Contra

Contra (pronounced kon-tra)

(1) Against; contrary or opposed to; in opposition or contrast to; against, anti.

(2) An arrangement (usually between companies) whereby they exchange goods and/or services on a basis agreeable to both, often without any exchange of cash.

(3) In politics (sometimes used in a derogatory sense), a conservative; originally tied to Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries.

(4) In accounting, as contra-entry or contra-account, an entry or account which cancels another entry or account.

(5) In music, an informal term for any of the musical instruments in the contrabass range (contrabassoon, contrabass clarinet or (especially) double bass).

(6) In dance, a type of country dance most identified with the New England region in the US (mostly obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle English contra (against, over against, opposite, on the opposite side; on the contrary, contrariwise) from the Latin contrā.  The Latin contrā (against) meant originally "in comparison with" and was the ablative singular feminine of com-teros, from the Old Latin com (with, together) + -tr, (zero-degree form of the comparative suffix -ter-).  As used as a noun in English, it meant "a thing which is against another" by 1778, an evolution of the earlier sense of "the contrary or opposite" from the 1640s.  English also picked up the practice from Late Latin in using contra as a prefix.  In French, it became contre- which passed into English as counter-, the Old English equivalent of which was wiðer (which survived in dialectical English as withers and in Scottish as widdershins), from wið (with, against).  There was also contraindicate (to indicate the contrary of (a course of treatment, etc)) from the 1660s, an evolution from the 1620s forms contraindicated & contraindication, contra-indicate the rare verb.  The use to describe the forces opposed to the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua since 1979 began in 1981, Contra a shortened form of the Spanish contrarrevolucionario (counter-revolutionary).  Contra is a noun, verb, adjective & adverb; the noun plural is contras.  

The Contras and the Sandinistas

Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) Flag.

The contras were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the left-wing government in Nicaragua (the Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction).  The term was a short-form of la contrarrevolución (counter-revolution) although there were intellectuals in the movement who disliked the label because they thought it suggested something negative or reactionary.  They preferred comandos (commandos) though peasant sympathizers also called the rebels los primos (the cousins), reflecting in many ways the character of the early movement as one of civilian irregulars.  In the White House, contra wasn’t greatly favored either and by the mid-1980s, marketing types in the Reagan administration (1981-1989) introduced “democratic resistance” to press conferences though it never caught on outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Undeterred, by the press’s scepticism towards newspeak, on the ground, the ever-optimistic CIA liaison operatives encouraged use of la resistencia.

National flag of Nicaragua.

Believing the domino theory applied as much to central America as once it had been applied in east Asia, almost from the beginning the contras received military and financial aid from the US.  Congress cut the appropriations but the White House continued support with funding provided through a variety of imaginative (and covert) money-making schemes and slush funds which culminated in the Iran-Contra affair (Iran-Contragate), the biggest scandal of the Reagan years.  The affair (noted if not openly discussed by the ayatollahs in the Persian ماجرای ایران-کنترا‎ and definitely not by the Contras in the Spanish Caso Irán–Contra) was a back channel CIA (the US Central Intelligence Agency) operation run out of the White House, secretly to sell weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran, then subject to an arms embargo.

The cover story for the operation was the armament shipments were part of an intricate web of deals to free seven American hostages held in Lebanon by the Hezbollah, a paramilitary operation which started as modestly as many others but which would evolve into a something which simultaneously would effectively take over the Lebanese state while acting as the regional proxy of Tehran (or a sub-contractor to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard depending on the interpretation).  The story wasn’t entirely untruthful but the administration arranged the first sales prior to the hostages being seized.

Sandinista graffiti.

Ronald Reagan’s (1911–2004; US president 1981-1989) world view was never as simple as his detractors suggest but it was starker than most of the Washington establishment and he didn’t support the position, which had become predominate during the Cold War and certainly after the Vietnam war, that the geopolitical structure of the world should be thought of as stable and permanent.  That was the view of the power-realists like Henry Kissinger (b 1923; US national security advisor 1969-1973 & secretary of state 1973-1977), theorists who believed problems needed to be managed over decades whereas Reagan thought problems needed to be solved: the Soviet Union was a problem, Cuba was a problem and the Sandinistas were a problem.  The Congress however had prohibited the provision of aid to the Contras.

In the Spanish, contra was a direct inheritance from the Latin contrā and in the Old Spanish there was also cuentra as well, with a diphthongization of the stressed Latin /ŏ/. As the word was generally atonic, over time, the unstressed variant contra eventually prevailed.  The synonym is en oposición a.  Although in English “contra” is less frequently used as a “stand-alone” word as is the case in Spanish, it does appear, often as a kind of “verbal shorthand” where appears as a clipping of “contrary”.  That use may to some extent be class based because, pronounced correctly, the slipping doesn’t save a syllable, “contrary” said correctly as the “U” kon-tree rather than the “non-U” kuhn-trair-ee. 

