Corporal

Corporal (pronounced kawr-per-uhl or kaw-pruhl)

(1) Of the human body; bodily; physical

(2) In zoology, of the body proper, as distinguished from the head and limbs.

(3) As corporeal, belonging to the material world (mostly obsolete except for historic references although still used as a technical term in philosophy).

(4) In ecclesiastical accoutrements, a fine cloth, usually of linen, on which the consecrated elements are placed or with which they are covered during the Eucharist (also called the communion cloth).

(5) In Christian theology, as the seven Corporal Works of Mercy, the practical acts of compassion, as distinct from the seven Spiritual Works (the contemplative acts).

(6) In military use, a non-commissioned officer ranking above lance corporal (private first class (PFC) in US Army) and below a sergeant; in the Royal Navy, a petty officer who assists the master-at-arms; similar use in the armed services of many countries.

1350–1400: From the Middle English corporall, from the Anglo-French corporall, from the Latin corporālis (bodily, of the body) from corpus (body), the construct being corpor- (stem of corpuscorpus) + -ālis (the third-declension two-termination suffix (neuter -āle), used to form adjectives of relationship from nouns or numerals, from the primitive Indo-European -li-, which later dissimilated into an early version of -aris).  The use describing alter cloths was derived from the Medieval Latin corporāle pallium eucharistic (altar cloth) and replaced corporas, itself inherited from Classical Latin under the influence of Old French.  The pronunciation is kaw-pruhl in military use and kawr-per-uhl for all other purposes.  The adoption by the military dates from 1570–1580 but the origin is uncertain.  It may have come from the Old French (via Italian) into Middle French as a variant of caporal, from the Italian caporale, apparently a contraction of phrase capo corporale (corporal head) in the sense of the head of a body (of soldiers).  Source was the Latin caput (head), perhaps influenced also by the Old French corps (body (of men)).  Corporal is a noun & adjective, corporality, corporalcy & corporalship are nouns and corporally is an adverb; the noun plural is corporals.

The strategic corporal

The idea of the “strategic corporal” was first explained in a paper published in 1999 by USMC (US Marine Corps) General Charles Krulak (b 1942).  Based on both practical experience and his analysis of the likely evolution of conflicts into localized, small-scale but intense theatres of operation, he described what he called the “three block war” in which the Marines could be involved in conventional fire-fights, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid, all conduced in a geographical area no bigger than three city blocks and undertaken either sequentially or, more challengingly, simultaneously and in an environment in which hostile, friendly & neutral forces are intermeshed.  The reference to the “three city blocks” was included for didactic purposes to illustrate his point that the training of military personnel needed to be refined better to encompass those required to make independent decisions, including the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) & junior officers actually commanding small numbers of troops on the ground.  Just as the term “three blocks” wasn’t a literal limitation but a way of illustrating a change of mindset from the traditional focus on divisional & brigade level deployment, the phrase “strategic corporal” was chosen because in the military that is the lowest rank at which a soldier is in command of others and thus in a position to make decisions which could have some strategic significance.  Typically, a “strategic corporal” might be a lieutenant who in modern warfare, must be trained to make major decisions without the benefit of direction from the chain of command.

The concept has been influential in many militaries and has been compared with the idea of the “man on the ground” doctrine which emerged in the nineteenth century when the early technologies of long-distance communication meant that for the first time it was practical for military commanders in remote locations to seek and receive instructions from perhaps thousands of miles away.  It would however be decades before those interactions habitually became real-time so the idea of the “strategic corporal” would not then have been unfamiliar and there was an at least tacit acknowledgement that the man on the ground would often be the one making critical decisions rather than anyone in the high command or even the headquarters staff in theatre.  This could of course mean a bad decision could theoretically trigger a war but as "the Fashoda Incident" (1898 and the retrospective re-naming of what was at the time in Paris and London thought of as “the Fashoda Crisis”) illustrated, the man on the ground having the necessary background and training to make a decision based on factors beyond what was militarily possible could have far-reaching consequences.

