Dazzle

Dazzle (pronounced daz-uhl)

(1) To overpower or dim the vision of by intense light.

(2) Deeply to impress, to astonish with delight

(3) To awe, overwhelm, overpower, stupefy.

(4) To shine or brilliantly reflect.

(5) To excite admiration by a display of brilliance.

(6)To be overpowered by light.

(7) Something that dazzles.

(8) A form of camouflage used on early-mid twentieth century warships.

(9) The collective noun to describe zebras.

1475-1485: A frequentative of daze, the construct being daze + le, from the Middle English dasen, from the Old Norse dasa (as in dasask (to become weary)) and related to the Danish dase (to doze, mope).  1475-1485: Daze was a Middle English, back-formation from the Middle English dazed, from the Old Norse dasaðr (weary) & dasask (to become weary), from the Proto-Germanic dasōjan-, from the adjective daza-, which may have been a variant of the primitive Indo-European der- (to hold, support) and related to the Armenian դադարել (dadarel) (to settle, stop, end).  The -le suffix was a frequentative form from the Middle English -elen, -len & -lien, from the Old English -lian (the frequentative verbal suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -lōną (the frequentative verbal suffix) and was cognate with the West Frisian -elje, the Dutch -elen, the German -eln, the Danish -le, the Swedish -la and the Icelandic -la.  It was used as a frequentative suffix of verbs, indicating repetition or continuousness.

The original, fifteenth century, meaning was “be stupefied, be confused” which many dictionaries list as obsolete but there are certainly at least echoes of that sense in the modern use.  Originally intransitive; the transitive sense of “overpower with strong or excessive light” dates from the 1530s while the figurative sense of “overpower or excite admiration by brilliancy or showy display” is from the 1560s.  As a noun in the sense of “brightness, splendour”, it’s been known since the 1650s.  The verb bedazzle (to blind by excess of light) emerged in the 1590s but is now far more common in figurative use.  The late nineteenth century coining of “razzle-dazzle” originally suggested “bewilderment or confusion, rapid stir and bustle, riotous jollity or intoxication etc but came soon to be used of “deception, fraud; extravagant or misleading claims”.  At the turn of the twentieth century it was used also to mean “a state of confusion” but the modern trend is to use “razzle-dazzle” to mean anything flashy, especially unstructured, inventive performances on the sporting field.  Forms such as overdazzle, outdazzle, outdazzling, overdazzle, overdazzled, overdazzling, redazzle & undazzled have been coined as required.  The adjective antidazzle is commonly used in commerce (often as anti-dazzle).  Dazzle is a noun & verb, endazzlement, dazzlement & dazzler are nouns, bedazzle & (the archaic) endazzle are verbs, adazzle is an adjective, dazzling & dazzled are verbs & adjectives and dazzlingly is an adverb; the noun plural is dazzles.

Dazzling: Lindsay Lohan in zebra-print dress from Balmain's autumn-winter 2013 collection, GQ Men Of The Year Awards, London, September 2014.  Cohort, crossing, harem, herd and zeal have all been cited as the collective noun for zebras but most zoologists seem to prefer dazzle.

Developed first by the Royal Navy during World War I (1914-1918) to counter the German U-Boat (submarine) threat, dazzle camouflage for ships was a counterintuitive adaptation of techniques known to have been used during antiquity, the fleets of both the Greeks and Romans having been painted in shades of green and blue to blend with the surface and horizon.  The modern approach however was rather than concealment, the vessel would be exposed to the enemy and the British Admiralty adopted the scheme as an experiment.  It had been suggested in 1917 by a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) lieutenant commander with a pre-war background in painting, his argument being that while it wasn’t possible actually to conceal a ship, a suitable paint scheme should make difficult the task of a submarine captain trying to estimate a vessel’s speed and direction while viewing through a periscope for a limited time and that was no easy task in 1917.  A U-Boat captain, while maintaining a distance from his target between around a quarter mile (400m) and a mile (1600m), had to predict the speed and direction of the target’s travel while factoring in ocean currents which could affect a torpedo’s travel, all within the short time he could risk his periscope being visible above the surface.  The dazzle concept of camouflage differed from traditional methods of concealment in that it sometimes made the target easier to see; the object was to make it harder to sink; it's thus better thought of as "subterfuge" rather than "camouflage".  A U-Boat carried very few torpedoes and they couldn't be wasted.  The captain had to hit a moving target, often in a rolling sea and to maximize the chance of success, needed the torpedo to hit the ship in her most vulnerable spots and this was done by aiming not at where the target was, but where the target would be more than half a minute later.  The idea of the dazzle was not to hide the ship but to make it even harder for a U-Boat commander to estimate variables like direction and speed of travel.    

