Riparian

Riparian (pronounced ri-pair-ee-uhn or rahy-pair-ee-uhn)

(1) Of, relating to, or situated or dwelling on the bank of a river or other body of water.

(2) In law, a person who owns land on the bank of a natural watercourse or body of water; denoting or relating to the legal rights of the owner of land on a river bank, such as fishing or irrigation

1849: From the Latin rīpārius (feminine rīpāria, neuter rīpārium) (of the banks of a river) from riparia (shore), later used in reference to the stream flowing between the banks, from ripa ((steep) bank of a river, shore)), probably understood literally as "break" (and indicating the drop off from ground level to the stream bed), or else "that which is cut out by the river", from the primitive Indo-European root rei- (to scratch, tear, cut), source of the Ancient Greek ereipia (ruins) & eripne (slope, precipice), the Old Norse rifa (break, to tear apart), the Danish rift (breach), the Middle High German rif (riverbank, seashore) and the English riven & rift.  Riparian is a noun & adjective and riparianism is a noun; the noun plural is riparian.

For technical reasons etymologists treat the construct as rīpāri(us) +‎ -an rather than rīpār(ius) +‎ -ian although ian was a euphonic variant of –an.  The suffix -an was from the Middle English -an (regularly -ain, -ein & -en), from the Old French –ain & -ein (or before an “i”, -en (used in modern French as –ain & -en (feminine –aine & -enne))), from the Latin -ānus (feminine -āna), used to form adjectives of, belonging or from a noun (and cognate with the Ancient Greek -νος (-nos), preceded by a vowel, from the primitive Indo-European -nós).  It was cognate with the English -en.  In English, it was an adjectival suffix widely appended (most frequently to nouns) and most associated with words of Latin origin; when a word ends in "a", a -n is instead appended.  It can also be used to form agent nouns and historically the male forms were constructed with -an, the females with -(i)enne but increasingly the male formations are treated as gender-neutral.  The suffix -ian was a euphonic variant of –an & -n, from the Middle English -an & -en.

In English law riparian rights and liabilities evolved over centuries, both arising as a consequence of the ownership of land abutting natural water and it matters not whether the water is tidal or non-tidal, all that is critical is that the physical property has some contact with the water course during the day.  The operation of law applied most obviously to the flows which occur naturally by riparian ownership can arise when streams and watercourses are channeled through artificial constructions although different aspects of the law may need to be applied to determine the ownership of the riparian rights.

As a general principle, a riparian owner is entitled access to the water, certainly for what are (in the context of place) ordinary purposes which may be for domestic or agricultural purposes.  This right of access may also include the ability to pass over the foreshore or a river bed to get to the water and even to temporarily moor vessels adjacent to riparian land to load or unload them.  Interestingly, this does not of necessity confer a right permanently to moor a vessel, reflecting the ancient common law position in England that the right of anyone to proceed along the nation’s highways and byways does not always imply a similar right to stay in any one place.

In the case of natural channels, such as streams and rivers, where water flows from one riparian owner’s property to another, the downstream owner is entitled to the flow of water in its natural state, both as to quality and the quantity, a specific expression of a concept in English law known as “natural enjoyment of a right”.  This means the upstream owner may take water or construct a dam but in so doing may not materially interfere with the flow and quality of water enjoyed by the downstream owner.  A special riparian right is the ability to drain land to a watercourse which can impact significantly on downstream rights holders and is thus often subject to separate negotiation.  In the case of natural flows, all downstream owners are obliged to accept the flow of water onto their land.  These well-established principles in English domestic law are used often as the basis for negotiations between nations where rivers cross borders; the results of these discussions can vary between amicable agreement and declarations or war.

There are also riparian liabilities.  Apart from not unduly interfering with the flow of water, riparian owners can be required to accept flooding on their land, even if that is caused by natural obstructions downstream and, again dependent on place, a liability can be imposed on riparian owners to manage the risk of flooding.  Because flood risks in England is managed nationally by statutory authorities such as regional drainage boards, the liabilities can very geographically, the power vested in these organisations to require riparian land to be used for flood management and mitigation.  Where water is artificially channeled, some interplay of different laws may be required to determine ownership of fights and liabilities.  As with just about any property rights, a riparian owner can take actions in court to prevent interference with rights, such as by requiring the removal of an obstruction or to stop an adjoining riparian owner from drawing too much water.

Lindsay Lohan, pondering riparian rights in Georgia Rule (2007).

Most associated with the US, riparianism was a doctrine of property rights, based on the principle that the owners of riparian land (riparians) had the right to remove reasonable amounts of water from the river, but others did not.  Because of the various property of rivers (moving in a sense, static in a sense, abutting land, able by natural action to increase and decrease the size of that land, used also as (often pubic) waterways for transportation etc), riparian rights have frequently been considered by courts and the gradual path has been one of a retreat from the classic position such rights accrued absolutely to the land owner as a property right.  An illustrative example was the decision of the High Court of Australia (HCA) in Commonwealth v Tasmania (HCA 21, (1983) 158 CLR 1) which concerned an attempt by the Commonwealth to prevent the state government of Tasmania building a dam on the Gordon River which would have flooded a large area of wilderness, including part of the Franklin River.  The HCA held the Commonwealth had the power to prevent the construction of the dam, based on its constitutional powers: (1) to regulate interstate trade and commerce and (2) its “external (foreign) affairs” power triggered by an obligation to protect sites declared by the United Nations (UN) to be “World Heritage” (by virtue of the Commonwealth having entered into certain treaties).  Also considered were riparian rights and the court held that riparian rights were not absolute and they could be limited by the public interest.  The reasoning was because the construction of the dam would interfere with the natural flow of the river and the ecology of the area, the court had to consider competing interests and in this case the public interest in preserving the area's natural values outweighed the riparian rights of the Tasmanian Government.  Use of the external affairs power was controversial but so was the expansion of the scope of the public interest in relation to riparian rights because it limited the rights of landowners to use waterways for their own purposes.  It was a case with significant implications for environmental law in Australia and beyond, overseas courts citing the judgment when holding that (public) environmental considerations can outweigh (private) property rights.

