Elope

Elope (pronounced ih-lohp)

(1) To run off secretly to be married, usually without the consent or knowledge of one's parents.

(2) To run away with a lover.

(3) To leave without permission or notification; escape:

(4) In the slang of geriatric medicine and mental health care (of a person with a mental disorder related to dementia or other cognitive impairment), to leave or run away from a safe area or safe premises.

1300s: From the Middle English alopen (to run away) (from which Anglo-Norman gained aloper) and perhaps influenced by the Middle Dutch lōpen (to run).  The Anglo-Norman aloper (to abduct, to run away from a husband with one’s lover) was from a Germanic source, either the Middle Dutch ontlopen (to run away) or some predecessor thereof.  It was cognate with the German entlaufen (to escape) and the Danish undløbe (to run away).  The sense of "run away in defiance of parental authority to marry secretly" became the standard meaning in the nineteenth century.  The now functionally extinct verb delope did not describe a young couple changing their minds and returning to their families unmarried.  It was unrelated to elope and was from the French déloper (throw away) and meant "to fire a gun into the air in order to end a duel".  Elope is a verb, eloper & elopement are nouns, eloping is a noun & verb and eloped & elopes are verbs; the most common noun plural is elopements.

The Middle Dutch (ont)lopen (run away), from ont- (away from) was from the Proto-Germanic und- (which also gave the first element in until) from the primitive Indo-European root ant- (front, forehead) with derivatives meaning "in front of, before" + lopen (to run) from the Proto-Germanic hlaupan (source also of Old English hleapan) and in support of this etymology, the OED compares Old English uðleapan, the technical word for the “escaping' of a thief”.  However the fourteenth century Anglo-French aloper (run away from a husband with one's lover) does seem the most compelling source.  Of note also is the oldest known Germanic word for "wedding", represented by the Old English brydlop (source also of the Old High German bruthlauft & the Old Norse bruðhlaup (literally "bride run) meaning "the conducting of the woman to her new home”.  Elope is a verb (used without object), eloped & eloping are verbs, elopement and eloper are nouns and the curious uneloped is an adjective.  Words similar in meaning include fly, abscond, skip, leave, decamp, bolt, escape, flee & disappear but, certainly as used today, elope is unique.

Elopement in England and Scotland

The Anglo-Norman aloper was originally a legal term meaning, of a wife, to run away from her husband with a paramour, a court journal from 1338 (during the reign of Edward III) among the earliest known recordings of court proceedings citing the word.  That was noted by John Rastell (circa 1475-1536) and his son, William Rastell (circa 1508-1565) in their 1636 legal textbook which translated what they called “…certaine difficult and obscure Words and Termes of the Common Lawes and Statutes of this Realme” from Old and Middle English into what is still a recognizably modern form.

Elopement they defined as “…when a married woman departeth from her husband with an adulterer, and dwelleth with the adulterer without voluntary reconcilement to her husband, by that she shall lose her dower…”.  They further noted the existence of a legal maxim of the time, in the form of verse:

The woman that her husband leaves

And in adultery leads her life

If that he dye vnreconcil’d

The Law endoweth no such wife

It changed.  From the twelfth to the early nineteenth century, “elope” was used to refer to a wife who had run off with her lover, the meaning shift changing to describe two unmarried lovers running away to marry, a thing which became popular after passage of the Marriage Act (1753) in England which required those under twenty-one to obtain their parents’ permission to marry.  Marriages being not infrequently arranged by parents with daughters’ opinions either ignored or un-sought, flights from undesired unions became frequent.  An unintended consequence of the Act was the boost to Scottish tourism.  Scotland’s legal system was, and remains, separate from that of England and not only waived parental consent but permitted marriage between girls of twelve and boys of fourteen so there was a happy conjunction between the push from the south and the pull from the north.  A sudden spike in young English lovers hastening over the border to marry ensued.  

Just across the English-Scottish border lay the village of Gretna Green which, improbably, became the Las Vegas of the era.  Under Scottish customary practice, village blacksmiths were known also as “anvil priests”, empowered to perform “anvil weddings” at their forge.  Under pressure from both London and the Scottish church, in 1856 Scottish marriage laws were amended to try to stem the flow of elopements, requiring a couple to live in a parish for three weeks prior to the ceremony, twenty-one days ample time for families to reclaim runaways.  Scottish commerce however rose to the occasion, offering three-week (room & meals) packages with what hotels now call “silent bookings” (anonymity).  Business continued.

