Spot

Spot (pronounced spot)

(1) A rounded mark or stain made by foreign matter, as mud, blood, paint, ink etc; a blot or speck, differing usually in colour or texture from its surroundings.

(2) A small blemish, mole, or lesion on the skin or other surface (popularly associated with pimple, zits, blackheads etc).

(3) A small, circumscribed mark caused by disease, allergic reaction, decay, etc.

(4) A comparatively small, usually roundish, part of a surface differing from the rest in color, texture, character etc.

(5) A place or locality (used also in the plural, often to describe places of entertainment, sightseeing locations, historic sites etc and also used of things like parking spots).

(6) In organisational structures, a specific position in a sequence or hierarchy.

(7) In playing cards, one of various traditional, geometric drawings of a club, diamond, heart, or spade indicating suit and value.

(8) A pip, as on dice or dominoes.

(9) In slang, a piece of paper money (5 spot=$5 etc).

(10) As a clipping of “spot illustration”, a small drawing, usually black and white, appearing within or accompanying a text.

(11) A small quantity of anything.

(12) In ichthyology, a small croaker (Leiostomus xanthurus) with a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides, the habitat of which is the US east coast; the southern redfish, or red horse (Sciaenops ocellatus), which has a spot on each side at the base of the tai; both popular as food fish.

(13) As a clipping of “spot market”, the informal terms for commodities (grain, oil, wool et al) sold for immediate delivery and payment at a price quoted at the point of sale.

(14) A slang term for a spotlight.

(15) To stain or mark with spots:

(16) In dry cleaning, to remove a spot or spots from clothing, prior to processing.

(17) In any context, to make a spot; to become spotted.

(18) In the military (often as target spotter or spotting), law enforcement or among criminals etc, to serve or act as a spotter.

(19) In billiards, a clipping of “spot ball” the white ball that is distinguished from the plain by a mark or spot; the player using this ball.

(20) To look out for and note; to observe or perceive suddenly, especially under difficult circumstances; to discern.

(21) In informal use (US) in some games and sports, to yield an advantage or concession to one's opponent.

(22) In zoology, a term used to describe various dot-like patterns (ladybirds, leopards et al) seen on the skin, wings, coats etc of some animals.

(23) In sports, an official determination of placement (where a referee or umpire places a ball, sets the point at which a penalty kick is to be taken etc).

(24) In broadcasting (radio & television), brief advertisement or program segment.

(25) In gymnastics, dance & weightlifting, one who spots (supports or assists a manoeuvre, or is prepared to assist if safety dictates); a spotter.

(26) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above the beak.

(27) In the jargon of financial trading, the decimal point (used to ensure no ambiguities in oral exchanges).

(28) In physics, a dissipative soliton (a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization); known also as a pulse.

(29) In slang (US), to loan a small amount of money to someone.

(30) In analogue & digital photograph editing, to remove minor flaws.

(31) In ballet, to keep the head and eyes pointing in a single direction while turning.

(32) To cut or chip timber in preparation for hewing.

(33) In naval aviation, to position an aircraft on the deck of an aircraft carrier ready for launch by catapult.

(34) In rail transport, to position a locomotive or car at a predetermined point (typically for loading or unloading).

1150-1200: From the Middle English spot & spotte (a moral blemish), partially from the Middle Dutch spotte (spot, speck, mark), and partially a merging with the Middle English splot, from the Old English splott (spot, speck, plot of land).  It was cognate with the East Frisian spot (speck), the North Frisian spot (speck, piece of ground), the Low German spot (speck) and the Old Norse spotti (small piece) and the Norwegian spot (spot, small piece of land); it was related also to splotch.  Describing originally some flaw of character, the idea of a “speck, stain left by something on a surface” emerged in the mid-fourteenth century, picked up from the Old English splott.  The late Middle English verb spotten (to stain, mark) was a derivative of the noun.  Variations of the form are common in Germanic languages but the nature of the spread and evolution remains murky.  From the early fourteenth century it was used to describe “a patch or mark on the fur of an animal while the sense of a “particular place, small extent of space (on a body, etc”) dated from the late 1300s, the general figurative use "a blemish, defect, distinguishing mark emerging at the same time, concurrent with the now familiar use to refer to pimple, zips etc, soon to be celebrated in the medical literature as “an eruption on the skin”.  The adjective spotless was from the late fourteenth century spotless (without flaw or blemish; pure).  The adjective spotty was from the mid-fourteenth century spotti, (marked with spots (of the skin, etc)) and it entered figurative use in the sense of “unsteady, irregular, uneven, without unity” in 1932.  Spot is a noun, verb & adjective, spotter & spotlessness are nouns, spotlike, spotless’ spotty & spottable are adjectives, spotting & spots are nouns & verbs, spotlessly is an adverb and spotted is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spots.

