Hoodie

Hoodie (pronounced hood-ee or hoo-dee (Scots))

(1) An originally informal term for a hooded sweatshirt, sweater, or jacket.

(2) A young person who wears a hooded sweatshirt, regarded by those who read London's Daily Telegraph as someone either (1) committing a crime, (2) on their way to a crime, (3) coming from a crime or (4) planning a crime.

1789: Hoodie was originally a familiar term for the hooded crow (Corvus cornix), a Eurasian bird species in the Corvus genus, known also (regionally) as the Scotch crow and Danish crow, the slang shortening of hooded sweatshirt first noted in 1991 (sometimes written as hoody).  The word is still a slang term but has also become the accepted proper description of the garment which can even be a fashion item.   

Hood was from the pre-900 Middle English hood & hod, from the Old English hād & hōd (a hood, soft covering for the head" (usually extending over the back of the neck and often attached to a garment worn about the body), from the Proto-Germanic hōdaz (source also of the Old Saxon & Old Frisian hoed & hod (hood), the Saterland Frisian Houd, the Middle Dutch hoet, the Dutch hoed (hat), the Old High German huot (helmet, hat), the German Hut (hat) and the Old Frisian hode (guard, protection), which is of uncertain etymology, possibly from the Latin cassis (hat), the ultimate root likely the primitive Indo-European kadh- (to cover (and related to “hat)).  It was cognate with the Proto-Iranian xawdah (hat), the Avestan (xåda) and the Old Persian xaudā, also from the primitive Indo-European kadh.  The suffix -ie was a variant spelling of -ee, -ey & -y and was used to form diminutive or affectionate forms of nouns or names.  It was used also (sometimes in a derogatory sense to form colloquial nouns signifying the person associated with the suffixed noun or verb (eg bike: bikie, surf: surfie, hood: hoodie etc).  The –y suffix is from the Middle English –y & -i, from the Old English -iġ (-y, -ic), from the Proto-Germanic -īgaz (-y, -ic), from the primitive Indo-European -kos, -ikos, & -iḱos (-y, -ic).  It was cognate with the Scots -ie (-y), the West Frisian -ich (-y), the Dutch -ig (-y), the Low German -ig (-y), the German -ig (-y), the Swedish -ig (-y), the Latin -icus (-y, -ic) and the Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós); a doublet of -ic.  The –y suffix was added to (1) nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of” and (2) verbs to form adjectives meaning "inclined to".

The modern spelling dates emerged in the early 1400s and reflected the "long" vowel, the spelling enduring although hood is no longer pronounced as such.  Use extended to hood-like-things or animal parts from the mid-seventeenth century and the meaning “foldable or removable cover for a carriage to protect the occupants" is from 1826, extended to "sunshade of a baby-carriage" by 1866.  The meaning "hinged cover for an automobile engine" attested from 1905 and is the standard use in North America but elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the preferred term is “bonnet”; confusingly, hood can also refer the folding roof of a convertible, otherwise called a folding-top or soft-top.

Amanda Seyfried (b 1985) in hoodie in Red Riding Hood (2011).  Little Red Riding Hood is a 1729 translation of Charles Perrault's Petit Chaperon Rouge (Contes du Temps Passé (1697)).

Lindsay Lohan in Vetements hoodie with asymmetric cold shoulder.

As an American English shortening of hoodlum, use is attested from as early as 1866 but it became popular only with the emergence in popular culture of the stereotypical gangster in the 1920s.  As a shortened form of neighbourhood, use in the African-American vernacular is noted from 1987 and it’s recently been identified as a racial slur in certain contexts.  In nautical use, a hood is one of the endmost planks (or, one of the ends of the planks) in a ship’s bottom at the bow or stern.  In ophiology, a hood is an expansion on the sides of the neck typical for many elapids (eg some cobras) and (in colloquial use) the osseous or cartilaginous marginal extension behind the back of many a dinosaur such as a ceratopsid and reptiles such as Chlamydosaurus kingie is often referred to as "the hood".  In the human hand, the hood is the extensor digitorum, an expansion of the extensor tendon over the metacarpophalangeal joint.  Hood has been a most productive accessory in English (extractor hood, hoodie, hoodwink, range hood, under the hood, neighbourhood, girlhood etc).  In clothing, hoods (variously named) have of course existed for thousands of years, adopted and adapted to provide protection from the elements (wind, sun, snow, rain etc).  The hoods used in executions, often worn (though for different reasons) by both executioner and the condemned can't be thought of as hoodies because the purpose in such situations was to conceal the face.

A hoodie offers a (pre-lingual) comment on David Cameron's (b 1966; UK prime-minister 2010-2016) "Hug-a-Hoodie" speech in which (while prime-minister), he advocated a softer approach to social justice.  He is now Lord Cameron, having been ennobled so he can sit in the House of Lords and serve as foreign secretary, there evidently being no Tory in either the Lords or the Commons with the required talent (or whatever else is required) for the job.  He's the first former prime-minister since Lord Home (Alec Douglas-Home; UK prime minister 1963-1964) in 1970 to return to cabinet and all wish him well.