Naiad

Naiad (pronounced ney-ad, ney-uhd or nahy-ad)

(1) In Classical Mythology, a nymph (a female deity) dwelling in (in some stories “presiding over”) a lake, river, spring or fountain.

(2) In entomology, aquatic larva or juvenile form of the dragonfly, damselfly, mayfly and related insects.

(3) In botany, any monocotyledonous submerged aquatic plant of the genus Naias (or Najas), having narrow leaves and small flowers (of the family Naiadaceae (or Najadaceae) and also called the water nymph.

(4) In malacology, any of certain freshwater mussels of the genus Unio.

(5) In informal use, a female swimmer, especially a young, expert one.

Circa 1600: From the Latin Nais, Naias & Nāïad- (stem of Nāïas, genitive naiadis), from the Ancient Greek Nāïás (plural Naiades) (a water nymph) and related to νάω (náō or náein) (to flow), from the primitive Indo-European naw-yo-, a suffixed form of snau & nau- (to swim, flow, let flow (from the primitive Indo-European root sna- (to swim).  The English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright John Dryden (1631–1700) used the Latin singular form Nais; In English, the plural form Naiades was in use as early as the late fourteenth century and the use of the initial capital was inconsistent, something not unusual in Middle and early Modern English .  Naiad is a noun; the noun plural is naiads or naiades.

The companion term (in the sense they were often riparian (growing on the bank of a river or stream)) was dryad (a female tree spirit), from the Old French driade (wood nymph), from the Latin Dryas & Dryadis, from the Ancient Greek Δρυάς (Druás) (dryad), from δρῦς (drûs) (oak), from the primitive Indo-European derew & derewo- (tree, wood) and related to the primitive Indo-European dóru (tree).  The niads should not be confused with the Nereids (plural Nereids or Nereides).  In Greek Mythology, Nerids were one of 50 sea nymphs who were attendants upon Poseidon (Neptune); they were represented riding on sea horses, sometimes in human form and sometimes with the tail of a fish.  In zoology, nerid is an alternative form of nereidid (any polychaete worm of the Nereididae).  Nereid was from the stem of the Latin Nērēis (sea-nymph), from the Ancient Greek Νηρηΐς (Nērēḯs), from Νηρεύς (Nēreús) (the sea-god Nereus).

Fuchsia Water Nymph.

The Naiads were water nymphs who, although very long-lived, were mortal, a physiology not unique among the deities of Classical Mythology and although the Naiads incarnate the divinity of the spring or stream which they inhabited, a waterway could be the home to more than one of the nymphs; presence did not confer an exclusivity of dominion.  As is typical of the myths, the stories often are inconsistent for although Homer said the Naiads were the daughters of Zeus, elsewhere they’re described as daughters of the waters in which they dwell.  The daughters of Ασωπός (Asopus) were Naiads.  Asopus (Ασωπός) was the god of the river Asopus and (the family tree is typically murky and varies with the source) was either son of Poseidon & Pero, of Zeus & Eurynome or of Oceanus & Tethys.  He married Metope, the daughter of Ladon, fathered two sons (Ismenus and Pelagon) and an impressive 20 daughters although The Greek historian of the first century BC, Διόδωρος (Diodorus of Sicily) listed the names only of a dozen (Corcyra, Salamis, Aegina, Pirene, Cleone, Thebe, Tanagra, Thespia, Asopis, Sinope, Oenia (or Ornia) and Chalcis.  Confusingly Asopus is in other places mentioned as the said to be the father of Antiope and Plataea (that genealogy contested by other authors), after whom the city Plataea is named.  Plataea was a city-state in Boeotia at the foot of Mount Cithaeron, between the mountain and the river Asopus (which divided its territory from that of Thebes).  The modern Greek town of Plataies is adjacent to its ruins.

Led astray by freshwater sirens: Hylas and the Nymphs (1896), oil on canvas by the aptly named John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), Manchester Art Gallery, England.  Ύλας (Hylas) would not long live to enjoy his flirtation with a pack of Naiads.  Much taken by his beauty, the naiads lured the youth to the water for their pleasure, after which, according to the Roman Poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BC–17 AD), they drowned him; at the least, that suggests ingratitude.  Hylas may have died content but that's not something on which Ovid dwelt.

