Short

Short (pronounced shawrt)

(1) Having little length; not long.

(2) Of a person, of comparatively small stature; having little height; not tall (applied by extension to just about everything (furniture, buildings, animals et al)).

(3) Extending or reaching only a little way; having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically.

(4) Brief in duration; not extensive in time.

(5) Brief or concise, of limited duration.

(6) Rudely brief; abrupt; brusque.

(7) Low in amount; scanty.

(8) Not reaching a point, mark, target, or the like; not long enough or far enough.

(9) Below the standard in extent, quantity, duration, etc.

(10) Being of an insufficient amount; below the desired level.

(11) Of pastry, crisp and flaky; breaking or crumbling readily from being made with a large proportion of butter or other shortening.

(12) Of dough, containing a relatively large amount of shortening.

(13) Of metals, deficient in tenacity; friable; brittle.

(14) In physiology, of the head or skull, of less than ordinary length from front to back.

(15) In markets, not possessing at the time of sale commodities or stocks that one sells and therefore compelled to make a purchase before the delivery date.

(16) In markets, noting or pertaining to a sale of commodities or stocks that the seller does not possess, depending for profit on a decline in prices.

(17) In markets, as short selling, a mechanism for gambling that the future price of a stock or other security will fall.

(18) In phonetics, a sound lasting a relatively short time; denoting a vowel of relatively brief temporal duration (in popular usage denoting the qualities of the five English vowels represented orthographically in the words pat, pet, pit, pot, put, and putt)

(19) In prosody, of a syllable in quantitative verse, lasting a relatively shorter time than a long syllable.

(20) Of an alcoholic drink, a small measure (sometimes known as a shot); also used in certain UK circles to describe whisky served undiluted (straight).

(21) In ceramics, of clay, not sufficiently plastic enough to be modeled.

(22) In rope-making, hard fibre.

(23) In baseball, holding the bat with hands higher on the handle of the bat than the usual grip; a fielder standing in a fielding position closer to the home plate than in an orthodox setting (often called the short-stop).

(24) In tailoring, a description for cuts for those who are shorter; a garment, as a suit or overcoat, in such a size.

(25) In clothing, trousers, knee-length or shorter; short pants worn by men as an undergarment, usually as an alternative to closely-fitted underpants; knee breeches, formerly worn by men but now rare except in certain equestrian pursuits.

(26) In finance, bonds with a short duration until maturity.

(27) In mining, crushed ore failing to pass through a given screen, thus being of a larger given size than a specific grade; remnants, discards, or refuse of various cutting and manufacturing processes.

(28) In army jargon, of artillery, a shot that strikes or bursts short of the target (also admiralty jargon for the same concept).

(29) In electricity, as short circuit, the usually unintentional connection of low resistance or impedance in a circuit such that excessive and often damaging current flows in it.

(30) In gambling, in the jargon of betting odds, almost even.

(31) In film-making, a production of deliberately brief duration.

(32) A truncated form of a word or phrase.

(33) In cricket, as a modifier, describing a fielding position closer to the pitch than the (nominally) standard placement (eg short third man as opposed to third man); a ball bowled so that it bounces relatively far from the batsman; a “run” disallowed by the umpire because a batter failed to touch the designated line on the pitch.

(34) In (physical) money handling, providing a total amount in cash using the fewest possible notes, ie using those of the largest denominations (mostly archaic).

(35) In computer programming, an integer variable having a smaller range than normal integers; usually two bytes in length.

Pre-900: From the Middle English adjective schort (short), from the Old English sċeort & sċort (short, not long, not tall; brief), from the Old High German scurz (short), from the Proto-West Germanic skurt, from the Proto-Germanic skurta & skurtaz (short), from the primitive Indo-European sker & ker (to cut (on the notion of “something cut off) in the same sense as the Sanskrit krdhuh (shortened, maimed, small)).  It was cognate with shirt, skirt & curt, the Scots short & schort (short), the French court, the German kurz, the Old High German scurz (short (source of the Middle High German schurz)), the Old Norse skorta (shortness, scarcity a lack (source of the Danish skorte)) & skera (to cut), the Albanian shkurt (short, brief), the Latin curtus (shortened, incomplete) & cordus (late-born (originally "stunted in growth)), the Proto-Slavic kortъkъ, the Old Church Slavonic kratuku, the Russian korotkij (short), the Lithuanian skursti (to be stunted) & skardus (steep), the Old Irish cert (small) and the Middle Irish corr (stunted, dwarfish).

The verb shorten (1510) (make shorter) had by the 1560s encompassed "grow shorter"; the earlier form of the verb was simply short, from Old English sceortian (to grow short, become short; run short, fail), the fork gescyrtan meaning "to make short".  The meaning "having an insufficient quantity" is from 1690s, the idea of someone "rude" is attested from the late fourteenth century.  The sense of someone "easily provoked; short of temper" is from the 1590s but etymologists prefer the origin being "not long (ie short) in tolerating" rather than a link to a “short fuse” which would cause gunpowder quickly to explode, although that is the modern form.  There are conventions of use: short is often used in the positive vertical dimension and used as is shallow in the negative vertical dimension; in the horizontal dimension narrow is more commonly used.  Short & brief (as opposed to long) indicate slight extent or duration and short may imply duration but is also applied to physical distance and certain purely spatial relations (a short journey) while brief refers especially to duration of time (a brief interval).  Synonyms (according to context) includes abbreviated, brief, crisp, precise, shortened, terse, low, small, thick, tiny, limited, poor, shy, slender, slim, tight, sharp, fragile, bare & compressed.  Short is a noun, verb, adverb & adjective, shortness is a noun, shorter shorted & shortest are adjectives, shorted & shorting are verbs and shortly is an adverb.