In many cultures, hoods were added to garments for purposes other than mere functionality and depending on factors such as color, style, the volume or design of the materials used, they could indicate things like rank, membership of an order, length of service or academic status.  Hoods were part of imperial regalia, court dress, academic gowns, military dress uniforms, ecclesiastical garb and of course, cults like the Freemasons.  The pragmatic adoption of the hoodie by petty criminals as a means of concealment in late 1980s London appears related to the increasingly widespread use of CCTV (closed-circuit television) surveillance systems and advances in AI (artificial intelligence) mean software now has the ability to "see through" hoodies and this means it is inevitable hoodies will be available with some form of "cloaking" material within; it's just another arms race.  The popularity with (career and aspiring) criminals and certain social groups (distinctions between the two somewhat fluid) appears imitative, the adoption of the symbols of petty crime actually a status-symbol to some and a way of asserting group identity.

It was mere coincidence that the words "hoodie" and "hoodlum" appeared within a few years of each other, the early US use (dating from 1866 but not widely used until the stereotypical Chicago gangster became a staple of popular culture during the 1920s) of hoodlum appearing wholly unrelated to hood.  There are etymologists who list the origin as uncertain and offer other possibilities but the most plausible origin of hoodlum is probably that cited by Herbert Asbury (1889-1963) in The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (1933).  He believed the word an imperfect echoic originating in San Francisco from a particular street gang's call to unemployed Irishmen to "huddle 'em" (to beat up Chinese migrants).  San Francisco newspapers then took to calling street gangs hoodlums, that being the best they could make of the Irish accent.

Hood

Hood (pronounced hood)

(1) A soft or flexible covering for the head and neck, either separate or attached to a cloak, coat and similar garments.

(2) Something resembling or suggestive of such a covering (especially in shape) and used in botany to describe certain petals or sepals.

(3) In North America and other places subject to that linguistic influence, the (usually) hinged, movable part of an automobile body covering the engine (the bonnet in the UK and most of the old British Empire).  Despite geographical spread, the phrase “under the hood” is now close to universal, referring to (1) the engine of an automobile & (2) by extension, the inner workings or technical aspects of anything (a computer’s specifications etc).

(4) In the UK and most of the old British Empire, the roof of a carriage or automobile, able to be lowered or removed (ie on a convertible, cabriolet, roadster, drophead coupé (DHC) et al).  In North America and other places subject to that linguistic influence such things tend variously to be called soft-tops or convertible tops.

(5) A metal cover or canopy for a stove, fitted usually with a ventilation system (a flue or extractor fan).

(6) In falconry, a cover for the entire head of a hawk or other bird, used when not in pursuit of game.

(7) On academic gowns, judicial robes etc, an ornamental ruffle or fold on the back of the shoulders (in ecclesiastical garments, and in cults such as the Freemasons, also used as a mark of one’s place in the hierarchy).

(8) In nautical use, as hooding ends, one of the endmost planks (or, one of the ends of the planks) in a ship’s bottom at bow or stern which fits into the stem and sternpost rabbets.  When fitted into a rabbet, these resemble a hood (covering).

(9) In zoology, a crest or band of color on the head of certain birds and other animals (such as the fold of skin on the head of a cobra, that covers or appears to cover the head or some similar part).

(10) In anatomy (the human hand), over the extensor digitorum, an expansion of the extensor tendon over the metacarpophalangeal joint (the extensor hood (dorsal hood or lateral hood).

(11) In colloquial use in palaeontology, the osseous or cartilaginous marginal extension behind the back of many dinosaurs (also known as the “frill”).

(12) As the suffix –hood, a native English suffix denoting state, condition, character, nature, etc, or a body of persons of a particular character or class, formerly used in the formation of nouns: childhood; likelihood; knighthood; priesthood and of lad appended as required (Twitterhood, Instahood etc, subsets of Twitterverse & Instaverse respectively).

(13) In slang, a clipping of hoodlum.

(14) In slang, a clipping of neighborhood, especially an urban neighborhood inhabited predominantly by African Americans of low socioeconomic status (a part of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and adopted also by LatinX) although use in these communities does now transcend economic status.

(15) To furnish with or fit a hood; to cover with or as if with a hood.

(16) In medieval armor, a range of protective cloakings or coverings

Pre 900: From the Middle English hode, hod, hude, hudde & hoode (hoodes apparently the most common plural), from the Old English hōd, from the Proto-Germanic hōdaz, (related to the Old High German huot (hat), the Middle Dutch hoet and the Latin cassis helmet) and cognate with the Saterland Frisian Houd, the Old Frisian hōde, the West Frisian & Dutch hoed, the Proto-Iranian xawdaH (hat), the German Low German Hood and the German Hut (hat).  The Old English hād was cognate with German –heit and was a special use used to convey qualities such as order, quality, rank (the sense surviving academic, judicial & ecclesiastical garments).  The ultimate source is uncertain but most etymologists seem to support the primitive Indo-European kad & kadh (to cover).  Hood is modified as required (chemical hood, clitoral hood, un-hood, de-hood, fume hood, hood-shy, hood unit, hoodwink, range hood, riding hood etc) and something thought hood-shaped is sometimes described as cuculliform.  Hood is a noun & verb, hooded & hooding are verbs, hoodless hoodesque & hoodlike are adjectives; the noun plural is hoods.

Hooded: Lindsay Lohan in hoodie, JFK Airport, New York City, NYC April 2013. The bag is a Goyard Saint Louis Tote (coated canvas in black).