In theory, there shouldn't be a river or spring without at least one naiad but the storied ones were those associated with famous waterways and many of the nymphs had adventures (not always welcome) with the good, great and ghastly.  At Syracuse dwelt the beautiful Αρέθουσα (Arethusa; all nymphs were beauties but Arethusa was a supermodel among the breed), a companion of Αρτεμις (Artemis) who was identified by the Romans with Diana.  Some said she was the daughter of Demeter, but in most stories she was the twin sister of Apollo, their parents being Zeus and Leto.  One day, while swimming in the river (something which, unsurprisingly, the Naiads often did), Arethusa realized she wasn’t alone when she heard the voice of Alpheus, the god of the river, whose crush on her had developed into a passion which included stalking her.  Pursued by the lustful god, the nymph fled, crying out for Artemis to save her from what she knew would be an awful fate.  Artemis surrounded her in a concealing fog but Alpheus refused to leave the place where the mist swirled and in fright, Arethusa turned into a fountain.  In the way the myths handle the physics of such circumstances, the earth opened up to prevent Alpheus mingling his own waters with those of the spring which Arethusa had become, and, guided by Artemis, Arethusa went through underground channels to Syracuse, on the Island of Ortygia (which is dedicated to Artemis).  This Hellenistic myth is preferred by most but another version of the attempted sexual assault involves Αλφειός (Alpheus, (another river god)) which differs only in detail.

Lindsay Lohan, as a Naiad, surfacing from her spring.

The Naiads were often claimed to possess powers of healing and the notion of “curing waters” persists into the twenty-first century; although some of this is quackery there is a scientific basis in some cases and the origin of the use of lithium as an early anti-depressant was physicians in Ancient Greek noting the drinking of waters from a certain place “cured men of melancholy”.  Those waters turned out to have a pharmacologically significant lithium content.  However, not all naiads could be used so efficaciously because bathing in certain springs or rivers could be considered sacrilegious, even if it was someone exulted taking a dip.  Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (37-68; Roman emperor (and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty) 54-68)) was attacked by fever and some sort of partial paralysis and after bathing in the source of the Aqua Marcia and the Roman scuttlebutt was he’s incurred the displeasure of the Naiads, something which brought Nero’s subjects some delight.  Clearly, one upset a Naiad a one’s own risk because it was said also they could visit madness upon those who laid eyes on them, the nymphs possessing the mortal spirit of a transgressor and driving them to insanity.  For this reasons, travelers were warned (the Trip Advisor concept is not new) Naiads were particularly numerous in the Péloponnèse, a place of many waterways.

Wet & Dry

Wet (pronounced whet)

(1) Moistened, covered, or soaked with water or some other liquid.

(2) In a liquid form or state.

(3) Something that is or makes wet, as water or other liquid; moisture.

(4) Damp weather; rain.

(5) In historic (US prohibition era) use, a person in favor of allowing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages; still used as a descriptor of political candidates or activists in “dry” counties who advocate the status be changed to “wet” but now substantially a retronym.

(6) To make (something) wet, as by moistening or soaking (sometimes followed by through or down).

(7) To urinate on or in (applied usually to pets or children).

Pre 900: From the Middle English wet wett & wette (past participle of weten (to wet)), (wet, moistened), from the Old English wǣtan (to wet, moisten, water), replacing the Middle English weet, from the Old English wǣt, from the Proto-Germanic wētijaną (to wet, make wet), from the primitive Indo-European wed- (water, wet), also the source of “water”.  It was cognate with the Scots weit, weet, wat & wete (to wet), the Saterland Frisian wäitje (to wet; drench) & wäit (wet), the Icelandic væta (to wet) & votur (wet), the North Frisian wiat, weet & wäit (wet), the Old Frisian wēt, the Old Slavonic vedro (bucket), the Swedish and Norwegian våt (wet), the Danish våd (wet), the Faroese vátur (“wet”) and the Old Norse vātr; akin to water.  Wet is a noun, verb & adjective, wetter, wettability & wetness are nouns, wetly an adverb, wetted & wetting are verbs, and wettish, wetter, wettest & wettable are adjectives.  The noun plural is wets and the homophone whet (in accents with the wine-whine merger).

Words in some way related to wet include damp, drench, misty, drizzle, mizzle, humid, dank, fog, mist, muggy, rain, slippery, snow, soak, sodden, soggy, stormy, dip, douse, drench, hose, irrigate & liquid.  For all related words, context and the history of use define the relationship (of extent, type etc).  For example, to drench or soak something implies saturate whereas moistening means only some degree of dampness whereas to soak something suggests an immersion of extended duration until saturated.  With reference to rain, which can always be referred to as wet weather, mizzle & drizzle are expressions of graduation which suggest a lighter fall.

The multi-media US personality Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977)) with Australian architect & model Bianca Censori (b 1995) in "Wet" themed top, Huacai Intercontinental Hotel,Beijing, China, September 2024.

The word wet has proved convenient shorthand for many technical purposes including in calligraphy and fountain pens where it referred to depositing a large amount of ink from the nib or the feed.  To audio engineers, a “wet sound” recording is one to which the audio effects have been applied.  In aviation, it’s a reference to having used the afterburners or water injection for increased engine thrust (maximum wet thrust can be more than twice maximum dry thrust (afterburners consuming huge quantities of fuel)).  In mining a “wet extraction” is a method using fluids whereas a dry extraction relies on the employment of dry heat or fusion.  In soldering, to wet is to form an intermetallic bond between a solder and a metal substrate.  In bench-top science, to wet is to employ a liquid (typically water) as a method of chemical analysis.  A wetback (also called a wet-heater) was a form of heater which in addition to radiating heat to an external space was also attached to the building’s hot water supply, thus providing in whole or in part the energy used to maintain its temperature (wetback was applied also from 1924 as a derogatory description of undocumented Mexican immigrant to the US, a reference to their usually sodden state after crossing the Rio Grande.  There presumably have been bed-wetters (involuntary urination while sleeping) since there have been beds but etymologists can find no instance of the term bed-wetting prior to 1844 (it has also gained an idiomatic identity in politics (qv)).  In ecology, a wetland is an area where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.  The wet-nurse, though an ancient profession, was first so described in the 1610s.