The early nineteenth century use of “spotty” in art criticism was originally a critique and unrelated either to the later technique of divisionism (sometimes called chromoluminarism), most associated with Neo-Impressionist painting and defined by the colors being separated into individual dots or daubs or the “dot paintings” associated with some forms of Indigenous Australian art.  The meaning “short interval in a radio broadcast for an advertisement or announcement” dates from 1937, an extension of the earlier use in live theatre to describe “an act's position on a bill”, noted since as surprisingly late 1923.  Although it’s likely to have been longer in oral use, in 1901 it noted in the US as a term for a prison sentence (5 spot=5 years etc).

1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351.  Even when standing still the thing undeniably had a presence but the sheer volume of the rear coachwork created blind spots and the dramatic roofline (said to be highly aerodynamic) restricted rearward visibility, the glass close to horizontal.

The term “blind spot” began in optics in 1864 describing a “spot within one's range of vision but where one cannot see” which in 1872 was described scientifically as “the point on the retina insensitive to light (where the optic nerve enters the eye”.  The figurative use (of moral, intellectual matters etc) dates from 1907 while the literal (a field of vision blocked by some fixed object) was used by 1912, originally of those suffered by omnibus drivers and later it became familiar when describing defects in the visibility offered by the design of early automobiles.  Dating from 1888, “hot spot” was originally a term from dermatology which referred to the focal point of a skin irritation and was literal, the temperature at the (usually reddish) site slightly higher.  In 1931 it was use of “nightclubs or other entertainment venues" (which after 1936 were “nightspots” generally) while it came into use in fire-fighting in 1938 after research indicated the most effective way to prevent spread or lower intensity was to find the points of highest temperature.  It 1941, it came to be applied to “a place of international conflict”.  The famous g spot (also a g-spot and short for Gräfenberg spot, named for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg (1881-1957)) entered English in 1981 although the doctor had described it in a paper published in 1950 but similar finding are in documents dating back centuries.  He also developed the intra-uterine device (IUD) but despite these notable contributions to science he died in obscurity.

The noun spotter (one who makes spots; one who observes things for some purpose) was first used in 1876 as a slang for “a detective”, picking up from the verb in the secondary sense of “catch with the eye” and by 1903 it was used in the general sense of a “look-out”, adopted with apparently equal enthusiasm by police and criminals alike.  It was a designated position in hunting and target practice by 1893 but the military appear not to have picked it up until the World War I (1914-1918) although such tasks had existed for centuries, pre-dating even artillery, batteries of archers supported by an observer who reported their accuracy of fire.  In the navy, they were also called “sighters” and the use of “spotter” for this purpose has even extended to electronic hardware.  The sunspot in 1818 was again from dermatology and referred to “a spot on the skin caused by exposure to the Sun”, the term picked up in 1849 by the early heliophysicists to describe the “spots on the surface of the Sun”.

Spotlights (actually anti-aircraft searchlights) used to create the Lichtdom (literally "Cathedral of Light") effect at the Nazi's Nuremberg Rallies during the 1930s.

The spotlight (source of artificial light casting a narrow, relatively intense beam) was first described in 1904 as a piece of theatrical equipment with the figurative sense dating from 1916 where it could carry either negative or positive connotations (unlike the companion “limelight” which was always positive).  The military did use the term spotlight but the “searchlight” was a more frequent entry in lists of materiel.  The hobby (which for some seems either a calling or obsession) of train-spotting was first documented in 1959 (the train spotter having been mentioned the previous year) and referred to those who observed, collected and collated the numbers of railway locomotives, one’s status in the field determined by the number of unique entries in one’s list.  The habit caught on and there are also car spotters, truck spotters, bus spotters and plane spotters, the last once causing an international incident when a group were arrested outside a Greek military airfield by police who confiscated their notebooks and cameras, accusing them of spying.  The matter was resolved.

Hitting the spot: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a shot of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

In idiomatic use, the phrase “hit the spot” (satisfy, be what is required) was first document in 1857 while the companion “spot on” doesn’t seem to have been used until 1920.  Earlier, “on the spot” by the 1670s meant “at once, without moving or delay” and a decade later “in the precise place and time” hence to be “on the spot” implied one “doing just what is right and needed”, a form noted since 1884.  The term “man on the spot” assumed some importance in diplomatic and military chains of command in the times before modes of communications were global, convenient and real-time, a recognition the one best equipped to make a decision was “the man on the spot”; then all certainly were men.  To “put someone on the spot” or “leave them in “a bit of a spot (or a “tight spot”)” was to “place them in a difficult situation”, use dating from 1928 and 1929 respectively.  The “spot check” (an inspection of a sample chosen at random) was first described (though doubtless a long-established practice) in 1933 and was used as a verb by 1944.  The term “sweet spot” is a mid-twentieth century formation which means “the optimal point and is used to describe (1) in acoustics the point of optimal sound delivered by the positioning of speakers, (2) in economics the optional outcome in a cost-benefit analysis, (3) in sporting equipment the location on a tennis racquet, baseball bat etc which produces the most satisfactory effect on the ball, (4) in phonetics the state of harmonic resonance in the larynx which produces the perfect sound and (5) as a euphemistic, the clitoris, G-spot or other source of sexual pleasure.  Generally, it’s used to mean “any ideal location or situation.