Derived forms include shortage (limited supply) (1862 from US English), shorty (short person) (1888), shortfall (something falling short of expectations) (1895), shorthand (a method of rapid writing used to record dictation or other speech) (1636), shorts (short pants) (1826 and uniquely applied to trousers, short-sleeved shirts etc never using the form) and the intriguing short shorts (1946 describing men's briefs, now often called boxer shorts (1949)), shortcoming (1670s) (an expression of inadequacy and usually used in the plural), shortly, from the Old English scortlice (briefly also in late Old English) (in short time; soon; not long), shortness (1570s), from the Old English scortnes and now used mostly in the sense of “shortness of breath”, shortstop (1837) (a fielding position in various sports (although has faded in cricket)), shortcut (1610s) (often as short-cut, (path not as long as the ordinary way)) although the term may have been longer in oral use because the figurative sense is documented from the 1580s; it’s familiar now as “a desktop pointer to files more deeply nested” since file-loading graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were bolted atop computer operating systems in the 1980s.  Shortening (1540s) (action of making short) was a verbal noun from shorten and the meaning "butter or other fat used in baking" (1796) was from shorten in the sense "make crumbly" (1733), from the adjective short in the early fifteenth century secondary sense of "easily crumbled" which may have been linked to the idea of "having short fibers" and from this, came shortbread (1755) and shortcake (1590).

The noun & verb shortlist (to cull someone from a long list and place them on a shorter list of those to be considered for advancement or preferment) dates from 1955, although the noun form short list (and short-list) had existed in this sense since 1927; the shortlist is now most celebrated in literary awards, the appearance on one something of an award in itself.  The short-timer (1906) was "one whose term or enlistment is about to expire" and was used variously in employment, sports teams and the military (the similar short-term was noted in 1901).  Short-wave (1907) was a reference to the broadcast radio wavelength less than circa 100 meters, used for long distance transmission.  Short handed in the sense of "having too few hands (employees)" dates from 1794, the use in ice hockey noted first in 1939.  Short-lived was from the 1580s and later assumed a specific technical definition in nuclear & high-energy particle physics.  The short-sleeve (of a shirt or blouse etc), although presumably a garment design of longstanding was first documented in the 1630s in a regulation issued in the Massachusetts Bay colony, forbidding "short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arme may be discovered”, a notion still part of the dress-code in some societies.  The first use of short-sighted was in the 1620s, surprisingly a reference to someone “lacking foresight”, the literal use in optometry to describe myopia not adopted until the 1640s.  The short-order was restaurant jargon from 1897, from the adverbial expression “in short order” (rapidly, with no fuss) and survives functionally as the “short order cook” in the fast food industry. The electrical short-circuit (the usually unintentional connection of low resistance or impedance in a circuit such that excessive and often damaging current flows in it) was first described in 1854.  The use as a verb (introduce a shunt of low resistance) began in 1867; the intransitive sense from 1902 and the figurative sense (to interfere with some process and stop it) is recorded by 1899.  The short haul was US use from the 1950s to describe a commercial airline flight of short duration.  The blended noun shortgevity apparently exists as a (rarely used) back-formation from longevity.

Something described as “short and sweet”, dates from the 1530s and is something unexpectedly brief and can be applied positively, neutrally or negatively.  To be “caught short” is feeling a sudden need to urinate or defecate in circumstances where a loo is not conveniently accessible.  To “fall short” is to prove inadequate for some task or to fail to reach or measure up to a standard or expectations.  In cinema the “short film” carries a connotation of something artistic where as “shorts” are often just fillers in a commercial space.  A “short-seller” is one “shorting stocks”, a method of trading in which positions are placed to attempt to profit from a expected decline in the future price of the stock.  To be “cut short” is to be interrupted in some way by someone or something.  To have someone “by the short and curlies” is to have someone completely in one's power, an allusion to pubic hair, hence the related (and more evocative) phrase “they have us by the scrotum”.  Having the “short end of the stick” is to receive the most disadvantageous part of something (analogous with “drawing the short straw”, a literal practice used to allocate an undesirable task, usually in the absence of volunteers.  To give “short shrift” (often incorrectly expressed as “short shift”) to someone is to be dismissive.  The “long and short of it” is a brief, succinct explanation of something; gist of the matter.  Something “short for” (contraction of a name or phrase) is a more convenient form of a longer word or phrase (such as bus for omnibus and ETA for expected time or arrival).  That use dates from 1873 but the forms have altered over time: Psycho by 1921 was campus slang for psychology, use extended to cover psychologists by 1925 but this has since shifted to be a reference to psychopaths, the change thought provoked by the frequency with which the word came to be used in popular culture.  To “short change” someone originally (1903) meant not to give someone all the change they were due in a financial transaction; now mostly used figuratively.  The “short story” was obviously an ancient form of writing but as a defined genre in literature, was first labelled in 1877.  To “make short work” of something is quickly to complete the task, the phrase first noted in the 1570s. To be “short by the knees” was to be kneeling, attested since 1733; to be "short by the head" dates from the 1540s and was to be beheaded.  In 1897 a short was also a term for a street car (trolley bus), so called both because the street cars and the rides taken in them were shorter (respectively in length and duration) than railroad cars.