As vulgar slang, as applied to women, it referred to the sexual arousal indicated by the vulva being moistened with vaginal secretions (which may or may not be related to the word “moist” being often rated as the most disliked in the English language).  The sexual slang associated with men is the “wet dream” which most etymologists insist dates only from 1851 although Middle English in the same sense had ludificacioun (an erotic dream), these nocturnal adventures mentioned by Henry VIII in letters as proof of his virility, called into doubt by his inability to be aroused by one of the wives he didn’t wish to keep.

Wet is widely applied in idiomatic use: To be “wet behind the ears” is to be inexperienced; a “wet blanket” (from 1871, from use of blankets drenched in water to smother fires (the phrase is attested in this literal sense from the 1660s)) is someone who spoils the fun of others by failing to join or disapproving of their activities; to “wet one's whistle” is to have one or more alcoholic drinks, an allusion to the idea intoxicants stimulate sociability; in politics a “bed wetter” is a politician who reacts nervously to every passing vicissitude, the label usually applied by those with safe seats to those holding marginal electorates; to be “all wet” is (1) to be mistaken or (2) a really bad idea, both used since the early 1920s (thought built on the earlier sense of “ineffectual”, perhaps ultimately from the circa 1700 slang meaning "drunken"; in computing there’s hardware and software and those working in AI (artificial intelligence) refer to the human brain as wetware; In crime and espionage, wet-work is a euphemistic reference to jobs involving assassination and known also as a wet affair, a wet job & wet stuff, all phrases alluding presumably to other people’s blood.  In historic UK slang, a wet was someone thought ineffectual, feeble or with no strength of character, a weak or sentimental person (although this use faded as the specific political construction (qv) which emerged in the 1980s prevailed.

Dry (pronounced drahy)

(1) Free from moisture or excess moisture; not moist; not wet.

(2) In climatic matters, having or characterized by little or no rain.

(3) Characterized by absence, deficiency, or failure of natural or ordinary moisture.

(4) Not under, in, or on water.

(5) Not now containing or yielding water or other liquid; depleted or empty of liquid.

(6) In dairying and other forms of animal-based milk production, a beast not yielding milk (also used by analogy for oil wells).

(7) The absence of lachrymosity, free from tears.

(8) Drained or evaporated away.

(9) Desiring drink; thirsty; causing thirst.

(10) A food (typically toast) served or eaten without butter, conserves (jam, jelly), honey etc.

(11) Of food, lacking enough moisture or juice to be satisfying or succulent.

(12) Of bread and bakery products, stale.

(13) Of or relating to non-liquid substances or commodities (usually as dry goods, dry measure; dry provisions etc).

(14) Of wines (though now also used of beer, cocktails and other beverages), not sweet.

(15) Characterized by or favoring prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors for use in beverages (mostly prohibition-era US but still a term used in political debates in “dry” counties).

(16) As a general descriptor, anything plain; bald; unadorned; something expressed in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact way.

(17) Dull; uninteresting:

(18) Indifferent; cold; unemotional.

(19) An unproductive period.

(20) Of lumber, fully seasoned.

(21) Of masonry construction, built without fresh mortar or cement.

(22) Of a wall, ceiling, etc in an interior, finished without the use of fresh plaster.

(23) In ceramics unglazed (if deliberate) or insufficiently glazed (if in error).

(24) In art, hard and formal in outline, or lacking mellowness and warmth in color.

(25) To make something free from moisture (or with its moisture substantially reduced.

(26) Something tedious, barren, boring, tiresome, jejune.

(27) Of wit, shrewd and keen in an impersonal, sarcastic, or laconic way.

(28) In sheep farming, a ewe without a lamb after the mating season

(29) In electronics, an imperfectly soldered electrical joint (where the solder has not adhered to the metal), thus reducing conductance

(30) In food preservation, to preserve (meat, vegetables, fruit etc) by removing the moisture.

(31) In chemistry as anhydrous, free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.

(32) In audio engineering, a sound recording free from applied audio effects (especially reverberations).

(33) In animal breeding, an impotent male beast (applied especially to bulls).

(34) In the rituals of certain Christian denominations, of a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.

In acting (especially on stage, to forget one’s lines.

Pre 900: From the Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe & drie (without moisture, comparatively free from water or fluid), from the Old English drӯge, from the Proto-Germanic draugiz (source also of the Middle Low German dröge, the Middle Dutch druge, the Dutch droog, the Old High German truckan & trucchon, the German trocken and the Old Norse draugr), from the Germanic root dreug- (dry), from the primitive Indo-European dherg (to strengthen; become hard), from dher (to hold, support).  Dry is a noun, verb and adjective, dryable, drier, driest, dryer (or dryest) are adjectives, dryly an adverb, dries, drying & dried are verbs and dryness is a noun.  The noun plural is drys or dries; the spelling drie is long obsolete.

