Snug

Snug (pronounced snuhg)

(1) Warmly comfortable or cozy, as a place, accommodations, clothing etc.

(2) Fitting closely (often as “snug fit”), applied usually to clothes, shoes etc but also to the internal space in buildings, the interaction of components etc.  In clothing, the nuances of the use of “snug” depend on context and can suggest either or both “warm & cozy” and “figure-hugging; form-fitting”.

(3) Compact or limited in size, and sheltered or warm.

(4) Something trim, neat or compactly arranged.

(5) Pleasant or agreeable, especially if in a small, exclusive way.

(6) A financial state enabling one to live in comfort.

(7) A secret, concealed or well-hidden place (as in a hideout).

(8) In nautical use, to prepare for a storm by taking in sail, lashing deck gear etc (usually in the phrase “snug down”); as “a sung harbor” or “a snug anchorage”, a sheltered and secure place to anchor or dock.

(9) In bars and pubs, a small room or enclosure, offering intimate seating for only a few persons (historically used Britain and Ireland but often seen in the “Irish Pubs” or “British Pubs” built in many countries and a similar concept to the “lounge bars” which were once distinct places from “public bars”).

(10) In engineering, a small peg under the head of a bolt engaging with a slot in the bolted component to prevent the bolt turning when the nut is tightened; a lug.

(11) A minor character in William Shakespeare's (1564–1616) play A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596).

(12) For two (or more) people lie closely or comfortably together; to nestle.

(13) To make something snug.

1575–1585: From dialectal English snug (tight, handsome) and in the sense of “prepared for storms” or “protected from the weather” (as used by sailors at sea), it may be from the Old Icelandic snöggr & Old Norse snøggr (short-haired), from the Proto-Germanic snawwuz (short, quick, fast) and cognate with the Swedish snygg (handsome, nice-looking; neat, tidy) and the Low German snögger (smart), the Icelandic snöggur (smooth) and the Danish snög (neat, tidy).  Although it’s uncertain, the ultimately source may have been the primitive Indo-European root kes- (to scratch).  The sense of "in a state of ease or comfort" was first documented in the 1620s while the sense of “fit closely” seems to have emerged in 1838.  The phrase “snug as a bug in a rug” was in use by at least 1769, the meaning the same was the earlier snug as a bee in a box, documented since 1706; rhyme seems to have prevailed over alliteration.  The verb snuggle in the sense of “move this way and that to get close to something or someone” (for purposes of warmth or affection) was in use by the 1680s, a frequentative of the verb snug (move so as to lie close to), dating from the 1580s.  Snuggled & snuggling were the related form and snuggle was used as noun from 1901.  Given the spread in meaning, the synonyms can include comfortable, comfy, cushy, neat, tight, close, compact, intimate, trim, homely, restful, sheltered, tidy, ordered, orderly, cozy, cuddle.  Snug is a noun, verb & adjective, snuggish, snugger & snuggest are adjectives, snugness is a noun, snugly is an adverb and snugged & snugging are verbs; the noun plural is snugs.

Lindsay Lohan in snug-fitting dresses.

Because of the “UG” element in snug, there have been many SNUG acronyms which have come and gone over the years, Acronym Finder listing a couple of dozen including:

Synopsys Users Group
Space Network Users' Guide
Stanford Newton User Group (Palo Alto, California)
Storage Networking User Group
Sydney Novell Users Group
Siemens International Users Group
Startel National Users Group
Stanford Newton Users Group
Storage Network Users Group
Storage Network User Group
Stichting Notes User Group
Seniors Networking User Group
Storage Networking User Groups
Select Noble Users Group
Southwest Notes User Group
Sebastopol Nix User Group
SolidWorks National User Group
Special Needs User Group
Sinclair Northamerican User Groups
Spanish NonStop User Group
Space Network Users Guide
SMS National User Group
Southern National Users Group
Sydney NetWare Users Group
Startel National User Group
Strategic Network User Group

Thanks to Urban Dictionary, it can be revealed snug is a word which describes a number of sexual practices ranging from the charming to the depraved.  It’s also a part of drug slang, a snug being either (1) an intricately small, but very dank nug of weed or (2) a small nug of weed that becomes lodged in the hole of a pipe, constricting the airflow.  A Snug is also a girl apparently native to university campuses and defined by her clothing choice: Spandex pants, North Face jacket, UGG boots.

In the Snug.

Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant; 1897-1988, left), Ena Sharples (Violet Carson; 1898-1983, centre) and Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol; 1914-1990, right) gossiping in the Rovers Return snug which was one of the sets of the Granada Television soap opera Coronation Street (1960-).  The three characters were usually depicted drinking milk stout but in 1964, Martha Longhurst dropped dead in the snug, shortly after ordering a sherry.  The story-line may have been an early public service health warning about the dangers of mixing drinks.