In zoology, the nomenclature can mislead non-specialists: The black spotted estuary cod (left) is a fish with black spots whereas the black spotted pond turtle  (right) is a black amphibian with white spots.

Spot in its original sense a taint, stigma, stain or blemish on the character of a person is still used to suggest some moral flaw and is related to “can’t change one’s spots” & “a leopard can’t change its spots”, the implication being character flaws are inherent.  A “weak spot” is a specific deficiency and a “soft spot” is a “particular sympathetic affection or weakness for a person or thing” which should not be confused with the “soft underbelly”; such is a vulnerability.  To “hit the spot” is an acknowledgement a need has perfectly be satisfied (typically used to mean hunger has been sated or thirst quenched.  In the matter of the weather, if it’s “just spotting”, the rain is light.  A “black spot” is something bad or dangerous while a “bright spot” is a highlight or something positive in a sea of bad news.  The use of the phrase “X marks the spot” has expanded somewhat but originally meant “one will find what one is looking for under an obvious sign”.  Spotted fever was a term for a number of tropical diseases (the reference to the symptoms which appeared on the skin) dating from the 1640s.  The spotted dick (suet pudding with currants and raisins) appeared in recipe books in 1849 although the date of its creation is uncertain.

Spotted dick (sometimes known as spotted richard) with custard.

In June 2018, it was reported the Strangers' Dining Room the UK’s House of Commons in Westminster had changed the name of “Spotted Dick” to “Spotted Richard” although in other parts of the country, the suet & dried fruit sponge dessert remained on sale under the traditional name.  Derided by many as “wokeness” or “political correctness gone mad” the restaurant staff confirmed the change had been made in case anyone found the conjunction of spotted and dick “confronting”.  There’s no suggestion any complaints had been received which might have prompted the change but ideas soon flowed about the way people might be protected from other culinary micro-aggressions: Apple crumble was thought to be potentially offensive to those diagnosed with anxiety disorders so it might better be called apple support while the extra virgin olive oil offered with breads could be triggering for the Incels (involuntary celibate men).  Perhaps such oil could be labelled young because one certainly doesn’t wish to trigger the Incels.  The sight of Cock-a-leekie soup on a menu would be challenging for both the incontinent and those recovering from certain STIs (sexually transmitted infections which were once known as STDs (sexually transmitted diseases and before that venereal disease (VD)) so it would be better to play it straight and re-brand as chicken & leek soup.

Famously daring tennis player Roger Federer (b 1981), Wimbledon, July 2023.

A long-standing orthodoxy in fashion is that stripes and spots should never be mixed and either should be worn only with a solid and with the added caveat care should be taken with color choices.  However, neither all stripes nor all spots are created equal; dimensionality matters so if small enough and in the right color combination, either can for these purposes work as solids and thus be available for mix & match.  To illustrate the technique, style guru Elisabeth McKnight explains pattern mixing with polka dots:

(1) Pick a color palette: Black and white is an easy starter palette, but even if adding color, stick to only a few.  Find patterns with the same colors in them or keep it easy by mixing colors of the same tone together (pastels with pastels or jewel tones with jewel tones, for example).

(2) Mix patterns of different scales: Pair a small print with a large and avoid prints of the same size. If using only one print (like a tiny polka dot skirt) with a very small print, essentially it acts as a neutral.  So, when wearing polka dots and stripes together, ensure dots are small if the stripes are bold.  Alternatively, if the print of the stripe is small, it can be paired with bigger dots.  As a rule of thumb, use the “ten foot rule”.  At that distance, to the naked eye, the fabric with small dots or strips should be had to distinguish from a solid.

(3) Mix textures for added dimension: Although it can be a dramatic look, especially with statements like red or purple, interest can be added if different fabrics are used for top and bottom garments.

How it's done: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates how spots and stripes work best with solids.

Freckle

Freckle (pronounced frek-uhl)

(1) One of the small, brownish spots on the skin that are caused by a localized deposition of the pigment melanin and that increase in number and darken on exposure to sunlight.

(2) Any small spot or discoloration.

