo-European root me- (to measure).  It seems the word was in the early fourteenth century re-borrowed after a three-century gap in recorded use, from Old French metre, with the specific sense of "metrical scheme in verse" from the Latin mētrum and it has since been part of a structural language of poetry as well as the general sense related to “measure”.  The taximeter, originally a mechanical (clockwork) device, was later electro-mechanical and finally electronic, was the means by which the distance travelled was recorded and the fare calculated.

Stuffed: A tiger, reputedly a thirty-year old male which died from natural causes while in captivity.

In use since 1820, taxidermy (the stuffing of animal carcases for purposes of display) combines taxi in classical sense of "arrangement, an arranging with derma (skin, from the primitive Indo-European der-(to split, flay, peel), the idea again being an "operation whereby displaced parts are put back in their natural situation”;  Reflecting the popularity of big-game hunting and the volume of dead animals increasingly available to display as trophies, the profession of taxidermist was first noted in 1827.  Taxonomy (the nomenclature of the science of classification in zoology, botany etc), dates from 1819, from the (1813) French taxonomie and was an (irregular) formation from the Ancient Greek taxis (ie the sense of “arrangement") +  -nomia (method), the related forms being taxonomic & taxonomist.

Dating from 1766, cabriolet (light two-wheeled chaise, a type of horse-drawn carriage), was from the French cabriolet, the construct being the Italian cabriole (horse caper) +‎ -et (the suffix here used in the sense of “smaller version”).  The Italian cabriole was from the Latin capreolus (wild goat), from the primitive Indo-European kápros (buck, he-goat) and related to the Old Norse hafr (he-goat), the Old English hæfr, the Welsh gafr and the Old Irish gabor.  The seemingly strange relationship between the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat) and the eighteenth century horse-drawn carriage is explained by the French cabriole (little caper) a meaning derived from its light movement, from cabrioler (to leap, caper), from the Italian capriolare (to somersault), from the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat), the idea being of something light and agile in movement.  The larger, more upscale version of the lightweight carriages the French named cabriolet, “cab” being the common form in the vernacular.  The –et suffix, indicating diminution or affection, was borrowed from Old French -et, and its feminine variant -ette, both derived from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta, -ittum).

1966 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet.

In the collector-car market, the two-door Mercedes-Benz W111 (1961-1971) & W112 (1962-1967) remain coveted and, as is usually the case, it's the convertibles which are most sought after, even though the cabriolet lacks the coupé's lovely roofline.  Pedants note that although the two-door W111s & W112s are technically a Coupé B & Cabriolet B in the factory's naming system, they're never referred to as such because no other configuration was offered in the model.  The W112 (300 SE) is of interest too because of the chrome moldings around the wheel arches, a feature which had been seen on some earlier cars and would be shared by the 600 Grosser (W100, 1963-1981).  Criticized by some when they appeared on the 600, the additional chrome on the W112 wasn't to everyone's taste (and it was a "delete option" when new) but it clearly had an enduring appeal because for decades after-market suppliers found a read market among those with later model Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Jaguars and some others.  This is not approved of by the purists and whether in chrome, stainless steel or anodised plastic (!) it makes not difference: the originality police insist if it wasn't done by the factory, it shouldn't be done.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet (a converted coupé).

This is one really to upset the originality police because (1) it started life as a coupé, (2) the chrome wheel-arch moldings were never available on this model and (3) the (Fuchs Bundts) aluminium wheels have been chromed (and may anyway be reproductions).  Such is the price premium the cabriolets command compared with the coupés, over the years, many have been tempted to cut but exactly to replicate what the factory did is harder than it sounds.   

The application of cabriolet to describe convertible cars emerged in the early years of the continental motor industry because of the conceptual similarity to the earlier, light horse-drawn two-seater carriages but as the years went by, although there was never all that much exactitude in the nomenclature, the terms to describe the variations in convertible coachwork became merely model names (except for the much later targa which Porsche had the foresight to register as a trademark) and if a car was called a roadster, drophead coupé, phaeton, cabriolet or landau, it was an indication only that the roof could (usually) be removed or folded back.  One exception to that was Daimler-Benz which tightly defined the specifications of roadsters and landaulets and, with Teutonic thoroughness, in the mid-twentieth century codified the five variations of Mercedes-Benz cabriolets as Cabriolet A, B, C, D & F (if ever there was a Cabriolet E, the factory’s definition has never surfaced.

Lindsay Lohan, a long-time New York City taxi customer.

The taxicabs of Paris were first equipped with meters in 1898; originally called taxibread, they were renamed taximètres in 1904 and the first six-hundred petrol (gas) powered New York taxicabs were imported from France (then the world’s largest producer of automobiles) in 1907, the name “taxicab” borrowed from London where it had been in used for some time.  Fake news soon emerged, reports circulating in the New York press that the handy new vehicles were named after Franz II von Taxis of the house of Thurn and Taxis (1514-1543; postmaster for Philip of Burgundy) and his nephew Johann Baptiste von Taxis (1470-1541; Postmaster-General of the Holy Roman Empire).  Both were innovative in instituting in Europe (for the first time since the Roman Empire) fast and reliable postal services and on some routes passengers were also able to purchase seats so while the Taxis’ did provide taxi services in something close to the modern sense of the word, they never used the word “taxi” for service or the vehicles.  They did however for centuries keep the lucrative postal business in family hands.

