Materiel

Materiel (pronounced muh-teer-ee-el)

(1) In military use, arms, ammunition, and military equipment in general.

(2) The aggregate of things used or needed in any business, undertaking, or operation as distinguished from personnel (rare).

1814: A borrowing from the French matériel (equipment; hardware), from the Old French, from the Late Latin māteriālis (material, made of matter), from the Classical Latin māteria (wood, material, substance) from māter (mother).  Ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European méhtēr (mother).  Technically, materiel refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply chain management, and typically supplies and equipment only in a commercial context but it tends most to be used to describe military hardware and then to items specific to military use (ie not the office supplies etc used by armed forces personnel).  Materiel is a noun; the noun plural is materiels.

Illustrating military materiel: Lindsay Lohan does Top Gun by BlueWolfRanger95 on Deviant Art.  An aircraft is materiel as is a pilot's flight kit.  Just about every piece of equipment in this photo would be classed as materiel except perhaps the aviator sunglasses (may be a gray area).  Even non-combat, formal attire like dress shirts and ties are regarded by most military supply systems as materiel so materiel can be made from material.

Materiel is sometime notoriously, scandalously and even fraudulently expensive, tales of the Pentagon's purchase of US$1000 screwdrivers, toilet seats and such legion.  Of late though, there have been some well-publicized economies, the US Navy's latest Virgina-class submarine using an Xbox controller for the operation of its periscope rather than the traditional photonic mast system and imaging control panel.  The cost saving is approximately US$38,000 and there's the advantages (1) replacements are available over-the-counter at video game stores world-wide, (2) the young sailors operating the controller are almost all familiar with its feel and behavior and (3) the users report its much better to use than the heavy, clunky and less responsive standard device.  In the military context, materiel refers either to the specific needs (excluding manpower) of a force to complete a specific mission, or the general sense of the needs (excluding personnel) of a functioning force.  Materiel management is an all-encompassing term covering planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, controlling, and evaluating the application of resources to ensure the effective and economical support of military forces. It includes provisioning, storing, requirements determination, acquisition, distribution, maintenance, and disposal.  In the military, the terms "materiel management", "materiel control", "inventory control", "inventory management", and "supply management" are synonymous.

DPRK personnel: DPRK female soldiers stepping out, seventieth anniversary military parade, Pyongyang, September 2018.  Note the sensible shoes, an indication of the Supreme Leader’s thoughtfulness.

The French origins of materiel and personnel are usefully illustrative.  The French matériel (the totality of things used in the carrying out of any complex art or technique (as distinguished from the people involved in the process(es))) is a noun use of the adjectival matériel and a later borrowing of the same word that became the more familiar noun material. By 1819, the specific sense of "articles, supplies, machinery etc. used in the military" had become established.  The 1837 personnel (body of persons engaged in any service) is from the French personnel and was originally specific to the military, a contrastive term to materiel and a noun use of the adjectival personnel (personal), from the Old French personel.

DPRK materiel: Mock ups of the Pukguksong-5 SLBM displayed at military parade Thursday to mark the conclusion of the North Korea’s Workers’ Party congress (the first since 2016), Pyongyang, January 2021.

In January 2021, the DPRK (North Korea) included in a military parade, what appeared to be mock-ups of what’s described as the Supreme Leader’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the supposedly new Pukguksong-5.  Apparently, and predictably, an evolution of the Pukguksong-4 paraded a few months earlier, although retaining a similar 6 foot (1.8m) diameter, the payload shroud appeared about 28 inches (700mm) longer, suggesting the new SLBM’s estimated length is circa 35 feet (10.6m).  Given the constraints of submarine launch systems, the dimensions are broadly in line with expectations but do hint the DPRK has yet to finalise a design for its next-generation SLBM.  Nor have there been recent reports of the regime testing any big solid-rocket motors, this thought to confirm the views of Western analysts that development is in the early stages.

Pukguksong-4, October 2020.

As a brute force device, with performance measured merely by explosive force, based on the dimensions, it’s possible the DPRK could match similarly sized Western SLBMs.  However, the US Navy’s Poseidon multiple-warhead SLBM, which uses two solid-fuel stages and has a range of over 2800 miles (4800 km), uses very high-energy propellants and a light-weight structure, directed by sophisticated navigation, guidance and control systems.  It features also some very expensive engineering tricks such as rocket exhaust nozzles submerged within the rocket stages, reducing the length, thereby allowing it to be deployed in the confined launch tube.  Lacking the US’s technological and industrial capacity, the Pukguksong-5 is expected to be more rudimentary in design, construction, and propellant technology, range therefore likely not to exceed 1900 miles (3000 km) and almost certainly it won’t be capable of achieving the same precision in accuracy.