(3) To cover with freckles; produce freckles on.

(4) To become freckled.

(5) In Australia, a small, disk-like sweet consisting of a flattish mound of chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands.

1350-1400: From the Middle English freken & frekel, from the Old Norse (plural) freknur (freckles) (and related to the Old Norse freknōttr (speckled) the Swedish fräkna & fräknar, the Norwegian & Icelandic frekna and the Danish fregne & fregner), a variant of the Old English sprecel from the Proto-Germanic sprekalą (freckle) (and related to the dialectal Norwegian sprekla and the Middle High German spreckel), from the primitive Indo-European sp(h)er(e)g- (to strew, to sprinkle).  It was cognate with the Albanian fruth (measles).  The verb freckle (to cover with spots) dated from the 1610s, the adjective freckled existing since the late fourteen century in the sense of “spotted”.  Freckle is a noun & verb, freckled & freckly are adjective and the verbs (used without object) are freckled & freckling.  The noun plural is freckles and the long obsolete alternative form from the late fourteenth century was frecken.

The similar noun fleck (a mark on skin, a freckle) from the 1590s was presumably from the verb fleck or a related word elsewhere in Germanic, such as the Middle Dutch vlecke or the Old Norse flekkr (a fleck, spot); from circa 1750 meaning extended to "a small particle" and from 1804. "a patch, a spot" of any kind.  The technical term for a freckle is ephelis.  Ephelis is from the Latin ephēlis, from the Ancient Greek ἔφηλῐς (éphēlis) (a freckle), the construct being ἐπ- (ep-) (upon, over, (ie epi-)) +‎ ἥλῐος (hḗlios) (the sun) +‎ -ῐς (-is), the nominal suffix).  The plural is ephelides.  The freckle (ephelis) differs from a lentigo in that a lentigo is a pigmented flat or slightly raised lesion with a clearly defined edge.  Unlike an ephelis (freckle), it does not fade in the winter months and dermatologists define several kinds of lentigo. The name lentigo originally referred to its appearance resembling a small lentil and they’re often now referred to as beauty spots or marks, a la Marilyn Munroe.  To a dermatologist, freckle & ephelis are synonymous but in general vaguely related words include synonyms include blemish, blotch, mole, daisy, dot, lentigo, macula, patch, pepper, pigmentation, pit, pock, pockmark, speck, speckle, sprinkle & stipple.

A freckle is an area of the skin with more pigmentation than the surrounding area, a clustering of concentrated melaninized cells which appear more obvious on those with light skin.  Counter intuitively, the skin which manifests as a freckle doesn’t have any more melanin-producing cells (or melanocytes) than the surrounding skin but instead has melanocytes that overproduce melanin granules (melanosomes), thus darkening the color of the outer cells (keratinocytes).  In this, a freckle differs from a mole in that the latter is an accumulation of melanocytes in a small area.

#freckles: Lindsay Lohan out shopping.

Of the six skin types on the Fitzpatrick spectrum, (1) Pale white skin with blue or green eyes & blonde or red hair (always burns, does not tan), (2), Fair skin with blue eyes (burns easily, tans poorly), (3), Darker white skin (tans after initial burn), (4), Light brown skin (burns minimally, tans easily), (5), Brown skin (rarely burns, tans darkly & easily & (6), Dark brown or black skin, freckles appear most frequently and are most apparent upon types (1) & (2) but can exist on anyone.  Like just about everything, the existence of freckles ultimately dependent on genetics and related to a particular gene although geneticists note the presence of at least one of two or more versions of the MC1R gene is usually required for freckles to form, the genetic combination does not guarantee an instance and in their absence, freckles may still exist.  Thus those with the gene combination are much more likely to be freckled while in those without, the instance is rare.  The MC1R gene correlates even more strongly with the red hair which is, impressionistically, so associated with freckles and it is true the two are the most frequently seen combination among the freckled, most red-heads having two variants of the MC1R gene and almost all have one.  Freckling exists even among populations, such as those of East Asia, where there is no natural occurrence of red hair but there, while genetically determined, it’s a different gene from MC1R, intriguingly one found in European populations where any influence on pigmentation is rare.

Lindsay Lohan's fridge magnet.