A residual of these times remains in Scottish law, a twenty-one day notice of marriage still required although the residency requirement has been repealed and bride and groom now have to be over sixteen to marry.  Still in the business after two-hundred and sixty years, the Old Blacksmith's Shop in Gretna Green village continues to conduct anvil weddings although there's apparently no guarantee the celebrant will be a genuine blacksmith, those of that profession not now so numerous.  Experiencing something of a post COVID-19 boom, bookings are essential.

It's a changing world and the traditional reasons for elopement now generally less prevalent, the word “elope” has been re-purposed.  When the site SheKnows commented on the path to Lindsay Lohan's nuptials: “They got engaged in November 2021 before eloping in July 2022.”, they appeared to vest "elope" with a very modern sense.  The implication seems to be if a pop-culture figure's wedding happens without being packaged as a photo collection and video stream sold to whichever outlet is (1) thought appropriate and (2) willing to pay the asking price, that’s an elopement.  That sounds right and reflects the wider net cast by contemporary celebrity culture, the modern apparatus of distribution meaning such folk now have millions from whom to elope.

Leap

Leap (pronounced leep)

(1) To spring through the air from one point or position to another; to jump.

(2) Quickly or suddenly to move or act.

(3) To cause to leap.

(4) A spring, jump, or bound; a light, springing movement.

(5) The distance covered in a leap; distance jumped.

(6) A place leaped or to be leaped over or from.

(7) A sudden or abrupt transition.

(8) A sudden and decisive increase.

(8) In folk mythology, to copulate with or coverture of (a female beast) (archaic).

(9) In slang, to copulate with (a human) (archaic).

(10) A group of leopards.

(11) In figurative use, a significant move forward.

(12) In figurative use, a large step in reasoning (often one that is not justified by the facts, hence the sceptical phrase “a bit of a leap” & “quite a leap”).

(13) In mining (also used in geology), a fault.

(14) In aquatic management, a salmon ladder; a trap or snare for fish, historically constructed with fallen from twigs; a “weely”.

(15) In music, a passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.

(16) An intercalary measure, best-known as “leap year”, “leap second” et al.

(17) In pre-modern measures of weight, half a bushel.

Pre 900: From the Middle English lepen, from the Old English hlēapan, from the Proto-West Germanic hlaupan, from the Proto-Germanic hlaupaną (a doublet of lope, lowp, elope, gallop, galop, interlope and loop).  It was cognate with the German laufen (to run; to walk), the Old Norse hlaupa the Gothic hlaupan, the West Frisian ljeppe (to jump), the Dutch lopen (to run; to walk), the Danish løbe and the Norwegian Bokmål løpe, from the primitive Indo-European klewb- (to spring; stumble) (and may be compared with the Lithuanian šlùbti (to become lame) & klùbti (to stumble).  The verb forms are tangled things.  The third-person singular simple present tense is leaps, the present participle leaping, the simple past leaped or leapt (lept & lope the archaic forms) and the past participle is leaped or leapt or (lept & lopen the archaic forms).  That leapt and leaped remain in concurrent use is another of those annoy things in English which are hangovers from their ancient entrenchments in regional use and, as a general principle leapt tends to be is preferred educated British English while leaped is seen more frequently in North America (although leapt is in those places not uncommon, especially in areas with historical ties to England).  The transitive sense as in “pass over by leaping” was in use by the early fifteenth century and there are references to the children’s game “leap-frog” documented in the 1590s, and so obvious was the use of that figuratively it probably quickly was adopted but the first attested entry dates from 1704.  The familiar “to leap tall buildings in a single bound” comes from the Superman comics of the 1940s although in idiomatic use, “leaps” has been paired with “bounds” since at least since 1720.  Leap is a noun, verb & adjective, leaper & leapling are nouns and leaping and leapt & leaped are verbs; the noun plural is leaps.