The word taxi spread quickly around the world and exists as a borrowing in many languages but some tongues localized the spelling including Burmese (takka.ci), Cantonese (的士 (dik)), Mandarin (的士 (dīshì or díshì), Irish (tacsaí), Japanese (タクシー (takushī)), Korean (택시 (taeksi)), Malay (teksi), Welsh (tacsi), Yiddish (אַקסי‎ (taksi)), Yoruba (takisí & tasín), Asturian (tasi), Basque (taxilari & taximetro), Catalan (taxista), Czech (taxík), Danish (definite singular taxien, indefinite plural taxier, definite plural taxierne), Dutch (taxietje (as a diminutive & taxichauffeur (the driver) & Indonesian (taksi (a colonial descendent from the Dutch)) although with these, the English taxi often peacefully co-exists.

Hansom Cabs, New York City, 1900.  To this day, they’re still sometimes incorrectly called “handsome cabs”. 

The Hansom cab was a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, named after its designer, English architect Joseph Hansom (1803–1882), founder of the architectural journal The Builder (1843) and noted for his work in the Gothic Revival style.  In 1834 he patented the Hansom cab and instantly it became popular, being more compact, faster and more manoeuvrable than the hackney cabs (pulled by Hackney horses) it replaced; it was safer too, the centre of gravity considerably lower.  What convinced many operators to switch was that the Hansom cab was light enough to be pulled by a single horse, lowering operating costs by at least 40% and their small size made accessible many more parts of London’s tight and congested nineteenth-century streets, some of which dated from Medieval times.  Within two years they had spread to the continent, throughout the British Empire and to the United States and, 1894 when clockwork mechanical taximeters (then called taxameters) were added to measure fares, the name became taxicab.   It was in a hansom cab Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) had Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson travel to the Holborn restaurant where they meet Stamford, one of the doctor’s former colleagues.  That was in the detective novel A Study in Scarlet (1887) which was the first appearance of the pair.  Coincidently, Fergus Hume’s (1859-1932) novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) had in Australia been published months earlier and in the era outsold Conan Doyle's debut.

In aviation, taxi was a slang use, an allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares, applied to an airplane “taxiing" slowly along the tarmac coming from or going to the runway.  At some airports, designated parts of the tarmac are still designated as taxiways, a word which seems not to have been otherwise adopted although runway is now often used in the fashion industry, the traditional catwalk seen by some as too gender-loaded.  Another adoption which didn’t endure was the 1930s “taxi dancer”, describing a woman whose services (as a dance partner although presumably in some cases negotiations may have been entertained) were available for hire at a dance hall.  Taxi cabs sitting awaiting fares were said to be "at the taxi rank" and were expected (sometimes compelled by regulation) to accept a job from anyone able and willing to pay, a concept sometime imposed on lawyers.

General Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006; dictator of Chile 1973-1990).

When in 1998 General Pinochet was arrested in London, accused of crimes including murder, terrorism and genocide, he was able to assemble a stellar team of legal talent for his defence because, unless covered by one of the "cab on the rank" exemptions, barristers were compelled to accept the brief.  As things transpired, eventually, in 2000, the home secretary ordered his release on medical grounds and the flight home proved a remarkable curative, the frail, wheelchair-bound old man who flew out of RAF Waddington transformed into something altogether more virile upon landing in at Santiago's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport where, miraculously, he rose from his wheelchair to stride off into the city.

In the common law jurisdiction of the UK and most of the Commonwealth (though not the US), the “cab rank rule” is a professional obligation for barristers (those representing clients in court) codified in the BSB (Bar Standards Board) Handbook.  The rule is part of the notion that all are entitled to a competed defence regardless of their identity of the nature of the alleged offence.  This requires barristers to accept instructions from any client if the case is within their competence, at a proper fee, and they are available, the exceptions being: (1) a lack of expertise or competence (ie not in one’s field of practice or a highly technical matter), (2) where there exists a conflict of interest (or even in some cases a perception of such), (3) the instructions are in an improper form (not from a solicitor or appropriate intermediary), (4) The instructions would require the barrister to act in breach of the law or professional conduct rules, (5) a lack of availability in the relevant time period, (6) unacceptable fee arrangements (ie the fee offered is not within the accepted range or if there is no certainty about the fee), (7) the barrister does not accept “direct access” cases (ie “off the street” from the public); this limitation must be general and cannot be applied ad-hoc) and (7) inappropriate instructions (which applies mostly where a barrister does not accept legal aid work or is not instructed on terms compliant with agency’s requirements.

Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025, left) and Rudy Giuliani (b 1944, right, General Motors Building, Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, 1999.  Being a US attorney, before being disbarred for this and that, Mr Giuliani was not compelled to accept any client and could pick and choose.  He choose Mr Trump.

The “cab rank rule” is not applied in the US because legal system has some different professional norms and ethical obligations for lawyers.  The most obvious structural difference is that in the US there exists no formal split between barristers and solicitors; all lawyers are able to provide both advocacy and advisory services so there’s no a rule ensuring courtroom representation by specialists.  Politically and constitutionally the traditions also differ in the emphasis on autonomy and freedom of association, the ABA’s (American Bar Association) Model Rules of Professional Conduct put a premium on a lawyer’s right to choose clients and the First Amendment (freedom of association) to the US Constitution also operates: compelling lawyers against their will (for whatever reason) to represent clients could violate their constitutional rights.  That’s not as bad as it might sound for unpopular clients because there are alternative paths to representation including (1) The Public Defender systems in criminal matters, (2) pro bono obligations & incentives and (3), in limited circumstances in civil matters, the assistance of legal aid organizations or court-appointed counsel.  Additionally, in the US the legal market is just another commercial space (something increasingly true in other places) and law firms typically screen clients based on risk, compatibility, and commercial considerations.

