Plantar

Plantar (pronounced plan-ter)

In anatomy and zoology, of or relating to the sole of the foot.

1706: From the Latin plantāris (pertaining to the sole of the foot), from planta (sole of the foot) from a nasalized form of the primitive Indo-European root pletə- or plat- (to spread) an extension of the root pele- (flat; to spread).  Related were the Sanskrit prathati (spreads out), the Hittite palhi (broad), the Ancient Greek platys (broad, flat), the Lithuanian platus (broad), the German Fladen (flat cake), the Old Norse flatr (flat), the Old English flet (floor, dwelling) and the Old Irish lethan (broad).  The Latin planta may be analysed as plant +‎ -ar.  The –ar suffix was from Latin -āris (of, pertaining to) and was appended to nouns to create adjectives.  The -aris suffix was a form of -ālis with dissimilation of -l- to -r- after roots containing an l (the alternative forms were -ālis, -ēlis, -īlis & -ūlis); it was used to form adjectives, usually from noun, indicating a relationship or a "pertaining to".  The exact origin of the Latin planta (which in addition to meaning (1) “sole of the foot” could be used in the sense of (2) any vegetable production that serves to propagate the species; a sprout, shoot, twig, sprig, sucker, graft, scion, slip, cutting or (3) a young tree, a shrub that may be transplanted; a set) is uncertain.  It was from either (1) the Proto-Italic plāntā, from the primitive Indo-European pléh-n̥t-eh, from pleh- (flat) or (2) the Proto-Italic plānktā, from the primitive Indo-European pl̥hnk or gteh, from plehk- & plehg- (to strike, fast).  In anatomy, the derived terms include plantar fascia (the thick connective tissue which supports the arch of the foot) and plantar fasciitis (a painful inflammation of the plantar fascia.  The term plantar wart (apparently sometimes initially misunderstood by patients as “planter’s wart”) describes a wart which occurs on the sole of the foot or the toes.  The medical Latin is verruca plantaris.  Plantar is an adjective.

Plantar flexion and dorsiflextion

Lindsay Lohan, plantaflexing.

Plantar flexion refers to the movement of the foot when it is bent at the ankle away from the body, accomplished by flexing muscles in the calf, ankle, and foot.  In normal range of human activity, the range of motion is usually between 20-50^o, a commons example being depressing a car’s accelerator (throttle) pedal. Or even the mere act of walking.  The word “flexion” is used by anatomists and others to describe the movement of many body parts.  The notion of flexing at the knee or elbow is well understood in everyday life and technically, flexion is the decreased angle at a joint between two or more bones.  In the common act of bending the elbow from a straightened position, the angle decreases between the humerus and the radius and ulna of the forearm.  Plantar flexion is defined usually as the decreased angle between the plantar side of the foot and the back of the tibia at the tibiotalar joint (better known as the ankle) and can be visualized as the bending of the sole of the foot down where the toes are moving down and away from the body.  Done deliberately in exaggerated form it can feel unnatural but having one’s toes point downwards is something inherent to human movement, the activities (as well as using a car’s throttle pedal) including bending the foot during walking (propelling the mass of the body forward as it pushes off the ground) and standing on one’s tip toes which reaching for something in a high place.

Lindsay Lohan, dorsiflextion to the left, plantar flexion to the right.

The companion movement is dorsiflexation, an upward bending which, although applied most often to the foot, other body parts such as hands or digits (fingers) can be said to dorsiflex.  Dating from the early nineteenth century, dorsiflexion was a creation which appeared first in the literature of the early-modern science of anatomy.  The construct was dorsi (from the Middle English dorsal or dorsale from the Medieval Latin dorsālis (of or relating to the back)) + flex (from the Latin flexiō (genitive flexiōnis), from flectō (I bend, curve), from the Proto-Italic flektō, of uncertain origin and unknown in other Indo-European cognates) + -ion (the Latin suffix denoting action or condition).  The –ion suffic was from the Middle English -ioun, from the Old French -ion, from the Latin -iō (genitive -iōnis).  It was appended to a perfect passive participle to form a noun of action or process, or the result of an action or process.  Dorsiflexion is also a movement associated with the multiple joints.  The definition is of an action in which induces a decreased angle between the dorsal side of the body part and the bone or bones that are proximal to the body.  When one’s wrist is bent and the back of the hand is moving towards the body, that is an act of dorsiflexion and when the toes are pointed up or raised backward toward the body, this is also dorsiflexion so, using the feet as an illustrative example, plantar flexion and dorsiflextion can be understood as opposite movements at the ankle joint (both obviously being associated with flexion). That means the essence of the difference is the location of the foot doing the bending away from the ankle joint: If the toes rise as the ankle bends, it’s dorsiflexion while if the toes tend downwards, it’s a plantar flex.

Lindsay Lohan, plantar flexion to the left, dorsiflextion to the right.

Although the term (plantar flex) and word (dorsiflex) refer to variations of the same movement, the practice has always been to use a compound form only for the latter although the mechanics of the etymology is the same in that plantar flex references the sole of the foot and dorsiflex the back.  Perhaps counter-intuitively, the upper surface of a foot (the dorsal surface) is, to an anatomist, the back, a convention of use more familiar when used as the “back of the hand”.  Anatomists recommend imaging the dorsal fin of the shark as a memory trick, something associated with the “back side of an animal”. Consider a dorsal fin on a shark which is located on the back side of the shark. If the foot was a four-legged animal, the dorsal side would be the top of the foot. Likewise, if the hand was held out straight, the back side of the hand is called the dorsal side.  Interestingly, by convention, despite the obvious etymological connections, dorsiflex is the universal form while plantarflex, although a correct alternative spelling, is rarely seen outside of technical literature.

Dynamometer

Dynamometer (pronounced dahy-nuh-mom-i-ter)

(1) A device for measuring mechanical force or muscular power (ergometer).

(2) A device for measuring mechanical power, especially one that measures the output or driving torque of a rotating machine.