Of machinery short & long

The stretching of military and commercial airframes has for decades been common practice, the objective usually to increase carrying capacity (passengers, freight, weapons etc).  Unusually, with the Boeing 747 (the original jumbo jet), there were variations both short and long.  The origin of the term jumbo-jet seem to lie in the slang adopted by Boeing’s engineers circa 1960 (the first reference in print apparently in 1964), during the early planning for the project which would first fly in 1969.  Then called the jumbo-707, it was soon shortened to jumbo-jet, probably because a three syllable phrase is always likely to prevail over one with seven.  The term jumbo-jet came to refer to all wide-bodied (ie multi-aisled) passenger airplanes but has always tended most to be associated with Boeing’s 747.  Highly successful and as influential on the economics of the industry in the 1970s as the 707 had been in the 1950s, the basic platform was offered in an stretched version (747-8) in 2005, the fuselage lengthened from 232 feet (71 m) to 251 feet (77 m).

The original 747-100 series (1969, left), the elongated 747-8 (2005, centre) and the shortened 747SP (1975).

Unusually however, in 1975 Boeing announced a short version, named 747SP (Special Performance), the lower weight improving fuel consumption, permitting operators to fly long-haul routes non-stop.  Some 47 feet (14 m) shorter than the original 747-100 series, the SP entered service in 1976 but was never as commercially successful as Boeing hoped, only 45 of the projected 200-odd ever built.  Had fuel remained cheap demand may have been higher but every analysis confirmed the role envisaged for the SP would be more economically served with a new generation of two-engined jumbos and this was the path pursued both by Boeing and Airbus.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 600s: Four-door Pullman (background) & the standard saloon (foreground).

Short is a relative term.  The standard Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100, 1963-1981) at some 5.54m (218.1 inches) in length was long by most standards but informally,  it’s always been referred to as the SWB (short wheelbase) because the companion Pullman model was even more imposing at 6.24 m (245.7 inches), the elongation effected by extending the wheelbase from 3.2 m (126 inches) to 3.9 m (153.5 inches).  Some sources refer to the bigger car as a LWB but the factory designation was always Pullman.  US manufacturers habitually used a variety of wheelbases on the platforms which began to proliferate during the 1960s but didn’t much reference the dimension in advertising and never in model designations.  The British and Europeans, with smaller ranges, often did both, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz & BMW all designating their long wheelbase saloons with an appended “L” (short for Long or Lang), the Germans for decades maintaining the distinction although Jaguar found demand for their (shorter) standard wheelbase XJ declined to the extent that production was halted and the long wheelbase (LWB) became standard.  Introduced initially as an extra-cost option in 1972 on the XJ12 and Daimler Double Six, the LWB began as a niche model for those wanting more rear-seat leg room (1105 sold compared with 3008 of the SWB) but by 1974, such had the demand profile changed that the SWB platform was restricted to the lovely but doomed two-door XJC (coupé, 1975-1978).  When the XJC was cancelled, all XJs were built on the LWB platform, now marketed without the obviously superfluous “L” badge.

1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK (left) & 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K.

Mercedes-Benz didn’t always make it easy to work out what was long and what was short.  The “K” in SSK (W06, 1928-1932) is short for kurz (short) which was fine given it was a SWB version of the SS but the 770K (W07, 1930-1938 & W150, 1939-1943) was anything but short, the “K” short for kompressor (supercharger).  Further to complicate things the SSK was supercharged but presumably SSKK might have been thought a bit much although there was a lightweight version of the SSK called SSKL (W06, 1929), the “L” short for licht (light) which was, again, fine except “L” would later appear simultaneously as short forms of both licht & lang.  This duplication of meaning has seemed always to lack the expected Teutonic exactitude.

Wearing it well: Lindsay Lohan in shorts.

1959 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder (LWB) (left) & 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB (right).

Lengthening already large saloons to provide more rear-seat space made sense for many, especially those driven by a chauffeur.  However, with sports cars or other machines intended for competition, the tendency is to shorten, this reducing weight and improving agility although the combination of high power and a short wheelbase can induce some handling characteristics best explored by expert hands.

Ferrari's 250 (1952-1964) series of sports cars, cabriolets and coupés was significant not only for the many successes achieved on the track but also because it was the first model to be built in commercially viable numbers for sale to the public.  In this, the 250 set the template for the generations of road-cars which the factory would offer in succeeding decades, models which would provide not only the basis for the lightweight, high-performance variants used in racing but much of the funding as well.  All but a handful of the 250s were built either on the original 2.6 m (102.4 inch) wheelbase or the later (SWB) of 2.4 m (94.5 inch).  After the release of the SWB (which became the factory designation), the term LWB was retrospectively (and unofficially) applied to the longer frames.

The 250s had attracted much attention in the US market but the overwhelming response was that there was demand for a luxury cabriolet.  Accordingly, Ferrari's coachbuilder Scaglietti's created a roadster called the 250 GT California Spyder on the standard (LWB) platform and between 1957-1959 produced a run of fifty.  In the days before the quantitative easing (creating money and giving it to the rich) programmes run during the GFC (Global Financial Crisis 2008-2012) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) when a million dollars was still a lot of money, a California Spider set a then world-record for a car sold at open auction, the hammer dropping at US$12 million.  The 250 GT Berlinetta (coupé) had been released in SWB form in 1959 and it was on this platform the revised 250 GT California Spyder SWB was shown at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show.  Using the same proportions which would become famous on the 250 GTO, as well as the revised lines, the SWB Spyder benefited from being fitted with disc brakes and an updated version of the 3.0 litre (180 cubic inch) Colombo V12.

Wearing it not so well: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; head of state (1934-1945) and government (1933-1945) in Nazi Germany) in shorts.

So much in Nazism (and fascism generally) was fake spectacle that much emphasis was always given to the few things of note which were real (Hitler’s Iron Crosses (though he rarely wore the "First Class" one), Göring's war record, Goebbels' PhD etc), the importance to the regime of spectacle at the time suspected but not fully understood until the post-war years.  All politicians carefully cultivate their image but Hitler was singularly careful and diligent in preparation, these photographs in shorts (Bavarian Lederhosen (leather trousers)) taken for him to assess their suitability for use as publicity shots.  Unsurprisingly, he rejected them as “beneath my dignity” and ordered the negatives destroyed but they ended up in the photographer's archive.