View through periscope, with and without dazzle.

After encouraging findings in small-scale tests, the admiralty authorised trials and artists experimented with both colours and shapes, intending usually to distort the perception of the shape of the bow and stern, disrupting perspective and falsely suggesting a ship’s smokestacks or superstructure pointed in a different direction than truly it sat on the water.  Many of the ideas were shamelessly borrowed from modernist art, especially the concepts of cubism, a theft so blatant that Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), in conversation with the US poet and novelist Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), observed the Cubist movement deserved some credit from the Admiralty.  It's believed admiralties everywhere ignore the artists' claims.

French light cruiser Gloire (laid down 1933, launched 1935, commissioned 1937, scrapped 1958) in dazzle camouflage, off the North African coast, 1944.

The programme spread to merchant vessels and then across the Atlantic.  Soon thousands of ships were painted in lurid colour schemes but unfortunately, the extensive archive of photographs from this era are mostly monochrome which not only fail fully to capture the vivid variety of the artists’ work but also don’t convey the contrasts created by the blues, reds, greens, purples and greys light & dark which created the optical illusions.  Both navies undertook analysis of the losses in shipping to evaluate the effectiveness of dazzle but the results, so impressive in laboratory conditions, were inconclusive, it being statistically impossible to account for external factors but U-Boat captains interviewed after the war attested to the problems dazzle created for them.

RMS Olympic (RMS Titanic's sister ship) in in dazzle, Pier 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1918, oil on canvas by Arthur Lismer (1885–1969).

Despite there being no consensus about the advantage of dazzle, allied naval authorities continued to employ it on both some warships and merchant fleets in World War II (1939-1945).  The Imperial German Navy had shown little interest in camouflaging ships during the Great War but did adopt a variation of dazzle early in World War II although OKM’s ((Oberkommando der Marine, high command of the Kriegsmarine (Navy)) designs were intended to disguise the identity of a ship from surface and air observation rather than raise doubts about speed or direction.  It’s not documented why this was abandoned by OKM (which is surprising given most of the navy's records survived the war) but, after 1941, all naval assets were repainted in regulation shades of grey.

German Tirpitz Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz, anchored in the Kåfjord, Norway, March 1943.  Launched in April 1939 and commissioned in February 1941, she was sunk by RAF (Royal Air Force) bombers in an attack on 12 November 1944 (left).  US Fletcher-class destroyer USS Bush (DD-529) in Measure 32 Camouflage Scheme, off mare Island Naval Shipyard, California June 1944.  Launched in October 1942 and commissioned in May 1943, she was sunk in a Kamikazes attack off Okinawa on 6 April 1945, one of 47 allied ships listed as “sunk by Kamikaze attack”.

Although never as widely used as in 1917-1918, allied navies retained faith in the subterfuge throughout the war although this time it was the Americans who were much more systematic and it wasn’t until late in 1942 the Admiralty released their Intermediate Disruptive Pattern and not until 1944 was a Standard Scheme promulgated.  Wartime developments in radar were already reducing the effectiveness of dazzle and this was accelerated by post-war advances in range-finding which rendered dazzle wholly obsolete.  For decades after 1946, no dazzle schemes were commissioned but (much toned-down) aspects of the idea have in recent years been interpolated into modern "stealth" naval architecture.

