Solvent

Solvent (pronounced sol-vuhnt)

(1) Able to pay all just debts; meet all financial obligations (ie not insolvent).

(2) Something with the power of dissolving.

(3) A usually liquid substance that dissolves another to form a solution.

(4) Something that solves or explains (archaic).

1620–1630:  From the Middle English solvent, from the French, from the earlier form solver.  Latin root was solventem, accusative singular of solvēns (releasing), present participle of solvō, derived from the construct se (away) +‎ luō (to untie, set free, separate), most usually as solvere (to loosen, to free).  The meaning as applied to financial debts, originally a French form, dates from the 1650s.  As a substance able to dissolve other compounds, use emerged in the 1670s.  Unfortunately, the Czech noun solvence (solvency) was never picked up by English; its adoption would have made the odd clumsy phrase more elegent.  Solvent & insolvent are nouns & adjectives and solvency & insolvency are nouns; the noun plural is solvents.

Solvents and exfoliants.

Although the end result of use should (helpfully) be similar, technically, solvents and exfoliants differ both  in composition and application.  A solvent is a substance capable of dissolving other substances, typically for the purpose of removing them from the surface to which they've become adhered although in science and industry, they're used also for dilution or extraction and in all but some specialized products, they tend to be liquids, whether used in cleaning, manufacturing or chemical processing.  The concoctions are many but the best known solvents include water, alcohol and the acetone familiar to users of nail-polish removers.  Exfoliants are best-known as the commercially packaged substances used to remove dead skin cells on the face, the hope being an improvement in the texture of the skin and thus a more glowing, youthful appearance.  Unlike solvents which dissolve stuff, exfoliants work by the mechanical-chemical process of physically scrubbing or sloughing off the outermost layer of dead skin cells and are packaged variously as scrubs with abrasive particles, brushes, loofahs, or chemical mixes such as alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) or beta hydroxy acids (BHAs).

In praise of Orange Solv.

Orange Solv is a water-soluble solvent marketed as an alternative to the petroleum, chlorinated or glycol-ether mixtures used in heavy duty cleaning and de-greasing.  Applications include grease and tar removal from engines and parts, paint removal from solvent-resistant hard surfaces and it’s widely used commercially to remove chewing gum and stains from industrial carpets.  It’s been adopted by local governments as an additive to high-pressure water systems in the removal of graffiti and one vlogger (influenced presumably by practical experience) endorsed Orange Solve as the preferred solvent to remove the CHEATER signs spray-painted onto cars by vengeful WAGs.  Orange Solve is made from D-Limonene, an extract from the peel of oranges and lemons.  Low in toxicity, it’s pleasant to use, has minimal skin impact and is biodegradable.  Produced using the waste from the citrus industry, it's classified as non-flammable and when diluted with equal parts water, pH is a mildly alkaline 9. After use, there remains a citrus fragrance wafting about which some enjoy and others find intrusive.

Thermal

Thermal (pronounced thur-muhl)

(1) Of, relating to, or caused by heat or temperature (also thermic); of, relating to, or of the nature of thermae.

(2) As (both noun and adjective) thermal blanket or thermal underwear (as a noun, always referred to in the plural (thermals) even if describing a single item), items designed to aid in or promote the retention of body heat.

(3) In meteorology, a column of rising air caused by local unequal heating by the sun of the land surface, especially such a current when not producing a cloud; widely used in aviation and of especial importance in gliding, a borrowing of the techniques used by birds. The air usually rises until it is in equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere.

(4) In stonemasonry, a rough finish created with a blowtorch.

1756: From the French thermal (buffon), from the New Latin thermalis, from the Ancient Greek θέρμη (thérmē) (heat; feverish heat), from the primitive Indo-European gwher (to heat, warm).  The construct was therm + -al (from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French & Old French -el, -al; used mostly but not exclusively with word of Latin origin).  The sense of "having to do with heat" is first recorded 1837; the noun meaning "rising current of relatively warm air" was first noted in 1933 in the context of aviation.  Geothermal first used in 1875; hydrothermal in 1855, exothermal in 1874; athermanous in 1839, hyperthermia in 1878, isotherm in 1850, endothermic in 1869 (1947 as applied in biology) and thermometer as early as the 1597 although the most familiar (pre-digital) version with mercury encased in glass, was invented by Fahrenheit in 1714.  Thermal is adjective in the singular and a noun in the singular or plural, thermally is the adverb.  The most common derivations are the adjectives hyperthermal and the adverb hyperthermally but in engineering and science there’s also therm, therma, thermacogenesis, thermae, aerothermal, thermometric, thermometrical & thermaesthesia.  Thermal is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is thermals.