Landau

Landau (pronouned lan-daw (U) or lan-dou (non-U))

(1) A light, four-wheeled, traditionally horse-drawn, two or four-seated (the original landau was for two passengers) carriage with a top made in two parts that may be let down or folded back, the two meeting over the middle of the passenger compartment; in four-seat versions, the front and rear passenger seats would face each other, an arrangement now often called “vis-a-vis seating”.

(2) By extension, a style of automobile based around the design of landau carriages, usually a limousine or sedan-like with a partially convertible roof arrangement, the most rearward part retractable.

(3) A model name for automobiles now with no precise definition but which is usually applied to vehicles with some variation in the treatment of the roof (though not necessarily a configuration).

1743 (1723 in the German): Traditionally thought named after the German city of Landau, where such carriages were first made and called landauers, following the model of the berliner, a carriage with origins in the city of Berlin.  The city of Landau in der Pfalz (Landach in the Palatine German and usually clipped to Landau) is an autonomous (kreisfrei) town in the southern Rhineland-Palatinate.  Land was from the common Germanic element land (land, territory (which obviously endures in English), from the Proto-Germanic landą, from the primitive Indo-European lend- (land, heath); it was cognate with the Proto-Celtic landā.  The origin of the second element is disputed.  The noun plural is landaus.

The Landau

Murkier still though is the opinion of some etymologists that the name of the carriage was really from the Spanish lando (a light four-wheeled carriage drawn by mules), from the Arabic al-andul and the claim by the Germans was just blatant commercial opportunism.  If one accepts the orthodox etymology, in 1723 when first displayed in the city of Landau, the description landauer meant one thing: a two-seater horse-drawn light carriage configured with four wheels on two sprung axles and with a fabric top which could be thrown back (ie lowered) to the rear.  It was a luxury vehicle and much admired but the reaction of customers suggested a larger market beckoned if a four-seat version was available.  Accordingly, production commenced on what was essentially two of the two-seaters joined together, the seats in the traditional (viv-a-vis) arrangement of two benches facing each other and the fabric roofs duplicated, one hinged from the rear, one from the from front and, when erected, meeting in the centre above the passengers.  Access to the compartment was provided by one or two side-doors, the upper section of which was a framed glass window which could be removed (and later even wound-down) and it is to these vehicles that the origins of the modern convertible may be traced, the sense being of something which easily may be converted from open to closed .  In the records of the time, there are drawings of these four-seat carriages with a single fabric roof (a la the two-seat original), hinged from the rear but it’s not clear how many, if any, were built.

Before there were landaus, another carriage had provided an entry in the etymological record.  Designed probably in the late 1660s by a Piedmontese architect under commission from the quartermaster-general to Frederick William (1620–1688; Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia 1640-1688), several of what came to be known as berliners were used by the elector to travel from Berlin to Paris, then a trip of 1,055 km (655 miles) and upon arrival, the elegant but obviously robust vehicles caused a sensation and immediately the design was copied by Parisian coachbuilders attracted by the ease of construction, efficiency of space utilization and critically, the economical use of materials which made them cheaper to build.  Lighter and with a lower centre of gravity which made them also safer, the French named them berlines in honor of their city of origin and quickly they began to supplant the less practical and frankly uncomfortable state and gala coaches which had been the definitive seventeenth century carriage.

The origin of the Berliner is undisputed but there have long been “alternative facts” contesting the genesis of the landau.  The orthodox history is that carriages in the style which came to be associated with the landau were first built in Landau and thus known as landauers, mentioned in Goethe's (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749–1832) epic-length poem Hermann and Dorothea (1796-1797):

Constantly, while he thus spoke, the crowds of men and of women

Grew, who their homeward way were over the market-place wending;

And, with the rest, there also returned, his daughters beside him,

Back to his modernized house on the opposite side of the market,

Foremost merchant of all the town, their opulent neighbor,

Rapidly driving his open barouche,—it was builded in Landau.

Lively now grew the streets, for the city was handsomely peopled.

Many a trade was therein carried on, and large manufactures.

A barouche was a large, open, four-wheeled carriage and historians of the industry suggest Goethe was describing a landauer and Jane Austen (1775-1817) in Emma (1816) spoke of a “barouche-landau” which combined “…the best features of a barouche and a landau" although the blend was apparently “not a popular innovation” and noting this critique, Austen scholar Jennifer S Ewing, Library Director at Southern California Seminary in El Cajon, pondered whether the “… choice of carriage itself speak to the elusiveness of the Sucklings in Emma, always promised, but never realized?  Such is the way of modern academic deconstruction but carriages were important in Austen’s writings, the size and style of a man’s carriage used to establish the measure of his wealth and social distinction so she was a keen observer of such things.

A more dramatic story is that associated with the epic journey by Austrian Archduke Joseph (1678–1711; Holy Roman Emperor & King Joseph I of Austria 1705-1711) who in 1702 arranged a fleet of 77 coaches to carry him and his entourage of 250 from Vienna to Landau, there to take the command at the siege of what was then the a French border fortress.  It’s claimed the feat of moving the 250 men in 14 daily stages was so extraordinary that the coaches were forever associated with the town of Landau, the French soldiers also so impressed they took the name back to Paris.  It’s a romantic story but Goethe and Austen are more persuasive.