Heckblende

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

A moulded piece of reflective plastic permanently mounted between a car’s taillight (also as tail light, tail-light, taillamp, tail lamp & tail lamp) assemblies and designed to make them appear a contiguous entity

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

The German blende translates as “cover” so the construct Heck + Blende (one of their shorter compounds) happily deconstructs as “back cover” and that obviously describes the plastic mouldings used to cover the space between a car’s left and right-side taillights.  Blenden however can (as a transitive or intransitive) translate as (1) “to dazzle; to blind” in the sense of confuse someone’s sight by means of excessive brightness”, (2) (figuratively and usually as an intransitive) to show off; to pose (try to make an impression on someone by behaving affectedly or overstating one’s achievements) and (3) “to dazzle” in the sense of deception (from the 1680s German Blende (an ore of zinc and other metals, a back-formation from blenden (in the sense of "to blind, to deceive") and so called because the substance resembles lead but yields none (but should not be confused with the English construct hornblende (using the English “blende” in the sense of “mix”) (a dark-green to black mineral of the amphibole group, calcium magnesium iron and hydroxyl aluminosilicate)).  A heckblende thus (1) literally is a cover and (2) is there to deceive a viewer by purporting to be part of the rear lighting rather than something merely decorative (sic).  If a similar looking assembly is illuminated and thus part of the lighting system, then it's not a heckblende but part of a full-width taillight. 

1934 Auburn Boat-tail Speedster.

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

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

It was in the 1950s the shape of tail lights became increasingly stylized.  With modern plastics freeing designers from the constraints the use of glass had imposed and the experience gained during World War II (1939-1945) in the mass-production of molded Perspex, new possibilities were explored.  In the UK and Europe, there was little extravagance, manufacturers content usually to take advantage of new materials and techniques mostly to fashion what were little more than larger, more rounded versions of what had gone before, the amber lens being adopted as turn indicators to replace the mechanically operated semaphore signals often little more than a duplication of the red taillight or an unimaginatively styled appendage.

1961 Chrysler Turboflite show car (left), 1966 Dodge Hemi Charger (centre) and 2024 Dodge Charger (right).

Across the Atlantic, US designers were more ambitious but one idea which for a while was flirted with without being used was the full-width taillight and that must have been by choice because it would have presented no challenges in engineering.  Instead, as the jet age became the space age, the dominant themes were aeronautical or recalled the mechanism of rocketry, taillights styled to resemble the exhausts of jet-engines or space ships, the inspiration as often from SF (science fiction or Sci-Fi) as the runway.  Pursuing that theme, much of the industry succumbed to the famous fin fetish, the tails of their macropterous creations emphasizing the vertical more than the horizontal.  Surprisingly though, despite having produced literally dozens of one-off “concept” and “dream” cars over the decade, it seems it wasn’t until 1961 when Chrysler sent their Turboflite around the show circuit that something with a genuine full-width taillight was shown.  A version appeared on the first Dodge Charger (1966-1967) and the corporation revived the look for the eighth generation (LB) Charger introduced in 2024 but the plastic fitting didn't attract much comment because most of the attention focused on the lack of a V8 engine.

1936 Tatra T87 (left), 1961 Tatra T603A prototype (centre) & 1963 Tatra T-603-X5 (right).  For students of art deco, the early Tatras have much appeal.

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

1967 Imperial LeBaron four door Hardtop.

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

Some of FoMoCo's takes on the idea: Clockwise from top left: 1974 ZG Fairlane (AU), 1977 Thunderbird (US), 1966 Zodiac Mark IV (UK), 1970 Thunderbird (US), 1973 Landau (AU) & 1970 Torino (US).

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

For the mainstream HK (1968-1969) range, Holden used the taillight assemblies to denote a model's place in the hierarchy: The basic Belmont (top left), the better equipped Kingswood (top right), the blinged-up Premier (bottom left) and the sporty Monaro GTS (bottom right).  By their heckblende (or its absence), they shall be known.  It's not believed Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) modelled the fall of his tie on the HK Premier but it's not impossible one may have sent him a subliminal message.

In Australia, the local outpost of General Motors (GM) applied a double fake.  The "heckblende" on the HK Holdens (1968-1969), as a piece of cost-cutting, was actually red-painted metal rather than reflective plastic and unfortunately prone to deterioration under the southern hemisphere's harsh sun; it was a fake version of a fake taillight.  Cleverly though, the fake apparatus was used as a marker of the model's place in the pecking order, the Belmont (intended for fleet sales and the economy-minded) with just taillights, the (slightly) better-appointed Kingswood (the mainstream "entry-level" model) granted heckblendesque extensions, the up-market Premier (for the aspirational middle class) with extended extensions and the Monaro GTS (a coupé which, off the showroom floor, curiously could be configured from "taxi-cab" specifications being almost race-track ready) fitted with a full-width part.  Probably the Belmont and Premier were ascetically most successful.  Exactly the same idea was recycled for Holden's VH Commodore (1981-1984), the SL/E (effectively the Premier's replacement) version's taillight assemblies gaining stubby extensions which, unfortunately, looked as "tacked-on" as they were.

