Hem

 Hem (pronounced hemm)

(1) To fold back and sew down the edge of (cloth, a garment, etc.); form an edge or border on or around (short for hemline).

(2) To enclose or confine (usually followed by in, around, or about).

(3) An edge made by folding back the margin of cloth and sewing it down.

(4) The edge or border of a garment, drape, etc, especially at the bottom.

(5) The edge, border, or margin of anything.

(6) In architecture, the raised edge forming the volute of an ionic capital.

(7) In literature, a device (sometimes explicitly oral) to indicate hesitation or faltering.

(8) In textual transcription, a representation of the sound of clearing the throat, used to gain attention, express hesitation, etc (onomatopoeic).

Pre-1000: From the Middle English hemm, from the Old English hem (probably akin to hamm (enclosure)), from the Proto-Germanic hamjam, from the Old Norse hemja (to bridle, curb).  Related words included the Swedish hämma (to stop, restrain), the Old Frisian hemma (to hinder), the Middle Dutch and German hemmen (to hem in, stop, hinder), the ultimate root apparently kem (to compress) and it was concurrent with other, geographically distributed forms, hemo and haem.  Later, in the US there was briefly the variant haemo.  The same Germanic root yielded also the Old English hamm, common in place names where it means "enclosure, land hemmed in by water or high ground, land in a river bend".  In Middle English, hem also was a symbol of pride or ostentation.  The representation of the clearing of the throat, an imitative form, was first recorded in the 1520s.  The literary device, hem (and the now almost extinct haw) first recorded in 1786, haw being derived from hesitation.  The now common meaning of a border or fringe emerged in the late-fourteenth century, the variation of which “shut-in or confined”, dates from fifty years later.  Hem & hemming are nouns, verbs & adjectives, hemmer is a noun and hemmed is a verb; the noun plural is hems.

The importance of weighted hems

Chanel’s original bouclé cardigan jacket with weighted hems (1955, left), Audrey Hepburn's (1929–1993) take on the little black dress (1960, centre) and Bridget Bardot (b 1934) in Rome (1963, centre).

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) introduced weighted hems in 1955 as a feature of her bouclé cardigan jackets.  Paired usually with a straight skirt, and simple blouse made from fabric matching the jacket lining, its signature design feature was the weighted hem, engineered with a small gilded chain.  A weighted-hem’s purpose is to add weight so the jacket or skirt hangs close to the body and sits properly when worn.  It also serves as a counterbalance if a jacket has large, potentially heavy, buttons which can cause the garment to pull forward on the shoulders.  The slight weight helps any wrinkles to hang out, especially if, like linen, the fabric is prone to them.

The idea proved helpful for photographers and film-directors.  They'd long been used to fashioning all sorts of ad-hoc structural devices (wire, cardboard, tape etc) to make hair or clothing sit exactly where was needed for a shot and, if sufficiently rigid, such superstructure could even withstand all but string winds.  The rakish swish of Audrey Hepburn's LBD was achieved with internal supports which ensured the wind-blown look could be both perfected and maintained; it was the weighted hem writ large.  To have garments made with channels for a metal chain proved very handy, the chain able quickly to be swapped for something less flexible when a skirt or jacket needed to be maintained in position while photographs were taken.  In this case the weighted hems were used as a structural member, providing the rigidity which lent the garment the desired shape.

By the time Bridget Bardot was being photographed in Rome in the 1960s, for the adventurous, hem-lines were rising further above the knee so the functionality of the weighted hem assumed a new importance, particularly on windy days.  Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) of course made famous the dramatic possibilities the combination of a well-directed draft and billowing fabric could achieve but that was a staged "wardrobe malfunction" with cameramen assembled.  Weighted hems were helpful in avoiding unplanned malfunctions.

Jaguar E-Type (XK-E), 1961.

Jaguar devoted a lot of time to testing the E-Type but one thing which slipped through the pre-production process was a buffeting the roadster’s fabric soft-top exhibited at certain speeds.  It seems an obvious thing not to notice but, like the Hubble telescope's mis-shaped mirror, it was just one of those things.  With the E-Type’s release date locked-in, it was too late to redesign the components.

Jaguar's quick and dirty solution was to weigh-down the affected area with a chain of lead-shot, sewed into the fabric in effectively the same way weighted hems are used in fashion.  Just over half an inch (14mm) diameter, the lead-shot bag was wrapped in a sisal cord with two twelve inch (300mm) draw-cords to permit it easily to be pulled through the pocket in the top.  It was such a rush-job Jaguar never allocated a part- number and it’s only ever been part of hood cloth assembly #BD20582.  Both the Series 1 (1961-1968) and Series 2 (1968-1971) E-Types had the lead-shot bag, even though the soft-top’s frame was re-designed for the later cars, the S1 having three bows, the S2, two and for the S2, the size of the shot-bag was reduced slightly to accommodate a change in placement, now beneath the centre strap between the bows.  Interestingly, despite presumably having at least slightly different aerodynamic properties, there seems to have been no difference in the buffeting suffered by the early cars with mohair fabric and the later which used Everflex.  The top on the Series 3 E-Type (1971-1974) was again re-designed, this time in a way which rendered the lead-shot chains unnecessary.

Lindsay Lohan in red bubble hem dress, attending the twentieth anniversary party for Uno de 50, Grand Palacio de Saldaña, Madrid, June 2016.  Uno de 50 translates as "One of 50", an allusion to the company producing its jewelry pieces in small runs of no more than fifty.