The leap year is “a year containing 366 days” and use dates from late fourteenth century Middle English lepe gere, a genuine innovation because no equivalent term existed in the Old English. The origin is thought to come from the effect of fixed festival days, which normally advance one weekday per year, to “leap” ahead one day in the week.  The Medieval Latin was saltus lunae (omission of one day in the lunar calendar every 19 years), the Old English form being monan hlyp.  The adjustments happened in the calendars of many cultures, always with the purpose of ensuring the man-made devices for tracking dates (and therefore time) remained consistent with the sun; summer needed always to feel like summer and winter like winter.  Different methods of handling the intercalary were adopted and in England the bissextile was the device.  The noun & adjective bissextile (plural bissextiles) dates from the early 1580s and was from the Latin bisextilis annus (bissextile year), the construct being bisextus + -ilis, deconstructed as bis- (two; twice; doubled) + sextus (sixth) + dies (day) and was a reference to the Julian calendar's original reckoning of its quadrennial intercalary day as a 48-hour 24 February (subsequently distinguished as the two separate days of the sixth day before the March calends (sexto Kalendas Martii) and the “doubled sixth day”.  In modern use, 24 February is now understood as “five days before 1 March” but in Roman use it was called “the sixth” because the counting of dates was then inclusive.

Trace element of Leap Year: Lindsay Lohan in Irish Wish.

For those who understand the reference, Lindsay Lohan's new Netflix movie Irish Wish (2024) is said by Irish reviewers to be "a mix of Leap Year meets Just My Luck meets Freaky Friday in which Lohan stars as quiet book editor Maddie Kelly, who embarks on a journey to find love by learning to love herself first."  Like Irish Wish, Leap Year (2010) was filmed in Ireland.

The replacement of the bissextile by the then novel 29 February every four years-odd appears such an obviously good idea it seems strange it took centuries universally to be adopted in England although the documents reveal the shift was certainly well in progress by the mid-fifteenth century and in an echo of later practices, the more curmudgeonly the institution, the slower the intrusion of the new ways, the Admiralty and houses of parliament ignoring 29 February until well into the 1500s.  It wasn’t until the Calendar (New Style) Act (1750) passed into law that 29 February received formal recognition in UK law.  The reform worked well from the start but in some jurisdictions, government lawyers took no chances and for the handful of souls born on a 29 February, their birth dates were deemed to be 28 February or 1 March for all legal purposes (eligibility for drivers licenses or pensions, age of consent etc).  One born on 29 February is a “leapling” and there are said to be a few as five million of these lonely souls on the whole planet.  In many countries hospitals and midwives note the frequency with which expectant mothers approaching March request staff do whatever is required to avoid them giving birth to a leapling, fearing the child will feel deprived by having fewer birthdays than their siblings of friends.  The math of the leap year is it is one (1) evenly divisible by 4, (2) except for years are evenly divisible by 100 except that (3) years evenly divisible by 400 are leap years.  So, 2000 was while 1900 was not; 2100 will not be a leap year, but 2400 will be.  However, because the rotation of the Earth is changing (and thus the length of days), as is its distance from the Sun, even a 29 February now and then is not enough to keep everything in sync.  So, there are also leap seconds, spliced in as needed and unlike 29 February, only those dealing with atomic clocks and such notice addition.

Leap is common in idiomatic use:  To do something in “leaps and bounds” suggests commendably quick progress.  A “leap in the dark” is to take some action while being uncertain of consequences and the related “leap of faith” is trusting in something that cannot be seen or proven so in a sense they’re two ways of saying much the same thing although “leap of faith” does also imply some trust in something or someone.  To have one’s heart “leap into one’s throat” is an allusion to the sensation felt sometimes in the throat when something scary happens.  To “leap for joy” is much the same as “jump for joy” and describes joyous happiness.  To “leap at” something is enthusiastically to take up an offer, avail one’s self of an opportunity etc.  When doing so, one might be said to “leap into action”.  To be cautioned to “look before you leap” is to suggest one should be sure of things before doing something; if one ignores the advice then it’s a “leap of faith” or a “leap into the dark”.  To “leapfrog” is to skip a step in some process, the connotation almost always positive.  To suggest someone “take a flying leap” is much the same as telling them to “go jump in the lake” or, as is now more common: “fuck off”.  The concept of the "quantum leap" was in 1913 introduced (as the "quantum jump") by Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) in his "Bohr model" of the atom.  In the strange world of quantum mechanics it describes the discontinuous change of the state of an electron in an atom or molecule from one energy level to another and was adopted figuratively to refer to an "abrupt, extreme change".  In modern use, it has come to mean a large or transformative change, a use to which pedants sometimes object but this is how the English language works.  The “leap year bug” is jargon rather than a idiom and describes the growing number of instances of problems caused by computers (and related machines) for whatever reason not correctly handling the existence of leap years.  Most are caused by human error and some are not being rectified because the original error has been built upon to such an extent that it’s easier to handle the bugs as they occur.  If something is said to be “a bit of a leap” or “quite a leap” it means there's some scepticism about the relationship one thing and another (often cause & effect). 

