Naff

Naff (pronounced naf)

(1) Unstylish; lacking taste; unfashionable, usually as “a bit naff”.

(2) As “naff around” or “naff about”, to goof off or fool around (now rare, perhaps obsolete).

(3) To decline a suggestion or request someone to depart (as naff off), once widely used as a journalistic euphemism.

(4) A kind of tufted sea-fowl.

(5) In slang, a range of uses, figurative and euphemistic.

1800s:  Naff has had quite a history.  It’s documented (1) (circa 1845) in slang as a noun meaning "female pudenda" which is though possibly back-slang from “fan”, a shortening of fanny (in the UK sense), circa 1940, meaning "nothing" in the slang of prostitutes' slang and (3) (circa 1959) as a verb, a euphemism for “fuck” in oaths, imprecations, and expletives (as in naff off) and (4) as a (1960s) adjective to convey "vulgar, common, despicable" or just generally “ugly or unattractive” which is said to have been used in 1960s British gay slang for "unlovely" and thence adopted into the jargons of the theatre and the armed forces.  There is one source which suggests it was gay slang for “heterosexual” but it’s undocumented; perhaps among them “unattractive” and “ugly” were synonymous on technical, if not aesthetic grounds.  In one sign of the times, in the early 1980s, the last days before deference finally died, the tabloid press generously reported Princess Anne (b 1950) had told a photographer covering an equestrian event to “naff off” rather than the “fuck off” she, apparently more than once, thought better conveyed her feelings.  He late father would probably have approved though it’s doubtful the Murdoch press will show the same restraint should ever the Duchess of Sussex be so expressive.

The use in the gay community and in entertainment circles is thought possibly from Polari. Brought to England by sailors, Polari is a distinctive English argot, examples of which appear in the record since at least the early seventeenth century.  Historically, it was associated with groups of theatrical and circus performers and in certain gay and lesbian communities and in those communities, some words still survive in their slang.  Although some of its later adoptions were influenced by other languages, most of the vocabulary was derived from Italian, either directly or through the Lingua Franca of Mediterranean ports.  The word was first recorded by researchers in the 1840s and was ultimately from Italian parlare (to speak, talk), source of the English borrowing “parle”.  Polari was also sometimes spelled parlary and pronounced puh-lahr-ee, par-lahr-ee, par·lya·ree, puhl-yahr-ee or pahrl-yahr-ee.

Naff does appear elsewhere but neither (1) the corruption of the Swiss/German surname Neff (perhaps brought to the Middle East by a Crusader or trader) or (2) the Arabic root from a word meaning “one who separates wheat from chaff” are thought to have any link to the use in English.  Naff is the adjective and (the rare) naffness the noun.  There are early (non-vulgar) twentieth century citations of naff as both noun-singular & plural but the form never caught on.  Still, it’s an adaptable word for those attracted: naff, naffness, naffer, naffism, naffology, naffest, naffhead, naffy, naffiest, naffinistic, naffstick, naffily, naffed, & naffing are all there to be used or constructed. 

Naff really is quite useful.  None of the vaguely similar words (kitsch, camp, rubbish, unstylish, clichéd, outmoded, inferior, tasteless) convey exactly the same meaning; there’s overlap with many but naff encapsulates nuances of all in a way no other word can.  It possesses a quality best understood by the distinction Susan Sontag (1933–2004) drew in her essay Notes on Camp (Partisan Review, 1964), between “a sensibility” and “an idea”.  Naffness seems a sensibility rather than an idea which lends itself to any precision in definition, a thing which can be sensed when encountered but not defined except in terms either so verbose or abstract as to not be helpful.

Being a sensibility, it’s a thing which can slur across time, some things once fashionable becoming naff and later (allegedly) ironic.

Lavender

Lavender (pronounced lav-uhn-der)

(1) As a color, a pale bluish purple, similar to or variations of lilac & violet.

(2) Of or pertaining to something of the shade.

(3) In botany, any of the various Old World perennial shrubs or herbaceous plants or shrubs belonging to the genus Lavandula (family Lamiaceae (labiates)), of the mint family, especially Lavandula angustifolia, and cultivated for its spikes of fragrant mauve or blue flowers and as the source of a fragrant oil.

(4) The dried flowers or other parts of this plant placed among linen, clothes etc (usually in small, porous bags (called lavender bags)), for the scent or as a preservative.

(5) As lavender water (historically also called toilet water), a solution of oil of lavender, used sometimes as an aftershave.

(6) In informal use, of or relating to a homosexual orientation in men (archaic); an effeminate male (used as both noun & adjective).

(7) As lavender marriage, a type of marriage of convenience undertaken by gay man and lesbian women, often as a form of professional protection.

(8) In film production, a kind of film stock for creating positive prints from negatives as part of the process of duplicating the negatives (obsolete).

(9) A washer; one (especially a woman) who washes clothes (archaic).

(10) As a euphemism, a woman employed in prostitution or having loose morals (archaic).

(11) In sexual politics, an only briefly used and now obsolete descriptor: (1) pertaining to LGBT people and rights (as lavender collar which was replaced by rainbow collar (a reference to the gay pride flag)) and (2) a militant strain of lesbian feminism which opposed heterosexism.

1225–1275: From the Middle English lavendre, from the Anglo-French lavendre, from the Old French lavandiere (the lavender plant), from the tenth century Medieval Latin lavandārius & lavendula, a variant of livendula, a nasalized variant (unrecorded) of lividula (a plant livid in color).  The French forms may be from the Latin lividus (bluish; livid), but was certainly influenced by the French lavande and the Italian lavanda (a washing), from the Latin lavare (to wash), from the primitive Indo-European root leue- (to wash), the link being the flower being used to scent washed fabrics and as a bath perfume.  The Latin lavō (I wash, bathe; I wet, moisten) was from the Proto-Italic lawāō, from the primitive Indo-European lewhs (to wash).  It was cognates with the Ancient Greek λούω (loúō) & λοέω (loéō), the Albanian laj, the Old Armenian լոգանամ (loganam) and the Old English lēaþor (from which English gained lather).  Lavender is a noun & adjective, lavendering is a verb and lavendered is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is lavenders).

The adjective in the sense of “a pale purple color, of the color of lavender flowers” dates from 1840", the noun as a color noted since 1882.  The identical Middle English word meant both "laundress; washerwoman" and "prostitute, whore; camp follower", the origin of that probably being the roles being performed by the same personnel, one presumably before sunset, the other after.  In politics, lavender enjoyed a brief currency as (1) pertaining to LGBT people and rights (as lavender collar which was replaced by rainbow collar (a reference to the gay pride flag) and (2) a descriptor of a militant strain of lesbian feminism which opposed heterosexism.

Lindsay Lohan with lavender colored hair, smoking.

The surname does exist as Lavandar but the more common spelling is Lavender, regarded by genealogists as English but of early French origin.  Introduced by the Normans after the conquest of 1066 it is occupational and derived from lavandier, applied especially to workers in the wool industry employed to wash raw wool or rinse the cloth after fulling. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the name-bearer and only later became hereditary when a son or perhaps a daughter followed the father into the same line of business.  The surname first recorded in 1273 on the “Hundred Rolls” of Cambridgeshire and the earliest known instance in the US record is from New York in 1846 although its likely (possibly with variations of spelling) there were earlier cases of immigration.  The first recorded spelling of the family name was la Lauendere which, dated 1253, was entered in the “Pipe Rolls” of Oxfordshire during the reign of Henry III (1207–1272; King of England 1216-1272) and over the centuries, in the British Isles, Europe, the US and the British Empire, the spelling evolved in several forks until the modern Lavender emerged as the most common.

Wedding day of film star Rock Hudson (1925–1985) & Phyllis Gates (1925–2006), Santa Barbara, California, 9 November 1955.They separated in 1957, the divorce granted the next year.

A lavender marriage is one between a man and woman undertaken as a marriage of convenience to conceal the socially stigmatized sexual orientation of one partner or both.  The color lavender had an association with gay men going back centuries and it’s thought the origin was based on the idea of a shade somewhere between pink (girl) & blue (boy).  Although there’s much evidence to suggest there’s a long tradition of the practice in many cultures, the term “lavender marriage” seems to date only from 1895 and came into wide use only in the mid twentieth century where it was used almost exclusively, knowingly to describe marriages in the Hollywood film industry between couples known not to be straight.  In some cases the marriages were a professional necessity because of contracts of employment which essentially proscribed all aspects of homosexuality.  Although in the west the structural reasons for lavender marriages have substantially been dismantled, they are known still to occur, especially in communities where social mores reflect the less progressive views of their countries of ethnic origin.