Checker taxicab, circa 1974.

Immortalized over decades by their appearances in film and television, for decades the usually yellow (Dupont M6284 yellow was the actual paint-code) Checker was the taxicab which dominated the US market.  They were not retired from service until 1999, their appearance almost unchanged from the last major styling in 1959 and the final tranche in taxi service had covered more than a million miles (1.6m km), a reasonable achievement for a life spent mostly in the confines of cities.  The company in its modern form emerged just in time to suffer the effects of the great depression in the early 1930s but it survived and, although producing vehicles only in small volumes which never exceeded a few thousand a year, it remained profitable until the 1970s when the recession and two oil shocks threatened survival, it not being obvious that the capital could be raised to develop a new, more fuel-efficient generation of taxis.  At the same time, under pressure from operators, cities were de-regulating the technical requirements for taxis, meaning the mass-produced mainstream models from the major manufacturers could be added to fleets.  Cheaper to produce and buy, their adoption was the death knell for Checker and production ceased in 1982, the company continuing as a part supplier until finally shuttered in 2010 in the wake of the recession which followed the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

Checker Marathon advertising, 1960s.

As well as the taxicab which was for six decades the mainstream line, between 1960-1982, Checker also sold a consumer version as the Marathon, aimed at the private buyer who was prepared to sacrifice the advantages of more modern designs for the virtues of the taxi (robustness, timelessness (albeit circa 1955) and interior space).  So dated was the appearance that Checkers built in the 1970s were often used in film and television even though the productions were depicting periods from earlier decades and in films set during the Cold War, they were popular as convincing substitutes the cars of Eastern Bloc apparatchiks.  The Marathon was available as a sedan or station wagon and even a few long-wheelbase limousines were built although in an age of stylistic exuberance, there was little demand for something which echoed the stolid lines of the early 1950s.

Most distinctive however were the six and eight-door Aerobuses aimed at the resort-hotel and airport shuttle business.  Available (off and on) between 1962-1977 and never built in great numbers, the eight-door models were the most numerous and both could be ordered as station wagons which Checker marketed sometimes as the “nine-door”, a European practice which counted the tailgate.  Surprisingly, despite the startlingly elongated appearance, there were few engineering challenges in developing and producing the Aerobus, the Marathon’s X-section reinforced frame was as sturdy as many light trucks and with a body made with heavy gauge steel, the lengthening process detracted little from structural integrity.  The affected central section was unchanged for its entire life and the anyway hardly expensive costs of development were amortized long before production ceased in 1977, something induced by a collapse in demand, not inherent unprofitability.

The Checker Limousine was an interesting venture into a market segment which did exist, and was acknowledged.  There had always been those who easily could afford to buy a Cadillac yet instead drove Buicks or Oldsmobiles and their reasons varied.  Some eschewed ostentation, some (with conspicuous visibility to customers or clients) preferred to appear just prosperous enough to inspire confidence and others couldn't see additional value in the extra cost.  Checker thought they might be able to carve a niche in this segment and, in 1963, announced what they would come to advertise as the "Custom Limousine" (although the initial publicity material described it as the "Marathon Town Custom"), built on a 129 inch (3277 mm) wheelbase, a 9 inch (229 mm) stretch of the standard platform, the additional space gained by the rear compartment.

For Checker, it was neither a novel nor an expensive project, the engineering for the six and eight-door Aerobuses (1962-1977), respectively on 154½ inch (3924 mm) & 189 inch (4801 mm) wheelbases proving the robustness of the chassis and, in the tradition of the company, there was no attempt to offer the luxurious interior appointments familiar in most limousines although the quality of the upholstery was better and accessories like power windows were available; perhaps it was thought the divider isolating passengers from the chauffeur and the option of a vinyl roof was distinction enough.  There was though the luxury of space and an ease of ingress and egress which increasingly had been sacrificed as Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials had become lower.  With its flat floor and high roof, that might have been an attractive feature for the older demographic of men whostill wore hats, something they could leave on when seated, a design aspect last championed by Chrysler in the early 1950s.  Essentially, the Checker Limousine was little different in appearance to the to the GAZ-13 Chaika (Seagull), built in the USSR between 1959-1981 by Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant), almost exclusively for the many well-connected apparatchiks in the Communist Party or its organs.  A pastiche of early-mid 1950s US styling trends, most consider it owed the greatest debt to the lines of the Packards of the era although it's not known whether this was in genuine admiration of the style or a nod to comrade Stalin's (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) fondness for the marque.