The theory of an Arabic origin of the name is interesting, the argument being the Arabic al-andul (litter, cars (and related to the Sanskrit hindola (a swinging cradle or hammock; an ornamental swing or litter in which figures of kṛṣṇa are carried during the Swing-festival in the light half of the month śrāvaṇa))) came into Spanish as lando (four-seat cart drawn by mules) from which it migrated in the form landau into English & French and was only then brought into German by popular etymological reinterpretation with the place name Landau and formed into landauer.  The Arabic derivation has the advantage that there’s no reliance of anecdotal tales of military adventure or historically dubious claims of manufacturing innovation but it’s wholly inconsistent with the chronology of verified evidence.  The word as the name of a carriage was documented in German in 1723 (and in English by 1743), but there's no trace in Spanish until 1830 and most etymologists think even then likely that it is more likely from the French than the Arabic.

Landaulet and Landaulette

The landaulette was a body style developed early in the twentieth century by car manufacturers and specialist coachbuilders, the construct being landau(l) + -ette (from the Middle English -ette, a borrowing from the Old French -ette, from the Latin -itta, the feminine form of -ittus.  It was used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something).  A landaulette was distinguished by the compartment being covered by a convertible top while the front remained enclosed (although a landaulette rear-section was sometimes combined with the sedanca de-ville coachwork which had an open section also at the front (sometimes with a detachable top), leaving only a central portion with a permanently fixed roof.  It was once a very popular style used in taxis (in the days before air-conditioning) and was a feature of many parade limousines used for figures such as heads of state when they wished to be more visible to large crowds.  This use is now rare because of concerns about security, some of the old state-cars used in the wedding business, most brides concerned with matters other than assassination.  In the UK, historically, landaulette was used when referring to motor vehicles while the older landaulet was reserved for horse-drawn carriages.

Landaulet, the construct being landau(l) + -et (from the Middle English -et, from the Old French –et & its feminine variant -ette, from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta & -ittum).  It was used to form diminutives (loosely construed) and was, after the first few years of the twentieth century, always the form used on the continent and refers to the same coachwork as landaulette.  Both words are now rare and it’s only specialists who are likely to apply them correctly.

Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) Landaulet (long-roof).

Mercedes-Benz, at a leisurely pace, produced 59 600 Pullman Landaulets, twelve with a convertible top which covered the entire rear passenger space, the remainder with a shorter top which exposed only the rear-most seat.  Purchased usually for parade use or other ceremonial occasions, most were built with the six-door coachwork but there were a few which used the four-door body and the vis-a-vis seating.

Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) one-off landaulet on the short wheelbase (SWB) platform.

The factory for decades provided the Vatican with papal landaulets, used in parades and sometimes they travelled with popes to foreign lands.  After the assassination attempt on John-Paul II, the concept was refined, the convertible top replaced with bullet-resistant clear panels and popes now less frequently appear in open-top cars.  Clockwise from top left: 300d (W189) papal throne, 300d (W189), 600 (W100), 300SEL (W109), S500 (W140), 300GD (W460), G500 (W463), ML500 (W166).  Just about everybody quickly dubbed the new cars "popemobiles".

Rolls-Royce Phantom V (1959-1968) State Landaulet by Mulliner Park Ward (MPW).

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of England the UK and other places, 1952-2022) and Prince Philip (1921-2021) in Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, state visit, June 1965.  This 600 Landaulet is one of twelve "long roof" cars (often informally styled as the "Presidential") in which the folding fabric roof extended over the whole of the rear compartment.  The remaining 46 600 Landaulets were "short-roof" models where the metal roof extended further rearwards, the fabric over only the rear-seat area.

The 1961 Lincoln Continental (Secret Service code X-100) in which President John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated could be configured as (1) a four-door convertible or, (2) a landaulet with a solid top attached above the driver’s compartment.  It was sometimes also used with a protective Perspex shield for the rear compartment but, infamously, this wasn’t used on the day of the assignation.  After the events in Dallas it was modified to include much more protective equipment and returned to the Secret Service’s White House fleet.

X-100 unprotected (left) and with an array of some of the roof accessories which enabled it to be configured as a four-door convertible, a landaulet or a sedanca de ville (although it was never seen as the latter) (right).  Interestingly, Lincoln's companion division, Mercury, in 1969-1970, sold a version of its full-sized Marauder two-door hardtop as the X-100, nominally a high-performance model but actually using an un-modified (360 horsepower) 429 cubic inch (7.0 litre) version of its 385-series V8.  The X-100 was essentially an attempt to be in 1965 what the "letter series" Chrysler 300s had been between 1955-1965 but the moment had passed and the days of the "banker's hot-rods" were done.  The X-100 was never replaced.

Rolls-Royce Phantom IV State Landaulet by Hooper.

A bespoke creation produced exclusively for heads of state and crowned royalty (the "crowned" bit an important status symbol in royal circles) and never offered for sale to the public (a distinction shared only with the Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150; 88 made 1939-1943) and the Bugatti Royale (7 made, 1927-1933), Rolls-Royce between 1950-1958 made only 18 Phantom IVs, one of which was a ute (a light pickup truck) used by the factory until it was scrapped.  The Phantom IV's other footnote in Rolls-Royce history is it was their first and last passenger car powered by a straight-8 engine.

Daimler DS420 Landaulet by Vanden Plas.