Hood as clipping of hoodlum (gangster, thug, criminal etc) dates from the late 1920s and would influence the later use of “hoodie” as a slur to refer to those wearing the garment of the same name, the inference being it was worn with nefarious intent (concealing identity, hiding from CCTV etc.  Hood as a clipping of neighborhood (originally especially an urban (inner-city) neighborhood inhabited predominantly by African Americans of low socio-economic status) dates from circa 1965 and became part of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and was adopted also by LatinX) although use in all communities does now transcend economic status.  It was an alternative to ghetto (a word with a very different tradition) and encapsulated both the negative (crime, violence, poverty) & positive (group identity, sense of community) aspects of the low-income inner city experience.  Although a part of AAVE, it never formed part of Ebonics because its meaning was obvious and, to an extent, integrated into general US vernacular English.  The phrase “all good in the hood” is an example of the use of the clipping.

Blu-Ray & DVD package art for Red Riding Hood (2006).  In US use, "alternate" seems to have been accepted as a synonym for "alternative".  Few seem to mind.

The verb hood in the sense of “to put a hood” & “to furnish with a hood” on dates from circa 1400 while although hooded & hooding aren’t attested until decades later, it’s possible the use emerged at much the same time.  The Old English hod was typically "a soft covering for the head" which extended usually over the back of the neck but only in some cases did it (permanently or ad-hoc) attach to some other garment.  The modern spelling emerged early in the fifteenth century and indicated a “long vowel” although that pronunciation is long extinct.  The word was picked up in medicine, botany & zoology in the seventeenth century while the use to describe the “foldable or removable covers on a carriage which protects the occupants from the elements” was documented since 1826 and that was used in a similar context by the manufacturers of prams and baby-carriages by at least 1866.  The meaning “hinged cover for an automobile engine” was in use in the US by 1905 while across the Atlantic, the British stuck to “bonnet”.  The fairy tale (some read it as a cautionary tale) Little Red Riding Hood (1729) was a translation of Charles Perrault's (1628-1703) Petit Chaperon Rouge which appeared in his book Contes du Temps Passé (Stories or Tales from Past Times (1697)).

The suffix -hood (a word-forming element meaning “state or condition of being”) was an evolution of the Old English -had (condition, quality, position) which was used to construct forms such as cildhad (childhood), preosthad (priesthood) & werhad (manhood); it was cognate with German –heit & -keit, the Dutch -heid, the Old Frisian & Old Saxon -hed, all from the Proto-Germanic haidus (manner, quality (literally “bright appearance”, from the primitive Indo-European skai & kai- (bright, shining) which was cognate with the Sanskrit ketu (brightness, appearance).  It was originally a free-standing word but in Modern English survives only in this suffix.

HMS Hood in March 1924.  The last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy, it was 860 feet (262 metres) in length, displaced 47,000 tons and had a main armament of eight 15 inch (380 mm) guns.

HMS Hood (1918-1941) was a Royal Navy battlecruiser named after Admiral Samuel Hood, first Viscount (1724–1816), one of five admirals the family would provide.  Although the Battle of Jutland (1916) had exposed the inherent limitations of the battlecruiser concept and the particular flaws in the British designs, the building of the Hood anyway continued and the revisions made in the light of the Jutland experience in some way exacerbated the ship’s problems; weight was added without fully affording the additional protection required.  The Admiralty was aware of this and of the four battlecruisers of her class planned, Hood was the only one completed as the Navy embarked on a re-design but the naval disarmament agreed between the major powers in the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918) meant none were built (indeed no navy would launch a new battlecruiser until the 1980s and even then the notion was thought strange) and for almost two decades Hood remained the largest warship in the world.

Naval architecture, fire control ballistics and aviation had however moved on in those years and although the biggest warship afloat (the “Mighty Hood” in the public imagination), Hood was outmoded but as late as the early 1930s this mattered little because the prospect of war between the big powers seemed not only remote but absurd.  Hood is still thought one of the most elegant warships ever and it spent those years touring the empire and other foreign ports, her fine lines and apparent might impressing many although the Admiralty was well aware the days of Pax Britannica were over.  Much comment has been made about the design flaw which resulted in the Hood sinking in minutes after a shell from the German battleship Bismarck, fired from a range of some ten miles (16,000 m), penetrated the deck (some modern analysts contest this because of technical details relating to the angle of fire available to the German gunners), causing the magazine to explode, essentially splitting the hull in two.  In fairness to the Kriegsmarine (the German navy), it was a good shot but at that range, it was also lucky, that essential element in many a battle.

