Guinea

Guinea (pronounced guin-ee)

(1) In geography, a coastal region in western Africa, extending from the Gambia River to the Gabon estuary.

(2) As Republic of Guinea (since 1958), an independent state in western Africa, on the Atlantic coast, formerly French Guinea, a part of the French colonial empire.

(3) In geography, as the Gulf of Guinea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean that projects into the western coast of Africa and extends from Côte d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) to The Gabonese Republic (the Gabon).

(4) A gold coin of Great Britain issued from 1663 to 1816, with a nominal value of 20 shillings until 1717 when, until the adoption of decimal currency in 1971, it was standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.

(5) In horse racing, a person who does miscellaneous work in or around a horse stable (initial lower case).

(6) In historic admiralty use, as guinea-men, a trading ship of the seventeenth century used in the Atlantic trade.

1663: The coin was in use between 1663-1816, the name derived from it being the colony of Guinea which provided most of the gold used in its production.  Descendants include the Irish gine, the Scottish Gaelic gini, the Spanish guinea and the Welsh gini.  It’s also the basis for the Arabic word for the Egyptian pound الجنيه el-Genēh / el-Geni, calculated as 100 qirsh (one pound) and, circa 1900, worth approximately 21 shillings.  The guinea was, predictably, part of the British class system.  It was thought more gentlemanly than the pound so the artist would pay for his paint and canvas in pounds but charge for his portraits in guineas.  One quirk of the valuation was that a third of a guinea equaled exactly seven shillings, thirds and things in sevens highly unusual in currencies until the planet’s only $7 banknote was issued by the Central Bank of Fiji to commemorate the gold medal the rugby sevens team won at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.  There was no currency symbol for the guinea, 1 guinea written either a “1g” or “1gn”.

The name of the colony Guinea (since 1958 the Republic of Guinea) came from the Portuguese word Guiné, a fifteenth century formation created to describe the geographical area inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the black African peoples south of the Senegal River (and thus distinguished from the "tawny" Zenaga Berbers to the north whom the Portuguese called Azenegues or Moors).  Some sources also cite a connection to the (north African) Tuareg word aginaw (black people).  New Guinea was named in 1546 by the Spanish explorer Inigo Ortiz de Retes in reference to the natives' dark skin and tightly curled hair and the Guinea hen is a domestic fowl first imported from there in the 1570s.

Linguistically, the guinea pig must have seemed as strange to geographers and biologists as the Holy Roman Empire appeared to Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet; 1694–1778) for it does not come from Guinea and is unrelated to any pig.  A rodent native to South America, beginning in the 1660s, it was brought back to Britain aboard Guinea-men, ships that plied the triangle trade routes between England, Guinea, and South America.  That’s the standard view of the origin of the name but there are alternative etymologies, one suggesting a link to its resemblance to the young of the Guinea-hog "river pig" and another from possibly illiterate sailors confusing Guinea with the South American region of Guyana.  All agree however that it came to be dubbed a pig because of the similarity of its grunting sounds to its unrelated porcine namesake.  The use "one subjected to an experiment" dates from 1920, the adoption (al la lab rat) because they were a favorite animal for animal experimentation in science and industry.

A one guinea coin (1663, Charles II (1630–1685; King of Scotland 1649-1651, King of Scotland, England and Ireland 1660-1685)).

The guinea was a coin of approximately one quarter ounce of gold, issued in Great Britain between 1663 and 1816.  It was the first English machine-struck gold coin and was originally worth one pound sterling (twenty shillings) but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase and reach as much as thirty shillings and between 1717-1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings and when the gold standard was adopted, guinea became a colloquial or specialised term although it continued as a measure of exchange.  In the great recoinage of 1816, the guinea was replaced as the major unit of currency by the pound and in coinage with a sovereign.

A one guinea promissory note issued 2 May 1796.

Even after the coin ceased to circulate, the name guinea was long used to indicate the amount of one pound and one shilling.  The guinea had an aristocratic overtone; professional fees and payment for land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture and other luxury items are still sometimes quoted in guineas even after decimalisation in 1971, the practice continued also in Australia and New Zealand even after they decimalized in 1966 & 1967 respectively although transactional use soon died in the antipodes.  In England and Wales, it’s still quoted in the pricing and sale of livestock at auction and racehorses, where the purchaser will pay in guineas but the seller will receive payment in an equal number of sterling. The difference (5p in each guinea (£1.05=105p)) is traditionally the auctioneer's commission (which thus is the usual 5% buyer's fee typically levied at auctions).  Many major horse races in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia bear names such as The Thousand Guineas although though the purse will be much higher and may even be in a a foreign currency.

It's apparently an urban myth that raffish Jaguars were advertised in pounds while prices for the similar but somehow more respectable Daimlers were listed in guineas.  Historical records do suggest there were dealers who advertised prices in guineas but it was rare and they seem to have done it for everything they sold.  The factory listed both only in £Stg.

Raffish 1963 Jaguar Mk 2 3.8.  (Stg£1561 including purchase tax).

The addition of the lively 220 bhp 3.8 litre XK engine to the Mark 2 on what was a dated chassis meant that on the road it could sometimes be a little too entertaining but in early 1960s saloon car racing it was dominant for years until rendered uncompetitive by the new generation of “total performance” fast Fords, the 427 Galaxie, the Lotus Cortina and later the Mustang.

Respectable 1963 Daimler V8 2.5.  (Stg£1568 including purchase tax).