Vanden Plas made only two Daimler DS420 Landaulets but many have been converted by coachbuilders (and some folk less skilled), the results said to be variable.  Many of the converted landaulets were used in the wedding trade, there presumably being genuine advantages for brides with big hair.  The DS420 was in production between 1968-1992 and used the platform of the big Jaguar Mark X (1961-1970; in 1967 slightly revised and re-named the 420G), the sales of which had never met expectations, failing in the home market because it was just too big and in the US because the factory chose to use 3.8 & 4.2 litre versions of the XK-Six as the powerplant rather than the 4.6 litre Daimler V8.  The underpinnings of the Mark X (the advanced suspension design and the four-wheel disk brakes) were several generations ahead of the US competition but the XK-Six was underpowered and lacked the torque required in what was a heavy machine.  A 5.5 litre V8 version with a well-integrated air-conditioning system would likely have been a great success in the US.  However disappointing the Mark X might have been, the long and lucrative career of the DS420 meant that eventually, the platform proved one of Jaguar's most enduringly profitable.

Marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, 29 July 1981 (left), marriage of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson, 23 July 1986 (centre) and marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, 29 April 2011.

Maintained in the Royal Mews, the state landau carriage was built in 1902 by Messrs Hooper for Edward VII (1841–1910; King of the UK & Emperor of India 1901-1910) and first used by him on the day of his coronation procession through London.  Extensively used since, it’s lasted well, unlike the marriages of some of the royal couples who have sat in it to and from the church.  Clearly not superstitious, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge choose the 1902 Landau although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided not to risk the curse, riding instead in one of the five Ascot landaus in the Royal Mews.

The fifth generation Ford Thunderbird Landaus, 1967-1971

1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau Coupé (429).

In what was a case study of supply responding to demand, the Ford Thunderbird which in 1955 had debuted as a two-seat convertible, was re-designed for 1958 as a four-seater, sales immediately rising.  Having already made the correct decision in 1955 to position the T-bird as a “personal car” rather than a sports-car and being rewarded with something which outsold the Chevrolet Corvette more than twenty-fold, it was obvious to rely on (what probably still is) the biggest “big-data” metric of all: what people are prepared to pay for.  Thus the T-bird continued successfully until 1966 as a four-seat coupé and convertible.  By 1967 however, Ford needed to consider not just the competing products of other manufacturers but also the corporation’s own proliferating range, the wildly successful Mustang and its new, up-market derivative, the Mercury Cougar, both of which (and not just at the margins) overlapped the T-bird’s lucrative niche.  Additionally, Lincoln had released a two-door version of the Continental so the T-bird needed somehow to appeal to those considering competitor vehicles yet try to avoid excessive cannibalizing sales within the corporation.

1967 Ford Thunderbird Landau Sedan (428).

Thus the fifth generation Thunderbird (1967-1971), the convertible gone (not to return until the one-off retro-car of 2002-2005), the coupé was joined by a four-door sedan, suicide doors added not just as a novelty but because, as had been the case with the 1961 Lincoln, the wheelbase was just a little too short comfortably to accommodate conventional hinging.  With Lincoln’s four-door convertible in its last days because of declining sales, no such T-bird was offered.  Quite how sincere Ford was in trying not to impinge on Mercury and Lincoln attracted attention even at the time.  The 1967 Thunderbird was the most expensive car on Ford’s list, attracting buyers who ticked much on the option list and they tended to leave the showroom costing much more than any other Ford or Mercury, the most expensive, the four-door Landau Sedan, sitting within a few hundred dollars of an entry-level Lincoln.

1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau Sedan (390) with vinyl roof removed.  In the quest for good taste, removing vinyl roofs from cars of that era is popular but on the four-door T-birds, they really need to be maintained.

By 1967, the US industry had long come to regard words like “landau” and “brougham”, once technical terms from coach-building, as just handy marketing terms, a brougham now something with more bling and a landau, usually a car distinguished often by sometimes oddly-shaped windows added to the C-panel and the increasingly bizarre ways in which vinyl would be glued to the roof and Ford wasn’t alone in adding fake “landau irons” (sometimes called “landau bars”) to cement the association.  Actually last used as a functional device for a convertible top in 1962 on the Mercedes 300d Cabriolet D (w189), they’d come to be adopted as a decorative flourish on C-pillars, thought to impart come link with the big cabriolets of the 1930s with which they were most associated.  On the two-door T-bird Landaus, that’s how they were used but on the four-door, they gained a new functionally: Disguising unfortunate styling.

The much admired “wrap-around” rear compartment: 1971 Ford Thunderbird Landau Coupé (429).

Just as the suicide doors had been a necessity, so too were the landau irons (which some coachbuilders insist should be called "carriage bars"), used to conceal the ungainly way the desired shape of the C-pillar had been achieved on a wheelbase too short, the vinyl roof another unavoidable trick to draw attention from what would otherwise have been obviously extraneous metal if painted.  The four-door T-birds are probably the only car ever made where a vinyl roof improved rather than detracted from the appearance and the fake landau bars helped too.  Some hearses are built with large expanse of something solid to the rear rather than glass and on those, fake landau bars are added as a flourish to reduce the effect of the slab-sidedness.  Ford’s aesthetic trick was clever but didn’t much help in the showroom, the four-door a slow seller which wasn’t replaced when the sixth generation was released only as a (very big) coupé which went on to great success.

The Ford (Australia) Landau (P5;1973-1976)

Even at the time, to many the Ford Landau can't have seemed a good idea.  Sales of large (compact in 1973 US terms) coupés had dropped precipitously since their brief burst of popularity and the only thing on the market which might have been a competitor, the Chrysler by Chrysler hardtop, had been dropped earlier in the year after eighteen months of disappointing sales.  Ford's own hardtop, debuting late in 1972 had come too late to enjoy much of the earlier fad which probably was a warning of sorts but it also meant there was a warehouse full of hardtop shells for which demand had almost evaporated.  Thus the Landau, a two-door version of Ford Australia's new LTD, a (much) stretched and (much) blingified Falcon, the parts-sharing meaning the Landau could be brought into production at modest cost; from the Detroit parts-bin came Mercury hidden-headlight assemblies and Thunderbird wheel-covers, the later marvelously intricate but so vulnerable to impacts with Australia's high kerb-sides they were soon replaced with units which protruded less.  Underneath lay the familiar combination of Ford's 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland (335) V8 and FMX automatic transmission, the most notable mechanical innovation being the country's first locally produced (as opposed to assembled) car with four-wheel disk brakes, Ford even claiming the numbers of Landaus produced as counting towards the brakes being homologated for series-production racing, the rationale being the Landau's mechanical similarity to the Falcon GT hardtops used in competition.  It sounds improbable but that's how things used to be done.