Holdens: 1967 HR Premier (left), 1969 HT Brougham (centre) & 1971 HQ Premier (right).

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

Germans, factory and not: 1973 Porsche 914 2.0 (left), 1983 BMW 323i (E30, centre) & 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300E (W124, right).

Although, beginning with the mid-engined 914 (1969-1976) in 1973, Porsche was an early European adopter of the heckblende (since used with some frequently), it was the 1980s which were the halcyon days of after-market plastic, owners of smaller BMWs and Mercedes-Benz seemingly the most easily tempted.  The additions were always unnecessary and the only useful way they can be catalogued is to say some were worse than others.  Predictably, the fad spread to the East (Near, Middle & Far) and results there were just as ghastly although the popularity of the things must have been helpful as a form of economic stimulus, such was the volume in which they were extruded; reputedly, one factory in Pakistan had to expand to meet demand.  Among males aged 17-39, few things have proved as enduringly infectious as a love of gluing or bolting to cars, pieces of plastic which convey their owner's appalling taste. 

2019 Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 with taillight bar.

After the 1980s, fewer manufacturers used heckblendes as original equipment and when they did the terminology varied, the nomenclature including "decor panels", "valances" or "tail section appliqués".  However, although it seemed the heckblende may have been headed for extinction, full-width taillights still entice stylists and modern techniques of design and production, combined with what LEDs (light-emitting diodes) & OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diode) have made possible, mean it’s again a popular feature, the preferred term now “taillight bar”.  Hopefully, the moment for resuscitated fad will be brief.

Lindsay Lohan with 2009 Porsche 911 (997; second phase) Carrera Cabriolet (left) and 2009 Porsche 911 (997; second phase) Carrera 4S Cabriolet (right).

After-market heckblendes appeal to a certain sub-section of the population but tend to be abhorred by the serious-minded.  However, even when fitted by the factory, factions form.  There are (1) the originality police who maintain if it was done by the factory, whatever the aesthetics, that’s the end of the matter, (2) those who detest the things on the basis of “too much plastic” and (3) the heckblende fan boys who just want the molding changed a bit.  Depending on the model, the Porsche 997 (2004-2013) was produced heckbelended and not and so specific are the requirements of some in the 911 cult (they prefer “911 community”) the feature (or its absence) might have been decisive when making a purchase.

Porsche 996 Carrera 4S (left), Porsche 997 Carrera 4S (centre) and Porsche 997 Carrera 4S with reddited taillights and heckblende (light bar).

As an example of the feeling, one redditor heckblende fan-boy thought the 997’s implementation lacked the visual integrity of that which appeared on the 996 (1997-2006 and the model which gained infamy for (1) “poached egg” headlights and (2) the fragile RMS (rear main seal) and IMS (intermediate shaft) bearing).  Accordingly, redditor took to photoshop and “raised the bar (height)”, rendering an aspect ratio closer to that of the 996 while changing the taillight shape so the inner lower corner was a true 90^o angle.  The reddited re-imagining of course divided opinion and it unlikely there was much shifting in factional alignment.

Neon

Neon (pronounced nee-on)

(1) In chemistry, a rare, colorless, odorless gaseous element; an inert gas (the second in the noble group) occurring in trace amounts in the atmosphere.  It glows reddish orange when electricity passes through it, as in a tube in an electric neon light, hence the industrial use in illuminated signs & lights although it’s used also in refrigeration because of the helpfully low melting & boiling points.

(2) A neon lamp, tube or device, in the singular or collectively; made of or formed by a neon lamp or lamps.

(3) A sign or advertising display formed from (or emulating) neon lamps.

(4) Of, relating to, or characteristic of an urban area brightly lit during hours of darkness and often associated with popular forms of entertainment.

(5) As in the phrase “in neon”, or “in neon lights”, adding emphasis to something (sometimes used derisively).

(6) Any of a range of bright, lurid colors, used particularly in fashion (lipsticks, nail polish etc) and as hair color products.