The meaning "barren" dates from the mid fourteenth century.  As applied to “persons showing no emotion, use emerged circa 1200; of humor or jests (delivered without show of pleasantry, caustic, sarcastic), it’s of early fifteenth century origin (and implied in dryly).  The sense of "uninteresting, tedious" was from the 1620s.  Of wines, brandy etc which were "free from sweetness or fruity flavor", use dates from circa 1700.  Dry was first used of places prohibiting alcoholic drink in 1870 (although, ad-hoc, there had been “dry feasts” & “dry festivals” at which no alcohol was served since the late fifteenth century and the colloquial dry (prohibitionist) entered US political slang in 1888.  Prior to and during the prohibition era in the US, the “drys” were those who supported prohibition and in the isolated counties in the US where it’s still imposed, they remain a (local) political force.  Dry goods, first so named in the 1560s were those dispensed in dry, not liquid, measure.  Dry land (that not under the sea) as a concept (first in the law of real property) was from the early thirteenth century.  The dry-nurse (a back formation from wet-nurse) was “one who attends and feeds a child but does not suckle it", use dating from the 1590s.  The dry-run (rehearsal) dates from 1941 and was adopted by the military and just about everyone else dates from 1941.  Dry ice "solid carbon dioxide" became available in 1925.  Dry out in the drug addiction sense is from 1967.

The first process of dry-cleaning (to clean clothes or textiles without using water) appears to have been advertised first in 1817.  The long-known "fungal decay in timber" was in 1779 first described as dry rot, the figurative sense of "concealed or unsuspected inward degeneration" dating from 1821.  As a hair-drying device, the first use of blow-dry appears to be a surprisingly late 1971.  The process of preserving vegetables as freeze-dried was a wartime development in the US, first announced as a patented commercial process in 1946, the earlier sun-dried documented since the 1630s although the technique dates from early human culture.  The dry sense of humor (with apparent unintentional humor or sarcasm) was noted first in the early fifteenth century, dryly meaning "without moisture" in the 1560s and "without affection" by the 1620s.  The drywall (plasterboard, sheetrock; gypsum-based manufactured panel used in interior construction) was first sold in 1952, the earlier use (1778) of dry wall meaning (a wall built without mortar).  A drier (used since the early fourteenth century as a surname) as “one who dries and bleaches cloth," agent noun from the verb dry (that which dries or is used in drying), dated from the 1520s.  Dryer was used to describe a piece of machinery in 1848 although the first drying-machine appears to have entered service as early as 1819.

Wet & Dry

Wet and dry must be one of the most obvious and commonly cited dichotomies in English and there are a number of noted examples.

Perilli's Dry, Intermediate and Wet tyres for use in Formula One.

In motorsport, there are wet and dry tyres, the former (obviously) used when the track is wet and the latter (also called “slicks”) when the surface is dry.  There are also various flavors of “intermediate tread” tyres for conditions which are damp rather than wet.  The difference is that dry tyres have no tread (the grooves cut into the contact surface) pattern, the purpose of which is to provide passages into which the water is forced to be expelled at the sides.  In the early 1970s, there were competitions with rules which demanded the use of street tyres (ie those used on street cars as opposed to racing rubber) and some drivers discovered a unique property of BF Goodrich’s square-shouldered T/A Radial was that if the tread was (in advance) carefully worn down to a certain point, it would behave much like a slick and last long enough not to have to be replaced for the duration of most races (or until fuel-stop sessions in endurance events).

In the law of real property, there are wet and dry leases, typically issued in conjunction when handling riparian property.  The leases are often divided because it’s not uncommon for the one commercial operation to have part of a business on land and part on water (such as a marina or docking facility) and being very different, may have different operators.  It’s thus normal commercial practice for a head-lessor (perhaps a hotel operator) to enter into both a dry lease (for the hotel property on land) and the wet lease (for whatever happens on the water) and then sub-lease the wet lease to someone with the appropriate expertise.

Wet and dry sandpaper is the tip of the sanding iceberg.  Wet sanding, which is sanding with the addition of water to act as a lubricant, is less abrasive than dry sanding, and results in a smoother finish and whenever possible, it’s best to wet-sand when finishing a project.  Dry sanding removes more material, and smooths rough material more quickly and if the ultimate in smoothness isn’t required, is the choice of many.  So, wet sand for a super smooth finish but the two are of course frequently combined, dry sanding first to remove most of the unwanted material before wet sanding.

Lindsay Lohan in Cynthia Rowley wetsuit.

In diving, wetsuits and drysuits use different engineering but operate on a similar principle.  Wetsuits use a layer of water (heated by the wearer's body) to provide insulation while a drysuit uses a layer of air and is completely water-proof, stopping water from coming into contact with the skin.  Wetsuits are made from rubber neoprene and are designed so the diver’s body heat is retained but, unlike drysuits, are not waterproof.  For that reason, a loose fitting wetsuit is suitable only for warm-water conditions; skin-tight wetsuits are ideal for cold water surf because they are warm and permit more movement than drysuits.  Where the drysuit excels is in predominately out-of-water conditions such as kayaking, paddle-boarding or water-based photography.  For extreme winter conditions a drysuit is really the only choice because for warmth, additional layers can be added beneath the suit, something not possible with a wetsuit.

In northern Australia, the concepts of spring, summer, autumn (fall) & winter really don’t make climatic sense the way defined seasons do in more temperate regions.  Instead, there’s just the wet and the dry.  The dry is long and hot, rain is rare and towards the end of the dry there is the “build-up” which unfolds over a month or more as the air becomes warmer and heavier, the clouds in the evenings begin to darken and the humidity becomes increasingly oppressive.  Locals call it the period of mango madness because as the fruit ripens, emotional instability is apparent in some, mood swings induced by the inexorable rise in heat and humidity.  The wet usually begins in late November or early December and is marked by heavy monsoonal downpours, spectacular lightning, increased cyclone activity and a rise in crimes of violence.