Treadmill

Treadmill (pronounced tred-mil)

(1) A device for producing rotary motion by the weight of people or animals, treading on a succession of moving steps or a belt that forms a kind of continuous path, as around the periphery of a pair of horizontal cylinders (also called a treadwheel (archaic)).

(2) An exercise machine that allows the user to walk or run in place, usually on a continuous moving belt.

(3) Figuratively, a process or situation in which continued effort leads to or is required for remaining at a particular state or level without moving ahead; any monotonous, wearisome routine in which there is little or no satisfactory progress.

(4) By extension, anything repetitive and unending.

(5) In molecular biology, as treadmilling, the apparent locomotion of certain cellular filaments by adding protein subunits at one end, and removing them at the other, a phenomenon observed in many cellular cytoskeletal filaments.

1822: The construct was tread + mill.  Tread was from the Middle English tred, from treden (to tread), from the Old English tredan, from the Proto-West Germanic tredan, from the Proto-Germanic trudaną.  Mill was from the Middle English mylne & mille, from the Old English mylen, from the Proto-West Germanic mulīnu (mill), from the Late Latin molīna, molīnum & molīnus (mill), from the Latin verb molō (grind, mill), related to the Proto-Germanic muljaną (to crush, grind (related to the later English millstone).  Although speculative, some etymologists have suggested a relationship with the surname Milne, based on an associative link with the profession of some sort of milling.  The synonyms for the physical devices have variously included mill, stepper & everlasting staircase, and in the figurative sense, chore, drudgery, groove, labor, pace, rote, routine, rut, sweat, task, toil, travail & moil.  Treadmill is a noun, treadmilling is a noun & verb, treadmilled is a verb (the forms treadmillish & treadmillesque are both non-standard); the noun plural is plural treadmills.

Depiction of penal treadmill (the wheel).

Treadmills originated as a means of translating human energy into mechanical action to be applied to tasks such as moving water or air, grinding grain or making more efficient processes like the kneading of dough.  All such devices had since the mid sixteenth century tended to be known as treadwheels and the name treadmill wasn’t widely adopted until 1822 when a machine, invented by the son of a miller and used in English jails since 1818, was introduced into the US prison system, the intention in both places being to occupy the prisoners (on the basis of the theory that “the Devil makes work for idle hands”) and harness the energy produced for some useful purpose (although it’s unclear to what extent the devices were ever used a power source).  Designed ultimately to accommodate a dozen-odd men at a time, penal treadmills were rotating cylinders with steps built into the external surface, the prisoners essentially “walking uphill” for up to 4000 metres (14,000 feet) per day.  In prison slang the treadmills became known as “the wheel” and they were widely used in England until a decline in the late nineteenth century before use was discontinued in 1902; In the US, they were rare and extinct by mid-century, prison administrations preferring to apply the labor of inmates directly to some productive purpose.  The penal treadmill (the wheel) is best remembered as being one of the punishments to which Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was subjected during some of the two-year sentence he received after being convicted of gross indecency.

Lindsay Lohan on treadmill, Planet Fitness Super Bowl commercial, 2022.

The figurative senses allude to the way running on a treadmill requires continued effort and motion in order to remain in the same place and it’s used to refer either to one’s continued application to a specific task without making discernible progress towards the goal or the general idea of being “stuck in a rut”, leading a repetitive existence.  The idea for the familiar modern device dates from the early twentieth century and in medicine, sports and the military, variations emerged as required but by the 1970s, they became a standard piece of gym equipment and have become increasingly elaborate, linked to diagnostic and monitoring sensors and even the generation of electricity, some commercial operations granting users credits against the charges for use.

The term "euphemism treadmill" was coined by Harvard professor and psycholinguist Steven Pinker (b 1954) to describe the process by which euphemisms become as emotionally or politically loaded as the words supplanted.  It was the same idea as “euphemism cycle” which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor had mentioned as long ago as 1974 but more exact in that the process is lineal rather the cyclical; once cancelled, euphemisms seem forever doomed.  Linguists call this the move from euphemism to dysphemism and while it’s impossible to know how long this has existed as a social phenomenon, the implications differ greatly between (1) purely oral cultures, (2) one where written or other records exist and (3) the digital era.  It’s now not uncommon for words individuals used decades earlier (at a time when use was either common or at least tolerated) to be produced so an understanding of historical context matters.  The word retard for example was once thought neutral and inoffensive compared with the earlier terms (idiot, imbecile & moron) which had migrated from clinical use to become slurs used as general-purpose insults against anyone.  Retard suffered the same fate and it may be the currently acceptable terminology (intellectual disability, individual with an intellectual disability & intellectually and developmentally disabled) will undergo the same process although none roll of the tongue as easily as retard and IDD is not effortless so they may endure as neutral.  The solution, Pinker pointed out, was that people should be educated to "think differently" about the subject, substituting euphemisms when progress inevitably from sanitized to slurs just kicks the can down the road. 

Structurally though, the process can be seen as inevitable because it’s associative, a product of the interplay between a descriptor and that it denotes.  Gay (a word with a centuries-long history in sexual politics) emerged in the late twentieth century as the preferred term to replace all the slurs referring to homosexuals, recommended by many even as preferable to homosexual which, despite being a neutral descriptive formation, had come to be regarded by many as a slur or term of derision.  Of course, being associative, gay soon came also to be used as a slur (and as a synonym for strange, weird, un-cool or queer (in its more traditional sense)) though the negative application is now socially proscribed so gay in its modern sense may survive.  So, the change of a descriptor doesn’t necessarily change attitudes.  Just because gay became preferred to homosexual didn’t mean homophobia vanished although, interestingly, although there’s a record of the word gayphobia from as early as the 1990s, it never caught on.

Of interest too is the succession of terms which replaced the infamous N-word.  Negro (which probably already is N-word 2.0 except in historic references) was in the 1960s used in the sense of something purely descriptive by mainstream figures such as John Kennedy (1917-1963; US president 1961-1963) and civil rights activist Martin Luther King (1929-1968) but it too came to be regarded as slur and was replaced by black.  Negro did though have an interesting history.  When first used in print in English in the mid-sixteenth century it was nearly always capitalized, the uncapitalized use beginning to appear in the late eighteenth century and becoming the standard form in twentieth although there were activists who insisted an initial capital was justified as a mark of respect, despite this being etymologically dubious.  It’s now rare because it carries connotations of earlier discrimination although remains acceptable in context, such as when used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The mater of capitalization had also affected the use of black, some activists claiming its should be capitalized whereas white should not and that too is a purely political argument given the word initially gained currency because it was thought white’s linguistic equivalent.  In many ways that was true but it was controversial because, as used, it wasn’t exactly synonymous with Negro which is why the more precise African American became popular in the 1980s, again for reasons of seeking social equivalence (Polish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans et al).  Black, in practice, is often used to refer to dark-skinned people whether or not of African descent and for this reason it became unfashionable.  Other sub-sets have also moved in their own direction, the Fox News audience now preferring “the 13%”.

The distinction between colored people and people of color puzzles some but is entirely due to the historical association of colored and colored people with racism both subtle and overt.  People of color is a construction without the baggage and to date has generally be used to assert identity or in a celebratory sense and technically it’s a synonym for non-white because all those not white can so self-classify.  However, language evolves and there’s no guarantee people of color won’t emerge as a slur.  So, it can be a linguistic minefield and while the general principle is that people should be described as they wish to be described (or described not at all), at least for now, people of color seems safe.

Lindsay Lohan on treadmill, Planet Fitness Super Bowl Commercial, 2022.

Slope

Slope (pronounced slohp)

(1) To have or take an inclined or oblique direction or angle considered with reference to a vertical or horizontal plane; slant.

(2) To move at an inclination; obliquely to move.

(3) To direct at a slant or inclination; incline from the horizontal or vertical.

(4) To form or describe something with a slope or slant.

(5) A descriptor of ground or some aspect of the natural or built environment which has an incline, such as a hill.

(6) An inclination or slant, especially downward or upward; to lie or cause to lie at a slanting or oblique angle.

(7) Any deviation from the horizontal or vertical; an inclined surface.

(8) In mathematics, (1) the tangent of the angle between a given straight line and the x-axis of a system of Cartesian coordinates; (2) the derivative of the function whose graph is a given curve evaluated at a designated point.

(9) In slang, a disparaging and offensive term used to refer to a person of East Asian appearance.

(10) As slope off, a slang term (mostly UK, Australia & New Zealand) describing someone moving slowly, or furtively away, usually to avoid work or responsibility; a rare variation is “sloped-in”, used to describe to who arrive somewhere surreptitiously (those late for work etc).