1800–1810: A compound word, the construct being dynamo + meter.  Dynamo was ultimately from the Ancient Greek δύναμις (dúnamis; dynamis) (power) and meter has always been an expression of measure in some form and in English was borrowed from the French mètre, from the Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron) (measure).  What meter (also metre) originally measured was the structure of poetry (poetic measure) which in the Old English was meter (measure of versification) from the Latin metrum, from the Ancient Greek metron (meter, a verse; that by which anything is measured; measure, length, size, limit, proportion) ultimately from the primitive Indo-European root me- (measure).  Although the evidence is sketchy, it appears to have been re-borrowed in the early fourteenth century (after a three hundred-year lapse in recorded use) from the Old French mètre, with the specific sense of "metrical scheme in verse”, again from the Latin metrum.  Metre (and metre) was later adopted as the baseline unit of the metric system.  Dynamometer is a noun; the noun plural is dynamometers.

The modern meaning of dynamometer (measuring the power of engines) dates from 1882 and is short for dynamo-machine, from the German dynamoelektrischemaschine (dynamo-electric machine), coined in 1867 by its inventor, the German electrical engineer Werner Siemans (1816-1892). Dynamometers, almost universally referred to as dynos, are machines which simultaneously measure the torque and rotational speed (RPM) of an engine or other rotating prime-mover so specific power outs may be calculated.  On modern dynamometers, measures are displayed either as kilowatts (kW) or brake-horsepower (bhp).

Evolution of the Turbo-Panzer

Porsche 917 Flat 12 being run on factory dynamometer, Stuttgart, 1969.

During the last hundred years odd, the rules of motor sport have been written by an alphabet soup of regulatory bodies including the AIACR, the CSI, the FISA and the FIA and these bureaucrats have made many bad decisions, tending often to make things worse but every now and then, as an unintended consequence of their dopiness, something really good emerges.  The large displacement cars of the mid-1960s contested sports car racing in one of the classic eras in motorsport.  Everyone enjoyed the competition except the rule-making body (the CSI, the Commission Sportive Internationale) which, on flimsy pretexts which at the time fooled nobody, changed the rules for the International Championship of Makes for the racing seasons 1968-1971, restricting the production cars (of which 50 identical units had to have been made) to 5.0 litre (305 cubic inch) engines with a 3.0 litre limit (183 cubic inch) for prototypes (which could be one-offs).  Bizarrely, the CSI even claimed this good idea would be attractive for manufacturers already building three litre engine for Formula One because they would be able to sell them (with a few adaptations), for use in endurance racing.  There’s no evidence the CSI ever asked the engine producers whether their highly-strung, bespoke Formula One power-plants, designed for 200 mile sprints, could be modified for endurance racing lasting sometimes 24 hours.  Soon aware there were unlikely to be many entries to support their latest bright idea, the CSI relented somewhat and allowed the participation of 5.0 litre sports cars as long as the homologation threshold of 50 units had been reached.  A production run of 50 made sense in the parallel universe of the CSI but made no economic sense to the manufacturers and, by 1968, entries were sparse and interest waning so the CSI grudgingly again relented, announcing the homologation number for the 5.0 litre cars would be reduced to 25.

The famous photograph of the 25 917s assembled for the CSI’s inspection outside the Porsche factory, Stuttgart, 1969.

This attracted Porsche, a long-time contestant in small-displacement racing which, funded by profits from their increasingly successful road-cars, sought to contest for outright victories in major events rather than just class trophies.  Porsche believed they had the basis for a five litre car in their three litre 908 which, although still in the early stages of development, had shown promise.  In a remarkable ten months, the parts for twenty-five cars were produced, three of which were assembled and presented to the CSI’s homologation inspectors.  Pettifogging though they were, the inspectors had a point when refusing certification, having before been tricked into believing Ferrari’s assurance of intent actually to build cars which never appeared.  They demanded to see twenty-five assembled, functional vehicles and Porsche did exactly that, in April 1969 parking the twenty-five in the factory forecourt, even offering the inspectors the chance to drive however many they wish.  The offer was declined and, honour apparently satisfied on both sides, the CSI granted homologation.  Thus, almost accidently, began the career of the Porsche 917, a machine which would come to dominate whatever series it contested and set records which would stand for decades, it’s retirement induced not by un-competitiveness but, predictably, by rule changes which rendered it illegal.  

917LH (Langheck (long tail)), Le Mans, 1969.

The ten month gestation was impressive but there were teething problems.  The fundamentals, the 908-based space-frame and the 4.5 (275 cubic inch) litre air-cooled flat-12 engine, essentially, two of Porsche’s 2.25 (137 cubic inch) litre flat-sixes joined together, were robust and reliable from the start but, the sudden jump in horsepower meant much higher speeds and it took some time to tame the problems of the car’s behaviour at high-speed.  Aerodynamics was then still an inexact science and the maximum speed the 917 was able to attain on Porsche’s test track was around 180 mph (290 km/h) but when unleashed on the circuits with long straights where over 210 mph (338 km/h) was possible the early cars could be lethally unstable.  The first breakthrough in aerodynamic dynamic was serendipitous.  After one high speed run during which the driver had noted (with alarm) the tendency of the rear end of the car to “wander from side to side”, it was noticed that while the front and central sections of the bodywork were plastered with squashed bugs, the fibreglass of the rear sections was a pristine white, the obvious conclusion drawn that while the airflow was inducing the desired degree of down-force on the front wheels, it was passing over the rear of body, thus the lift which induced the wandering.  Some improvisation with pieces of aluminium and much duct tape to create an ad-hoc, shorter, upswept tail transformed the behaviour and was the basis for what emerged from more extensive wind-tunnel testing by the factory as the 917K for Kurzheck (short-tail).

Porsche 917Ks, the original (rear) and the updated version with twin tail-fins, Le Mans, 1971.

