Dimensionality

Dimensionality (pronounced dih-men-shuhn-nal-i-tee or dahy-men-shuhn-nal-i-tee).

(1) The state or characteristic of possessing dimensions.

(2) In mathematics, engineering, computing, physics etc, the number of dimensions possessed or attributed to an object, space or concept; the nature of the dimensions, considered, in relation to each other or the external world.

(3) In architecture (usually in criticism or theory), as super-dimensionality, micro-dimensionality, complimentary-dimensionality et al, an expression used to critique the scale of designs.

Circa 1910:  A coining of mathematicians said to date from the early twentieth century (though actual use may pre-date this), the construct was dimension +‎ -ality.  Dimension was from late fourteenth century late Middle English dimensioun, from the Anglo-French, from the Latin dīmēnsiōn-, from dīmēnsiō & dīmēnsiōnem, from dīmensus (measuring, measurement, dimension), perfect active participle of dīmētior (measured, regular), the construct being dis- (part’ separate; render asunder) +‎ mētior (measure or estimate; distribute or mete out; traverse), from the Proto-Italic mētis, from the primitive Indo-European meh- (to measure).  The suffix –ality was a compound affix, the construct being -al + -ity and equivalent to the French -alité and the Latin -ālitās.  The -al suffix was from the Middle English -al, from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French and Old French –el & -al.  It was use to denote the sense "of or pertaining to", an adjectival suffix appended (most often to nouns) originally most frequently to words of Latin origin, but since used variously and also was used to form nouns, especially of verbal action.  The alternative form in English remains -ual (-all being obsolete).  The –ity suffix was from the French -ité, from the Middle French -ité, from the Old French –ete & -eteit (-ity), from the Latin -itātem, from -itās, from the primitive Indo-European suffix –it.  It was cognate with the Gothic –iþa (-th), the Old High German -ida (-th) and the Old English -þo, -þu & -þ (-th).  It was used to form nouns from adjectives (especially abstract nouns), thus most often associated with nouns referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.  The derived forms from mathematics and other disciplines (extradimentionality et al) are sometimes hyphenated (extra-dimentionality et al).  Dimensionality is a noun; the noun plural is dimensionalities.

Being inherently a thing of numbers, in both pure and applied mathematics, dimensionality matters.  There is equidimensionality which, strictly speaking in the quality enjoyed by two (or more) dimensions exactly the same but the term has also been used in architecture as (1) a fancy way to say that things are (by mathematical standards) “roughly the same” and (2) a synonym for symmetrical.  Nobody seems to have come up with “hetrodimensionality” or something like that, asymmetrical apparently adequate.  In psychiatry, unidimensionality is the quality of measuring a single construct, trait, or other attribute; it's a clinical tool, an example of which is a unidimensional personality scale which would contain items related only to the respective concept of interest.  It's not the same as the pop-psychology term "one-dimensional" which is an allusion to functional, intellectual, emotional etc limitations in individuals or institutions.  A particular use of that appeared in the book One-Dimensional Man (1964) by German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979).  Marcuse argued modern capitalism had reduced culture to a technological rationality and individuals to mere economic units, their value measured only by their industrial productivity.  Moreover, the genius of this system was that the false consciousness of the victims was manipulated to the point they became defenders of their own oppression.

Superdimensionality on the beach: A gigantic Lindsay Lohan.

Nondimensionality refers to quantity or measurement with no physical units attached, often represented as a ratio of two quantities that have the same units, such as the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference (which is represented by the nondimensional quantity π, or pi).  It’s not quite a revenge on the physicists who have identified certain particles with dimensions yet no mass, nondimensionality being useful in that relationships between different physical quantities can be expressed without the need to have specific units of measure.  Unidimensionality (the opposite of multidimensionality) refers to a measurement or quantity involving only one dimension or aspect; it is used not to imply there is only one dimension but in situations where the critical quality can be described using a single variable or dimension.  The classic examples of unidimensionality are the three dimensions length, width & breadth.  Multidimensionality involves two or more dimensions.  The companion terms “curse of dimensionality” and “blessing of dimensionality” are both commentaries of the volume of data available but reference not the data but the processes applied to the information.  The curse of dimensionality is that in some cases there can be an unmanageable amount of data; there is simply too much information even to assess what should be discarded.  However, for other purposes, the same data set could be invaluable, the volume making possible what once was not, thus the blessing of dimensionality.

String theory: Lindsay Lohan in string bikini, Mykonos, Greece, 2014.

Extradimensionality underlies string theory, a (highly) theoretical construct which has provided a number of speculative frameworks in an attempt to unify what are still considered the fundamental forces at work in the universe (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces).  The essence of string theory in that the fabric of the universe is composed not of point-like particles in space but very small, one-dimensional forms (the nature of which varies according to the version of the theory) which act like “strings”, vibrating at different frequencies.  The strings are said to exist in another dimensional space-time than the four with which we are familiar (length, width, depth & time) and some string theorists have suggested there may be ten or more dimensions.  The most significant aspect of the behavior of the strings is said to be their interaction with both the space in which they exist and other strings in other spaces (although on the latter point some theorists differ).  The intricate equations describing the strings and their dimensions has allowed very complex models to be built and from these, the handful of people of the planet who understand both the mathematics and their implications have drawn a number of inferences about the universe said variously to be “fascinating”, “speculative” and “nonsensical” and one of the delights of string theory is that it can be neither proved nor disproved.  Word nerds however can be grateful to the stringers because they adopted “compactified”, the word describing the way the dimensions beyond the verifiable four are curled up (or scrunched) at scales so small they remain unobservable with current technology.