(11) To follow an inclined course down a hillside (applied especially to natural features).

(12) In military use, as slope position, a drill command referring to the position in which a long-arm should be held.

1495–1505: From Middle English slope (go in an oblique direction), from the earlier adjectival meaning “slanting”, an aphetic variant of the Middle English aslope, from the Old English aslopen, past participle of āslūpan (to slip away), the construct being a- (away) + slupan (to slip).  From 1709 slope was used to mean "to be in a slanting position", the transitive sense "place in a slanting position" having been part of the language since circa 1600.  The derogatory slang meaning "oriental person" is attested from 1948.  Slopingly is an adverb, slopingness, sloper & slope are nouns, sloped & sloping are adjectives and sloped & sloping are verbs.

The slippery slope and the thin end of the wedge

Borrowed from political science, the terms “slippery slope” and “thin end (sometimes edge) of the wedge” are sometimes used interchangeably but, while both refer to similar processes, there are nuances which distinguish the two.  The idea is that a small, minor and perhaps innocuous change or innovation affecting something can trigger a chain of events which might result in unintended consequences; in that there are similarities with chaos theory but a slippery slope is much more specific and probably lineal.  There’s often overlap between the two and the distinctions are not always absolute but circumstances usually tends more to one than the other.  Both tend to be used in political discourse by extremists and fanatics and are often example of what is called the “slippery slope fallacy” such as the argument that if gay marriage is allowed, eventually the gay people will be allowed to marry their goats.  That argument really was raised by some who claimed it wasn't an extreme position to take, pointing out that two generations earlier, those who had been opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality because it would put society on a slippery slope towards gay marriage had been accused of raising a “slippery slope fallacy”.  All things considered, goats seem safe.  The slippery slope is also a piece of imagery adopted sometimes by black-letter-law judges who oppose judicial activism.

The difference is essentially in the dynamics driving the process.  On a slippery slope, things happen because of the inherent inertia; the notion that of sitting on a slippery slope, the slide downhill an inevitable consequence of the physics of fluid dynamics and the force of gravity.  The downward path will happen naturally.  By contrast, the model of the thin end of the wedge is that of the wedge driven into the tree.  If left there nothing will happen but if the woodsman continues to hammer the edge into the trunk, at some point, the tree will fall.  An example of the thin end of the wedge was the deployment in the early 1960s by the Kennedy administration (1961-1963) of a small number of military advisors to support the government of South Vietnam.  It had never been intended that large-scale combat operations would be undertaken in Vietnam but, step-by-step, Washington increased the commitment.  An more familiar example of the slippery slope is to adopt a rigorous diet and then allow a weekly “cheat day”.  On the first cheat day, one might have just the one chocolate biscuit but the next week it’s a biscuit and a donut and within weeks it’s packets of both.

Anthony Trollope’s (1815-1882) 1857 novel Barchester Towers is set in a tranquil and leafy town but there are few novels which, without even a threat of bloodshed, so successfully and with such subtlety impart such feelings of incipient evil and a relentless undercurrent of dread.  In Victorian novels there were many characters of dubious virtue but few not actually homicidal managed to induce in readers such feelings of unease and distaste as the slimy Reverend Obadiah Slope.

Although said to be “tall and not ill made”, Slope was “saucer-eyed”, his hair “lank, and of a dull pale reddish hue… formed into three straight lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision, and cemented with much grease.”  His face, “perhaps a little redder” than his hair, not unlike beef “of a bad quality”, a “redeeming feature” his nose which was “pronounced, straight, and well-formed” although marred still by “a somewhat spongy, porous appearance, as though it had been cleverly formed out of red colored cork".  The description of the nose is not without significance for it had by some been asserted that he was of lineal descent from Dr Slop, “that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr Tristram Shandy, and that in early years he added an ‘e’ to his name, for the sake of euphony.”  Shandy, the eponymous character from Laurence Sterne's (1713-1768) nine volume work (1759-1757), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was birthed by the “man-midwife” Dr Slop, who squashes Tristram's nose with forceps as he yanks the baby out.

Slope was the domestic chaplain to Bishop Proudie at Barchester and began as a protégé of the Bishop’s wife (a truly ghastly woman) but later became her enemy as he attempted when he endeavored to wrest the control of the diocese from her hands by becoming an eminence (pâle) rouge, a kind of vicarage Richelieu controlling the Bishop.  The plots and schemes of the calculating chaplain, conducted with much obsequiousness, play out in the novel as a part of a struggle between those of the high church and the evangelicals, a struggle not resolved to this day.  The Trollope aficionados don’t regard Barchester Towers as his best work but few deny it’s one of the most enjoyable and anyone who wishes to sample Trollope should start here.

On the slopes: Lindsay Lohan in Gstaad, Switzerland, 2016.  The experience on skis may have come in handy in 2022 during filming for Netflix's Falling for Christmas.

Pink

Pink (pronounced pingk)

(1) A definition of perceived color varying between a light crimson to a pale reddish purple (sometimes described as fuchsia); any of a group of colors with a reddish hue that are of low to moderate saturation and can usually reflect or transmit a large amount of light; a pale reddish tint.

(2) Any of various Old World plants of the caryophyllaceous genus Dianthus, such as D. plumarius (garden pink), cultivated for their fragrant flowers including the clove pink or carnation (sometimes referred to as the pink family); the flower of such a plant; any of various plants of other genera, such as the moss pink.

(3) The highest or best form, degree, or example of something (expressed usually as “in the pink” or “the pink of”).

(4) As the disparaging slang pinko, either (1) a communist or one so suspected (US) or (2) a socialist (UK and English-speaking Commonwealth) (both dated).

(5) In informal use, a document provided in commerce or by government for some purpose which was historically issued on pink tissue paper (usually a carbon copy), the term still in some cases enduring for the modern digital analogue.

(6) In fox hunting as “the pinks”, a coat worn by riders (although actually in a shade of scarlet).

(7) In military tailoring, the pinkish-tan gabardine trousers once worn in some regiments as part of an officer’s dress uniform.

(8) In the stone trade, the general term for marble of this color.

(9) In informal use, of or relating to gay people or gay sexual orientation and used sometimes as a modifier in this context (the pink vote, the pink dollar etc, the pink economy et al) (dated).  The pink triangle was a literal description of the fabric patch worn on the uniforms of homosexual inmates in Nazi concentration camps.

(10) In labour market demography, as pink collar, that part of the workforce or those job categories predominately female.

(11) In commerce, as a modifier, such products as may be discerned as being of this color (champagne, gin, salmon, diamonds et al).

(12) To pierce with a rapier or the like; to stab (based on the idea of a pinkish stain appearing on the clothing of one so stabbed); figuratively, to wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule.

(13) In tailoring, to finish fabric at the edge with a scalloped, notched, or other pattern, as to prevent fraying or for ornament.

(14) To punch cloth, leather etc with small holes or figures for purposes of ornament; to adorn or ornament, especially with scalloped edges or a punched-out pattern (mostly UK use).

(15) As pink disease (infantile acrodynia), a condition associated with chronic exposure to mercury.

(16) In nautical use, a sailing vessel with a narrow overhanging transom (historically a vessel with a pink stern).

(17) As pinky or pinkie, the fifth digit (little finger).

(18) In gardening, to cut with pinking shears.

(19) In US slang, an operative of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (archaic).

(20) In the slang of fishing, various fish according region including the common minnow and immature Atlantic salmon, the origin of all probably the Middle Dutch pincke.

(21) In snooker, one of the color balls (colored pink), with a value of 6 points and in use since the nineteenth century.

(22) In vulgar slang, sometimes as “pink bits”, the vagina or vulva.

(23) In slang, an unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes (similar to the Australian CUB (cashed-up bogan)) (UK archaic).

(24) In informal use, having conjunctivitis (ie pinkeye).

(25) To turn a topaz or other gemstone pink by the application of heat.

(26) In (spark ignition) internal combustion engines (especially in motor cars), to emit a high "pinking" noise, usually as a result of ill-set ignition timing for the fuel used.

(27) Of a musical instrument, to emit a very high-pitched, short note.

(28) In color definition, any of various lake pigments or dyes in yellow, yellowish green, or brown shades made with plant coloring and a metallic oxide base (obsolete).

(29) As pinkwashing (al la greenwashing and the figurative use of whitewashing), a fake or superficial attempt to address issues of gay rights (though often applied to LGBTQQIAAOP issues in general).