The 917K proved a great success but the work in the wind tunnel continued, in 1971 producing a variant with a less upswept tail and vertical fins which bore some resemblance to those used by General Motors and Chrysler a decade earlier.  Then, the critics had derided the fins as “typical American excess” and “pointlessly decorative” but perhaps Detroit was onto something because Porsche found the 917’s fins optimized things by “cleaning” the air-flow over the tail section, the reduction in “buffeting” meaning the severity of the angles on the deck could be lessened, reducing the drag while maintaining down-force, allowing most of the top-speed earlier sacrificed in the quest for stability to be regained.

The Can-Am: A red Porsche 917/10 ahead of an orange McLaren M8F Chevrolet, Laguna Seca, 17 October 1971.  Two years to the day after this shot was taken, the first oil shock hit, dooming the series.

The engine however had been more-or-less right from day one and enlarged first to 4.9 litres (300 cubic inch) before eventually reaching the 5.0 limit at which point power was rated at 632 bhp, a useful increase from the original 520.  Thus configured, the 917 dominated sports car racing until banned by regulators.  However, the factory had an alternative development path to pursue, one mercifully almost untouched by the pettifoggers and that was the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (the Can-Am), run on North American circuits under Group 7 rules for unlimited displacement sports cars.  Actually, Group 7 rules consisted of little more than demanding four wheels, enveloping bodywork and two seats, the last of these rules interpreted liberally.  Not for nothing did the Can-Am come to be known as the “horsepower challenge cup” and had for years been dominated by the McLarens, running big-block Chevrolet V8s of increasing displacement and decreasing mass as aluminium replaced cast iron for the heaviest components.

The abortive Porsche flat-16.

In 1969, the Porsche factory dynamometer could handle an output of around 750 bhp, then thought ample but even 635 bhp wouldn’t be enough to take on the big V8s but, for technical reasons, it wasn’t possible to further to enlarge the flat-12, Porsche built a flat-16 which pushed their dynamometer beyond its limit, the new engine rated at 750 bhp because the factory didn’t have the means to measure output beyond that point.  Such a thing had happened before, resulting in an anomaly which wasn’t explained for some years.  In 1959 Daimler released their outstanding 4.5 litre (278 cubic inch) V8 but their dynamometer was more antiquated still, a pre-war device unable to produce a reading beyond 220 so that was the rating used, causing much surprise to those testing the only car in which it was ever installed, the rather dowdy Majestic Major (1959-1968).  The Majestic Major was quite hefty and reckoned to enjoy the aerodynamic properties of a small cottage yet it delivered performance which 220 bhp should not have been able to provide, something confirmed when one was fitted to a Jaguar Mark X.  Unfortunately, Jaguar choose not to use the Daimler V8 in the Mark X, instead enlarging the XK-six, dooming the car in the US market where a V8 version would likely have proved a great success.

The Can-Am: Porsche 917/10, Riverside, 1972.

Estimates at the time suggested the Porsche flat 16 delivered something like 785 bhp which in the Can-Am would have been competitive but the bulk of the rendered it unsuitable, the longer wheelbase necessitated for installation in a modified 917 chassis having such an adverse effect on the balance of the car Porsche instead resorted to forced aspiration, the turbocharged 917s becoming known as the turbopanzers.  Porsche bought a new dynamometer which revealed they generated around 1100 bhp in racing trim and 1580 when tuned for a qualifying sprint.  Thus, even when detuned for racing, the Can-Am 917s typically took to the tracks generating more horsepower than the Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messerschmitt which fought the Battle of Britain in 1940.  Unsurprisingly, the 917 won the Cam-Am title in 1972 and 1973, the reward for which was the same as that earlier delivered in Europe: a rule change effectively banning the thing.

The widow-maker: 1975 Porsche 930 with the surprisingly desirable (for some) “sunroof delete” option.

The experience gained in developing turbocharging was however put to good use, the 911 Turbo (930 the internal designation) introduced in 1975 originally as a homologation exercise (al la the earlier 911 RS Carrera) but so popular did it prove it was added to the list as a regular production model and one has been a permanent part of the catalogue almost continuously since.  The additional power and its sometimes sudden arrival meant the times early versions were famously twitchy at the limit (and such was the power those limits were easily found), gaining the machine the nickname “widow-maker”.  There was plenty of advice available for drivers, the most useful probably the instruction not to use the same technique when cornering as one might in a front-engined car and a caution that even if one had had a Volkswagen Beetle while a student, that experience might not be enough to prepare one for a Porsche Turbo.  Small things apparently could make a difference, one source suggesting those wishing to explore a 930’s limits should try to get one with the rare “sunroof delete” option, the lack of the additional weight up there slightly improving the centre of gravity to the extent one could be travelling a little faster before the tail-heavy beast misbehaved.  It may be an urban myth but is vaguely plausible although, at best it would seem only to delay the inevitable.

In what may have been a consequence of the instability induced by a higher centre of gravity, in 2012 Lindsay Lohan crashed a sunroof equipped Porsche 911 Carrera S on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, Los Angeles.  Clearly, Ms Lohan should avoid driving Porsches with sunroofs.

Punt

Punt (pronounced puhnt or poont)

(1) In various football codes, a kick in which the ball is dropped and then kicked before it touches the ground (as opposed to the drop kick or place kick); in some codes used casually of any long, high kick.

(2) In nautical use, a small, shallow boat having a flat bottom and square ends, usually used for short outings on rivers or lakes and propelled by the use of a pole pivoted against the waterway’s bottom.

(3) The monetary unit (100 pence; the Irish pound) of the Republic of Ireland until the adoption of the Euro in 2002.

(4) An ancient Egyptian name of an area in north-east Africa, believed to be in the region of modern-day Somaliland.

(5) In ichthyology, the action of certain fish which “walk” along the seafloor, using their fins as limbs; a fish so “walking” is said to be “a punter, punting”. .

(6) In glassblowing (as both punt & punty), a thin glass or iron rod which temporarily is attached to a larger piece in order better to manipulate the larger piece.