Superdimentionality

Model of Germania, built to scale.

Superdimentionality is the application of exaggerated dimensions to designs, some of which actually get built.  It a popular motif for the kitsch structures favored by tourist attractions of which Australia has many (the big pineapple, big prawn, big golfball, big lobster, big gumboot et al) but for Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), superdimentionality was the dominant concept for the entire Nazi empire; reichism writ large.  The idea was well documented in the plans for Germania, the re-building of Berlin designed by a team under Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945), the centerpiece of which was the monumental Volkshalle (People's Hall), sometimes referred to as the Große Halle (Great Hall).  The hall would have seated 180,000 under a dome 16 times larger than that of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and in its vastness was a classic example of the representational architecture of the Third Reich.  Although it’s obvious the structure as a whole was intended to inspire awe, the details also conveyed the subliminal messaging of much fascist propaganda, fixtures like doorways sometimes four times the usual height, the disconnection from human scale emphasizing the supremacy of the state.

German conceptual H-45 battleship.

Hitler also thought the materiel supplied to his military machine should be big.  After being disappointed by proposals for the successors to the Bismarck-class ships to have the armament increased only from eight 15-inch (380 mm) to eight 16 inch (406 mm) canons, he ordered OKM (Oberkommando der Marine; Naval High Command) to design bigger ships.  Although none were ever built, Germany lacking the facilities even to lay down the keels, the largest (the H-44) would have had eight 20-inch (508 mm) cannons.  Even more to the Führer’s liking was the concept of the H-45, equipped with eight 31.5 inch (800 mm) Gustav siege guns but the experience of surface warfare at sea convinced Hitler the days of the big ships were over and he would even try to persuade the navy to retire all their capital ships and devote more resources to the submarines which, as late as 1945, he hoped might still prolong the war.  However, he never lost faith in the promise of bigger and bigger tanks, an opinion share by none of the tank commanders who were appalled at the designs of some of the monstrosities he ordered prepared.

Hitler’s study in the Reich Chancellery (1939) (left) and his (rarely used) big desk in the corner, the big doors behind (right)

Perhaps surprisingly, there’s no record Hitler ever complained the Mercedes-Benz built for his use were too small but then they were by even by the standards to which popes, presidents and potentates were accustomed, big.  Certainly, there’s no record of him asking Daimler-Benz for anything larger as Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970; President of France 1958-1969), in 1965 aghast at the notion the state car of France might be bought from Germany or the US (it’s not known which idea he thought most appalling and apparently nobody bothered to suggest buying British) requested of coachbuilder Henri Chapron (1886-1978).  Le General’s only stipulations about his Citroën DS Presidential were (1) it had to be longer than the extended Lincoln Continentals then used by the White House for Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1969-1969) and (2) the turning circle had to be tight enough to enter the Elysée Palace’s courtyard from the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and then pull up at the steps in a single maneuver.  Chapron managed to fulfill both requirements although the contrast between the Citroën’s rather agricultural 2.3 litre (140 cubic inch) four-cylinder engine and the Lincoln’s 7.0 (430) V8 was remarkable, De Gaulle probably regarding the Lincoln’s additional displacement as typical American vulgarity.

Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150), Berlin 1939.

Hitler though would have been impressed by the big V8 although he would doubtless have pointed out the 7.7 litre (468 cubic inch) straight-8 in his Mercedes-Benz 770K was not only bigger but also supercharged and he’d have found nothing vulgar in any of the American machine’s dimensions.  The 770Ks used by the Führer were produced in two series (W07 (1930-1939) & W150 (1939-1943)) of what the factory called the Grosser Mercedes (the Grand Mercedes) and while the earlier cars were available to anyone with the money (seven between 1932-1935 purchased by the Japanese Imperial household for the emperor’s fleet and adorned with the family’s gold chrysanthemum), the W150s were made exclusively for the upper echelons of the Nazi Party although to smooth the path of foreign policy, some did end up in foreign hands such as António Salazar (1889–1970) dictator of Portugal 1932-1968), Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975) & Field Marshal Mannerheim (commander-in-chief of Finnish defense force 1939–1945 and president of Finland (1944–1946).  Though large and impressive, by 1938 the W07 was something of a engineering relic and although the demands of the military were paramount in the economy, resources were found to update the Grosser to the technical level of the more modern 540K by adopting a lower tubular chassis with revised suspension (the de Dion axle at the rear something which should have appeared on the post-war cars) and a new, five-speed, all synchromesh gearbox.  Making the selection of first gear effortless was of some significance because so much of the 770K’s time was spent at crawling speed on parade duty but, despite the bulk (and the weight of the armored versions with 1¾ inch (45 mm) glass could exceed 5500 kg (12,000 lb), speeds in excess of 160 km/h (100 mph) could be achieved provided one had enough autobahn ahead although at that pace, even the 195 litre (52 US gallon, 43 Imperial gallon) fuel tank would soon have been drained.  Some sources also claim five were built with two superchargers, raising the top speed to 190 km/h (118 mph) but the tale may be apocryphal.

Mercedes-Benz G4 during Hitler’s entry in Vienna following the Anschluss (the absorption of Austral into the Reich), 14 March 1938.  The statue in the background is of the Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (1771–1847) and often referred to as “Archduke Karl”, mounted on the Heldenplatz.