Thermal Reactive Nail Polish

Thermal reactive nail polishes change color depending on both body and ambient temperature.  Nail polish is especially suitable for thermal reactivity because the extremities of the body (fingertips, toes, ears & nose) vary in temperature much more than parts closer to the core.  Usefully, they work with even the thickest base and top-coats which affords additional protection for the thermal-reactive chemicals, the color-changing properties affected not at all if multiple coats are applied.

The process is entirely heat-dependent and thus constantly variable.  In this example the reaction produces purple in reaction to cold and aqua to warmth; because the temperature of the nail greatly can vary between base and tip, the ombré effect (colors blending from one hue to another) will fluctuate.  The chemical reaction does rely on the top coat being fully dry and, depending on manufacturer, this can take up to an hour.  The special properties don't last forever but, if correctly sealed, stored in a dark place and not exposed to extremes of heat and cold, the liquid will for months continue to be reactive.

Chemically, the thermal reactivity works because the polish is infused with a leuco (“white” in Ancient Greek) dye, the word a little misleading in this context because leuco dyes have two forms: one clear, the other colored. The reversible transition between the two colors may be caused by heat (thermochromism), light (photochromism) or pH (halochromism) and in other (often industrial) applications, it’s possible irreversibly to change colors, usually from a redox reaction.

For thermal nail polish, the dye comes packaged in tiny spheres called microcapsules, each only 1-10 microns in diameter but containing three chemicals: (1) leuco dye which changes color reversibly, the color depending on the dye which, when combined with a proton or hydrogen ion, becomes colorless.  (2) A weak acid which acts as a catalyst, donating the hydrogen ion.  (3) A solvent which induces a color change at a desired temperature.  When cool, the solvent solidifies, the hydrogen remaining stuck to the acid and thus not interacting with the colored dye.  When hot, the solvent melts, the weak acid dissociates, the hydrogen ion binds to the dye, and the dye is colorless.  The temperature-shift range is about 5ºF (3ºC).

Those not content with the commercially available color combinations easily can brew their own thermal reactive polish.  Leuco dyes are available in many colors and come as a powder, slurry, epoxy, or water-based ink but only the powder is suitable and the transition range should hover 88ºF (31ºC) because nails are cooler than body temperature.  The choice of polish color dictates the result.  A white polish will produce a pastel result, a pale color will switch between the original and the combination of the leuco and the color so a mix of pink polish and a blue leuco dye yields a color shift from pink to purple.

To mix, place 1-2 small ball bearings in empty nail polish bottle and fill with polish to about half-way.  Add leuco dye to achieve desired color (about ⅛ teaspoon) and, if ambient temperature is high, chill the bottle to see result.  When mixing, cap bottle and gently roll it; do not shake because this will cause cavitation, the formation of air bubbles which impede the blending.  If the polish is too thick, add a few drops of nail polish thinner or clear top-coat but never acetone or other nail polisher remover because these chemicals ruin the mix.  Glitter or holo may be added according to taste.

Lindsay Lohan on skis in fuchsia, Falling for Christmas (Netflix (2022)), her thermal base layer unknown.

When skiing or mountain climbing, thermal underwear is usually the ideal choice for what is called the “thermal base layer”, a combination which consists usually of a top and a pair of leggings.  Outer layers of ski clothing perform better when a thermal base layer is worn because the moisture from the body rapidly is wicked away in a capillary action, permitting the breathable fabrics of the outer garments more efficiently to dissipate the moisture more efficiently.  It’s often thought the only purpose of thermal underwear is to increase body temperature but it’s the symbiosis between the thermal base layer and the outer coverings which regulate body temperature, maintaining comfort in both colder and warmer conditions.  By volume, most thermal underwear is made from Polyester (a type of plastic called polypropylene), often augmented with Lycra and all these garments are produced in a very tight weave which delivers good thermal qualities and what the manufacturers call a high “breathability factor”.

Also used is fine wool which, being a natural fibre, is preferred by many and it does posses the virtues of offering both comfort and efficient thermal qualities.  The choice between the types of construction is less about specific differences in thermal performance than how one’s skin reacts and sometimes this is something which can be judged only after prolonged exposure in a variety of temperatures.  All types are available in both short and long (sleeves & legs) versions and because the material is so thin, the longer cuts intrude not at all upon the fit of gloves and boots and the choice is again one of personal preference although, in extreme conditions, the full-versions should always at least be packed.

Insoluble

Insoluble (pronounced in-sol-yuh-buhl)

(1) A substance which cannot be dissolved, broken down or dispersed.

(2) That which cannot be solved; unsolvable; insolvable.

(3) That which cannot be explained; mysterious or inexplicable.

(4) In chemistry, a substance incapable of dissolving in a solvent.