In 1985, the administration began a diversion of the profits the Iran operation to the Contras although it’s still not certain the president authorized this, so many of the supporting documents having been destroyed, the lesson of Nixon’s tapes well-learned: If stuff gets burned it can’t become evidence.  Within a year the story broke and after many denials about many things, Reagan was forced to appear on nationally television, taking “full responsibility” for the affair, suggesting what began with good diplomatic intensions, ran astray in a classic case of mission creep.  A commission was appointed to investigate and concluded no evidence existed to prove the president either knew of or approved the detail of operations.  Although several dozen administration officials were indicted and some were convicted, many were overturned on appeal and while a couple served terms of probation, most of the rest were pardoned by President George HW Bush (1924–2018; George XLI, US President 1989-1993) even before coming to trial, some noting the evidence suggested George XLI had his own reasons for not wishing the some matters to be aired in court although whether that included the role the CIA allegedly played in the distribution of crack cocaine in US cities during the 1980s has never been clear.

Supermarine Seafang (1946) with contra-rotating propellers.  The Seafang (1946-1947) was powered by the 37-litre (2240 cubic inch) V12 Rolls-Royce Griffon (1941-1955) and was the final evolution of the Spitfire (1938-1948) derived Seafire (1943-1947) and Spiteful (1944), the trio all designed for use on Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the series enjoying success despite the basic design being hampered by the narrow undercarriage which made landings a challenge (something corrected on the Spiteful & Seafang).  Series production of the Seafang was contemplated but eventually only 18 were built because the jet-powered de Havilland Sea Vampire (1945-1950) proved capable of carrier operations, surprising some at the Admiralty who doubted the jets could operate from anywhere but land.

Contra-rotating propellers (known also as coaxial contra-rotating propellers) were implemented on some World War II (1939-1945) aircraft to address several aerodynamic and performance challenges associated with the fitting of piston engines developing power well in excess of anything the designers had envisaged.  The attraction were many and included reducing the “torque Reaction”, the phenomenon in which the torque generated by a spinning propeller cause an aircraft to yaw in the opposite direction of the propeller's rotation.  Pilots had long been trained to counteract this by use of the rudder (especially during take-off and low-speed-flight) but as engine power rose and propeller blades became bigger, heavier and more numerous, the effect greatly was exaggerated.  On two or four-engined machines, the obvious solution was to have the blades on each wing rotate in opposite directions but on the most powerful of the single-engined fighters, the two units were mounted one behind the other and this had the benefit also of allowing the rear propeller to recover energy from the swirling airflow (the slipstream) generated by the forward.  That allowed designers to harness the greater power without increasing the diameter of the propellers, avoiding issues with ground clearance and supersonic tip speeds (one of the reasons the Soviet Air Force’s swept-wing (unusually in a propeller aircraft) Tupolev Tu-95 (Bear) bomber (in service 1956-1993) was so loud was because the propeller tips exceeded the speed of sound).  Had jet technology not emerged when it did, the contra-rotating propellers would have become more common, wartime adoption was limited by the complexity in assembly and additional maintenance demands.

Propeller

Propeller (pronounced pruh-pel-er)

(1) A person or thing that propels.

(2) A device with a hub to which are attached evenly spaced & shaped radiating blades, rotating on a shaft to pitch against air or water to propel an aircraft, ship etc.

(3) A wind-driven (usually three-bladed) device that provides mechanical energy, as for driving an electric alternator in wind plants (not a universal use).

(4) A steamboat thus propelled; a screw steamer (now rare).

(5) In fishing, a spinnerbait.

1780: The construct was propel + -er and the original sense was “one who or that which that propels”, an agent noun from the verb propel.  The verb propel was a mid-fifteenth century form from the Middle English propellen (to drive away, expel), from the Latin propellere (push forward, drive forward, drive forth; move, impel), the construct being pro- (the prefix here use in the sense of “forward direction, forward movement”) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The meaning “to drive onward, cause to move forward” emerged in the 1650s.  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.  The alternative spelling propellor dates from the early days of aviation in the first years of the twentieth century and is now extinct.  The standard abbreviation is “prop”, the use noted from military aviation since 1914.  Propeller is a noun; the noun plural is propellers.

Although the concept was used in antiquity and inventors and others (most famously Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519))  had for centuries experimented, the use of the word in mechanical engineering dates from 1809 and was from nautical design describing the application of a “device for moving vessels on or under the water”.  In aircraft design the theory of the use of “propeller” appears in papers and drawings in the 1840s (in what were then described as “flying machines”) and models were built which demonstrated a “proof of concept” although it would be decades before lightweight engines of sufficient power existed to allow experiments in aerodynamics and construction to be powered.  The first known rendering of an aircraft propeller in a recognizably modern form dates from 1853.  The modern propeller uses two or (usually) more twisted, airfoil-shaped blades mounted around a shaft which are spun to provide propulsion of a vehicle through water or air, or to cause fluid flow, as in a pump.  The lift generated by the spinning blades provides the force that propels the vehicle or the fluid although this lift does not of necessity have to induce an actual upward force; its direction is simply parallel to the rotating shaft.

