Meme

Meme (pronounced meem)

(1) Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted orally or by repeated action (by imitation) from one mind to another, through generations, in a manner comparable to the transmission of genes; the synonym is culturgen

(2) On the internet, a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase etc, that is spread and often altered in a creative or humorous way.

(3) In Internet slang, a derogatory term to describe something not to be taken seriously (meme job, meme degree etc).

(4) To turn into a meme; to use a meme.

1976: From the Ancient Greek mīmeîsthai (to imitate, copy) and a shortening of mimeme, from the Ancient Greek μίμημα (mīmēma) (imitated thing) from μιμεῖσθαι (mīmeîsthai) (to imitate), from μῖμος (mimos) (imitation, copy; mime).  Structurally, the word was shortened (following the model of gene) from mimeme and anglicized to emulate the form of a noun derived from the Ancient Greek mīméomai with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos).  The word was coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (b 1941) and used first in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.  The construct was m(ime) +‎ -eme and Dawkins apologized to classical scholars for what they would think a most improper form, explaining he wanted something monosyllabic and if they preferred they could think of it as related to the French word même (“same or alike” although the meaning does shift with the context of use).  Helpfully, he added it should be pronounced to rhyme with “cream”.  In the way English forms proliferate (often with short lives) on the internet, meme has been the source of many coining including dank meme, memeable, memedom, memesque, meme-maker, memeable, memed, memeplex, meme-pool, memescape, memetic, memeworthy, memey, memome & memeable.  Meme is a noun & verb; the noun plural is memes 

Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) & crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

The more widely used concept of “a cultural fragment distributed on the internet” was created by lawyer Michael Godwin (b 1956) of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and was first documented in 1994, use beginning to spike in 1997.  Godwin was the author also of Godwin's law (rule) which states that the longer an online exchange lasts, the greater the probability that some comparison with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) or the Nazi regime will be invoked.  There’s some evidence suggesting the rule may not (statistically) operate as described but it remains a useful tool for determining the point at which a discussion has passed a certain threshold.  The concept of the meme is very old, examples noted in the graffiti of Antiquity and anthropologists have cited prehistoric example; the pre-internet exemplar in the modern age being "Kilroy was here" which proliferated with extraordinary rapidity during World War II (1939-1945).  Many languages have adopted meme, some in the original sense from biological science, most in the more recent application used on the internet but there are other meanings.  There was the French même and the Turkish meme was from the Ottoman Turkish ممه‎ (nipple, breast (and described by most dictionaries as “a childish term”)), following the Ancient Greek μᾰ́μμη (mámmē) and the Persian ممه‎ (mame).  Meme is a noun, verb & adjective and meamed & meaming are verbs;the noun plural is memes.

Looking over her shoulder: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) watching wife Melania (b 1970, US First Lady 2017-2021 and since 2025) voting.

Dawkins coined meme to describe the concept of the intra- and trans-generational cultural spread of ideas and cultural phenomena, his construct being analogous with the agent of evolutionary biology, the gene.  He didn’t claim the idea was new, noting the earlier work of geneticists & ethologists and as early as 1904 German zoologist Richard Semon (1859-1918) had published The Mneme and mneme in which he included his theory which explored a vaguely similar idea although one which was later disproved as understandings of genetics improved.  Closer to the thoughts of Dawkins was La Vie des Termites (The Life of White Ants (1926)), an entomological book by Nobel laureate in literature Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) which remains controversial because of the extent of the author’s plagiarism although he would later acknowledge a debt to the nineteenth century work of English biologist TH Huxley (1825–1895).

Memes can be self-generated for purposes of ambush marketing.  Lindsay Lohan risked going straight to Hell by purloining Pope Francis (1936-2025; pope 2013-2025) to promote Xanax.

Dawkins' point was that evolution depended ultimately only a self-replicating unit of transmission which, in biological evolution, was the gene and by analogy, human behaviour and cultural evolution could helpfully be described, at least in part, by memes, subject as they were to the influences and pressures of evolution.  Also, just as genes don’t always replicate as exact duplicates, memes existed and replicated imperfectly, things being combined, refined and rejected, the interactions creating new memes and thus, over time, cultures in some ways stayed the same; in others, things changed.  The concept was well-received by cultural theorists and critics but less effusive were many scientists, some of whom felt the gene/meme analogy a bit strained because, unlike genetic material, memes couldn’t be studied by the scientific method nor reduced to mathematical description, there being nothing even vaguely similar to the DNA which is the definable code of the gene.

Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin, Yalta, 1945.  Things weren't always happy between the three.