Accouterment

Accouterment (pronounced uh-koo-ter-muhnt or uh-koo-truh-muhnt)

(1) A clothing accessory or a piece of equipment regarded as an accessory (sometimes essential, sometimes not, depending on context).

(2) In military jargon, a piece of equipment carried by a soldier, excluding weapons and items of uniform.

(3) By extension, an identifying yet superficial characteristic; a characteristic feature, object, or sign associated with a particular niche, role, situation etc.

(4) The act of accoutering; furnishing (archaic since Middle English).

1540-1550: From the Middle French accoutrement & accoustrement, from accoustrer, from the Old French acostrer (arrange, sew up).  As in English, in French, the noun accoutrement was used usually in the plural (accoutrements) in the sense of “personal clothing and equipment”, from accoustrement, from accoustrer, from the Old French acostrer (arrange, dispose, put on (clothing); sew up).  In French, the word was used in a derogatory way to refer to “over-elaborate clothing” but was used neutrally in the kitchen, chefs using the word of additions to food which enhanced the flavor.  The verb accouter (also accoutre) (to dress or equip" (especially in military uniforms and other gear), was from the French acoutrer, from the thirteenth century acostrer (arrange, dispose, put on (clothing)), from the Vulgar Latin accosturare (to sew together, sew up), the construct being ad- (to) + consutura (a sewing together), from consutus, past participle of consuere (to sew together), the construct being con- + suere (to sew), from the primitive Indo-European root syu- (to bind, sew).  The Latin prefix con- was from the preposition cum (with), from the Old Latin com, from the Proto-Italic kom, from the primitive Indo- European ḱóm (next to, at, with, along).  It was cognate with the Proto-Germanic ga- (co-), the Proto-Slavic sъ(n) (with) and the Proto-Germanic hansō.  It was used with certain words to add a notion similar to those conveyed by with, together, or joint or with certain words to intensify their meaning.  The synonyms include equipment, gear, trappings & accessory.  The spelling accoutrement (accoutrements the plural) remains common in the UK and much of the English-speaking world which emerged from the old British Empire; the spelling in North America universally is accouterement.  The English spelling reflects the French pronunciation used in the sixteenth century.  Accouterment is a noun; the noun plural (by far the most commonly used form) is accouterments.

In the military, the equipment supplied to (and at different times variously worn or carried by) personnel tends to be divided into "materiel" and "accouterments".  Between countries, at the margins, there are differences in classification but as a general principle:  Materiel: The core equipment, supplies, vehicles, platforms etc used by a military force to conduct its operations.  This definition casts a wide vista and covers everything from a bayonet to an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), from motorcycles to tanks and from radio equipment to medical supplies.  Essentially, in the military, “materiel” is used broadly to describe tangible assets and resources used in the core business of war.  Accouterments: These are the items or accessories associated with a specific activity or role.  Is some cases, an item classified as an accouterment could with some justification be called materiel and there is often a tradition associated with the classification.  In the context of clothing for example, the basic uniform is materiel whereas things like belts, holsters, webbing and pouches are accouterments, even though the existence of these pieces is essential to the efficient operation of weapons which are certainly materiel.

The My Scene Goes Hollywood Lindsay Lohan Doll was supplied with a range of accessories and accouterments.  Items like sunglasses, handbags, shoes & boots, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and the faux fur "mullet" frock-coat were probably accessories.  The director's chair, laptop, popcorn, magazines, DVD, makeup case, stanchions (with faux velvet rope) and such were probably accouterments.

In the fashion business, one perhaps might be able to create the criteria by which it could be decided whether a certain item should be classified as “an accessory” or “an “accouterment” but it seems a significantly pointless exercise and were one to reverse the index, a list of accessories would likely be as convincing as a list of accouterments.  Perhaps the most plausible distinction would be to suggest accessories are items added to an outfit to enhance or complete the look (jewelry, handbags, scarves, hats, sunglasses, belts et al) while accouterments are something thematically related but in some way separate; while one might choose the same accessories for an outfit regardless of the event to be attended, the choice of accouterments might be event-specific.  So, the same scarf might be worn because it works so well with the dress but the binoculars would be added only if going to the races, the former an accessory to the outfit, the latter an accouterment for a day at the track.  That seems as close as possible to a working definition but many will continue to use the terms interchangeably.

Philadelphus

Philadelphus (pronounced fil-ah-del-fiss)

(1) Any shrub of the temperate genus Philadelphus, cultivated for their strongly scented showy flowers (family Hydrangeaceae).