A "hem dress" is one with a hemline with an edge of the fabric turned under and stitched, usually with a fold or seam to prevent the fabric from unraveling and the technique can be applied to a variety of styles, including empire-line, sheath, shift, wrap, and maxi dresses, and can be made from any number of fabrics including cotton, silk, chiffon, or lace.  The length of a hem dress varies according to the design and can be adjusted to suit individual preferences.  Often added a flourish, hem can be worn on formal occasions, in work settings or as everyday wear.  Although not a technically challenging project for a seamstress, making a bubble dress into a hem dress does demand a thoughtful design because it's all too easy to end up with something just too busy above the knee and, the bubble line being inherently "bubbly", they can end up looking untidy and even unfinished.  Designers recommend that where possible, the hem detail should be matched with a similar duplication of horizontal lines at the waist and above the bustline.

Ivanka Trump (b 1981) critiques fashion sense of Narendra Modi (b 1950; Prime Minister of India since 2014), Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Hyderabad, India, 28 November 2017.

Listicle

Listicle (pronounced lis-ti-kuhl)

A published article (print or on-line) which differs from a simple list in that the entries are augmented with some additional content (text, links or images).

2000–2005: A portmanteau word, a blend of list + (art)icle.  List (in this context) was from the Middle English lī̆st & lī̆ste (band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc), from the Old English līste (hem, edge, strip) or the Old French liste & listre (border; band; strip of paper; list) or the Medieval Latin lista, all from the Proto-West Germanic līstā, from the Proto-Germanic līstǭ (band, strip; hem, selvage; border, edge) which may have been from the primitive Indo-European leys- (to trace, track). It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian Lieste (margin, strip, list), the Dutch lijst (picture frame, list), the German Low German Liest (edging, border), the German Leiste (strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar), the Swedish lista (list), the Icelandic lista & listi (list), the Italian lista (list; strip), the Portuguese lista (list), the Spanish lista (list, roll; stripe), the Galician lista (band, strip; list) and the Finnish lista ((informal) list; batten).  Article was from the Middle English article, from the Old French article, from the Latin articulus (a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time), from the Classical Latin artus, from the primitive Indo-European hértus (that which is fit together; juncture, ordering), from the root huer- (to join, fit (together)).  The adoption to describe “pieces of written text” was based on the “joining” function in grammar.  Listicle is a noun; the noun plural is listicles.

That a listicle can be all or substantially made up of text, links or images in any mix is a familiar concept but if the piece is either exclusively or substantially focused on charts (usually in the statistical rather than admiralty sense although an "informational graphic" counts as a “chart” for this purpose), then it can be referred to with the companion term "charticle" (plural charticles), another portmanteau word, a blend of chart + (art)icle.  Charticle is fun but seems an unnecessary word and a needless layer of differentiation; like many modern coinings, it ends up in lists (which can sometimes be listicles) of unusual or rare words with little evidence of actual use; were it not for the on-line world, charticle would likely have died a quick death.

Listicle is really less a description than a slur, an encapsulated critique of “pseudo-journalism”, the accusation being that the structure of a piece is provided by a “paint-by-numbers” approach and is fundamentally a PowerPoint slide (sometimes even the bullet points are included) with annotations (usually images or text) added as desired.  Sometimes, the criticism implies the whole thing is a “cut & paste” job.  It can be a valid objection if the format is inappropriate for the content but not every article needs to be anything like one of Susan Sontag’s (1933—2004) essays and a well-written listicle can present information in a concise and easily digestible format; indeed in many longer form pieces (including academic papers), summary-type appendices (abstracts or executive summaries) often are in the form of a listicle and thire brevity is much appreciated.

Illustrative examples of the three basic types include (1) Harper’s Bazaar's “Eleven of Lindsay Lohan’s Best Style Moments” (just a summary paragraph and captioned photographs), (2) People’s “Lindsay Lohan’s Most Iconic Early Looks” (a summary paragraph and annotated photographs) and (3) The Guardian’s “Ranking of US Presidents” (text only and a listicle disguised as an article, the content of which was so predictable it would have delighted their devoted readers).

So the form of the listicle can be useful.  The objection to them seems to focus on (1) the (allegedly increasingly accelerating) proliferation of the things, (2) that many are “fake journalism” in that they are merely a “padded list”, a PowerPoint slide disguised as prose and (3) many are little more than click-bait used but build the nominal engagement count and drive website traffic.  In some cases, the more strident criticism is of journalism which at first glance seems to be an “article” (in the accepted sense of the word) but if subject to structural analysis (a popular thing to do in media studies classes), it can be reduced to a listicle, even to the point of it being obvious where the bullet points should appear.  This is good sport as a form of attack on newspaper columnists who espouse the “wrong” politics but in cases where word limits are imposed, it’s likely the format is used for utilitarian reasons: it’s just an efficient way to order and impart information.

It’s no longer necessary to read Machiavelli’s (Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, 1469–1527) Il Principe (The Prince; (1532)) because everything is now explained in in listicles.  There are free quotes.

The occasionally discussed matter of whether listicles are “real” journalism is something subjective and really depends on how one defines journalism (another significantly pointless exercise in this context, however vital it may be in a court of law).  The listicle is just another format and a well-written, information-dense listicle will contain journalistic elements, such as research and analysis and can be a more valuable thing than a piece, however conventional which is poorly-written, repetitive, or says very little.  All content should be judged on its merit rather than dismissed because of the form in which it's presented and it’s hard to escape the feeling they arouse such antagonism because they’re so often associated with entertainment and other parts of pop-culture.  There’s also the way listicles disproportionately populate the blogosphere and this one is probably as illustrative as any of the cynical way the format can be used for content creation.