(7) As neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi), a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes, native to the Amazon basin in South America.  Because of its vivid coloring and robustness, the neon tetra is one of the most popular tropical fish in home aquariums.

1898: From the Ancient Greek νέον (néon), neuter of νέος (néos) (new; young), from the earlier νέϝος (néwos), from the Proto-Hellenic newos, from the primitive Indo-European néwos.  From the same source, English (and other languages gained the prefix –neo which was often used to form clade or taxonomic names indicating more recent branching than a morphologically or otherwise similar group.  The prefix neo- was from the Ancient Greek prefix νεο- (neo-), from νέος (néos) (new, young).  In organic chemistry it (1) had the specific technical meaning “having a structure, similar to that of neopentane, in which each hydrogen atom of a methyl group has been replaced by an alkyl group” and (2) a newly-discovered or synthesized variant of an existing compound.  The synonyms (in the sense of something new) were ceno- & nov-, the less used antonym paleo-.  Many words have been prefixed with neo- and not exclusively to indicate something wholly novel but increasingly to describe a revival or new variation of something including (1) in architecture: neo-classical, neo-gothic etc, (2) in economics: neo-liberal, neo-Keynesian etc, (3) in politics: neo-Nazi, neo-conservative, neo-fascist etc and (4) in religion: neo-evangelicalism, neo-Hasidism etc.  In chemistry, the meaning is quite specific but in general use the synonyms include blazing, brilliant, glowing, lambent, luminous, radiant, shining, vivid, flashing, glitzy, glossy, razzle-dazzle, effulgent & gleaming.  Neon is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is neons.

Sohio “Neon Patrol” in action, Cleveland, Ohio, July 1938.  Technicians from the Neon Patrol would travel between the company’s retail outlets, servicing the neon signage and effecting repairs when required.  The truck is an International D-15 with a special body.  The D Series (1937-1939) was a range of light, medium & heavy-duty trucks, easily distinguished from the more rectilinear C Series (1934-1936) by the curvilinear lines and the two-piece V-shaped windshield.  The line was replaced by the K (1940-1946) & KB Series (1947-1950).

The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was a US petroleum company which operated between 1870-1987 and Sohio was one of a number of separate entities created in 1911 after the Standard Oil corporate trust (1882-1911) was broken up.  Standard Oil and British Petroleum (BP) in the 1960s entered into an intriguing (and tax-friendly) arrangement whereby BP gradually would increase its stake in Standard Oil, culminating eventually in acquisition.  Sohio as a corporate identity ceased operations in 1987 but BP continued to sell gas (petrol) under the brand until 1991, the name formally retired when the branding on the last Sohio gas station was replaced with BP signage.

Neon

Symbol: Ne.
Atomic number: 10.
Atomic weight: 20.1797.
Valency: 0.
Density: 0.899 90 kg/m³ / 0.9002 gm/liter at 0°C & 760 mm pressure.
Melting point: –248.59°C.
Boiling point: –246.08°C.

Neon nail-polish in 5-pack by Casey's Toys (part-number 52123) @ Aus$9.99.

Although in the United States it’s possible for citizens (in some cases children) lawfully to possess military-grade firearms and some truly impressive ordinance, in other fields the government is punctilious in providing people protection.  In 2012, Douglas Schoon (b 1954), Creative Nail Design's (CND) chief scientific advisor, explained that in the US, the manufacture of neon nail-polish was unlawful, although, in what seemed a quirk of the law, the products remain lawful to wear.  However, that apparent anomaly isn’t actually strange or unique to neon nail-polish and reflects a regulatory environment where the need is to certify the safety of both the components and the processes used in the manufacturing process.  There are no concerns about the safety of the finished product, skin and nails anyway a most effective barrier and the nature and volume of fumes breathed in by consumers “doing their nails” would substantively be identical to that of other nail-polishes.

Coffin-shaped nails in neon-green.  These are actually "press-on nails".

