Scoop

Scoop (pronounced skoop)

(1) A ladle or ladle-like utensil, especially a small, deep-sided shovel with a short, horizontal handle, for taking up flour, sugar etc.

(2) A utensil composed of a palm-sized hollow hemisphere attached to a horizontal handle, for dishing out ice cream or other soft foods.

(3) A hemispherical portion of food as dished out by such a utensil.

(4) The bucket of a dredge, steam shovel etc.

(5) In medicine, a spoon-like surgical apparatus for removing substances or foreign objects from the body; a special spinal board used by emergency department staff that divides laterally (ie literally “scooping up” patients).

(6) A hollow or hollowed-out place.

(7) The act of ladling, dipping, dredging etc.

(8) The quantity held in a ladle, dipper, shovel, bucket etc.

(9) In journalism, a news item, report, or story revealed in one paper, magazine, newscast etc before any other outlet; in informal use, news, information, or details, especially as obtained from experience or an immediate source.

(10) A gathering to oneself, indicated usually by a sweeping motions of the hands or arms.

(11) In informal use, a big haul of something.

(12) In television & film production, a single-lens large floodlight shaped like a flour scoop and fitted with a reflector.

(13) To win a prize, award, or large amount of money.

(14) In bat & ball sports, to hit the ball on its underside so that it rises into the air.

(15) In hydrological management, a part of a drain used to direct flow.

(16) In air-induction management (to the engines in cars, boats, aircraft etc), a device which captures external the air-flow and directs it for purposes of cooling or combustion.

(17) In Scots English, the peak of a cap.

(18) In pinball, a hole on the playfield that catches a ball, but eventually returns it to play in one way or another.

(19) In surfboard design, the raised end of a board.

(20) In music (often as “scoop up”), to begin a vocal note slightly below the target pitch and then to slide up to the target pitch, prevalent particularly in country & western music.

1300–1350: From the Middle English scope & schoupe, from the Middle Dutch scoep, scuep, schope & schoepe (bucket for bailing water) and the Middle Dutch schoppe, scoppe & schuppe (a scoop, shovel (the modern Dutch being schop (spade)), from the Proto-Germanic skuppǭ & skuppijǭ, from the primitive Indo-European kep & skep- (to cut, to scrape, to hack).  It was cognate with the Old Frisian skuppe (shovel), the Middle Low German schōpe (scoop, shovel), the German Low German Schüppe & Schüpp (shovel), the German Schüppe & Schippe (shovel, spade) and related to the Dutch schoep (vessel for baling).  The mid-fourteenth century Middle English verb scōpen (to bail out, draw out with a scoop) was from the noun and was from the Middle Low German schüppen (to draw water), from the Middle Dutch schoppen, from the Proto-Germanic skuppon (source also of the Old Saxon skeppian, the Dutch scheppen, the Old High German scaphan and the German schöpfen (to scoop, ladle out), from the primitive Indo-European root skeubh- (source also of the Old English sceofl (shovel) and the Old Saxon skufla.

Sherman L Kelly's (1869–1952) ice-cream scoop (the dipper; 1935) was a masterpiece of modern industrial design and thought sufficiently aesthetically pleasing to be a permanent exhibit in New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  Its most clever feature was the fluid encased in the handle; being made from cast aluminum, the heat from the user's hands was transferred to the cup, obviating the need for the moving parts sometimes used to separate the ice-cream for dishing out.  The dipper is like the pencil, one of those designs which really can't be improved.

The meaning “hand-shovel with a short handle and a deep, hollow receptacle” dates from the late fifteenth century while the extended sense of “an instrument for gouging out a piece” emerged by 1706 while the colloquial use to mean “a big haul” was from 1893.  The journalistic sense of “the securing and publication of exclusive information in advance of a rival” was an invention of US English, first used in 1874 in the newspaper business, echoing the earlier commercial verbal slang which imparted the sense of “appropriate so as to exclude competitors”, the use recorded in 1850 but thought to be considerably older.  The meaning "remove soft or loose material with a concave instrument" dates from the early seventeenth century while sense of “action of scooping” was from 1742; that of “amount in a scoop” being from 1832.  The noun scooper (one who scoops) was first used in the 1660s and the word was adopted early in the nineteenth century to describe “a tool for scooping, especially one used by wood-engravers”, the form the agent noun from the verb scoop.  Scoop is a noun & verb, scooper & scoopful are nouns and scooped & scooping are verbs; the noun plural is scoops.

XPLR//Create’s fluid dynamics tests comparing the relative efficiency of ducts (left) & scoops (right).

In air-induction management (to the engines in cars, boats, aircraft etc), a scoop is a device which captures external the air-flow and directs it for purposes of cooling or combustion.  An air scoop differs from an air duct in that a scoop stands proud of a structure's surface allowing air to be "rammed" into its ducting while a duct is an aperture integrated into the structure, "sucking" air in from the low pressure zone created by its geometry.  For a given size of aperture, a scoop can achieve an airflow up to twice that of a duct but that doesn't of necessity mean as scoop is always preferable, the choice depending on the application.  In situations where optimal aerodynamic efficiency is desired, a duct may be chosen because scoops can increase frontal area and almost always, regardless of placement, leave a wake of turbulent air, further increasing drag.  It's thus one of those trade-offs with which engineers are familiar: If a scoop is used then sufficient air is available for purposes of cooling & combustion but at the cost of aerodynamic efficiency while if a duct is fitted, drag is reduced but the internal air-flow might be inadequate.