Mini

Mini (pronounce min-ee)

(1) A skirt or dress with a hemline well above the knee, popular since the 1960s.

(2) A small car, build by Austin, Morris, associated companies and successor corporations between 1959-2000.  Later reprised by BMW in a retro-interpretation.

(3) As minicomputer, a generalized (historic) descriptor for a multi-node computer system smaller than a mainframe; the colloquial term mini was rendered meaningless by technological change (Briefly, personal computers (PC) were known as micros).

(4) A term for anything of a small, reduced, or miniature size.

Early 1900s: A shorted form of miniature, ultimately from the Latin minium (red lead; vermilion), a development influenced by the similarity to minimum and minus.  In English, miniature was borrowed from the late sixteenth century Italian miniatura (manuscript illumination), from miniare (rubricate; to illuminate), from the Latin miniō (to color red), from minium (red lead).  Although uncertain, the source of minium is thought to be Iberian; the vivid shade of vermilion was used to mark particular words in manuscripts.  Despite the almost universal consensus mini is a creation of twentieth-century, there is a suggested link in the 1890s connected with Yiddish and Hebrew.

As a prefix, mini- is a word-forming element meaning "miniature, minor", again abstracted from miniature, with the sense presumed to have been influenced by minimum.  The vogue for mini- as a prefix in English word creation dates from the early 1960s, the prime influences thought to be (1) the small British car, (2) the dresses & skirts with high-hemlines and (3) developments in the hardware of electronic components which permitted smaller versions of products to be created as low-cost consumer products although there had been earlier use, a minicam (a miniature camera) advertised as early as 1937.  The mini-skirt (skirt with a hem-line well above the knee) dates from 1965 and the first use of mini-series (television series of short duration and on a single theme) was labelled such in 1971 and since then, mini- has been prefixed to just about everything possible.  To Bridget Jones (from Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) a novel by Helen Fielding (b 1958)), a mini-break was a very short holiday; in previous use in lawn tennis it referred to a tiebreak, a point won against the server when ahead.

Jean Shrimpton and the mini-skirt

Jean Shrimpton, Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, 1965.

The Victorian Racing Club (VRC) had in 1962 added Fashions on the Field to the Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival at Flemington and for three years, women showed up with the usual hats and accessories, including gloves and stockings, then de rigueur for ladies of the Melbourne establishment.  Then on the VRC’s Derby Day in 1965, English model Jean Shrimpton (b 1942) wore a white mini, its hem a daring four inches (100 mm) above the knee.  It caused stir.

The moment has since been described as the pivotal moment for the introduction of the mini to an international audience which is probably overstating things but for Melbourne it was certainly quite a moment.  Anthropologists have documented evidence of the mini in a variety of cultures over the last 4000 odd years so, except perhaps in Melbourne, circa 1965, it was nothing new but that didn’t stop the fashion industry having a squabble about who “invented” the mini.  French designer André Courrèges (1923-2016) explicitly claimed the honor, accusing his London rival to the claim, Mary Quant (b 1930) of merely “commercializing it”.  Courrèges had shown minis at shows in both 1964 and 1965 and his sketches date from 1961.  Quant’s designs are even earlier but given the anthropologists’ findings, it seems a sterile argument.

Minimalism: Lindsay Lohan and the possibilities of the mini.

The Mini

1962 Riley Elf.

The British Motor Corporation (BMC) first released their Mini in 1959, the Morris version called the Mini Minor (a link to the larger Minor, a model then in production) while the companion Austin was the Seven, a re-use of the name of a tiny car of the inter-war years.  The Mini name however caught on and the Seven was re-named Mini early in 1962 although the up-market (and, with modifications to the body, slightly more than merely badge-engineered) versions by Riley and Wolseley were never called Mini, instead adopting names either from or hinting at their more independent past: the Elf and Hornet respectively.  The Mini name was in 1969 separated from Austin and Morris, marketed as stand-alone marque until 1980 when the Austin name was again appended, an arrangement which lasted until 1988 when finally it reverted to Mini although some were badged as Rovers for export markets.  The Mini remained in production until 2000, long before then antiquated but still out-lasting the Metro, its intended successor.

1969 Austin Maxi 1500.

The allure of the Mini name obviously impressed BMC.  By 1969, BMC had, along with a few others, been absorbed into the Leyland conglomerate and the first release of the merged entity was in the same linguistic tradition: The Maxi.  A harbinger of what was to come, the Maxi encapsulated all that would go wrong within Leyland during the 1970s; a good idea, full of advanced features, poorly developed, badly built, unattractive and with an inadequate service network.  The design was so clever that to this day the space utilization has rarely been matched and had it been a Renault or a Citroën, the ungainly appearance and underpowered engine might have been forgiven because of the functionality but the poor quality control, lack of refinement and clunky aspects of some of the drivetrain meant success was only ever modest.  Like much of what Leyland did, the Maxi should have been a great success but even car thieves avoided the thing; for much of its life it was reported as the UK's least stolen vehicle.          