Lindsay Lohan getting off the propeller driven (technically a turbo-prop) NAPA Shuttle, The Parent Trap (1998).

The term “to disembark” was borrowed from nautical use and of late "to deplane" has entered English which seems unnecessary but the companion “to disemplane” seems more absurd still; real people continue to “get on” and “get off” aircraft.

The terms “impeller” & “propeller” both describe devices which use various implantations of the “rotating blade(s) design and are used in mechanical systems to take advantage of the properties of fluid dynamics to harness specific energy for some purpose.  A propeller is a type of rotating device with blades designed to propel or move a fluid (typically a gas or a liquid) by generating thrust; they are most associated with marine vessels, aircraft and some industrial applications.  In aircraft, propellers can be attached to wing-mounted engines or mounted just about anywhere on a fuselage although historically a location at the front has been most common.  In marine applications, propellers have on specialized vessels been located to the sides of the hull but they almost always emerge at or close to the stern.  An impeller is a rotating component with blades or vanes (almost always enclosed in a housing), typically used for fluid or air distribution, such as a pump or a compressor, the primary purpose being to increase flow or pressure.  The classic impellers those in centrifugal pumps where they spin, creating a flow of fluid (liquid or air) by imparting centrifugal force to the substance; in practice, impellers such accelerate liquids are more common.

So an impeller & propeller do much the same thing, using blades to propel some form of fluid.  The use of different terms is helpful because in practice they are very different devices and the distinction that one is external and the other located within a housing is handy and the origin of that seems to lie in the construct of impeller which came first, dating from circa 1680 (as an agent noun from the verb impel) in the sense of “someone or something which impels”.  What the design of an impeller does is use the energy from the rotation to increase the flow or pressure of the fluid and it that it’s the reverse of a turbine, the rotation of which extracts energy from, and reduces the pressure of the flow.  Engineers also have a number of highly technical rules about what is and is not defined as an impeller base on the whether the entry and exit of the fluids occur axially or radially but it seemed impossible to construct such definitions as absolutes so for most the simpler distinctions are more helpful.  In engineering, impellers have been recorded as a machine or component name since 1836.

News Corp website 22 January 2024.  To refer to a jet engine’s nacelle as a propeller could (almost) be defended on the basis it’s the jet engine which “propels” the aircraft but this is more likely an example of (1) the decline in the quality of journalists and (2) what happens when there are no sub-editors to correct the mistakes.  In time, artificial intelligence (AI) should improve things.    

The verb impel dates from the early fifteenth century and was from the Middle English impellen, from the Latin impellere (to push, strike against; set in motion, drive forward, urge on), the construct an assimilated form of in- (into, in, on, upon), from the primitive Indo-European root en- (in) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The construct of the Latin impellō was in- +‎ pellō (push, drive), from the Proto-Italic pelnō or pelnaō, a nasal-infix present derived from the primitive Indo-European pelh- (to drive, strike, thrust).  The Latin prefix –in could be appended to create a negative (un-, non-, not etc) but here was used as an intensifier, another possible meaning (in, within, inside) coincidental to the mechanical devices being usually mounted within housings.

Propellers and impellers both use blades (although those of the latter are often in the form of a single piece wither cast, molded, or (occasionally) forged.  Turbines also use blade-like parts but these are called vanes and an industry which seems unable to decide on terminology is the burgeoning business of wind-power; the huge rotating assemblies on wind turbines are referred to variously as vanes, blades or rotors.  Rotor blades are familiar for the use in helicopters which is essentially an airframe where a large-scale propeller sits atop the structure, pointing upwards and rather than “propeller blades”, the accepted term is “rotor blades”, the design of which permits both lift and directional thrust although some exotic multi-engined machines have rotors in housings which, to maximize performance, can themselves be rotated to operate as conventional propellers.

Supermarine Seafang (1946) with contra-rotating propellers.  The Seafang (1946-1947) was powered by the 37-litre (2240 cubic inch) V12 Rolls-Royce Griffon (1941-1955) and was the final evolution of the Spitfire (1938-1948) derived Seafire (1943-1947) and Spiteful (1944), the trio all designed for use on Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the series enjoying success despite the basic design being hampered by the narrow undercarriage which made landings a challenge (something corrected on the Spiteful & Seafang).  Series production of the Seafang was contemplated but eventually only 18 were built because the jet-powered de Havilland Sea Vampire (1945-1950) proved capable of carrier operations, surprising some at the Admiralty who doubted the jets could operate from anywhere but land.