NACA Ducts: 1969 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 (left), 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 351 (centre) & 1972 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IV (Right).

When Ford introduced NACA ducts on the 1971 Mustangs (subsequently adopted by Ford Australia in 1973 for the XB Falcon), whether in error or to take advantage of the public’s greater “brand-awareness” of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), they were promoted as “NASA ducts”.  In fairness, the two institutions were related, NASA created in 1958 after the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was dissolved, the process essentially a name change although much had changed since the NACA’s formation in 1915, the annual budget then US$5000 and the dozen committee members unpaid.  The NACA duct was one of many innovations the institution provided to commercial and military aviation and in the post-war years race cars began to appear with them, positioned variously to channel air to radiators, brakes and fuel induction systems as required.

Scoops: 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 (left), 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 428 CobraJet (with shaker scoop) (centre) & 1974 Pontiac Trans Am 455 SD (with rearward-facing scoop) (right).

From those pragmatic purposes, the ducts migrated to road cars where often they were hardly a necessity and, in some cases, merely decorative, no plumbing sitting behind what was actually a fake aperture.  Scoops appeared too, some appearing extravagantly large but there were applications where the volume of air required was so high that a NACA duct which would provide for the flow simply couldn’t be fashioned.  That said, on road cars, there were always suspicions that some scoops might be fashionably rather than functionally large, the lines drawn in the styling and not the engineering office.  There was innovation in scoops too, some rearward facing to take advantage of the inherently cool, low pressure air which accumulated in the cowl area at the base of the windscreen although the best remembered scoops are probably the “shakers”, assemblies protruding through a hole in the hood (bonnet) and attached directly to the air-cleaner which sat atop the carburetor, an arrangement which shook as the engine vibrated.  By such things, men are much amused.

The inaugural meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), 23 April 1915.

A New York Post scoop, 29 June 2007.  This was the Murdoch press's biggest scoop since the publication in 1983 of the "Hitler Diaries".  The "diaries" turned out to be forgeries; the picture of Lindsay Lohan resting in a Cadillac was genuine.

Sandbag

Sandbag (pronounced sand-bag)

(1) A bag filled with sand, used in water-proofing, fortification, as ballast etc.

(2) Such a bag used as a weapon.

(3) Violently to set upon or attack from or as if from ambush (archaic).

(4) To coerce or intimidate, to make threats (archaic).

(5) Sometimes by metaphor, by virtue of added weight, to reduce performance in competitive sport; a form of cheating.

(6) To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage.

(7) In commerce, to obstruct an unwelcome takeover bid by prolonging talks in the hope an acceptable bidder will appear.

1580-1590: A compound of the nouns sand + bag.  Sand was from the Middle English sand, from the Old English sand, from the Proto-Germanic samdaz.  In other European languages there was the West Frisian sân, Dutch zand, German Sand, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sand, thought all related to the primitive sámh₂dhos.  Bag was from the Middle English bagge, borrowed from the Old Norse baggi (bag, pack, satchel, bundle), from the primitive bhak and thought related are the Welsh baich (load, bundle) and the Ancient Greek βάσταγμα (bástagma) (load)).  In Latin there was sabulum, and in Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos) from sem (to pour).  English root is hinted at by The Old English dialectal samel (sand bottom), the Old Irish to-ess-sem (to pour out), the Latin sentina (bilge water), the Lithuanian sémti (to scoop) and the Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō) (to gather) & ἄμη (ámē) (water bucket)).  The verb was first noted in 1860 with the simple meaning “provide someone with sandbags".  The meaning "pretend weakness" apparently first used in 1950s motor racing appears not to have been in common use until the 1970s, with most sources linking use to the poker-playing sense of "refrain from raising at the first opportunity in hopes of raising more steeply later", a use first documented in 1940.  The idea of the sandbag as a weapon (used by a sandbagger) dates from 1882 with the resultant “sandbagged” emerging in 1887.

Sandbagging

Lindsay Lohan in Chief Sandbagger tank top.

Sandbagging is a form of cheating, usually in sport but also in commerce.  It involves deliberately under-performing at certain stages to maximise the benefits gained when later performing to full-potential.  The metaphor is based on the notion of being impeded by the extra weight of carrying a sandbag, analogous with the old “lead in the saddle” from horse racing when unscrupulous owners would add to a well-priced mount’s weight if they were betting on a longer-odds starter.  In motor racing, sandbagging described drivers who, in handicapped events, deliberately recorded slow times in qualifying to gain a more advantageous starting position or a less onerous handicap in the event proper.  The authorities responded with penalties or disqualification if race-day performance improved on the qualifying mark by more than a defined measure.  Literal sandbagging proved useful as a stabilizing device in many of the big-engine machines during the (1964-1974) US muscle car era during which some of the things generated close up to five-hundred horsepower, delivered to the road through primitive drive systems with over sixty percent of their weight sitting over the front wheels.  On street, strip and track, two or more bags of sand in the trunk (boot) greatly improved traction and balance.  A specialised need for the bag in the boot is in the stunt car business for those times when there’s a need to have a vehicle fly through the air, landing safely on four wheels at the end of descent.  To do that, object will fly best if its weight-distribution is a close as possible to 50-50 but, most cars being front-heavy, there’s a tendency to nosedive, the traditional fix being sandbags in the boot.  Cement is sometimes used instead of sand and the need for such tricks is diminishing with advances in CGI.