1979 Vanden Plas Mini (a possibly "outlaw" project by Leyland's outpost in South Africa).

Curiously, given the fondness of BMC (and subsequently Leyland) for badge-engineering, there was never an MG version of the Mini (although a couple of interpretations were privately built), the competition potential explored by a joint-venture with the Formula One constructors, Cooper, the name still used for some versions of the current BMW Mini.  Nor was there a luxury version finished by coachbuilders Vanden Plas which, with the addition of much timber veneer and leather to vehicles mundane, provided the parent corporations with highly profitable status-symbols with which to delight the middle-class.  There was however a separate development by Leyland's South African operation (Leykor), their Vanden Plas Mini sold briefly between 1978-1979 although the photographic evidence suggests it didn’t match the finish or appointment level of the English-built cars which may account for the short life-span and it's unclear whether the head office approved or even knew of this South African novelty prior to its few months of life.   In the home market, third-party suppliers of veneer and leather such as Radford found a market among those who appreciated the Mini's compact practicality but found its stark functionalism just too austere. 

The Twini

Mini Coopers (1275 S) through the cutting, Mount Panorama, Bathurst, Australia, 1966.

In that year's Gallaher 500, Mini Coopers finished first to ninth.  It was the last occasion on which anything with a naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine would win the annual endurance classic, an event which has since be won on all but a handful of occasions by V8-powered cars (memorably a V12 Jaguar XJS triumphed in 1985 when Conrod Straight was still at it full length), a statistic distorted somewhat by the rule change in 1995 which stipulated only V8s were allowed to run.    

Although it seemed improbable when the Mini was released in 1959 as a small, utilitarian economy car, the performance potential proved extraordinary; in rallies and on race tracks it was a first-rate competitor for over a decade, remaining popular in many forms of competition to this day.  The joint venture with the Formula One constructor Cooper provided the basis for most of the success but by far the most intriguing possibility for more speed was the model which was never developed beyond the prototype stage: the twin-engined Twini.

Prototype twin-engined Moke while undergoing snow testing, 1962.

It wasn’t actually a novel approach.  BMC, inspired apparently by English racing driver Paul Emery (1916–1993) who in 1961 had built a twin-engined Mini, used the Mini’s underpinnings to create an all-purpose cross-country vehicle, the Moke, equipped with a second engine and coupled controls which, officially, was an “an engineering exercise” but had actually been built to interest the Ministry of Defence in the idea of a cheap, all-wheel drive utility vehicle, so light and compact it could be carried by small transport aircraft and serviced anywhere in the world.  The army did test the Moke and were impressed by its capabilities and the flexibility the design offered but ultimately rejected the concept because the lack of ground-clearance limited the terrain to which it could be deployed.  Based on the low-slung Mini, that was one thing which couldn’t easily be rectified.  Instead, using just a single engine in a front-wheel-drive (FWD) configuration, the Moke was re-purposed as a civilian model, staying in production between 1964-1989 and offered in various markets.  Such is the interest in the design that several companies have resumed production, including in electric form and it remains available today.

Cutaway drawing of Cooper’s Twini.

John Cooper (1923-2000), aware of previous twin-engined racing cars,  had tested the prototype military Moke and immediately understood the potential the layout offered for the Mini (ground clearance not a matter of concern on race tracks) and within six weeks the Cooper factory had constructed a prototype.  To provide the desired characteristics, the rear engine was larger and more powerful, the combination, in a car weighing less than 1600 lb (725 kg), delivering a power-to-weight ratio similar to a contemporary Ferrari Berlinetta and to complete the drive-train, two separate gearboxes with matched ratios were fitted.  Typically Cooper, it was a well thought-out design.  The lines for the brake and clutch hydraulics and those of the main electrical feed to the battery were run along the right-hand reinforcing member below the right-hand door while on the left side were the oil and water leads, the fuel supply line to both engines fed from a central tank.  The electrical harness was ducted through the roof section and there was a central throttle link, control of the rear carburetors being taken from the accelerator, via the front engine linkage, back through the centre of the car.  It sounded intricate but the distances were short and everything worked.

Twini replica.

John Cooper immediately began testing the Twini, evaluating its potential for competition and as was done with race cars in those happy days, that testing was on public roads where it proved to be fast, surprisingly easy to handle and well-balanced.  Unfortunately, de-bugging wasn't complete and during one night session, the rear engine seized which resulting in a rollover, Cooper seriously injured and the car destroyed.  Both BMC and Cooper abandoned the project because the standard Mini-Coopers were proving highly successful and to qualify for any sanctioned competition, at least one hundred Twinis would have to have been built and neither organization could devote the necessary resources for development or production, especially because no research had been done to work out whether a market existed for such a thing, were it sold at a price which guaranteed at least it would break even.

Twini built by Downton Engineering.  Driven by Sir John Whitmore (1937– 2017) &  Paul Frère (1917–2008) in the 1963 Targa Florio, it finished 27th and 5th in class.

The concept however did intrigue others interested in entering events which accepted one-offs with no homologation rules stipulating minimum production volumes.  Downton Engineering built one and contested the 1963 Targa Florio where it proved fast but fragile, plagued by an overheating rear-engine and the bugbear of previous twin-engined racing cars: excessive tire wear.  It finished 27^th (and last) but it did finish, unlike some of the more illustrious thoroughbreds which fell by the wayside.  Interestingly, the Downton engineers choose to use a pair of the 998 cm³ (61 cubic inch) versions of the BMC A-Series engine which was a regular production iteration and thus in the under-square (long stroke) configuration typical of almost all the A-Series.  The long stroke tradition in British engines was a hangover from the time when the road-taxation system was based on the cylinder bore, a method which had simplicity and ease of administration to commend it but little else, generations of British engines distinguished by their dreary, slow-revving characteristics.  The long stroke design did however provide good torque over a wide engine-speed range and on road-course like the Targa Florio, run over a mountainous Sicilian circuit, the ample torque spread would have appealed more to drivers than ultimate top-end power.  For that reason, although examples of the oversquare 1071 cm³ (65 cubic inch) versions were available, it was newly developed and a still uncertain quantity and never considered for installation.  The 1071 was used in the Mini Cooper S only during 1963-1964 (with a companion 970 cm³ (61 cubic inch) version created for use in events with a 1000 cm³ capacity limit) and the pair are a footnote in A-Series history as the only over-square versions released for sale

Twin-engined BMW Mini (Binni?).