In structural linguistics, the term “Americanisms” is used to describe several sub-sets of innovations in English attributed to those (and their descendents) who settled in North America.  They include (1) spellings (color vs colour), most of which make more sense than the originals, (2) simplification of use (check used for cheque as well as its other meanings), (3) coinings (sockdolager (decisive blow or remark), a nineteenth century American original of contested origin) and (4) alternatives (suspenders vs braces).  Hood was one word where used differed in the US.  In the UK, the hood was the (traditionally leather but latterly a variety of fabrics) folding top which began life on horse-drawn carriages and later migrated to cars which eventually were, inter alia, called cabriolets, drophead coupés or roadsters.  In the US the same coachwork was used but there the folding tops came to be called “soft tops”, one reason being the hood was the (usually) hinged panel which covered the engine.  In the UK, that was called a bonnet (from the Middle English bonet, from the Middle French bonet (which endures as the Modern French bonnet), from the Old French bonet (material from which hats are made), from the Frankish bunni (that which is bound), from the Proto-Germanic bundiją (bundle), from the primitive Indo-European bend- (to tie).  The origins of the use of bonnet and hood as engine coverings were essentially the same: the words were in the nineteenth century both used on both sides of the Atlantic to describe cowls or coverings which protected machinery from the elements, impacts etc (the idea based on the familiar garments) and it was only chance that one use prevailed in one place and one in the other.  There were other differences too: what the British called the boot the Americans said was the trunk which on the early automobiles, like many of the stage coaches they replaced, indeed it was.

Unhinged: Not all hoods were hinged.  In 1969, some Plymouth Road Runners (left) and Dodge Super Bees (right) could be ordered with a lightweight, fibreglass hood held in place by four locking pins.  Known as the "lift-off hood", it need two conveniently to remove the thing so it wasn't the most practical option Detroit ever offered but to the target market, it was very cool.

Snorkel

Snorkel (pronounced snawr-kuhl)

(1) A device permitting a submarine to remain submerged for prolonged periods, consisting of tubes extended above the surface of the water to (1) take in air for the diesel engine, (2) for general ventilation and (3) to discharge exhaust gases and foul air.

(2) In military jargon, a similar device on a tanks (and other vehicles), enabling it to cross shallow water obstacles (later adopted for civilian use in 4WD (four-wheel-drive) off-road vehicles and sometime fitted (for visual effect) even to to those used only in urban environments.

(3) In swimming, a device (usually of plastic or rubber), allowing a swimmer to breathe while face down on the surface of the water, consisting of a bent tube fitting into the mouth and projecting above the surface.

(4) To engage in snorkeling.

(5) In clothing design, a specialized style of hoodie, a type of parka or anorak with a hood projecting beyond the face (a la Kenny in South Park).

(6) In fire fighting, a bendable arm for hydraulic platforms or buckets.

(7) A proprietary fountain pen piston filling system used by the Sheaffer pen company.

1945:  A Modern English borrowing from the German Schnorchel ((submarine) snorkel), an airshaft for submarines, related to schnarchen (to snore) and thus named because of (1) the submarine snorkel's functional similarity to a nose and (2) its noise when in use.  The anglicized spelling was first recorded in 1945 in US documents, apparently not appearing in the UK until 1949 although there had been earlier references to the technology using the noun “snort”.  The meaning "curved tube used by a swimmer to breathe under water" was first recorded in 1951.  Snorkel & snorkelling are nouns & verbs, snorkeler is a noun and snorkeled &  are verbs; the noun plural is snorkels.

Breath deeply

Lindsay Lohan snorkeling in the Aegean, 2016.

Adding a snorkel to a conventional (ie one with diesel/electric rather than nuclear propulsion) submarine allows the vessel to operate while submerged for extended periods.  From their origins in the nineteenth century until late in the World War II (1939-1945), submarines were more properly regarded as “submersibles”; small boats which could be used underwater for short periods.  Until snorkels were adopted, submarines were compelled to operate mostly on the surface, submerging only to attack during daylight or to avoid being attacked.  This was less of a disadvantage than it might seem because the limitations of the early sonar systems meant submarines on the surface were close to invisible until visual contact was made.  That changed with the increasing deployment of radar and other detection systems which compelled submarines to spend more time underwater, using electric motors that offered little speed and range.

The need for a snorkel seems obvious and it was, the first patent issued in the UK in 1916 but neither the British Admiralty nor any other navy experimented with the design until some Italian prototypes were built in 1926 and these were soon scrapped.  The Royal Netherlands Navy was the first with a practical production model (which they called the snuiver (sniffer)) and it was this the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) copied.  Initially, the Germans were interested only in a fresh-air system for ventilation but by 1943, the U-Boats (the German term for submarines) were suffering unsustainably high losses and OKM (the naval high command) began development of the Dutch design which enabled diesel propulsion at periscope depth, while also charging the batteries.  Operational use began in 1944 and the vessels produced by 1945 were essentially the first modern submarines, designs which, when later combined with nuclear propulsion, were for decades produced with only detail refinements.  Snorkels continue to be installed on nuclear-powered submarines because they still have on-board diesel engines for backup power.  The time a nuclear submarine can remain submerged is limited not by the fuel supply or the need to replenish fresh air (which can be generated aboard) but by how much food can be stored.

German Type XII Elektroboot (1945).

In World War II (1939-1945), the course of the war could have been very different had OKM (Oberkommando der Marine; the high command of the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy 1935-1945)) followed the advice of the commander of the submarines and made available a fleet of 300 rather than building a surface fleet which wasn’t large enough to be a strategic threat but of sufficient size to absorb resources which, if devoted to submarines, could have been militarily effective.  With a fleet of 300, it would have been possible permanently to maintain around 100 at sea but at the outbreak of hostilities, only 57 active boats were on the navy’s list, not all of which were suitable for operations on the high seas so in the early days of the conflict, it was rare for the Germans to have more than 12 committed to battle in the Atlantic.  Production never reached the levels necessary for the numbers to achieve critical mass but even so, in the first two-three years of the war the losses sustained by the British were considerable and the “U-Boat menace” was such a threat that much attention was devoted to counter-measures and by 1943 the Allies could consider the battle of the Atlantic won.