Makita 20 litre Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner 1000W.

Wet and dry vacuum cleaners are devices regarded with some awe because we’re all schooled to take care to ensure water is kept way from electrical appliances yet the manufacturers of these things encourage us to suck water into them.  They’re obviously of great utility in handling wet floors or sodden carpets but can be used anywhere where something wet is the problem and suction the answer such as cleaning hot tubs or removing surface condensation.

During the 1980s, in the corrosive, gut-wrenching world of Tory politics, the factions became not quite formalized but certainly well-understood as the “wets and drys”.  The origin lay in the use of the term “wet” which the right-wing fanatics (of which there were a few in the Thatcher government) applied to their less hard-line colleagues (defined as those not in favor of repealing the twentieth century).  Wet was an old term of derision in historic UK slang, someone thought ineffectual, feeble or with no strength of character, a weak or sentimental person.  In an effort to retaliate, the wets labelled the fanatics “the drys” but this backfired because the drys loved the idea and were soon describing themselves thus' presumable because while "a bit wet" had long been an insult, "dry humor" had always been thought clever and sophisticated. 

Bench

Bench (pronounced bench)

(1) A long seat (without arm or back-rest) for two or more people:

(2) A seat occupied by an official, especially a judge in a courtroom.

(3) Such a seat as a symbol of the office of an individual judge or the judiciary.

(4) The office or dignity of various other officials, or the officials themselves.

(5) In certain team sports, the seat (literally or figuratively) on which the reserve (substitute) players sit during a game while not playing and on which “starting side” players sit while substituted.

(6) The quality and number of the players named as substitutes.

(7) By extension, the quality and number of professionals or experts in reserve, to be called upon as needed:

(8) As a clipping of workbench, the worktable of those engaged in trades.

(9) In interior design, certain fixed flat surfaces (kitchen bench, bathroom bench etc).

(10) A platform on which animals or objects are placed for exhibition.

(11) In farming, a hollow on a hillside formed by sheep.

(12) In surveying, a bracket used to mount land surveying equipment onto a stone or a wall.

(13) In certain legislatures, as “front bench” (the office-holding members of a government or opposition who sit on the bench at the front of their side of the assembly), “back bench” (those elected members not appointed to an office who sit on benches behind) and “cross-bench” (those not members of the party in government or formal opposition who sit on other benches).  The terms are sometimes literal but depending on an assembly’s architecture or the size of a government’s majority, others can sometimes “overflow” to the physical “cross benches”.  Thus there are “front benchers”, “back benchers” & “cross benchers” (sometimes hyphenated).

(14) In geography, a shelf-like area of rock with steep slopes above and below, especially one marking a former shoreline.

(15) In extractive mining, a step or working elevation in a mine.

(16) In science (usually as “at the bench”), to distinguish between being engaged actively in research and concurrent or subsequent administrative functions.

(17) To furnish with benches (now rare).

(18) To seat on a bench or on the bench (now rare).

(19) In extractive mining, to cut away the working faces of benches.

(20) In certain team sports, to substitute or remove a player from a game or relegate them to the reserve squad.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English bench, benk & bynk, from the Old English benc (bench; long seat (especially if backless)), from then Proto-West Germanic banki, from the Proto-Germanic bankon & bankiz (bench), from the primitive Indo-European bheg.  It was cognate with the Scots benk & bink, the West Frisian bank, the Dutch bank, the Old High German Bank, the Old Norse bekkr, the Old Frisian benk, the Danish bænk, the Swedish bänk and the Icelandic bekkur, all from a Germanic source and all of which meant “bench”.  In the Old English there were the verbs bencian (to make benches) and bencsittend (one who sits on a bench).  The dialectal spellings benk & bink are both long obsolete.  Bench & benching are nouns & verbs, bencher is a noun, benched is a verb & adjective and benchy & benchlike are adjectives; the noun plural is benches.

The source of the idea of the “bench as a type of long seat” is thought to come from a riparian imagery (natural earthen incline beside a body of water) and etymologists speculate the original notion was of a “man-made earthwork used as a seat”.  Bench was from the late fourteenth century used of the tables on which merchants displayed their wares and that may have been a borrowing from the reference to the seat the judge would occupy in a court of law, that use emerging early in the 1300s and coming soon to mean “judges collectively, office of a judge, the judiciary”.  Whether it was actually an allusion to customers “judging the goods displayed” is speculative.  The use in team sports of “the bench” being the “reserve or substitute team members” was drawn from the actual physical bench on the sideline on which those players would sit while not on the field.  The earliest known reference to the existence of furniture used for this purpose is from the US in 1899 but extending this generally to the “reserve of players” in baseball, football etc seems not to have begun until 1909.  In sport, the idiomatic forms include “bench player” (one habitually selected only in the reserves and not the “starting side”), “benched” (a player substituted during play and “sent to the bench”, either because of poor performance or as part of a planned rotation, “injury bench” (players substituted due to injury), “bench warmer (or “bench sitter”, or “bench jockey”) (one whose career has plateaued as a “bench player”, “warming the bench”) 

Bench has attracted many modifiers describing use including “bench grinder”, “bench saw”, “bench drill”, “sawbench”, “kitchen bench”, “deacon's bench”, “friendship bench”, “bench easel”, “mourners' bench”, “piano bench” (a “piano stool” for two), “preacher’s bench” et al.  The noun & verb “benchmark” refers to the optimal results obtained when testing something or someone on a “test bench” although the use is often conceptual, a physical “test bench” not necessarily part of the processes and even some structures in engineering referred to as a “test bench” may bear no relationship to any actual “bench” however described.