The Checker Custom Limousine however never approached the GAZ in either the volume made nor longevity.  Priced optimistically low in the range of (non-limousine) Cadillacs, production didn't reach far into two figures and, after three lacklustre seasons (1964-1967), the model was withdrawn from the catalogue although Checker would have amortized the modest investment, the 129 inch wheelbase platform re-cycled (the limousine's A19E chassis code changed to A12E for the purpose) to create a taxi version with seating for an additional two or three.  In Australia, that approach appealed to both Ford and GMH (General Motors Holden) which, in small volumes for the taxi and hire-car industries, for a few years offered cheaper, less well appointed versions of their long-wheelbase executive models (respectively as the Fairlane Custom and the Statesman), an approach which lasted until the mid 1970s.

Bombast & Bluster

Bombast (pronounced bom-bast)

(1) Speech deemed pompous for the occasion or context; pretentious or grandiloquent language.

(2) Cotton or cotton wool (archaic).

(3) Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments or upholstery; padding.

1560-1570: A corruption of the earlier bombase (raw cotton), from the Old French bombace (cotton, cotton wadding), from the from the Medieval Latin bombācem, accusative of the Late Latin bombāx (cotton; linteorum aut aliae quaevis quisquiliae (towels or any other rubbish (rags))), a corrupted variant use of bombyx (silk; silkworm (which in Medieval Greek came to mean “cotton”)), from the Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux) (silkworm) and perhaps connected with both certain oriental words and the Middle Persian pambak (cotton), possibly related to a primitive Indo-European root meaning “to twist, wind”.  From the same source came the Swedish bomull, the Danish bomuld (cotton) and, (via Turkish forms), the Modern Greek mpampaki, the Rumanian bumbac and the Serbo-Croatian pamuk.  The German Baumwolle (cotton) is thought likely to be the Latin word altered by folk-etymology to look like “tree wool”.  Both the Lithuanian bovelna and the Polish bawełna are partial translations from the German.  The earliest known appearance in print of the adjective bombastic was in 1704.  The synonyms include fustian, grandiloquence, purple prose, overblown, pretentious and the now obsolete aureation.  Bombast is a noun, verb & adjective, bombaster & bombastry are nouns, bombastic & bombastical are adjectives and bombastically is an adverb; the noun plural is bombasts.

In English, the word “bombase” was used of raw cotton as early as the 1550s and the sense of “stuffing and padding for clothes or upholstery” would have begun as the verbal shorthand of tailors, seamstresses and artisans making clothing, furniture and such.  Remarkably quickly, the idea of what was done with chairs and garments (padding them out) was co-opted to mean “pompous, empty speech”, that sense in use as early as the 1580s.  The idea was just as cotton (soft, loose, insubstantial) was used to “swell” clothing or upholstery to provide the illusion of something more substantial, so it was used of speech and writing judged as “swollen by extravagant sentiments and expressions which add nothing to the meaning”.  The old press baron Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken, 1879-1964) used the term “highfalutin nonsense” whenever he detected bombast in anything his editors were proposing to publish.

Volkswagen Super Beetle Cabriolet by Karmann: 1978 (left) & 1977 (right).  The taillights were dubbed "elephant's feet" and were that large to comply with US regulations which demanded certain dimensions and luminosity from both the rear and side-views.  They proved popular with third-party builders, especially those in "neo-classical" business making bodies using the motifs of the inter-war years.  Some cars are described as "bombastic" (a view one suspects based often on perceptions of the typical owner) but that was never applied to the modest Beetle.  There was though much bombast in the soft-top which to this day remains one of the industry's most impressive.  

Shaming what UK manufacturers offered even in their more expensive ranges, classic Volkswagen Type 1 (Beetle 1938-2003) Cabriolets manufactured between 1949-1980 by coachbuilder Karmann featured a commendably heavy, weatherproof, multi-layered folding soft-top roof.  An intricate construction of structural steel, shaped timber members, vinyl and safety glass, the bombast was a rubberized horsehair (with some later variants).  Close to two inches (50 mm) thick and affording what was by convertible standards outstanding sound insulation and weather-proofing, the factory used a “sandwich” design in which the materials were arrayed in three distinct functional layers: (1) The outer layer originally was a heavy-duty Pinpoint vinyl (a two-ply composite featuring a PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) with a cotton sateen inner backing) although there was for years the option of canvas and Mohair and canvas was used for the later runs.  (2) The bombast was the “insulation padding”, a thick matting originally only of rubberized horsehair although this later was augmented by a reinforcing of coconut fibre and burlap with late build examples switching to a dense, foam rubber. (3) The headliner (inner layer) was a soft-to-touch, full-length inner canopy that hid the mechanism, emulating the look in a closed vehicle; it was made from either perforated vinyl (usually white or off-white) or a cotton-mohair fabric.  Unlike many convertibles in the era (including Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz which used discoloration-prone Perspex), the Karmann cabriolets included a solid frame holding a tempered safety glass window and from 1968 this included a integrated electric defroster wire grid.