(2) As Philadelphus coronaries (mock orange), a deciduous, early summer-flowering shrub with arching branches that bear racemes of richly scented, cup-shaped, pure white flowers in profusion with finely toothed, bright green foliage.  The plant is grown for its ornamental value.

(3) A male given name with origins in the Ancient Greek.

1600s (in botanical use): From the Ancient Greek Φιλάδελφος (Philádelphos) (brotherly love) & philadelphon (loving one’s brother).  Philadelphus is a proper noun.

Philadelphus coronaries (mock orange) in flower.

The mock orange plant has long been valued for its decorative and functional properties.  Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; US president 1801-1809) was a keen gardener and horticulturalist of some note and on 19 April 1807 noted in his “garden book”: “Planted 9 Philadelphus coronarium, Mock orange in the 4 circular beds of shrubs at the 4 corners of the house.”  Although the origin is uncertain, biologists suspect the strong growing, medium-sized shrub is native either to northern Italy, Austria & Central Romania or Central & North America and Asia; in Europe & North America it has been cultivated at least the sixteenth century.  Before modern standards of taxonomy were codified in the eighteenth century, the plant was classified under the genus Syringa (covering the species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae (commonly called lilacs) and a typically comprehensive description was recorded by Lady (Jean) Skipwith (circa 1748–1826), a Virginia plantation owner and manager still celebrated among botanists for her extensive garden, botanical manuscript notes, and library, the latter reputedly the largest at the time assembled by a woman.  Lady Skipwith called the plant a “Syringa or mock orange” while the US naturalist, explorer & explorer William Bartram (1739–1823) preferred the former, reflecting a scientist’s reverence for anything Greek or Latin.  Syringa was from the stem of the Latin syrinx, from the Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sûrinx) (shepherd's pipe, quill), the name reflecting the use of the plant's hollow stem to make pipes, flutes & tube.  In modern use, “Mock Orange” tends to be preferred by most, the name derived from the fragrance of the flowers being so reminiscent of orange blossoms.  The origin of the scientific name “Philadelphus” (first applied in the early seventeenth century) is attributed usually to being a tribute to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Ptolemaîos Philádelphos (Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος in the Ancient Greek) 309-246 BC, pharaoh (king) of Ptolemaic Egypt (284-246 BC), said to be a keen gardener (which can be translated as “he kept many slaves to tend his gardens”).

The literal translation of the Greek philadelphon was “loving one’s brother”, something used in the sense of “brotherhood of man” as well as when referring to family relationships.  For the pharaoh, the use was a little more nuanced because, after some earlier marital problems, he married his older sister Arsinoe II (316-circa 269 BC).  This appalled the Greeks who condemned the arrangement as incestuous and the couple thus picked up the appellation Philadelphoi (Φιλάδελφοι in the Koinē Greek (sibling-lovers)).  Historians however are inclined to be forgiving and suggest the union was purely for administrative convenience, Egyptian political & dynastic struggles as gut-wrenching as anywhere and there’s no evidence the marriage was ever consummated.  Just to make sure there was the appropriately regal gloss, the spin doctors of the royal court circulated documents citing earlier such marriages between the gods (such as Zeus & Hera).  It certainly set a precedent and the intra-family model was followed by a number of later Ptolemaic monarchs and the practice didn’t end.  The scandalous marriage of Heraclius (circa 575–641; Byzantine emperor 610-641) to his youthful niece Martina resulted in her becoming “the most hated woman in Constantinople” and it was a union certainly consummated for “of the nine children she bore her husband, only three were healthy, the rest either deformed or died in infancy.”

The Philadelphi corridor

The Latin proper noun Philadelphi was the genitive/locative singular of Philadelphus.  In 2024 use spiked because the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) use “Philadelphi Corridor” as military code for the narrow (14 km (9 miles) long & 100 m (110 yards) wide) stretch of land used to separate the Gaza Strip from Egypt; it runs from the Mediterranean coast to the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel and includes the Rafah crossing into Egypt.  The IDF created the corridor (from Gaza territory) as a “buffer zone” (or “cordon sanitaire”), ostensibly to prevent the Hamas, the PIJ (Palestine Islamic Jihad) and others smuggling weapons and other contraband into Gaza through a remarkable network of underground tunnels.  The corridor assumed great significance after Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 and later after its disengagement from Gaza in 2005; it has long been among the more contested spaces in the Middle East.  According to the IDF, the term “Philadelphi Corridor” was allocated during a routine military planning conference and the choice was wholly arbitrarily with no historical or geographical significance related to the region or any individual.

Just because a military say a code-name has no particular meaning doesn’t mean that’s true; the IDF is no different to any military.  The most obvious possible inspiration for the “Philadelphi corridor” was the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus but one influence may have been cartographic, the geographic shapes of the Gaza Strip (left) and the US city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (right) quite similar and were the monstrosities Northwest, West & Southwest Philadelphia to be annexed by adjacent counties, the shapes of the two would be closer still.  