Held in Livadia, Yusupov, and Vorontsov palaces at Yalta in the Soviet Union between 4-11 February 1945, the Yalta Conference was the second of the three decisive meetings between the leaders of government of the United Kingdom, United States and the Soviet Union, the first being Tehran (28 November-1 December 1943) and the third Potsdam (17 July-2 August 1945).  Of the three, it was the business done at Yalta which was most decisive and what was agreed there decided for decades the political and military dynamics in Europe and beyond.  More to the point, just as significant was what the UK and US allowed themselves to believe comrade Stalin had agreed to, what unfolded on the ground somewhat different.  Of the leaders, only comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) was there from start to finish, Harry Truman (1884–1972; US president 1945-1953) attending the Potsdam conference because of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, US president 1933-1945) while midway through that event, Clement Attlee (1883–1967; UK prime-minister 1945-1951) replaced Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) after the latter’s defeat in the general election.  If comrade Stalin needed any proof democracy was a bad idea, the results of the UK’s 1945 election provided plenty.  The group photographs from the Yalta Conference were among the most re-produced images from World War II and they’re been repurposed by the meme-makers:

Comrade Bernie Sanders, (b 1941; US senator (independent) for Vermont since 2007 and "Crazy Bernie" in Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) naming system) bookends the Yalta Conference with comrade Stalin.

The image of comrade Bernie was from him in mittens at Joe Biden's (b 1942; US president 2021-2025) inauguration, Washington DC, 20 January 2021.  Vermont folk are used to cold winters and the mittens were knitted by Vermont elementary school teacher Jen Ellis.  The publicity generated by the inauguration photograph saw a sudden spike in demand and within hours of the posting, orders for thousands of pairs had been received.  Noting the interest, Ms Ellis immediately made three pairs for auction, the proceeds split between charities and her daughter's college fund.  An artisan creator and not in a position to support mass-production, the mitten-maker entered an arrangement with a manufacturer to produce a range of socks with the same pattern, the proceeds going to Vermont food banks, a cause which doubtlessly comrade Bernie supported.

Lindsay Lohan sitting at Churchill's right hand.

The image of Lindsay Lohan in 2007, resting (just before dawn) in a Cadillac Escalade in Los Angeles in May 2007 was one of that year's most widely circulated memes, creators taking advantage of the striking similarity between her sleeping form and that of L'Estasi di Santa Teresa (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; sometimes called The Transverberation of Saint Teresa), a sculptural group in white marble, carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in 1652 and located in the Cornaro Chapel (1626), at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.  The famous photo of Lindsay Lohan was taken during her "troubled starlet" phase.

A quadrilateral meeting to discuss German war guilt reparations and allied debts accumulated during World War I (1914-1918): Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934; President of France 1913-1920, left), Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1922-1923. centre-left), Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943, centre right) and Georges Theunis (1873–1966; Prime Minister of Belgium 1921-1925 & 1934-1935, right), 10 Downing Street, London, December 1922.

Memes can be retrospective.  This was an obscure photograph which until the twenty-first century had appeared only in some specialist history texts but as the internet achieved critical mass, memes became a thing and Mussolini’s sanpaku eyes were a gift for the meme-makers, most captions suggesting the duce may have had a sudden premonition of his own unfortunate end although others offered: “I feel naked without a moustache”, “I think I have imposter syndrome”, “Oh God, I just pooped my pants”, “I know one of these men is a Freemason but I don't know which” and “I wonder if they can tell I've smoked some weed”.  However, although not noted as a mystic, he may have sensed another's impending death, “sitteth at the right hand”, Andrew Bonar Law then having only months to live.

Brobdingnagian

Brobdingnagian (pronounced brob-ding-nag-ee-uhn)

(1) Of huge size; gigantic; tremendous.

(2) Larger than typical or expected.

(3) In medicine (psychiatry & clinical ophthalmology), as the noun “brobdingnagian vision”, a hallucination or visual disorder in which objects appear larger or nearer than they are (macropsia).  The companion (antonym) condition is “lilliputian vision”, a hallucination or visual disorder in which objects appear smaller or more distant than they are (micropsia).

(4) In mycology, of the brobdingnagia, a genus of fungi in the family Phyllachoraceae.

(5) Of or pertaining to the fictional land of Brobdingnag.

(5) An inhabitant or native of the fictional land of Brobdingnag.

1728 (in more frequent use by mid-century): An adjective to convey the sense of “enormous in size, huge, immense, gigantic etc, derived from the noun Brobdingnag (the land of the giants) the second of the exotic lands visited by the protagonist Lemuel Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels (1726 and titled Travels into several remote nations of the world for the first edition), written in the style of contemporary “travel guides” by the Anglo-Irish author & satirist Jonathan Swift (1667–1745).  The construct was Brobdingnag +‎ -ian.  The suffix -ian was a euphonic variant of –an & -n, from the Middle English -an, (regularly -ain, -ein & -en), from the Old French –ain & -ein (or before i, -en), the Modern French forms being –ain & -en (feminine -aine, -enne), from the Latin -iānus (the alternative forms were -ānus, -ēnus, -īnus & -ūnus), which formed adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun, being -nus (cognate with the Ancient Greek -νος (-nos)), preceded by a vowel, from the primitive Indo-European -nós.  It was cognate with the English -en.  Brobdingnagian is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is Brobdingnagians (initial upper case if used of the inhabitants or natives of the fictional land of Brobdingnag but not for other purposes (such as untypically large cosmic objects)).  To distinguish between big stuff, the comparative is “more brobdingnagian” and the superlative “most brobdingnagian”.