Before sandbagging: A tendency to nosedive.

The CBS comedy TV series The Dukes of Hazzard was aired between 1979-1985.  The show did feature actors and plot lines (analysts have suggested there were either five or six plots and these, with tweaks and variations on the themes, were recycled in all the 147 episodes shot) but for many the most memorable character was the 1969 Dodge Charger.  Introduced as a 1968 model, it replaced its rather slab-sided predecessor which, after an encouraging debut in 1966, had suffered a precipitous drop in sales the next season.  The re-styling for 1968 transformed not only the appearance but also its popularity and sales more than quadrupled even though some of the extravagant interior appointments (the eye-catching electroluminescent instrument lighting and the four bucket seats with a full-length centre console) which two years earlier had attracted such interest were no longer offered.  The sleek new lines however more than made up for the cost-cutting although belying the wind-cheating appearance, the shape wasn’t that aerodynamically efficient, something the corporation would twice seek to rectify in the quest for success on the circuits.  The first attempt was relatively modest and proved inadequate but the second worked so for the one season it was used the sanctioning body outlawed the entire concept.  Known as the first of the "aero cars", it was the most radical a manufacturer had ever attempted.  It still is.

After sandbagging: Perfect weight distribution.

In the course of production, over 300 Dodge Chargers were used in the series, the rate of attrition as one might expect from the number of car-jumping stunts involved.  Early in the show’s life, when 1968-1969 (the 1968 cars were easily modified to appear as next year’s model for filming purposes) Dodge Chargers were just cheap used cars and readily available, the supply-line of replacements wasn’t a significant part of the budget but by the early 1980s, the cars were becoming scarce and increasingly expensive, something at least partly attributable to the impact of the TV series.  There was in the early 1980s also a sudden drop in the cost of gas as the (somewhat misleadingly named) “oil glut” depressed the price of oil and gas-guzzlers like the Chargers, with their satisfying, if rather primitive characteristics, enjoyed a renaissance.  In response, the producers responded with the tricks used in the pre CGI (computer-generated imagery) era, re-using old footage and staging some of the more distant scenes with scale models.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Perfect weight distribution: Jessica Simpson (b 1980) in promotional shot for The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), said to be among the worst films ever made.  The viewers seemed not to mind.

Joe Biden, sandbagged in Colorado.

In June 2023, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since 2021) told reporters he'd "been sandbagged" after tripping over “a sandbag” after handing out diplomas on a stage at the US Air Force (USAF) Academy’s Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The footage of the event was all from one camera angle and on that no sandbag was evident but some quickly observed even if there wasn’t really a sandbag, the president clearly believes there was one and under some theories of cognition, that means the same thing.  The eighty year old president was quickly picked up by an air force officer and two members of the Secret Service, the White House later issuing a statement saying he was “fine after the fall” and USAF sources confirmed “two small black sandbags were used to support the teleprompter”.

Joe Biden has suffered repeated difficulties in trying to board Air Force One using the red-carpeted stairs, once infamously tripping over three times during one ascent (left).  He now uses the "baby stairs" in the nose.  Note the Secret Service officer at the bottom of the stairs: he is the "designated catcher".

So sandbags have been added to the checklist his Secret Service detail goes through before he’s allowed to make any public appearances.  Apparently surfaces on which the president will walk (or stumble or shuffle depending on the time of day) have to be as free from obstacles and obstructions as is possible and not be at all slippery.  A roll-up mat is now part of the inventory carried in the presidential motorcade, un-rolled whenever surfaces appear “potentially challenging”.  Anything other than sitting down is obvious fraught with danger and it’s not clear if he’ll again be allowed to ride a bike after tumbling to the ground when his feet somehow got “tangled in the pedals”.  His difficulties with stairs have been well documented and it’s of note he now uses only a rarely used forward exit when boarding or alighting from Air Force One.  Even that doesn’t guarantee he won’t trip up but from these stairs it’s a shorter fall to the tarmac so there’s that.

Float

Float (pronounced floht)

(1) To rest, move or remain on the surface of a liquid (to be buoyant; to be supported by a liquid of greater density, such that part (of the object or substance) remains above the surface) or in the air.

(2) By metaphor, to move lightly and gracefully.

(3) By metaphor, information or items circulating.

(4) Figuratively, to vacillate (often followed by between).

(5) As applied to currencies, to be allowed freely to fluctuate in the foreign-exchange market instead of being exchanged at a fixed or managed rate.

(6) In the administration of interest rates, periodically to change according to money-market conditions.

(7) In the equities markets, the offering of previously privately held stock on public boards; an offering of shares in a company (or units in a trust) to members of the public, normally followed by a listing on a stock exchange.

(8) In the bond markets, an offering.

(9) In theatre, to lay down (a flat), usually by bracing the bottom edge of the frame with the foot and allowing the rest to fall slowly to the floor.

(10) An inflated bag to sustain a person in water; life preserver.

(11) In plumbing, in certain types of tanks, cisterns etc, a device, as a hollow ball, that through its buoyancy automatically regulates the level, supply, or outlet of a liquid.