For centuries, many with freckles have sought their removal and by the nineteenth century, demand meant the process was part of the beauty industry.  Hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid), ammonium, hydrogen peroxide and liquid carbon dioxide could be effective and were certainly safer (if used correctly) than bi-chloride of mercury which definitely worked although the inherent difficulty was that pigment cells exist under the horny cells of the epidermis so results were usually temporary.  Many resorted to sometimes quite drastic skin-peeling and the most popular agent was for centuries lemon juice which bleaches the skin, inducing peeling although those wanting faster results would later use a hydrogen peroxide solution which was applied immediately after the skin had been scrubbed with a strong alkali soap and ammonium water.  If a patient demanded it, dermatologists would sometimes use undiluted carbolic acid to induce a severe inflammation and consequent peeling but there was reluctance in the profession because even when used with the appropriate skill, it could cause scaring and certainly couldn't be used on sensitive skin.  For that reason, many preferred the less effective hydrogen peroxide, salicylic acid or resorcinol; the early experiments with electrolysis proved unsatisfactory.  Mercury compounds such as ammoniated mercury and bi-chloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) were the basis of many over-the-counter "anti-freckle" compounds, often combined with zinc salts or bismuth sub-nitrate and although marketed as "bleaching creams’", chemically they were really desquamating agents.  Remarkably, although restrictions began to be placed on the use of mercury in cosmetics as early as the 1940s, it wasn't until the late 1970s that in the West it was effectively banned for this purpose.  The preferred method of freckle removal is now laser treatment although the traditional view of dermatologists that freckles are a normal part of the human condition requiring no treatment is now more fashionable and there are many who fancy freckles.

Chocolate Freckles.

Freckles form on the skin because of exposure to sunlight, certain parts of the spectrum activating the melanocytes which stimulate an increase in melanin production, cause them to darken and appear more obvious.  Cases exist in the literature of people who spent their early life in extreme northern latitudes developing freckles only after moving south and thus greatly increasing their exposure to sunlight.  In some cases, these people have presented to physicians seeking treatment for a skin disorder which freckles are not.  Freckles are instead something of a by-product of the migration of early humans, as long as 1.8 million years ago, from Africa, north to the lands around the Mediterranean and later beyond.  It was natural selection which, well over 100,000 years ago, produced the gene variants associated with pigmentation, induced by the advantaged gained by a lighter skin when living in northern latitudes; one which can absorb enough ultra-violet (UV) light to permit the body to sustain a healthy production of vitamin D.

Blip

Blip (pronounced blip)

(1) A spot of light on a radar screen indicating the position of a plane, submarine, or other object (also as pip); any similar use on other electronic equipment such as an oscilloscope.

(2) By adoption from the use in radar (and applied very loosely), any small spot of light on a display screen.

(3) In any tracked metric (typically revenue, sales etc), a brief and usually unexpected.

(4) In general use, an aberration, something unexpected and (usually) fleeting (often in the expression “blip on the radar”).

(5) In electronic transmissions (audible signals), a pip or bleep (also both onomatopoeic of short, single-pitch sounds).

(6) By extension, any low level, repetitive sound (rare).

(7) In the slang of software developers, a minor bug or glitch (retrospectively dubbed blips if promptly fixed (or re-labeled as “a feature”)).

(8) A specific data object (individual message or document) in the now defunct Google Wave software framework.

(9) In informal use, to move or proceed in short, irregular movements.

(10) In automotive use, briefly to apply the throttle when downshifting, to permit smoother gear-changing (the origin in the days of pre-synchromesh gearboxes, especially when straight-cut gears were used) and still used in competition to optimize performance but most instances by drivers of road cars are mere affectations (used as noun & verb).

(11) In informal use, abruptly to change a state (light to dark; on to off etc), sometimes implying motion.

(12) In broadcast media (and sometimes used on-line), to replace offensive or controversial words with a tone which renders them inaudible (a synonym of “bleep”, both words used in this contexts as nouns (a bleep) and verbs (to bleep out).  In live radio & TV, a junior producer or assistant was usually the designated “blipper” or “bleeper”.

1894: An onomatopoeic creation of sound symbolism, the speculation being it may have been based on the notion of “blink” (suggesting brevity) with the -p added to bli- as symbolic of an abrupt end, the original idea to capture the experience of a “popping sound”.  The use describing the sight and sound generated by radar equipment was first documented in 1945 but may have been in use earlier, the public dissemination of information about the technology restricted until the end of World War II (1939-1945).  The verbs (blipped & blipping) came into use in 1924 & 1925 respectively while the first documented use of the noun blipper dates from 1966 although “bleeper” appeared some fifteen year earlier and the role was acknowledge as early as the 1930s.  Blip is a noun & verb, blipped & blipping are verbs and blippy, blippier & blippiest are adjectives; the noun plural is blips.