Circa 1200:  The source of pink was the Old English pungde (to pierce, puncture, stab with a pointed weapon) which by the early fourteenth century had acquired the sense of "make holes in; spur a horse" the source uncertain but perhaps from a nasalized form of the Romanic stem that also yielded French piquer (to prick, pierce) and the Spanish picar or else from the Old English pyngan (to prick) and directly from its source, the Latin pungere (to prick, pierce), from a suffixed form of primitive Indo-European root peug or peuk- (to prick).  By circa 1500, it had come to mean "to decorate (a garment, leather) by making small holes in a regular pattern at the edge or elsewhere" and that sense endures to this day in pinking shears (although they were not so-named until 1934).  The English pinge, pingen, pinken, pung & pungen (to push (a door)), batter, shove; prick, stab, pierce; punch holes in) was from the Old English pyngan (to prick) and dates from 1275–1325 and may be from (1) the Latin pungere (to prick, pierce), (2) the Low German pinken (hit; to peck) & Pinke (big needle) or (3) the Dutch pingelen (to do fine needlework), the root again the primitive Indo-European peug (to prick). 

The words "pinkie" & “pinky” was from the Dutch pinkje, diminutive of pink (little finger), of uncertain origin, the earliest known used in Scotland in 1808 and is common in Scottish English, US English and elsewhere in the English-speaking world.  The nautical use dates from circa 1450, from the late Middle English pynck & pyncke, from the Middle Dutch pinke (fishing boat).  The flows were so named in the sixteenth century and surprisingly, the use to describe the color didn’t emerge until the eighteenth century, perhaps a shortening of pinkeye. 

The flower family was so named in the 1570s, the common name of Dianthus, a garden plant actually of various colors.  The family picked up the name “pink” probably because of the idea of the "perforated" (scalloped) petals (ie “pinked” in the earlier sense) although etymologists did suggest there might be a link to the Dutch pink (small, narrow (in the sense of pinkie)), via the term pinck oogen (half-closed eyes (literally "small eyes), borrowed in the 1570s, the speculative link being that the Dianthus sometimes has small dots resembling eyes.  The coincidence in the dates is interesting but there’s no documentary evidence.  It was the example of the flower which, by the 1590s, led to the figurative use for "the flower" or highest type or example of excellence of anything. 

Actor Florence Pugh (b 1996) in hot pink Valentino Tulle gown with Valentino Tan-Go pink patent platform pumps, July 2022.

The noun meaning "pale red color, red color of low chroma but high luminosity" was first noted in 1733 (although pink-colored dates from the 1680s), developed from one of the most common and fancied of the flowers and pink had come into use as an adjective by 1720.  As a physical phenomenon, the color pink obviously pre-dated the word pink as a descriptor and the earlier name for such a color in English was the mid-fourteenth century incarnation (flesh-color) and as an adjective (from the 1530s) incarnate, from the Latin words for "flesh".  These however had other associations and tended to drift in sense from “flesh-color” & “blush-color” toward “crimson” & “blood color”; it is thus a discipline to “translate” even early Modern English.

Lindsay Lohan in pink pantsuit with Valentino’s Rockstud pumps, New York, October 2019.

The noun pink-eye (and pinkeye) (contagious eye infection) was an invention of US English from 1882 although, dating from the 1570s, it one meant "a small eye".  The adjectival pink-collar (jobs generally held by women or those considered characteristically feminine (1977) or the female workforce generally (1979) was a back-formation based on the earlier blue-collar, white-collar etc.  Pinky as an adjective (pinkish, somewhat pink) dates from 1790, building on the earlier pinkish (somewhat pink), noted since 1784.  The derogatory adjectival slang pinko (soon also a noun in this context) was used of those with social or political views "tending towards “red” (ie sympathetic to communism, the Soviet Union (USSR) etc) since 1927 although as a metaphor that had existed at least since 1837.  It was in the context of the time a euphemistic slur; a way of calling someone a communist (or at least a fellow traveler) without actually saying so.  In Australia, former Victorian Premier Sir Henry Bolte (1908-1990; premier of Victoria 1955-1972) would often refer to the  local broadsheet “The Age” as “that awful pinko rag” although he wasn’t unique in his critique, the paper’s one-time headquarters known by many as the “Spencer Street Soviet”.

On any Wednesday.

In idiomatic use, to be "in the pink" is to be healthy, physically fit, or in high spirits; to be "tickled pink" dates from 1909 and is to be very happy with something.  The "pink slip" (apparently originally a "discharge from employment notice" and historically issued on pink tissue paper (usually as a carbon copy)),  is attested by 1915 and pink slips had various connotations in employment early in the twentieth century, including a paper signed by a worker attesting he would leave the labour union or else be fired.  The term pink slip came to refer to a wide variety of documents (in the US it was often the title to a car) provided in commerce or by government for some purpose (although not all literally were pink) the term still in some cases enduring for the modern digital analogue.  To “see pink elephants”, a euphemism for those suffering alcohol-induced hallucinations, dates from 1913 when it appeared in Jack London's (1876-1916) autobiographical novel, John Barleycorn although such things are not always apparitions.  While in London, famous Australian concierge Elvis Soiza (once a leading figure in the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or) managed, at remarkably short notice, to procure a pink (painted) elephant to be led through the streets of Chelsea to delight one of the wives of a visiting dignitary from the Middle East.  It’s apparently not since been done.

Some languages such as Chuukese and German use pink but other descendants include the Afrikaans pienk, the Finnish pinkki, the Irish pinc, the Japanese pinku (ピンク), the Korean pingkeu (핑크), the Marshallese piin̄, the Samoan piniki, the Scottish Gaelic pinc, the Southern Ndebele –pinki, the Swahili -a pinki, the Tokelauan piniki, the Tok Pisin pinkpela, the Welsh pinc and the Xhosa –pinki.  Pink is a noun, verb & adjective, pinker, pinkest, pinkish and pinky are adjectives and pinkness is a noun.

The Playmate-Pink Cars, 1964-1975 

Hugh Hefner in his 1955 Cadillac Series 62 convertible.  1955 was Cadillac’s year of “peak dagmar” and amateur psychoanalysts should make of Mr Hefner’s taste in automobiles what they will.

The Playboy Motor Car Corporation was established in New York in 1947 by a pre-war car dealer who believed there would be much demand for a smaller, less expensive car than those in the ranges offered by the established manufacturers, almost all of which essentially differed little from the models which abruptly had ceased production in 1942.  In some ways it was a modern concept, in-house manufacturing minimized in favor of outsourcing and, wherever possible, the use of standard, off-the-shelf parts.  Conceived as a small convertible with three-abreast seating, it offered the novelty of a multi-part, retractable hard-top, something not new but which would not be offered by a volume manufacturer for almost a decade (before being mostly abandoned for forty years).  Like many thousands (literally) of optimistic souls who have for more than a century succumbed to the temptation of entering the car business, the hopes of Playboy’s founders were high but many factors conspired against the project, not the least of which was the car’s tiny size and under-powered engine; it offered economy in an age when austerity was becoming unfashionable and not even a hundred were built before the company entered bankruptcy in 1951.

1949 Playboy Convertible.

With that, the Playboy name might have passed forgotten into the annals of the New York Bankruptcy Court.  However, not long after the company’s demise, Hugh Hefner (1926–2017; founder and long-time editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine) received a “cease and desist” letter from counsel for Stag magazine (a men’s adventure title), advising a trademark protection suit would be filed were he to proceed with the release of the magazine he intended to launch with the title Stag Party.  A new name was thus required and after pondering Pan, Sir, Top Hat, Gentleman, Satyr & Bachelor, Hefner’s friend (and Stag Party’s co-founder), Eldon Sellers (1921-2016) (apparently prompted by his mother who had worked for the failed car company) suggested it was the ideal name.  Hefner agreed although whether that had anything to do with the clever mechanism with which the little car could be made topless has never been discussed.  With Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) on the cover, Hefner in 1953 issued the first edition of Playboy magazine and the rest is history.  One footnote in Playboy’s history is that between 1964-1975, the car gifted to the playmate of the year (PotY) was usually pink.  After that, the gifts were still given but no longer in pink:

1964: Donna Michelle Ronne, Ford Mustang convertible.

The Mustang was the industry’s big hit for 1964, setting sales records which even now are impressive.  It was also highly profitable, most mechanical parts borrowed from existing Ford lines and the very platform on which it was built was that of the humble Falcon, introduced a few years earlier as a compact (in US terms), economy model.  Only the body was truly new but it was “the body from central casting” and while it didn't (quite) invent the “pony car” segment, it certainly defined it, its lines creating the motif which would be imitated by many and, sixty-odd years on, the current Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro are all variations of the 1964 original.  That original had wide appeal, able to be configured with relatively small six-cylinder engines or larger V8s, soon to include even highly-strung solid-lifter versions, a sign of things to come.