In the era, it’s thought around six Twinis were built (and there have been a few since) but the concept proved irresistible and twin-engined versions of the "new" Mini (built since 2000 by BMW) have been made.  It was fitting that idea was replicated because what was striking in 2000 when BMW first displayed their Mini was that its lines were actually closer to some of the original conceptual sketches from the 1950s than was the BMC Mini on its debut.  BMW, like others, of course now routinely add electric motors to fossil-fuel powered cars so in that sense twin (indeed, sometimes multi-) engined cars are now common but to use more than one piston engine remains rare.  Except for the very specialized place which is the drag-strip, the only successful examples have been off-road or commercial vehicles and as John Cooper and a host of others came to understand, while the advantages were there to be had, there were easier, more practical ways in which they could be gained.  Unfortunately, so inherent were the drawbacks that the problems proved insoluble.

Batwing

Batwing (pronounced bat-wing)

(1) In zoology, the wing of a bat (and, informally, related creatures).

(2) In entomology, several South or Southeast Asian species of tailless dark swallowtail butterflies in the genus Atrophaneura.

(3) An object or design formed or shaped in a way resembling the extended wing of a bat.

(4) In architecture, as “batwing doors”, pairs of swinging doors which typically do not lock nor cover the full vertical range of the doorway (leaving a large gap at the top and bottom), common as entrances to commercial kitchens and in bars.  It was the US industry in the mid-1950s which adopted “batwing doors” to replace “saloon doors” because there was some “middle class resistance” to the association with such establishments; it was a in time which rising prosperity had made mass market interior decorating a thing, hence the re-branding.

(5) In fashion, a garment or part of a garment resembling or conceived of as resembling the wing of a bat, applied usually to a loose, long sleeve (some flaring out, some with a tight wrist and known also as the “magyar sleeve”) but also to hem-lines.

(6) In hairdressing, a variation of the pigtail (in which the tied hair extends from the scalp at close to 90^o before cascading) in which the tied hair extends from the scalp upwards at an acute angle before cascading.  Batwings can be single ties but more typically appear symmetrically to the sides, in emulation of the wings of a bat.

(6) In physical training, an exercise routine or posture on the stomach wherein a dumbbell row or lateral raise is performed.

(7) In slang, an area of flabby fat under a person's arms (known in some places as “tuck shop lady’s arms).

(8) In automotive design, a type of rear fin which extended laterally rather than upwards.

1955–1960: The construct was bat + wing.  Bat (in the sense of the small flying mammal) dates from the late 1570s and is thought to be from a Scandinavian source, possibly the dialectal Swedish natt-batta, a variant of the Old Swedish natt-bakka (night-bat).  It replaced the Middle English bake & bak, from balke & blake, also from a Scandinavian source.  The related Nordic forms included the dialectal Swedish natt-blacka and the Old Icelandic ledhr-blaka (bat), the construct being ledhr (skin, leather) + blaka (flutter) and understood in the vernacular as “leather flapper”, the sense something like the later Old Danish nathbakkæ (literally “night-flapper”).  The earlier use (to describe a club, staff etc) dated from the turn of the thirteenth century and was from the Middle English noun bat, bot & batte, from the Old English batt which may have been from Celtic (the Irish & Scots Gaelic bat & bata meant “staff, cudgel”.  The Middle English verb batten, came partly from the noun, influenced by the Old French batre (batter).  Wing dates from the mid-twelfth century and was from the Middle English plural nouns winge & wenge, from the Old Danish wingæ (the other Nordic forms including the Norwegian & Swedish vinge and the Old Norse vǣngr (wing of a flying animal, wing of a building)).  In the Old Norse, the architectural sense of “a building’s wing” extended to nautical use, a vængi a “ship's cabin”.  The Nordic forms came from the Proto-Germanic wēingijaz, from the primitive Indo-European hweh- (to blow (hence the connection with “flapping” & “wind”).  The cognates included the Danish vinge (wing), the Swedish vinge (wing) and the Icelandic vængur (wing).  In English, “wing” came to replace the Middle English fither, from the Old English fiþre, from the Proto-Germanic fiþriją), which merged with the Middle English fether (from Old English feþer, from Proto-Germanic feþrō).  The spellings bat wing & bat-wing are also used.  Batwing is a noun and adjective, batwinged & batwingish are adjectives; the noun plural is batwings.

Gothic Batwing Sleeved Mermaid Long Dress by Punk Design (left) and Gothic Black A-Line wedding dress with leg Slit, batwing sleeves and bat hem by Wulgaria Couture (right).  Goths like batwings (usually in black with the odd splash of purple), the flowing sleeves often paired with leather or the more accommodating “wet latex look”.  Wulgaria Couture describe the A-Line style as a “wedding dress in gothic black” but it’s available also in a blood red for those non-Goths who like the batwing aesthetic.

Alfa Romeo BAT 5 (1953, left), BAT 7 (1954, centre) and BAT 9 (1955, right), designed by Franco Scaglione (1916–1993).