The blipster

One unrelated modern portmanteau noun was blipster, the construct a blend of b(lack) + (h)ipster, used to refer to African-Americans (and presumably certain other peoples of color (PoC)) who have adopted the visual clues of hipster culture.  Whether the numbers of blipsters represent the sort of critical mass usually associated with the recognition of sub-cultures isn’t clear but as in medicine where a novel condition does not need to be widely distributed (something suffered even by a single patient can be defined and named as a syndrome), the coining of blipster could have been inspired by seeing just one individual who conformed to being (1) African American and (2) appearing in some ways to conform to the accepted parameters of hipsterism.  Labeling theory contains reservations about this approach but for etymologists it’s fine although there is always the risk of a gaboso (generalized observation based on single observation).  Predictably, there is debate about what constitutes authentic blipsterism because there are objections by some activists to PoCs either emulating sub-cultures identified as “white” or taking self-defining interest in aspects of that culture (such as those associated with hipsterism).  What seems to be acceptable is a stylistic fusion as long as the fashions are uniquely identifiable as linkable with traditional (ie modern, urban) African-American culture and the cultural content includes only black poets, hip-hop artists etc.

The Blipvert

The construct of blipvert (also historically blip-vert) was blip + vert.  Vert in this context was a clipping of advertisement (from the Middle French advertissement (statement calling attention)), the construct being advertise +‎ -ment.  The -ment suffix was from the Middle English -ment, from the Late Latin -amentum, from -mentum which came via Old French -ment.  It was used to form nouns from verbs, the nouns having the sense of "the action or result of what is denoted by the verb".  The suffix is most often attached to the stem without change, except when the stem ends in -dge, where the -e is sometimes dropped (abridgment, acknowledgment, judgment, lodgment et al), with the forms without -e preferred in American English.  The most widely known example of the spelling variation is probably judgment vs judgement.  In modern use, judgement is said to be a "free variation" word where either spelling is considered acceptable as long as use is consistent.  Like enquiry vs inquiry, this can be a handy where a convention of use can be structured to impart great clarity: judgment used when referring to judicial rulings and judgement for all other purposes although the approach is not without disadvantage given one might write of the judgement a judge exercised before delivering their judgment.  To those not aware of the convention, it could look just like a typo.

As both word and abbreviation “vert” has a number of historic meanings.  One form was from the Middle English vert, from Old French vert, from Vulgar Latin virdis (green; young, fresh, lively, youthful) (syncopated from Classical Latin viridis)  In now archaic use it meant (1) green undergrowth or other vegetation growing in a forest, as a potential cover for deer and (2) in feudal law a right granted to fell trees or cut shrubs in a forest.  The surviving use is in heraldry where it describes a shade of green, represented in engraving by diagonal parallel lines 45 degrees counter-clockwise.  As an abbreviation, it's used of vertebrate, vertex & vertical and as a clipping of convertible, used almost exclusively by members of the Chevrolet Corvette cult in the alliterative phrase "Vette vert", a double clipping from (Cor)vette (con)vert(ible).

Vette vert: 1967 Chevrolet Corvette L88 convertible which sold at auction in 2013 at Mecum Dallas for US$3,424,000, a bit short of the L88 coupé which the next year realized US$3,850,000 at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale; that remains the record price paid for a Corvette at auction.  The L88 used a 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 with a single four barrel carburetor, tuned to produce between 540-560 (gross) horsepower although for official purposes it was rated at 430, slightly less than the advertised output of the L71 427 which, with three two barrel carburettors was the most powerful version recommended for “street” use.  The L88 was essentially a race-ready power-plant, civilized only to the extent cars which used it could be registered for road use but, demanding high-octane fuel available only in a limited number of locations and not offered with creature comforts like air-conditioning, it really was meant only for race tracks or drag strips.  For technical reasons, L71 buyers couldn’t order air-conditioning either but were at least allowed to have a radio, something the noise generated by the L88 would anyway have rendered mostly redundant.

When humans emulated CGI: Max Headroom, 1986, background by Amiga 1000.

A blipvert is a very brief advertisement (a duration of one second or less now the accepted definition although originally they could three times as long).  The concept first attracted widespread attention in the 1980s when it was an element in the popular television show Max Headroom, a production interesting for a number of reasons as well as introducing “blipvert” to a wide audience.  In Max Headroom, blipverts were understood as high-intensity television commercials which differed from the familiar form in that instead of being 20, 30 or 60 seconds long, they lasted but three, the line being they were a cynical device to discourage viewers from switching channels (“channel surfing” not then a term in general use).  The character Max Headroom (actually an actor made up to emulate something rendered with CGI (computer generated imagery)) was said to be pure software which had attained (or retained from the downloaded “copy” of the mind taken from a man killed after running into a “Max Headroom” warning sign in a car park) some form of consciousness and had decided to remain active within the television station’s computer network.  In this, the TV show followed a popular trope from science fiction, one which now underpins many of the warnings (not all by conspiracy theorists) about the implications of AI (artificial intelligence).  Although a creation of prosthetics rather than anything digital, the technique was made convincing by using a background generated on an Amiga 1000 (1985), a modest machine by today’s standards but a revelation at the time because not only was the graphics handling much better than on many more expensive workstations but even by 1990, despite what IBM and Microsoft were telling us, running multi-tasking software was a better experience on any Amiga than trying it on a PS/2 running OS/2.