The Germans’ other mistake was not building a true submarine capable of operating underwater (and therefore undetected) for days at a time.  It was only in 1945 when Karl Dönitz (1891–1980; as Grand Admiral head of the German Navy 1943-1945, German head of state 1945) and Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) were assessing their “revolutionary” new design that it was concluded there was no reason why such craft couldn’t have been built in the 1930s because the capacity and technology existed even then.  It was a classic case of what Donald Rumsfeld (1932–2021: US defense secretary 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) would later call an “unknown known”.  The Germans in 1939 knew how to build a modern submarine but didn’t know they knew.  Despite the improvements however, military analysts have concluded that even if deployed in numbers, such was the strength of forces arrayed against Nazi Germany that by 1945, not even such a force could have been enough to turn the tide of war.  Dönitz and Speer had plenty of time to reflect on such missed opportunities of 1939-1940, both war criminals sentenced by the IMT (International Military Tribunal) at the first Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) to imprisonment respectively for 10 & 20 years in prison.  The admiral was debatably unlucky to be found guilty but had all the evidence of Speer's wartime conduct been brought before the court, he'd have been hanged.

Banner

 Banner (pronounced ban-er)

(1) The flag of a country, army, troop etc.

(2) An ensign or the like bearing some device, motto, or slogan, as carried in religious processions, political demonstrations etc.

(3) A flag used as the standard of a nation, sovereign, lord, knight, military formation or other institution (and by extension (1) the military unit under such a flag or standard & (2) a military or administrative subdivision).

(4) A sign painted on fabric or some other material and hung over a street, entrance etc.

(5) Anything regarded or displayed as a symbol of principles.

(6) In heraldry, a square flag bearing heraldic devices.

(7) In journalism, a headline extending across the width of a newspaper or web page (in print usually across the top of the front page); also known as banner line, banner headline, screamer or streamer.

(8) As a verb, in journalism, (of a headline), prominently to display (used in other contexts by analogy).

(9) In advertising, an advertisement appearing across the top or bottom or along one side of a newspaper or web page; also known as a banner ad .

(10) An open streamer with lettering, towed behind an airplane in flight, for advertising purposes.

(11) A placard or sign carried in a procession or demonstration.

(12) As an adjective, leading or foremost.

(13) Historically, a type of administrative division in Inner Mongolia and Tuva, made during the Qing dynasty; at that time, Outer Mongolia and part of Xinjiang were also divided into banners.

1200–1220: From the Middle English banere (piece of cloth attached to the upper end of a pole or staff), from the Old French baniere (flag, banner, standard) (from which modern French in the twelfth century gained bannière), from the Late Latin bann & bannum (variants of bandum (standard)), from a Frankish or West Germanic source, from the Proto-Germanic bandwa (identifying sign, banner, standard (and also “military formation under a banner”), source also of the Gothic bandwa (a sign), from suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root bha- (to shine).

A non-official Royal Standard of Croatia, one of several designs used by those affiliated with the movement seeking to restore the Royal House of Croatia.

A banner was the standard (a type of flag) of a king, lord, or knight, behind which his followers marched to war and to which they rallied in battle.  From the early fourteenth century, there was also the related noun banneret, an order of knighthood, originally in reference to one who could lead his men into battle under his own banner, for centuries a common European practice when armies were organized ad-hoc for invasions and formations were deployed under their banners rather than being mixed.  It later came to mean “one who received rank for valiant deeds done in the king's presence in battle”.  As is still the practice, such honors had grades and there was also the bannerette (a small banner), awarded to those who provided service meritorious rather than valorous.  The reason a banner was attached to a tall pole and carried by “a standard bearer” was that in the swirl of battle, such was the clatter that communication by voice could soon become impossible over even short distances and the only way a commander could effectively re-assemble his troops into formation was to have them return to the banner.  This was the origin of the phrase “rally around the flag”, in the twentieth century re-purposed metaphorically although the figurative sense of "anything displayed as a profession of principles" was used as early as the fourteenth century.  The first use of banner to describe newspaper headlines which in large, bold type stream across the top of the page dates from 1913.  The term “banner blindness” was created in 1998 to describe the tendency of users to ignore banner advertising on websites.  Synonyms (depending on context) can include emblem, headline, bunting, pennant, streamer, advertisement, leading, colors, ensign, heading, pennon, standard, exceptional, foremost, outstanding, banderole, burgee & gonfalon.  Banner is a noun, verb and adjective, bannered is an verb & adjective and bannering is an adjective; the noun plural is banners.

Flag of the Commander of the Croatian Navy.

Technically, the term banner can be used to describe any flag, ensign, pennant or standard although it’s now less used for the more precise terms have come to be well-understood and are thus more popular.  Pennant was from the Middle English penon, penoun & pynoun, from the Old French penon, from the Latin penna (feather).  Although it wasn’t always the case, a pennant is distinguished by its elongated shape which tapers to a point.  It’s now especially associated with naval use, the advantage of the shape being that it tends to remain legible even in conditions where material of square or rectangular shape can become distorted.  Pennants are also used by sports teams and university societies.  In sporting competition, a championship is sometimes referred to as “the pennant” or “the flag” even though such thing are not always awarded as physical trophies.