One of the classic engines of the era, the jewel-like, 2½ litre hemi-head V8 lent an air of refinement and exclusivity to the small Jaguar.  Remarkably, the performance almost matched the Jaguar 3.4 and it’s remembered too for the quality of the exhaust note, a burble which for over sixty years, few have matched.

Connecticut Humane Society employee Rachel McCabe in 2012 introducing guinea pigs Britney Spears & Lindsay Lohan who were in need of a good home but couldn't be separated.

The point about them not being separated was serious, Switzerland even having passed a law that people are not permitted to own a single guinea pig (or parrot), the rationale being they're a social species and it's thought a form of animal abuse if they're not able regularly to interact with others of their species.  Curious and inquisitive by nature, guinea pigs are timid explorers who become very attached to both their partners & owners and Swiss law further provides that if one dies, the survivor must be provided with a new friend.  That can be as much a challenge as it is for humans to find a mate which is why Swiss animal lover Priska Küng runs a matchmaking service for guinea pigs who find themselves alone.  The service is said to be “in high demand”.

Turkey

Turkey (pronounced tur-kee)

(1) A large, gallinaceous bird of the family Meleagrididae, especially Meleagris gallopavo, of America, typically of green, reddish-brown, and yellowish-brown plumage of a metallic luster; domesticated in most parts of the world.

(2) The flesh of this bird, used as food.

(3) Any of a number of other similar birds, so described.

(4) As Turkey, the former name of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye).

(5) In slang, a person or thing of little appeal; dud; loser; a naive, stupid, or inept person.

(6) In the slang of the theatre, an unsuccessful production; a flop (a synonym of “a bomb” in some countries, an antonym in others); now used beyond the theatre and applied to just about any failed product including political candidates or policies.

(7) In ten-pin bowling, three strikes in succession.

(8) In the (derogatory) slang of clinical medicine, a patient feigning symptoms, illness or injury; a malingerer.

(9) In rural slang (US & Australia), a pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase (archaic).

1545–1555: A short for Turkey cock and Turkey hen (“cock of Turkey” & “hen of Turkey”), applied firstly to guinea fowl (apparently because the bird was brought through Turkish territory) and later (erroneously) to the American bird.  The noun plural is turkeys by depending on context, turkey can be a plural.  The erroneous “turkies” & “turkies” does occasionally appear because of a belief all nouns ending in "y" should form a plural ending in "ies". When a noun ends with [vowel] + y, only an appended "s" is needed to form the plural.

Tararind and honey-glazed roast turkey, before & after.

The clipping of turkey-cock (male) and turkey-hen (female) applied originally to the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) which was brought to Europe (via Turkey) from Madagascar by Portuguese traders who really were called “turkey merchants”.  In English, the word turkey was first applied to the bird in the 1550s, either because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl or because reached wider Europe from Spain by way of North Africa, then under Ottoman (Turkish) rule.  For the same reason, in English, Indian corn was originally “turkey corn” or “turkey wheat”.  The word was subsequently applied to the larger northern American fowl (Meleagris gallopavo) which conquistadors had brought to Spain in 1523 after finding the species had been domesticated by the Aztecs.  The adoption of the name (initially as “wild Turkey”), documented in North American records since 1607, wasn’t until later recognized as a taxonomical error and it’s thought it happened simply because the of the visual similarity between the birds.  There was once speculation that it may have been something more considered, either because the North American turkey was in part introduced through Ottoman territories or else to indicate it was foreign; these theories are now little supported.  It’s a strange linguistic soup because in Turkish the name is hindi (literally "Indian") a use probably influenced by early seventeenth century French dinde (contracted from poulet d'inde (literally "chicken from India", which endures in Modern French as dindon), based on the then-common misconception that the New World (the Americas) was eastern Asia (hence “Red Indians”, “West Indies” et al).  The bird from the Americas may have appeared in England as early as 1524 but documentary evidence confirms its presence in 1534.  Large, tasty, easily fattened and well adapted to the climate, turkey by the late sixteenth century had become the standard fare at an English Christmas dinner.

In an example of the way mistakes in science can linger as orthodoxy if vested with sufficient academic respectability, even after the different biology of the two birds were distinguished and the names differentiated, turkey was erroneously retained for the American bird, instead of the African.  From this confusion, Melagris, the ancient name of the African fowl, was listed as the generic name of the American bird by Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), the Swedish physician who defined the modern system of taxonomy which applies a binomial nomenclature to botanical and zoological organisms.

Leslie Grace (b 1995) as Batgirl.

In August 2022, it was announced the release of the film Batgirl, commissioned for Warner Bros’ streaming platform HBO Max, had been cancelled.  Although never intended to show in cinemas, such was the negative feedback from test audiences it was sent to editing experts who are said to have declared it irredeemable, the turkey consigned to the Warner Bros vault.  Said to involve the write-off of what sounds a rather inflated US$90 million, cynics immediated speculated Warner Bros' accountants might have calculated the guaranteed profit offered by a tax off-set a more lucrative business model than a release on any platform.  In earlier times the odd turkey did eventually end up a cult-favorite on VCR or DVD but there's no prediction how long it'll take Batgirl to leak out.  In idiomatic use, the sense of “a turkey” meaning "inferior show, a failure" is show business slang dating from 1927, presumably because of the bird's reputation for stupidity, this meaning soon extended to just about any failed product including political candidates or policies.  In this sense, there’s also the slang meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" but surprisingly, there’s no record of use prior to 1951.

Grumman F6F Hellcat.