(12) In nautical jargon, a floating platform attached to a wharf, bank, or the like, and used as a landing; any kind of buoyancy device.

(13) In aeronautics, a hollow, boat-like structure under the wing or fuselage of a seaplane or flying boat, keeping it afloat in water (aircraft so equipped sometimes called “float planes”).

(14) In angling, a piece of cork or other material for supporting a baited line in the water and indicating by its movements when a fish bites.

(15) In zoology, an inflated organ that supports an animal in the water; the gas-filled sac, bag or body of a siphonophore; a pneumatophore.

(16) A vehicle bearing a display, usually an elaborate tableau, in a parade or procession.

(17) In banking, uncollected checks and commercial paper in process of transfer from bank to bank; funds committed to be paid but not yet charged against the account.

(18) In metal-working, a single-cut file (a kind of rasp) of moderate smoothness.

(19) In interior decorating, a flat tool for spreading and smoothing plaster or stucco.

(20) In stonemasonry, a tool for polishing marble.

(21) In weaving and knitting, a length of yarn that extends over several rows or stitches without being interworked.

(22) In commerce, a sum of physical cash used to provide change for the till at the start of a day's business.

(23) In geology and mining, loose fragments of rock, ore, etc that have been moved from one place to another by the action of wind, water etc.

(24) To cause something to be suspended in a liquid of greater density.

(25) To move in a particular direction with the liquid in which one is floating (as in “floating downstream” et al).

(26) In aviation, to remain airborne, without touching down, for an excessive length of time during landing, due to excessive airspeed during the landing flare.

(27) To promote an idea for discussion or consideration.

(28) As expression indicating the viability of an idea (as in “it’ll never float”, conveying the same sense as “it’ll never fly”).

(29) In computer (graphics, word processing etc), to cause an element within a document to “float” above or beside others; on web pages, a visual style in which styled elements float above or beside others.

(30) In UK use, a small (often electric) vehicle used for local deliveries, especially in the term “milk float” (and historically, the now obsolete “coal float”).

(31) In trade, to allow a price to be determined by the markets as opposed to by rule.

(32) In insurance, premiums taken in but not yet paid out.

(33) In computer programming, as floating-point number, a way of representing real numbers (ie numbers with fractions or decimal points) in a binary format

(34) A soft beverage with a scoop of ice-cream floating in it.

(35) In poker, a manoeuvre in which a player calls on the flop or turn with a weak hand, with the intention of bluffing after a subsequent community card.

(36) In knitting, one of the loose ends of yarn on an unfinished work.

(37) In transport, a car carrier or car transporter truck or truck-and-trailer combination; a lowboy trailer.

(38) In bartending, the technique of layering of liquid or ingredients on the top of a drink.

(39) In electrical engineering, as “float voltage”, an external electric potential required to keep a battery fully charged

(40) In zoology, the collective noun for crocodiles (the alternative being “bask”).

(41) In automotive engineering, as “floating axle”, a type of rear axle used mostly in heavy-duty vehicles where the axle shafts are not directly attached to the differential housing or the vehicle chassis but instead supported by bearings housed in the wheel hubs.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English floten, from the Old English flotian (to float), from the Proto-Germanic flutōną (to float), from the primitive Indo-European plewd- & plew- (to float, swim, fly).  It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian flotje (to float), the West Frisian flotsje (to float), the Dutch vlotten (to float), the German flötzen & flößen (to float), the Swedish flotta (to float), the Lithuanian plaukti, the Middle Low German vloten & vlotten (to float, swim), the Middle Dutch vloten, the Old Norse flota, the Icelandic fljóta, the Old English flēotan (to float, swim), the Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō), the Lithuanian plaukti, the Russian пла́вать (plávatʹ) and the Latin plaustrum (wagon, cart).  It was akin to the Old English flēotan & Old Saxon flotōn (root of fleet).  The meaning “to drift about, passively to hover" emerged circa 1300 while the transitive sense of “to lift up, to cause to float (of water etc)” didn’t come into use for another 300-odd years and the notion of “set (something) afloat” was actually originally figurative (originally of financial matters) and noted since 1778.  Float was long apparently restricted to stuff in the water and didn’t come into use to refer to things in the air until the 1630s, this extending to “hover dimly before the eyes” by at least 1775.   In medicine, the term “floating rib” was first used in 1802, so called because the anterior ends are not connected to the rest.  The Proto-Germanic form was flutojanan, from the primitive Indo-European pleu (to flow) which endures in modern use as pluvial.

Etymologists have concluded the noun was effectively a merger in the Middle English of three related Old English nouns: flota (boat, fleet), flote (troop, flock) & flot (body of water, sea), all from the same source as the verb.  The early senses were the now-mostly-obsolete ones of the Old English words: the early twelfth century “state of floating"”, the mid thirteenth century “swimming”, the slightly later “a fleet of ships; a company or troop” & the early fourteenth century “stream or river”.  From circa 1300 it has entered the language of fishermen to describe the attachments used to add buoyancy to fishing lines or nets and some decades later it meant also “raft”.  The meaning “a platform on wheels used for displays in parades etc” dates from 1888 and developed either from the manner they percolated down a street on from the vague resemblance to flat-bottomed boat which had been so described since the 1550s.  The type of fountain drink, topped with a scoop of ice cream was first sold in 1915.