Lindsay Lohan in Philadelphia, 2012.

The Philadelphi corridor has assumed a new importance because Benjamin Netanyahu (b 1949; Israeli prime minister 1996-1999, 2009-2021 and since 2022) has added Israeli control of it to his list of pre-conditions for any ceasefire in negotiations between his government and the Hamas.  It was designated as a demilitarised border zone after the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and troops from Gaza in 2005, prior to which, under the terms of Israel’s Camp David peace treaty with Egypt (1979), the IDF had been allowed to maintain limited troop formations in corridor but without heavy weapons or heavy armour.  Old Ariel Sharon (1928–2014; prime minister of Israel 2001-2006) arranged the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza subsequently forming the Kadima (Forward) political party because he could persuade the Likud (The Consolidation) party to follow his vision.  Very much a personal vehicle for Mr Sharon, Kadima did not survive his incapacitation from a stroke while the Likud fell into the hands of Mr Netanyahu.  Following the Israeli withdrawal, responsibility for the corridor’s security fell to Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, this maintained until the Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007; it was seized by Israel in May 2024 as the IDF’s Gaza ground offensive extended into Rafah.

Over the years, the tunnel complex has proved a remarkably effective means by which to facilitate cross-border smuggling of weapons, other materiel, fuel and a variety of stuff including food, medicine and consumer goods, despite many attempts by the IDF and Egyptian authorities to end the traffic, the latter perhaps a little less fastidious in their endeavours.  The tunnels are impressive pieces of civil engineering, including electricity, ventilation systems, air-conditioning and communications facilities; some are sufficient large to allow heavy trucks to pass and there has long been speculation about the extent to which financial and logistical support for tunnel construction, maintenance & repair is channelled from the Gulf Arab states.  In Cairo, the government viewed the IDF’s seizure of the corridor with some alarm and remain a “status quo” power, insistent that an ongoing Israeli presence will “endanger” the Camp David peace treaty, no small matter because the “ripple effect” of the 1979 agreement had profound consequences in the region.

Pointing the way: Mr Netanyahu (left) explains the Philadelphi corridor (right).      

Still, Mr Netanyahu has made clear he intends to maintain a military presence in the corridor (including the Rafah crossing) and that remains an unnegotiable condition for a ceasefire with the Hamas; opposition to this stance has come from Cario, the Hamas and some of the third parties involved in the negotiation.  In Tel Aviv, that would not have been unexpected but there is now an increasingly persistent protest movement among Israeli citizens, the allegation being the prime-minister is cynically adding conditions he knows the Hamas will be compelled to reject because as long as the war continues, he can remain in office and avoid having to face the courts to answer some troubling accusations pre-dating the conflict.  Mr Netanyahu responded to this criticism by saying as long as the Hamas remained a threat (later refined to “as long as Hamas remained in control of Gaza”), the offensive needed to continue.  One of the great survivors of Middle East politics, Mr Netanyahu recently assured the more extreme of his coalition partners (described as “right-wing” which, historically, is misleading but descriptive in the internal logic of Israeli politics) by engineering a vote in cabinet binding Israel to retaining control of the corridor.  Despite this, opposition within the cabinet to the ongoing “moving of the goalposts” to prevent any possibility of a ceasefire is said to be growing.  The opposition accused the prime-minister of being more concerned with placating the extremists in his government than securing the release of the remaining hostages seized by the Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attack and left unstated but understood by implication was the message Mr Netanyahu regards them as the “collateral damage” in his manoeuvres to avoid the courts.

Deadline

Deadline (pronounced ded-lahyn)

(1) The time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something.

(2) A line or limit that must not be passed; a time limit for any activity.

(3) Historically, a boundary around a military prison beyond which a prisoner could not venture without the risk of being shot by the guards.

(4) A guideline marked on a plate for a printing press, indicating the point beyond which text would not be printed (archaic).

(5) Historically, a fishing line that has not for some time moved (indicating it might not be a productive place to go fishing).

(6) In military use, to render an item non-mission-capable; to remove materiel from the active list (available to be tasked); to ground an aircraft etc.