Neon polishes are prohibited simply because the colorants have never been officially registered with the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).  Mr Schoon explained that “…what determines whether a color is neon is the chemical composition, just as it is with blues and greens”, adding that that any manufacturer could submit neon shades to the FDA, but it’s a costly and time-consuming process which is why many of the lurid shades available in the US, technically, are not neons.  Registration is only the first step in securing FDA approval and few small-scale manufacturers have the resources to go through a process from which others would gain equal benefit.  Imported neon polishes appear on many shelves but it’s not known if unlawful, small-scale manufacturing is being undertaken somewhere in the US.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, left) in neon outfits and singer-songwriter Billie Eilish (b 2001, right) with neon highlights.  Ms Eilish also went blonde, the result thought most pleasing.

As an adjective used of colors, neon refers to the quality of brightness rather than the red-orange colour which is the particular property of neon gas under electrical stimulation.  Thus, a “neon color” (or simply “neon”) is anything bright, lurid and used in clothing, accessories & enhancements (lipsticks, nail polish etc) or hair color products.

"Neon" advertising displays, Piccadilly Square, London, 1967.

Neon was discovered in 1898 by British chemists Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916) and Morris Travers (1872–1961) while working in their London laboratory during a series of experiments which also uncovered krypton & xenon, the other two residual rare inert elements remaining in dry air after nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide are removed.  In normal conditions a colorless, odorless & inert monatomic gas, it has about two-thirds the density of air and is noted for its emission in the spectrum of bright red when exposed to electrical current.  Although one of the known universe’s most common elements (fifth behind hydrogen, helium, oxygen and carbon), it’s rare on Earth, existing only in trace amounts in the atmosphere, attributable to it being highly volatile and thus never forming compounds which assume any solidity.

It needs thus to be extracted from air by an industrial process so is relatively expensive, its industrial uses limited to some specialized applications in refrigeration (by virtue of its low melting & boiling points) and the famous “neon lights” most associated with advertising and signage, the first of which was released in 1913, the term “neon sign” dating from 1927.  The distinctive bright red (tending to orange) light distinguished the first neon signs (created with curved neon-tubes) and in the narrow technical sense these are the only true “neon-lights” because tubes which generate other colors are made using either other noble gases or are instances of fluorescent lighting.  In hidden use, neon is also a component of various electrical devices including vacuum & wave tubes, current indicators and lightning arresters.

Late twentieth (left) and early twenty-first (right) century Tokyo after dark: now less pink, more blue.

For decades, pink was the dominant color in the night-time Tokyo streetscape but in the twenty-first century observers began noting a shift to something darker.  The change is attributed not to the nation’s post 1989 slump in economic growth (the so-called “lost decade” of the 1990s apparently never having ended) but the development in 1993 by Japanese-American engineer Shuji Nakamura (b 1954) of a high-efficiency blue LED (light emitting diode) using gallium nitride (GaN) as the semiconductor material.  While green and red LEDs had for decades been in use, blue had proved elusive because the industry lacked a material suitable (and sufficiently cheap) to use at scale.  Nakamura san’s work built on earlier research by Japanese physicists Isamu Akasaki (1929–2021) and Japanese physicist Hiroshi Amano (b 1960) and what the three did was make possible both blue and white LEDs, the latter enabled by combining the blue with phosphors.  In 2014, the three were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda in Limelight (left) and 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak in Sublime (right). 

Lurid neon hues began to fade from the roads after being banished from the automotive color charts in the mid 1970s and while it can be debated if that was an aesthetic loss, it certainly made the option lists less linguistically interesting.  Like other manufacturers, Chrysler had some history in the coining of fanciful names for colors dating from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s when the choices included Plum Crazy, In-Violet, Tor Red, Limelight, Sub Lime, Sassy Grass, Panther Pink, Moulin Rouge, Top Banana, Lemon Twist & Citron Yella.  Although it may be an industry myth, the story told is that Plum Crazy & In-Violet (lurid shades of purple) were late additions because the killjoy board refused to sign-off on Statutory Grape.  Plymouth called their lime green Limelight while Dodge used Sub Lime.  That the colors vanished during the 1970s was not because of changing tastes but in response to environmental & public health legislation which banned the use of lead in automotive paints; without the additive, production of the bright colours was prohibitively expensive.  Advances in chemistry meant that by the twenty-first century brightness could be achieved without the addition of lead so Dodge revived psychedelia for a new generation although Sub Lime became Sublime.  There was still a price to be paid however, Sublime, Red Octane, Sinamon Stick and Go Mango all costing an additional US$395 while the less vivid shades listed at US$95.  The resurrected "neon look" proved popular although only within the high-performance niche, most of the market preferring more "dignified" tones such as black, white, silver and many variations of gray although there's still the odd malcontent who orders blue or red.  On the street, Chrysler's bright colors were all the more noticeable because the mainstream-market preference now tends to white, silver, black and grey.  