Also appealing to Hitler was the big, three-axle G4 (W31).  The factory developed six-wheel (and ten-wheel for those with dual rear wheels) cross-country vehicles for military use during the 1920s but after testing a number of the prototype G1s, the army declined to place an order, finding them too big, too expensive and too heavy for their intended purpose.  Hitler however, as drawn to big, impressive machines as he was to huge, representational architecture, ordered them adopted as parade vehicles and the army soon acquired a fleet of the updated G4, used eventually not only on ceremonial occasions but also as staff and command vehicles, several known to have been specially configured, some as baggage cars and at least one as a mobile communications centre, packed with radio-telephony.  Eventually, between 1934-1939, fifty-seven were built, originally exclusively for the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command)) and OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command)) but one was gift from Hitler to Franco and the Spanish G4, one of few which still exists, was restored and remains in the royal garage in Madrid.  According to factory records, all were built with 5.0, 5.3 & 5.4 litre straight-eight engines but there is an unverified report of interview with Hitler’s long-time chauffeur, Erich Kempka (1910-1975), suggesting one for the Führer’s exclusive use was built with the 7.7 litre straight-eight used in the 770K Grosser.  Most of the 770s were supercharged so, if true, it's a tantalizing prospect but this story is widely thought apocryphal, no evidence of such a one-off ever having been sighted.

Dome

Dome (pronounced dohm)

(1) In architecture, a vault, having a circular plan and usually in the form of a portion of a sphere, so constructed as to exert an equal thrust in all directions.

(2) A domical roof or ceiling; a polygonal vault, ceiling, or roof.

(3) Any covering thought to resemble the hemispherical vault of a building or room; anything shaped like a hemisphere or inverted bowl.

(4) In water management, (usually in dam design), a semidome having its convex surface toward the impounded water.

(5) In crystallography, a form having planes that intersect the vertical axis and are parallel to one of the lateral axes.

(6) In geology, an upwarp (a broad anticline (a fold with strata sloping downwards on each side) caused by local uplift).

(7) In geology, a mountain peak having a rounded summit (a structure in which rock layers slope away in all directions from a central point).

(8) As vistadome, in passenger vehicles (usually railroad cars), a raised, glass-enclosed section of the roof of, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a full view of scenery (not usually truly in the hemispherical shape of a dome).

(9) In horology, the inner cover for the works of a watch which snaps into the rim of the case.

(10) A building; a house; an edifice (obsolete except as a literary device).

(11) As heat dome, a meteorological phenomenon in which the interplay of high & low pressure atmospheric systems interact to produce static, warm air over a large area.

(12) To cover with or as if with a dome; to shape like a dome.

(13) To rise or swell as a dome.

(14) In slang, a person's head (the form chrome dome used of the bald).

(15) In slang (both military and in some criminal classes), to shoot in the head (often in the form “got domed”).

(16) In African-American slang, to perform fellatio upon.

1505–1515: From the Middle French domme & dome (a town-house; a dome, a cupola) (which persists in modern French as dôme), from the Provençal doma, from the Italian duomo (cathedral), from the Medieval Latin domus (ecclesiae; literally “house (of the church)”), a calque of the Ancient Greek οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας (oîkos tês ekklēsías).  Dome is a noun & verb, domed & doming are verbs and domelike, domical, domish & domesque are adjectives; the noun plural is domes.

By the 1650s, the formalized use in architecture ensured the meaning was (more or less) standardized as “a round, vaulted roof, a hemispherical covering of a building” and thus the ultimate specialized evolution from the Greek dōma (a house, housetop (used especially of those with a roof “in the eastern style”), from domos (house), from the primitive Indo-European root dem- (house, household).  The medieval use of the German dom and Italian duomo as verbal shorthand for “cathedral” (essentially a clipping from “house of God”) was picked up in the imperfect way so many words entered English to describe architectural features in the style of hemispherical cupolas, the domes at the intersection of the nave and the transept, or over the sanctuary, characteristic architectural feature of Italian cathedrals.  The sense in English of “a building, a house” had been borrowed in English as early as the 1510s and was used mostly of stately homes and it endures but only as a literary device and it’s rarely seen outside of poetry.

The shape occurs to one degree or another in nature and is common in man-made objects and the built environment so dome is an often seen modifier (cake dome, pleasure dome, lava dome; onion dome et al) and appears in the opening lines of one of the most cherished fragments of English verse: Kubla Khan (1797) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

Some of the use has also been opportunistic and not especially domical.  Vistadomes were raised, glass-enclosed sections built into the roofs of railway carriages, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a better view of the scenery.  The idea was picked up by General Motors, the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon (1964-1977), the Buick Roadmaster Estate (1991-1996) and the Scenicruiser busses (1954-1956 and made famous in the Greyhound livery some wore until the 1970s) all used raised, partially-windowed sections although none were officially described as “domes”.

The Hagia Sophia, now the main mosque in Istanbul; the minarets were added after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and there are many architectural critics who maintain visually they improve the balance of the structure.  The illustration on the right shows how the Byzantine engineers used pendentives to make the construction of domes possible.     