Also by extension, “fustian” was used as a synonym, that being a type of cloth that lend garments a “stiff expansive character”, the similarity to “fuss” & “fuss” thought to have added to the appeal.  In English, “fustian” proved adaptable.  Originally, it was a coarse fabric made from cotton and flax but in modern use, while the texture is emulated, it’s now usually made with twilled wool, cotton or a cotton-linen blend.  The nature of the fabric made it suitable for furnishings such as bedspreads and many garments including skirts, coats and jackets and a specific variant with a short pile (almost always in sombre shades) is used still for menswear.  The noun fustian was from the Middle English fustian (of the fabric), from the Old French fustaine & fustaigne (persisting in modern French as futaine), from the Medieval Latin fūstāneum, from the (pannus) fūstāneus or the (tela) fūstānea, thought to be a reference to “Fustat, locality of Cairo” although this is contested.  Fustat (Al-Fustat) became the first Islamic capital of Egypt and its outgrowth was the origin of modern Cairo.  In commerce, the use of fustian (based on the texture rather than the materials) extended to a whole class of fabrics including corduroy and velveteen and there was also the now rarely seen alcoholic concoction so named (also in older guides as “rum fustian”).  That was a hot drink made variously with beer, gin, sherry or white wine (and often probably what conveniently fell to hand) to which was added egg yolk, lemon and spices (doubtlessly there were many variations).  There has been speculation about how the drink picked up the fabric’s name with suggestions including something to do the color or the nature of the mix being “rough”.  Fustianists & fustianism are nouns, fustianize is a verb and fustianed is an adjective; the noun plural is fustianists.

That literary use is thought likely based on fustian fabrics being used to make cushions, pillowcases (ie things associated with “padding or stuffing), the adjectival use in literature an attributive figurative use of the noun; it suggested (usually disapprovingly) words were inflated, pompous or pretentious (ie bombastic) and there was as late as the mid-seventeenth century the parallel sense of “incoherent or unintelligible speech or writing; gibberish, nonsense”.  Literary critics (a most judgmental lot), of course liked to apply “fustian” to anything they deemed “a bit too purple” and probably, at least mentally, kept lists of offenders but poets and authors could be just as bitchy about their literary colleagues, although Alexander Pope’s (1688-1744) Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735) was a tribute to his subject’s many achievements and a memorial of their friendship, prompted by the news the physician John Arbuthnot (circa 1667–1735) was on his death-bed:

The bard whom pilfer'd pastorals renown,
Who turns a Persian tale for half a crown,
Just writes to make his barrenness appear,
And strains, from hard-bound brains, eight lines a year:
He, who still wanting, though he lives on theft,
Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left:
And he, who now to sense, now nonsense leaning,
Means not, but blunders round about a meaning:
And he, whose fustian's so sublimely bad,
It is not poetry, but prose run mad:

Although the use of “he” does suggest Pope may have had in mind a certain writer, scholars believe he was presenting a sequence of composite caricatures of the kinds of “bad poets” he thought were a plague on the language, their sins including plagiarism, being shameless translators for hire, being so muddle-minded as never to attain meaning and producing lines so inflated (fustian) that they ceased even to be “bad poetry” and became “manic prose”.  As was at the time wise for satirists, Pope often deliberately would avoid explicitly identifying his targets although knowing readers would have seen through the thin disguises; “reading between the lines” as useful then as it is now in certain countries, some even “democracies”.  His views on the use of language are however crustal clear and “sublimely bad” is a fine phrase, suggesting a writer's failures might be so spectacularly ghastly they achieve a kind of perverse grandeur, the notion he would, three years hence, return to in the mock critical treatise Peri Bathous or, Of the Art of Sinking in Poetry (1728).  In that, he assured readers he would “…lead them as it were by the hand… the gentle downhill way to Bathos; the bottom, the end, the central point the non plus ultra [nothing further beyond], of true Modern Poesy!”  Unfortunately, by the twentieth century and beyond, students of the “sublime in the ridiculous” had become victims of “the curse of plenty” but Pope can’t be blamed for that; he did his bit.

The literary term bathos (from the Ancient Greek βάθος (bathos) (depth) is used of types of writing which may include the bombastic.  Bathos is attained when a striving at the sublime, over-reaches and “topples into the absurd”, a classic collection of the bathetic was published in The Stuffed Owl (1930), compiled by the English authors Dominic Bevan “D.B.” Wyndham Lewis (1891–1969) & Charles James Lee (1870–1956).  Lewis should not be confused with the English painter, writer & critic (Percy) Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957), best remembered for his seminal contribution to short-lived Vorticist movement in art that was extinguished by the blast of World War I (1914-1918).  Although the usual suspects from poetaster’s (bad poets) role of infamy appear in The Stuffed Owl including the American Julia Ann Moore (1847–1920) and Scotland’s notoriously inept William McGonagall (1825-1902), Lewis & Lee didn’t defer to reputations or the canon and among the entries were lines by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), William Wordsworth (1770–1850), Lord Byron (1788–1824), John Dryden (1631–1700), Robert "Rabbie" Burns (1759–1796) and Robert Browning (1812–1889). Curiously, while the noun bombaster (a bombastic speaker or writer) exists, there’s no such thing as a bombastee (one compelled to listen to read the words of a bombaster).

I Am Charlotte Simmons (20004) by Tom Wolfe (1930–2018), a hefty 688 pages, it "won" the Literary Review's 2004 Bad Sex Award but was said to be a favorite of George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; POTUS 2001-2009) so there was that.