2015 Dodge Challenger SRT in Sublime (code FB).  Literalists should note this is NOT what Greta Thunberg (b 2003) meant when she spoke of "green vehicles".

There was of course once a time when the term “green vehicle” had a simple, unambiguous meaning but were a driver to contest a parking ticket, the outcome might depend on how a court would apply the “Vagliano rule”, established by the House of Lords in Bank of England v Vagliano Bros (1891) AC 107.  The Vagliano rule is a principle of statutory interpretation and holds that when interpreting a statute, courts should start by considering the natural meaning of the words in the statute itself, without referring to previous case law or historical background, unless the language is ambiguous.  The rule is of such significance because it prioritizes the literal and ordinary meaning of words over any interpretation which could be derived if other factors are allowed to intrude.

In his judgment, Lord Herschell (Farrer Herschell, 1837–1899; Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain 1886 & 1892-1895) wrote: “I think the proper course is, in the first instance, to examine the language of the statute and to ask what is its natural meaning, uninfluenced by any considerations derived from the previous state of the law, and not to start with inquiring how the law previously stood, and then, having ascertained that, to see whether the statute will bear an interpretation which is in accordance with it. If the statute is clear, its provisions must prevail, whatever the previous law may have been. If the statute is ambiguous, then, and only then, may the history of the law be referred to.”  Whether in the 2020s a judge would be persuaded “Green Vehicle” should for this purpose be read-down to permit gas-guzzling V8s (simply on the basis of being painted a certain color), to occupy parking spots allocated exclusively to the machines of which Ms Thunberg would approve may be doubtful but any driver will always be able to find a lawyer willing to run the case and, if heard by a judge fond of a "black letter law" interpretation of things, may enjoy success, at least at first instance.  Presumably, the solution would be for the signs to read: "GREEN" VEHICLES, the semiotics of the inverted commas conveying the new (non-literal) meaning.

Knave

 Knave (pronounced neyv)

(1) An unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest person.  A rogue (archaic).

(2) A card (1 x hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades) in the standard fifty-two card pack of playing cards.  Also known as the Jack, the choice of word being sometimes used as an indicator either of class or geographical origin.

(3) A male servant of the lower ranks (archaic).

(4) A man of humble position (archaic).

Pre 1000: From the late Old English cnafa (boy, male child; male servant) from the Proto-Germanic knabon- (source also of the Old High German knabo (boy, youth, servant) and the German knabe (boy, lad)) and thought likely related to the Old English cnapa (boy, youth, servant), the Old Norse knapi (servant boy), the Dutch knaap (a youth, servant), the Middle High German knappe (a young squire) and the German Knappe (squire, shield-bearer).  The ultimate origin is a mystery, the most popular speculation being "stick, piece of wood".  Knave, knavess & knavery are nouns, knavish is an adjective and and knavishly is an adverb; the noun plural is knaves.

Cards and class

The sense of a "rogue or rascal" emerged circa 1200, thought probably reflective of a the (ever-present) societal tendency to equate the poor and “those of low birth" with poor character and propensity to crime, English poet & satirist Alexander Pope (1688-1744) in Essay on Man (1732-1734), capturing the feeling: “From the next row to that whence you took the knave, take the seven; from the next row take the five; from the next the queen.  To show mercy towards such a knave is an outrage to society!”  Despite that however, in Middle English didn’t lose the non-pejorative meaning, a knave-child (from the Scottish knave-bairn) being a male child.  The use in playing cards began in the 1560s, a knave being always the lowest scoring of the court cards.

Lindsay Lohan's Royal Routine (Ace down to the 10 in one suit) in The Parent Trap (1998).  The most desirable of the 40 different straight flush possibilities, under standard poker rules, the odds against holding a Royal Routine are 649,739:1 whereas those of any straight flush are a more accessible 72,192:1.  The difference in the math is there are fewer cards available for a Royal Routine to be assembled.