In constructing the name Brobdingnag for his fictional land of giants, Swift used a technique more subtle than some authors who use more obvious charactonyms.  In literature, a charactonym is a name given to a character that suggests something about their personality, behavior, or role in the story; these names almost always have some literal or symbolic meaning aligning with or hinting at the character’s traits and examples include:

Alfred Doolittle (lazy and opportunistic) in George Bernard Shaw’s (GBS; 1856-1950) Pygmalion (1913).

Miss Honey (sweet & gentle) in Roald Dahl’s (1916–1990) Matilda (1988) and Veruca Salt (harsh and unpleasant) in his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964).

Mr Bumble (noted for his bumbling inept incompetence) in Charles Dickens’ (1812–1870) Oliver Twist (1837).

Willy Loman (of low social status and beset with feelings of inadequacy) in Arthur Miller’s (1915–2005) Death of a Salesman (1949).

The use of blatant charactonyms is not always an example of linguistic brutishness and it’s often used in children's literarure or when it’s demanded by the rhythm of text or plat.  There are also “reverse charactonyms” when the traits of a characteristic become famously (or infamously) emblematic of something such as Shylock in William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) The Merchant of Venice (1598) or Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens A Christmas Carol (1843).

A brobdingnagian on the beach; a Lindsay Lohan meme.  Although a Swiftian meme, the use of that term will now probably be more suggestive of a later Swift, certainly to Swifties (the devotees of the singer Taylor Swift (b 1989)).

As well as the meanings of words, Swift liked to use the sounds of language in fashioning fictional names which were both plausible and in some way suggestive of the association he wanted to summon.  Structurally, what he appears to have done is combine arbitrary syllables to create a word sounding foreign and exotic while still being pronounceable by the English-speaking audience for which he wrote; the technique is harder to master than it sounds although with modern generative AI, presumably it’s become easier.  As a literary trick, Brobdingnag works because of the elements in the construction (1) the multisyllabic length and (2) the use of “harsh” consonants (notably the “b” & “g” which lend a sense of bulk and largeness, appropriate for the “land of the giants”.  The other exotic land in Gulliver’s Travels was Lilliput, the place where the people are tiny.  Just as he intended Brobdingnag to invoke thoughts of something (or someone) clumsy and heavy, Lilliput and Lilliputian were meant to suggest “small, delicate”.

Map of Brobdingnag from the 1726 edition of Travels into several remote nations of the world (the original title of Gulliver's Travels).

Although since Swift, the adjective brobdingnagian has never gone away, it’s length and “unnatural” (for English) spelling has meant it’s only ever been a “niche” word”, used as a literary device and astronomers like it when writing of stars, galaxies, black holes and such which are of such dimensions that miles or kilometres are not c convenient measure, demanding instead terms like “light years” (the distance in which light travels in one Earth year” or “parsecs” (a unit of astronomical length, based on the distance from Earth at which a star would have a parallax of one second of arc which is equivalent to 206,265 times the distance from the earth to the sun or 3.26 light-years.  Its lineal equivalent is about 19.1 trillion miles (30.8 trillion km)).

The king of Brobdingnag and Gulliver, cartoon by James Gillray (1756-1815), published in London 10 February 1804 during the era of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).  British Cartoon Prints Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

The work depicts the king of Brobdingnag (George III (1738–1820; King of Great Britain and Ireland 1760-1820)) staring intently at a tank in which is sailing Gulliver (Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; leader of the French Republic 1799-1804 & Emperor of the French from 1804-1814 & 1815).  Lord Salisbury (1748–1823) stands behind the king.  It was a time when Napoleon was planning to invade England, his Grande Armée transported in “flat-bottomed boats” which were a sort of early landing craft, a design which would emerge in specialized forks for various purposes (troops, tanks etc) during World War II (1939-1945).  It wasn’t until the Royal Navy prevailed in the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) that the threat of invasion was ended.  At the time of the cartoon’s publication, George III had for some years already been displaying signs of mental instability (thought now to be consistent with bipolar disorder (the old manic depression)) although it would be almost a decade before his condition deteriorated to such an extent a regent was appointed.

Brobdingnagian’s more familiar role is in literature where it depends for effect on rarity; twice in the one book is one too many  Tellingly (and unsurprisingly given the inherent clumsiness), it’s rare in poetry although some have made the effort, possibly just to prove it can be done, one anonymous poet leaving us The Awful Fate of Mr. Foster, believed to be a parody of the poetic style of William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) “Brobdingnagian” interpolated possibly because Thackeray was wrote some acerbic critiques of Swift’s work:

He never more will rise again, or open those kind eyes again,
He lies beneath the sod;
Beneath the tall Brobdingnagian tomb, the popular concernment's doom,
Of an enormous god!