The 1964 PotY’s car was finished in a special-order color which anyone could order but it quickly became known to the public as “Playmate Pink” or “Playboy Pink” although it was only later Ford added the latter to the option list as code #WT9301.  That would be one of four shades of pink the corporation would offer between 1964-1972 including Dusk Rose (code #M0835 and offered originally on the 1957 Thunderbird), Passionate Pink (code #WT9036 which was part of a Valentine’s Day promotion in February 1968) & Hot Pink (code #WT9036).  Interestingly, regarded as niche shades, most of the hues of pink rarely appeared on the mass-distribution brochures and could be viewed only on DSO (Dealer Special Order) charts.  Social change, workforce participation and the contraceptive pill combined in the 1960s to let women emerge as influential or even autonomous economic units and Ford was as anxious as any of the cogs of capitalism to attract what was coming to be described as the "pink dollar".  The tie-in with Playboy wasn’t the only time a pink Mustang was a promotional prop, the Tussy Lip Stick Company offering three 1967 Mustangs as prizes for contest winners, each finished in a shade of pink which matched the lip sticks Racy Pink, Shimmery Racy Pink Frosted & Defroster.  Defroster sounds particularly ominous but to set minds at rest, Tussy helpfully decoded the pink portfolio thus:

Racy Pink: "A pale pink".

Racy Pink Frosted: "Shimmers with pearl". 

Defroster: "Pours on melting beige lights when you wear it alone, or as a convertible top to another lip color".

The fate of the cars is unknown but nerds might note the three prizes were 1967 models while the model (as in the Mustang) in the advertisement is from 1966.  That's because the advertising copy had to be made available before the embargo had been lifted on photographs of the 1967 range.  The men on Madison Avenue presumably dismissed the suggestion of what might now be thought "deceptive and misleading" content with the familiar "she'll never know".

1965: Jo Collins, Sunbeam Tiger.

Although from a different manufacturer, the 1965 PotY’s car actually had the same engine as her predecessor’s gift.  Introduced in 1961 with a capacity of 221 cubic inches (3.6 litres), Ford’s small-block V8 (known as the Windsor after the location of the foundry at which it was first built), it pioneered the use of “thin-wall” casting techniques and, on sale between 1961-2002, would be enlarged first to 260 cubic inches (4.2 litres), then 289 (4.7), 302 (4.9) and 351 (5.8) and installed in everything from pick-ups to the GT40 (#1075) which won the Le Mans 24 hour classic in 1968 & 1969.  AC used a 221 as a proof of concept exercise in what, with the 260, would be released as the first Shelby Cobras, the most numerous of which used the 289.

In England, Sunbeam had been attracted by the Windsor’s light weight and compactness, finding, with a little modification and some help from Carroll Shelby, it could (just) fit in the bay of their little Alpine sports car, until then never powered by anything larger than a 1.7 litre (105 cubic inch) four.  Fit it did although one modification was the inclusion of a hatch in the passenger’s footwell to permit a hand to reach one otherwise inaccessible spark plug, an indication of how tight was that fit.  However, the project proved successful and the Tiger sold well although Sunbeam never offered the high-powered versions of the Windsor Shelby used in the Cobras, the platform really at its limit using the more modestly tuned units.  The US was a receptive market for the little hot rod and one featured in the Get Smart TV series, although it’s said that for technical reasons, a re-badged Alpine was actually used, the same swap effected for the 2008 film adaptation, a V8 exhaust burble dubbed where appropriate, a not unusual trick in film-making.  In 1967, after taking control of Sunbeam, Chrysler had intended to continue production of the Tiger, by then powered by the 289 but with Chrysler’s 273 cubic inch (4.4 litre) LA V8 substituted.  Unfortunately, while 4.7 Ford litres filled it to the brim, 4.4 Chrysler litres overflowed; the Windsor truly was compact.  Allowing it to remain in production until the stock of already purchased Ford engines had been exhausted, Chrysler instead changed the advertising from emphasizing the “…mighty Ford V8 power plant” to the vaguely ambiguous “…an American V-8 power train”.

It’s not clear if the 1965 PotY received her Tiger as a gift or a twelve-month loan but either way she enjoyed a rarity.  The Tiger was produced for only three years, during which just over 7000 were made, most with the 260, but the PotY’s Mark II model was one of 663 fitted with the 289.  Now painted red, the car still exists.

1966: Allison Parks, Dodge Charger.

Experience on the NASCAR ovals had demonstrated how much more aerodynamically efficient were steeply sloped rear windows compared with the more upright “notch backs” that designers had preferred for the additional headroom their packaging efficiency created.  So buoyant was the state of the US industry at the time, the solution was to offer both and the most slippery form of all was the fastback, a roofline which extended in one curve from the top of the windscreen all the way to the tail.  As a generation of Italian thoroughbreds had shown, the fastback could be a dramatic and aesthetic success on smaller machines but on the big Americans, it was a challenge and one never really solved on the full-sized cars although by the late 1960s, a formula had been found for the intermediates.

In 1966, the formula was still being mixed and while the Dodge Charger’s wind-cheating tail delivered the extra speed on the ovals, the slab-sidedness attracted some criticism and, after an initial spurt, sales were never impressive and it wouldn’t be until the revised version was released to acclaim in 1968 that the promise was realized.  In fairness, the 1966 Charger, while not as svelte as its successor, was a better interpretation of the big fastback than some others, notably the truly ghastly Rambler (later AMC) Marlin.  Mechanically, the Charger was tempting, the top engine (though not the biggest, a tamer 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) V8 also available) option the newly released 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) Street Hemi which was a very expensive, slightly detuned race engine and the dashboard featured Chrysler’s intriguing electroluminescent instruments which, rather than being lit with bulbs, deployed a phenomenon in which a material emits light in response to an electric field; the ethereal glow much admired.

Apparently the 1966 PotY wanted something roomy and practical with which to take her family to swimming practice so the spacious Charger was a good choice and the rear-seats, although separated by a full-length console, could be folded flat, creating a surprisingly capacious compartment.  Wisely, the Playboy organization didn’t give her a Hemi Charger, the dual quad monster inclined to be noisy, thirsty and even a little cantankerous, the pink car fitted with a 383 cubic inch (6.3 litre) V8, the engine nominated by Chrysler’s engineers at the time as the best all-round compromise, the two-barrel version their usual recommendation, a four-barrel for those prepared to sacrifice economy for performance.  The fate of the car is unknown.

1967: Lisa Baker, Plymouth Barracuda fastback.

However ungainly the fastback may have appeared on the Charger, it worked well on the smaller Barracuda although there are students of such things who maintain the almost Italianesque lines of the notchback version are better and there was a convertible too, matching the coachwork by then offered on the Mustang.  What all agreed however was the second series Barracuda, released in 1967, was a vast improvement on its frumpy predecessor, now noted mostly for the curiosity of its huge, wrap-around rear-window.  Things could have been different because the original Barracuda, using the same concept as the Mustang (a sport body draped over prosaic underpinnings) was actually released a few weeks before the sexy Ford and was in some ways a superior car but it had nothing like the appeal, being so obviously based on an economy car whereas the Mustang better hid its humble origins.

The second series Barracuda looked much more attractive although, being less changed underneath, didn’t fully emulate the “long hood, short deck” motif with which the Mustang had created the pony car template.  Still, it’s reception in the marketplace encouraged Chrysler and soon, to match the now widened Mustang, big block engines began to appear.  The Barracuda was not actually widened but this was the 1960s and though Chrysler couldn’t easily install a big-block, they could with difficulty and so they did although the 383 was a tight fit and some compromises were required, the exhaust system a little restrictive and niceties like power steering weren’t offered; with the big lump sitting over the front wheels, at low speed they did demand strength to manhandle.  Almost 2000 were built with the 383 V8 but there were some who wanted more and in 1969, in a package now called ‘Cuda, a few were fitted with the 440.  At first glance it looked a bargain, the big engine not all that expensive but having ticked the box, the buyer then found added a number of "mandatory options" so the total package did add a hefty premium to the basic cost.  The bulk of the 440 was such that the plumbing needed for disc brakes wouldn’t fit so the monster had to be stopped with the antiquated drum-type and again there was no space for power steering.  The prototype built with a manual gearbox frequently snapped so many rear suspension components the engineers were forced to insist on an automatic transmission, the fluid cushion softening the impact between torque and tarmac but, in a straight line, the things were quick enough to entice almost 350 buyers.  To this day the 440 remains the second biggest displacement engine Detroit put in a pony car, only the 455 (7.5 litre) Pontiac used in the Firebird and Trans-Am was larger.