The use of Jack in cards came from the influence of French.  What the French called a valet, the English knew as a knave (in the sense of a young, male servant).  During the seventeenth century the French started to call such staff “Jack” apparently on the basis of it being a common name among the serving class; it was also the name used for the Knave of trumps at the game All Fours.  Although it appears widely to have been played by all classes, All Fours suffered, perhaps because it was a quick, trick-taking game, the reputation of being something enjoyed only by the lower classes and the choice of “knave” or “jack” came to be treated as a class-signifier, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) in Great Expectations (1860-1861) having Estella express scorn for Pip’s use of the latter.  The class-consciousness in English extends to the adoption of the German Bauer (farmer or peasant), as Bower, collectively to describe (usually when a pair of trumps (by color)) the Jacks in some games.  Knave survived in widespread use well into the twentieth century but US cultural influence has rendered it now mostly obsolete except for a few games where it persists and possibly among those who prefer a dish of tea to a cup.

In packs of cards, Knave (marked Kn) was used until Jack (J) became entrenched after 1864 when, US card-maker Samuel Hart published a deck using J instead of Kn to designate the knave to avoid confusion with the visually similar King (marked K).  Historically, in some southern Italian, Spanish and Portuguese decks, there were androgynous knaves sometimes referred to as maids.  This tradition survives only in the Sicilian Tarot deck where the knaves are unambiguously female and always known as maids.

In Tarot

The Jack of Spades card indicates a young man of dark complexion, cunning and devious.  Intelligent, brilliant even, but cynical and exploitative, he will use you and walk away.  The Jack of Spades is a sign you will face adversity from a ruthless person; he cannot be trusted.  The central problem in dealing with Jack of Spades types is they're inherently transactional so a relationship can seem wondrously fulfilling and probably is until it outlives its usefulness at which point one will be cast adrift... or worse.  Exemplary Jack of Spades: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021; president elect 2024).  

The Jack of Clubs means a good friend.  Although flirtatious, he is a sincere, skilful and brave young man.  For a woman, this card represents her fiancé but for a man, it means a more successful and richer rival. This card also signifies education and intelligence.  There's a fine nuance in Tarot between the Jacks of Clubs and Hearts in that for men it means a rival and for women a fiancé and the latter hopes he may also be represented by Hearts.  Exemplary Jack of Clubs: Elon Musk FRS (b 1971).

The Jack of Hearts signifies an honest young man in love. He is attractive, kind and generous, the card often announcing a new and intimate friendship. As a lover, the Jack of Hearts is trustworthy, even when absent he will be faithful.  Committed and sincere, he's a most eligible bachelor and thus a "good catch".  Tarot readers though cast a wide vista and drawing the Jack of Hearts is as likely to be indicative of the  arrival of a good, dependable friend as it is of impending romance.  Exemplary Jack of Hearts: Sir Tony Blair (b 1953; UK prime-minister 1997-2007).

The Jack of Diamonds represents the Messenger, symbolising also an unfaithful assistant or dishonest merchant or employee. The Jack of diamonds is a young man who comes and goes, taking more than is permitted and although quick-witted and cunning, is not trustworthy although like Jack of Diamonds Bernie Madoff (1938–2021), they can dazzle to deceive.  Exemplary Jack of Spades: Michael Cohen (b 1966; personal counsel to Donald Trump 2006-2018).

Of kings, axes and swords.

While suits are great significance to tarot card readers, in poker the rules the rules recognize only numbers and the odds the combination of cards create: a full house (3 of one card, 2 of another) with odds of 693.1667:1 beats a flush (5 cards of the same suit), a hand with odds of 507.8019:1.  The royal routine's odds are a less than encouraging 649,739:1.  The face cards are assigned a nominal number (Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13) and the Ace is a special case, able to assume a value of “1” or “14” and thus able to be used to create an “A-2-3-4-5” or a “10-J-Q-K-A” straight.  Because, in hands of equal numerical count, the suits do not affect the math used to calculate the odds, in the unlikely (though not impossible) event four players at a table each have a royal routine, the pot is split four ways.  However, except in competitions conducted under defined rules, there is no reason why a house can’t create a “tie-breaker” rule which assigns a hierarchy to the suits.  Provided the rule is clear, unambiguous and adequately communicated to all players, it should be uncontroversial and would define the winner if more than one straight flush of the same numeric.