Contra-rotating propellers (known also as coaxial contra-rotating propellers) were implemented on some World War II (1939-1945) aircraft to address several aerodynamic and performance challenges associated with the fitting of piston engines developing power well in excess of anything the designers had envisaged.  The attraction were many and included reducing the “torque Reaction”, the phenomenon in which the torque generated by a spinning propeller cause an aircraft to yaw in the opposite direction of the propeller's rotation.  Pilots had long been trained to counteract this by use of the rudder (especially during take-off and low-speed-flight) but as engine power rose and propeller blades became bigger, heavier and more numerous, the effect greatly was exaggerated.  On two or four-engined machines, the obvious solution was to have the blades on each wing rotate in opposite directions but on the most powerful of the single-engined fighters, the two units were mounted one behind the other and this had the benefit also of allowing the rear propeller to recover energy from the swirling airflow (the slipstream) generated by the forward.  That allowed designers to harness the greater power without increasing the diameter of the propellers, avoiding issues with ground clearance and supersonic tip speeds (one of the reasons the Soviet Air Force’s swept-wing (unusually in a propeller aircraft) Tupolev Tu-95 (Bear) bomber (in service 1956-1993) was so loud was because the propeller tips exceeded the speed of sound).  Had jet technology not emerged when it did, the contra-rotating propellers would have become more common, wartime adoption was limited by the complexity in assembly and additional maintenance demands.

A flight of Republic P-47D Thunderbolts with under-wing drop-tanks.

The propeller also influenced other aspects of the aircraft.  When the prototype Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1941-1945) first took to the air, it was the largest, heaviest single-seat piston-engined fighter ever produced (a distinction it still enjoys today).  Even the early versions used an engine rated at 2000 horsepower (later this would rise to 2800) and to harness this output demanded a large propeller.  The 12 foot (3.7 m) diameter of this four-bladed monster meant the landing-gear had to be extraordinarily long and the only way it could be accommodated was to have them retract inward, otherwise the heavy wing armament (8 x .50 inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (425 rounds per gun)) wouldn’t have fitted.

Chrysler XI-2220 V16.  The splined shaft is where the propeller attaches.

With things like the Thunderbolt, the Hawker Tempest and the later Supermarine Spitfires (and its derivatives), the piston-engined fighter achieved its final evolutionary form, the jet engine offering a path to performance unattainable while the physics of propellers imposed limits.  However, had the use of the A-Bombs not ended the war in 1945, development of the propeller aircraft would have continued because the early jets lacked thrust and reliability as well as suffering a rate of fuel consumption which rendered them unsuitable for long-distance operations.  With the war against Japan envisaged as lasting well into 1946, development of faster, more powerful piston engines continued although, given the parlous state of the Japanese military, it’s dubious at least there was much of a rationale for this but the military industrial complex is a creature of inertia and Chrysler’s research had perfected a new aero-engine for the Thunderbolt.  The XI-2220 was a 2,220 cubic inch (36.4 litre) V16 which was rated at a basic 2450 horsepower with some 4000 hp available when tuned for wartime use but with the end of the conflict, all such developments were cancelled and attention switched to the brave new world of jets and swept wings.  Thus ended the era of the big propeller-driven fighters, the V16 stillborn, as was the other extraordinary aero-engine on the drawing board: Britain's 32-cylinder Napier-Sabre H-32 which was a scaled-up version of their H24.

Bilateral

Bilateral (pronounced bahy-lat-er-uhl)

(1) Pertaining to, involving, or affecting two or both sides, factions, parties, or the like.

(2) Located on opposite sides of an axis; two-sided, especially when of equal size, value etc.

(3) In anatomy and biology, pertaining to the right and left sides of a structure (especially in the region furthest from the median plane).

(4) In contract law, binding the parties to reciprocal obligations.

(5) In anthropology, relating to descent through both maternal and paternal lineage.

(6) In the British education system, a course combining academic and technical components.

(7) In physics, acting or placed at right angles to a line of motion or strain.

(8) In phonetics and phonology, of a consonant (especially the English clear l), pertaining to sounds generated by partially blocking the egress of the airstream with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, leaving space on one or both sides of the occlusion for air passage.

1775: The construct is bi + lateral.  Bi-, in the sense of the word-forming element (two, having two, twice, double, doubly, twofold, once every two etc) is from the from Latin bis (twice) or bīnus (double), from the Old Latin which was cognate with the Sanskrit dvi-, the Ancient Greek di- & dis-, the Old English twi- and the German zwei- (twice, double), all from the primitive Indo-European PIE root dwo- (two), ultimate source also of the Modern English duo.  Bilateral is a noun & adjective, bilateralist, bilateralization, bilaterality & bilateralism are nouns and bilaterally is an adverb; the noun plural is bilaterals.