The 1969 440s weren’t exactly anti-climatic but true megalomaniacs had in 1968 been more impressed when Plymouth again took the metaphorical shoehorn and installed the 426 Street Hemi, 50 of which were built (though one normally reliable source claims 70) and with fibreglass panels & much acid-dipping to reduce weight, there was no pretense the things were intended for anywhere except a drag strip, living out sometimes brief lives in quarter mile (402m) chunks.  The power-to-weight ratio of the 1968 Hemi ‘Cudas was the highest of the era but lurking behind the Sturm und Drang stirred by the big blocks was one of the best combinations of the era: The 'Cudas fitted with Chrysler's 340 cubic inch (5.6 litre) (LA) small block V8 were superior machines except in straight line speed and the visceral reaction only a Hemi can inspire.

The Hemi Cuda reached its apotheosis in 1970 when, on a unique widened (E-body) platform, it and the companion Dodge Challenger were finally fully competitive pony cars.  Unfortunately, just as the 1967 Barracuda would likely have been a bigger success if released in 1964, so the 1970 car was three years too late, debuting in a declining market segment.  In 1970, an encouraging 650 odd Hemi ‘Cudas were sold but the next year, under pressure from the soaring costs of insuring the things, sales collapsed, barely reaching three figures.  The smaller engined versions fared better but the emission & safety regulations added to the negative market forces and the first oil shock in 1973 was a death knell, both the Barracuda and Challenger cancelled in 1974, the four-year E-body programme booking a significant financial loss.  In the agonizing reappraisal undertaken in the aftermath of what was labeled "a debacle", careers were said to have suffered.  It was as an extinct species the later ‘Cudas achieved their greatest success... as used cars.  In 2014, one of the twelve 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda convertibles sold at auction for US$3.5 million and in 2021, another attracted a bit of US$4.8 million without reaching the reserve.  If it survives, the 1967 PotY’s pink Barracuda wouldn’t benefit from quite that appreciation but it would have some appeal and there were reputedly another ten pink cars built for the occasion, all from the one California plant, the paint code #999, which, coincidently, is shared with Dior’s cor Rouge 999 lip stick and nail enamel.  Red rather than pink, the 999 reference was  borrowed from the gold industry, a purity of 99.9-something percent as pure as gold gets.  Known also as "24 karat" or "pure gold", because of the softness, it's not suitable for all decorative or industrial uses but is a required standard for investment purposes such as bars, bullion or coins.  The 999 standard permits an alloying with 0.1% impurities or other metals (usually silver, copper or lead) and some metals exchanges even specify the proportion of the other metals which may be included in the 0.1%.

1968: Angela Dorian, AMC AMX.

Before Tesla, American Motors Corporation (AMC) was the last of the "independents" and agglomerations which tried to compete with Detroit’s big three, General Motors (GM), Ford & Chrysler.  In the post-war years this was mostly a struggle and AMC’s brightest years had come in the late 1950s when, then run by George Romney (1907–1995 and father of Mitt Romney (b 1947; Republican nominee for US president 2012)), the company began to compete against small, imported cars, then a market segment in which the big three offered no domestically produced vehicles.  That however changed in the early 1960s and AMC’s halcyon days soon ended although they continued for years along the road to eventual extinction and one of their more interesting ventures was the short-lived AMX (1968-1970).

The AMX exemplified the AMC approach in that it was conjured up something new by taking an existing model and, at low cost, modifying it to be something quite different, an approach which, for better and worse, they were compelled to follow to the end.  The AMX was a short-wheelbase, two-seater version of AMC’s Javelin pony car which, introduced in 1967 to contest the then booming segment, had been well-reviewed by the press and, despite the latter-day perception of its lack-lustre performance in the market, sometimes out-sold the Barracuda and actually out-lived it by a few months.  However neither Javelins nor AMXs command multi-million dollar prices at auction.

AMX 36-24-35, post-restoration, 2015.

Still, the AMX was an interesting, even a brave (in the sense Sir Humphrey Appleby might have used the word) innovation, a two-seat coupé added to a market in which there was no similar model, Chevrolet’s Corvette a true sports car, the last attempt at such a thing the two-seat Ford Thunderbird (1955-1957) which had been retired and replaced by a vastly more successful four-seat version.  That was not encouraging but AMC persisted, able to leverage its resources and produce lines at lower cost than the big three could manage.  The AMX, like the Javelin was a piece of typically solid AMC engineering, enjoyed some success in competition and quixotically, two dozen were assembled in Australia in right-hand-drive configuration, sold under the old Rambler name which had so well served George Romney, the marque lingering on there for a few more years.  However, the costs involved in maintaining the shorter AMX platform were too great and when a revised Javelin was released in 1971, AMX became just an option package.  The Javelin too would be axed in 1974 but AMC continued to use the AMX name (which had actually started life in 1966 for concept cars on the show circuit) until 1980.

By 1968, the deeply religious George Romney was long gone from AMC, having moved into Republican politics; like his time in the car business, his second career had its ups and downs and (like his son and many others) he never realized his goal of reaching the White House.  Had he still been in the chair, it may be that never would he have countenanced the idea of AMC getting mixed up with Playboy magazine and, even if persuaded, probably would have drawn the line at the PotY’s vital statistics blatantly being celebrated.  As it was, with no Mormon veto, the AMX, one of several said to have been painted “Playmate Pink” was delivered to Ms Dorian with a plaque on the dashboard engraved AMX 36–24–35.

Ms Dorian too had her ups and downs, eventually parting with AMX 36-24-35 after forty-two years but keeping the Walther (9mm) PPK handgun which had been a gift from a friend, the film-maker Roman Polanski (b 1933), the two having met when Dorian appeared as a recovering heroin addict in Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).  She was also a friend of the director's then wife Sharon Tate (1943-1969) and in August 1969, after followers of cult leader Charles Manson (1934-2017) murdered the eight months pregnant Tate (and four others), Polanski gave his personal Walther PPK to Dorian for self-protection and it was with this that in 2010, after an argument, a 66 year-old Angela Dorian shot her husband of two decades.  He survived the shooting and was quoted by the press lamenting "I loved her for nearly 25 years. A divorce would have been sufficient, not a bullet....", which, in the circumstances, does seem generous.  Charged with attempted murder (later reduced to attempted voluntary manslaughter to which she pleaded no contest), she received a nine year sentence and was released on parole in April 2018.  AMX 36-24-35 also had its ups and downs, repainted (like many of the playmate cars) in something less eye-catching before being found in a dilapidated state.  It’s since been restored to its original pink splendor.

1969: Connie Kreski, Shelby Mustang GT500 with the ultimate hood ornament.

In their run of half a decade, Carroll Shelby’s Mustangs were transformed from race cars which, conveniently, could be road-registered and driven to the track, into elaborately embellished, luxuriously equipped cars usually just a little more powerful than those upon which they were based yet managing still to look faster still.  In 1965, Shelby was aware of the Mustang’s potential in competition and looking for a profitable line to sell, the new seven litre (427 & 428 cubic inch) Cobra giving every indication it would become the loss-making venture it proved.

Shelby created the first of his Mustangs in 1965, using basic, fastback cars sent by Ford to his factory in Venice Beach, the facilities later moved to West Imperial Highway adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) when more space was required.  All the cars built in 1965-1966 used the familiar Windsor 289 in essentially the same sate of tune as the Cobras and the drive-train was beefed-up to handle both the additional output and the lateral forces encountered in the extremes of competition.  The Cobra DNA in the early Shelby Mustangs was thus no affectation and the “Cobra” name was often applied to the cars, both in marketing materials and on parts prominently displayed.  The cars however were as much about what was left out as what was put in.  Shelby had been a race driver (winning the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hour) and understood the significance of lightness which improved performance, tyre wear & fuel consumption and reduced the stresses to which mechanical components were subject so, reflecting his philosophy that a sports car was one “with noting on not there for the purpose of making it go faster”, the Shelby Mustangs were stripped of whatever wasn’t essential, including carpets and sound deadening.  That helped the performance on the track but did make driving a noisy, uncomfortable experience.  At the time, the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 was memorably described as “a brand new, clapped-out racing car”.  Sometimes the weight-saving was necessitated by the letter of the law, the rear seat removed so the things could be defined as “two seat sports cars” and thus be eligible for competitions run by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), a modification which proved handy because it allowed the spare tyre to be kept where once the seat sat, improving weight distribution.  It was definitely not for everyone but 562 were sold, 34 of which were the specially prepared GT350Rs which for three years won its SCCA championship class.