The noun floater (one who or that which floats) dates from 1717 as was the agent noun from the verb.  From 1847 it was used in political slang to describe an independent voter (and in those days with the implication their vote might be “for sale”), something similar to the modern “swinging voter”.  By 1859 it referred to “one who frequently changes place of residence or employment” and after 1890 was part of US law enforcement slang meaning “dead body found in the water”.  The noun flotation dates from 1765, the spelling influenced by the French flotaison.  The adverb afloat was a direct descendent from the Old English aflote.  In idiomatic use, it was the boxer Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) who made famous the phrase “float like a butterfly; sting like a bee” and “whatever floats your boat” conveys the idea that individuals should be free to pursue that which they enjoy without being judged by others.  To “float someone’s boat” is to appeal to them in some way.  Float is a noun & verb, floater is a noun, floated is a verb, floating is a noun, verb & adjective and floaty is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is floats.

Lindsay Lohan floating in the Aegean, June 2022.

In the modern age, currencies began to be floated in the early 1970s after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system (1944) under which most major currencies were fixed in relation to the US dollar (which was fixed to gold at a rate of US$35 per ounce).  That didn’t mean the exchange rates were static but the values were set by governments (in processes called devaluation & revaluation) rather than the spot market and those movements could be dramatic: In September 1949, the UK (Labour) government devalued Sterling 30.5% against the US dollar (US$4.03 to 2.80).  The Bretton Woods system worked well (certainly for developed nations like the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of western Europe) in the particular (and historically unusual) circumstances of the post-war years but by the late 1960s, with the US government's having effectively printed a vast supply of dollars to finance expensive programs like the Vietnam War, the nuclear arms build-up, the “Great Society” and the space programme, and social programs, surplus dollars rapidly built up in foreign central banks and increasingly these were being shipped back to the US to be exchanged for physical gold bars.  In 1971, the Nixon administration (1969-1974) responded to the problem of their dwindling gold reserves by suspending the convertibility, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system and making floating exchange probably inevitable, the trend beginning when Japan floated the Yen in 1973.

A Bloomberg chart tracking the effect of shifting the US dollar from its link with gold to a fiat currency.  Due to this and other factors (notably the oil price), in the 1970s, the bills of the 1960s were paid.

Others however moved more slowly, many adopting the tactic of the Australian government which as late as 1983 was still running what was known as a “managed float”, an arrangement whereby the prime-minister, the treasurer and the head of the treasury periodically would meet and, using a “a basket of currencies”, set the value of the Australian dollar against the greenback and the other currencies (the so-called “cross-rates”).  Now, most major Western nations have floating currencies although there is sometimes some “management” of the “float” by the mechanism of central banks intervening by buying or selling.  The capacity for this approach to be significant is however not as influential as once it was because the numbers in the forex (foreign exchange) markets are huge, dwarfing the trade in commodities bonds or equities; given the volumes, movements of even fractions of a cent can mean overnight profits or losses in the millions.  Because some "floats" are not exactly "free floats" in which the market operates independently, there remains some suspicion that mechanisms such as "currency pegs" (there are a remarkable variety of pegs) and other methods of fine tuning can mean there are those in dark little corners of the forex world who can benefit from these manipulations.  Nobody seem prepared to suggest there's "insider trading" in the conventional sense of the term but there are some traders who appear to be better informed that others. 

Underwire

Underwire (pronounced uhn-der-wahyuhr)

(1) A (usually almost semi-circular) metal, plastic or composite “wire” sewn into the underside of each cup of a brassiere, used both as a structural member and shaping device.

(1) A brassiere (or related component in a swimsuit or some other garment) with such wires.

A portmanteau word, the construct being under + wire.  Under is from the Middle English under, from the Old English under, from the  Proto-Germanic under (source also of the Old Frisian under, the German unter, the Old High German untar, the Dutch onder, the Old Norse undir, the Gothic undar and the Danish & Norwegian under), from a blend of the primitive Indo-European n̥dhér (under) and n̥tér (inside).  It was akin to the Old High German untar (under), the Sanskrit अन्तर् (antar) (within) and the Latin infrā (below, beneath) & inter (between, among), influencing also the Sanskrit adhah (below), the Avestan athara- (lower) and the Latin infernus (lower).  The Old English under was a preposition in the sense of "beneath, among, before, in the presence of, in subjection to, under the rule of, by means of and also an adverb in the sense of "beneath, below, underneath," expressing position with reference to that which is above, usage gained from the Proto-Germanic under-.

Under proved as productive a prefix in Old English as had in German and Scandinavian languages, often forming words modeled on Latin ones using “sub-“ and the notion of "inferior in rank, position etc" existed in the Old English and persists in the language of the titles in the UK’s civil service to this day (eg under-secretary).  The idea of it being used as descriptor of standards (less than in age, price, value etc” emerged in the late fourteenth century whereas, as an adjective meaning “lower in position; lower in rank or degree” was known as early as the 1200s.  Mysteriously, the use in Old English as a preposition meaning "between, among," as in “under these circumstances” may be a wholly separate root (eg understand).  The phrase “under the weather (indisposed; unwell) is from 1810.  Under the table was used from 1913 in the sense of "very drunk" and it wasn’t until the 1940s (possibly influenced by the onset of rationing and the consequence emergence of black markets) it came to enjoy the sense of something "illegal" (although the long-extinct “under-board: (dishonest) is attested from circa 1600.  To keep something under the hat (secret) is from 1885 and use seems not to have been affected by the post 1945 decline in hat-wearing; to have something under (one's) nose (in plain sight) is from 1540s; to speak under (one's) breath (in a low voice) dates from 1832.