A turkey shoot was "something easy", slang which is listed as being of World War II-era but most seem to agree it had likely been in oral use much earlier, especially south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The reference was to (presumably mostly informal) contests of marksmanship in which turkeys were tied behind a log, only their moving heads visible as targets; it sounds barbaric now but it was a different time and to the bird, the experience may have been little different from any other method of dispatch.  The sudden popularity of “turkey shoot” during the war was probably associated with the events in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (19-20 June 1944), the last of the conflict’s big, set-piece carrier battles and the engagement which ended the capacity of the Imperial Japanese Navy strategically to deploy carrier groups.  US Naval aviators described the air battles as “the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” because of the disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon the Japanese and the ease with which their aircraft could be downed.  The air engagement was a classic example of the approach of the US military: Problems are not merely to be solved but overwhelmed.  It was also a example of how superior technology will tend to prevail, the combination of proximity fuses which meant American gunnery didn’t need to be especially accurate when trained on Japanese aircraft still mostly without self-sealing fuel tanks as decisive a difference as earlier advantages in hardware had been for the British in the Sudan or the Italians in Ethiopia.  To “talk turkey” dates from 1824 and, according to folklore, comes from the tale of a Yankee attempting to swindle a Native American (then called a Red Indian) in dividing a turkey and buzzard as food.

Cold turkey refers both to (1) a sudden and complete withdrawal from a dependent substance (especially narcotics) and (2) the physiological effects of such a withdrawal.  The origin of the term is murky and may date from a number of nineteenth century references to unwelcome guests being served literally cold slices of turkey at Christmas rather than the more pleasing hot, dressed dish.  In that sense it came to refer both to suffering and social ostracization, the meaning in the sense of term and the term "withdrawal from an addictive substance" (originally of heroin) dating from 1921, probably based on the idea of a meal of cold turkey being something served with little preparation.

Lindsay Lohan with president of Türkiye  (formerly Turkey) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his wife Emine and Syrian internally displaced person (IDP) Bana Alabed (b 2009), Ankara, January 2017.

The country formerly known as the Republic of Turkey straddles West Asia and South East Europe, the Bosporus (on the banks of which sits Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople)), an ancient gateway between the two continents.  The Ottoman Empire emerged in Anatolia (the western portion of Asian Turkey) during the thirteenth century, surviving until 1918.  During the sixteenth century, the empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria and included most of southeastern Europe, leaving an architectural heritage visible to this day.  Modern Turkey was created in 1923 as a secular state.  The English name of Turkey is ultimately from the Medieval Latin Turchia & Turquia (land of the Turks)but it wasn’t until as recently as the early eighteenth century that the spelling “Turkey” began to be standardized.  In the Middle English the spellings included Turkye, Torke, Turkie & Turky and those who complain about the lack of proof-reading and editing in modern documents should note that it was not unusual for more than one form to appear in the same short text.  The most common form in the Middle English was Turkye, from the Anglo-Norman Turkye, from the Medieval Latin Turcia, from Turcus (usually translated as “Turk” and of unknown origin but many suggest and original meaning of “strength”), from the Byzantine Greek Τοῦρκος (Toûrkos), from the Persian ترک‎ (Turk), from the Middle Persian twlk' (Turk), from the Old Turkic.  The original meaning of the Persian Turk is also uncertain and may have varied with context, various documents suggesting it could be used to mean “warrior”, “beautiful youth”, “barbarian” or “robber” and how wide a net that casts may depend on one's opinion of males aged 17-25.

National flag of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti.

In May 2022, the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations announced the Republic of Turkey had changed its name to Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye).  Whether the authorities in Ankara were much concerned about sharing a name with the large gallinaceous bird native or the colloquial use to describe dud movies or stupid and inept people isn’t clear but certainly, they were no longer happy about an anglicized version of the name being used around the world.  In a press release, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime minister of Turkey 2003-2014, president since 2014) stated “Türkiye is accepted as an umbrella brand for our country in national and international venues...” and the name “…is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people’s culture, civilization, and values.”  Effectively a national re-branding, the change will be reflected in the label “Made in Türkiye” appearing on manufactured goods and adjustments have been made to institutional names such as the nation carrier which would henceforth operate internationally under the name Türk Hava Yolları (Turkish Airlines).

Recent changes of name

2019: The Republic of Macedonia changed to Republic of North Macedonia to resolve some regional disputes.  For a time, because of earlier disputes, it had been known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which was usually written as FYROM (pronounced fire-rom). 

2018: The Kingdom of Swaziland became the Kingdom of Eswatini.

2016: Czechia introduced as country name although Czech Republic remains the state title.

2014: Republic of Cape Verde became Republic of Capo Verde.

2013: The Democratic Republic of Somalia became the Federal Republic of Somalia.

2011: The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya became simply Libya.

2010: The Union of Myanmar became the Republic of the Union of Myanmar although the SLORC at the time issued some contriductory statements and Burma is still widely used.

2009: The Republic of Bolivia became the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

1997: Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

1990-1992: New country names were gazetted consequent upon the breakup of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro & Republic of Slovenia

1990-91: New country names were gazetted consequent on the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): Republic of Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus (initially Belorussia, but adopted Belarus in 1992), Republic of Estonia, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Latvia, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Moldova (initially Moldavia, but adopted Moldova in 1992), Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Republic of Uzbekistan.

1990: People’s Republic of Benin became Republic of Benin.

1990: Unification of Germany; German Democratic Republic (East Germany, the GDR) absorbed by the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, the FRG).