The retreat from rawness began in 1966, the need to homologate for competition having been satisfied.  An automatic transmission became optional and the cars, now labelled as Shelby GT350s, were no longer fitted with some of the suspension, exhaust and other modifications which had distinguished the 1965 run although the rarely-ordered option of a Paxton supercharger was added to a growing list.  Famously too, in that year some 1000 GT350Hs were built on order from the Hertz Rental Car Company and there are stories, some of which may be true, of them being rented on Saturday, raced on Sunday and returned on Monday.  These days, the deal with Hertz would be called a “related party transaction", Ford (a big holder of Hertz stock) having prevailed on their management to place the order.

1967 Shelby GT500 (427, "Super Snake").

In 1967, the trend towards civility continued, a convertible added to the range (although technical problems prevented production) and all were now full-fledged road cars, Shelby’s interest now entirely in cheque-books rather than chequered flags.  Ford had given the 1967 Mustangs a wider platform so the 390 cubic inch (6.4 litre) big-block (FE) V8 could be fitted and this enabled Shelby to introduce the GT500 which used a 428 cubic inch (FE) (7.0 litre) V8, until then something used effortlessly and quietly to propel luxury sedans and coupés.  Shelby add a brace of four barrel carburetors and tuned his 428s a little but the quest had shifted from raw performance to making slightly faster versions of Mustangs which looked faster still and could attract a higher price (later replaced by Ford's factory supplied 428 CobraJet which, with a single four-barrel carburetor was more powerful).  However, in a glimpse of what might have been (and was not quite realized even when the Boss 429 Mustang later appeared), Shelby did build one GT500 with a 427 FE.  With fractionally less displacement than the 428, the 427 was a genuine racing engine, more oversquare in configuration with enhanced lubrication and a strengthened bottom end; it twice won at Le Mans and had been intended as an option for the 1968 Mustangs before the accountants worked out quite how expensive that would prove.  Dubbed the "Super Snake", Shelby’s 427 GT500 was used to test tyres in high-speed use and remained a one-off, selling at auction in 2013 for US$1.3 million.

In 1968 the convertible was added as an option and from then on, the Shelby GT350s and GT500s became less interesting and more successful, the engines growing larger but less powerful, Shelby’s decisions vindicated by rising sales and healthy profits.  However, Ford was less content and, the arrangement having served its purpose, the corporation gradually assumed control, the 1969 models the end of the line although a few cars built that year were re-listed as 1970 models and sold in the first few months of that year.  The PotY GT500 (Shelby serial #1027 & Ford vehicle identification number 9F02R481027) was regular production item with a 428 cubic inch (7.0 litre) Cobra Jet V8, an automatic transmission and no air-conditioning.  Not accounted for in the Shelby registry, its fate is unknown though one quirk of note is that it left the Shelby line finished in Pastel Grey (code M3303A) and was re-painted prior to delivery.

1970: Claudia Jennings, Mercury Capri.

From a Shelby GT500 to a Mercury Capri isn’t quite the sublime to the ridiculous but it’s quite a change.  That said, the Capri, a product of Ford’s European operation and built in both England and Germany, was always regarded as “Europe’s Mustang” and borrowed the same successful and lucrative model of construction: bolt a sexy shell onto a best-selling platform.  So, atop the uninspiring but reliable and cheap to produce underpinnings of the Cortina (UK) and Taunus (Germany), a two-door fastback coupé appeared in 1968 and, over three generations, remained in production until 1986.  In the US, it enjoyed some success and was at one point the highest-selling import.

In Europe, it was available initially with an engine as small as 1.3 litres (79 cubic inches) but the bigger sellers were 1.6 (98 cubic inch) & 2.0 litre (122 cubic inch) fours (some of which, unusually, were V4s) and the V6s of 2.3 (140 cubic inch), 2.6 (159 cubic inch), 2.8 (170 cubic inch) & 3.0 litres (183 cubic inches).  Additionally, a few 3.1 liter (189 cubic inch) V6s were built for homologation and even some 3.4 litre (207 cubic inch) engines appeared purely for use in competition.  Ms Jennings was just in the right place at the wrong time.  In 1970, the only engine Ford offered in the Capri (imported from Germany and always sold in the US as a Mercury) was the 2.0 litre in-line four shared with the the Pinto which would be introduced that year.  At least she didn’t get one of them (although in the early years the Pinto didn’t carry the stigma which would be attached by later events).

Ford Capri RS and BMW 3.0CSL, Spa Francorchamps Belgium, 1974.

The so-called Cologne Capris were among the most famous to compete in European touring car racing during the 1970s and to counter the threat BMW produce their famous 3.0CSL, the be-winged, lightweight version of their E9 coupé, the battles between the two the stuff of legend.  For many seasons sharing space on European circuits, the more unfortunate link between the two was a vulnerability to rust, E9s and Capris prone to rot at a rate bettered only south of the Dolomites, Fiats, Lancias & Alfa-Romeos of the era crumbling more quickly still.  On the road, even with the bigger or the later turbocharged V6s, the Capri was always competent rather than dominant and the only ones to make a serious attempt to make genuine high-performance version were the South Africans, around 500 built there with the 302 Windsor.  Rapid on the road, it was also successful in competition.  Again, the fate of the pink car is unknown but given the propensity to rust, hopes are not high.

1972: Sharon Clark, Spectra 20 Ski Boat.

That Ms Clark received a boat (and one more red than pink) rather than a car attracted comment.  Many concluded she just liked boats or perhaps skiing and that seems to be the case because Playboy's archives record that she met the boat’s designers after recognizing them as the fathers of two of her high-school friends, the donation of a Spectra 20 Ski Boat as her prize happening some months later so there’s presumably some relationship between events.  It proved synergistic, the publicity said to have improved sales to the extent that Spectra offered her a weekend job taking prospective customers on test rides at Long Beach.  Later she would work full-time for Spectra.

1972: Liv Lindeland, De Tomaso Pantera.

The De Tomaso Mangusta (1967-1971) was achingly lovely but adapting a race car for the road necessitates compromises and the Mangusta had a few.  The 32/68% front/rear weight distribution delighted racing drivers but induced characteristics likely to frighten everybody else and the interior was cramped, something tolerated in competition vehicles but not endearing to buyers looking for something with which to impress the bourgeoisie.  However, it sold well enough to encourage de Tomaso to pursue the concept and the better designed (if less beautiful) replacement, the Pantera, lasted from 1971 to 1993, over seven-thousand being sold, most fitted with US or Australian-built versions of the Ford 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland V8.

1969 De Tomaso Mangusta.

The Pantera was designed from the start as a road-car and was thus a far more satisfactory experience for most drivers and the Ford Motor Company, interested in having in their showrooms a competitor for Chevrolet’s Corvette, began to import the car into the US in 1972.  Predictably, there were quality control problems (Elvis Presley famously shot his when, once too often, it refused to start) which compelled some investment from Ford and although the sales volumes never challenged those of the Corvette, in the four years it was available in the US, well over five-thousand were sold.  After being withdrawn from the US market in 1975, De Tomaso maintained production on a smaller scale, the majority sold in Europe and it enjoyed a long Indian summer, the final examples not leaving the factory until 1993 by which time the output was reduced to a trickle.

1985 De Tomaso Pantera GT5.

Disappointingly, despite on paper appearing to possess a promising specification, there was never a stellar career in competition although factory support was offered and private teams ran regular campaigns.  Conspiracy theorists have long attributed the paucity of success to the more established players like Ferrari and Porsche having undue influence on the regulatory bodies, nudging them always in directions favoring their machines.  The factory arranged small runs of Panteras which conformed to Group 3 and Group 4 racing regulations, some of which owners later converted to Group 5 specifications but consistent success proved elusive.  De Tomaso however knew his market.  Even if he couldn’t often beat the Porsches and Ferraris on the track, as the years went by the Panteras adopted increasingly wild styling and they certainly looked the part.  

The playmate-pink Pantera re-imagined, for better or worse, 2022.

Panteras have a high survival rate and the pink car still exists, though no longer is it recognizable as the playmate’s prize.  Extensively modified (as are many Panteras) and now painted a vivid (almost a Dior 999) red, the engine has been enlarged to 397 cubic inches (6.5 litres), the interior refinished and wheel-arch flares added to accommodate wider, staggered-diameter wheels.  It sold at auction in June 2022 for U$110,000, a not exceptional price for the breed and it may have been more valuable if left in the original pink livery.