Flag of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (1947–1990) under comrade Marshall Tito.

Ensign was from the Middle English ensigne, from the Old French enseigne, from the Latin īnsignia, the nominative plural of īnsigne.  By convention of use, ensign is now used almost exclusively by the military, especially by naval forces (the use to describe the lowest grade of commissioned officer in the US Navy (equivalent to a sub-lieutenant, and once used also in the infantry (the coronet fulfilling the role in the cavalry) dates from the role evolving from the assigned role of being responsible for the care, raising and lowering of flags and pennants, including the unit’s ensign).  In navies, the principal flag or banner flown by a ship (usually at the stern) to indicate nationality is called the ensign (often modified as red ensign, royal ensign etc).

Standard was from the Middle English standard, from the Old French estandart (gathering place, battle flag), from the Frankish standahard (literally “stand firm, stand hard”), the construct being stand +‎ -ard.  There is an alternative etymology which suggest the second element was from the Frankish oʀd (point, spot, place (and linked with the Old French ordé (pointed), the Old English ord (point, source, vanguard), the German Standort (location, place, site, position, base, literally “standing-point”))).  The notion is this merged with the Middle English standar, stander or standere (flag, banner (literally “stander)).  Standard is now the usual form when describing symbol of an individual, family, clan or military formation when presented in the shape used by national flags.

1957 Standard Ensign.  It typified the dreary products offered by much of the British industry in the post-war years.  The flag is the Red Ensign (Red Duster in nautical slang), the civil ensign of the UK, flown by British merchant or passenger craft since 1707.

The Standard Motor Company operated in the UK between 1903-1970 although in 1963 it ceased to use the Standard name on products sold in most markets, switching them to Triumph which would be used until 1984, the company having been integrated into the doomed British Leyland (BL) conglomerate in 1968.  In India, where the operations had become independent of BL, the Standard name lingered until 1988.  In 1957, Standard, having obtained from the Royal Navy the right to use the name Vanguard (the name of many ships and submarines including the last dreadnought (big battleship) ever launched) for their family car (the Standard Vanguard, 1948-1963), decided to continue the nautical theme by naming their new model the Ensign (1957-1963).  In the manner of the Citroën ID (1957-1969) and Mercedes-Benz 219 (W105, 1956-1959), the Ensign offered a large-bodied vehicle at a lower price, achieved by fitting a less powerful engine and substantially reduced equipment levels.  Until 1962 the Ensign was available only with a 1670 cm³ (102 cubic inch) for-cylinder engine which even in the pre-motorway era was thought marginal in a relative heavy car but, although slow, it offered a lot of metal for the money and sold well to fleets and the government, the military especially fond of them.  If the 1.6 litre gas (petrol) version was slow, also available was a version with a 1622 cm³ (99 cubic inch) Perkins P4C diesel engine, the low survival rate of which is sometimes attributed to so many being sold to the Coal Board or Wales and, having descended into Welsh valleys, they lacked to power to climb out.  The last of the Ensigns (1962-1963) were fitted with a 2163 cm³ (132 cubic inch) four-cylinder gas engine which proved more satisfactory but by then the Vanguard-Ensign line was outdated and the names were retired when the replacement range was marketed under the Triumph rather than the Standard marque.

Once the "Standard of the World": 1938 Cadillac Series 90 V16 Convertible Coupé (left), 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (centre) & 1967 Cadillac Coupe DeVille convertible.

Elsewhere in the automotive world “standard” was used in different ways.  Cadillac long used the slogan “The Standard of the World” and that was certainly true in the 1930s when the Cadillac V16s were at least the equal in engineering and craftsmanship to anything made in Europe an even in the late 1960s, although the “hand-made” years were over, the company still offered the finest engine-transmission combinations in the world and managed to master sub-systems like air-conditioning in a way it took the Europeans a few decades to match.  After about 1970, it was usually downhill for the old “standard of the world” although there have been some hopeful signs in the twenty-first century.  General Motors’ now defunct southern outpost, Holden, in first two decades (1948-1966), used standard to mean “basic”, the better-equipped versions being the “Business” and the “Special”.  In England, Jaguar’s pre-war use of SS as a brand was apparently derived from the company’s origin as the Swallow Sidecar Company but, after the association with the Standard Motor Company as an engine supplier, the factory began to prefer Standard Swallow, the cars sold under the badge Jaguar SS.  After the war, the SS label was dropped, the association with the Nazi Party’s SS (Schutzstaffel (security section or squad)) too unsavory in those times although the moment would soon pass, Jaguar in 1957 reviving the name for the XK-SS, the road-going version of the D-Type race car.

Pennant of the commander of a flotilla of naval vessels in the Croatian Navy.

Flag is from the Middle English flag & flagge (flag), of uncertain origin.  It may have been related to the early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and the Old English flagg & flacg (cataplasm, poultice, plaster) or could have been merely imitative or otherwise drawn from the Proto-Germanic flaką (something flat), from the primitive Indo-European pleh- (flat, broad, plain), referencing the shape.  The modern flag is a piece of cloth, decorated with a combination of colors, shapes or emblems which can be used as a visual signal or symbol.  In Admiralty use, a “flag” can refer to (1) a specific flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or their flagship or (2) a signal flag or the act of signaling with a flag.  The now familiar use as national symbol is surprisingly modern.  Although flags and standards were of course common even before the current conception of the nation-state coalesced, it wasn’t until the eighteen century that the association of a flag with a country became close to universal.  One interesting quirk of national flags is that since Libya’s was redesigned, the flag of Jamaica is the only one on Earth not to include either red, white or blue.