It may have been in use before but was certainly nativized during the sixteenth century.  The occasionally bin- before vowels was a form which originated in French, not Latin although it’s suggested this may have been influenced by the Latin bini (twofold), the familiar example being “binary”.  In computing, it’s most associated with zero-one distinction in the sense of off-on and in chemistry, it denotes two parts or equivalents of the substance referred to although there are rules and conventions of use to avoid confusion with stuff named using the Greek prefix di- such as carbon dioxide (CO₂).  In general use, words built with bi- prefix can cause confusion.  While biennial (every two years) seems well understood, other constructs probably due to rarity remain, ambiguous: fortnightly is preferable to biweekly and using “every two months” or “twice a month” as required removes all doubt.

Lateral was first adopted as verb in the 1640s from the fourteenth century Old French lateral, directly from Latin laterālis (belonging to the side), a derivation of latus (genitive lateris) (the side, flank of humans or animals, lateral surface) of uncertain origin.  As a noun, the precise definition "situated on either side of the median vertical longitudinal plane of the body" is from 1722.   Equilateral (all sides equal) was first used in mathematics in the 1560s, a borrowing from the Latin aequilateralis, aequi- being the suffix- meaning “equal”; contra-lateral (occurring on the opposite side) is from 1871; the adjective ipsilateral (on the same side of the body), bolting on the Latin ipse- suffix (self) dates from 1907; the use in US football to describe a lateral pass seems to have appeared in print first in 1934.  Multilateral and trilateral seem to have been seventeenth century inventions from geometry, the more familiar modern applications in international diplomacy not noted until 1802.

Conventions of use

Although one would have to be imaginative, with the Latin, there’s little limit to the compound words one could construct to describe the number of sides of a thing.  The words, being as unique as whole numbers, would also be infinite.  Whether many would be linguistically useful is doubtful; sextilateral may mislead and ūndēquadrāgintālateral (thirty nine sided) seems a complicated solution to a simple problem.

Unilateral             One-sided
Bilateral               Two-sided
Trilateral              Three-sided
Quadrilateral        Four-sided
Quintilateral         Five-sided
Sextilateral          Six-sided
Septilateral          Seven-sided
Octolateral           Eight-sided
Novilateral           Nine-sided
Decilateral           Ten-sided
Centilateral          Hundred-sided
Millelateral           Thousand-sided

The modern convention appears to be to stop at trilateral and thereafter, when describing gatherings of four or more, adopt multilateral or phrases like four-power or six-party.  Trilateral seem still manageable, adopted not only by governmental entities but also by the Trilateral Commission (founded in 1973 with members from Japan, the US, and Europe), a remarkably indiscrete right-wing think-tank.  However, in the organically pragmatic evolution of English, there it tends to stop, quadrilateral now most associated with Euclidean plane geometry (there are seven quadrilateral polygons) and used almost exclusively in that discipline and other strains of mathematics.  Outside of mathematics, it was only in the formal language of diplomacy that quadrilateral was used with any frequency.  The agreement of 15 July 1840, (negotiated between Lord Palmerston (1784-1865; variously UK prime-minister or foreign secretary on several occasions 1830-1865) and Nicholas I (1796–1855; Tsar of Russia 1825-1855) to tidy up things in the Mediterranean) between Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia was formalised as a quadrilateral treaty but the word fell from favour with quadruple alliance preferred for a later European arrangement.

Bilateral diplomacy: Lindsay Lohan meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye since 2003), Ankara, 27 January 2017.

Although many of the wonks in the foreign policy establishment like to dream of a world in which everything is settled by multi-lateral discussions, in the world of the realists, it's understood the core of conflicts (which are the central dynamic of international relations) are bilateral.  Accordingly, most efforts are devoted to bilateral discussions.  In the business of predictions, it's also the relationships between two states which absorbs most of the thoughts of pundits and the long-term projections of those in the field can make interesting reading, decades later.  In 1988, Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) published 1999: Victory Without War, which with no false modesty he suggested was "...a how-to guide in foreign police for whomever was elected president in November 1988".  Given that, it's not surprising one passage has attracted recent comment: "...in the twenty-first century the Sino-US relationship will be one of the most important, and one of the most mutually beneficial, bilateral relationships in the world."  Things do appear to have worked out differently but there is a school of thought that the leadership of Xi Jinping (b 1953; general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013) is an aberration and that his replacement is likely to be one who pursues a more cooperative foreign and economic policy because that is more likely to be in China's long-term (ie a century ahead) interest.

A quadrilateral meeting to discuss German war guilt reparations and allied debts accumulated during World War I (1914-1918): Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934; President of France 1913-1920, left), Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1922-1923. centre-left), Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943, centre right) and Georges Theunis (1873–1966; Prime Minister of Belgium 1921-1925 & 1934-1935, right), 10 Downing Street, London, December 1922.