1350-1400: From the Middle English insoluble (indestructible, unable to be loosened), from the Old French insoluble or the Latin insolūbilis (that which cannot be loosened), the construct being in (not) + solubilis (soluble) which replaced the Middle English insolible; Middle French borrowed the word from the Latin as insoluble.  In the sciences, the noun insolubility in the sense of “incapability of dissolving in a liquid” dates from 1754 (insoluble having conveyed that since 1713), the Late Latin insolubilitas having previously been used and from 1791 it replaced the Latin insolubilis (that cannot be loosened) although in the early seventeenth century it’d been used of the marriage vow to mean "that cannot be dissolved".  The curious (and in many way annoying as such thing in English are) parallel meaning "that which cannot be solved" dates from 1722 and etymologists think it likely a separate formation from the earlier senses.  The related adjective irresolvable was from the 1650s and was from an assimilated form of in- (not, opposite of), the meaning "that which cannot be resolved into parts" emerging after 1785.  Insoluble is a noun & adjective, insolubility is a noun and insolubly is an adverb; the noun plural is insolubles.

In chemistry, insoluble has the precise technical meaning “incapable of dissolving in a solvent” and while it’s actually rare for absolutely no solute to dissolve at all, many substances are poorly soluble although a compound may be insoluble in one solvent yet fully miscible in another.  There’s also the influence of external factors, most notable temperature; increasing temperature frequently improves the solubility of a solute.  The figurative sense (that which cannot be solved; unsolvable; insolvable) is actually used less than other words or phrases which convey the idea, doubtlessly because of the parallel meaning.  Some claim that in Medieval scholarship, it was a tacit conviction among the learned that the insoluble question did not exist and that all that was ever required was to find the right man whose studies were so deep that he would eventually deduce the answer.  It’s a modern-sounding idea and recalls some of the optimistic phases the United States went through in the twentieth century; probably few think like that now.

Dr Rowan Williams (b 1950; Archbishop of Canterbury, 2002-2012) and Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022), discussing insoluble problems during the papal visit to the UK, Lambeth Palace, London, September 2010

One who probably never felt quite like that but may at times have allowed himself the odd, brief moment of optimism was former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, a literary critic and one-time Professor of Divinity at Oxford although his decade in Lambeth Palace seems to have cured him of that.  In late 2008, Dr Williams took a two month summer sabbatical to finish a book about his literary hero, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) which was published as Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction.  Those few weeks may have been among the happiest of his life, later reflecting that “It was a wonderful experience actually, just being able to get up in the morning and write instead go to committees and answer letters and try to solve insoluble problems in the church.”  To the suggestion that prayer might provide answers to at least some of those insoluble problems he replied “I'll do just that.”  Ten years on, there little indication his prayers were answered.

Ether

Ether (pronounced ee-ther)

(1) In chemistry, Pharmacology and (pre-modern) surgery, A colorless, highly volatile, flammable liquid (C₄H₁₀O), having an aromatic odor and sweet, burning taste, derived from ethyl alcohol by the action of sulfuric acid.  It was used as a powerful solvent and as an inhalant anesthetic (also called diethyl ether, diethyl oxide, ethyl ether, ethyl oxide, sulfuric ether.

(2) In pre-modern chemistry, one of a class of compounds in which two organic groups are attached directly to an oxygen atom (the general formula ROR), as in diethyl ether (C₂H₅OC₂H₅).

(3) In Greek mythology, the upper regions of the atmosphere; clear sky or heaven (and from this long a rarely used word for “air”).

(4) In physics, a hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space, an idea picked up in the early days of radio broadcasting, the signal said to be “in the ether”.

(5) In chemistry, a starting fluid.

(6) Figuratively, a particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere; an aura (probably most familiar in the form ethereal). 

1350-1400: From the Middle English ether (the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air), from the Middle French & Anglo-Norman ether, from the Old French aether (highest and purest part of the atmosphere; the medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space), from the Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr) (purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light), (akin to aíthein (to glow, burn)) or directly from its etymon New Latin aethēr (highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity).  The ultimate source of the Greek was αἴθω (aíthō) (to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine), from the primitive Indo-European heyd- (to burn; fire).  It was related to the Old English ād (funeral pyre) and the Latin aestus (heat).  As late as the nineteenth century, it was not uncommon in English for the Latin-derived spelling aether to be used, probably because so much of what was in the books of apothecaries remained for so long unchanged.  The German-born chemist August Sigmund Frobenius (circa 1690-1741) was the first to use the name for the volatile chemical, his bestowal based on its properties.  The name entered English science in 1757 although it wasn’t until 1842 the anaesthetic properties were fully documented.  The English word was cognate with the obsolete Italian etere (ether & ethera both obsolete), the Middle Dutch ether, the modern Dutch ether (aether obsolete), the German Äther, the Portuguese éter and the Spanish éter.