1989: The Union of Burma became the Union of Myanmar, previously Union of Burma.  Confusingly, it appeared the SLORC maintained Burma as the country name for most purposes.

1984: The Republic of Upper Volta became Burkina Faso.

1981: British Honduras became Belize.

1980: Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.

1979:  New Hebrides became the Republic of Vanuatu.

1979: The Imperial State of Iran became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1972: Ceylon became Sri Lanka.

1971: East Pakistan became Bangladesh; West Pakistan became Pakistan.

1971: Bechuanaland became the Republic of Botswana.

1971: Basutoland became the Kingdom of Lesotho.

1964: Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

1964: Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia.

1961: Northern Cameroons became part of Nigeria (now Federal Republic of Nigeria) & Southern Cameroons became part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon (now Republic of Cameroon).

1957: The Gold Coast became the Republic of Ghana.

1953: Formation of the Republic of Korea (South Korea, the ROC) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, the DPRK).

1949: The Republic of China became the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

1949: Formation of German Democratic Republic (East Germany, the GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, the FRG).

1949: Transjordan became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

1947: India became the Republic of India; the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was created (as East Pakistan & West Pakistan).

1939: The Kingdom of Siam becomes the Kingdom of Thailand.

1935: Persia become the the Imperial State of Iran.

1929: Vatican City gained independence from Italy as a city-state.

1923: Turkey; Republic of Turkey created after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Acronym

Acronym (pronounced ak-ruh-nim)

In linguistics, a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word (and thus distinguished from an initialism in which the letters are pronounced separately; there are hybrids which combine both methods).

1943: The construct was acr- + -onym.  It was borrowed from the German Akronym, constructed from the Ancient Greek ἄκρον (ákron) (end, peak) + ὄνυμα (ónuma) (name), deconstructed as acr(o)- (high; beginning) +‎ -onym (name) and on the model of the German nouns Homonym & Synonym, first attested in German in the early 1900s and in English in 1940 (although the linguistic practice predated this by at least several decades).  The nouns acronymophilia (an abnormal liking or tendency for the use of acronyms), acronymania (the enthusiastic creation and use of acronyms) and acronymophobia (morbid fear or dread of acronyms) are deployed (usually) in humor.  Those exhibiting symptoms of acronymophilia or acronymania (beyond being a mere acronymist) are likely suffering from acronymitis.  Acronym is a noun & verb, acronymed is a verb, acronymic & acronymous are adjectives and acronymically is an adverb; the noun plural is acronyms.

The acronym is a one of a number of subsets in what are known as “curtailed words”.  Quite when the first acronym was used isn’t known but the habits of people do suggest it’s likely something ancient and there are folk etymologies which offer acronymic expansions for common words including “fuck” “posh” & “shit” but they’re all undocumented and the earliest known use in English was a form of the Arabic أبجد (ʔabjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: أ (ʔ), ب (b), ج (j), د (d)).  It was the twentieth century in which the acronym multiplied, earlier antipodean contributions including ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) which soon became the word Qantas, an unusual example in English of a “q” not being followed by a “u”.  Such words do appear in English language texts but they tend to be foreign borrowings including (1) qat (or khat) (a plant native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, often chewed for its stimulant effects, (2) qi (a term from Chinese philosophy referring to life force or energy), qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying, towards the Kaaba in Mecca and (4) qiviut (the soft under-wool of the musk-ox, valued when making warm clothing).

Other acronyms followed ANZAC but it was the upsurge in military activity during World War II (1939-1945) which saw the creation of literally thousands, some to endure, some to be rendered obsolete by circumstances or changes in technology and some genuine one-offs such as PLUTO (Pipeline under the ocean and originally P.L.U.T.O.).  PLUTO really should have been PLUTC because the many lines ran on the floor of the English Channel between England & France as a way of pumping fuel to the beachhead established by the D-Day landings (6 Jun 1944) but PLUTC obviously had little appeal so PLUTO it was.  While a clever idea, problems with the couplings meant the volumes achieved never came close to reaching what was theoretically possible.  The terms acronym, abbreviation and initialism are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings:

Acronym: (a general term for a shortened form of a word or phrase): An acronym is a type of abbreviation where the initial letters of a phrase are taken to form a new word (or one which duplicates an existing word and, not uncommonly, an earlier acronym) which is pronounced as one would a single word (although in commercial use, the pronunciation can be non-standard).  Examples of well known acronyms include “NASA” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), “Laser” (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and “UNESCO” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization”.

Abbreviation (a general term for a shortened form of a word or phrase): An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase used to represent the full version.  Abbreviations can include acronyms and initialisms, but they can also be simple clippings, truncations or contractions and common examples include “Dr” (Doctor), “Prof” (Professor) and “Thu” (Thursday).

Initialism (An abbreviation where each letter is pronounced separately): An initialism is specific type of abbreviation formed from the first letters of a phrase, but unlike acronyms, each letter is pronounced separately.  Well-known initialisms include “CIA” (Central Intelligence Agency), “UAE” (United Arab Emirates) and “WHO” (World Health Organization).

Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010) ) in one of his muddles as President Harris, addressing the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations (UN), treating an initialism as an acronym, Scary Movie 4 (2006).