Wire is from the Middle English wir & wyr (metal drawn out into a fine thread), from the Old English wīr (wire, metal thread, wire-ornament), from the Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz (wire), from the primitive Indo-European wehiros (a twist, thread, cord, wire), from wei & wehiy- (to turn, twist, weave, plait).  The Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz were the source also of the Old Norse viravirka (filigree work=), the Swedish vira (to twist) and the Old High German wiara (fine gold work).  A wire as marking the finish line of a racecourse is attested from 1883; hence the figurative down to the wire.  Wire-puller in the political sense dates from 1839, an invention of American English (though used first to describe matters in the UK’s House of Commons), based on the image of pulling the wires that work a puppet; the phrase “pulling the strings” replaced “pulling the wires” late in the nineteenth century.

Casting a practiced eye: Lindsay Lohan assessing the underwires.

In the technical sense familiar to a structural engineer, the bra’s underwire is a specific instance of the earlier verb (1520s) “undergird”, the construct being under + gird.  Gird (to bind with a flexible rope or cord; to encircle with, or as if with a belt) was from the Middle English girden, gerden & gürden, from the Old English gyrdan (to put a belt around, to put a girdle around), from the Proto-Germanic gurdijaną (to gird), from the primitive Indo-European gherdh.  It was cognate with the West Frisian gurdzje & girdzje, the Dutch gorden, the German gürten, the Swedish gjorda, the Icelandic gyrða and the Albanian ngërthej (to tie together by weaving, to bind).  The related forms were undergirded & undergirding.

As a familiar mass-manufactured commodity item, the bra is a relatively new innovation although many of the various functionalities afforded to the wearer are noted in illustrations and surviving garments worn since antiquity, interest in the physics of gravity long pre-dating Newtonian mechanics.  The most obvious immediate ancestor, the corset, began to be widely worn by the late 1400s, the shaping and structure of many underpinned by struts made either of metal or, more commonly, animal bone, a method of construction which, in simplified form, would later return as the underwire.  The first patent issued for a recognizably modern bra was issued in New York in 1893 for a “breast supporter” and it included all the features familiar in the mass-produced modern product: separated cups atop a metal support system, located with a combination of shoulder straps and a back-band fastened by hook and eye closures.  On the basis of the documents supplied with the patent application, the design objective was for something not only functional and practical but, unlike the often intimidating corsets then in use, also comfortable.

It was an immediate success although, lacking the capacity to manufacture at scale and unwilling to become involved in the capital raising which that would have demanded, the inventor sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1500 (at a time when a new Ford car cost around US$400).  Warner Brothers Corset Company (later Warnaco Group, in 2012 acquired by Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), which over the life of the patent is estimated to have booked profits of almost US$40 million from its bra sales, got a bargain.  English borrowed the word brassiere from the French brassière, from the Old French braciere (which was originally a lining fitted inside armor which protected the arm, only later becoming a garment), from the Old French brace (arm) although by then it described a chemise (a kind of undershirt) but in the US, brassiere was used from 1893 when the first bras were advertised and from there, use spread.  The three syllables were just too much to survive the onslaught of modernity and the truncated “bra” soon prevailed, being the standard form throughout the English-speaking world by the early 1930s.  Curiously, in French, a bra is a soutien-gorge which translates literally and rather un-romantically as "throat-supporter" although "chest uplifter" is a better translation.  The etymological origin of the modern "bra" lying in a single garment is the reason one buys "a bra" in the same department store from which one might purchase "a pair" of sunglasses or shoes. 

The booming popularity of the bra in the 1920s and 1930s encouraged innovation and not a few gimmicks and it was in this era that manufacturers first began to develop systems of cup sizes although there was there no standardization of dimensions and, technically, that’s still the case with remarkable variations between manufacturers; it’s an industry crying out for an ISO.  It was in 1931 a patent was issued for what was described as a bra with a pair of integrated “open-ended wire loops”, semi-circular pieces of metal enclosed in protective fabric which partially encircled each breast, sitting against the chest-wall at the bottom of the breasts.  This is the origin of the modern underwire and during the 1930s, while designers would develop more elaborate versions, the concept didn’t change and as late as 1940, the underwire bra remained something of niche product being, at this stage of development, both more expensive and often less comfortable.  Wartime necessity also imposed an evolutionary delay, the use of metal during wartime being limited to essential production and carefully rationed.  Bras by then probably had become essential but apparently not underwired bras.

Hughes H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose) on its only test flight, 2 November 1947, Long Beach, Los Angeles Harbor.  It flew for abou1 1 mile (1.6 km) and achieved a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

Howard Hughes (1905—1976), the industrialist knew about the wartime limits on the use of metals because the War Production Board had insisted his H-4 Hercules, a huge, eight-engined flying boat designed to transport 750 troops across the Atlantic, be built using “non-strategic materials" which precluded the industry’s preferred aluminum, Hughes using birch wood almost exclusively.  The H-4, which wasn’t completed until after the end of hostilities flew, briefly, only once and was nicknamed the Spruce Goose, which obviously was arboreally inaccurate but thinking of something as funny and rhyming with “birch” wasn’t easy.  So, in 1942 Hughes knew he’d never get approval for enough metal for his big flying boat, but in 1941, before the entry of the US into the war, more than enough metal was available to create a specialized part to be used in another of his ventures: film director.