(7) An indentation in the base of a wine bottle.

(8) In the game of faro, a point; to play basset, baccara, faro etc.

(9) To propel a small boat by thrusting against the bottom of a lake, stream, canal or other suitable waterway, especially with a pole.

(10) To convey in or as if in a punt.

(11) To punt a football by means of the kick.

(12) To travel in a punt.

(13) In informal use, to equivocate, or delay (based on the idea of kicking a ball away).

(14) In gambling slang, to gamble place a bet, historically most used in horse racing but use has spread with the proliferation of betting on other sporting events; in certain card games, to lay a stake against the bank; in financial trading (a form of gambling), to make a highly speculative investment, if based on intuition (guesswork) rather than insider trading.

(15) In colloquial use (1) to retreat from one's objective; to abandon an effort one still notionally supports, (2) to make the best choice from a set of non-ideal alternatives or (3) a (usually speculative) guess.

Pre 1000: From the late Old English punt (flat or shallow-bottomed, square-ended, mastless river boat), from the Latin pontō (Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon (in the sense of “floating bridge”)) an the so-called “British Latin” ponto was re-adopted from the Middle Low German punte (ferry boat) or the Middle Dutch ponte (ferry boat) of the same origin and not attested in Middle English.  The use in Latin to describe the "floating bridges" built ad-hoc by the military for river crossings was from the Latin pontem (nominative pons) (bridge), from the primitive Indo-European root pent- (to tread, to go) but it may also have been influenced by the Old French cognate pont (large, flat boat).  The verb forms describing movement was base on the idea of "to propel as a punt is moved by pushing with a pole against the bed of the body of water” dates from 1816.  The use of the noun punter in US football dates from 1888 (based on the nautical use) and was by the early twentieth century in the UK, Australia & New Zealand applied to gamblers.  This connection in the 1960s was extended to the term “the average punter”, a synonym for “the average person” and was a classist notion based on the idea the typical working class individual gambled (as well as smoked and drank) and in that vein, it became popular police slang to describe s prostitute's clients.  Punter also picked up specialized meanings including (1) in rock-climbing a beginner or unskilled climber. In Scotland one who trades with a gang but is not a gang member and (3) in internet slang, a program used forcibly to disconnect another user from a chat room or other multi-user environment.  Punt is a noun & verb, punter is a noun and punting & punted are verbs; the noun plural is punts.

Ready for a punt: Lindsay & Ali Lohan, Melbourne Cup, Flemington Racecourse, November 2019.

In various football codes, a punt kick is a kick in which the ball is dropped and then kicked before it touches the ground (as opposed to the drop kick or place kick although in some codes it’s used casually of any long, high kick (often as “punted it down the field).  The use dates from 1845 in rugby (now called rugby union) and is though derived from either (1) from the notion of “propelling a boat by shoving” or (2) a variant of the Midlands dialect bunt (to push; butt with the head) which is of unknown origin but may be echoic (compare bunt).  The slang use in US universities and colleges meaning “give up, withdraw from a course or subject to avoid receiving a failing grade) was based on the use of the punt-kick in American football when used as a tactic when the ball can’t be advanced.  The term appears in the rugby codes, American football, Australian Rules football (AFL), Gaelic football and describes kicking a ball dropped from the hands before it hits the ground.  In the rugby codes, the mode of kick is a matter of importance because the alternative “drop kick” involves a player dropping the ball in front of them, allowing its slightly to bounce before taking the kick.  Under the rules of these codes, dropping the ball in front is a “knock on” and subject to a penalty unless done as a prelude to a dropkick.  A player, having inadvertently dropped the ball will sometimes attempt a kick to disguise the error and thus avoid the penalty so in such cases it’s a matter of judgment for the referee whether it was a drop kick or a knock on.  The special form “torpedo punt” was from AFL and referred to a flat, long kick.  A “punt protector” was a team member whose role was to negate the opposition’s use of the punt kick, the “punt returner” a similar (sometimes identical) role.  The “checkside punt” (the banana punt in Australia) describes a kick which makes the ball spin and bend away from the player's body (they can be intentional or an error).  The use in sport also influenced the figurative use in the sense of “to equivocate, or delay” and was based on the kicking a ball away and is related to the idea of “kicking the can down the road”.  It’s sometimes appears in the phrase “punted it into the long grass) (ie “make it disappear or go away”).

In glassblowing, a punt or a punty was a “thin glass (or in certain cases an iron substitute) rod used in manipulating hot glass”, temporarily attached to a larger piece in order better to handle the larger piece.  Dating from the 1660s, it was from the French pontil, a diminutive form from the Latin punctum (a point), from a nasalized form of the primitive Indo-European root peuk- (to prick).  The use to describe various forms of betting dates seems first to have been used in the early eighteenth century and was from the French ponter (to punt), from ponte (bet laid against the banker; point in faro), from the Spanish punto (point), from the Latin punctum.

Depiction of a mounted punt gun.

The punt gun was a large scale shotgun used in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the large-scale, commercial harvesting of water birds.  Too large to (safely or accurately) be fired if held by an individual, the weapons were solidly mounted on the punts (although other vessels were also used) hunters used to achieve close proximity to their targets.  The earliest versions were literally up-scaled shotguns including the obviously superfluous shoulder-stock and were supplied without any mounting hardware, owners fabricating their own or adapting other devices but specialized designs quickly emerged.  These were sold with the mounting hardware fixed to the gun and were supplied with a kit which included a platform for the boat, most offering some adjustments to suit different dimensions.

Illustrative photograph of punt gun.  Some 12 feet (3.7 m) in length, they weren't actually used like this.