The origin of the snug, a small room in a secluded part of a pub, was to provide a private room where ladies could enjoy a drink at a time when it was not proper for a woman to be seen in a pub.  The tradition began in Ireland at a time when women weren’t even allowed to enter pubs, the drink trade in the country being vibrant but public consumption was exclusively a male domain.  There was social pressure but probably economics was just as compelling a reason for their introduction and in the late nineteenth century they began to appear and they were patronized not only by women but by those who simply might not wish to be seen, a list which was reputed to extend to police officers and priests as well as those transacting business.  As time went by, snugs proved to be what the hospitality business calls a “revenue centre” and they became places where higher prices could be charged and so menus were added, lunch and dinner “in the snug” becoming a thing.

Flanagan’s Outback Sports Bar, Emporium Building, 69 Front Street, Hamilton HM 12, Bermuda.

In pre-EU (European Union) Ireland, it wasn’t actually against the law for a woman to enter a pub, it was just one of those social conventions enforced if required by many innkeepers, always with the approval of the parish priest, the Roman Catholic Church then exercising an influence was so pervasive it’s difficult now for those who didn’t live through the era to believe it could have happened.  There is much documentary evidence that in pre-famine Ireland it was common for men and women to drink together in bars but, as is well-known, that can lead to dancing or worse and the church decided to do something about the immorality and indecency, imposing from the pulpit new and restrictive social mores.  Beginning in the 1960s however, even Ireland was exposed to the social forces which were transforming other Western cultures and women started to appear in bars.  That proved in some ways to be the end of civilization as the Catholic Church knew it but women could now enjoy a pint at the bar so there was that.  The snugs however survived for a while although in both the UK and Ireland they’re now rare but paradoxically, because so many “British” and “Irish” pubs have been built around the world, there are now more snugs outside the British Isles than within and just to remove doubts, many have a sign above the door (often in some “olde worlde” script) saying “The Snug”.

The attraction of the word in “Irish Pub” branding means around the world there are many actually called “Snug”, something which was never the practice in Ireland or the UK.

Within Ireland and the UK, the snugs began to vanish because instead of increasing revenue, they became a drag on the operation, taking up space which could be used more profitability.  Those with the space would create “lounge bars” where drinks cost more than in the public bar; it was a place to meet a better class of drunk and the idea had proved popular in Australia and New Zealand where for much of the twentieth century, women were also by various means excluded from public bars.  In the British Isles, a number of snugs remain because they’re on a register of historic architecture and must be maintained.

Gore

Gore (pronounced gawr or gohr)

(1) Blood when shed, especially in volume or when coagulated.

(2) Murder, bloodshed, violence etc, often in the context of visual depictions (film, television etc) and frequently an element in the “pornography of violence”.

(3) Dirt; mud; filth (obsolete except in some regional dialects and obviously something of which to be aware when reading historic texts).

(4) In cartography, the curved surface that lies between two close lines of longitude on a globe (or the as represented in the segmented two-dimensional depiction in certain maps or charts.

(5) In nautical design, a triangular piece of material inserted in a sail to produce a greater surface areas or a desired shape.

(6) In apparel, one of the panels, usually tapering or triangular in shape, making up a garment (most often used with skirts) or for other purposes such as umbrellas, hot-air balloons etc.

(7) In a bra (sometimes (tautologically) as “centre gore”), the panel connecting the cups and houses centre ends of the underwires (if fitted).

(8) On cobbling, an elastic gusset for providing a snug fit in a shoe.

(9) A triangular tract of land, especially one lying between larger divisions; in the jargon of surveying, a small patch of land left unincorporated due to unresolved competing surveys or a surveying error (also know in the US as “neutral area” and in the UK as “ghost island”).

(10) In road-traffic management, a designated “no-go” area at a point where roads intersect.

(11) In heraldry, a charge delineated by two inwardly curved lines, meeting in the fess point and considered an abatement.

(12) To create, mark or cut (something) in a triangular shape.

(13) Of an animal, such as a bull, to pierce or stab (a person or another animal) with a horn or tusk.

(14) To pierce something or someone (with a spear or similar weapon), as if with a horn or tusk.

(15) To make or furnish with a gore or gores; to add a gore.

Pre 900: From the Middle English gorre & gore (filth, moral filth), from the Old English gor (dung, bull dung, filth, dirt), from the Proto-Germanic gurą (half-digested stomach contents; faeces; manure) and the ultimate source may have been the primitive Indo-European gher- (hot; warm).  It was cognate with the Dutch goor, the Old High German gor (filth), the Middle Low German göre and the Old Norse gor (cud; half-digested food).  The idea of gore being “clotted blood” dates from the 1560s and was applied especially on battlefields; the term gore-blood documents since the 1550s.

The noun gore in the sense “patch of land or cloth of triangular shape” dates also from before 900 and was from the Middle English gor, gore, gar & gare (triangular piece of land, triangular piece of cloth), from the Old English gāra (triangular piece of land, corner, point of land, cape, promontory) the ultimate source thought to be the Proto-Germanic gaizon- or gaizô.   It was cognate with the German Gehre (gusset) and akin to the Old English gār (spear).  The seemingly strange relationship between spears, pieces of fabric and patches of land is explained by the common sense of triangularity, the allusion being to the word gore used in the sense of “a projecting point”, the tip of a spear visualized as the acute angle at which two sides of a triangle meet.  From this developed in the mid-thirteenth century the use to describe the panel used the front of a skirt, extended by the early 1300s just about any “triangular piece of fabric”.