So the idea of the strategic corporal is that training in such matters needs to extend to the layers of command where such decisions need to be made, not to the point at which formerly they’re delegated or devolved.  In a sense that of course is a mere recognition of reality but the elevation of the concept into a doctrine has been criticized as becoming “mythologized within the military culture [and] forever associated with negative consequences”, the result of the ultimate responsibility for decisions being seen through legal filters, leaders now too “…concerned with the perceived risk..” and as a means to manage that “…senior leaders have elevated decision authorities far away from anyone but themselves”.

Military analysts have noted that military operations conducted in the Gaza Strip provide the perfect example of a “three block war”, one that has the potential to unfold as a series of “three block” theatres.  In these urban environments in which a civilian population co-exists still in high-density with paramilitary forces and irregular combatants, decisions taken by a soldier in direct command of fewer than a dozen troops in the invading army can have a strategic significance well beyond the particular three blocks in which they’re operating.  Complicating this is the suspicion expressed by some that a high civilian death-toll is actually an outcome desired by the Hamas (Hamas the acronym of the Arabic  حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah) (Islamic Resistance Movement); HMS glossed in the Hamas Covenant (1998) by the Arabic word ḥamās (حماس) (which translates variously as “strength”, “zeal” or “bravery”)).  The evidence to support this is strong in that the nature of the attack staged by the Hamas on Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 was of such a nature that retaliation by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would be bound to result in civilian causalities in Gaza; there are not effective alternative military tactics available, the choices being only to retaliate or not.

The idea used by Hamas is not new.  In 1942, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile (which in 1940 had shifted from Paris to London), had become especially disturbed by the success SS-Obergruppenführer (general) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) was enjoying as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, a role in which he was effectively the Nazi’s “governor of Czechoslovak”.  Using the Nazi’s tradition method of governing conquered territories by “carrot & stick” Heydrich had not spared the stick early in his administration (1941-1942) but been remarkably successful with the inducements he offered and had achieved an unexpectedly high degree of cooperation with the local population.  With little signs of an effective resistance movement operating, the government in exile took the decision, in cooperation with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), to send an assassination squad to Prague, knowing full well the retribution against the population would be severe but the object was to use that to stimulate local resistance.  More than a thousand Czechs were killed in revenge for Heydrich’s death.

So in the awful business of war, civilian deaths can be thought of as useful political devices, something which in Islamic theology is regarded as the noble sacrifice of martyrdom.  The Hamas, having concluded (not unreasonably) that 75 years on, the leaders of many Arab states had tired of the Palestinian “problem” and were moving on, regarding the Jewish state as a permanent part of the region’s political geography with the advantages of détente greater than those of conflict, needed to be back on the agenda.  The Hamas understand a resort to diplomacy is unlikely much to influence the Arab rulers but the spilling of Muslim blood at the hands of the IDF will bring protest to the streets in the region and beyond.  This of course makes inevitable that when the strategic corporals proceed, however cautiously, through the rubble of Gaza’s blocks, they’ll be encouraged by their opponents to make decisions and these decisions can have consequences which ripple far and perhaps for a generation.  What one strategic corporal decides to do really does matter.  By comparison, most of the statements and resolutions, issued or passed by politicians, ex-politicians and other worthies around the planet will be noted with equal interest by those in Tel Aviv, the Hamas to the south, the Hezbollah to the north, the Ayatollahs to the east and the fish to the west.

Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy

The Bible reduces the New Testament’s conception of mercy to seven practical (corporal) and seven spiritual (contemplative) acts, each said to be a virtue influencing one's will to have compassion for, and, if possible, ameliorate another's misfortune.  Italian Dominican friar & philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) thought that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, it must be thought a special virtue adequately distinguishable from its effects.  Later theologians noted its motive is the misery which one discerns in another, particularly in so far as this condition is deemed to be, in some sense at least, involuntary but even if not, the necessity is to offer succor of either body or soul.

Corporal works of mercy

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To harbor the harborless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

Spiritual works of mercy

To instruct the ignorant
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offences willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead
To counsel the doubtful

The Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 25:34-41) makes clear those who offer mercy “…are righteous and their souls will be granted eternal life…” whereas those who do not “…shall be cursed, cast into everlasting fire and given over to the devil.”

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

***

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Australian prime-minister 2013-2015) visited Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) in prison (a corporal work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) didn't visit Cardinal Pell in prison but did remember him in his prayers (a spiritual work of mercy).  In this act, come Judgement Day, he will be found to have acted righteously.