Domes however are most associated with grand-scale, representational architecture (although quite a few builders of McMansions found them hard to resist).  One intriguing aspect of structural engineering upon which the integrity of a dome depends on what are called pendentives (the triangular segments of the lower part of a hemispherical dome left by the penetration of the dome by two semicircular vaults intersection at right angles).  Dating from 1727, pendentive was from the mid-sixteenth century French pendentif, from the Latin pendentem (nominative pendens) (hanging and the source of the English “pendulous”), the present participle of pendere (to hang) from the primitive Indo-European roots pen & spen- (to draw, stretch, spin).  What pendentives permit is the use of a circular dome over a square void square room or an elliptical one over something rectangular room.  Pendentives, (geometrically the triangular segments of a sphere), taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base as required.  As structural supports, pendentives distribute the bulk of a dome’s weight to the four corners (the strongest points) and ultimately to the piers and the foundations below.  The classic example is the Hagia Sophia, the sixth century Byzantine cathedral at Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).  It was converted into a mosque when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and, after a century-odd as a museum, is again a mosque.

Scale model of Germania.  Hitler would spend hours pondering the details but in 1945, he spent even longer looking at the model of what was planned for the Austrian city of Linz where he'd decided to have his tomb installed.

Domes have long been a favorite of emperors, dictators and those other megalomaniacs: architects.  A truly monumental one would have been the Volkshalle (People's Hall and known also as the Große Halle (Great Hall) & Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Glory), the centerpiece of Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) never realized plan to re-built Berlin as Germania, a worthy Welthauptstadt (world capital) of his “thousand year Reich”.  Although Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) was Germania’s chief architect, in some aspects he was really a glorified draftsman, correcting the technical errors in the drawings passed to him by the Führer who had be sketching parts of the design since the early 1920s.

Even by the standards of the super-dimensionality which was characteristic of the Third Reich, the domed hall would have been extraordinary.  The oculus would have been 46 m (151 feet) in diameter which would have accommodated the entire rotunda of Hadrian's Pantheon and the dome of St Peter's Basilica.  The  250 m (820 feet) diameter of the dome was (and this was a signature of Speer’s approach), bigger even than Hitler had requested and he was much displeased to learn of a rival architect’s plans for a dome 15 m (49 feet) greater in diameter to sit atop the city’s new railway station.  As things turned out, none of the grandiose structures were ever built and although a tinge of regret can be found in Speer’s post-war thoughts, even he admitted the designs were a failure because of “their lack of human scale”.

Berlin's rebuilt Reichstag with steel & glass dome.

Berlin did however eventually get a new dome, albeit it one rendered not in granite but the glass and steel the Führer thought was fine for factories and warehouses but which would have appalled him as a method of construction for public, representational architecture.  Plonked atop the rebuilt Reichstag, it was said to symbolize the reunification of Germany although quite how it managed that has never really been explained although the distinctive structure has become a city landmark and people seem to like it.  A clever design, it sits directly above the chamber of the Bundestag (the lower house of the bicameral federal parliament) and permits public observation, the clever design also reducing energy use by optimizing the input of natural light while moving shrouds minimize glare and heat-soak.

Cinerama Dome, Los Angeles in 1965, the year of its greatest commercial success.

The Cinerama Dome movie theatre sits on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.  Opened in 1963, the Cinerama Dome introduced a new concept for film projection, a curved screen which sat inside a geodesic dome based on the design developed by US systems theorist & architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), one attraction of which was such things could be built at lower coast and in much less time than a conventional theatre building.  Intended to be the first of perhaps thousands around the planet, it was built in a still remarkable four months but it remains the only concrete geodesic on the planet and while it has operated intermittently since being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, its future is uncertain and although it will probably be preserved as a historic building, it’s likely to be re-purposed as retail or restaurant space.

Lindsay Lohan at the Scary Movie V premiere, Cinerama Dome, April 2013.

The end of the line for Cinerama is another marker in the evolution of the technology which underpinned the evolution of the US economy from one based on agriculture, to one increasingly industrial to one geared around the military & entertainment.  In the 1950s, cinema’s greatest challenge came from television and the film studios fought back by creating differentiation in their products.  The venture into 3D proved a cul-de-sac for a number of reasons but one thing cinemas could do was make their big screens huge and during the 1950s the wide-screen Cinemascope enjoyed a boom.  However, there was a limit to how much screens could grow, hence the interest in Cinerama which projected onto a curved screen designed to take advantage of the way the human eye sees and processes images, the system at its best when provided by three synchronized projectors.  The idea lives on in the curved screens which have become popular among gaming freaks who enjoy the sense of “envelopment”.  It was also the era during which populations moved further from city centres into suburbs and thus, cinemas also needed to move, more of which (but often smaller) would be required.  Thus the attraction of the geodesic dome came which, largely pre-fabricated, was cheap to produce and quick to assemble.  However, Cinerama was expensive to film, to print, to produce and the sheer size and weight of the prints meant it was costly even to ship the material to venues and the conversion process to something which could be used with conventional projection.

Heat Domes

July 2023 Global heat map from the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, USA.  For those unconvinced, Fox News continues to provide alternative facts.

The “heat dome” is a weather phenomenon, the physics of which has for decades been understood but of late the term has entered general use as much of the northern hemisphere has suffered from prolonged, unusually high temperatures, July 2023 measured as the hottest month ever recorded.  A heat dome occurs when a large, high-pressure system traps and concentrates hot air in a specific region, leading to prolonged and extremely high temperatures. Under a heat dome, the atmospheric pressure aloft prevents the hot air from rising and dissipating, effectively acting as a lid or cap over the area, thus the image of a dome sitting over the land.