Jaguar's Leaper

Leaper on 1960 Jaguar Mark 2.

The “Leaper” was the factory’s name for the leaping feline figure which for decades adorned the space atop or behind the grill on many Jaguars.  These embellishments were originally mere functional devices because they were literally the external radiator caps so the most important part of the design was that easily they could be unscrewed to allow coolant to be added.  Inevitably, the possibilities occurred to stylists (as such designers used to be called) and the once modest radiator cap became miniature (though many were anything but small) works of art to covey the image the manufacturer wished.  Jaguar’s founder, Sir William Lyons (1901–1985), had a eye for style and was appalled at some of the after-market ornaments being sold to some of the buyers of his SS (Standard Swallow) Jaguars in the pre-war years so commissioned his own, the company legend being there was an amateur sculptor on the staff who got the job.  Beginning in 1938, this became the Jaguar standard and it adorned the cars until 1951 although it didn’t appear on the XK120 which caused such a sensation at the 1948 London Motor Show, apparently because that car was such a flourish of modernity the inclination was to abandon such antiquated relics.  So, when the Jaguar Mark V was retired in 1951, so was the leaper.

The Jaguar leaper had teeth which sounds ominous for pedestrians but some of the hood emblems looked more lethal still.  Left to right (top row): Buick, Packard & Pierce-Arrow; (centre row): Rolls-Royce, Bentley & Mercury; (bottom row): Duesenberg, Mercedes-Benz & Nash.

Whether nostalgia overtook the factory or there was popular demand seems not to have been recorded but in 1955 the leaper leapt back onto the Jaguar saloons (though not the sports cars) and it was sleeker still, the back legs now outstretched and because radiators were now hidden behind grills, the leaper was fixed to the bonnet (hood) and this shape would be used until 1969, offered even as an option on the XK150.  A smaller version was fashioned for the long, low & wide Mark X in 1961 and it was in use until 1970 when the 420G was retired.  That seemed to be the end of the line for the leaper because one wasn’t included when the new XJ range was released in 1968.

Leaper on a US market 1999 Jaguar Vanden Plas (X308).  The US market Vanden Plas were the only Jaguars on which the leaper was used in conjunction with the fluted grill fitted to the home market (and some RoW (rest of the world)) Daimlers.  Because it was Mercedes-Benz and not Jaguar which held the US rights to the Daimler brand, Daimlers sold in the US were badged as Jaguar Vanden Plas although they were otherwise identical to Daimlers including the fluted fittings.  The supercharged Daimler Vanden Plas was the most exclusive of the X308s and was noted for details such as the rear picnic tables being crafted from solid burl walnut timber rather than the veneer over plastic used on cheaper models.

However, while Jaguar’s designers were convinced, the buyers were not and the leaper remained a popular after-market fitting on both the XJs (where it looked OK because of the car’s resemblance to the earlier generations) and the XJ-S (where frankly, it looked absurd).  Notably, demand for the return of the leaper was strong in the US and in response, the factory relented and a “safe” version was developed to please the safety-conscious American regulators, using a spring-loaded mechanism similar to the one Mercedes-Benz used for its three-pointed star, a variation later perfected to conform with European legislation governing “the external projections of motor vehicles”.  The end for the leaper finally came in 2005 although the profile lives on in a boot (trunk) badge used on modern Jaguars (including the ones which look like big Hyundais).

Shaker

Shaker (pronounced shey-ker)

(1) A person or thing that shakes or the means by which something is shaken.

(2) A container with a perforated top from which a seasoning, condiment, sugar, flour, or the like is shaken onto food.

(3) Any of various containers for shaking beverages to mix the ingredients (eg cocktail shaker).

(4) A dredger or caster.

(5) A member of the Millennial Church, originating in England in the middle of the eighteenth century (initial capital letter).

(6) Noting or pertaining to a style of something produced by Shakers and characterized by simplicity of form, lack of ornamentation, fine craftsmanship, and functionality (initial capital letter).

(7) As the later component in mover and shaker, one who is important, influential or a dynamic forced in some field or generally.

(8) An exposed air-intake system for internal combustion engines, attached directly to the induction and thus intended to shake as the engine vibrates.

(9) A variety of pigeon.