Kink

Kink (pronounced kingk)

(1) A twist or curl, as in a thread, rope, wire, or hair, caused by its doubling or bending upon itself.

(2) An expression describing muscular stiffness or soreness, as in the neck or back.

(3) A flaw or imperfection likely to hinder the successful operation of something, as a machine or plan (differs from a bug in that kinks or their consequences tend immediately to be obvious.

(4) A mental twist; notion; whim or crotchet (and in a pejorative sense an unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice).

(5) In slang, a flaw or idiosyncrasy of personality; a quirk.

(6) In slang, bizarre or unconventional sexual preferences or behavior; a sexual deviation (Defined as paraphilia; the parameters of paraphilic disorders (essentially that which is non-normophilic) are (to some extent) defined in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) but the public perception of kinkiness varies greatly between and within cultures).

(7) In slang, a person characterized by such preferences or behavior (a kinkster).

(8) To form, or cause to form, a kink or kinks, as a rope or hairstyle or a physical construction like a road; to be formed into a kink or twist.

(9) Loudly to laugh; to gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing (now rare except in Scotland).

(10) In mathematics, a positive 1-soliton solution to the sine-Gordon equation.

(11) In the jargon of US railroad maintenance as “sun kink”, a buckle in railroad track caused by extremely hot weather, which could cause a derailment.

(12) In fandom slang as “kinkmeme” (or kink meme), an online space in which requests for fan fiction (generally involving a specific kink) are posted and fulfilled anonymously (a subset thus of the anon meme).

(13) In slang, as “kinkshame” (or kink-shame or kink shame), to mock, shame, or condemn someone (a kinker) for their sexual preferences or interests and fetishes.

1670–1680: From the Middle English kink (knot-like contraction or short twist in a rope, thread, hair, etc (originally a nautical term), from the Dutch kink (a twist or curl in a rope), from the Proto-Germanic kenk- & keng- (to bend, turn), from the primitive Indo-European geng- (to turn, wind, braid, weave) and related to the Middle Low German kinke (spiral screw, coil), the Old Norse kikna (to nod; to bend backwards, to sink at the knee as if under a burden”) and the , the Icelandic kengur (a bend or bight; a metal crook).  It’s thought related to the modern kick although a LCA (last common ancestor) has never been identified.  The intransitive verb emerged in the 1690s and the transitive by the early nineteenth century.  The adjective kinky (at that stage of physical objects such as ropes or hair full of kinks, twisted, curly) seems first to have been used in 1844.  Words with a similar meaning (depending on context) include crimp, wrinkle, flaw, hitch, imperfection, quirk, coil, corkscrew, crinkle, curl, curve, entanglement, frizz, knot, loop, tangle, cramp, crick, pain &, pang  The sense familiar in Scottish dialect use (a convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous in-draft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying) was from the From Middle English kinken & kynken, from the Old English cincian (attested in cincung), from the Proto-West Germanic kinkōn, from the Proto-Germanic kinkōną (to laugh), from the primitive Indo-European gang- (to mock, jeer, deride), and related to the Old English canc (jeering, scorn, derision).  It was cognate with the Dutch kinken (to kink, to cough).  One curious adaptation was the (nineteenth century) use of kinker to describe circus performers, presumably on the basis of their antics (kinky in the sense of a twisted rope).  Kink is a noun & verb, kinkily is an adverb, kinkiness & kinkster are nouns, kinked is a verb & adjective, kinky and kinkier & kinkiest are adjectives; the noun plural is kinks.

Bridge with kinks: Lucky knot bridge, Dragon King Harbor River in Meixi Lake District, Changsha, China.  The design was inspired by the Möbius strip although the structure is not a true representation of a Möbius.

Kink appears to have entered English in the 1670 from the interaction of English & Dutch seafarers, the first use of the word being nautical, French & Swedish gaining it in a similar manner.  The figurative sense of “an odd notion, a mental twist, a whim, a capricious act” was first noted in US English in 1803 in the writings of Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; US president 1801-1809).  It was one of the many terms applied to those thought “sexually abnormal”, the first use noted in 1965 (although the adjective kinky had been so applied as early as 1959) and the use as a synonym for “a sexual perversion, fetish, paraphilia” is thought by most etymologists to have become established by the early 1970s.  The slang, “kinkshame” means “to mock, shame, or condemn someone (a kinker) for their sexual preferences or interests and fetishes”.  Dictionaries tend to list this only as a verb (ie that directed at another) but it would seem also a noun (a feeling of kinkshame), such as that suffered by Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia (1904–1983; the last King of Italy (May-June 1946) who, while heir to the throne (and styled Prince of Piedmont), Benito Mussolini’s (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) secret police discovered the prince was a sincere and committed Roman Catholic but one unable to resist his “satanic homosexual urges” and his biographer agreed, noting he was “forever rushing between chapel and brothel, confessional and steam bath” often spending hours “praying for divine forgiveness.”  He would seem to have been suffering kinkshame.