Al Gore (b 1948; US vice president 1993-2001) with crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).  Al Gore used to be “the next President of the United States” and when this photo was taken at Miami Dade College, Florida during October 2016, crooked Hillary was also TNPOTUS.  They have much in common.

Gore entered the jargon of surveying in the 1640s, adopted in the New England region of the American colonies to describe “a strip of land left out of any property by an error when tracts are surveyed”.  Such errors and disputes were not uncommon (there and elsewhere), the most famous resolved by the Mason-Dixon Line, the official demarcation defining the boarders of what would become the US states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (which was until 1863 attached to Virginia).  The line was determined by a survey undertaken between 1763-1767 by two English astronomers Charles Mason (1728–1786) & Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779), commissioned because the original land grants issued by Charles I (1600–1649; King of England, Scotland & Ireland 1625-1649) and Charles II (1630–1685; King of Scotland 1649-1651, King of Scotland, England and Ireland 1660-1685) were contradictory, something not untypical given the often outdated and sometimes dubious maps then in use.  Later, "Mason-Dixon Line" would enter the popular imagination as the border between "the North" and "the South" (and thus "free" & "slave" states) because the line, west of Delaware, marked the northern limit of slavery in the United States.  Even though the later abolition of slavery in some areas rendered the line less of a strict delineation for this purpose, both phrase and implied meaning endured.

Arizona Department of Transport’s conceptual illustration of a gore used in traffic management.  The gore area is (almost always at least vaguely triangular) space at a point where roads in some way intersect and depending on the environment and available space, a gore may be simply a designated space (often painted with identifying lines of various colors) or a raised structure, sometime large and grassed.  The purpose of a gore is to ensue (1) the visibility of drivers is not restricted by other vehicles (most important with merging traffic) and (2) vehicle flow is in a safe direction and for this reason gores are designated “no go” areas through which vehicles should neither pass nor stop; something often enforced by statute.

The verb (in the sense of “to pierce, to stab”) emerged in the late fourteenth century (although use seems to have been spasmodic until the sixteenth) and was from the Middle English gorren & goren (to pierce, stab) which was derived from gōre (spear, javelin, dart), from the Old English gār (spear, shaft, arrow).  The adjective gory (covered with clotted blood) dates from the late fifteenth century and developed from the noun and the derived noun goriness is now a favorite measure by which produces in the horror movie genre are judged, some sites offering a “goriness index” or “goriness rating” for those who find such metrics helpful (the noun gorinessness is non-standard but horror movie buffs get the idea).  “To gore” also meant “add a gore (to a skirt, sail etc)” but surprisingly given the profligate ways of English degore or de-gore (removing a gore form a skirt, sail etc) seems never to have evolved.  Gore is a noun & verb, gory is an adjective, gored is a verb & adjective, goriness is a noun and goring is a verb; the noun plural is gores.

Shyaway’s diagram detailing how even mainstream bras can have as many as 16 separate components although more individual parts are used in the construction; some (obviously) at least duplicated.  Who knew?

The gore (sometimes (tautologically) as “centre gore”) fits in the space between breasts, the panel connecting the cups and providing locating points for the centre ends of the underwires (if fitted).  Because there are so many types of design, the height of gore varies greatly, one fitted to a full support bra rising higher than that used by a plunge bra but the general principle is the panel should lie flat between the breasts, aligned with the skin, the gore's purpose as a piece of structural engineering being to provide separation.

HerRoom's deconstruction of the art and science of the gore.

According to HerRoom.com, the significance of the gore sitting firmly against the sternum is it provides an indication of fit.  If a gap appears between skin and gore, that suggests the cups lack sufficient depth and the user should proceed up the alphabet until snugness is achieved.  Where the gap is especially obvious (some fitters recommending a standard HB pencil as a guide while others prefer fingers, the advantage with the pencil being that globally it's a uniform size), it may be necessary to both go up more than one cup letter and decrease the band-size although there are exceptions to the gore-sternum rule and that includes “minimizers” (which achieve their visual trick by a combination of reducing forward protection and redistributing mass laterally) and most “wireless” (or “wire-free”) units (except for the smaller sizes).  The design of the gore also helps in accommodating variations in the human shape; although almost all gores are triangular and the difference in their height is obvious (and as a general principle: the greater the height, the greater the support) a difference in width will make different garments suitable for different body-types.

Gory: Lindsay Lohan was photographed in 2011 & 2013 by Tyler Shields (b 1982) in sessions which involved knives and the depiction of blood.  The shoot attracted some attention and while the technical achievement was noted, it being quite challenging to work with blood (fake or real) and realize something realistic but it was also criticized as adding little to the discussion about the pornography of violence against women.