The Landau's other "mechanical" difference from standard Falcon hardtops was some sheet-metal crudely welded into the rear-window apertures so a more "formal" roofline could be fashioned.  The welding seams were never finished to a fine standard because one feature of the LTD & Landau was a padded vinyl roof which, handily, covered the imperfections.  A padded vinyl roof is a really bad idea because it means a layer of porous foam rubber sits between the vinyl and the ferrous metal of the roof, the moisture accumulating and the rust soon starting, proximity to the coast and the tropics dictating how soon and ultimately to what extent.  It sounds improbable but that's how things used to be done.  Still, it was plush inside, lashings of (real) leather, much (fake) timber and four bucket seats (though despite the bulk of the thing the rear compartment was cramped and the cut-down windows made travel a claustrophobic experience) through the highlights were two real affectations, a twenty-four hour analogue clock and aviation inspired controls for the air-conditioning, recalling those installed rather more extravagantly on European machinery like the Facel Vega.  Just so people knew they were looking at something classy, pressed into the padded roof (about where the welding seams were being hidden) was a (wholly fake) coat of arms with lions rampant, two more escutcheons glued-on inside to comfort the passengers.

As a road car it was capable, even rapid by the standards of the time and the new brakes really were (pre-ABS) world class.  For commuting or touring it was a comfortable and effortless experience, at least for two although it could be hard to manage in urban conditions, the hardtop's already marginal rear-visibility further compromised by the loss of glass and the combination of the coupé's lowered roofline and almost flat rear window meant the rearward view was like looking through a slit.  That was unfortunate because the hardtops had been designed with series-production racing in mind so the rear fenders flared outwards allowing wide tyres to be fitted without modification to the bodywork.  Reversing a Landau could be a challenge but it was one not many took up, fewer than 1400 sold in a three-year run.  The timing of the release had been unfortunate for not only was it now in a dying market segment but within three months, the first oil shock hit.  The 351 V8, even it's more efficient (pre-emission control) form was always thirsty but in the Landau with all the luxury bits and pieces adding some 440 lb (200 KG) to the anyway hardly svelte Falcon Hardtop, it was worse.  When the P6 LTD was released in 1976, although one P6 Landau prototype had constructed for evaluation, the coupé was quietly dropped but now, the survivors are a collectable, one popular modification the removal of the vinyl roof and the proper finishing of the welded cover-plates.

1973 Ford Landau.  Ford added just about whatever could be added to justify the Landau's high price-tag.  The aviation-inspired sliding air-conditioning controls delighted many (although some dismissed them as "an affectation") and the turbine-style wheel-covers were imported from the Detroit parts-bin; while the intricate details were impressive, the "beehive" shape rendered then vulnerable to Australian kerbs and so much damage was reported they were soon replaced with flatter units.  The leather on the seats was real (and Australian grown) and the 24-hour clock was unique in the era but unfortunately, the budget didn't extend to real timber and the "woodgrain" on the instrument panel was plastic.

Argyle

Argyle (pronounced ahr-gahyl)

(1) A diamond-shaped pattern of two or more colors, used in knitted socks, sweaters and a design motif for other purposes.

(2) Specifically, a sock made with this pattern (often in the plural); now increasingly used also of sweaters.

1790s: A adapted variant of the surname Argyll, so called because the original design closely emulated the clan tartan associated with the name.  Argyle does exist as a surname & given name where it is capitalized but this is now sometimes also the practice when referring (as a noun) to garments (though never as a adjective).  The surname Argyle was from the Middle English erguil & erguile, a variant of the Middle English orguil & orguile, from the Old French orguel (pride arrogance), thus the variation of Argill and Argile with Orgill.  There is an alternative suggestion of a link to Arkell (with a voicing of “k” to “g”) but it’s thought either speculative or an unjustified generalization from what may have been a genealogical cul-de-sac.  Nor is there evidence has to support the notion of it being a habitational name from Argyll, the county of south-west Scotland although folk etymology may have influenced the modern spelling of the surname, something not uncommon, even as late as the nineteenth century.  Argyle is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is argyles.

Lindsay Lohan in an argyle-patterned Harlequin Sequin Tunic (a long vest or mini-dress depending on pairings or circumstances) by Topshop, the shoes are Lanvin platform peep-toe pumps in suede: New Year's Party at the Mansion nightclub, South Beach, Miami Beach Florida, 31 December 2008.

As a given name, Argyle’s origins are Scottish, meaning “from the land of the Gauls”.  When used as a locality name outside the British Isles, Argyle was usually a borrowing from there although the Canadian municipality of Argyle was named after Governor-General of Canada, John Campbell (1845-1914), ninth Duke of Argyll.  Argyle socks were first so described in that form in 1935, the use as a general descriptor for other garments (mostly sweaters but also shirts, skirts etc) emerged in the post-war years.  It’d long been used with fabric sold in bolts and other products (blankets, table cloths, mufflers etc).  The argyle (diamond-shaped in two or more colors in fabric) pattern was influenced by the tartan which came to be associated with the Argyll branch of the Campbell clan of Argyll, Scotland.  The place name translates literally as "land of the Gaels", the first element from the Old Irish airer (country).  The surname Campbell was from the Scottish Gaelic Caimbeul, the construct being cam (crooked) + beul (mouth) and it’s often compared with Cameron, the construct being the Scottish Gaelic cam + sròn (nose).  Etymologists have concluded crooked in this context was a literal rather than a figurative reference.