In ancient cosmology, ether was the element filling all space beyond the sphere of the moon, constituting the substance of the stars and planets; in the imagination of Antiquity it was held by one school of thought to be a purer form of fire or air, by another as a fifth element.  From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, ether was part of scientific orthodoxy and the technical word for an assumed framework within which the forces of the universe interacted, perhaps without material properties.  As the scientific method evolved increasingly to demand proof of theories, doubts were expressed about the validity of the traditional view and in 1887 an experiment by American physicists Albert Michelson (1852-1931) and Edward Morley (1838-1923) cast such doubts on the notion that among others, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was moved to begin calculations and the view of the nature of ether from Antiquity was completely dismissed after conclusive proof of the theory of relativity in 1919.  Despite that, having first been so used in 1899, the word endured well into the twentieth century to describe the path of the then seemingly mysterious radio broadcasts.

Lindsay Lohan during her dabble with Ethereum fueled NFT drops.  

Although the volatility and churn rate make it a hard sector to track, there are apparently over 20,000 currently active (in the sense of being listed somewhere and thus able to be traded) cryptocurrencies.  There are obvious attractions to creating one's own virtual currency because in a sense one is creating one's own money (usually in the millions) and if one can convince others (and guides to market manipulation have been published) to exchange their convertible currency for one's tokens, it can be a good business model.  One thankless task associated with cryptocurrencies however is coming up with a suitable name, something not of great importance once the creation gains critical mass but possibly quite influential when first listed.  It must be something like thinking of names for racehorses but harder still because not only must it be unique but it should also not be too close to other financial products (not just other virtual currencies).  Ethereum (ETH) was coined by Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin (b 1994) who has in interviews revealed he chose the name after browsing Wikipedia for a list of fictional elements on based on ether.  One can certainly see the link and it makes more sense than the earlier Ethernet, originally a trademark of the Xerox Corporation, the construct being ether +‎ net(work).  Ethernet was a collection of cabling and network connectivity protocols standards for bus topology computer networks and to use the word "ether" was a bit of a leap, everything originally connected by cable whereas at least part of the Ethereum traffic travels through the ether (as it was understood in Antiquity).  With Ethernet cabling, there was thick and thin Ethernet and the physical cabling literally was thick and thin, the choice dictated by things like the distance to be covered, the number of nodes to be connected and the available budget.  In the world of cryptocurrency, think & thin means "going through thick & thin", hodling (holding) one's coins no matter what the fluctuations.

Gasoline

Gasoline (pronounced gas-uh-leen)

(1) A volatile, flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, obtained from petroleum and used as fuel in internal-combustion engines or as a solvent.

(2) In the slang of drug users, marijuana, especially if notably potent (also as gas and there’s evidence both gas and gasoline have been used of other drugs).

(3) In slang, a cocktail made by mixing a spirit with an energy drink (the original believed to be a combination of vodka & Red Bull).

As used to describe the “light, volatile liquid obtained from distillation of petroleum”, gasoline dates from 1864 and was a variant of Gasolene which in the UK had been trade-marked the year before.  The word gasolene was from a trade-marked brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil, registered in 1862 which was based on the surname of English publisher and tea & coffee merchant John Cassell (1817–1865) who branched out into lighting fuel, marketed as both Cazeline & Cazzoline.  His publishing house Cassell & Co endures today as an imprint of the Octopus Publishing Group.  The surname Cassell was from the Anglo-Norman castel (a cognate of the English castle), from the Old French castel, from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum.  The -eline suffix was from the Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion) (oil, olive oil), from ἐλαία (elaía).  Etymologists speculate the spelling of gasolene (and thus gasoline) may have been influenced by Gazeline, an Irish product which was a clone of Cazzoline, either the promoters liked the assumed association with “gas” or simply they found it a more attractive word.  It’s though the general construct gas-o-line was built with the “o” representing the Latin oleum (oil) and the ending a borrowing from the chemical suffix -ine.  The alternative form gasolene is extinct in every market except Jamaica.  Gasoline is a noun & adjective and gasolinic is an adjective; the noun plural is gasolines.

Moderne BV-Aral Tankstelle (modern BV-Aral gas station), Bochum, FRG (Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)), 1958.  The cars are an Opel Rekord (left), a Volkswagen Type 14 (Karmann Ghia) coupé (centre) and a Volkswagen Type 1 (Beetle) (right).  In the background stands the head office of the oil company BV-Aral AG.