On television, the stand-alone blipvert never became a mainstream advertising form because (1) it was difficult, (2) as devices to stimulate demand in most cases they appeared not to work and (3) the networks anyway discouraged it but the idea was immensely influential as an element in longer advertisements and found another home in the emerging genre of the music video, the technique perfected by the early 1990s; it was these uses which saw the accepted duration reduced from three seconds to one.  To the MTV generation (and their descendents on YouTube and TikTok), three seconds became a long time and prolonged exposure to the technique presumably improved the ability of those viewers to interpret such messages although that may have been as the cost of reducing the attention span.  Both those propositions are substantially unproven although it does seem clear the “video content generations” do have a greater ability to decode and interpret imagery which is separate for any explanatory text.  That is of course stating the obvious; someone who reads much tends to become better at interpreting words than those who read little.  Still, the blipvert has survived, the advertising industry finding them especially effective if used as a “trigger” to reference a memory created by something earlier presented in some form and those who find them distasteful because they’re so often loud and brash just don’t get it; that’s the best way they’re effective.

Alex (Malcolm McDowell (b 1943)) being re-sensitised (blipvert by blipvert) in Stanley Kubrick's (1928-1999) file adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (1971).

The concept of the blipvert is sometimes attributed to US science fiction (SF) writer Joe Haldeman (b 1943) who described something close to the technique in his novel Mindbridge (1976) and it’s clearly (albeit in longer form) used in the deprogramming sessions in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962) but use predates both books.  In 1948, encouraged by their success in countering the Partito Comunista d'Italia (PCd'I; the Communist Party of Italy) in elections in the new Italian republic (the success achieved with a mix of bribery, propaganda, disinformation and some of the other tricks of electoral interference to which US politicians now so object when aimed at US polls), the newly formed US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) turned their attentions to France where the perception of threat was even greater because the infiltration of the press, trade unions, universities, the military and many other organs of state was rife.  The US was well-placed to run effective propaganda campaigns because, uniquely in devastated, impoverished Europe, it could distribute the cubic money required to buy advertising space & airtime, employ cooperative journalists, trade union leaders & professors and even supply scarce commodities like newsprint and ink.  To try to avoid accusations of anything nefarious (and such suggestions were loud, frequent and often not without foundation) much of the activity was conducted as part of Marshall Plan Aid, the post-war recovery scheme with which the US revived post-war European economies with an injection of (what would in 2024 US$ terms) be something like US$182 billion.  As well as extensively publicizing the benefits of non-communist life compared with the lot of those behind the iron curtain, the CIA published books and other pieces by defectors from the Soviet Union.  One novelty of what quickly became an Anglo-American psychological operation (the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE) having honed successful techniques during wartime) was the use of 2-3 second blipverts spliced into film material supplied under the Marshall Plan.  The British were well aware the French were especially protective of what appeared in cinemas and would react unfavourably to blatant propaganda while they might treat something similar in print with little more than a superior, cynical smile.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The blipvert is sometimes grouped with subliminal advertising and that’s convenient but they’re different both in practice and definitionally and the rule of thumb can be expressed as (1) if it can (briefly) be seen it’s a blipvert and (2) if it can’t be seen it’s subliminal.  No doubt media studies academics (of which there seem now to be many) could punch holes in that and cite a dozen or more exceptions but as a definition it at least hints in the right direction.  What subliminal advertising involves is the presentation of understandable information (which can be images, sound or text) at a level below the conscious awareness of the viewer, the idea being (unlike the confrontational blipvert) to bypass conscious perception.  The extent to which subliminal messaging is an effective way to influence consumer behaviour is debated (as is the notion of whether it’s manipulative and unethical) but the continued use of the technique in political campaigns does suggest that in that specialized field of consumer behaviour, there must be many convinced of the efficacy.  Certainly it appears to work although the less subtle forms are quickly deconstructed and critiqued, such as the sudden adoption in sports, almost as soon as tobacco advertising was banned, of color schemes triggering memories of cigarette packets.

A Marlboro Man lights up.  The "Marlboro 100s" in the gold & white pack were so-named because each stick was 100 mm (4 inch) long.