Punt guns were usually custom-designed and varied widely, but could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and the load could be as much as 1 lb (.45 kg), a single discharge able to kill some four dozen birds on the water’s surface.  Because of the power of the weapon, they were solidly mounted so the aiming was achieved by aligning the bow of the punt with the intended line of fire and such was the force exerted that in still water a punt would move backwards by several inches with every discharge.  Punts equipped with a punt gun can thus be thought of as small-scale monitors, the class of warship which carried a single, large bore canon although on monitors, the gun was in a turret and could thus be aimed independently of the direction the of the hull.  To maximize the slaughter, hunters would sometimes assemble punts in a flotilla of up to a dozen punts, their formation arranged to provide a wild field of fire and one optimized to limit the wastage (ie there being no need to kill a bird more than once).  One barrage could thus kill hundreds.

Take aim and fire.

Punt guns were usually muzzle-loaded and double and even triple barrelled versions were built and they allowed a method of hunting which was so shockingly efficient that in the US, by the mid nineteenth century, waterfowl stocks had been depleted to such an extent that almost all state governments their use.  Punts guns are prized by collectors and at exhibitions a firing is a popular part of the show and in the UK, they are occasionally still used by the military for ceremonial purposes although the loads are now optimized for volume rather than lethality.

Platform

 Platform (pronounced plat-fawrm)

(1) A horizontal surface or structure raised above the surrounding area.

(2) The raised area between or alongside the tracks of a railroad station, from which the cars of the train are entered.

(3) The open entrance area, or vestibule, at the end of a railroad passenger car.

(4) A landing in a flight of stairs.

(5) A public statement of the principles, objectives, and policy of a political party, especially as put forth by the representatives of the party in a convention to nominate candidates for an election; a body of principles on which a person or group takes a stand in appealing to the public; program; a set of principles; plan.

(6) A place for public discussion; forum.

(7) A deck-like construction on which the drill rig of an offshore oil or gas well is erected.

(8) In building, a relatively flat member or construction for distributing weight, as a wall plate, grillage, etc.

(9) In military jargon, solid ground on which artillery pieces are mounted or a metal stand or base attached to certain types of artillery pieces.

(10) In geology, a vast area of undisturbed sedimentary rocks which, together with a shield, constitutes a craton.

(11) In footwear design, a thick insert of leather, cork, or other sturdy material between the uppers and the sole of a shoe, usually intended for stylish effect or to give added height.

(12) In computing, a standardised hardware or software system.

(13) In manufacturing, a standardised design which permits variations to be produced without structural change to the base. 

1540–1550: From the earlier platte forme, a derivative of the Middle French plateforme (a flat form) from plate (flat) from the Old French plat, from the Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús) (flat) + forme (form) from the Latin fōrma (shape; figure; form”).

Lindsay Lohan in Saint Laurent Billy leopard-print platform boots (Saint Laurent part number is 5324690SR00), New York, March 2019.

Flachkühler

Flachkühler (pronounced flak-koo-ler)

In German, (literally wide cooling device (radiator)), a name adopted by Daimler-Benz to describe the W111 Mercedes-Benz coupés and cabriolets built (1969-1971) with a lower, wider radiator grill than the earlier W111 (and W112) coupés and cabriolets (1961-1969).

Circa 1860s: The construct was Flach + kühler.  The adjective flach (the singular flacher, the comparative flacher and the superlative flachsten) (shallow (wide and not deep)) was from the Middle High German vlach, from the Old High German flah, from the Proto-Germanic flakaz of uncertain origin.  The construct of the noun Kühler ((1) cooler (anything device which cools) or (2) radiator (of an internal combustion engine) was kühlen +‎ -er.  Kühlen was from the Middle High German küelen, from the Old High German kuolōn & chuolen, from the Proto-Germanic kōlōną & kōlēną and related to kalaną (to be cold).  It was cognate with the Hunsrik kiele, the Luxembourgish killen, the Dutch koelen, the Saterland Frisian köile, the English cool (verb) and the Swedish kyla.  The German suffix -er (used to forms agent nouns etc from verbs (suffixed to the verb stem)) was from the Middle High German -ære & -er, from the Old High German -āri, from the Proto-West Germanic -ārī, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, from the Latin -ārius.  When used as an adjective, kühler was a comparative degree of kühl ((1) cool (of temperature), (2) calm, restrained, passionless and (3) cool, frigid (particularly of the emotions)), from the Middle High German küele, from the Old High German kuoli, from the Proto-West Germanic kōl & kōlī, from the Proto-Germanic kōluz & kōlaz, from the primitive Indo-European gel-.  It was cognate with the Dutch koel and the English cool.  Flachkühler is a noun; the noun plural is Flachkühlers.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler)

The dimensions of the grill used on the Mercedes-Benz W111 coupé & cabriolet was dictated by the height of the three litre straight six (M189) engine used in the more exclusive W112 (300 SE) versions.  The M189 was one of several de-tuned variants of the M198 used in the 300SL Gullwing & Roadster (W198) which had started life as the M186 in the big 300 (W186, “Adenauer”) saloon before revealing it’s competition potential by gaining victories at the Nürburgring, the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico and, most famously, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  In the sports cars, the long-stroke six had been installed at an angle of 50^o and fitted with a dry sump which permitted a low hood (bonnet) line but in the W111 & W112 the engine was in a conventional perpendicular arrangement and used a wet sump, further adding to the height, thus the relatively tall grill.  The smaller sixes used in the car (2.2 litre (M127); 2.5 (M129) & 2.8 (M130)) were of a more modern, short-stroke design and didn’t demand such a capacious engine bay but production line rationalization didn’t make viable two different sets of coachwork for what were low volume models.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Coupé (Flachkühler)

By the mid 1960s however, Mercedes-Benz realized their gusty, high-revving sixes were technologically bankrupt and for success in the vital US market, they needed a mass-market V8.  Their big-block 6.3 litre V8 (M100), introduced in 1963 with the 600 Grosser (W100) wasn’t suitable for down-sizing so a physically smaller range was developed, the first of which was designated M116; released in 1969 and in displacements of 3.5, 3.8 & 4.2 litres, it would serve the line until 1991.  The 3.5 came first and in 1969 it was fitted to the W111 coupé & cabriolet.  By then, the old 3.0 litre six had been discontinued so the tall grill, which by then had come to look rather baroque, as no longer required and the factory took the opportunity to modernize things and the new, lower wider grill came to be known as the Flachkühler (literally “flat cooler” and best translated as “flat radiator”, the engineers deciding the earlier design should be referred to as the Hōchkühler (high radiator).  Hōch (high, tall; great; immense; grand; of great importance) was from the Middle High German hōch, from the Old High German hōh, from the Proto-West Germanic hauh, from the Proto-Germanic hauhaz, from the primitive Indo-European kewk-, a suffixed form of kew-; it may be compared to the Dutch hoog, the English high and the Swedish hög.