Lindsay Lohan with kinked hair. 

Car & Driver "Fastest American Car" comparison test, April 1976.

Although the word kinky had by then for some time been in use to describe sexual proclivities beyond the conventional, in April 1976, when the US magazine Car & Driver chose to describe a pickup truck as “kinky” it was using the word in the sense of “quirky” or “different” and certainly not in a pejorative way.  While testing the Chevrolet C-10 stepside in an attempt to find the fastest American built “car”, the editors noted that although the phenomenon hadn’t yet travelled south of the Mason-Dixon Line. “…kinky pickups are one of the more recent West Coast fascinations”.  A few years earlier, it would have been absurd to include a pickup in a top-speed contest but the universe had shifted and ownership of the fast machines of the pre-1972 muscle car era had been rendered unviable by the insurance industry before being banned by the legislators; by earlier standards, high-performance was no longer high.  Some demand for speed however remained and General Motors found a loophole: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) didn't impose power-sapping exhaust emission controls on anything with a gross vehicle weight rating above 6000 pounds (2722 kg).  Thus emerged Chevrolet’s combination of the heavy-duty version of the pickup chassis (F44) with the big-block, 454 cubic inch (7.4 litre) V8, a detuned edition of the engine which half-a-decade earlier had been offered with the highest horsepower rating Detroit had ever advertised.  Power and brutish enjoyment was ensured but the aerodynamic qualities of the pickup were such it could manage only third place in Car & Driver’s comparison, its 110 (177 km/h) mph terminal velocity shaded by the Pontiac Trans Am (118/190) and the Chevrolet Corvette (125/201) which won although both were slow compared with what recently had been possible.  The pickup did however outrun Ford’s Mustang Mach 1 which certainly looked the part but on the road prove anaemic, 106 mph (171 km/h) as fast as it could be persuaded to go.  In second place was what turned out to be the surprise package, the anonymous-looking Dodge Dart which, although an old design, was powered by a version of the Chrysler LA small-block V8, one of the best of the era and clean enough to eschew the crippling catalysts most engines by then required.  Its 122 mph (196 km/h) capability made it the fastest American sedan.

Kinkiness in 1964-1965: 1965 Dodge D-100 with 426 Street Wedge V8.

The kinky pickup however was a harbinger for where went California, so followed the other forty-nine.  The idea of the kinky pickup had actually begun in 1964 when Chrysler quietly slipped onto the market a high-performance version of the the Dodge D-100, a handful of which were built with a 413 (6.7 litre) cubic inch V8 but with little more fanfare, the 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) Street Wedge was next year added to the option list which, rated at 365 horsepower, was more than twice as powerful than the competition.  Ahead of its time, the big-power in the engines D-100 were withdrawn in 1966 but it was the first muscle truck and the spiritual ancestor of the C-10 which a decade later was faster than the hottest Mustang, damning with faint praise though that may be.  The trend continued and Dodge early in the twenty-first century even sold pickups with an 8.3 litre (505 cubic inch) V10.  The market has since shown little sign of losing its desire for fast pickups and the new generation of electric vehicles are likely to be faster still.

The adjective "kinky" evolved from the noun but a linguistic quirk in the use of "kink" in the gay community is that etymologically it was technically a back-formation from "kinky".  In the LGBTQQIAAOP movement, there is some debate whether displays of “kink” should be part of “pride” events such as public parade.  One faction thinks group rights trumps all else and there can be no acceptance of any restrictions whereas others think the PR cost too high.  One implication of some representation of this or that kink being included in pride parades is that presumably, once accepted as a part of public displays, it ceases to be kinky and becomes just another place on the spectrum of normality.  Kinky stuff surely should be what goes on only behind closed doors; if in public it can even be hinted at, it can't truly be a kink because a kink must be something seriously twisted.  

1962 BMW 1500 (Neue Klasse, left), the incomparable BMW E9 (1968-1975, centre) and the 2023 BMW 760i (G70, right).

In automotive design, the “Hoffmeister kink” is a description of the forward bend in the C-pillar (D-pillar on SUVs) and it’s associated almost exclusively with BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) vehicles built since the early 1960s.  The kink is named after Wilhelm Hofmeister (1912–1978; BMW design chief 1955-1970) who used the shape on the BMW Neue Klasse (The “New Class”, the first of which was the 1500 and in various forms was in production 1962-1975) although the BMW 3200 CS (1962-1965) which was styled by Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone (1914–1997) also used the lines and design work of both began in 1960.  However, the name “Hoffmeister kink” stuck not because it originated with Herr Hoffmeister but because BMW has for decades stuck with it so it’s now perhaps even more of an identifiable motif than their double-kidney grill which is now less recognizable than once it was.  Herr Hoffmeister deserves to be remembered because the work of his successors has been notably less impressive and none has matched his E9 coupe (1968-1975) although it gained as much infamy for its propensity to rust as admiration for its elegance.