The UK's Royal Meteorological Service's simple illustration of the physics of a heat dome.  Heat domes are also their own feedback loop.  A static areas of high pressure which already contains warm or hot air trapped under the high will become hotter and hotter, creating a heat dome.  Hot air will rise into the atmosphere, but high pressure acts as a lid and causes the air to subside or sink; as the air sinks, it warms by compression, and the heat builds. The ground also warms, losing moisture and making it easier to heat even more.

Portrait

Portrait (pronounced pawr-trit, pawr-treyt, pohr-trit or pohr-treyt)

(1) A likeness of a person, especially of the face, as a painting, drawing, or photograph (when used as a modifier: a portrait gallery).

(2) A verbal description of someone or something, especially if pertaining to an individual’s character.

(3) Relating to or producing vertical, upright orientation of computer or other digital output, with lines of data parallel to the two shorter sides of a page or screen (as opposed “landscape” in which the relationship is inverted).  The use was formalized in digital technology as applied to aspect ratios (page layouts, images, monitors etc).

(4) In printing (of a publication or an illustration in a publication), being of greater height than width.

1560–1570: From the Middle English portrait (a figure, drawn or painted), either a back formation from portraiture or directly from the French portrait, from the Middle French portraict & pourtraict (a drawing, image, etc), the noun use of the past participle of portraire (to portray), from the thirteenth century Old French portret, from the Latin prōtrahō.  Wherever used, the various forms were always applied especially to pictures or representation of the head and face of a person drawn from life.  The spelling pourtraict is obsolete.  Portrait is a noun, verb & adjective, portraitist & portraiture are nouns and portraiting & portraited are verbs and portraitlike & portraitesque are adjectives; the noun plural is portraits.

An image of Lindsay Lohan, digitally rendered in the style of an oil on canvas portrait.

Artists painting their own image had been a part of art for centuries but the term “self-portrait” entered English in 1821, a direct translation of the German Selbstbildnis (the construct being selbst +‎ Bildnis).  The portraiture (the art of making portraits; a painting, picture, or drawing) emerged in the late fourteenth century and was from the twelfth century Old French portraiture (portrait, image, portrayal, resemblance).  The term Fayum (a city in Egypt, and the associated region) portrait (also known as the "mummy portrait" or "Faiyum portrait" describes the class of naturalistic portraits rendered on the wooden boards attached to mummies from the Coptic period.  Produced between the first & third centuries AD, they were a sub-set of the school of panel painting popular in late Antiquity and have been an invaluable source of information for historians, revealing much about fashion, social structures and aspects of religious beliefs and the associated politics.  Fayum was from the Arabic الفَيُّوم‎ (al-fayyūm), from the Coptic (ph̀iom) (the sea, Fayum), from the Egyptian pꜣ ym (Lake Moeris (literally “The Lake”), the construct being pꜣ (the) + ym (lake).  The term “swagger portrait” is one of the informal terms used to describe a work (not of necessity a portrait as one is now conventionally understood) which is rendered in a style deliberately to emphasize their wealth, status or importance.

The portrait versus landscape aspect ratio was much discussed in the early days of televising live sport on television, the producers concluding there were "landscape sports" and "portrait sports".  Human vision is naturally in a landscape aspect which is why the 16:9 (width x height) ratio works so well in computer monitors and it's said to explain why architecture which follows the dimensionality of the DL envelope is thought to be so pleasing; almost all  the early television screens were in a landscape shape (typically 4:3 or 6:4).  Thus, sports like most football codes (covered with cameras on the long sides and played on a rectangular field) were thought "landscape" and worked best on TV while the forms played on ovals involving much high kicking (such as Australian Rules) was inherently portrait.  Some portrait sports were suitable however because of their small scale.  Tennis was a portrait sport which had to be covered from the small ends but the rectangular courts were small and with attention to camera angles, could be made to work well.  Cricket was (sort of the same) although much panning was involved to cover the rest of the ground when required.     

“Portrait bust” in marble (circa 1895) of Otto von Bismarck (1815-1989; Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890) by the German Sculptor Reinhold Begas (1831-1911).

In early 1939, during construction of the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin, workmen dropped one of the Begas busts of Bismarck which had for decades stood in the old Chancellery, breaking it at the neck.  The architect Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945), knowing that the superstitious Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) regarded the Reich Eagle toppling from the post-office building right at the beginning of World War I (1914-1918) as a harbinger of doom, kept the accident secret and had architect and sculptor Arno Breker (1900–1991) carve an exact copy.  To give the fake the necessary patina, it was soaked for a time in strong, black tea, the porous quality of marble enabling the fluid to induce some accelerated aging.

In sculpture, what was known as the “portrait statue” after the 1690s came to be known as the “portrait bust”, both meaning “sculpture of upper torso and head”.  Bust was from the sixteenth century French buste, from the Italian busto (upper body), from the bustum (funeral monument, tomb (originally “funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned”)) which may have been a shortened form of ambustum, the neuter of ambustus (burned around) and past participle of amburere (burn around, scorch), the construct being ambi- (around) + urere (to burn).  The alternative etymology suggests a link with the Old Latin boro, the early form of Classical Latin uro (to burn) and the sense development in Italian is thought related to the Etruscan custom of keeping the ashes of the dead in an urn shaped like the person when alive.  After the mind-1720s, it was used as a term to describe the “trunk of the human body above the waist” and it’s for this reason it was in the 1880s adapted to mean “the bosom; the measurement around a woman's body at the level of her breasts”.