Jane Russell, promotional picture for The Outlaw (1941).

In 1941, while filming The Outlaw, Hughes wasn’t satisfied with what sympathetic lighting, camera angles and provocative posing could make of Jane Russell's (1921—2011) bust.  A skilled engineer, he quickly designed and had fabricated a kind of cantilevered underwire bra to lend the emphasis he though her figure deserved.  What Hughes did was add curved steel rods which functioned as actual structural members, sewn into the bra under each cup and connected to the shoulder straps, an arrangement which simultaneously pushed upwards the breasts and allowed the shoulder straps to be re-positioned, exposing to the camera much more skin.  In engineering terms, it was a device which achieved a fixture with no visible means of support.  Hughes was delighted with the result and completed filming though it wasn’t until much later Ms Russell revealed the cantilevered device was so uncomfortable she wore it for only a few minutes, reverting to her own bra which, to please Hughes, she modified with those trusty standbys, padding and a judicious tightening of the straps.  The result was much the same and Ms Russell waspishly added that the engineering prowess which had served Hughes well in aviation didn’t translate well to designing comfortable underwear.  The Outlaw was completed in February 1941 but, because of the focus on Ms Russell's breasts, faced opposition in obtaining the required certificate of release from the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (the MPPDA which administered the Hays Code) which was demanding cuts to thirty seconds odd of offending footage.  Hughes reluctantly complied and there was a brief showing in 1943 but the film’s distributer, unwilling to be dragged into any controversy, withdrew from the project and it wasn’t until 1946 there was finally a general release on cinema screens.  Given the pent-up demand, it was a commercial success but the critics were at the time unimpressed and it only later gained a cult following, at least partly on the basis of the gay undertone in the plot-line.

Lindsay Lohan in underwired demi-cup bra, photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine, 2012.  The "demi-cup look" can be achieved by choosing a bra with the correct band size and a smaller cup.  Someone who usually wears a full-cup 32D would use a 32C or even 32B to get the effect although, given the variation in cup shapes between manufacturers, some experimentation will likely be required and fitters caution this should be done in a physical store rather than shopping on-line. 

Underwires essentially fulfill part of the function of an exoskeleton in that, being designed to fit snugly against the ribcage, they provide a basic mechanism of location which means the back-strap, cups and shoulder-straps can provide the shape and support without having to compensate for excessive movement or changes in weight distribution.  The mathematics of structural engineering is really that of making push equal pull and what a well-designed (and properly fitted) underwire does is minimize the risk of movement in an unwanted direction (down) so the least energy is required to maintain the desired movement (up).  There are other ways of achieving this but such constructions typically are much bulkier and use often stiff, unaccommodating fabrics and thick straps.  The underwire is a simple technology which, in the abstract really can’t be improved upon although there are problems.  Washing machine service technicians note the frequency with which errant underwires end up in the mechanism and, being metal, damage can result.  For this reason, most bra manufacturers recommend they be placed in a sealed bag for washing.  Detachment can also happen while in use, a protruding underwire sometimes passing through the material in which its supposed to remain enclosed, giving the wearer a painful jab in a soft, fleshy spot.  Although the tips are usually plastic coated, repeated jabbing is still uncomfortable.  Being traditionally made of metal (usually stainless steel) brings it's own issues, most obviously with metal detectors but for frequent flyers, bras with plastic underwires (and hooks & clasps) are available off the shelf and plastic underwires are even sold as stand-alone part-numbers to modify existing models or for use by the small but devoted class of users who make their own.

Not all underwires are created equal: The Lingerie Addict explains.

Bra underwires typically are made from a non-ferrous metal (inside a plush casing surrounding the cup) such as stainless steel although there are some fabricated from some form of plastic which had appeal for frequent flyers not wanting to trigger the metal detectors at airports and a perhaps unanticipated market sector was among lawyers visiting prisons.  Although they might be presumed to achieve their structural effect by virtue of their rigidity, underwires actually have in them a very slight “spring” so they will splay just a fraction of an inch as the bra moves, something which enhances comfort and fit.  In that sense, an underwire can be thought of as a “torsion bar” which essentially is an unwound spring stretched straight.  The underwire has two functions: (1) to provide the superstructure with a secure location against the ribcage and (2) to distribute forces (downward, upward & lateral) in the same way the cables on a suspension bridge (which connect the towers to the deck) transfer the downward force from traffic up the cables to the towers, diffusing and distributing the stresses to the strongest point.  In a bridge, that’s the tower which, being anchored to the earth, means the forces end up moving from the structure to the ground while in a bra, they’re absorbed partially by the frame (mostly the band if well-designed and also to the shoulder straps if not) and partially by the wearer’s ribcage.  Manufacturers also use the comparison with bridges to illustrate the inherent limitation (at least when dealing with mass above a certain point) of wire-free construction.  Usually, they compare the wire-free design with a simple “rope bridge”, anchored on each side of the waterway or gap crossed but which sinks down as weight (which manifests as downward pressure) is applied.  The physics of this is that because there is no rigid support infrastructure to transfer the downward pressure away from the deck, there’s a direct relationship between the downward pressure and the sag of the deck.  For that reason, it’s important to distinguish between wire-free bras which are little more than an underwire bra without an underwire and those using a design which emulates what an underwire does, usually with a layered array of thicker, stiffer materials in the band and the lower parts of the cup.  In theory such an approach can achieve the same level of support as the most formidable underwire bra but the level of rigidity in the structure would likely render such a creation too uncomfortable to be tolerated by most although variations of the idea are used in short-duration sports such as boxing.