The WHO is an example of the way in which the oral use of acronyms, abbreviations & initialisms evolves by way of practice and habit rather than defined rules or convention.  Obviously, in speech, once could speak of “the who” but it’s never done, the name always expressed in full which is most among the notoriously lazy speakers of the English language who tend usually to prefer the shortest form.  Perhaps it’s felt there could be some ambiguity using the word “who” for such a purpose although that seems a thin argument and it may be there was a sense “the who” might be thought flippant although initialisms are common replacements for formal terms; HMG (his (or her) Majesty’s government) is a standard in Whitehall and Westminster while JPII & JP2 routinely appeared in Vatican documents to refer to John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005).  Sometimes, the reason dictating the choice between spelling out the letters or forming a word is obvious:  The Bougainville Revolutionary Army was an armed secessionist movement formed in 1988 by some inhabitants of Bougainville Island who sought independence from Papua New Guinea (commonly referred to as PNG) and the group was always spoken of as the initialism the “bee-ah-eh” rather than the “Bra”, the latter definitely inappropriate.  By contrast, the armed Basque separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (“Basque Homeland and Liberty” or “Basque Country and Freedom; active 1959-2018) was always used as an acronym (pronounced et-ah rather than ey-tuh).

The BRA and the bra, not to be confused: Francis Ona (b circa 1953–2005; Bougainville secessionist leader) with fighters from the BRA (Bougainville Revolutionary Army) (left) and Lindsay Lohan in demi-cup bra, Terry Richardson (b 1965) photo-shoot for Love Magazine, 2012.  Of the military formation, BRA is an acronym while as a abbreviation, under ISO 3166-1, it's the alpha-3 country code for Brazil.  Bra is also an abbreviation which has become an English noun; it was a clipping of brassiere, from the French brassière (in the sense it was used of a camisole-like garment).  The French brassière was a singular form which is why in English one buys "a bra" rather than the "pair of bras" one would expect on the model of "pair of spectacles", pair of gloves" etc.

Sometimes though there is inventiveness.  In 1964 the Ford Motor Company released a version of their 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) FE V8 which featured a then novel (for Detroit) single overhead camshaft.  In industry parlance such a configuration was a “SOHC” but there was no accepted way to pronounce that a stand-alone word so the slang became “cammer” but others saw the possibility in Sohc and decided it was the “sock” so it was both an initialism and an acronym.  Acronyms can also be confused with something else.  In July 1968, John Gorton (1911-2002; Australian prime-minister 1968-1971), conducting a press conference in Djakarta (now Jakarta), was asked a question about “…general SEATO attitudes…” (SEATO was the South East Asian Treaty Organisation, a regional security arrangement (which included the UK & USA); it was created in 1954 but had become moribund years before its dissolution in 1977) to which he replied “Who’s this General Seato?”  The tale is not believed apocryphal.

There is no universal convention (an certainly no “rule”) about whether acronyms are written in upper case (NATO; UNESCO), lower case (radar, scuba) or camel case (a combination of both) (ChiPs) and the best advice is probably to follow to practice of the manufacturer, institution etc or follow one’s preferred style guide.  Quite how these practices evolve varies with the acronym, the most significant influence apparently the subjective sense of how anacronymic they’re perceived to have become and there’s also some evidence of regionalism; historically the US style guides tended to recommend all upper case for pronounced acronyms of four or fewer letters (NATO) while in the UK there was a preference to use the conventions of standard English (Nato) but the such is the US influence on the language that the upper case form is becoming more dominant.  Acronyms formed from beginning syllables are sometimes written in camel case (EpiPen) which appals some but in many cases they’re registered trademarks and that dictates what is correct; in the IT industry the mix of upper & lower case in all sorts of words has for decades been prevalent and such is the apparent randomness that the mix can’t be predicted.  Often “minor” words (“of”; “the”; “and” et al) are represented in lower case but this is not universal so “Out of Order” might appear either as “OOO” of “OoO”.  One thing which does seem to thankfully (mostly) to have vanished is the full stop (period) between letters; U.S.A. demanding a pointless additional three keystrokes.

Hansard

Hansard (pronounced han-sard)

(1) The official verbatim published reports of the debates and proceedings in the British Parliament.  Separate editions are published for both the House of Commons and House of Lords.

(2) A similar report kept by other legislative bodies in other countries, most of which trace their political systems back to colonial origins in the British Empire.

1812: Named after Thomas Curson Hansard, a London printer and publisher, who became the first official printer to the parliament at Westminster.

Prior to 1771, the British parliament was a secretive body, there existed a published official record of action but no record of debate, the publication of anything said on the floor of either house actually a breach of Parliamentary privilege and punishable by a court.  However, as independent newspapers became more numerous, many began publishing unofficial accounts.  Parliament responded with fines, dismissal and imprisonment.  Some editors used the device of styling their reports of debates as those of fictitious societies but parliament continued to resist until 1771 when several judges declined to hear the cases and a number of more far-sighted politicians began to understand how this free publicity could be turned to advantage.  By then, it was not uncommon for speeches to be crafted for the effect they would have when printed, rather than a pieces of oratory intended to impress the house.  The early newspapers, the editors of some which encouraged (and sometimes printed, even if edited) “letter to the editor”, were the slow-motion social medial of the age.

The green and red covers used by the UK Hansards reflect the shades of the leather upholstery in each house.

Eventually, editions of the parliamentary debates were produced by printer Thomas Curson Hansard (1776-1833), issued under his name from 1812.  These were periodicals which circulated by subscription and, in another modern touch, Hansard didn’t employ stenographers to take down notes, instead using a multiplicity of sources most of which were the morning newspapers.  Hansard was thus the Google news feed of the day, an aggregator with the revenue model of on-selling the work of others with no payment to the source.  Google has of late been compelled to offer its sources a few crumbs; Hansard never did.  The early editions of Hansard cannot absolutely be relied upon as a verbatim record of what was said.