Lewis & Lee took to their work with a light touch.  Rather than condemnation, it was admitted: “Bad verse has its canons, like good verse” and the selection of the “bad” was no less difficult than the challenges in assembling the “best” for a more conventional anthology.  As their argument went, “good” bad Verse has “an eerie, supernal beauty comparable in its accidents with the beauty of good verse” and it was likely as difficult to write a genuinely “good” bad poem as it is to write a good poem.  That was a generous view but there was also an audience for the bad, William McGonagall often engaged to give recitals of his work, always including the infamous The Tay Bridge Disaster (1880), its place in literary history assured by appearing usually in lists of the “worst ever poems”.  That “monetizing of awfulness” happens also in music.  The Portsmouth Sinfonia (1970-1979) was an English orchestra open to “musicians” with neither skill nor training and their idiosyncratic performances were well attended, as were those of Florence Foster Jenkins (1868–1944).  Ms Foster Jenkins (who was first married at 15, the age of consent in Pennsylvania then ten despite it being north of the Mason-Dixon Line) was rich enough to indulge her hobby which was singing Opera and that she did, giving public performances so awful that word spread and most were sold-out.  In literary use, there was also (between 1993-2019) the “Bad Sex Award”, described by organizing committee as “Britain’s most dreaded literary prize”.  Conferred every winter by the London-based Literary Review, it was awarded to the author judged to have penned the worst sex scene published in the previous twelve months.  It was established in 1993 by the magazine’s former editor, Auberon Waugh (1939–2001).

1938 Mercedes-Benz 320 (W142, 1937-1942) Cabriolet B in a factory promotional image.  As well as the upholstery, the folding soft-top contained horse-hair bombast. 

European manufacturers and coach-builders used “cabriolet” to distinguish certain convertibles from the more rakish, sporty roadsters although the English had to be different and decided they were DHCs (drop-head coupés) which meant a convertible version of a FHC (fixed-head coupé).  Cabriolets were for decades a fixture in the catalogues (low-priced vehicles as well as the better-remembered exotics) but in the late 1920s (with typically Teutonic attention to detail), Daimler-Benz codified the naming conventions for cabriolets built by Mercedes-Benz:

Cabriolet A: A cabriolet with two doors and room for two passengers.

Cabriolet B: A cabriolet with two doors and room for four or five passengers, fitted with a rear-quarter window for the rear seat.

Cabriolet C: A cabriolet with two doors and room for four or five passengers with no rear quarter window.

Cabriolet D: A cabriolet with four doors and room for four to six passengers.

Cabriolet F: A cabriolet with four doors, built on an extended wheelbase, usually for state or formal use with room for six or more passengers.

The jump in the factory's designations from "D" to "F" obviously skipped "E" and because that didn't seem the German way of doing things, there was speculation another type of open coachwork had been planned but which was never built because of the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945).  That's not impossible (some records were lost during the war) but the archives for the period have revealed nothing which supports the theory and the sometimes repeated assertion the "Cabriolet F" label was an allusion to "Führer" (the car's most infamous customer) is simply wrong because the designation was first used in the 1920s, prior to the Nazis gaining power and creating the Third Reich (1933-1945).  Quite what would have been the configuration of the allegedly “missing Cabriolet E” is purely speculative and those who have written on the subject have concluded it’d likely have been either (1) a four-door body distinguished only from a Cabriolet D by a longer wheelbase or different side-window treatment or (2) the intended differentiation of a Cabriolet F without the rear-quarter window (as some were built but never uniquely designated).

Bombast, in its original sense, could prove fatal.

Bomb-blasted: the Mercedes-Benz 320 Cabriolet B in which SS-Obergruppenführer (General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) was being driven on the day of the assassination attempt.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) had in 1938 appointed Baron Konstantin von Neurath (1873–1956; Foreign Minister of Germany 1932-1938) as Reichsprotektor (a sort of proconsul (from the Latin prōconsul, a shortened form of prō consule (one acting on behalf of the consul))) of occupied Bohemia and Moravia (a region of Czechoslovakia).  Hitler did not make the appointment because of any great regard for the baron’s administrative or diplomatic skills but because (1) he wanted the more obsequious Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945) as his cipher in the Foreign Ministry and (2) he thought von Neurath’s reputation in international circles as a “moderate” would mollify the outrage expressed about the brutish and cynical tactics employed by the Nazis in their takeover of the Czech lands.  To an extend the political window dressing worked, not because von Neurath’s delegated rule was benign but because news of much of what was being done was suppressed and international attention had already turned to events elsewhere as concerns grew over Hitler’s next target.

With the outbreak of World War II, von Neurath’s regime became harsher with an increased rate of imprisonment in concentration camps, more executions and less restrained persecution of Czech Jews (the last measure not wholly without support from sections of Czech society).  However, bloody though it was, what the Reichsprotektor did was mild compared with what was done in other conquered territories (notably Poland and later in the Soviet Union when the Nazis turned to genocide as a “final solution”) and, not best pleased, late in 1941 Hitler appointed SS General Reinhard Heydrich as von Neurath’s nominal deputy although Heydrich assumed full executive authority, leaving the Reichsprotektor as a figurehead, the Nazis assuming his veneer of (relative) respectability remained useful.  Hitler knew the murderous Heydrich would not be troubled by the notions of humanity or residual decency that had constrained von Neurath and he wasn’t disappointed in his latest appointment for within days martial law had been imposed on the protectorate with thousands and arrested and hundreds executed.  When Hitler wanted something done, if possible, he’d allocate the task to the SS.