(10) In railway line construction, one who holds spikes while they are hammered.

(11) In music, a musical percussion instrument filled with granular solids which produce a rhythmic sound when shaken.

(12) A kind of straight-sided, stackable glass.

1400-1450: From the late Middle English, the construct being shake +‎ -er.  Shake is from the Middle English schaken, from the Old English sċeacan & sċacan (to shake), from the Proto-West Germanic skakan, from the Proto-Germanic skakaną (to shake, swing, escape), from the primitive Indo-European (s)keg- & (s)kek- (to jump, move).  It was cognate with the Scots schake & schack (to shake), the West Frisian schaekje (to shake), the Dutch schaken (to elope, make clean, shake), the Low German schaken (to move, shift, push, shake) & schacken (to shake, shock), the Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (to shake), the Swedish skaka (to shake), the Dutch schokken (to shake, shock) and the Russian скака́ть (skakát) (to jump).  The –er suffix is from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius and reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (The Anglo-Norman variant was -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  Added to verbs (typically a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb) and forms an agent noun.  The plural is shakers.

The Shakers

The Millennial Church later called the Shakers, dates from 1747, the name shaker first casually applied circa 1750 although it had been used to describe similar practices in other sects since the 1640s and, as an adjective, shaker was first applied to their stark furniture in 1866.  The first cocktail shaker was mentioned in 1868 (the ancient Greeks had seison (a kind of vase) which translated literally as “shaker".  The modern-sounding “movers and shakers” is attested as early as 1874.  The Shakers began as a sect of the English Quakers, the movement founded in 1747 by Jane and James Wardley.  Correctly styled as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, the Shakers were a celibate, millenarian group that established a number of communal settlements in the United States during the eighteenth century.  The early movement was based on the revelations of Ann Lee (1736–1784; addressed within as Mother Ann Lee) who had been active in the English church for almost twenty years after becoming a devotee of the preaching of the Wardleys to whom she confessed her sins; central to her vision was the necessity of repentance and the forsaking of sin as the pathway to redemption.

Movers and shakers: Shakers shaking in worship, New York, 1858.

Promising a vision of a heavenly kingdom to come, Shaker teaching emphasized simplicity, celibacy, & work and communities were flourishing by the mid-nineteenth century, contributing to American culture the style of architecture, furniture, and handicraft for which the movement is today best remembered.  The distinctive feature of their form of worship was the ecstatic dancing or "shaking", which led to them being dubbed “the Shaking Quakers”, later generally shorted to “Shakers”.  The physicality of their practices was neither novel or unique, nor anything particularly associated with Christianity, many religions or sects within, noted for rituals involving shaking, shouting, dancing, whirling, and singing, sometimes in intelligible words, often called “in tongues” (the idea often being what was spoken coming directly from God).

The much-admired Shaker furniture.

Austere though they may have appeared, the Shakers were genuinely innovative in agriculture and industry, their farms prosperous and their ingenuity produced a large number of (usually unpatented) inventions including, the screw propeller, babbitt metal, a rotary harrow, an automatic spring, a turbine waterwheel, a threshing machine and the circular saw.  In agri-business, they were the first in the world to package and market seeds and were once the US’s largest producers of medicinal herbs.  Shaker dance and music is now regarded as a fork in American folk art as well as its religious tradition and the simplicity, functionality and fine craftsmanship of their architecture, furniture and artefacts have had a lasting influence on design.

Although intellectually primitive, Mother Ann’s theology was elaborate but with celibacy as the cardinal principle, the continuity of the communities depended on a constant flow of converts rather than the organic regeneration planned by other sects but the numbers attracted were never sufficient to maintain a critical mass and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the movement went into decline.  From its height in the 1840s, when some six-thousand members were active, by 1905 there were barely a thousand, compelling the shakers to resort to advertising for members, emphasizing physical comfort of the lifestyle as well as spiritual values.  It became and increasing hard sell in an era of increasing urbanisation and materialism and the convulsion of the twentieth century did little to arrest the trend.  In 1957, the leaders met and voted to close the Shaker Covenant, the document which all new members need to sign to become members.  Membership was thus closed forever and by the turn of the century, there was but one working Shaker village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine; it had fewer than ten members and, in 2023, there appear to be only one or two left alive.