This was an obscure photograph which until the twenty-first century had appeared only in some specialist history texts but as the internet achieved critical mass memes became a thing and Mussolini’s sanpaku eyes were a gift for the meme-makers, most captions suggesting the duce may have had a sudden premonition of his own unfortunate end although others offered: “I feel naked without a moustache”, “I think I have imposter syndrome”, “Oh God, I just pooped my pants”, “One of these men may be a Freemason but I don't know which” and “I wonder if they can tell I'm on drugs”.  However, although not noted as a mystic, he may also have sensed impending death “sitteth at the right hand”, Andrew Bonar Law then having only months to live.

Serving as the UK prime minister for seven months between October 1922 and May 1923, it’s ironic Andrew Bonar Law is now remembered only because of the memorable title of his biography (The Unknown Prime Minister. The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858–1923 (1955)) by Tory historian Robert Norman (Baron Blake, 1916–2003), something borrowed from a chance remark at Law’s funeral by Henry Asquith (1852–1928; UK prime minister 1908-1916): “We’re burying the unknown prime minister next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”  Law deserves more than that footnote because that he even achieved the office was emblematic of both a changing country and a changing party.  He was preferred over Lord Curzon (1859–1925), a glittering former foreign secretary and Viceroy of India; never again would seriously it be contemplated a prime-minister might sit in the House of Lords.  Unexpectedly diagnosed with an inoperable throat cancer, Law resigned and within six months was dead.      

Rare too is the more recent diplomatic creation, the pentalateral (five-power) treaty of which there appear to have been but two.  One was signed on 23 December 1950 between the United States, France, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.  It didn’t end well.  The other pentalateral treaty was sealed in Tehran during October 2007 between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, the littoral countries of the Caspian Sea and was a mechanism to avoid squabbles while carving up resources.  Some assemblies are better described in other ways.  When the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK & the US) plus Germany formed a now defunct standing committee to deal with issues raised by Iran’s nuclear programme, although a sextilateral, it was instead dubbed P5+1 although in Brussels, the eurocrats preferred E3+3.

The chief negotiators of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, left to right: Sergey Razov (b 1953; Russia), Christopher Hill (b 1952; United States), Kenichirō Sasae (b 1951; Japan), Wu Dawei (b 1946; China), (Chun Yung-woo, b 1952; South Korea), Kim Kye-gwan (b 1943; North Korea).  Those learning English will find the conventional tool of surface analysis produces a misleading meaning if they deconstruct the elements of "sextilateral".  Here, a spokesman for six men briefs the media about their sextilateral, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing, China, 23 December 2006.

Gypsy

Gypsy (pronounced jip-see)

(1) A once common term for the Roma or Romani but now largely socially proscribed as disparaging and offensive (sometimes with initial capital letter).  The Roma or Romani are scattered throughout Europe and North America and often maintain a nomadic way of life even in urbanized, industrialized societies, their source apparently a wave of migration from north-west India from around the ninth century onwards.

(2) The Indic language of the Roma or Romani although not in formal academic or technical use (always with initial capital letter).

(3) A person held to resemble a Roma or Romani, especially in physical characteristics (notably the combination of darker skin and dark, curly hair) or in a traditionally ascribed lifestyle and inclination to move from place to place.

(4) Of or relating to the Roma or Romani (can be used neutrally but is often applied as a disparaging and offensive slur).

(5) In informal use, working independently or without a license; a vagrant; an itinerant person or any person, not necessarily Romani; a tinker, a traveller; a circus or carnival performer; any itinerant person, or any person suspected of making a living from dishonest practices or theft.

(6) In informal use, free-spirited (though distinct from “bohemian” which implies something more sophisticated).

(7) In informal use, a sly, roguish woman.

(8) In informal use, a fortune teller (now rare).

(9) A move in contra dancing in which two dancers walk in a circle around each other while maintaining eye contact (but not touching as in a swing), the variations including the whole gyp, the half gyp, and the gypsy meltdown (in which this step precedes a swing); out of context the terms can be disparaging and offensive.

(10) In theater, a member of a Broadway musical chorus line.

1505–1515: A back formation from gipcyan, a Middle English dialectal form of egypcien (Egyptian) which over centuries lost the unstressed initial syllable), adopted in this context because of the mistaken perception Gypsies came originally from Egypt.  It was used as an adjective since the 1620s (with the sense "unconventional; outdoor) and the modern (and now archaic) UK word gippy was in use by at least 1889 as a truncated colloquial form of “Egyptian” although gip & gyp as abbreviations of gipsy & gypsy were known since the 1840s, the related verbs being gipped & gipping.  It was cognate with the Spanish Gitano and close in sense to the Turkish & Arabic Kipti (gypsy) although the literal meaning of that was “Coptic” (the form of Christianity most common in Egypt).  In Middle French the closest term was Bohémien (although that tended to be a geographical reference without the same associations familiar from modern use), the Spanish also using Flamenco (from Flanders) in the same way.  Those adoptions of use do hint at the manner in which the Roma have so often been treated as “outsiders”, “outlanders” or “foreigners” in just about any country where they were found although the nuances of “gypsy” were very different to notions such as “rootless cosmopolitans” which were attached to the Jews.  The alternative spellings were gipsy, gipsey, gypsey, gypsie & gyptian, all of which except gipsy are thought archaic.