In 1909, the parliament established its own staff of official Hansard reporters, a separate office under the auspices of the speaker (Commons) and Lord Chancellor (Lords).  Hansards of today can be thought a comprehensive account of every speech (although one wonders about those of some legislatures with no great tradition of transparency) but the reports are not strictly verbatim but substantially so with repetitions, redundancies (and the odd vulgarity) omitted.  Obvious mistakes (including grammatical errors) are corrected, but nothing can be added or omitted which adds to or detracts from the meaning.  There is some latitude in this: A former Australian prime-minister, the Country Party’s Sir Earle Page (1880-1961; prime minister of Australia 1939) was notorious for quoting whatever figures came into his head, then later providing the correct numbers for inclusion in the official Hansard.

Not all interjections make it into Hansard but the unrecorded homophonous gem of an exchange in the Australian parliament between Sir Winton Turnbull (1899-1980) and Gough Whitlam (1916–2014; prime minister 1972-1975) deserved to:

Sir Winton Turnbull (Country Party, Mallee): "I’m a country member and…"

Mr Gough Whitlam (ALP, Werriwa): "I remember."

List of assemblies which publish Hansards.

Parliament of the United Kingdom and the UK's devolved institutions, Parliament of Canada and the Canadian provincial and territorial legislatures, Parliament of Australia and the Australian state and territory parliaments, Parliament of South Africa and South Africa's provincial legislatures, Parliament of Barbados, East African Legislative Assembly, Parliament of New Zealand, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Parliament of Malaysia, National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, Parliament of Singapore, Legislative Council of Brunei, Parliament of Sri Lanka, Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, National Assembly of Kenya, National Assembly of Tanzania, Parliament of Ghana, Parliament of Uganda, Parliament of Mauritius, Parliament of Jamaica, States of Jersey, States of Guernsey, Tynwald, the Parliament of the Isle of Man, National Assembly of Nigeria, National Assembly of Namibia, Parliament of Botswana, Parliament of Zimbabwe.

Lindsay Lohan and Harsard

Lindsay Lohan and the great "slagging off Kettering scandal".

Because her "lifestyle choices" in the early twenty-first century made her name a synecdoche for this and that, Lindsay Lohan has been mentioned in parliamentary proceedings in a number of jurisdictions.  The best known came as one of the few amusing footnotes to the depressing business which was the Brexit referendum, the mechanism through which the UK withdrew from its membership of the European Union (EU), Ms Lohan helpfully keeping the world informed of the vote's progress via tweets on X (the known as Twitter).  One tweet mentioned Kettering and the previously obscure Philip Hollobone (b 1964; Tory MP for Kettering since 2005), knew honor demanded he respond to the actor “slagging off” his constituency.  The offending tweet caught the eye of the outraged MP on that evening in in 2016, after it was announced Kettering (in the Midlands county of Northamptonshire) had voted 61-39% to leave the EU; it read: “Sorry, but Kettering where are you?”

Philip Hollobone MP, official portrait (2020).

Mr Hollobone, a long-time "leaver" (a supporter of Brexit), wasn’t about to let a mean girl "remainer's" (one who opposed Brexit) slag of Kettering escape consequences and he took his opportunity in the House of Commons, saying: “On referendum night a week ago, the pro-Remain American actress, Lindsay Lohan, in a series of bizarre tweets, slagged off areas of this country that voted to leave the European Union.  At one point she directed a fierce and offensive tweet at Kettering, claiming that she had never heard of it and implying that no one knew where it was.  Apart from the fact that it might be the most average town in the country, everyone knows where Kettering is.”  Whether a phrase like “London, Paris, New York, Kettering” was at the time quite as familiar to most as it must have been to Mr Hollobone isn’t clear but he did try to help by offering advice, inviting Miss Lohan to switch on Kettering's Christmas lights that year, saying it would “redeem her political reputation”.  Unfortunately, that proved not possible because of a clash of appointments but thanks to the Tory Party, at least all know the bar has been lowered: Asking where a town sits on the map is now “slagging it off”.  Learning that is an example of why we should all "read our daily Hansards", an observation Mr Whitlam apparently once made, suggesting his estimation of the reading habits of the general population might have differed from reality.

Screen grab from the "apology video" Lindsay Lohan sent the residents of Kettering advising she'd not be able to switch on their Christmas lights because of her "busy schedule".

Bikini

Bikini (pronounced bih-kee-nee

(1) A two-piece bathing suit for women.

(2) A style of brief fitted low on the hip or slightly below.

(3) The name of an atoll in the North Pacific; one of the Marshall Islands and the site of two-dozen odd US nuclear weapon tests between 1946-1958 (with initial capital).

(4) As Bikini State, the UK Ministry of Defence's alert state indicator (1970-2006).

(5) In the retail coffee trade, barista slang applied to smaller variations such as a demitasse (or demi-tasse (half cup), used traditionally to serve espresso).

1946:  Although known as the Eschscholtz Atoll until 1946, the modern English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini, adopted while part of German New Guinea and was a transliteration from the Marshallese Pikinni (pʲi͡ɯɡɯ͡inʲːi), a construct of Pik (surface) + ni (coconut or surface of coconuts).  Bikini is a noun & proper noun; the noun plural is bikinis. 

Proliferation; variations on the theme of bikini

Bikinis: Lindsay Lohan with former special friend Samantha Ronson (both with bare feet), Los Cabos, Mexico, October 2007.