In the US, the shortened form “gas” was in common use by at least 1897 but on the pattern of use typically found in other words, it’s likely it was around almost as soon as gasoline went on sale.  The “gas station” (place to fill up one’s automobile (“gassing up”) with gasoline by use of a “gas pump”) was recorded in California in 1916 and was in national use by the early 1920s.  The “gas pedal” (the accelerator) was first recorded in 1908 and is still used even in markets where the term petrol is preferred, as in the phrase “step on the gas” (depress the accelerator (ie go faster)) which is used generally to suggest increasing speed or effort and is not confined to automobiles.  The term gas-guzzler (a car with a high fuel consumption) was coined in 1973 after the first oil shock and in 1978 the US federal government imposed the first stage of its long-running “gas-guzzler tax”.  The noun gasohol (a gasoline with a small percentage of ethanol was coined in 1975; the mix was another reaction to the increase in the oil price and occasional shortages in the era.  To “pour gasoline on the fire” is a suggestion some action is making an already bad situation worse.  The term Avgas (the construct being av(iation) + gas) was coined during the First World War (1914-1918) when it was found the mix used in automobiles was unsuitable for aircraft which needed a mixture with higher specific energy (ie high octane).  The use in North America (and a handful of other places) of “gas” to refer to what is otherwise generally known as “petrol” sometimes mystifies because in many markets the usual distinction for road transport is between vehicles fueled by diesel, petrol & gas (usually liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or compressed natural gas (CNG).

Entertainment Tonight (ET) deconstructs Lindsay Lohan’s dance moves at a New Jersey gas station, October 2019.  According to ET, the routine was executed between gas pumps 3 & 4.

In chemistry, gas is matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (in care cases) become a solid directly by deposition. The common synonym is vapor (also as vapour).  The word was a borrowing from the Dutch gas which was coined by chemist Brussels-based chemist & physician Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580–1644), from the Ancient Greek χάος (kháos) (chasm, void, empty space) and there may also have been some influence from geest (breath, vapour, spirit).  More speculatively, there were also the writings of the Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance Theophrastus von Hohenheim (circa 1493-1541 and known usually as Paracelsus) who wrote of kháos in the occultist’s  sense of “proper elements of spirits”" or "ultra-rarified water”, both of which accorded with van Helmont's definition of gas which he introduced to the world in Ortus medicinae, vel opera et opuscula omnia (The Origin of Medicine, or Complete Works (1648)) with the words Hunc spiritum, incognitum hactenus, novo nomine gas voco (“This vapor, hitherto unknown, I call by a new name, ‘gas’”).

Lindsay Lohan gassing up her Porsche, Malibu, California, April 2020.

The use in science in the modern sense dates from 1779 and it was adopted for specific applications as technologies emerged or were commercialized: To describe a “combustible mix of vapors” the term “coal gas” was first used in 1794; the use in medicine for the anesthetic nitrous oxide was from 1794 (made famous in dentistry as “laughing gas” although the laughter was induced by impurities introduced in the early production processes rather than the inherent properties of N₂O); “Poison gas” was from 1900" (1900).  The meaning “intestinal vapors” emerged in 1882 while the not unrelated sense of “empty talk” was from 1847 (meaning something like “hot air”) although more positively, by 1953 “it’s a gas” meant “something exciting or excellent”, “a gasser” in 1944 meaning much the same.  James Joyce (1882–1941) in Dubliners (1914) used gas to mean “fun, a joke”, an Anglo-Irish form thought linked to the use of laughing gas in dentistry.  In drag racing “gassers” (so named because they were fueled by gasoline rather than methanol or nitromethane) were the most common of the highly modified road cars in the early days of the sport but the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) retired the category in 1972 and split the participation of gasoline-powered units into a number of classes.

Art Deco gas station, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, 1931.

The “gas-works” was first described in 1914 and was a little misleading because they were actually bulk-storage facilities from which gas was distributed either by fixed lines or cylinders delivered to the premises.  The kitchen appliance the “gas-oven” was mentioned first in 1851 although “gas-stove” by then had been in use for three years.  The notorious “gas chambers” used by the Nazis in their mass-murder programmes are most associated with the attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe but the first were actually built in 1939, as part of Aktion T4 which involved the killing of those with physical and intellectual disabilities.  These early facilities used carbon monoxide and were built within Germany and served also to murder other prisoners and although by later standards inefficient, were adequate for the numbers involved.  As territories to the east were occupied, similar structures were built and there were ever experiments with “mobile chambers”, large air-tight van coachwork added to truck chassis into which the exhaust gasses were ducted.  Again, these worked but by 1941 the Nazis now wished to exterminate millions and the most efficient method was found to be scaled-up chambers (disguised as shower rooms) into which the hydrogen cyanide-based anti-vermin fumigant Zyklon B was introduced, permitting a throughput at the most productive death camps of some 5500 at day, sometimes for months at a time.  The term “gas chamber” was widely used during the post-war hearings conducted by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (1945-1946) but as a method of judicial execution, many nations had by then used them at various times and the US only recently abandoned use of the method.