The Alfa Romeo BAT (Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica, best translated as “exploration of aerodynamic principles in cars”) concept cars were among the most stylistically adventurous (and aerodynamically successful) of the transatlantic movement in the 1950s which focused on applying the lessons learned from progress in aeronautics during World War II (1939-1945).  The tail fin had been seen as early as the 1920s and their role in enhancing straight-line stability was imported directly from aircraft design but on the road they’d tended to be single, upright structures, best remembered from the use in the pre-war Czechoslovakian Tatras, intriguing things which, configured with a rear-mounted V8 engine, at speed needed a “stabilizing fin” more than most.  However, it was in the 1950s, when such publicity was afforded to jet aircraft, rockets & missiles, that designers took a renewed interest in fins & wings.  In the US, they quickly became extravagances, divorced from any functional relationship to fluid dynamics much beyond the merely coincidental but for Europeans, for whom fuel was more expensive and incomes lower, it was understood aerodynamics alone could improve both a vehicle’s economy and its performance.

Batwings: A grey-headed flying fox.

The performance of the trio was, by contemporary standards, remarkable, all able to attain in excess of 200 km/h (125 mph), despite being powered by a relatively small 1.9 litre (115 cubic inch) engine, albeit one fitted with double overhead camshafts (DOHC).  The wings (the BAT acronym for the cars was opportunistic) were just one part on a design which in all aspects was intended to optimize air-flow and although even at the time there were cars with smaller frontal areas, the BATs gained much of their advantage from the lowering of the front coachwork and the drag coefficient (CD) of the three ranged from 0.19-0.23, impressive even today.  It’s on BAT 7 that the batwing motif is most pronounced, the wings extending as a single structure from the base of the A-pillar, at the rear tilting and sweeping in an arc towards the centre-line.  When the metalworkers in the coach-building house first saw the design, their reaction was something like that of the structural engineers on first viewing the “sails” on the blueprints of Jørn Utzon’s (1918–2008) Sydney Opera House but they rose to the occasion.  The design would never have been suitable for mass-production; the famous fins on the US cars of the era were not only simpler structures but also designed in a way which accommodated the relatively “lose” manufacturing tolerances which permitted them being built quickly and at scale.  Perhaps tellingly, BAT 9 appeared with appendages less batwing-like and more attuned to the way Detroit was doing things.

It's the batwings which made BAT 7 the most memorable of the three and in 2008, Carrozzeria Bertone (builders of the original trio) built the Alfa Romeo BAT 11dk prototype, a conceptual rendering in clay, Styrofoam & filler, designed to use the underpinnings of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.  Commissioned by a former owner of BAT 7, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) scuttled its appearance at the Geneva Motors Show and certainly any prospect of a small production run or even a one-off creation.

Misty was a weekly British comic magazine for girls which, unusually, was found also to enjoy a significant male readership.  Published UK house Fleetway, it existed only between 1978-1980 although Misty Annual appeared until 1986.  The cover always featured the eponymous, raven haired beauty.  Befitting its theme, bats often featured in the artwork.

Lindsay Lohan in Anger Management (2013) demonstrates the batwing (left), defined by the tied hair extending upwards from the scalp before cascading, as distinct from the “pig tail” (centre) which extends from the scalp at close to 90^o before cascading.  Batwings can be single ties (centred or asymmetric) but more typically appear symmetrically to the sides, in emulation of the wings of a bat.  There are also batwing hair clips (right), also called “batwing hair claws” which is more evocative.

Chevrolet Bel Air: 1957 (left), 1958 (centre) and 1959 (right).

The 1959-1960 Chevrolets quickly picked up the nickname “batwing” and richly it was deserved; there was nothing like them at the time and there’s been nothing since.  The 1959 range actually had a strange and rushed gestation.  The fins on the 1955-1956-1957 cars (the so-called “tri-five Chevies”) had grown upwards in the fashion of the time but the corporation decided something different was needed and for 1958 chose baroque, the embryonic batwings obvious now but it was only when the next year’s model was released they would be understood thus.  The reason the General Motors (GM) 1958 body shape would last only one season was that at time it suffered by comparison with the sleek Chryslers; it was thought frumpy and even bloated and that it was released into that year’s short but sharp recession, didn’t help. The re-design for 1959 had its flaws (many of which (including toning down the batwings) were fixed for 1960) but it could never have been called “frumpy” and the “cats eye” taillights are admired even today.  Still the market didn’t respond as GM would have liked and the batwings soon flew off; by 1963 the Chevrolet was so blandly inoffensive it was being described as “a little bit like every car ever built”.  It proved a great success.

1960 Chevrolet "bubbletop" Impala Sport Coupe (left) and 1963 Ford Consul Capri (right).  On the 1960 Chevrolets, the memorable “cats eye” taillights were replaced by round units, three aside for the top-of-the-line Impala, two for the less expensive Bel Air & Biscayne.

For 1960, Chevrolet made the batwings a little less “batwingish” and the idea travelled across the Atlantic, Ford in the UK applying the scaled-down motif to their Ford Consul Classic (1961-1963) and Consul Capri (1961-1964), the latter a two-door coupé which the company wanted to be thought of as a “co-respondent's car” (ie the sort of rakish design which would appeal to the sort of chap who slept with other men’s wives, later to be named as the “co-respondent” in divorce proceedings).  Whether or not the “batwingettes” played a part isn’t known but neither the Classic nor the Capri were successful.

Zettai ryouiki

Zettai ryouiki (pronounced Zah-thai-rye-ouk-i)

(1) In an anime game (dating from 1995), an asset obtainable which playing which afforded the player something like the “invulnerability” or “unlimited damage” concepts familiar in gaming.