1968 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler, left) and 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet (Flachkühler, right).

Because of the first oil shock in 1973, the plans for mass-market (a relative term) Mercedes-Benz V8s were interrupted for a while but the 3.5 litre W111s had already reached the end of the line before the embargo began.  Produced only until 1971, they were always expensive and only 3,270 coupés and 1,232 cabriolets were built and, it being another age, they were available with a four-speed manual gearbox, an option a few actually choose.  The Mercedes-Benz manual gear-change was a rather clunky thing but such is rarity value, they have a cult following.  The whole ecosystem of 280 SE 3.5 coupés and cabriolets is actually a cult in itself, perfectly restored cabriolets commanding prices in excess of US$500,000 and some German tuning houses will charge even more for examples modernized with attributes like ABS, later V8 engines, transmissions and suspension.  Even now, although in essence the structure dates from the late 1950s and the mechanicals a decade later, the appeal remains because the things are remarkably usable in modern conditions and ascetically, nothing Mercedes-Benz has made since has anything like the elegance.

1953 Morgan Plus 4 ("flat radiator", top left), 1955 Morgan Plus 4 (top right), 1969 Morgan Plus 8 (bottom left) and 2024 Morgan Plus 6 (bottom right).  Thematically, not all that much has changed since 1954.  

Strangely, the idea of the “flat radiator” had been around for a while in the vernacular of collector car circles but it referred to another aspect of geometry.  In 1952, Morgan of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, was (as it is now) a cottage industry manufacturing pre-war sports cars with more modern engines and they received advice from the manufacturer of their separate headlight assemblies that because MG’s new TF (due for release in 1953) would have its headlamps integrated into the bodywork, production of the housing was ending.  There being no alternative supplier, Morgan were compelled to follow MG’s lead restyle things so the headlamps were faired in.  Concurrent with this, the Morgan factory took the opportunity to do one of their rare styling changes, abandoning their long-establish upright radiator grill one mounted in a cowl that blended into the hood (bonnet).  It wasn’t exactly the onset of modernity but there presumably was some aerodynamic gain.  Just to assure buyers change wasn’t being made for the sake of change, disc brakes would have to wait another few years.  The change to the grill was made in 1953 although, because of the way Morgan operated, some of the older style cars were actually assembled later than the new.  The cars with the traditional Morgan look which features the upright grill are known among aficionados as the “flat radiator Morgans”.

Impromptu Flachkühler: In October 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive in her Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG.  There was a low-speed unpleasantness with a van which caused the roadster to suffer a Flachkühler.

Pump

Pump (pronounced puhmp)

(1) An apparatus or machine for raising, driving, exhausting, or compressing fluids or gases by means of a piston, plunger, or set of rotating vanes.

(2) An instance of the action of a pump; one stroke of a pump; any action similar to pumping.

(3) In engineering or building trades, a shore having a jackscrew in its foot for adjusting the length or for bearing more firmly against the structure to be sustained.

(4) In the slang of the biological sciences, an animal organ that propels fluid through the body; the heart.

(5) In cell biology, a system that supplies energy for transport against a chemical gradient, as the sodium pump for the transfer of sodium and potassium ions across a cell membrane.

(6) To raise, drive or free from fluids by means of a pump.

(7) To inflate something with a gas or viscous substance and used analogously in other contexts.

(8) To operate or move by an up-and-down or back-and-forth action.

(9) Several types of shoe, with much variation in the way the description is applied.

(10) In bodybuilding and climbing, a swelling of the muscles caused by increased blood flow following high intensity weightlifting; a specific type of exercise routine offered by gyms; as “pump iron” a generalised phrase to refer to weight-lifting.

(11) In colloquial use, a ride on a bicycle given to a passenger, usually on the handlebars or carrier (rare).

(12) In US slang, the heart, (obsolete).

(13) In (vulgar) UK slang, the vagina (obsolete).

(14) In the slang of (pre-pandemic) social interaction, vigorously to shake a hand (often as "pumping the flesh").

(15) In slang, as “pump for information”, relentlessly to question.

(16) In the slang of computer programming, to pass messages to a program so it may respond.

(17) In cosmetic surgery or non-surgical beauty treatment, as "pumped up", a general term to describe body parts (lips, breasts etc) made plumper with some artificial substance or the redistribution of the body’s natural fat deposits.

(18) In ballistics, as “pump-action”, a design which permits the rapid loading a shell or cartridge from a magazine.

1400-1450:  From the Late Middle English pumpe, cognate with Middle Low German pumpe and Middle Dutch pompe (water conduit, pipe).  Later variations were the Dutch pompen, the German pumpen, and the Danish pompe.  All are thought derived from the Spanish bomba of imitative origin, the source thought to be North Sea sailors, either an imperfect echoic or something imitative of the sound of the plunger in the water.  The earliest use in English was in reference to a device to raise and expel bilge water from ships and the Late Old French pompe probably is from something Germanic.  The mystery is that pumps are ancient machines so the late appearance in the Germanic word is odd in that no evidence has been found of a previous descriptive word.  The use as an "an act of pumping" is attested from the 1670s.  Pump & pumping are nouns & verbs, pumper is a noun, pumpy is a noun & adjective and pumped is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is pumps.