The SS (ᛋᛋ in Armanen runes; Schutzstaffel (literally “protection squadron” but translated variously as “protection squad”, “security section" etc)) was formed (under different names) in 1923 as a Nazi party squad to provide security at public meetings (then often rowdy and violet affairs) and was later re-purposed as a personal bodyguard for Hitler.  The SS name was adopted in 1925 and during the Third Reich the institution evolved into a vast economic, industrial and military apparatus more than a million strong to the point where some historians (and contemporaries) regarded it as a kind of “state within a state”.  The Waffen-SS (armed SS (ie equipped with military-grade weapons)) existed on a small scale as early as 1933 before Hitler’s agreement was secured to create a formation at divisional strength and growth was gradual even after the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 and it was the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 which triggered the Waffen-SS’s expansion into a multi-national armoured force with over 800,000 men under arms.  As well as the SS’s role in the administration of the many concentration and extermination camps, the Waffen-SS was widely implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Konstantin von Neurath.  At the first Nuremberg Trial (1946-1946) he received a 15 year sentence but was released in 1954 because of ill health, dying within two years.  Had Heydrich lived to be tried, he'd have been hanged.

Just as Heydrich understood Hitler’s language, so the Czechs understood his and rapidly the once troublesome protectorate was pacified.  Heydrich was however there not merely to impose and maintain order but also to ensure the agricultural and industrial capacity efficiently was exploited to benefit the German economy and war machine; rapidly his “carrot & stick” approach produced dividends with production rising and resources re-allocated within the Czech economy towards the needs dictated by Berlin.  Heydrich proved remarkably successful in his role, his “cut the head off the snake” (ie identifying and what would now be called “neutralizing” those likely to be troublesome) approach ending acts of sabotage or other resistance while his increases in the allocation of food and consumer goods to the population resulted in a workforce which, it not exactly “happy”, was at least compliant and productive.  Having witnessed the crackdowns and collective punishments that had characterized the early days of his rule, the Czech population had little taste for resistance, knowing retribution would be swift, brutal and widespread, meaning the place soon became peaceful.  Heydrich however regarded his tactics as a temporary measure and planned with the end of the war to engage in wholesale ethnic cleansing to “Germanize” the whole region.

That goal was known to Czech resistance based in London and for reasons both political and military, wished to do something to encourage acts of disobedience, despite knowing the consequences that would be visited upon the population.  The British authorities did nothing to discourage this view and believed resistance in occupied territories was a vital element in their plan to “set Europe ablaze” with ferment against Nazi rule.  Accordingly, a team of London-based Czech assassins was assembled and smuggled back into Prague with the audacious plan to assassinate Heydrich.  Code-named Operation Anthropoid (a word translated variously as (1) a non-human creature with some of the physical characteristics of a human or (2) a creature with the characteristics of an ape), Heydrich made their task easier because, so assured did he think was his pacification of his domain that routinely he was driven to his office in an un-armored, open-top car with no escort or security detail.

The aftermath.   A 320 Cabriolet B reputed to be this car now sits in a museum in Denmark.

On 27 May, 1942, the two Czech operatives waited at a corner where the Mercedes-Benz cabriolet had to slow to negotiate a tight turn and although mechanical failures meant Operation Anthropoid didn’t go to plan, the wounds which finally killed Heydrich were inflicted by a grenade.  The tossed grenade actually missed ending up in the rear compartment where the target was sat and instead exploded outside, just ahead of the right-side rear wheel.  What happened was shrapnel from the device passed through the cushion of the rear seat and entered Heydrich’s torso and it’s believed it took with it some of the horsehair used as the upholstery’s bombast.  The most common theory to account for his death (nine days after the blast) is the horsehair caused a systemic infection, trigging sepsis and putting his body into shock.  For the Czechs, the consequences were severe with the deaths and deportations in the thousands and never again did the Czechoslovak government-in-exile order such an operation.  In his honor, the programme to exterminate Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied Poland was named Aktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhard) and this was the start of what came to be called “the Holocaust”.  The circumstances of the loss of a man he regarded as “irreplaceable” appalled Hitler who found inexplicable the idea his representative would travel around occupied territory unescorted and in an un-armored, open-top car.  Accordingly, Mercedes-Benz was commissioned to build a run of armoured sedans to be allocated to the Nazi party.  This included the last 20 770Ks (W150, 1938-1943) and 37 two-door 540Ks (W29, 1936-1940) built on the already completed chassis and delivered between 1942-1944.

Bluster (pronounced bluhs-ter)

(1) Noisy, swaggering, empty threats or protests; inflated talk (often in the phrase “bluff and bluster”).

(2) Boisterous noise and violence.

(3) Of the wind, noisy; gusty; tumultuous.

(4) To speak or say loudly or boastfully

(5) To act in a bullying way

(6) To force or attempt to force (a person) into doing something by behaving thus

1520-1530: From the Middle English blusteren (aimlessly to wander about), the modern sense perhaps gained from the Middle Low German blustern & blüstern (to blow violently) (which may be compared with the later Low German blustern & blistern).  The obviously related words were blow and blast and it seems likely there was some connection with the East Frisian blüstern (to bluster), the Old Norse blāstr (blowing, hissing) and the Saterland Frisian bloasje (to blow) & bruusje (to bluster).  In English, the use in the context of the weather had emerged by at least the 1540s and the sense of bluster being “a storm of violent wind” (directly from the circa 1400 verb) was in general use by the 1580s.  The meaning “noisy, boisterous, inflated talk” appeared in print in 1704 but may long have been in oral use.  The adjective blustery dates from the 1730s and seems to be used first of persons in the sense of “noisy, swaggering” and may not have been applied to the weather (rough & stormy) for some decades.  Bluster is a noun & verb, blusterer, blusteration & blustrification are nouns, blustering is a noun, verb & adjective, blustered is a verb, blustersome, blusterous, blustery & blustery are adjectives and blusterously & blusteringly are adverbs; the noun plural is blusters.