(2) As pop culture slang in women’s fashion (dating from 2014), the area of visible bare skin above the socks (classically the above-the-knee variety) but below the hemline of a mini-skirt, shorts or top.

1995: From the Japanese 絶対領域 (zettai ryōiki) (literally “absolute territory” and used variously in anime gaming (and the surrounding cultural milieu) and pop-culture fashion.  The form of Romanization most common in the West is zettai ryouiki, the alternative spelling zettai ryōiki (ぜったいりょういき).  Zettai ryouiki is a noun.

A often heard phrase in English ie “the (French / Germans / Jews / Koreans etc) have a word for everything”.  It’s not literally true and given the huge size of the English vocabulary it’s probably more true of English than any other.  Nobody is quite sure just how many words there are in English and given the frequency with which words are created and fall from use, there can only ever be estimates.  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says there are between 170-200,000 words currently in use but that estimate doesn’t include the most specialized technical and scientific terms or words from regional dialects and other specialized fields.  English of course steals (the polite term among lexicographers is “borrowed”) much from other tongues and were all these and the technical terms and their variants to be included in the count, some have suggested the total might approach a million.  What “the x have a word for everything” implies is a sense of surprise that anyone has a word for a thing or concept which seems variously funny, bizarre or unnecessary.

Sock heights in Japan can all be used with the zettai ryouiki look although the classists insist the genre is restricted to those in over-knee & thigh-high socks.

Zettai ryouiki in the anime tradition.

The term zettai ryouiki began in anime gaming in 1995 with the sense “holy space into which no other can intrude”, much along the same lines as “invulnerability” or “unlimited damage” in other games.  It was obvious transferrable beyond gaming sub-culture and among Japanese youth, entered slang in the context of “one’s own personal space” which others shouldn’t transgress.  Around 2013, the phrase was appropriated to describe the area of visible bare skin above the socks (classically above-the-knee socks) but below the hemline of a miniskirt, shorts or top.  It isn’t certain but the use seems to have been adopted after an advertising agency organized a campaign involving young women, for various commercial purposes, applying temporary tattoos high on their thighs, suggesting they pair the look with dark socks or stockings, the top of the socks and the hem of their mini skirts framing the message.  As a visual device, the intent was to focus on the flesh (and thus the logo) and this the fashionistas replicated although they wanted eyeballs only on their skin.  Within months, the shop Zettai Ryōiki opened in Akihabara, Tokyo, dedicated to long socks and tights.

Zettai ryōiki: Lindsay Lohan exploring the possibilities.  

The original use of zettai ryōiki described only the pairing of a miniskirt with over-knee or thigh-high socks which meant the visible skin area, though not dimensionally specific, existed within narrow parameters.  Conceptually however, the idea eventually encompassed all styles which featured an expanse of skin between the top of the sock and the hem of whatever was worn above although the purists continue to decry the use of shorter socks.  Helpfully, the most uncompromising of the sub-culture provided a mathematical formula in the form of a coefficient which was calculated using (1) the length of the miniskirt, (2) the visible skin and (3) the length of the sock which sits above the knee.  Thus not height-dependent, known as the “golden ratio”, a tolerance of +/- 25% was allowed which permitted slight variations.

Kawai Maid Cafe & Bar Akiba Zettai Ryoiki, 3-1-1 Sotokanda 1F Obayashi Bldg., Chiyoda 101-0021 Tokyo Prefecture.  Japanese futurists predict that when robotics are sufficiently advanced, among the first humanoid bots in Tokyo's bars and cafés will be in the style of the zettai ryoiki girls, adding they'll be dimensionally modeled on the basis of anime, not typical female human frames.  The artistic motif will thus be mannerism rather than realism.

Japanese schoolgirls, long the trend-setters of the nation's fashions, like to pair zettai ryouiki with solid fluffy leg warmers.  So influential are they that this roaming pack, although they've picked up the aesthetic, are not real school girls.  So, beware of imitations: Tokyo, April 2024.

Delta

Delta (pronounced del-tuh)

(1) The fourth letter of the Modern Greek alphabet (Δ, δ).

(2) The consonant sound represented by this letter.

(3) The fourth in a series of items.

(4) Anything triangular, an allusion to the Greek capital delta (Δ).

(5) In mathematics, an incremental change in a variable, as Δ or δ.

(6) A nearly flat plain of alluvial deposit between diverging branches of the mouth of a river, often, though not necessarily, triangular.

(7) A word used in communications to represent the letter D (usually initial capital letter); Used in the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) radiotelephony spelling alphabet (usually known as the NATO phonetic alphabet).

(8) In astronomy, a star that is usually the fourth brightest of a constellation (initial capital letter).

(9) In computing, a small but noticeable effect or the set of differences between two versions of a file; in informal use, a small but noticeable effect.

(10) In surveying, the angle subtended at the centre of a circular arc.

(11) A type of cargo bike that has one wheel in front and two in back.

(12) In electrical engineering (often attributive), the closed figure produced by connecting three coils or circuits successively, end for end, especially in a three-phase system.

(13) In finance, the rate of change in an option value with respect to the underlying asset's price.

(14) In chemistry, a value in delta notation indicating the relative abundances of isotopes or relating to or characterizing a polypeptide chain that is one of five types of heavy chains present in immunoglobins.

(15) In aerodynamics, a type of wing.

(16) The NATO code name for a class of Soviet nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine armed with sixteen multi-warhead missiles.