Roadsters line up to gas up, Gasoline Alley, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 1960.  This was one of the official postcards sold in the speedway's shop.

Gasoline Alley is the name of the garage area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  That wasn’t the original name but in the 1920s, “gasoline alley” was the drivers’ slang for the forecourt at the back of the garages where the cars were taken to refuel.  Whether linked or not, there was in the era a popular newspaper comic strip called Gasoline Alley and the use of the name soon extended to the strip dividing the two rows of garages.  It caught the public imagination and the facility managers in the early 1950s added signage which meant the whole garage area became associated with the term.  As a result of the reconstructions necessitated by fires, modernization & expansion, Gasoline Alley is not recognizable compared to its original appearance but the name remains, even thought actual gasoline is now rarely pumped, the open-wheel cars switching first to methanol (1965) and later (2006) ethanol and it’s only when other categories use the track that gasoline is in the tanks.  If the sport is compelled to convert to electric (or hopefully hydrogen) propulsion, the name is unlikely to change.

Rod Stewart (b 1945), Gasoline Alley (1970).

Eliminate, Exterminate & Eradicate

Eliminate (pronounced ih-lim-uh-neyt)

(1) To remove or get rid of, especially as being in some way undesirable.

(2) To omit, especially as being unimportant or irrelevant; leave out.

(3) To remove from further consideration or competition, especially by defeating in sport or other competitive contest.

(4) To eradicate or kill.

(5) In physiology, to void or expel from an organism.

(6) In mathematics, to remove (a quantity) from an equation by elimination.

(7) In sport, as elimination & eliminator (drag racing): category classifications. 

1560–70: From the Latin ēlīminātus (thrust out of the doors; expel), past participle of ēlīmināre, the construct being ē- (out) + līmin- (stem of līmen (threshold)) + -ātus (the Latin first/second-declension suffix (feminine -āta, neuter -ātum)).  The most commonly used form in Latin appears to have been ex limine (off the threshold).  Used literally at first, the sense of "exclude" was first attested in 1714; the now obsolete sense of "expel waste from the body" emerged circa 1795 although the general sense of an "expulsion of waste matter" is from 1855.  Eliminate is a verb, if used with an object, the verbs are eliminated & eliminating, eliminability, eliminant & eliminability are nouns and eliminable, eliminative and eliminatory are adjectives.

1964 Ford Mustang in Wimbledon White displayed at press conference in New York City, held in conjunction with the release of the Ford Mustang at the New York World’s Fair, April 1964.

The Ford Mustang in 1964 not only created the “pony car” market but also inspired the sector's name.  Successful beyond all expectations, the Mustang was within years in a more crowded pony car market but it remained atop the sales charts and more than sixty years on it remains in production, visually still recognizable as a descendent of the original.  In the 1960s, its competition came not only from General Motors (GM), Chrysler and even American Motors (AMC) but also from the corporation’s companion brand, Mercury which, in 1967, released the Cougar.  Ford had in 1938 created the Mercury brand as a marketing device to “plug the gap” between the most expensive Fords and the lower reached of the Lincoln range, the rationale being a separate nameplate untainted by having lower-priced models in its catalogue would be easier to position as up-market than a “Ford Deluxe” which could be otherwise identical to what came to be badged as a “Mercury”.  It was an approach many industries (washing powder, snack food et al) would adopt and it remains common because it can work well but with a car company the images in capital and image are considerable so while a new chocolate range can fail and barely be noticed, the consequences of a similar fate for a car brand can be significant, as Ford in the 1950s would discover with the fiasco of the Edsel and the less remembered but also unsuccessful Continental division.

1968 Mercury Cougar XR7 GT-E 427 in Wellington Blue.  357 Cougars were built with the GT-E 427 option, the 101 the base coupé, 256 the more expensive XR7, all fitted with the C6 three-speed automatic transmission.  The remaining 37 GT-Es (14 base coupés & 23 XR7s) used the 428, only three of which had the four-speed manual transmission.  