The Supreme Leader presides over the Fifth Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Military Commission of the WPK, 12 March 2023, the task of the generals & admirals being to write down his every word.  The portraits behind the Supreme Leader (both in landscape aspect) are of the Great Leader (left) and the Dear Leader (right).  Preserving the images of the photographers in the (portrait aspect) mirror was a nice, post-modern, touch.

In August 2023, with tropical storm Khanun bearing down on the DPRK (North Korea) coast, the state media issued instructions that citizens must “with urgency” and “at any cost” focus on “ensuring the safety” of items depicting the three members of the Kim dynasty: Kim Il-sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994); Kim Jong-il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK 1994-2011) and Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK since 2011).  Presumably because they would be more susceptible to the storm’s heavy rain and strong winds than sturdier objects like statutes, the Rodong Sinmun (official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK)) emphasized citizens’ “foremost focus” must be ensuring the preservation of portraits of the Kims although they did caution the need also to safeguard the large number of statues, mosaics, murals and other monuments to the Kim dynasty which has ruled North Korea since its foundation in 1948.

Meeting of the WPK to commemorate the Supreme Leader’s tenth anniversary of his assumption of leadership of the party, Pyongyang, April 2022.  The Supreme Leader’s portrait is displayed in an oval which is not unusual in DPRK Kim iconography.

The order was an interesting insight into the way the regime regards the symbolism of representational objects as a part of its legitimacy but they have set the population an onerous task given the sheer volume of portraits which exist.  At least one each of the Great Leader & Dear Leader are known to hang in every house, café, bus, train carriage or shop and in public buildings there might literally be dozens.  In recent years, it’s been noted portraits of the Supreme Leader have also been more frequently seen and analysts have for years regarded the Kim dynasty’s mode of operation as something like a theocratic state in which the leader and his ancestors are worshiped.  Implicit in that is that statues and portraits are beyond being merely symbolic but are really sacred icons; just as every citizen must be willing (anxious even) to die protecting the leader, so must they be prepared to sacrifice themselves to save his portrait.  It's never been revealed whether any of the Kims read Oscar Wilde's (1854–1900) The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) but if so, they've learned well.

DPRK citizens during flooding in 2022 (left) & 2012 (centre & right), searching for portraits of the Great Leader, Dear Leader & Supreme Leader that they might be able to save.

Spot

Spot (pronounced spot)

(1) A rounded mark or stain made by foreign matter, as mud, blood, paint, ink etc; a blot or speck, differing usually in colour or texture from its surroundings.

(2) A small blemish, mole, or lesion on the skin or other surface (popularly associated with pimple, zits, blackheads etc).

(3) A small, circumscribed mark caused by disease, allergic reaction, decay, etc.

(4) A comparatively small, usually roundish, part of a surface differing from the rest in color, texture, character etc.

(5) A place or locality (used also in the plural, often to describe places of entertainment, sightseeing locations, historic sites etc and also used of things like parking spots).

(6) In organisational structures, a specific position in a sequence or hierarchy.

(7) In playing cards, one of various traditional, geometric drawings of a club, diamond, heart, or spade indicating suit and value.

(8) A pip, as on dice or dominoes.

(9) In slang, a piece of paper money (5 spot=$5 etc).

(10) As a clipping of “spot illustration”, a small drawing, usually black and white, appearing within or accompanying a text.

(11) A small quantity of anything.

(12) In ichthyology, a small croaker (Leiostomus xanthurus) with a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides, the habitat of which is the US east coast; the southern redfish, or red horse (Sciaenops ocellatus), which has a spot on each side at the base of the tai; both popular as food fish.

(13) As a clipping of “spot market”, the informal terms for commodities (grain, oil, wool et al) sold for immediate delivery and payment at a price quoted at the point of sale.

(14) A slang term for a spotlight.

(15) To stain or mark with spots:

(16) In dry cleaning, to remove a spot or spots from clothing, prior to processing.

(17) In any context, to make a spot; to become spotted.

(18) In the military (often as target spotter or spotting), law enforcement or among criminals etc, to serve or act as a spotter.

(19) In billiards, a clipping of “spot ball” the white ball that is distinguished from the plain by a mark or spot; the player using this ball.

(20) To look out for and note; to observe or perceive suddenly, especially under difficult circumstances; to discern.

(21) In informal use (US) in some games and sports, to yield an advantage or concession to one's opponent.

(22) In zoology, a term used to describe various dot-like patterns (ladybirds, leopards et al) seen on the skin, wings, coats etc of some animals.

(23) In sports, an official determination of placement (where a referee or umpire places a ball, sets the point at which a penalty kick is to be taken etc).

(24) In broadcasting (radio & television), brief advertisement or program segment.

(25) In gymnastics, dance & weightlifting, one who spots (supports or assists a manoeuvre, or is prepared to assist if safety dictates); a spotter.

(26) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above the beak.

(27) In the jargon of financial trading, the decimal point (used to ensure no ambiguities in oral exchanges).

(28) In physics, a dissipative soliton (a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization); known also as a pulse.

(29) In slang (US), to loan a small amount of money to someone.

(30) In analogue & digital photograph editing, to remove minor flaws.

(31) In ballet, to keep the head and eyes pointing in a single direction while turning.

(32) To cut or chip timber in preparation for hewing.

(33) In naval aviation, to position an aircraft on the deck of an aircraft carrier ready for launch by catapult.