1864: The construct was dead + line.  Dead was from the Middle English ded, from the Old English dead (having ceased to live (also “torpid, dull” and of water “still, standing, not flowing”), from the Proto-Germanic daudaz (source also of the Old Saxon dod, the Danish død, the Swedish död, the Old Frisian dad, the Middle Dutch doot, the Dutch dood, the Old High German & German tot, the Old Norse dauðr and the Gothic dauþs), a past-participle adjective based on dau-, which (though this is contested by etymologists) may be from the primitive Indo-European dheu- (to die).  Line (in this context) was from the Middle English line & lyne, from the Old English līne (line, cable, rope, hawser, series, row, rule, direction), from the Proto-West Germanic līnā, from the Proto-Germanic līnǭ (line, rope, flaxen cord, thread), from the Proto-Germanic līną (flax, linen), from the primitive Indo-European līno- (flax).  The development in Middle English was influenced by the Middle French ligne (line), from the Latin linea (linen thread, string, plumb-line (also “a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent”)).  The earliest sense in Middle English was “a cord used by builders for taking measurements” which by the late fourteenth century extended to “a thread-like mark” which led to the notion of “a track, course, direction; a straight line.  The sense of a “limit, boundary” dates from the 1590s add was applied to the geographical lines drawn to divide counties.  The mathematical sense of “length without breadth” (ie describing the line drawn between points (dimensionless places in space)) was formalized in the 1550s and in the 1580s the “equatorial line was used to describe the Earth’s equator."  Other languages including Dutch, Finnish, Italian & Polish picked up deadline from English in unaltered form while the word also entered use in many countries for use in specific industries (journalism, publishing, television, printing etc).  Deadline & deadliner are nouns; deadlining & deadlined are verbs and postdeadline is an adjective; the noun plural is deadlines.

In the oral tradition, a deadline (which probably should be recorded as “dead line”) was a fishing line which for some time after being cast, hadn’t moved, indicating it might not be a productive place to go fishing.  The source of the first formalised meaning (a line which must not be crossed) was a physical line, the defined perimeter boundary line of prisoner of war (PoW) caps during the US Civil War (1861-1865): Any prisoner going beyond the “deadline” was liable to being shot (and thus perhaps recorded as “SWATE” (shot while attempting to escape).  Despite the name, the Civil War records indicate the deadline was rarely marked-out as a physical, continuous line but was instead defined by markers such as trees, signposts or features of the physical environment.  However, the word appears not to have caught on in any sense until 1917 when it was used to describe the guideline on the bed of printing presses which delineated the point past which text would not print.  It seems that the word migrated from the print room to the news room because by 1920 it was used in journalism in the familiar modern sense of a time limit: Copy provided after a specified time would not appear in the printed edition because it has “missed the deadline”.  From this use emerged “postdeadline” (after the deadline has passed) which sometimes existed on a red stamp an editor would use when returning copy to a tardy journalist, “deadliner” (a journalist notorious for submitting copy only seconds before a deadline) and the “deadline fighter” (a journalist who habitually offered reasons why their postdeadline copy should be accepted for publication).  Writers often dread deadlines but there are those who become sufficiently successful to not be intimidated.  The English author Douglas Adams (1952–2001), famous for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992) wrote in the posthumously published collection The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time (2002): “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by”.  Few working journalists enjoy that luxury.  Other similar expressions include “zero hour”, “cut-off date” and the unimaginative “time limit”.  Deadline was unusual in that it was one of the few examples of the word “dead” being used as a word-forming element in its literal sense, another being “deadman”, a device used mostly in railways to ensure a train is graceful brought to a controlled stop in the event of the driver’s death on incapacitation.

The meaning shift in deadline was an example of an element of a word used originally in its literal sense (dead men SWATE) changing into something figurative.  Other examples of the figurative use of the element include “dead leg”, deadlock, dead loss, dead load, dead lift, dead ringer, dead heat and dead light.  The interesting term “dead letter” has several meanings.  In the New Testament it was used by the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 3:6) to contrast written, secular law with the new covenant of the spirit.  Paul’s argument was that legal statutes, without the Spirit, were powerless to bring about salvation and were therefore “dead letter” whereas the new covenant, based on the Spirit, brings life:  “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6).  So, law devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit to interpret and apply it is a “dead letter” that can never be transformative, unlike the new covenant which is based on a living relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

In a post office, a “dead letter” (which can be a “dead parcel”) is an item of mail which can neither be delivered to its intended recipient nor returned to the sender, usually because the addresses are incorrect or the recipient has moved without leaving a forwarding address.  Within postal systems, there is usually a “dead letter office” a special department dedicated to identifying and locating the sender or recipient.  If neither can be found and the item is unclaimed after a certain time (and in many systems there are deadlines), it may be opened and examined for any identifying information that could be used to identify either and if this proves unsuccessful, depending on its nature, the item may be destroyed or sent to public auction.  Beyond the Pauline and the postman, “dead letter” is a phrase which refers to (1) a law or regulation which nominally still exists but is no longer observed or enforced and (2) anything obsolescent or actually obsolete (floppy diskettes, fax machines et al).  In law, some examples are quite famous such as jurisdictions which retain the death penalty but never perform executions.  There have also been cases of attempting to use the “dead letter” law as an expression of public policy: In Australia, as late as 1997, the preferred position of the Tasmanian state government was that acts of homosexuality committed by men should remain unlawful and in the Criminal Code but that none would be prosecuted, the argument being it was important to maintain the expression of public disapproval of such things even if it was acknowledged criminal sanction was no longer appropriate.  There may have been a time when such an approach made political sense but even before 1997, that time had passed.  As is often the case, law reform was induced by generational change.