Built on a slightly extended Mustang platform, the 1967 Cougar followed the 1938 Mercury model in that it was essentially a “luxury Mustang” and it was a great success although analysts noted that while some of its healthy sales numbers would have been “conquests” from the competition, some would have been cannibalized from the Mustang or Ford’s Thunderbird.  In its original form, the position of the Cougar was well-defined but intra-corporation competition (which by the twenty-first century would play a part in dooming Mercury) soon emerged and a Mercury team contested the 1967 Trans-Am championship, displeasing Ford’s management which wanted the focus on its motorsport activities to be on Ford.  So, banned from the circuits, Mercury turned to the street and produced high-performance versions including the GT-E, some versions of which had the novelty of being powered by a detuned version of the Le Mans-winning 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) FE V8 although that it was available only with an automatic gearbox was an indication of the target market.  Uniquely configured with hydraulic valve lifters, it’s was the corporation’s last use of the 427 and the closest Ford came to producing a Mustang 427.

1968 Mercury Cougar Eliminator 428 in Bright Yellow.

Introduced in 1969, the Mercury Cougar Eliminator replaced the GTE and was a serious effort at image building, the “Eliminator” moniker borrowed from the popular sport of drag racing where described a process rather than a specific category.  The Eliminator “class” was a way the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) at the time organized competition brackets, the title awarded to the overall winner among several class winners within a broader category.  Then, the NHRA divided competitors into classes based on a formula which included metrics such as engine displacement, weight and modifications; it used to include the manufacturers claimed horsepower (HP) output until it became obvious that reliance on honesty flagrantly was being rorted.  Winners in heats of the various classes would compete in a runoff called the “Eliminator” to determine the top racer in that group, thus there would be titles such as “Top Eliminator”, “Street Eliminator”, “Modified Eliminator”, “Stock Eliminator” and “Super Stock Eliminator”.  It was a popular sport and it could take many runs to eliminate all except the winner.

1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator 428 in Competition Blue.

Produced only for 1969 & 1970, the Cougar Eliminator not only looked the part with front & rear spoilers and the inevitable racing stripes but included also front & rear spoilers, up-rated suspension and wider wheels.  Available only as a hardtop coupé, befitting the image, it was offered only in the “high-impact” colors (White, Competition Orange, Bright Blue Poly & Bright Yellow in 1969, Competition Yellow, Competition Blue, Pastel Blue, Competition Gold, Competition Green & Competition Orange in 1970 (with the rare Black a special order) while the range of V8 engines variously installed spanned most of the catalogue.  The standard engine was a 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) unit (the Windsor version in 1969, the Cleveland in 1970) while the 390 (6.5) and 428 (7.0) were optional, the former only for the first season.  Genuine racing engines were also (sort of) offered: the Boss 302 (4.9) enjoyed nation-wide availability but only two Eliminators were built in 1969 with the Boss 429 (7.0) and while the exotic mill remained on the option list for 1970, none left the line.  It was a niche product which enjoyed some appeal with 2,250 sold in 1967 and 2,267 in 1970 but despite the apparent implications of the “Eliminator” name, in stock form it was never a class-leader on the drag strip, however much it looked the part.  The market much preferred the up-market, luxury oriented Cougar XR-7 which in 1970 found 33,946 buyers and, the customer always being right, for 1971 Mercury withdrew the Cougar from the high-performance business, with great success, returning it to what had been envisaged in 1967, the car now functioning as a sort of more conveniently sized Thunderbird.

Exterminate (pronounced ik-stur-muh-neyt)

Totally to destroy (living things, especially pests or vermin); annihilate; extirpate.

1535–1545: From the Latin exterminātus, past participle of extermināre (to drive away (from terminus boundary)), perfect passive participle of exterminō, the construct being ex- + terminō (I finish, close, end), from terminus (limit, end).  In Late Latin there was also the sense "destroy" from the phrase ex termine (beyond the boundary), ablative of termen (boundary, limit, end).  The meaning "utterly to destroy" appeared in English only by the 1640s, a sense found earlier in equivalent words in French and in the Vulgate; earlier in this sense was the mid-fifteenth century extermine.  Exterminator actually came earlier: as early as circa 1400, the Late Latin exterminator (from past participle stem of exterminare) had the sense of "an angel who expells (people from a country) and, by 1848, as a “substance for ridding a place of rats etc) and by 1938 this was applied to a person whose job it was.  Exterminate is a verb, used with an object the verbs are exterminated & exterminating, exterminable, exterminative & exterminatory are adjectives and extermination & exterminator are nouns.

Defendants in the dock, International Military Tribunal (IMT, the main Nuremberg trial (1945-1946)). 