In his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry Fowler (1858–1933) noted the special significance of gypsy (rather than gipsy) being the preferred spelling in English, a development not related to the practice imposed on other words (tyre, syphon etc) where a ‘y’ was substituted for an ‘I’ for no better reason than the effect was thought decorative.  Henry Fowler thought it helpful because it existed as a relic to remind those concerned that the original meaning was “Egyptian” but noted also the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) statement that (in the early twentieth century) the preferred spelling appeared to be gipsy by the plural form gypsies was far from uncommon, presumably because users found awkward the “…appearance and repetition of ‘y’”.  Gypsy is a noun, verb & adjective; gypsydom, gypsyhood & gypsyism are nouns, gypsying & gypsied are verbs and gypsyesque, gypsyish, gypsy-like & gypseian are adjectives; the noun plural is gypsies.

Noted traveller Lindsay Lohan, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 2009.

The terms "Gypsy", "Roma", "Traveller" and "Romani" are often used interchangeably, but there are differences.  Gypsy is a term that historically referred to the Romani people, who are believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent and migrated to Europe and other parts of the world over many centuries but it’s usually now thought a derogatory slur because of the history of use in stereotyping and discriminating against Romani people.  Roma is now the preferred term for the Romani people, and it is often used to refer to the ethnic group as a whole.  Romani is an adjective that refers to anything related to the Roma people, such as Romani culture or the Romani language.  It is used also as a noun to refer to an individual member of the Roma people.  Traveller is a term used to describe various groups of people who live a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, including the Roma people. However, there are other groups of people who are also considered Travellers, such as the Irish Travellers in Ireland and the UK.

Lymantria dispar: The moth formerly known as gypsy (their appearance is subject to wide variations between regions).  

TheAwareness of the sense shift of “gypsy” from something purely descriptive to a racial slur has also had consequences in zoology.  In 2021, the Entomological Society of America (ESA) announced it was removing “gypsy moth” and “gypsy ant” as the sanctioned common names for two insects.  The link between the insects and the slur is not as remote as some may suspect because as Romani scholar Professor Ethel Brooks noted, the common name of the species Lymantria dispar was gained from the behavior of the hairy larvae of the caterpillar stage during which the larvae would swarm and strip the leaves from a tree, leaving behind so much destruction that they were habitually referred to as “a plague”.  Tellingly, nobody ever cursed the Lymantria dispar but all blamed the “gypsy moth caterpillars”.  Dr Brooks made the connection between peoples’ view of the ravenous bugs and her own experience of the way the Roma were often disparaged.  She however confessed to being surprised her advocacy for change succeeded with the entomologists although the ESA was aware the Lymantria dispar’s common name was derogatory and had received a request for change as early as 2020, forming a Better Common Names Project, a task force to review and replace offensive or inappropriate insect common names.

Other branches of science are also acting.  The American Ornithological Society in 2020 announced the formation of an ad hoc committee to look into nomenclatures, some of the more obvious changes being the replacement of bird-names based on the names of people with dubious histories in colonialism or slavery.  In genetics, there’s also a move to rename the “Gypsy jumping genes”, a class noted for their propensity to make copies of themselves and insert them back into the genome.   In genetics, such revisions are not unknown; some years ago a number of genes were renamed because their original names, thought whimsical at the time, were held to be offensive to those with certain physical characteristics or suffering some forms of mental illness.  In ichthyology, attention is also being paid to names.  The Atlantic goliath grouper was historically referred to as the "jewfish" and while the origin of the name is obscure, a review determined it was likely the species' physical characteristics were connected habitually deployed caricatures of anti-Semitic beliefs and as long ago as 1927, the New York Aquarium changed the fish's name to Junefish.  In 2001, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) changed the name to "goliath grouper".

South African de Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth c/n 842 ZS-ABA, registered to The Johannesburg Light Plane Club At Baragwanath Airfield and pictured with Junkers A50 Junior ZS-ABV c/n 3511 and Avro 594 Avian II ZS-AAN c/n 124.  The de Havilland Gipsy aero-engine enjoyed a very long life.  First produced in 1927, it was used in an extraordinary number of airframes, most famously de Havilland’s Gipsy Moth and Tiger Moth.  The last variant, the Gipsy Queen 70, left the assembly line almost thirty years after the first.

Stanton Special in its original 1953 hill climb form (left) and as re-configured in 1954 with a Weltex Mistral body for land speed record competition (right).    