Founded in 2009 (an earlier incarnation Deadline Hollywood Daily had operated as a blog since 2006), deadline.com is a US film and entertainment news & gossip site now owned by Penske Media Corporation.

Peanut

Peanut (pronounced pee-nuht)

(1) The pod or the enclosed edible seed of the plant, Arachis hypogaea, of the legume family, native to the tropical Americas (and probably of South American origin).  During the plant’s growth, the pod is forced underground where it ripens.  The edible, nut-like seed is used for food and as a source of oil (historically known variously also as the pinder, pinda and goober (used south of the Mason-Dixon Line (originally as “goober pea)), earthnut, groundnut & monkey nut (pre-World War II (1939-1945) UK use).

(2) The plant itself.

(3) Any small or insignificant person or thing; something petty.

(4) In US slang, a very small clam.

(5) In slang, barbiturates (recorded also of other substances delivered in small pills).

(6) In slang, small pieces of Styrofoam used as a packing material (known also as the “packing peanut”).

(7) Of or relating to the peanut or peanuts.

(8) Made with or from peanuts.

1790–1800: The construct may have been pea (in the sense of the small green vegetable) + nut but may etymologists think it was more likely a folk etymology of pinda or pinder, both forms still in dialectal use south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The plant is apparently native to South America and it was Portuguese traders who early in the sixteenth century took peanuts from Brazil and Peru to Africa by 1502.  Its cultivation in Chekiang (an eastern coastal province of China) was recorded as early as 1573 and the crop probably arrived with the Portuguese ships which docked there.  According to the broadcaster Alistair Cooke (1908–2004), The spellings pea nut & pea-nut are obsolete.  Peanut is a noun & verb. Peanutted & peanutting are verbs and peanutty & peanutlike are adjectives; the noun plural is peanuts.

The word appears in many aspects of modern culture including “circus peanut” (a type of commercial candy), “cocktail peanuts” (commercially packaged salted nuts served (for free) in bars to heighten thirst and thus stimulate beverage sales (also known generically as “beer nuts”)), “peanut butter” (a spread made from ground peanuts and known also as “peanut paste”), “peanut butter and jelly” (a sandwich made with jelly (jam or conserve) spread on one slice and peanut butter on the other), “small peanuts” (very small amount (always in the plural), “peanut milk” (a milky liquid made from peanuts and used as a milk substitute), peanut brittle (a type of brittle (confection) containing peanuts in a hard toffee), “peanut butter cup” (a chocolate candy with peanut butter filling), “peanut bunker” (a small menhaden (a species of fish)), “hog peanut” (a plant native to eastern North America that produces edible nut-like seeds both above & below ground (Amphicarpaea bracteata)), “peanut worm” ( sipunculid worm; any member of phylum Sipuncula. (Sipuncula spp), “peanut cactus” (a cactus of species Chamaecereus silvestrii), “peanut ball” (in athletics & strength training, an exercise ball comprised of two bulbous lobes and a narrower connecting portion), “peanut marzipan” (a peanut confection made with crushed peanuts & sugar, popular in Central & South America), “peanut whistle” (in the slang of the ham radio and citizens band (CB) radio communities, a low-powered transmitter or receiver, “peanut tree” (A tree of the species Sterculia quadrifida), “peanut-headed lanternfly” (In entomology, a species of Neotropical fulgorid planthopper (Fulgora laternaria)) and peanut tube (in electronics, a type of small vacuum tube).

Herbert (HW) Horwill’s (1864-1943) A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (1935) was written as kind of trans-Atlantic companion to Henry Fowler’s (1858–1933) classic A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) and was one of the earliest volumes to document on a systematic basis the variations and dictions between British and American English.  The book was a kind of discussion about the phrase “England and America are two countries separated by one language” attributed to George Bernard Shaw (GBS; 1856-1950) although there are doubts about that.  Horwill had an entry for “peanut” which he noted in 1935 was common in the US but unknown in the UK where it was known as the “monkey nut”.  According to the broadcaster Alistair Cooke (1908–2004), the world “peanut” became a thing in the UK during the early 1940s when the US government included generous quantities of the then novel peanut butter in the supplies of foodstuffs included in the Lend-Lease arrangements.