The meanings of eliminate, exterminate & eradicate, both in their English senses and in translation from German have been debated before.  Although not defined in law until the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), the newly (1944) created word genocide appeared in the indictments served at the main Nuremberg trial (1945-1946) upon those accused under count IV, crimes against humanity.  This attracted the interest of lawyers who noted the words exterminate and eliminate appear both in the academic and legal discussions about the novel concept of genocide and in translations of many documents from the Third Reich which related to the Jews.  Defense counsel probed what was meant by these words and whether, in original or translation, their actual meaning in the context of their use was in accord with what was meant when applied to genocide.  The etymological excursion didn’t much help the defendants, most of whom were hanged.  Hermann Göring also raised an objection to a translation from the German being rendered as "final solution to the Jewish problem" rather than "total solution" which, he argued, should compel the court to draw a different inference.  In both discussions, the judges concluded what was being discussed was mass-murder and the relative degree of applicability between synonyms was not a substantive point.  Actually the word used by Göring in the first paragraph of the letter which ultimately authorized the holocaust was Gesamtloesung (complete solution) while in the final paragraph he use Endloesung (final solution).  This was the document which SS-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant-General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) revealed at the infamous Wannsee Conference (20 January 1942).

In the context of Nazi policies, the difference between "exterminate" and "eliminate" was something of which the party hierarchy were well-aware, presumably because the extermination of certain groups (Jews, those with mental illness, Gypsies et al) was often discussed and in his Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg (Total War – Shortest War) speech to a carefully selected audience at Berlin's Sportpalas on 18 February 1943, Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945), in full-flight during one of his most masterful rants, briefly used the term doubtlessly often heard behind closed doors.  It was while telling the crowd how the regime would deal with the Jews that he began to use the word Ausrotten (extermination) or Ausschaltung (elimination) before correcting himself and instead saying Ausschaltung (exclusion).  The slip of the tongue represented perhaps what had in the upper reaches of the party been the accepted (if usually unspoken) orthodoxy since the speech made what came to be remembered as his most chilling prophesy: "If international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

Eradicate (pronounced ih-rad-i-keyt)

(1) To remove or destroy utterly; extirpate.

(2) To erase by rubbing or by means of a chemical solvent or other agent.

(3) Of plants, to pull up by the roots.

1555–1565: From the Latin ērādīcātus (usually translated as “destroy utterly”; literally “pull up by the roots”), past participle of ērādīcāre (root out, extirpate, annihilate), the construct being ē- (out) + rādīc- (stem of rādīx (root) (genitive radicis)) + -ātus (the Latin first/second-declension suffix (feminine -āta, neuter -ātum)).  The assimilated form of ērādīcāre is derived from the primitive Indo-European wrād (branch, root) and from the same source, the native form of the same idea existed in mid-fifteenth century Middle English as outrōten (to root (something) out; eradicate).  A surprisingly recent creation in 1794 was ineradicable and within a few years, ineradicably.  Eradicate is a verb, eradicant is an adjective and noun, eradicated & eradicating are verbs (used with object), eradicable & eradicative are adjectives, eradicably is an adverb, eradication & eradicator are nouns.

Eliminate, exterminate and eradicate in the age of pandemics

In Modern English usage, eliminate, exterminate and eradicate are often used interchangeably despite differences in nuance.  This means also the wealth of synonyms the three enjoy are sometimes haphazardly used although some overlap does exist, the synonyms including: annihilate, expunge, abolish, erase, uproot, extinguish, efface, demolish, total, abate, liquidate, obliterate, trash, squash, purge, extirpate, scratch, slaughter, decimate, execute, massacre, abolish, erase, extirpate, destroy, oust, waive, ignore, defeat, cancel, exclude, disqualify, invalidate, drop, eject, expel, liquidate, omit, terminate, slay, discard & disregard.

In the (relatively) happy times before the emergence of SARS-Cov2's Delta variant, the New Zealand prime minister declared COVID-19 “eradicated but not eliminated” which did sound given that, regarding disease, the words have specific, technical meanings.  In the context of disease, eradication refers to the complete and permanent worldwide reduction to zero new cases through deliberate effort.  Elimination refers to the reduction to zero (or a very low defined target rate) of new cases in a defined geographical area, which can be any size, a province, country, continent or hemisphere.  As used by virologists and epidemiologists therefore, eradication is used in its normal conversational sense but elimination is applied with a specific technical meaning.  There is a quirk to this. The World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1980 although small cultures remain in US and Russian research laboratories.  If these residual stocks are ever destroyed, the WHO may adopt some new term to distinguish between eradication in the wild and an absolute extermination from the planet.  Nobody seems now to believe COVID-19 will ever 

Professionals in the field of pest control actually stick more closely to classic etymology in their technical distinction between the two central words: extermination and eradication.  Extermination (from the Latin, exterminare meaning “out of the boundary” and related to the deity Terminus who presided over boundaries) means to drive the pests beyond the boundaries of the building.  It doesn’t of necessity mean the pests are all dead, just that they are no longer in the building.  Eradicate (from the Latin eradicare meaning to root out) refers to the processes leading to extermination, to bring to light the breeding spots, the places where the infestation has, so to speak, taken root.