The concept of the cocktail shaker is ancient and ceramic versions dating back some 10,000 years have been found in the Middle East and South & Central America.  The use to which they were put seems in all places to have been essentially the same: a means of mixing fermented fluids with herbs and spices added for flavor, after which a gauze-like fabric could be stretched over the opening so the unwanted residue could be strained off.  Innkeepers for centuries doubtlessly improvised (presumably using two suitably shaped & sized glasses or goblets) their own shakers but it was in cities of the north-east US (New York & Boston factions both claiming the credit) during the early nineteenth century the first commercially produced units were advertised.  By mid-century they were widely used, their functionality and convenience cited by some as one of the reasons there was in the era such an upsurge in the number of recipes publish for mixed drinks.  One of the earliest innovations was the integration of a strainer mechanism although bartenders apparently preferred the detachable devices (said to be much better when working with crushed or shaved ice) and the volume of patent applications for variations on the design of strainers hints at their popularity.  Now, most cocktail shakers are either two-piece (sold with and without a fitted shaker) or (and aimed at the home market) three-piece with a built in shaker, the additional component being a fitted cap which can be used as a measure for spirits or other ingredients.

The shaker and the induction system

1969 Ford Mustang 428 CobraJet.

Shakers were air intakes bolted directly to the induction path of an internal combustion engine’s carburetor(s), the advantage being a measurable increase in power using cool, dense air rather than the inherently warmer under-bonnet air.  Cold-air induction systems weren’t uncommon in the 1960s and 1970s but the shaker’s novelty was that being attached to the engine and protruding through a hole in the hood (bonnet), the things shook as the engine vibrated on its mounts.  Men are still excited by such things.

1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda.

Early advertising material from Chrysler referred to the device as the Incredible Quivering Exposed Cold Air Grabber but buyers called must have thought that a bit much and they’ve only ever been referred to as shakers.  Sometimes less is more.  Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) suggested a good title for his book might be Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice but his publisher thought that a bit ponderous and preferred the punchier My Struggle (Mein Kampf).  Unfortunately, the revised title was the best thing about it, the style and contents truly ghastly and it's long and repetitious, the ideas within able easily to be reduced to a few dozen pages (some suggest fewer but the historical examples cited for context do require some space.

1974 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am SD-455.

The reverse facing shakers (and air intakes generally) were designed, like cowl-induction, to take advantage of the properties of fluid dynamics which, at speed, produced an accumulation of cold, high-pressure air in the space at the bottom of the windscreen.  Their use created an urban myth that Holly certain makes of carburetor (the Holly and the Rochester among those mentioned) didn't like being "force-fed" which (if done badly) was sort of true but nothing to do with the low-pressure bonnet-mounted devices.  Engineers had long understood the principle and cowl-induction systems were first seen on racing cars in 1910.

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 (LS6).

A genuine problem with the external induction systems was rain.  In torrential rain, including when the car was parked, moisture entry could cause problems.  Some manufacturers included a flap, providing a protective seal.  The early ones were manually activated but later versions were vacuum-controlled, the extent of opening cognizant of the pressure being applied to the throttle so it opened and closed and engine speed rose and fell.  As a means of getting cold air, this was of course thought most cool.

1964 Ford Fairlane 427 Thunderbolt.

Actually, the bonnet mounted intakes, regardless of which way they faced, weren’t the optimal way to deliver cold air to the induction system but they were the most–admired and something for which buyers were prepared to pay extra so, although they were the most expensive system to produce, they were also the most profitable. Simple ducting from within the wheel-wells delivered most of the benefits but the most efficient harvest of high-pressure air which gained also a “ram-air” effect which, helpfully, increased as speeds rose, was to duct from a forward-facing inlet in the front bumper bar or grill.  Enjoying a much higher pressure than the area around the cowl, with well-designed ducting, a ram-air tube can operate at up to 125% the efficiency of a cowl intake, able to generate a pressure of 2-3 psi (14-20 pascals) at high speed.  Ford in 1936 & 1964 found that by happy coincidence, the inside set of headlights on their Galaxies and Fairlanes were positioned to suit such ducting almost as if they'd been placed there by design so on the limited production "Lightweight" Galaxie and the Fairlane "Thunderbolt", the lens were removed and the apertures re-purposed.  Only 100 of the Thunderbolts were produced, all intended for use in drag racing and this machine secured the 1964 NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) championship in the Super Stock class.

Handshake

Handshake (pronounced hand-sheyk)

(1) A gripping and shaking of (traditionally the right) hands by two individuals, as to symbolize greeting, congratulation, agreement or farewell.