Pump-action, in reference to a type of repeating firearm equipped with a rapid loading mechanism is attested in advertisements from 1912 but it’s unknown whether this was an invention by a manufacturer or retailer or an adoption of existing slang.  The metaphoric extension in pump (someone) for information is from 1630s.  To pump iron as a term for the lifting of weights for fitness was first noted in 1972; pump-classes in gyms became popular in the 1990s although label wasn’t (virtually) universal until circa 2002.  The meaning “low shoe without fasteners" dates from the 1550s and is of unknown origin but was perhaps (very speculatively) echoic of the sound made when walking in them or, more plausibly, from Dutch pampoesje (type of sandal worn in the Dutch East Indies), derived from the Javanese pampoes and ultimately of Arabic origin.  Some sources propose a connection with pomp but it’s undocumented.  The name pump was applied to many shoes with a very low heel, convenient in situations where freedom of movement was required and thus preferred by dancers, couriers, acrobats, duellists and such.  In the shoe business, the definition soon wandered with differences noted between British and North American applications.

The now obsolete nineteenth century phrase “keep your toes in your pump” was dialectal for "stay calm, keep quiet, don't get excited", in the same sense as advice not to “get your knickers in a knot”, the latter which has survived.  In slang, to "be pumped" is (1) to be excited in anticipation of something, (2) having muscles in an engorged state following exercise, (3) in body-building, having muscles which have responded as expected to steroids or other drugs, (4) in rock-climbing, being severely fatigued, (5) in cosmetic surgery & certain non surgical treatments, having a fuller appearance (lips, breasts etc) by virtue of the insertion of implants or an injection of some chemical and (6) among models and other women, the sense of relief upon replacing fetching but uncomfortable shoes with a pair of welcoming and accommodating pumps.

Of pumping ship

Pumps are of great importance on ships because of the need quickly to be able to remove unwanted water from inside a hull.  At sea, when a ship is "taking on water", if pumps fail or the entry of water exceeds pumping capacity, a ship will become unstable and it may sink.  In the smallest vessels, hard-pumps are used while mechanical devices are installed on anything larger than a modest dinghy.  In admiralty jargon, the command “Pump Ship!” is an instruction to begin pumping with all pumps and, in the way sailors adapt such things, it entered naval vernacular as the phrase meaning “I intend to urinate”.

It was picked up by nautical types in civilian life but was probably unknown to most until the publication (in three volumes, 2021-2022) of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1958), a US born English MP and socialite.  Edited by Dr Simon Heffer (b 1960), the entry of interest was from 19 November 1936 when Channon hosted one of his many glittering dinners in the dining room designed by Parisian interior decorator Stéphane Boudin (1888–1967, his House of Jansen later decorating the White House for Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963)) and modelled on the interior of the Amalienburg, an eighteenth century hunting lodge in on the grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace Park outside Munich, a place notorious for the intricacy of its fittings, even by the standards of Rococo.  The Amalienburg was built for someone who would later be Holy Roman Emperor, just the sort of crew with whom Channon identified and he had the elaborate style replicated in the dining room of his London house in Belgrave Square, including even the Bavarian national colors of blue & silver.  Unfortunately, no color photographs appear to have survived and the room was later disassembled, the extendable mirrored table, which could expand to a length of 25 feet (7.7 m), occasionally offered at auction.  By all accounts, the room truly was “breathtaking” and it was one of the few things in life of which Channon could find no grounds for criticism, it living up to his expectation it would “shimmer in blue and silver” and “shock and stagger London”.  For that alone he seemed to think the Stg£6,000 (mostly money he had married) cost (some Stg£525,000 adjusted for 2023) well worth it.  To illustrate the relativities, the next year he would purchase a V12 Rolls-Royce Phantom III for a sum (Stg£1900 for the chassis & another Stg£1100 to have a coach-builder fabricate a body) which would then have bought six houses in a middle-class London suburb although it’s not known if that’s something he’d have known, “middle class” being about the worst thing he could think to say of anyone.

Dining Room, 5 Belgrave Square, London, circa 1937.

On that November evening the guest of honor was King Edward VIII (1894–1972; King of the UK & Emperor of India January-December 1936, subsequently Duke of Windsor) and Channon noted in his diary his surprise at the monarch’s “modern” turn of phrase when he rose and announced “I want to pump shit.”  A dutiful host, Channon recorded he “…led His Majesty to our loulou! He proceeded to pass water without shutting the door, talking to me the while”.  That fragment of royal history was printed in the first volume (2021) of the published diaries (it was a measure of the deference which still applied in the England of 1965 that when first they appeared in heavily redacted form the passage was omitted) but comments soon appeared suggesting neither Channon nor Dr Heffer were well-acquainted with the sailors' slang the king would have learned during his brief naval career.  Dr Heffer responded by examining closely the original entry in the diarist’s hand and concluded the relevant character really was a “t” and not a “p” so the words on the night were either “misheard or misunderstood” and there’s little doubt what was said was “pump ship” and not “pump shit”.  He added that like Channon, he had “no naval connections” and was as thus just as “unfamiliar with the sea-dog slang” but that when the paperback edition was proofed, the text would be changed and an explanatory footnote (the diaries worth reading just for Heffer’s detailed footnotes) added.  Rising to the occasion, he observed this meant the “the hardback edition is destined to become a collector's item.”  The dinner proved the apogee of Channon’s social life because he’d backed the wrong royal horse, Edward VIII abdicating within weeks of having pumped ship in Belgrave Square.

Of Pumps, Courts and Flats

Lindsay Lohan in curved-heel stiletto pumps.