Playtex 18Hour (4745) wire-free bra (left) and 1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 fitted with car bra.  Car bras are also wire-free. 

Although common, not all bras use an underwire, the “wire-free” design used for a number of reasons.  For those with small breasts who require something merely decorative or desire only coverage rather than support, the wire-free bras are a popular choice and the majority of sports bras also use other methods of construction.  Like just about any form of engineering, there are trade-offs, the advantages gained in not using an underwire needing to be assessed by wearers considering whether they outweigh whatever limitations may be imposed.  Sometimes, the wire-free devices are marketed as a niche product such as maternity, nursing, post surgical or nightwear (ie for sleeping in, it really does seem a thing).  However, modern materials and forms of reinforcing do make the wire-free bra a viable choice for a wide range of wearers although the physical dimensions of the fabric do tend to be greater (the frame, straps etc), the principle much the same as when aluminium is used for an engine block rather than cast iron, the volume of the lighter material needed to be greater to compensate for its reduced strength.  In a sign of the times, although historically bras without an underwire often were advertised as “wireless”, the ubiquity of the word to describe various forms of digital connectivity (over WiFi, Bluetooth etc) means the industry had shifted mostly to calling them “wire-free” which may seem unnecessary given few would confuse a bra with a router but the internet-enabled bra can be only a matter of time so it’s good manufacturers are thinking ahead.  IT nerds actually already have proved they can deal with linguistic overlap and know about BRAS (broadband remote access server, known also as BBRAS or B-RAS), a device which routes traffic to and from devices such as DSLAMs (digital subscriber line access multiplexer) on an ISP’s (Internet Service Provider).

1989 Porsche 911 Silver Anniversary with car bra and mirror bras.

The Silver Anniversary edition was released in 1989 to mark the 25^th year of 911 production, a run of 500 (300 coupés & 200 cabriolets) made available for the US market.  Available only in silver metallic paint or satin black metallic, all were trimmed in silk grey leather with black accent piping & silk grey velour carpeting.  In the usually way these things are done, the package included a bundle of options including a stitched leather console with an outside temperature gauge and a CD or cassette holder, a limited-slip differential, a short shifting gear lever and the inevitable “25^th Anniversary Special Edition” badges, stamped in bronze.

The other wire-free bras are “car bras” (hyphenated and not).  Car bras are “protective garments”, vinyl covers designed to fit snugly over the front of a vehicle, stopping stones or other debris chipping the paint.  Their origin appears to line in the “cover masks” used by car-manufacturers in the 1970s as a means of concealing the appearance of vehicles being tested (a “shake-down” the preferred phrase) on closed tracks or public roads prior to their release and the purpose was to stop photographers getting pictures of upcoming models to sell to magazines, anxious to scoop the competition with news of what would soon be in the showrooms.  The practical advantages however were obvious and in the 1980s when chrome plated bumpers began rapidly to disappear and be replaced by painted surfaces, stone chips became more of an issue, the vulnerable frontal area in many cases more than tripled.

Wire-free: Covercraft's "Lebra" car bra for 2010-2013 Chevrolet Camaro.

The early implementations of the car bra were utilitarian but those who were (1) obsessive about such things, (2) drove frequently on roads where stone damage was more common or (3) owned a vehicle with a design which made such damage more likely (the Porsche 911 a classic example) were soon able to buy vinyl (nearly always black) covers which came to be called “car bras”.  In the 1980s they were very popular and the better ones were both easy to fit and fitted well but problems were soon observed, notably the trapping of moisture which, in conjunction with dust or tiny fragments of stone which tended to be caught around the edges, acted as a kind of sandpaper as the vinyl moved slightly while the vehicle was in motion; over time, this could damage the paint, the very thing the car bra was there to prevent.  As women wearing bras understand, chafing can be a problem.  For that reason, car bras fell from favour, especially as paint technology improved and finishes became more durable and less susceptible to being chipped.  Additionally, clear protective coatings became available which offered “extra layers” which were undetectable by the naked eye and by the time adhesive “wraps” (opportunistically now also marketed as "clear bras") in just about any color became a thing, the appeal of the car bra diminished although they remain available and the newer versions have been revised to reduce "chafing".  However, unlike other symbols of the 1980s (leg-warmers, shoulder pads et al), a revival of the fashion seems unlikely.  Car bras don’t use an underwire but some of the advertising does have something in common with the underwear business, one manufacturer listing some of the features of their car bra as including (1) double padding to prevent wear-thru, (2) a top double-stitch for better body-hugging fit and (3) double-covered & reinforced hooks which won’t scratch.  The available materials include both the basic vinyl and “textured carbon fibre vinyl”.