One curious footnote in the long career of the Gipsy engine was its use in the 1953 Stanton Special, a New Zealand built race-car.  Although not a classic racing-car power-plant, the Gipsy was light, reliable and produced a lot of torque over a wide power-band, making it ideal for the hill-climbs for which it was intended.  A product typical of the practical improvisation which characterized so much of the early motor-sport scene in New Zealand, the engine was salvaged from a Tiger Moth used for aerial-spraying and the Stanton Special quickly was dubbed “the cropduster”, the aero-engine’s distinctive exhaust note meaning it was never mistaken for anything else.  So effective did it proved in hill climbs it attracted comments suggesting that were something done to improve its dubious aerodynamic properties, it might enjoy some success in events where speeds were higher.  Accordingly, Christchurch-based Weltex Plastics, one of the pioneers in the production of fibreglass structures, in 1954 furnished one of its Mistral bodies (a design produced under license from the UK’s Microplas), complete with a tail fin to enhance straight-line stability (a la that year’s Jaguar D-Type at Le Mans).  Thus configured and with the engine tuned further with the addition of an Abbott supercharger & four Amal carburetors, it was entered in some national land speed contests and won convincingly, managing an elapsed time of 12.96 seconds in the standing quarter-mile (400 m) and a flying quarter at 154 mph (248 km/h).  The tweaking continued and in 1958 it set an Australasian land speed record which would stand for ten years, covering the standing kilometre in 22.95 seconds with a terminal velocity of 175 mph (281 km/h).  The aerodynamics must have been good but remarkably no wind-tunnel time was part of the design process, the stylist apparently sketching something which “looked slippery”.

Syzygy

Syzygy (pronounced siz-i-jee)

(1) In astronomy (actually borrowed from astrology!), the descriptor for either of the two positions (conjunction or opposition) of a celestial body when sun, earth, and the body lie in a straight line (since applied to the "straight-line configuration" of firstly three and later any number of celestial bodies in a gravitational system.

(2) Any two related things, either alike or opposite (obsolete except for historic references).

(3) In classical prosody, a group or combination of two feet, sometimes restricted to a combination of two feet of different kinds.

(4) In biology (especially zoology), the aggregation in a mass of certain protozoans, especially when occurring before sexual reproduction but can be used also when describing the asexual exchange of genetic material.

(5) In psychology, an archetypal pairing of contra-sexual opposites, symbolizing the communication of the conscious and unconscious minds.

(6) In mathematics, a relation between generators of a module.

(7) In medical pathology, a fusing of some or all of the organs.

(8) In genetics, the pairing of chromosomes in meiosis

1650-1660:  From the Late Latin sȳzygia (conjunction), from the Ancient Greek συζυγία (suzugía) (yoke of animals, pair, union of two, conjunction), from syzygein (to yoke together), the construct being an assimilated form of syn- (together) + zygon (yoke), from the primitive Indo-European root yeug- (to join).  In the Greek, the word produced also zeugnýnai (to yoke together), sometimes simplified in English transcription as synzugon.  In English, syzygy was adopted by astronomy in 1847.  In science there are a number of terms of classification based on syzygy, the most attractive of which is probably Syzygium samarangense (a taxonomic species within the family Myrtaceae (wax apple or Javan rose apple).  

In progress.

Syzygy was one of those words from the once respectable field of astrology later adopted by a number of scientific disciplines (astronomy, genetics, psychiatry, mathematics, zoology) and retained, even after astrology became widely regarded as disreputable.  In mathematics and the physical sciences, it was a handy descriptor of things which became paired or, however briefly, were in alignment although historically the emphasis was on "pair", a syzygy as able to be applied to an identical pair as two diametric opposites.  That permissiveness is now listed by most dictionaries as obsolete but is something to be noted when reading historic texts.

The origin of the application of the word in disciplines like psychiatry and psychology (noted more by its appearance in literary works than professional or academic papers) is thought by some to have been triggered by Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyova (1853–1900) who used syzygy to denote “close union” and applied the concept in a variety of ways which influenced Russian writers not only in the nineteenth century but also those of the symbolist and neo-idealist movements of the later Soviet era and some critics agree Solovyov was at least one of the sources for Fyodor Dostoevsky's (1821–1881) characters Alyosha and Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1880).  Very much in the tradition of   More controversial is the idea his book, The Meaning of Love (1892) (in which syzygy was introduced) is one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy's (1828-1910) much discussed The Kreutzer Sonata (1889); critics remain divided and opinions are argued with vigour although unusually united was the critical industry built around Carl Jung (1875–1961) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) (particularly the former's theories of the collective unconscious and the balancing of conscious and unconscious elements within an individual's psyche, although this was metaphorical and abstract compared to the use in astronomy and other sciences) which found strands of syzygy in the many themes of the self which so permeates their work.  Given the overarching concepts of (1) the individuation process and (2) the unions of individuals, especially of male and female tending to a totality, even a unity, it’s a word with some appeal to those who seem to value having something with such a range of adaptable meanings to use in works of speculative vagueness.