Bench seats ranged from the austerely functional to the luxurious: 1971 Holden HQ Belmont Station Sedan (station wagon or estate-car) in vinyl (turquoise) (left) and 1974 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop (left) in chestnut tufted leather though not actually “fine Corinthian leather” which was (mostly) exclusive to the Cordoba (1975-1983) until late 1975 when not only did the Imperial's brochures mention "genuine Corinthian leather (available at extra cost)" but for the first time since 1954 the range was referred to as the "Chrysler Imperial", a harbinger the brand was about to be retired.  Imperial's advertising copy noted of the brochure photograph above: “...while the passenger restraint system with starter interlock is not shown, it is standard on all Imperials.”; the marketing types didn't like seat-belts messing up their photos.  While all of the big three (GM, Ford & Chrysler) had tufted interiors in some lines, it was Chrysler which displayed the most commitment to the motif.

Bench seat for four: the improbable 1948 Davis Divan.  The blue car (one of a dozen survivors of the 17 built) was restored by the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles where it is on display.

In cars and such, a “bench seat” differs from a “bucket” or “individual” seat in that comfortably it can accommodate two or more occupants, the comparison with furniture being the difference between a “chair” and a “sofa”.  In commercial vehicles, bench seats commonly can seat four but in cars the recommended (and eventually legal) limit was typically three although the truly bizarre Davis Divan (1948) featured a bench allowing four abreast seating for four adults, something which would have been an interesting experience for the quartet because a quirk of the suspension system was the long, pointed nose of the thing actually rose under braking.  The three-wheeled Divan was the brainchild of “automotive entrepreneur” (some historians are less kind) Glen Gordon “Gary” Davis (1904-1973) who put some effort into building the prototypes, not enough into preparation for actual production but much into raising funds from “investors”, a goodly chunk of which apparently was spent on real estate, entertaining and mink coats for “friends” (with all that implies).  He had a flair for slogans so many investors were attracted but the project proved chimeric, Davis tried and convicted of fraud & grand theft, spending two years in prison.  The name Divan was used as an allusion to the car's wide bench seat.  It was from the French divan, from the Ottoman Turkish دیوان (divan), from the Iranian Persian دیوان (divân), from the Classical Persian دیوان (dēwān), from Middle Persian dpywʾn' or dywʾn' (dēwān) (archive, collected writings, compilation of works”), from the Sumerian dub.  The sense was of a sofa-like piece of furniture comprising a mattress lying against the wall and on either the floor or an elevated structure.  Part of the tradition of interior decorating in the Middle East, in the West divans are sometimes called “ottomans”; those with an internal storage compartment: “box ottomans”.

In courts of the common law traditions the terms “bench” & “bar” date from the medieval age and remain part of courtroom terminology.  “The bench” was originally the seat on which judges at while presiding, the early furniture apparently a simple wooden bench as one would find at many long dining tables and in the manner typical of the way English evolves, “bench” came to be used of judges collectively and of the institution of the judiciary itself.  The “bar” was the physical barrier separating the spectators and participants of a trial from the area where the lawyers and judges conducted the proceedings, thus the “bar table” being that at which the advocates sat and the right to practice law before the bench being “passing the bar”, familiar in the modern US phrase “passing the bar exam” or the English form “called to the bar”.  As “bench” became a synecdoche for the judiciary, “bar” came to be used of the lawyers although in jurisdictions where there is a separation between those who appear in court (barristers) and those who do not (solicitors) “bar” was applied only to the former and even after reforms in some abolished the distinctions between certain branches of the law, specialist practitioners continue often to be referred to as the “equity bar” & “common law bar”.  There’s thus the apparent anomaly of the use of “bencher” (recorded in the 1580s) being used to mean “senior member of an inn of court”, all of whom would have been members of “the bar”.  Presumably the idea was one of “approaching the bench” or (more mischievously) “aspiring to the bench”.  The bench-warrant (one issued by a judge, as opposed to one issued by a magistrate or justice of the peace (JP) dates from the 1690s. 

An illuminated manuscript (circa 1460) which is the earliest known depiction of the Court of King's Bench in session.

In England, the Court of King’s Bench (KB) (or Queen’s Bench (QB) depending on who was on the throne) began in the twelfth century as a court at which the monarch literally presided; it was a circuit court which would, from time-to-time, travel around the counties hearing cases.  The Court of KB was thus in some sense “virtual”, whatever wooden bench upon which he sat becoming the KB for the duration of the trial.  Kings would cease to sit as judges and the KB later was interpolated into the system of courts (there would be many internecine squabbles over the years) until (as the Court of Queen’s Bench), under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (1873), it, along with the Court of Common Pleas, the Court of Exchequer and Court of Chancery were merged to become the High Court of Justice, each of the absorbed institutions becoming a division.  The Common Pleas and Exchequer Division were abolished in 1880 when the High Court was re-organized into the Chancery Division, Queen's Bench Division and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division (the latter memorably known as “wills, wives & wrecks” in legal slang).  The origin of the KB is a hint of why a king or queen can’t appear before a court in the UK or other places in which they remain head of state: Although it is in a practical sense now a legal fiction, all courts of law are “their courts” of which they remain the highest judge.