A banner used in Croatia between 925-1102 (left), the current Croatian flag adopted after independence in 1990 (centre) and the Croatian naval ensign (1990).

One of the most ancient symbols to endure in modern nation flags is the red & white checkered pattern used to this day on the flag of Croatia.  The oldest known example dates from 925 and the pattern was used (with the odd interruption) for centuries, even when the country was a non-sovereign component of supranational states such as the Habsburg Empire.  A red star was used instead when Croatia was a part of comrade Marshall Tito’s (1892-1980) Jugoslavija (Yugoslavia) between 1945-1990 but the red & white checks were restored when independence was regained in 1990.

Ivana Knoll at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Noted Instagram influencer Ivana Knoll (b 1992) was a finalist in the Miss Croatia beauty contest in 2016 and for her appearances at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, chose a number of outfits using the national symbol of the red and white checkerboard, matching the home strip worn by the team.  By the standards of Instragram, the design of the hoodie she donned for Croatia's game against Morocco at the Al-Bayat stadium wasn't particularly revealing but it certainly caught the eye.  As if Gianni Infantino (b 1970) doesn't have enough to ponder, the former Miss Croatia tagged FIFA in her posts, fearing perhaps the FIFA president may not be among her 600,000 Instagram followers and her strategy seems to have had the desired effect although whether the design which, does cover her hair, shoulders and legs, will prove sufficiently demur to satisfy the local rules, isn't clear.   The guidance provided by FIFA indicated non-Qatari women don’t need to wear the abaya (the long, black robe), tops must cover their midriff and shoulders, and skirts, dresses or trousers must cover the knees and clothing should not be tight or reveal any cleavage.  In accordance with the rules or not, Ms Knoll proved a popular accessory for Qatari men seeking selfies.

Croatian FIFA World Cup 2022 strips, home (left) & away (right). 

On the basis of her Instagram posts, the German-born beauty wouldn't seem to be in compliance with the rules but thus far there's been no report of reaction from the authorities but if she has any problems, Sepp Blatter's (b 1936; FIFA president 1998-2015) lawyers may be available.  They seem pretty good.  Paradoxically, although the impressively pneumatic Ms Knoll generated much interest in her hoodie, had she worn an all-enveloping burka in the red & white checkerboard, it might have gained even more clicks.

Lindsay Lohan with ensigns, flags and pennants.

Checkered

Checkered (pronounced chek-erd)

(1) Marked by numerous and various shifts or changes; variegated; diversified in color; alternately light and shadowed.

(2) Figuratively, changeable; inconsistent, marked by dubious episodes; suspect in character or quality, often in the forms “a checkered career”, “a checkered past” etc.

(3) A fabric or other material marked with squares (most often in alternating black & white).

1350–1400: Check was from the Middle English chek & chekke, from the Old French eschek, eschec & eschac, from the Medieval Latin scaccus, from the Arabic شَاه‎ (šāh) (king (or check at chess); shah), from the Persian شاه‎ (šâh) (king, shah), from the Middle Persian mlkʾ & šāh, from the Old Persian xšāyaθiya (king), from the Proto-Indo-Iranian kšáyati (he rules, he has power over), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European tek- (to gain power over, gain control over).  The phrase “checkered past” appeared first in print in 1831 as a figurative use in the sense of “variegated with different qualities or events, having a character both good and bad”.  Checkered is an adjective.

Exchequer was from the Middle English escheker and eschequier, borrowed from the Anglo-French escheker and eschekier, derived from the Old French eschequier and escheccheck (chessboard, counting table).  Source was the Medieval Latin scaccarium (chess board).  The meaning with which it’s now most associated, government finances, emerged under the Norman kings of England, basis being the design of the cloth, divided in squares, covering the tables on which accounts of revenue were reckoned with counters.  These reminded all who saw them of a chess board and the name was adopted.  The English respelling with an -x- was because of the erroneous medieval belief that it originally was a Latin ex- word.

Flags in motorsport

Even in the digital age, flags continue to play a vital part in motorsport.  Despite progress, no more efficient or reliable system of has been found instantly to convey information to those in visual range.  The most commonly see flags are:

Green: Normal racing conditions apply.

Yellow: The hazard flag.  Its use varies according to the rules of the sanctioning body but in general: (1) it waved, it denotes a hazard on the racing surface, (2) if stationary a hazard near the racing surface and if two yellow flags are waved simultaneously, there’s a hazard (an object or person) blocking at least part of the racing surface.

Red and yellow vertical stripes: The oil flag.  It’s really the slipperiness flag because it’s used to warn of something on the surface (oil, coolant, sand, gravel, other fluids etc) which mean the track will offer less grip; despite that everybody calls it the oil flag.  Some sanctioning bodies display the flag until the hazard has cleared; others use it only for a couple of laps, the hazard beyond that point deemed "part of the track”.