Some pre-Hoffmeister kinks:  1949 Buick Super Sedanette (left), 1951 Kaiser Deluxe (centre) and 1958 Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato (right).

Built-in kink: 1964 Ford Galaxie four-door hardtop.

A curiosity in the tale of the Hofmeister kink is that between 1957-1963, the Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo) in the US produced as an assembly (made of several part-numbers) a Hofmeister kink which was “bolted-on” to the rear door of four-door Ford and Mercury four-door hardtops.  The doomed Edsels and more exalted Lincolns didn’t use them and after 1961 Lincoln for a while abandoned the body-style although a dozen-odd prototypes & pre-production examples were produced and there are competing theories about why it never reached the showrooms.  The appendage existed apparently because it was a quick and cheap way to ensure the rear-windows of the four-door hardtops could fully retract into the door when wound down.

Bolt-on kink; how it was done on Ford & Mercury four-door hardtops (1957-1963): Sedans with (central) B-pillar un-kinked (left) and pillarless hardtops with bolted-on kink (right).

Because of the multi-part complexity of the pressings and the need for precise tolerances (something Detroit often didn’t quite manage) to ensure a good “open & shut”, doors are expensive to tool for so Ford’s temptation to do a “bolt-on” was understandable.  However, despite that, for the body’s fourth and final season in 1964, the kink was integrated into the door but the look was banished when the new range appeared for 1965, the leading edge of the C pillar re-located in the industry-standard way.

Attaché

Attaché (pronounced a-ta-shey, at-uh-shey or uh-tash-ey)

(1) A diplomatic official attached to an embassy or legation, especially in a technical capacity (often as a commercial attaché, cultural attaché etc).

(2) A military officer who is assigned to a diplomatic post in a foreign country in order to gather military information (historically usually as air attaché; army attaché; naval attaché, military attaché).

(3) As attaché case, a type of briefcase intended for carrying documents.

1825–1835: From the French attaché (plural attachés, feminine attachée), (junior officer attached to the staff of an ambassador (literally “attached”)), noun use of the past participle of attacher (to attach), from the Old French atachier, a variant of estachier (bind), from estache (stick), from the Frankish stakka (stick) (which was cognate with the Old Occitan estacha, the Italian stacca and the Spanish estaca, from the Gothic stakka).  The attaché case (small leather case for carrying papers) dates from circa 1900.  English, typically, picked up attaché unaltered from the French (although the spelling attache is now common) as did German, Polish and Swedish but other languages adapted as was suited by tradition or pronunciation including Georgian (ატაშე (aṭaše)), Russian (атташе́ (attašé)), Serbo-Croatian (ataše) and Turkish (ataşe).  In sardonic diplomatic humor, attaché was long regarded as a euphemism for “spy” and that, the humor and the practice, remains afoot.  Attaché is a noun and the noun plural is attachés (use in attaché case is not adjectival).

The attaché case and the briefcase.

Meme of Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles, 2013.

A Lindsay Lohan court appearance in Los Angeles in 2013 attracted the usual commentary (choice of hairstyle, clothes, shoes etc) but the attaché case carried by her lawyer inspired the meme-makes to create a spoof Louis Vuitton advertisement.  The mock-up, which appeared on the now defunct danielpianetti.com, used a courtroom image in which Ms Lohan’s seemed transfixed, eyes focused on the attaché case recumbent on the defense table.  Fond of handbags and with a famously large collection, doubtlessly she can cast an expert eye. 

Lawyer Mark Jay Heller with attaché case and rabbit’s foot.

Ms Lohan was represented by celebrity lawyer Mark Jay Heller (b 1945) who gained fame from representing “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz (b 1953) before becoming a staple of the paparazzi business and he recently resigned from the New York bar due to professional misconduct.  In 2013, his attaché case was notable for the white rabbit's foot key chain attached to the handle which Mr Heller said brought him good luck.  On 17 March 2022, a New York state appeals court accepted his resignation from the bar after he admitted several counts of misconduct including failing to communicate with one client and neglecting another.  The subject of a disciplinary investigation, he acknowledged to the court he had no defense to offer.  Luck had run out.  Mr Heller’s attaché case was a Louis Vuitton Serviette Conseiller Monogram Robusto, fabricated with a cross grain calf leather interior & a natural cowhide handle (part-number M53331).  It's no longer available but a similar item, suitable for tablets and smaller laptops is the Porte-Documents Voyage PM Monogram Macassar Canvas (part-number M52005) at US$1950.