In idiomatic use, the phrase “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” is used to suggest that if only low wages are offered for a role, high quality applicants are unlike to be attracted to the position.  The phrase “peanut gallery” is one of a number which have enter the language from the theatre.  The original Drury Lane theatre in London where William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) were staged was built on the site of a notorious cockpit (the place where gamecocks fought, spectators gambling on the outcome) and even before this bear and bull-baiting pits had been used for theatrical production of not the highest quality.  That’s the origin of the “pit” in this context being the space at the rear of the orchestra circle, the pit sitting behind the more desirable stalls.  By the Elizabethan era (1558-1603), the poor often sat on the ground (under an open sky) while the more distant raised gallery behind them contained the seats which were cheaper still; that’s the origin of the phrase “playing to the gallery” which describes an appeal to those with base, uncritical tastes although “gallery god” (an allusion to the paintings of the gods of antiquity which were on the gallery’s wall close to the ceiling) seems to be extinct.  The “peanut gallery” (the topmost (ie the most distant and thus cheapest) rows of a theatre) was a coining in US English dating from 1874 because it was the habit of the audience to cast upon to the stage the shells of the peanuts they’d been eating although whether this was ad-hoc criticism or general delinquency isn’t known.  The companion phrase was “hush money”, small denomination coins tossed onto the stage as a “payment” to silence an actor whose performance was judged substandard.  “Hush money” of course has endured to be re-purposed, now used of the payments such as the one made by Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021; president elect 2024) to Stormy Daniels (stage name of Stephanie Gregory, b 1979).

Chairman Mao Zedong (left) and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (right), celebrating the Japanese surrender, Chongqing, China, September 1945.  After this visit, they would never meet again.

Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (1883–1946) was a US Army general who was appointed chief of staff to the Chinese Nationalist Leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) (Generalissimo was a kind of courtesy title acknowledging his position as supreme leader of his armed forces; officially his appointment in 1935 was as 特級上將 (Tèjí shàng jiàng) (high general special class)).  Stilwell’s role was to attempt to coordinate the provision of US funds and materiel to Chiang with the objectives of having the Chinese Nationalist forces operate against the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma (now known usually as Myanmar).  Unfortunately, the generalissimo viewed the Chinese communists under Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong 1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976) as a more immediate threat than that of Nippon and his support for US strategy was no always wholehearted. 

So Stilwell didn’t have an easy task and in his reports to Washington DC referred to Chiang as “Peanut”.  Apparently, “peanut” had originally been allocated to Chiang as one of the army’s random code-names with no particular meaning but greatly it appealed to Stillwell who warmed to the metaphorical possibilities, once recorded referring to Chiang and his creaking military apparatus as “...a peanut perched on top of a dung heap...”  That about summed up Stillwell’s view of Chiang and his “army” and in his diary he noted a military crisis “would be worth it” were the situation “…just sufficient to get rid of the Peanut without entirely wrecking the ship…”  A practical man, his plans extended even to assassinating the generalissimo although these were never brought to fruition.  Eventually, Stilwell was recalled to Washington while Chiang fought on against the communists until 1949 when the Nationalists were forced to flee across the straits of Formosa to the Island of Taiwan, the “renegade province” defying the CCP in Beijing to this day.  Stillwell did have one final satisfaction before being sacked, in 1944 handing Chiang an especially wounding letter from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, US president 1933-1945), the reaction so pleasing he was moved to write a poem:

I have waited long for vengeance,
At last I've had my chance.
I've looked the Peanut in the eye
And kicked him in the pants.
 
The old harpoon was ready
With aim and timing true,
I sank it to the handle,
And stung him through and through.
 
The little bastard shivered,
And lost the power of speech.
His face turned green and quivered
As he struggled not to screech.
 
For all my weary battles,
For all my hours of woe,
At last I've had my innings
And laid the Peanut low.
 
I know I've still to suffer,
And run a weary race,
But oh! the blessed pleasure!
I've wrecked the Peanut's face.

Phobias

One who suffers a morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth is said to be an arachibutyrophobe.  Phobias need not be widely diagnosed conditions; they need only be specific and, even if suffered by just one soul in the world, the criteria are fulfilled.  In this sense, phobias are analogous with syndromes.  A phobia is an anxiety disorder, an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to certain objects or situations.  The phobia may be triggered either by the cause or an anticipation of the specific object or situation.

Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998) introduced the culinary novelty of peanut butter spread on Oreos; an allure appalled arachibutyrophobes avoid.