Lindsay Lohan 6126 wool blend military coat in black.

Military uniforms have long influenced fashion and in the 1960s, the counter culture adopted them with some sense of irony.  Camouflage patterns have always been popular but the dress uniforms are also used as a model, the insignia, sometimes in elaborated form added as embellishments.  The insignia of a corporal is a two-bar chevron, depicted variously upwards or downwards, depending on the service.

Bohemian

Bohemian (pronounced boh-hee-mee-uhn)

(1) A native or inhabitant of Bohemia.

(2) A person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices (technically should be lowercase but rule often not observed.)

(3) The Czech language, especially as spoken in Bohemia.

(4) Slang term sometime applied to Gypsies (Roma or Travelers), especially in central and eastern Europe.

(5) Of or relating to Bohemia, its people, or their language, especially the old kingdom of Bohemia; a Czech.

(6) Pertaining to or characteristic of the unconventional life of a bohemian (again, should be lowercase).

(7) Living a wandering or vagabond life.

1570-1580:  The construct was Bohemi(a) + -an (the adjectival suffix).  The modern meaning "a gypsy of society" dates from 1848, drawn from the fifteenth century French bohemién, from the country name.  Meaning is thus associative, from the prevailing French view that gypsies (Roma or Travelers) came from Bohemia (and technically, their first appearance in Western Europe may have been directly from Bohemia).  An alternative view is it’s from association with fifteenth century Bohemian Hussite heretics who had been driven from their country about that time; most etymologists prefer the former.

A bohemian was thus something of “a gypsy of society; a person (especially a painter, poet etc) who lives a free and somewhat dissipated life, rejecting the conventionalities of life and having little regard for social standards”.  The transferred sense, in reference to unconventional living, is attested in French by 1834 and was popularized by Henri Murger's (1822-1861) stories from the late 1840s, later collected as Scenes de la Vie de Boheme (which formed the basis of Puccini's La Bohème).  It appears in English in that sense in William Makepeace Thackeray's (1811–1863) Vanity Fair (1848); the Middle English word for "a resident or native of Bohemia" was Bemener.

1934 German 40 Pf postage stamp.  President von Hindenburg once vowed never to appoint Hitler Chancellor (head of government), saying the highest office he's grant would be as a postmaster where "he could lick the stamps with my head on them."

As a descriptor of lifestyle, in the West, bohemian sometimes has a romantic association with freedom but it can also be a put-down.  In translation it can also be misunderstood.  Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934; Field Marshal and German head of state 1925-1934) dismissively called Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Nazi head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) a Böhmischer Gefreiter which is usually translated in English as “bohemian corporal”, leading many to conclude it was a reference to his famously erratic routine and self-described (and promoted) artistic temperament.  Actually Hindenburg was speaking literally.  In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he’d served as an officer in the Prussian Army, at one point passing through the Bohemian village named Broumov (Braunau in German and now located in the Czech Republic) and knowing Hitler had been born in Braunau, assumed the future Führer had been born a Bohemian.  Hitler however was actually born in the Austrian town of Braunau in Austria although the Field Marshal was right about him being a Gefreiter (an enlisted rank in the military equating with a lance corporal or private first class (PFC)), that being Hitler’s role in the First World War (1914-1918)).  If vague on geography, one would expect Hindenburg to get the military terminology correct; he once claimed the only books he ever read were the Bible and the army manual.

Either way, the president’s slight was a deliberate, class-based put-down, the army’s often aristocratic (and predominately Prussian) officer corps regarding a corporal from somewhere south as definitely not “one of us” and one didn’t even have to come from as far south as Austria to earn Prussian disapprobation; Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898; Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890) once described Bavarians as “halfway between an Austrian and a human being”.  Even a Bavarian officer however could think himself superior to an Austrian corporal and Ernst Röhm (1887-1934; the most famous victim of the 1937 Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the Long Knives (Unternehmen Kolbri (Operation Hummingbird)) and referred to by the Nazis as the Röhm Putsch) more than once dismissed Hitler as a lächerlicher Gefreiter (ridiculous corporal).  Hindenburg’s phrase was well-known among the officer corps and generals were known to repeat it when among friends.  Most famously it was reprised by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus (1890–1957) who is now remembered only for commanding the doomed Sixth Army, surrendering the remnants to Soviet forces in February 1943.  Hitler promoted him to Field Marshal just before the city fell, explaining that he wanted to give him “this last satisfaction”, the sub-text being that no German Field Marshal had ever been captured and that Paulus should draw his own conclusions and commit suicide.  Paulus however decline to shoot himself for that “Böhmischer Gefreiter”.