The attaché case and briefcase have not dissimilar histories.  In the diplomatic establishment, attachés were originally junior members of staff (their dual role as covers for spying swiftly a parallel career path) who fulfilled administrative duties which included carrying the ambassador’s papers in as slim case which came to be known as an attaché case.  In the legal community, a brief was a summary of facts and legal positions supporting arguments in judicial proceedings, prepared by a solicitor and provided to the advocate who was to appear in court.  The “brief case” was originally a wooden box in the chambers of barristers in which the bound briefs were deposited but by the early twentieth century it had come to be used to describe the small, rigid bags which had become the usual device used by lawyers to carry stuff to court.  These quickly became an almost obligatory accessory for businessmen either successful or wishing to appear so and they remained part of the informal uniform until the 1990s when laptops and later tablets & smartphones began to supplant paper.  The look remains admired however and high-end laptop bags use many of the design cues from the briefcase, even down to that signature touch of the 1970s, the dual combination locks.

Between manufacturers, there’s no agreement on when the attaché case ends and the briefcase begins but it seems the attaché case is a small, slender suitcase which opens into two distinct and usually symmetrical compartments, made from leather or metal and definitely without a shoulder strap.  By contrast, a briefcase is a flat, rectangular container which opens to reveal one large compartment although the “lid” is likely to have pockets or gussets that expand to accommodate pens, phones and such, generating flexible storage functionality.  Historically a briefcase would not include a shoulder strap but many are now so equipped suggesting the laptop bag is a descendent of the briefcase rather than the attaché case.  For that reason, the attaché case would seem to be thought something slim and stylish while a briefcase must be bigger to accommodate not only documents but also the electronic devices of the modern age including accessories such as charges, power cords and cables.  Other manufactures however claim an attaché case is actually bigger than a briefcase and always includes a shoulder strap but this view seems unfashionable and may relate more to their product differentiation and naming conventions.  However, for those not bothered by fine distinctions in such matters, using the terms interchangeably will likely confuse few.

Although probably thought by many to be something which exists only in the imagination of spy novels, briefcase guns really have been a thing and along with other innovations like the poison-tipped umbrella, there are documented cases of them being used by Warsaw Pact counter-intelligence services.  Remarkably, though unsurprisingly, briefcase guns are available for purchase in the US and can in some jurisdictions lawfully be carried (being luggage this is most literal) provided it’s first registered under the National Firearms Act as an Any Other Weapon (AOW), the relevant clause being 26 U.S.C. § 5845(E): Any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive.

In this example, the weapon is a Heckler & Koch MP5 (Maschinenpistole 5), a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, developed in the 1960s and there have been dozens of versions, both automatic and semi-automatic.  Widely used around the world by both the military and in law enforcement, the MP5 has survived the introduction of its supposed successor (the UMP) and remain popular, a familiar tale in military hardware.  The MP5K (the K stands for kurz (short)) is locked into a claw mount with the muzzle connected to a tubular firing port.  Loading a magazine is said to be a clumsy operation with the MP5 in place but is possible although it’s noted the recommended 30-round clip is a tight fit, barely clearing the bottom of the case.  The trigger is conveniently located in the handle and connected with a mechanical linkage.  There’s a knurled button on the handle which functions as a kind of external safety catch because the fire mode is set prior to closing the case and spent shells are deflected downward so they can’t cause a malfunction by bouncing into the action.  Within, there’s a holder for a spare magazine and the briefcase is lockable (which seems a sensible feature).  It’s said to take some practice to achieve anything like the accuracy one could attain with a conventionally held MP5 but for the section of the target market which wants a sudden, rapid fire over a wide field, it’s presumably ideal.

Dunce

Dunce (pronounced duhns)

(1) A dull-witted, stupid, or ignorant person; a dolt.

(2) In educational systems, a person slow to learn (obsolete).

(3) As dunce’s cap, a conical hat once used as a form of shaming and punishment in some educational systems.

1520–1530: Named after the Dunses, Dunites or Dunsmen, term of ridicule applied to the devotees of Scottish Franciscan friar, John Duns Scotus (circa 1265-1308).  The use of SCotUS as the initialism of Supreme Court of the United States is wholly coincidental; cool people anyway prefer “the supremes”.  The many synonyms of dunce include clodpoll, ass, birdbrain, blockhead, bonehead, buffoon, dimwit, dolt, donkey, dope, dork, dullard, dunderhead, fool, goof, half-wit, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, jerk, numbskull, ignoramus, simpleton, nincompoop & ninny but dunce has a special place because of the historic association with schoolrooms and the utility of the dunce’s cap for cartoonists and, latterly meme-makers.   Dunce is a noun, duncical, duncelike & duncish are adjectives and duncishly is an adverb; the noun plural is dunces.

The first dunces

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1648), oil on canvas by Antoine Nicolas (circa 1606-1661).