The homogenization of English was well-advanced long before the ubiquity of the internet but well into the twentieth century, different meanings for words could evolve in parallel in different regions of the same country, let alone between different states or provinces.  In British English, a court shoe was a woman’s shoe with a low cut vamp, sometimes with no instep fastening and otherwise adorned with a shoe buckle or a bow as an ostensible fastening.  In US English, such a shoe is a pump; pumps and court shoes may or may not have an ankle strap.  Pumps today, on either side of the Atlantic, are almost exclusively worn by women but historically were also formal shoes for men, the male variation called an opera slipper or patent pump.  For men, the pump gained ascendency over the dress boot as modern road-making techniques rendered cities less muddy places and dress pumps remained the standard for evening full-dress until the Second World War.  They remain the usual choice for black tie events and are obligatory with white-tie; the original design with steel-cut buckles, otherwise long extinct, still part of British court uniform and dress.

The construction of pumps is simple, using a whole-cut leather top with a low vamp, lined with either quilted silk or plain leather, trimmed with braid at the opening. The full leather sole is either glued onto the bottom, common on cheaper styles, or sewn, as on more costly bespoke styles still made traditionally, using a shallow slit to lift a flap of leather around the edge to recess and hide the stitching. The sole is, as on ordinary shoes, several layers of leather put together. The bow is made of grosgrain silk or rayon, in a pinched or flat form.  Pumps, which may have an ankle strap, if also constructed with a strap across the instep, are called Mary Janes.

Lindsay Lohan in ballet flats / pumps / slippers.  Ballet pumps in the UK, ballet flats in US English.

Most of the UK fashion business adopted the US use of pump because it simplified the mechanics of trade.  Otherwise, in the UK (and most of the Empire and Commonwealth) a pump implied a flat or low-heel ballet slipper or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls.  Ballet slippers (now more often called flats) date from the medieval period, their popularity declining in only in the seventeenth century when higher heels became fashionable.  After a brief nineteenth century revival, heals again prevailed until the 1960s when they became suddenly and wildly popular after Brigitte Bardot appeared in a pair of Rose Repetto’s hand-stitched ballet flats.  These days, between heals and flats, it seems a draw although the trend increasingly to prefer the comfort of the flat as the years pass is noted.

Lindsay Lohan in kitten-heeled pumps.

Except for court dress, historic references or the exact (if not always enforced) rules for white-tie, there’s now less precision attached to the use of pump and the word should be thought of as referencing a range of closed and open-toed shoes, with and without straps, bows or buckles, the other useful modifier being some reference to the height or type of the heel.  This means anything from a modest kitten to an elongated stiletto and, depending on the airport at which one lands, a flat may be a ballet flat or a ballet pump.

In US use, pumps are exclusively women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel; flats are never pumps and Canada, always more influenced by US linguistic imperialism, followed; that influence is now almost universal and the notion of the flat pump, while not extinct, has declined.  Heels for pumps vary, from the kitten 1-2 inch (25-50 mm) to the stripper (200-250 mm), the bulk of stiletto sales in the 3-5 inch (75-125 mm) range.  They can be made from any material though the classic is patent leather and, under rules formalised by Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) Miss Universe contests, white, stiletto pumps were once obligatory in the swimsuit section of beauty pageants.  Perhaps surprisingly to some, the swimsuits have survived much criticism as have the stilettos although they're no longer exclusively white and, open-toed and strappy, in most places they wouldn't even be thought of as pumps.

Of the Holley Double Pumper

Even in an age when electronic fuel-injection (EFI) has long been the standard form of induction in internal combustion engines, there remain silos in which the now arcane languages of carburetors are spoken and while there is some commonality of terms among the shortcuts, abbreviations & euphemisms of these vernaculars, a trained ear can pick the differences between the flavours to tell which dialect (SU, Weber, Holley, Rochester, Carter et al) is in play.  One part of the Holley tongue is “double pumper”.  A Holley double pumper is a four barrel carburettor with two accelerator pumps (the source of the moniker) and a mechanical linkage connecting the primary and secondary sides of the device.  Widely used during the classic era (1964-1971) of the US muscle cars, the main advantage of the design was the twin accelerator pumps prevented the transitory leanness in the fuel-air mixture which can happen during quick throttle blade movements if only a single pump is fitted.  All multi-barrel carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit but many have only one feeding the primary barrel(s).  These pumps spray a quick shot of the mix to compensate for the split-second lag which will happen before the main circuit fully responds to a throttle pushed suddenly wide open.  All double pumper carburetors use an accelerator pump circuit on both the primary and the secondary sides.

Holley 850 CFM (cubic feet per minute) double pumper carburetor (part number 0-4781C) (left).  The double accelerator pump outlets for both the primary and secondary throttle bores are are arrowed (right), in this case on a HP (high-performance) version in which the choke housing has been removed to optimize the air inlet path, making it less suitable for street use but ideal for competition.

It’s important not to refer to vacuum secondary carburettors (VSC) as any sort of pumper.  A VSC uses a secondary opening controlled by a vacuum diaphragm which opens the secondary barrels only when there is sufficient airflow demand to require it so no accelerator pump is required on the secondary side.  So, a VSC is technically a “single pumper carburettor” but that term is never used and anyone referring to one as such will lose face.  There's also a point of etiquette of which to be aware.  While “VSC” is an accepted term, a double pumper is never referred to as a “DP” because use in the pornography industry has made “DP” exclusively their own and it seems mere politeness not to intrude on their noble linguistic traditions.

There is an (unverified) industry legend that the "double buffer" terminology adopted in 1991 when Microsoft released version 4 of the Smart Drive (smartdrv.exe) disk cache was the coining of a coder who used a Holley double pumper in his muscle car.  That may or may not be true but "double buffer" lives on in the memory management of graphics processing units (GPU) as a description of the temporary storage areas in main memory where data is held during the transfer process.  The trick is that rather than processes being sequential, while program x is being read, program y can be written and vice versa.  It's not exactly quantum mechanics but means things simultaneously are happening in two places; for the gamers for whom GPUs are a fetish, every millisecond matters.

Weiland tunnel ram inlet manifold for big block Chevrolet V8 (396-427-454) with dual Holley 750 CFM double pumpers.