The swimwear was first so named in 1946, the brief as a stand-alone garment adopting the term in 1960 while the trikini, dating from 1967, was a variation with separate bra cups fastened by Velcro.  A lack of structural integrity doomed the design for the mass-market but trikinis continue to be used by the fashion industry, mostly in static photography where movement is minimalized.  Trikini was at the time etymologically wrong because falsely it presumed bikini a compound with a bi prefix, an assumption not unreasonable because the English prefix bi is derived from the Classical Latin bi, which, like the Ancient Greek counterpart di, means “two”.  However, trikini is now etymologically correct because (1) bikini and its variations have been wholly been absorbed into English with compounds coined as needed and (2) progress in the fashion industry proved so prolific a new suffix (apparently first suggested by US author Bill Safire (1929–2009)), emerged: -kini.  Thus far seen have been:

Monokini (a one-piece swimsuit)

Bikini (a two-piece swimsuit with top & bottom)

Trikini (a type swimsuit which uses three, strategic-placed fabric triangles)

Facekini (a piece of swimwear worn on the head and covering the face and head)

Burkini (a full body bathing suit which includes a hood; a kind of figure-hugging Burqa for swimming of which not all muftis & mullahs (and certainly no ayatollahs) approve)

Mankini (a kind of sling bikini for men)

Bandkini (a swimsuit consisting of strapless bandeau top and bikini bottom)

Halterkini (a swimsuit consisting of halter top and bikini bottom)

Tankini (a bathing suit composed of tank top and the lower half of a bikini)

Skirtini (a two-piece swimsuit consisting of top and short, skirted bottom)

Microkini (a very skimpy bikini)

Slingkini (a one-piece swimsuit resembling the Y-shape frame of a slingshot which is supported by fabric at the neck)

Stringkini (a two-piece swimsuit attached by strings that is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini)

Sidekini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the side-boob effect)

Camikini (a swimsuit consisting of thin-strapped camisole top and bikini bottom)

Flagkini (a swimsuit top informally created by the wrapping of a flag)

Duckini (a swimsuit made of a stick-on material (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian's endorsement of gaffer’s tape for use as ad-hoc corsetry))

Numokini (a bikini worn without the top (also called Unikini))

Underkini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the under-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Seekini (a translucent or semi-translucent swimsuit)

Hikini (s swimsuit with a higher-profile bottom)

Poligrill's helpful bikini identification chart.

Louis Réard (1896-1984) was a French engineer who took over his mother's lingerie business and the bathing ensemble he designed debuted in 1946.  As a concept it wasn’t new, such things documented by many cultures since antiquity but Réard’s design was minimalist by the standards of the time.  Although it was suggested he choose the name because an exploding A-bomb was his preferred simile for the effect on men, in subsequent interviews he claimed his mind was focused on what he expected expected to be an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" to his design.  Although originally Réard’s registered trademark (patent number 19431), bikini has long been generic. When first displayed at Paris's Piscine Molitor (a large swimming pool complex) in July 1946, so scandalous did the established catwalk models find the notion of exposed navels that all declined the job so Monsieur Réard was compelled to hire Mademoiselle Micheline Barnardini (b 1927), then an exotic (ie nude) dancer from the Casino de Paris.  For Mlle Barnardini even the skimpiest bikini was more modest than her usual professional lack of attire.   

Le Monde Illustré in August 1947 applied a little of their bourgeois intellectual thuggery in comparing the denuding of the surface of Bikini Atoll by the bomb’s blast wave with the near-elimination of flesh-covering material in the swimsuit:  “Bikini, ce mot cinglant comme l’explosion même...correspondait au niveau du vêtement de plage à un anéantissement de la surface vêtue; à une minimisation extrême de la pudeur”.  (Bikini, a word now of explosions, compares the effect of the state of the clothing at the beach to an annihilation of the dressed surface; an extreme minimization of modesty.)  Even then however it wasn't something all that novel, two-piece swimwear often seen since at least the 1930s and French fashion designer Jacques Heim (1899–1967) early in 1946 had staged a re-launch of his pre-war two-piece swimsuit which he named the Atome, (atoms then much in the public imagination as something very small yet possessing great power) advertising it as "the world's smallest bathing suit".  However, unlike Réard's creation, it covered the navel, most of the buttocks and more of the breasts, enabling M. Réard truthfully to claim the bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit".  The rest is history.

Le Yacht de la Route "Bikini" by Henri Chapron on the chassis of a 1937 Packard Super Eight.

The term “land yacht” came into use in the 1970s to describe the truly huge luxury automobiles which the major US manufactures all produced for most of the decade before emission control legislation and fuel-efficiency standards doomed the breed.  The Cadillacs and Lincolns were the most emblematic but on the basis of length, at 235¼ inches (5975 mm), the 1973 Imperial was actually the biggest.  All were highly inefficient and, despite the dimensions, were frequently comfortable transport only for two although once inside they were enveloped by leather or velour and the driving experience, although not fast by the standards of today (or even years gone by), was truly effortless, smooth and quiet.  So isolated were the occupants from the outside environment that a frequent comment was they seemed “to float down the road”, hence the term “land yacht”.  The dinosaurs of the 1970s however weren’t the first of the breed.  Before in 1940 taking over his mother’s lingerie business Louis Réard was an automobile engineer and one with a flair for publicity so he commissioned coach-builder Henri Chapron (1886-1971 and in the 1960s to become famous for his line of Citroën DS & ID coupés & cabriolets) to build what he called Le Yacht de la Route (the yacht of the road).  Chapron’s design included an actual boat bow, a cabin with portholes, a mast from a yacht and a rear deck where models would pose in bikinis when the car was taken around France on promotional tours.  Originally the coachwork was mounted on the chassis of a 1948 Hotchkiss Artois but its 3.5 litre (212 cubic inch) straight-six proved inadequate to propel to heavy load so it was swapped to that of a 1937 Packard Super Eight, the 6.3 litre (384 cubic inch) straight-eight easily able to cope.