(34) In rail transport, to position a locomotive or car at a predetermined point (typically for loading or unloading).

1150-1200: From the Middle English spot & spotte (a moral blemish), partially from the Middle Dutch spotte (spot, speck, mark), and partially a merging with the Middle English splot, from the Old English splott (spot, speck, plot of land).  It was cognate with the East Frisian spot (speck), the North Frisian spot (speck, piece of ground), the Low German spot (speck) and the Old Norse spotti (small piece) and the Norwegian spot (spot, small piece of land); it was related also to splotch.  Describing originally some flaw of character, the idea of a “speck, stain left by something on a surface” emerged in the mid-fourteenth century, picked up from the Old English splott.  The late Middle English verb spotten (to stain, mark) was a derivative of the noun.  Variations of the form are common in Germanic languages but the nature of the spread and evolution remains murky.  From the early fourteenth century it was used to describe “a patch or mark on the fur of an animal while the sense of a “particular place, small extent of space (on a body, etc”) dated from the late 1300s, the general figurative use "a blemish, defect, distinguishing mark emerging at the same time, concurrent with the now familiar use to refer to pimple, zips etc, soon to be celebrated in the medical literature as “an eruption on the skin”.  The adjective spotless was from the late fourteenth century spotless (without flaw or blemish; pure).  The adjective spotty was from the mid-fourteenth century spotti, (marked with spots (of the skin, etc)) and it entered figurative use in the sense of “unsteady, irregular, uneven, without unity” in 1932.  Spot is a noun, verb & adjective, spotter & spotlessness are nouns, spotlike, spotless’ spotty & spottable are adjectives, spotting & spots are nouns & verbs, spotlessly is an adverb and spotted is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spots.

The early nineteenth century use of “spotty” in art criticism was originally a critique and unrelated either to the later technique of divisionism (sometimes called chromoluminarism), most associated with Neo-Impressionist painting and defined by the colors being separated into individual dots or daubs or the “dot paintings” associated with some forms of Indigenous Australian art.  The meaning “short interval in a radio broadcast for an advertisement or announcement” dates from 1937, an extension of the earlier use in live theatre to describe “an act's position on a bill”, noted since as surprisingly late 1923.  Although it’s likely to have been longer in oral use, in 1901 it noted in the US as a term for a prison sentence (5 spot=5 years etc).

1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351.  Even when standing still the thing undeniably had a presence but the sheer volume of the rear coachwork created blind spots and the dramatic roofline (said to be highly aerodynamic) restricted rearward visibility, the glass close to horizontal.

The term “blind spot” began in optics in 1864 describing a “spot within one's range of vision but where one cannot see” which in 1872 was described scientifically as “the point on the retina insensitive to light (where the optic nerve enters the eye”.  The figurative use (of moral, intellectual matters etc) dates from 1907 while the literal (a field of vision blocked by some fixed object) was used by 1912, originally of those suffered by omnibus drivers and later it became familiar when describing defects in the visibility offered by the design of early automobiles.  Dating from 1888, “hot spot” was originally a term from dermatology which referred to the focal point of a skin irritation and was literal, the temperature at the (usually reddish) site slightly higher.  In 1931 it was use of “nightclubs or other entertainment venues" (which after 1936 were “nightspots” generally) while it came into use in fire-fighting in 1938 after research indicated the most effective way to prevent spread or lower intensity was to find the points of highest temperature.  It 1941, it came to be applied to “a place of international conflict”.  The famous g spot (also a g-spot and short for Gräfenberg spot, named for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg (1881-1957)) entered English in 1981 although the doctor had described it in a paper published in 1950 but similar finding are in documents dating back centuries.  He also developed the intra-uterine device (IUD) but despite these notable contributions to science he died in obscurity.

The noun spotter (one who makes spots; one who observes things for some purpose) was first used in 1876 as a slang for “a detective”, picking up from the verb in the secondary sense of “catch with the eye” and by 1903 it was used in the general sense of a “look-out”, adopted with apparently equal enthusiasm by police and criminals alike.  It was a designated position in hunting and target practice by 1893 but the military appear not to have picked it up until the World War I (1914-1918) although such tasks had existed for centuries, pre-dating even artillery, batteries of archers supported by an observer who reported their accuracy of fire.  In the navy, they were also called “sighters” and the use of “spotter” for this purpose has even extended to electronic hardware.  The sunspot in 1818 was again from dermatology and referred to “a spot on the skin caused by exposure to the Sun”, the term picked up in 1849 by the early heliophysicists to describe the “spots on the surface of the Sun”.

Spotlights (actually anti-aircraft searchlights) used to create the Lichtdom (literally "Cathedral of Light") effect at the Nazi's Nuremberg Rallies during the 1930s.

The spotlight (source of artificial light casting a narrow, relatively intense beam) was first described in 1904 as a piece of theatrical equipment with the figurative sense dating from 1916 where it could carry either negative or positive connotations (unlike the companion “limelight” which was always positive).  The military did use the term spotlight but the “searchlight” was a more frequent entry in lists of materiel.  The hobby (which for some seems either a calling or obsession) of train-spotting was first documented in 1959 (the train spotter having been mentioned the previous year) and referred to those who observed, collected and collated the numbers of railway locomotives, one’s status in the field determined by the number of unique entries in one’s list.  The habit caught on and there are also car spotters, truck spotters, bus spotters and plane spotters, the last once causing an international incident when a group were arrested outside a Greek military airfield by police who confiscated their notebooks and cameras, accusing them of spying.  The matter was resolved.