La Bohème (1896) by Giacomo Puccini

In 1830s Paris, some bohemian youths are living in squalid flats in the Latin Quarter.  Two of them, the writer Rodolfo and the frail Mimi, meet by chance when Mimi knocks on her neighbor Rodolfo’s door because her solitary candle has blown out.  He lights it for her and they fall in love.  These days, they'd be thought a couple of emos.

They have their ups and downs, as Puccini’s lovers do, and Rodolfo, though finding Mimi a bit highly-strung, really loves her but fears her staying with him and living in such poverty will damage her fragile health.  Worried she may die, he decides to leave.  Hearing this, Mimi is overcome with feelings of love and they make a pact to stay together until spring, after which they can separate.

In early spring, in Rodolfo arms, Mimi falls gravely ill and the bohemians rush off to sell their meager possessions so they can buy her medicine.  Together the two lovers recall how they met and talk of their poor, happy days together.  She takes medicine but her condition worsens and she dies, leaving Rodolfo in inconsolable grief.

Maria Callas (1923-1977) was as improbable a Mimi as she was a Madam Butterfly and never performed the role on-stage.  However, in 1956, under Antonino Votto (1896-1985) in Milan, she, with Giuseppe di Stefano (1921-2008) as Rodolfo, recorded the Opera for Decca and it’s one of the great Callas performances.  To this day, it's the most dramatic La Bohème available on disc.

A generation later, under Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989), Mirella Freni (1935-2020) and Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) recorded it for Decca.  Karajan, better known for conducting Wagner with hushed intensity, produced a lush and romantic interpretation.

Lindsay Lohan in a bohemian phase, New York, 2014.

In fashion, the bohemian look (boho or boho chic for short) is sometimes said to be not precisely defined but that’s really not true because the style is well-understood and, done properly, can’t be mistaken for anything else.  Although the trick to the look is in the layering of the elements, the style is characterized by long flowing or tiered skirts and dresses, peasant blouses, clichéd touches like tunics or wood jewelry, embroidery or embellishment with beading, fringed handbags, and jeweled or embellished flat sandals (or flat ankle boots).  Boho dresses owe much to the pre-Raphaelite women of the late nineteenth century although in the popular imagination there’s more of an association with the hippies of the 1960s (and those of the 1970s who didn’t realize the moment had passed).  The terms bohemian & boho obviously long pre-dated the hippie era but as fashion terms boho & boho-chic didn’t come into widespread use until early in the twenty-first century.

Caudillo, Duce & Führer

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Cat

Cat (pronounced kat)

(1) A small domesticated carnivore, Felis domestica or F. catus, bred in a number of varieties.

(2) Any of several carnivores of the family Felidae, as the lion, tiger, leopard or jaguar.

(3) A woman given to spiteful or malicious gossip (archaic).

(4) In historic Admiralty jargon, the truncated term for the cat-o'-nine-tails, a whip used to administer corporal punishment on ships at sea.

(5) A contraction of generalized use in words staring with cat (category, catboat, catamaran, catfish, catapult, catalytic et al).

(6) In nautical use, a tackle used in hoisting an anchor to the cathead.

(7) A double tripod having six legs but resting on only three no matter how it is set down, usually used before or over a fire.

(8) In medieval warfare, a movable shelter for providing protection when approaching a fortification.

(9) In aviation, the acronym for clear-air-turbulence.

(10) In medical diagnostics, the acronym for computerized axial tomography.