Benches afforced with foreign judges, the Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong’s national security law

Multi-national benches are not uncommon.  There have been courts operating under the auspices of the League of Nations (LoN; 1920-1946) & United Nations (UN; since 1945) such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the various ad-hoc bodies set up to handle prosecutions related to crimes in specific locations (Rwandan, the former Yugoslavia et al) and the UK had the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) which included senior judges from the Commonwealth.  The JCPC functioned not only as a final court of appeal for Commonwealth nations (a role for a handful it still fulfils) but also as the appellate tribunal for a number of domestic bodies including some ecclesiastical bodies, admiralty matters and even matters from the usually obscure Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.  There were also the International Military Tribunals (IMT) which tried matters arising from the conduct of German & Japanese defendants from World War II (1939-1945), the bench of the latter Tokyo Tribunal notably diverse although those of the subsequent dozen trials in Nuremberg were staffed exclusively by US judges.  A number of former colonies also use foreign judges (and not always from the former colonial power).

However, what remains unusual is the matter of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deciding to have foreign judges serve on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA), established in 1997 when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was created upon Beijing regaining sovereignty (under the “one country, two systems” (1C2S)) principle, with the end of British colonial rule.  At that point, the HKCFA became the territory’s highest judicial institution, replacing the JCPC in London.  On the HKCFA’s bench sits the Chief Justice (a Hong Kong national), several “Permanent Judges” and some two-dozen odd “Non-permanent Judges” who may be recruited from Hong Kong or from among lawyers of the requisite background from any overseas common law jurisdiction.  As non-permanent judges, appointments have been drawn (from bar & bench) from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Lindsay Lohan, foreign judge on the bench of The Masked Singer (2019), a singing competition, the Australian franchise of a format which began in the ROK (Republic of Korea (South Korea)) as King of Mask Singer.

While it may seem strange a developed country like the People’s Republic of China (The PRC, the world’s second largest economy, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and since 1965 the final member of the original “Club of Five” declared nuclear powers) would have foreign judges sitting in one of its superior courts, on the mainland the PRC operates under a civil law system which, like the tradition in continental European, is based primarily on written statutes and codes, unlike common law systems, which rely heavily on case law and judicial precedent.  As a British colony, Hong Kong had used common law and under that system had become a major regional and international presence, something in part due to its judicial system being perceived as fair an uncorrupted; it was a “rule of law” state.  In the PRC there simply wasn’t a body of judges or lawyers with the necessary background in common law to staff the territory’s highest appellate court and significantly, at the time of the handover from the Raj, Hong Kong was of great importance to the PRC’s economy and the CCP understood it would be critical to maintain confidence in the rule of law, investors and overseas corporations with Hong Kong resident interests needing to be assured matters such as contracts would continue as before to be enforceable.

So it was, literally, “business as usual”, whatever may have been the fears about the political undercurrent.  The growth of the mainland economy since 1997 has been such that the HKSAR now constitutes only a small fraction of the national economy but analysts (some of whom provide advice to the CCP) understand the linkages running through the territory remain highly useful for Beijing and some long-standing conduits are still used for back-channel communications about this and that.  As far as business is concerned, the operation of the legal system has remained satisfactory, even though the CCP ensured that Beijing retained a reserved power to overturn the HKCFA’s decisions.

The colonial era building where now sits the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.  Formally opened in 1912, it was built with granite in the neo-classical style and between 1985-2011 was the seat of the Legislative Council (LegCo).

However, in 2020, a “National Security Law” (technically the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and thus usually written in English as the “NSL”) was imposed.  While not aimed at the regulation of business or economic matters, it was wide in its scope and claims of application (the extraterritoriality extending worldwide), essentially extending to the territory many of the laws of the mainland regarding “political activities” and matters of “free speech”, the latter widely interpreted by the CCP.  Citing the “political situation”, two British judges in June 2024 resigned from the HKCFA, prompted by Beijing’s recent crackdown on dissent in the city, something made possible by the NSL.  In his published letter, one judge, his rationale for departure notwithstanding, did say he continued “…to have full confidence in the court and the total independence of its members.”  As early as 2020, one Australian judge had already resigned, followed by two others from the UK, both saying the Hong Kong government had “…departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression.”  The CCP may have anticipated some objection from the overseas judges because, since the passage of the NSL, no overseas judge has been allocated to hear the “security-related” cases.  The judicial disquiet seemed not to trouble the territory’s chief executive, former police officer John Lee (Ka-chiu) (b 1957) who said the overseas appointments would continue to help “…maintain confidence in the judicial system and… strong ties with other common law jurisdictions.”  In response to the departing judge’s comment, he claimed the NSL had “no effect” on judicial independence and the only difference was that “…national security is now better safeguarded.”

Early in June, the Hong Kong authorities arrested two men and one woman attending a FIFA World Cup qualification match against Iran, their offence being “turning their backs to the pitch and not standing during the performance of the national anthem”, a police spokesman adding that anybody “…who publicly and intentionally insults the national anthem in any way in committing a crime.”  Before the NSL was imposed, bolshie Hongkongers were known to boo the anthem to express discontent with their rulers; that definitely will no longer be tolerated.  The match ended Iran 4: Hong Kong 2 but despite that, more than ever the HKSAR and the Islamic Republic have much in common.