The shock of the Reformation, the sixteenth century movement within Western Christianity that mounted a theological and political challenge to the Roman Catholic Church and especially papal authority seems to have colored the popular view of the era and it’s often not appreciated that early in the century, both Church and papacy were in good shape and enjoyed popular support.  Far from being a rigid, unchanging institution, the Medieval Church was inventive and energetic and while it couldn’t be said to be tolerant of dissent, it certainly welcomed regional diversity and after the end of the papal schism (between 1378-1417 popes in France and Italy both asserted their authority over the Church) and the centralization of the institution in Rome, things really were looking good.  It was in this atmosphere that the Church played a part in the great cultural movement which began in Europe in the fifteenth century: The Renaissance (rebirth).

Print by Valentine Green following Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and reputedly inspired by William of Ockham.

The Renaissance re-energized fields as diverse as literature, history, linguistics, mathematics, art, political theory and architecture.  One far-reaching effect (which would take centuries to unfold) was the re-discovery of the works and histories of the Greco-Roman world of antiquity, pursued with a method which resonates still in the modern academic method: Ad fontes (back to the sources).  Those sources (Galen, Cicero, Seneca, Plato et al), transformed study in western Europe, something made possible largely because of the wealth of documents arrived from the libraries, monasteries and palaces of the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople fell to Islamic conquest in 1453.  The scholars and scribes who immersed themselves in these texts came to be known as “the humanists” (from studia humanitatis (the classic curriculum of the academy and related not at all to the modern use of humanist to describe the particularly chauvinistic sect within secular, western intellectual life)).  What the Renaissance humanists did however was uncover the Greek texts of the original Bible and detected in them words a phrases which imparted meanings with theological implications at variance with what had come to be regarded as orthodoxy, based on the Vulgate, translation in Latin of the Bible dating from the late fourth century.

John Duns Scotus (circa 1475), oil on panel by Justus van Gent (1460-1480) & Pedro Berruguete (1450-1504).

The differences imparted by those variations were essentially about whether an individual’s relationships with Christ and God required only that they followed what was written in scripture or whether it depended on the institution of the Church, its ritual, its rules, its priests and of course its taxes and its pope.  In that debate lies the root of so many of the disputes which exist in Christianity still and, interestingly, are not dissimilar to the core of the theological dispute between the Sunni and Shi'a in Islam.  What the humanists did was lay siege to the old dominance in theology of the “scholastics”, themselves divided by an intellectual schism between the via antiqua (the old way) school and the via moderna (the new way), something which must seem familiar to anyone who has cast a glance at the squabbles which have disfigured the Lambeth Conferences since 1968.  Those who thought the old ways were still the best traced their lineage from Italian Dominican friar Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) & Scottish Franciscan friar John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) while the modernists were inspired by English Franciscan friar William of Ockham (circa 1287-1347; he of "Ockham's razor").  It was the still influential Aquinas who in Summa Theologica (1265–1274) created what came to called the “medieval synthesis of faith and reason”, a reconciliation of the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) with scripture and for that he was canonized.  Ockham dismantled the great synthesis and the Church condemned him as a heretic, excommunicating and exiling him although, in an example of having two theological bob each way, never declared his work a heresy.

Those of the via moderna faction however wanted more than ever for the synthesis to be realized but wanted it based on the understanding of scripture (and thus the word of Christ) that their study of the documents from Constantinople had revealed.  Those tied to the old ways of Aquinis and John Duns Scotus (who had for some time been derisively dismissed as the “Dunses”, “Dunites” or “Dunsmen”) they decided deserved the collective “dunce”, those well-schooled and expert in orthodox philosophy but wholly ignorant of the authentic message of Christianity.

Intelligence is famously difficult to measure and even standardized intelligence tests, while they can provide a comparative index of performance of the sub-set taking the test, ultimately measure only a proficiency in answering certain question at a certain time, in a certain place and even then need to be understood in terms of the bias selection in both content and participation.  Based on conventional measures however, the consensus view probably would hold George W Bush (b 1946; US president 2001-2009) was (1) of somewhere above average intelligence and (2) one of the less intelligent US presidents.  However, his halting delivery (except in informal settings), deliciously mangled syntax and frequent malapropisms certainly made him appear a bit of a dunce and he was a gift to the meme-makers in the early days of the form.  The one from 2002 showing him in an elementary school, holding a book upside down circulated widely but was a fake as analysis of some of the detail revealed; book and dunce’s cap both photoshopped.  The book was America: A Patriotic Primer, by Dr Lynne Cheney (b 1941), wife of Dick Cheney (b 1941; US vice-president 2001-2009).  The first evidence of the dunce’s cap seems to date from the early eighteenth century although the earliest known use of the term appears to be 1791 and by the middle of the next century it was used in English literature and appeared in the work of cartoonists.  Actually used in many educational systems as a device both to assist pedagogy and inflict punishment, they had substantially been abandoned by the 1960s but in some of the more remote regions of the British Isles, dunce’s caps were said still to be in use early in the twenty-first century.