(2) In digital communication, as handshaking, an exchange of predetermined signals between a computer and a peripheral device or another computer, made when a connection is initially established or at intervals during data transmission, in order to assure proper synchronization.

1801: The construct was hand + shake.  Hand was from the Middle English hond & hand, from the Old English hand, from the Proto-West Germanic handu, from the Proto-Germanic handuz (and related to the Dutch, Norwegian Nynorsk & Swedish hand, the Danish hånd, the German Hand and the West Frisian hân) of uncertain origin although there may be a link to the Old Swedish hinna (to gain), the Gothic fra-hinþan (to take captive, capture), the Latvian sīts (hunting spear), the Ancient Greek κεντέω (kentéō) (prick) and the Albanian çandër (pitchfork; prop).  Shake was from the Middle English schaken, from the Old English sċeacan & sċacan (to shake), from the Proto-West Germanic skakan, from the Proto-Germanic skakaną (to shake, swing, escape), from the primitive Indo-European skeg-, keg-, skek- & kek- (to jump, move).  It was cognate with the Scots schake & schack (to shake), the West Frisian schaekje (to shake), the Dutch schaken (to elope, make clean, shake), the Low German schaken (to move, shift, push, shake) & schacken (to shake, shock), the Old Norse skaka (to shake), the Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (to shake), the Swedish skaka (to shake), the Danish skage (to shake), the Dutch schokken (to shake, shock) and the Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ) (to jump”).  The present participle is handshaking and the familiar past participle handshaked but some dictionaries still list the rare handshook as an alternative; the noun plural is handshakes.

The handshake not a universal cultural practice (the Japanese famously favor the bow although in recent decades it’s executed often as more of a nod) but, in one form or another, it is global and involves usually two people grasping hands and moving them in a brief, up-and-down movement.  The right hand tends to be favored (left-handers sinister obviously) and this has been linked to the symbolism of that being the usual choice when wielding a weapon but that is speculative and the global preponderance of right-handedness may be of greater significance.  Quite when the handshake became a cultural practice isn’t known but it is certainly ancient, at least among those important enough to be depicted in forms of art because the oldest representations date back more than the-thousand years.

Some handshakes promised much; results were varied.  Clockwise from top left:  Mao Tse-tung & Richard Nixon (1972), Yitzhak Rabin & Yasser Arafat (1993), Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan (1985), Donald Trump & crooked Hillary Clinton (2016), Martin McGuinness & Queen Elizabeth II (2012) and Nelson Mandela & FW de Klerk (1994). 

Handshake (hand-shake) is a surprisingly modern construction, dating only from 1801 and "hand-shaking" is attested from 1805; the phrases “to shake hands” & “shaking hands” have been in use since the sixteenth century and the use of the noun “grip” to mean "a handshake" (especially one of a secret society) dates from 1785.  Secret handshakes are created so members of clubs and societies may make their affiliation known to another person without needing to use words.  For a secret handshake to be effective it must be specific enough to be recognized by another member yet subtle enough that a non-member would not find the nature of the grip strange or unusual.  Because of the limited possibilities offered by fingers and thumbs, some secret handshakes involve also actions such as using the other hand to touch an earlobe in a certain way or a tapping a foot.  The concept has been documented since Antiquity and is most famously associated with the Freemasons but to speak of the “secret Masonic handshake” is misleading, some researchers claiming there are at least sixteen distinctly identifiable Masonic handshakes and most have speculated there will be dozens more.  Indeed, except in the early years, Freemasonry has never been monolithic and there are known cases of one faction (even within a lodge) developing their own so that they might discuss matter freely without the risk they may be spilling secrets to the other faction.  The mechanics of the secret handshakes used by members of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or are not known.

Lindsay Lohan meets Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanı) since 2003), Ankara, 2017.

The golden handshake is a clause in executive employment contracts that provides for a generous severance package in certain circumstances.  Created originally as a relatively modest inducement to attract staff to companies in a perilous financial position, they evolved to the point where multi-million dollar pay-outs were common and they became controversial because they appeared to reward failure and there were suggestions (not only by conspiracy theorists) they were used even as Trojan horses to entice a CEO to drive down a company’s share price (thus becoming eligible for a golden handshake) in the interest of asset strippers and others.  The best operators were able to engineer things so they enjoyed both a golden handshake and a golden parachute (the generous package payable upon retirement in the normal course of things).