(17) In physics, of or characterizing the atom or radical group that is fourth in position from the functional group of atoms in an organic molecule.

(18) In US Space Force use, a unit, nominally headed by a colonel, equivalent to a USAF operations wing, or an army regiment.

(19)   In electrical engineering, the closed figure produced by connecting three coils or circuits successively, end for end, especially in a three-phase system.

Circa 1200: From the Middle English deltha from the Latin delta from the Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), from the Phoenician dalet & daleth (tent door).  It was akin to the Hebrew dāleth.  It was the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (equivalent to the Modern English D) and was shaped like a triangle (Δ).  The sense of a delta being a "triangular island or alluvial tract between the diverging branches of the mouth of a great river" is because the Ancient Greek writer Herodotus (circa 484–circa 425 BC) used it to describe the mouth of the Nile River (now known as the Nile Delta).  That was picked up in English during the 1550s and applied to other river mouths (often of quite different shapes) by 1790.  The related forms are deltaic and deltification.  In pre-modern medicine, the deltoid muscle (the large muscle of the shoulder; triangular, resembling the Greek letter delta) was described in 1758, the name from the Ancient Greek deltoeides (triangular, literally "shaped like the letter delta).  In modern use, the "deltoid muscle" gained the short-form “delts” in 1977.  The related form is deltoidal.

The delta-wing

Gloster Javelin (1951-1967).  The first twin-engined delta-wing in service, the Javelin was the UK’s long-term solution to its need for an all-weather interceptor, the post-war technology gap until then filled by the stop-gap Gloster Meteor and that most improbable cold-war fighter, the de Havilland Mosquito.  The Javelin was the last aircraft to bear the Gloster name, the company absorbed into the morass created by the mergers, acquisitions and nationalization that befell British industry between Attlee and Thatcher. 

In aviation, the delta shape pre-dated aircraft by centuries, triangular stabilizing fins for rockets described in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the first lifting wing in delta form patented in 1867 for use by a dart-shaped, rocket-propelled airplane.  However, although there were prototypes and much theoretical work was done during the first half of the twentieth century, it wasn’t until the late-1940s when jet propulsion made possible high-speed subsonic and supersonic flight that it was possible to build airframes which could take advantages of the delta-wing’s unique properties.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (1963-1999).  A product of Lockheed’s Skunk Works, although in development as a high-altitude interceptor since 1959, the US government didn’t admit the SR-71 existed until 1964 and decided ultimately to use it for reconnaissance and research into supersonic flight.  The SR-71 in 1976 set the world record for the fastest flight by an air-breathing manned aircraft and the mark still stands.

The delta form offers structural advantages and aerodynamic characteristics suited to the fluid dynamics of airflow in supersonic conditions.  To suit different applications, design variations have evolved, with and without additional stabilizing surfaces.  The long root chord of the delta wing and minimal structure outboard is inherently structurally efficient, able to be built stronger and stiffer yet lighter than a swept wing of equivalent lifting capability.  It’s thus simple and relatively inexpensive to build.

Avro Vulcan (1956-1984).

Until the UK adopted the submarine-launched Polaris missile system, the Vulcan was the platform for the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent and it remained in service long enough to be deployed for its only combat mission, a flight of five aircraft used for (conventional bombing) missions during the 1982 Falklands War.  Each aircraft flew almost 4000 miles  (6,500 km) from Ascension Island, Victor tankers used for the air-to-air refueling, almost 1.1 million gallons (5 million litres ) of fuel burned each mission.

The long root chord also allows a deeper structure for a given aerofoil section, providing more internal volume for fuel and other storage without a significant increase in drag although, on supersonic designs, designers often take the opportunity to use a thinner aerofoil instead, thereby further reducing drag.  Usefully, the large root chord also provides a large surface area which assists in reducing the minimum speed; a low landing speed being a design objective in most military and civil applications.  Delta wings can be designed to induce vortex lift, so flow separation can be turned into a means of increasing lift and the whole structure is naturally stable in pitch, therefore not requiring a separate tail surface.

Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde (1969-2003).

The Anglo-French supersonic passenger jet operated commercially between 1976-2003.  Flying at twice the speed of sound and carrying up to 128 passengers, it was the longest lasting of its time, the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 in passenger service only for a few years during the 1970s after which it operated both as a freighter and a research platform and the American SST never progressed beyond engineering mock-ups.  The Americans worked out the economics were never going to make sense; the Soviets had a different relationship to money and the Concorde lasted as long as it did only because the French & British governments wrote-off the development costs.

There are drawbacks.  The large wing area creates more viscous drag for the same amount of lift compared to a high aspect ratio wing; swept wings have a better lift-to-drag ratio than deltas.  Also, high-lift devices like fowler flaps are hard to integrate into delta wings with the rearward location of the trailing edge producing intolerable pitching moments when such flaps would be deflected.  In short, delta wings are superior only in supersonic flight; their best known design probably the Anglo-French Concorde.

Lindsay Lohan in delta skirts.

A delta skirt is characterized by its triangular shape, an allusion to the Greek letter delta (Δ); almost always, a delta skirt is fitted at the waist, flaring out towards the hem, creating the triangular silhouette.  The concept is adaptable and can be made from just about any fabric, the most popular including cotton, taffeta, silk and a variety of other synthetics.  Delta skirts tend to be shorter because to produce the triangular effect as length increases either some sort of internal structure is required or additional material needs to be used, increasing bulk and weight.  Although most associated with younger women, they have been adopted by a number sub-sets from the anime aesthetic, Goths and bohemians to hippies.