Despite the perception of many (encouraged by the depictions in popular culture), tartan in the sense of specific color & pattern combinations attached to specific clans is something of recent origin.  Tartan (breacan (pɾʲɛxkən) in Scots Gaelic) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours.  The word plaid is now often used interchangeably with tartan (particularly in North America and when not associated with anything Scottish (especially kilts)), but technically (and always in Scotland), a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth, worn as a type of kilt or large shawl although it’s also used to describe a blanket.  During the disputes between England and Scotland, the wearing of tartan became a political expression and the Dress Act (1746) was part of the campaign to suppress the warrior clans north of the border; it banned tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. The law was repealed in 1782 and tartan was soon adopted as both the symbolic national dress of Scotland and in imagery more generally.

Argyll No.230.  Records from 1850 lists the pattern Argyll No.230 as Cawdor Campbell and it was in the pattern books of a Bannockburn weaver printed in 1819 and the earliest known reference to an (un-illustrated) “Argyll tartan” dates from 1798.  In documents from 1906 it was referred to as the “Argyll District tartan” and was said to have been adopted by other clans but this is disputed.

Although there’s now an industry devoted to the tartans of the clans, the specific association of patterns with clans and families began only in the mid-nineteenth century.  This history was both technological and economic deterministic.  Unlike some fabrics, tartans were produced by local weavers for local sale, using only the natural dyes available in that geographical area and patterns were just designs chosen by the buyer.  It was only with a broader availability of synthetic dyes that many patterns were created these began (somewhat artificially) to become associated with Scottish clans, families, or institutions wishing to emphasize their Scottish heritage.  The heritage was usually real but not often specific to a particular tartan, the mid-nineteenth century interest in the fabrics a kind of manufactured nostalgia.

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert (b 1982)) in Mean Girls (2004) liked the diamond look, wearing two different argyle sweaters and one skirt with the pattern.

One aspect of the fashions of Mean Girls which did attract comment was that the Plastics, despite having many self-imposed rules on matters sartorial, apparently placed no restrictions on repeating a outfit within a short time although the argyle sweater was the only piece of note worn by the protagonists which made a second appearance.

2022 Mercedes-Maybach 600 Pullman (left), after-market seat covers (centre) and 2005 Bentley Arnage T Mulliner (right).

Early in the twenty-first century, high-end car manufacturers embraced quilted leather with great enthusiasm and the trend, although criticized by some, shows little sign of fading.  Some have, with variable results, embraced two-tone color schemes but not in the traditional argyle style although third-party manufacturers of seat-covers have offered a few.  Perhaps fortunately, this seems not to have inspired the majors.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198) trimmed in blue-grey plaid.

Buyers of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198 1954-1957) had the choice of seats covered in leather or plaid cloth.  In the years since, many Gullwings originally fitted with plaid upholstery were re-trimmed in leather during refurbishment or restoration, partly because the leather was thought to have more of a allure but also because for decades fabrics exactly matching what was available in the 1950s had become unobtainable ("unobtainium" thus the preferred industry term).  However, in 2018, in what was said to be a response to demand, Daimler announced bolts replicating exactly the original three designs (blue-gray, red-green and green-beige color) would again be available as a factory part-number.  Manufactured to the 1955 specification using an odor-neutral wool yarn woven into a four-ply, double weave twill, it’s claimed to be a “very robust material”.  In the era, the blue-gray fabric was the most popular, fitted to 80% of 300SLs not trimmed in leather while the red-green and green-beige combinations were requested respectively only by 14 & 6% of buyers.  The price (US$229 per yard) is indicative of the product’s niche market but for those restoring a 300 SL to its original appearance, it's a bargain.

The part-numbers:  Blue-Grey: A 000 983 44 86 / 5000, Red-Green: A 000 983 44 86 / 3000 & Green-Beige: A 000 983 44 86 / 6000.

Vogue, January 1925, cover art by Georges Lepape.

Triangles (and the diamond shapes they could combine to create) were one of the notable motifs of the art deco era.  From the start, Vogue was of course about frocks, shoes and such but its influence extended over the years to fields as diverse as interior decorating and industrial design.  The work of Georges Lepape (1887-1971) has long been strangely neglected in the history of art deco but he was a fine practitioner whose reputation probably suffered because his compositions have always been regarded as derivative or imitative which seems unfair given there are many who are more highly regarded despite being hardly original.  His cover art for Vogue’s edition of 1 January 1925 juxtaposed one of French artist Sonia Delaunay’s (1885–1979) "simultaneous" pattern dresses and a Voisin roadster decorated with an art deco motif.

One collector in 2015 was so taken with Pepape’s image that when refurbishing his 1927 Voisin C14 Lumineuse (literally “light”, an allusion to the Voisin’s greenhouse-inspired design which allowed natural light to fill the interior), he commissioned Dutch artist Bernadette Ramaekers to hand-paint a geometric triangular pattern in sympathy with that on the Vogue cover in 1925.  Ms Ramaekers toook six months to complete the project and in 2022 the car sold at auction for £202,500 (US$230,000).  Produced during the whole inter-war period (1919-1939), the Voisin cars were among the most strikingly memorable of the era although for a variety of reasons, commercial viability was often marginal.  The demise was unfortunate because a manufacturer which once contemplated production of a straight-twelve engine deserved to survive.