In computer communications, a handshake is a signal exchanged between two or more devices or programs to confirm authentication and connection.  In the same way that the human handshake is a process: (1) an offer of a hand, (2) the taking of that hand and (3) the shaking of the hands, in computing, the sequence is (1) seeking a connection, (2) verifying the connection and (3) effecting the connection.  The breaking of the handshake and the termination of the connection in each case constitutes the final, fourth setup.  The purpose of handshaking is to establish the parameters for the duration of the session which involves the devices agreeing on vital stuff like (1) both being switched on, (2) both ready to transmit & receive and (3) that certain technical protocols will be used (familiar to many as famous strings like “9600,N,8,1”).  Handshaking historically was a process separate from the security layers which had to be satisfied once communication was established and again, this is analogous with the handshake in the process of human interaction.

The Duce emulates an illustrious Roman forebear.

As a cultural practice with a history known to date back at least ten thousand years, the handshake has proven a resilient tradition which has survived the vicissitudes of many millennia and even the preference of elbow-bumping and such during the COVID-19 pandemic seems only to have been a minor interruption.  Not all however approved.  The Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883–1945; prime minister and Duce (leader) of Italy 1922-1943) thought handshaking effete and unhygienic (he was ready for pandemics) and preferred the fascist salute he thought (apparently on the basis of statues from Ancient Rome) more martial.  Still, when meeting friends (even those forced on him by the brutishness of political necessity) he shook hands and a handshake was both his first and last interaction with the Führer (Adolf Hitler, 1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 and of state 1934-1945).  Their smiles when shaking hands always seemed genuine and were noticeably warm when they parted after the attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944.

One historian entitled his work on the relationship between Hitler and Mussolini The Brutal Friendship and that it was but it was certainly enduring.  They shook hands on many occasions, the last of which would happen on the railway station platform close to where the attempt on the Führer's life failed.  At this time, Hitler was using his left hand to shake, the right arm injured in the blast.  After this, they would never meet again.  

For politicians, handshakes are a wonderful photo opportunity and some have been famously emblematic of the resolution of problems which have been intractable for decades or more.  However, such photographs can be unpleasant and sometimes embarrassing reminders of a past they’d prefer was forgotten.  When Donald Rumsfeld (1932–2021; US secretary of defense 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) shook hands with Saddam Hussein (1937–2006; president of Iraq 1979-2003) in Baghdad in December 1983, it was as a presidential envoy of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; president of the US 1981-1989) and he was there to do business with the dictator.  Iraq at the time had started a war with Iran and was using chemical weapons while practicing abuses of human rights on parts of the Iraqi population and Saddam Hussein had even made known to the US administration Baghdad’s intention to acquire nuclear weapons.  Thus was special envoy Rumsfeld dispatched to offer Washington’s hand of friendship, anybody opposed to the Ayatollahs held in high regards in Washington DC. 

Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, 1983.

Despite what Mr Rumsfeld would claim twenty years on, he made no mention of chemical weapons or human rights abuses, his discussions instead focusing on the projection of US military force in the Gulf and the need to guarantee and protect the supply of oil.  Later, as international pressure increased on the US to condemn the use of chemical weapons by Iraq it responded with a low-key statement which made no mention of Iraq and actually stressed the need to protect Iraq from Iran’s “ruthless and inhumane tactics”.  When Mr Rumsfeld returned to Baghdad in 1984, during the visit the United Nations (UN) issued a report which stated chemical weapons had been used against Iran, something already known to both the Pentagon and state department.  In Baghdad, the matter wasn’t mentioned and when Mr Rumsfeld departed, it was with another warm handshake.

Nancy Pelosi and Bashar al-Assad, April 2007.

By virtue of her education in a Roman Catholic school, Nancy Pelosi (b 1940; speaker of the US House of Representatives 2007-2011 and since 2019, member of the house since 1987) was well acquainted with the Bible so after shaking hands with Bashar al-Assad (b 1965, President of Syria since 2000) in April 2007, to use the phrase “The road to Damascus is a road to peace” must have been a deliberate choice.  It might also be thought a curious choice given that at the time the president was providing shelter and protection to a range of terrorist groups involved in attacking US forces in Iraq.  As speaker of the house, Ms Pelosi would have received high-level intelligence briefings so presumably was acquainted with the facts and had she been uncertain, could have had aides prepare a summary from publicly available sources.  As recent events in the Far East have illustrated, the speaker’s forays into foreign affairs are not helpful to the State Department.