The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)) made some interesting definitional changes from the earlier DSM-4 (1994):  (1) A patient no longer needs to acknowledge their anxiety is excessive or unreasonable in order to receive a diagnoses, it being required only that their anxiety must be “out of proportion” to the actual threat or danger (in its socio-cultural context).  (2) Symptoms must now, regardless of age, last at least six months.  (3) The diagnostic criteria for social phobias no longer specify that age at onset must be before eighteen, a change apparently necessitated by the substantial increase in reporting by older adults with the DSM editors noting the six-month duration threshold exists to minimize the over-diagnosis of transient fears.

Whether it was already something widely practiced isn’t known but Lindsay Lohan is credited with introducing to the world the culinary novelty Oreos & peanut butter in The Parent Trap.  According to the director, it was added to the script “…for no reason other than it sounded weird and some cute kid would do it."  Like some other weirdnesses, the combination has a cult following and for those who enjoy peanut butter but suffer arachibutyrophobia, Tastemade have provided a recipe for Lindsay Lohan-style Oreos with a preparation time (including whisking) of 2 hours.  They take 20 minutes to cook and in this mix there are 8 servings (scale ingredients up to increase the number of servings).

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus more for dusting)
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Filling Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup unsweetened smooth peanut butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of kosher salt (omit if using salted peanut butter)

Filling Instructions

(1) With a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, the butter & peanut butter until creamy.

(2) Gradually add powdered sugar and beat to combine, then beat in vanilla and salt.

Whisking the mix.

Instructions

(1) Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

(2) In small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder & salt.

(3) In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture and beat until just combined (it should remain somewhat crumbly).

(4) Pour mixture onto a work surface and knead until it’s “all together”; wrap half in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

(5) Lightly dust surface and the top of the dough with a 1:1 mixture of cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

(6) Working swiftly and carefully, roll out dough to a ¼-½ inch (6-12 mm) thickness and cut out 2 inch (50 mm) rounds.  Transfer them to the baking sheets, 1 inch (25 mm) apart (using a small offset spatula helps with this step). Re-roll scraps and cut out more rounds, the repeat with remaining half of the dough.

(7) Bake cookies until the tops are no longer shiny ( about 20 minutes), then cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack completely to cool.

(8) To assemble, place half the cookies on a plate or work surface.

(9) Pipe a blob of filling (about 2 teaspoons) onto the tops of each of these cookies and then place another cookie on top, pressing slightly but not to the extent filled oozes from the sides.

(10) Refrigerate for a few minutes to allow the filling to firm up.  Store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.

The manufacturer embraced the idea of peanut butter Oreos and has released versions, both with the classic cookie and a peanut butter & jelly (jam) variation paired with its “golden wafers”.  As well as Lindsay Lohan’s contribution, Oreos have attracted the interest of mathematicians.  Nabisco in 1974 introduced the Double Stuf Oreo, the clear implication being a promise the variety contained twice crème filling supplied in the original.  However, a mathematician undertook the research and determined Double Stuf Oreos contained only 1.86 times the volume of filling of a standard Oreo.  Despite that, the company survived the scandal and the Double Stuf Oreo’s recipe wasn’t adjusted.

Scandalous in its own way was that an April 2022 research paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids wasn’t awarded that year’s Ig Nobel Prize for physics, the honor taken by Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji & Atilla Incecik, for their admittedly ground-breaking (or perhaps water-breaking) work in explaining how ducklings manage to swim in formation.  More deserving surely were Crystal Owens, Max Fan, John Hart & Gareth McKinley who introduced to physics the discipline of Oreology (the construct being Oreo + (o)logy).  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  Oreology is the study of the flow and fracture of sandwich cookies and the research proved it is impossible to split the cream filling of an Oreo cookie down the middle.

An Oreo on a rheometer.

The core finding in Oreology was that the filling always adheres to one side of the wafer, no matter how quickly one or both cookies are twisted.  Using a rheometer (a laboratory instrument used to measure the way in which a viscous fluid (a liquid, suspension or slurry) flows in response to applied forces), it was determined creme distribution upon cookie separation by torsional rotation is not a function of rate of rotation, creme filling height level, or flavor, but was mostly determined by the pre-existing level of adhesion between the creme and each wafer.  The research also noted that were there changes to the composition of the filling (such as the inclusion of peanut butter) would influence the change from adhesive to cohesive failure and presumably the specifics of the peanut butter chosen (smooth, crunchy, extra-crunchy, un-salted (although the organic varieties should behave in a similar way to their mass-market equivalents)) would have some effect because the fluid dynamics would change.  The expected extent of the change would be appear to be slight but until further research is performed, this can’t be confirmed.