Wind-blown: Lindsay Lohan at the beach on a blustery day.

Blustering was in use by the 1510s to imply “someone stormy or tempestuous” and by the 1650s it was applied to “boastful, swaggering people”.  In the (possibly co-authored) Pericles, Prince of Tyre (circa 1608), William Shakespeare (1564–1616) uses blusterous: “Now may your life be mild, for a blusterous birth had never babe!” (Act 3, Scene 1) and of course in Coriolanus and Sir John Falstaff he created archetypes of the loud, swaggering blustering character.  Bluster’s synonyms include boast, brag & rant.  There are a remarkable number of phrases meaning much the same thing as “all bluff and bluster” (full of talk but lacking substance) including: “all bark and no bite”, “all foam, no beer”, “all fur coat and no knickers”, “all garnish and no meat”, “all hat and no cattle, “all icing, no cake”, “all lime and salt, no tequila”, “all mouth and no trousers”, “all shot, no powder”, “all show, no go, “all sizzle and no steak and “all talk and no action”.

Bombast and bluster are much associated with politicians although, if anything, those tendencies are now seen less as the trend from at least the mid-twentieth century has been towards simplicity and repetition (the most effective form clearly believed to be the 3WS (three word slogan)).  In political rhetoric however, bombast and bluster did have a long and sometimes ignoble history and among critics the terms often were used interchangeably because, despite the subtle differences in meaning, very often there’d be elements of both in the one speech.  They are different faults: Bombast refers to inflated, grandiose, pompous language. The criticism is that the speaker's words are overly elaborate or impressive-sounding relative to their actual substance; after listening for a while to some of Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) carefully crafted phrases, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan (1897–1960) responded by saying: “The majesty of his words conceals the poverty of his thoughts.”.  Bluster is different in that it refers to loud, aggressive, boastful, or threatening talk, often with the implication there is more noise than action.  Bluster is a label applied to the speaker's swaggering manner rather than their vocabulary or phraseology.  So, bombast is a thing of style & language while bluster is about tone and attitude but there are many instances of speeches contain both bombast (grandiose language) with bluster (aggressive attitude); the preferred collective term is “hot air”.  That of course reflects the different etymology, bombast (originally “padding or stuffing” in its figurative sense meaning “stuffed excessively with words” while bluster (originally of stormy wind conditions) suggesting “noisy or overbearing speech”.  So, in as few words as possible: bombast is verbal inflation; bluster is verbal intimidation.

Donald Trump (b 1946; POTUS 2017-2021 and since 2025) at the UN, September 2025.

Mr Trump often is described as “bombastic” but that really is a misuse, albeit a common one among those commenting on politics and politicians.  Whether or not one concurs with his views, Mr Trump usually expresses himself in commendably succinct terms which readily can be understood by most, eschewing the use of long, unusual or obscure words.  It’s an example of how the meaning of bombast has shifted but what critics really mean to say is Mr Trump is inclined to bluster and prone to exaggerate; he does not however “pad out” his sentences with decorative phrases or words inserted mere to prove his erudition.  Instead, his language is direct and simple and while someone like the classically educated Boris Johnson (b 1964; UK prime-minister 2019-2022) sometimes couldn’t resist delighting at least some in his audience with the odd linguistic flourish, Mr Trump likes simple, punchy words and some fragments from his address to the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) in September 2025 illustrate his approach: “One year ago, our country was in deep trouble.  But today, just eight months into my administration, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world, and there is no other country even close.”; “This is the greatest administration in US history.  We have strongest borders, military and relationships around the world.”; “What is the purpose of the United Nations?  It has such tremendous, tremendous potential.  But it's not even coming close to living up to that potential.  For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly-worded letter and then never follow that letter up.  It's empty words and empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action.”; “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements.”; “Europe has to step it up.  They can't be doing what they're doing.  They're buying oil and gas from Russia while they're fighting Russia.  It's embarrassing to them.”; “Not only is the UN not solving the problems it should, too often it's actually creating new problems for us to solve.  The best example is the No. 1 political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration. It's uncontrolled. Your countries are being ruined.  Your countries are going to hell.”; “Climate change is the greatest con job ever.  If you don't get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”  There are grounds on which Mr Trump can be criticized but he uses plain, simple words and his meaning is always clear and that approach may be compared with that of Kamala Harris (b 1964; VPOTUS 2021-2025), his opponent in the 2024 election and it wasn't only Fox News that liked to describe her speech as a “word salad”.  In fairness, what Ms Harris did wouldn’t have met the clinical threshold of what in psychiatry used to be called schizophasia (a severe form of disorganized speech consisting of a confused, unintelligible mixture of seemingly random, unconnected words and phrases; while the words themselves may be grammatically correct, they lack logical or semantic meaning, making the speech impossible for a listener to understand) but it could be a challenge to gain meaning from her words.  At least Joe Biden (b 1942; VPOTUS 2009-2017 and POTUS 2021-2025) had an excuse for his mumbling and incoherence; he was senile.