1973: Marilyn Cole, Volvo 1800ES.

Still one of the more admired Volvos, the 1800ES (1972-1973) wasn’t the first shooting brake to combine utility with sportiness but it was an exquisitely executed styling exercise which breathed new life in the coupé (1961-1972) on which it was based.  The re-design was undertaken entirely in-house, the proposal by Fura (the P1800’s original designer) thought too avant garde for Volvo buyers.  They may have had a point because Volvo owners do seem impressed more by frugality of operation and longevity than anything flashy and there are several 1800s which are documented as having covered more than a million miles (1.6 million km).  The coupé gained not quite a rakish reputation but certainly one associated with a certain style by virtue of its use in a popular TV series shown in the early 1960s, a promotional opportunity made possible only because Jaguar declined to loan the production company one of its new E-Types which had debuted in the same year as the P1800.  Still, the seductive E-Type hardly needed a TV series to create its image.

Ms Cole was the first English Playmate of the Year and took her prize in England and the range has an English connection, the first 6000-odd of the coupés built at Jensen’s West Bromwich Albion factory.  Those early models (1961-1963) were called P1800 but when production moved to Sweden, the name 1800S was adopted (1963-1970), changed again in 1970 to 1800E (1970-1972) to mark the addition of fuel injection.   Like many of the pink cars, it was re-painted red but, despite being involved in an involved in an accident in 2005, it’s still registered for road use in the Netherlands although it’s not known if it’s been restored to the pink.  Another quirk in the nomenclature was it continued to be labelled (1800) even after the engine's displacement was increased to 2.0 litres.  It transpires too there are other uses for an 1800 coupé, one gifted amateur engineer, taking advantage of a similarity in dimensions and angles, using one to build his own (partial) replication of the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder.

1974: Cyndi Wood, Mercedes-Benz 450SL (R107).

The Mercedes-Benz R107 (1971-1989) had a unexpectedly long life, a longevity which slightly exceeded even the 600 (W100; 1963-1981) although across the Grosser’s eighteen years, the only obvious change was when the two-piece hubcap & trim-ring combination (the appearance of which suited the design) was replaced with a one-piece wheel cover (which wasn't as satisfactory) whereas during much the same duration, eight different engines and several transmissions were fitted to the R107:

280SL: 2.7 litre (168 cubic inch) straight 6 (M110)

300SL: 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) straight 6 (M103)

350SL: 3.5 litre (215 cubic inch) V8 (M116)

380SL: 3.8 litre (231 cubic inch) V8 (M117)

420SL: 4.2 litre (256 cubic inch) V8 (M117)

450SL: 4.5 litre (274 cubic inch) V8 (M117 (iron-block))

500SL: 5.0 litre (301 cubic inch) V8 (M117)

560SL: 5.5 litre (338 cubic inch) V8 (M117)

1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SL.

Not all versions were sold in all markets, the sixes never offered in the US, the 420 sold mostly in Europe and the 560, an emission-controlled special restricted mostly to Australia, Japan and the US.  Some 500s are seen in the US and Australia but all are private or grey market imports and it remains the most powerful (and among the most toxic) engine offered in the roadster.  The labelling of the early US versions was however confusing; although called a 350SL (as it was in the rest of the world where it used the 3.5) it was fitted with the 4.5 litre V8, chosen (1) because the improved low-speed torque characteristics of the long-stroke 4.5 was better suited to US driving conditions and (2) the increased displacement partially offset the power loss caused by the early, primitive anti-emission equipment.  The US market cars were later re-badged 450SL, matching the 4.5 litre SLs in the rest of the world.  Fuel consumption of both the 3.5 & 4.5 was poor, even by the slight standards of the time, the larger 6.3 litre (386 cubic inch) and 6.8 litre (417 cubic inch) V8s surprisingly little more thirsty though those big-blocks were fitted to much heavier cars.  The 3.5 litre 350SLs are notable for being among the final Mercedes-Benz V8s available with a manual transmission, the last apparently sold as late as 1980.  Not exactly Lotus-like in operation, the gear-shifts can be a little clunky but, as a manual V8, those 350SLs do have a cult following among collectors.

The R107 had always been intended to be exclusively V8 powered but the 280SL entered the line in 1974 in response to the first oil shock (1973) and in many markets, a six cylinder version remained available to the end.  That the end didn’t come until 1989 is because for much of the R107’s early life, the very future of convertibles in the US was uncertain, threatened by what was thought to be impending US legislation which would ban the things.  That never transpired but much of the 1970s and 1980s were troubled times and there were other priorities so the R107 remained the only convertible offered until replaced in 1989 and a four seat drop-top didn’t return to the line until 1992.

SL actually stands for “super light” which was sort of true when first it was used in 1952 but by 1971 was misleading at least, the R107 no lightweight and a grand tourer rather than a sports car.  For years, the factory never much discussed what the abbreviation "SL" stood for and the assumption had long been it meant Sports Light (Sports Leicht), based presumably on the SSKL of 1929-1931 (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht) but the factory documentation for decades used both Sports Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper discovered in the corporate archive confirming the correct abbreviation is Super Leicht. However defined, the R107 is heavy, the removable hard-top famously so and although that roof was fashioned in the "pagoda" shape, a la its (W113) predecessor, it was only the earlier model which picked up the nickname.

A whiff of scandal attaches to the “pink” 450SL: It was white.  Whether Mercedes-Benz couldn’t or wouldn’t supply a pink car isn’t known and in photographs, Ms Wood seems unconcerned.  Playboy's (pre-digital) production staff were famously adept at air-brushing and other editing techniques so making a white car appear pink would not have been a challenge, even if the bodywork was a little more rectilinear than their usual fare.  Whether it survives isn’t known but anyone who fancies a pink R107 should find one to paint, a remarkable 227,000-odd produced over the years and they were for decades the preferred (one suspects almost the obligatory) transport for types such as interior decorators, Hollywood starlets, successful hairdressers and the wives of cosmetic surgeons.

1975: Marilyn Lange, Porsche 911S.

Ms Lange’s 911S proved to be the first of eight Porsches awarded to subsequent PotYs over the years.  First introduced in 1963, the 911 is the improbable survivor of Europe’s rear-engined era and by 1975, even Porsche thought it was in its final days, Volkswagen and many others having long concluded the rear-engined configuration had no place in the modern world.  Indeed, work by 1975 was well advanced on Porsche’s new generation of front-engined cars which would use water-cooled four, five & eight cylinder engines.  In time, augmenting these, would be a new line of mid-engined sports cars which would benefit from the lessons learned by Porsche in the development of machines like the 908 and, of course, the famous 917.

Alternative approach: Porsche 911 with 500 cubic inch (8.2 litre) Cadillac V8.

It was a vision of the future which made complete sense to everyone except 911 buyers who made it clear they would accept no other configuration and regarded any quirks inherent in the layout not as insoluble problems or dangerous characteristics, but charming idiosyncrasies to be cherished in a way drivers of bland, predictable machinery would never get to experience or understand if they did.  The customer being always right, their view prevailed and the 911 survived, emerging much changed but still rear-engined and still recognizable, sixty-odd years on.  Nor have those inherent problems proved insoluble, modern electronics and tyres permitting Porsche’s engineers to create 911s with driving characteristics indistinguishable from more conventional layouts unless driven by experts at speeds higher than should ever be attempted on public roads.

So the 911 survived but the playmate-pink tradition did not, subsequent cars finished in colors chosen seemingly at random.  Quite why this happened is speculative but may be as simple as pink becoming less fashionable (even within the Playboy organization where the hues in the publication and the clubs were tending darker) and there’s no record of a feminist critique, even though the tradition began just as second-wave feminism was gaining critical mass.  There is a bulky literature documenting the many strains of feminist criticism of pornography and it's likely the matter of pink cars, if noticed, was thought not substantive.  Of course it may be that feminists really like pink, the secret which must never be spoken.   

The famous pink car which never really was

1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible.

There are many, many pink 1959 Cadillacs, the model regarded as having the most extravagant fins available during Detroit's crazy macropterous era, the effect heightened by the equally memorable "twin bullet" tail-lamps.  No 1959 Cadillac however left the factory painted pink, a rose-colored exterior hue offered in only 1956.  It was that Elvis Presley (1935-1977) owned a pink Cadillac and the use of the phrase in popular culture (song & film) that made the trend a thing although his car was a 1955 Fleetwood Sixty Special which was originally blue with a black roof.  The roof was later re-sprayed white but people adopting the motif usually go all-pink.