(11) In computing, the acronym for computer-aided teaching and computer-assisted trading

Circa 700:  From the Middle English cat or catte and the Old English catt (masculine) & catte (feminine).  It was cognate with the Old Frisian and Middle Dutch katte, the Old High German kazza, Old Norse köttr, Irish cat, Welsh cath (thought derived from the Slavic kotŭ), the Russian kot and the Lithuanian katė̃; the Old French chat enduring.  The curious Late Latin cattus or catta was first noted in the fourth century, presumably associated with the arrival of domestic cats but of uncertain origin.  The Old English catt appears derived from the earlier (circa 400-440) West Germanic form which came from the Proto-Germanic kattuz which evolved into the Germanic forms, the Old Frisian katte, the Old Norse köttr, the Dutch kat, the Old High German kazza and the German Katze, the ultimate source being the Late Latin cattus.

The prefix meaning “down, against or back,” occurred originally in loanwords from the Greek (cataclysm; catalog; catalepsy) and on the basis this model, was used in the formation of other compound words such as catagenesis or cataphyll.  The source was the Greek kata, a combining form of katá (down, through, against, according to, towards, during).  A most active prefix in the Ancient Greek, in English it’s found mostly in Latin words borrowed after circa 1500.  As applied, the meanings from the Greek attached to the constructs: down (catabolism), away, off (catalectic), against (category), according to (catholic) and thoroughly (catalogue).  In Byzantine Greek, spelling was katta and by circa 700 the variations were in universal European use, the Latin feles almost wholly supplanted.

In the literature, a Latin root is cited because it’s documented but, linguists suggest ultimate source was probably Afro-Asiatic, noting the Nubian kadis, and Berber kadiska, both of which meant "cat" and the Arabic qitt (tomcat) may be from the same source.  Despite that, in English, meaning extended to the big cats (lions, tigers etc) only after circa 1600.  In the early thirteenth century, it was used as a term of disapprobation for women, used sometimes as a synonym for prostitute.  In African-American use, it was a way of referring to one’s own or other cohorts while the application to jazz musicians or their audience emerged in the 1920s, both being adopted as part of the language of the counter-culture in the 1960s, the latter phase without the earlier racial specificity.

Phrases associated with the cat o’ nine tails

The cat o’ nine tails ("the cat" in the vernacular), was a short whip used to administer corporal punishment in the British military, most notably by the Royal Navy.  Used as a judicial punishment in many countries, there are references to in police reports as early as 1691 but the term became more widely used after 1695 when it was mentioned in the script of a play, the Admiralty adopting it somewhat later.  The cat is widely believed to be the source of a number of sayings but among etymologists, opinion is divided.  Although the British Army formerly abolished flogging in 1881, it the navy it was only ever “suspended” although it's said no sentences have been imposed since 1879.

Cat got your tongue?:  Said to refer to those about the be punished often being somewhat lost for words at the sight of the whip, some linguists point-out it wasn’t seen in print until the 1880s and suggest its most likely the invention of children.

Bell the cat:  At sea, a bell would sound prior to floggings being administered.  A more prosaic explanation is the practice of attaching collars with bells to domestic cats to (1) make them easier to find and (2) protect birds and other small creatures.

Let the cat out of the bag:  To avoid the leather of the tails becoming brittle or stiff, when not in use, the cat was kept in a bag filled with sea-brine.  It’s also suggested it’s a variation of “pig in a poke (bag)”; a way of cautioning folk not to buy animals in bags given worthless felines could be substituted for valuable piglets.  Letting the cat out of the bag disclosed the trick.

Not enough room to swing a cat:  The sailors’ informal term for decrying the small spaces below deck.  This was long-thought to reference the dimensions required to use the cat as intended but some sources, noting the phrase pre-existed the Admiralty’s use, suggest, perhaps speculatively, it must refer to manhandled felines.  In this case, the naval connection is preferred.

While the cat’s away, the mice will play:  Nothing specifically naval, a general reference to cats and mice, the simile extending to what the untrustworthy get up to in the absence of figures of authority.

Rubbing salt into the wound: When the punishment was complete, the wounds were usually cleaned with especially salty brine or seawater, a basic and sometimes effective precaution against infection.  The modern meaning of the phrase is derived from the additional pain caused rather than the primitive infection control and is thus a variation of “adding insult to injury” (or really, adding injury to injury), the notion of gratuitously or vindictively adding to existing pain.

Lindsay Lohan clad in cat theme for Halloween party at the Cuckoo Club, London, October 2015.