Red: Stop the race.  This is usually done because a severe accident or natural conditions (weather, earthquake etc) mean it’s too dangerous to continue and, depending on the circumstances, drivers need either immediately to stop or slow to a safe speed and proceed to the pits.  Sometimes it’s used in conjunction with a yellow flag (there’s even a diagonally divided red and yellow flag for this purpose) to indicate the field should assemble for a re-start.

White: The white flag is a more recent innovation and generally is used either to inform drivers a slow moving vehicle is on the track or that it’s the start of the final lap.

Black: The solid black flag is shown to inform a drive they should return to the pits to serve a penalty for some infringement of the rules or to have the vehicle checked because of some concern.  The black flag with an orange disc in the centre (the so-called meatball flag) is used to call a vehicle to the pits to have some mechanical defect immediately rectified.  The meatball flag, either by explicit regulation or convention, is used only when the mechanical defect presents some real or immediate risk to drivers or spectators (oil leaks, protruding bodywork etc)  

Blue: If held in a static position, it tells the drive another vehicle is closely following.  If waved, it means another vehicle is attempting to overtake.

Checkered:  Also known as the chequered flag, the checkered flag indicates the end of a race.  Some sources suggest historically it was waved to acknowledge the race winner and held static to indicate to others the race had finished but there’s no evidence this practice was ever written into rules or even widely adopted and the checkered flag seems mostly to be waved.  The winner of a race is said to have “taken the checkered flag”.  Checkered flags are usually black and white and rendered in squares or rectangles but different color combinations have been used, sometimes to suit the needs of sponsors.  A noted innovation came in the 1980 Indianapolis 500 when two checkered flags were waved at race-end and the Indy series has adopted this as a standard.

Lindsay Lohan with fingernails in checkered flag pattern.

Various stories have been offered as the origin of the checkered flag in motorsport.  One suggests that in the horse-racing events popular at the large public picnics held during the settlement of the American mid-west during the nineteenth century, when the ladies were ready to serve lunch, they would wave large, checker-board tablecloths to inform the men food was ready and they competition should quickly be concluded.  As motorsport emerged as another amusement for men, because the early competitions were almost always held on dirt tracks, it’s said the contrasting colors of the checkerboard pattern were easier to see in a dusty environment and were thus ideal to signal the finish line.  Historians of the sport think these stories dubious on the basis of a lack of any contemporary evidence and for the some reason they’ve always been unwilling to give credence to any link with late nineteenth century bicycle racing in France.

British Admiralty Flag Chart.  

More convincing is the notion it may have been a borrowing from a naval flag signaling system and those of some admiralties did include a black (or blue) & white checkerboard to denote “Z” (ie final letter and thus the end in that sense).  It may be true or else, like many things, the checkered flag was chosen for its purpose at random.  What all agree upon is the documentary record.  The earliest known use of the checkered flag, based on the photographic record, is the one used to mark the end of the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race in Long Island, New York.

Manufacturers used the checkered flag to convey a sense of high performance and to suggest some link (which sometimes was real) with a competition history.

The flag of Croatia

A banner used in Croatia between 925-1102 (left), the current Croatian flag adopted after independence in 1990 (centre) and the Croatian naval ensign (1990).

One of the most ancient symbols to endure in modern nation flags is the red & white checkered pattern used to this day on the flag of Croatia.  The oldest known example dates from 925 and the pattern was used (with the odd interruption) for centuries, even when the country was a non-sovereign component of supranational states such as the Habsburg Empire.  A red star was used instead when Croatia was a part of comrade Marshall Tito’s (1892-1980) Jugoslavija (Yugoslavia) between 1945-1990 but the red & white checks were restored when independence was regained in 1990.

Ivana Knoll at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Noted Instagram influencer Ivana Knoll (b 1992) was a finalist in the Miss Croatia beauty contest in 2016 and for her appearances at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, chose a number of outfits using the national symbol of the red and white checkerboard, matching the home strip worn by the team.  By the standards of Instragram, the design of the hoodie she donned for Croatia's game against Morocco at the Al-Bayat stadium wasn't particularly revealing but it certainly caught the eye.  As if Gianni Infantino (b 1970) doesn't have enough to ponder, the former Miss Croatia tagged FIFA in her posts, fearing perhaps the FIFA president may not be among her 600,000 Instagram followers and her strategy seems to have had the desired effect although whether the design which, does cover her hair, shoulders and legs, will prove sufficiently demur to satisfy the local rules, isn't clear.   The guidance provided by FIFA indicated non-Qatari women don’t need to wear the abaya (the long, black robe), tops must cover their midriff and shoulders, and skirts, dresses or trousers must cover the knees and clothing should not be tight or reveal any cleavage.  In accordance with the rules or not, Ms Knoll proved a popular accessory for Qatari men seeking selfies.

Croatian FIFA World Cup 2022 strips, home (left) & away (right). 

On the basis of her Instagram posts, the German-born beauty wouldn't seem to be in compliance with the rules but thus far there's been no report of reaction from the authorities but if she has any problems, Sepp Blatter's (b 1936; FIFA president 1998-2015) lawyers may be available.  They seem pretty good.  Paradoxically, although the impressively pneumatic Ms Knoll generated much interest in her hoodie, had she worn an all-enveloping burka in the red & white checkerboard, it might have gained even more clicks.