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in bikini.

The curiously named "Bikini State" was the system by which an alert state was defined by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war.  Introduced in 1970, it was in use until 2006 and the MoD's official position has always be "bikini" was a code name selected at random by a computer; those who accept that story are presumably not familiar with the long military tradition of providing misleading answers, either to amuse themselves or confuse others.  There were five Bikini alert states: (1) White which meant essentially there was no indication of a specific or general threat, (2) Black which referred to a situation in which there was heightened concern about internal or external threats, (3) Black Special which indicated an increased likelihood of the conditions which triggered a Black Alert, (4) Amber which confirmed the existence of specific threats or the higher probability of entering a state of armed conflict and (5) Red which covered everything from a specific threat (including the target(s) to actually being in a state of war and at risk of a nuclear strike.  The need for a system which was better adapted to providing advice to the whole population rather than just the military & civil service was acknowledged after the 9/11 attacks in the US when it was recognised the threat environment had shifted since the Cold War and that the whole country should be regarded as "target rich" in much the way the security services treated Northern Ireland.  Accordingly in 2006, the Government adopted a new five layer system: (1) Low, last seen in the brief, optimistic era between the end of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland (1998) and the week of the 9/11 attacks, (2) Moderate which is about as close to "normal" as anyone now reasonably aspires to achieves and suggests folk should be "alert but not alarmed", (3) Substantial which indicates some event is likely, (4) Severe which indicates a heightened level of threat beyond the substantial and (5) Critical which suggests there is intelligence to indicate an imminent attack and security precaution should be elevated to their highest level.

Many countries have similar systems in place although most maintain different arrangements for civilian & military purposes, the latter always tied to specific protocols and procedures.  Some are trans-nation such as those used by the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and five-layers used to be the preferred option although this has changed.  In the US the military's DEFCON (defense readiness condition) uses five color-coded levels ranging effecting from "stand easy" to "global thermo-nuclear war is imminent or already begun".  The now defunct civilian Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS; 2002-2011) used a five-level approach but it was much criticized and since 2011 the US has used National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) which is event specific and defined by start and end dates, rather than maintaining the country in some nominal state of alert.

Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), a first century AD mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily.  For whatever reason, it was a later addition, added atop what's thought to be a conventional geometric mosaic.  

The bikini might in the popular imagination be thought a symbol of Western freedom and something which liberated women from the demands they remain as invisible as possible but the concept of the garment is truly ancient.  Some 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Sicilian town of Piazza Armerina lie the ruins of what would once have been the impressive Roman villa, Villa Romana del Casale.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site thought to have been built early in the fourth century AD, it contains one of the most extraordinary collections of ancient Roman mosaics, all though the works of African artists and artisans.  One creation which has proved of great interest is that which sits in what is popularly known as the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), depicting ten women, nine of whom wearing something in the style of two-piece bathing suits, archeologists suggesting the bottom being a loincloth made cloth or leather and known as a subligaculum, a scanty version of the male perizoma worn both as underwear and sometimes by athletes and slaves.  It was a design which is thought to have spread throughout the empire because archaeologists in Britain discovered during the dig of an old well a leather “thong” that was found to date from shortly after the time of Christ.  Its size and shape was exactly that of a modern bikini bottom and it’s now an exhibit at the Museum of London.

The top part was essentially a breast-band, known also to have been worn in Greece where the garment was known as a mastodeton or apodesmos (a strophium to the Romans).  In deference to comfort, mastodetons are thought often to have been made from linen.  The contribution to fashion is one thing but what interested historians was that the women are clearly participating in sports, their “bikinis” activewear and not swimwear.  Some of the activities are ambiguous but it’s obvious some are running, another is in the throes of throwing a discus while two are engaged in some form of ball sport.  Interestingly, the ball is multi-colored but whether this reflected the nature of sporting equipment in Antiquity or was a piece of artistic license isn’t known.  Of political interest are the young ladies with crowns of roses and palm-fronds, traditionally the prizes awarded to those victorious in athletic competitions so the events were, to some degree, apparently structured.  It’s a myth women in the Roman Empire were always banned from sport although there were restrictions in that men and women competed separately and while, in Athenian tradition, men generally competed naked (something outside the home not permitted for women), the ancient “bikinis” were a compromise which afforded comfort while avoiding unduly exciting any man whose glance might fall upon female flesh.

That the US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll made the swimsuit a world-wide success was noted by one Australian entrepreneur who, after the British conducted their own tests in October 1952 in the Montebello Archipelago, some 60 miles (100 km) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, attempted to promote his own variation: the Montebello suit (actually a bikini under another name.  The tests, known as Operation Hurricane, came about because the British, fearful of (1) a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, (2) a possibly resurgent Germany and (3) a one-day un-interested United States, were anxious to possess their own independent nuclear deterrent.  The British project proved a success and the UK to this day maintains a boutique-sized but strategically significant array of nuclear weapons and a delivery system which permits them to be aimed at any target on the planet.  The Montebello swimsuit of the early 1950s was not a success but the name has be revived and bikinis using the name are now available.