Hitting the spot: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a shot of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

In idiomatic use, the phrase “hit the spot” (satisfy, be what is required) was first document in 1857 while the companion “spot on” doesn’t seem to have been used until 1920.  Earlier, “on the spot” by the 1670s meant “at once, without moving or delay” and a decade later “in the precise place and time” hence to be “on the spot” implied one “doing just what is right and needed”, a form noted since 1884.  The term “man on the spot” assumed some importance in diplomatic and military chains of command in the times before modes of communications were global, convenient and real-time, a recognition the one best equipped to make a decision was “the man on the spot”; then all certainly were men.  To “put someone on the spot” or “leave them in “a bit of a spot (or a “tight spot”)” was to “place them in a difficult situation”, use dating from 1928 and 1929 respectively.  The “spot check” (an inspection of a sample chosen at random) was first described (though doubtless a long-established practice) in 1933 and was used as a verb by 1944.  The term “sweet spot” is a mid-twentieth century formation which means “the optimal point and is used to describe (1) in acoustics the point of optimal sound delivered by the positioning of speakers, (2) in economics the optional outcome in a cost-benefit analysis, (3) in sporting equipment the location on a tennis racquet, baseball bat etc which produces the most satisfactory effect on the ball, (4) in phonetics the state of harmonic resonance in the larynx which produces the perfect sound and (5) as a euphemistic, the clitoris, G-spot or other source of sexual pleasure.  Generally, it’s used to mean “any ideal location or situation.

In zoology, the nomenclature can mislead non-specialists: The black spotted estuary cod (left) is a fish with black spots whereas the black spotted pond turtle  (right) is a black amphibian with white spots.

Spot in its original sense a taint, stigma, stain or blemish on the character of a person is still used to suggest some moral flaw and is related to “can’t change one’s spots” & “a leopard can’t change its spots”, the implication being character flaws are inherent.  A “weak spot” is a specific deficiency and a “soft spot” is a “particular sympathetic affection or weakness for a person or thing” which should not be confused with the “soft underbelly”; such is a vulnerability.  To “hit the spot” is an acknowledgement a need has perfectly be satisfied (typically used to mean hunger has been sated or thirst quenched.  In the matter of the weather, if it’s “just spotting”, the rain is light.  A “black spot” is something bad or dangerous while a “bright spot” is a highlight or something positive in a sea of bad news.  The use of the phrase “X marks the spot” has expanded somewhat but originally meant “one will find what one is looking for under an obvious sign”.  Spotted fever was a term for a number of tropical diseases (the reference to the symptoms which appeared on the skin) dating from the 1640s.  The spotted dick (suet pudding with currants and raisins) appeared in recipe books in 1849 although the date of its creation is uncertain.

Spotted dick (sometimes known as spotted richard) with custard.

In June 2018, it was reported the Strangers' Dining Room the UK’s House of Commons in Westminster had changed the name of “Spotted Dick” to “Spotted Richard” although in other parts of the country, the suet & dried fruit sponge dessert remained on sale under the traditional name.  Derided by many as “wokeness” or “political correctness gone mad” the restaurant staff confirmed the change had been made in case anyone found the conjunction of spotted and dick “confronting”.  There’s no suggestion any complaints had been received which might have prompted the change but ideas soon flowed about the way people might be protected from other culinary micro-aggressions: Apple crumble was thought to be potentially offensive to those diagnosed with anxiety disorders so it might better be called apple support while the extra virgin olive oil offered with breads could be triggering for the Incels (involuntary celibate men).  Perhaps such oil could be labelled young because one certainly doesn’t wish to trigger the Incels.  The sight of Cock-a-leekie soup on a menu would be challenging for both the incontinent and those recovering from certain STIs (sexually transmitted infections which were once known as STDs (sexually transmitted diseases and before that venereal disease (VD)) so it would be better to play it straight and re-brand as chicken & leek soup.

Famously daring tennis player Roger Federer (b 1981), Wimbledon, July 2023.

A long-standing orthodoxy in fashion is that stripes and spots should never be mixed and either should be worn only with a solid and with the added caveat care should be taken with color choices.  However, neither all stripes nor all spots are created equal; dimensionality matters so if small enough and in the right color combination, either can for these purposes work as solids and thus be available for mix & match.  To illustrate the technique, style guru Elisabeth McKnight explains pattern mixing with polka dots:

(1) Pick a color palette: Black and white is an easy starter palette, but even if adding color, stick to only a few.  Find patterns with the same colors in them or keep it easy by mixing colors of the same tone together (pastels with pastels or jewel tones with jewel tones, for example).

(2) Mix patterns of different scales: Pair a small print with a large and avoid prints of the same size. If using only one print (like a tiny polka dot skirt) with a very small print, essentially it acts as a neutral.  So, when wearing polka dots and stripes together, ensure dots are small if the stripes are bold.  Alternatively, if the print of the stripe is small, it can be paired with bigger dots.  As a rule of thumb, use the “ten foot rule”.  At that distance, to the naked eye, the fabric with small dots or strips should be had to distinguish from a solid.

(3) Mix textures for added dimension: Although it can be a dramatic look, especially with statements like red or purple, interest can be added if different fabrics are used for top and bottom garments.

How it's done: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates how spots and stripes work best with solids.