After some years of prevarication, in 2005 the European Union (EU) banned tobacco advertising “in the print media, on radio and over the internet” at the same prohibiting “tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events”.  Making unlawful the promotion of a known carcinogen responsible over a lifetime of use for shortening lifespan (on average) by just under a decade sounds now uncontroversial but at the time it had been bitterly contested by industry.  Of interest to some was that despite the introduction of the laws being known for some two years, only couple of months earlier, Ferrari had signed a fifteen year, billion dollar sponsorship deal with Philip Morris, best known for their Marlboro cigarette and “Marlboro Man” advertising campaign which featured a variety of men photographed in outdoor settings, five of whom ultimately died of smoking-related diseases.

Variations on a theme of red & white.  Ferrari Formula One cars: F2007 (2007) in Marlboro livery (left), F10 (2010) with "bar code" (centre) and F14 (2014) in post bar-code scheme.

Ferrari’s lawyers took their fine-toothed legal combs to the problem and came up with a way to outsmart the eurocrats.  The Formula One (F1) cars Scuderia Ferrari ran began to appear in what had become the traditional red & white livery (the same combination used on Marlboro’s signature packets) but in the space where once had been displayed the Marlboro logo, there was instead a stylized “bar code”.  In response to a number of accusations (including many by those in the medical community) that the team was guilty of “backdoor advertising” of cigarettes, in 2008 a statement on the company website said it was “baffled”:

"Today and in recent weeks, articles have been published relating to the partnership contract between Scuderia Ferrari and Philip Morris International, questioning its legality.  These reports are based on two suppositions: that part of the graphics featured on the Formula 1 cars are reminiscent of the Marlboro logo and even that the red colour which is a traditional feature of our cars is a form of tobacco publicity.  Neither of these arguments have any scientific basis, as they rely on some alleged studies which have never been published in academic journals. But more importantly, they do not correspond to the truth.  "The so-called barcode is an integral part of the livery of the car and of all images coordinated by the Scuderia, as can be seen from the fact it is modified every year and, occasionally even during the season. Furthermore, if it was a case of advertising branding, Philip Morris would have to own a legal copyright on it.  "The partnership between Ferrari and Philip Morris is now only exploited in certain initiatives, such as factory visits, meetings with the drivers, merchandising products, all carried out fully within the laws of the various countries where these activities take place. There has been no logo or branding on the race cars since 2007, even in countries where local laws would still have permitted it.  The premise that simply looking at a red Ferrari can be a more effective means of publicity than a cigarette advertisement seems incredible: how should one assess the choice made by other Formula 1 teams to race a car with a predominantly red livery or to link the image of a driver to a sports car of the same colour? Maybe these companies also want to advertise smoking!  It should be pointed out that red has been the recognised colour for Italian racing cars since the very beginning of motor sport, at the start of the twentieth century: if there is an immediate association to be made, it is with our company rather than with our partner.”

When red & white was just the way Scuderia Ferrari painted their race cars: The lovely, delicate lines of the 1961 Ferrari Typo 156 (“sharknose”), built for Formula One's “voiturette” (1.5 litre) era (1961-1965), Richie Ginther (1930–1989), XXIII Grosser Preis von Deutschland (German Grand Prix), Nürburgring Nordschleife, August 1961.

The suggestion was of course that this was subliminal marketing (actually unlawful in the EU since the late 1950s) the mechanics being that Ferrari knew this would attract controversy and the story was that at speed, when the bar code was blurred, it resembled the Marlboro logo; racing cars do go fast but no evidence was ever produced to demonstrate the phenomenon happened in real world conditions, either when viewed at the tracks or in televised coverage.  It was possible using software to create a blurred version of the shape and there was a vague resemblance to the logo but that wasn’t the point, as a piece of subliminal marketing it worked because viewers had been told the bar code would in certain circumstances transform into a logo and even though it never did, the job was done because Marlboro was on the mind of many and doubtlessly more often than ever during the years when the logo actually appeared.  So, job done and done well, midway in the 2010 season, Ferrari dropped the “bar code”, issuing a press release: “By this we want to put an end to this ridiculous story and concentrate on more important things than on such groundless allegations.”

Bugeye & Frogeye

Bugeye (pronounced buhg-ahy)

(1) A nautical term for a ketch-rigged sailing vessel used on Chesapeake Bay.

(2) Slang term, unrelated to the nautical use, used to describe objects or creatures with the bulging eyes resembling those of certain bugs.

1883: An Americanism, a construct of bug + eye, coined to describe the 1880s practice of shipwrights painting a large eye on each bow of the ketches used for oyster dredging in Chesapeake Bay, an estuary in the US states of Maryland and Virginia.

Frogeye (pronounced frog-ahy or frawg-ahy)

(1) A small, whitish leaf spot with a narrow barker border, produced by certain fungi.

(2) A plant disease so characterized.

(3) Slang term, unrelated to the plant disease, used to describe objects or creatures with the bulging eyes resembling those of frogs.

1914–15: A descriptive general term coined as the construct frog + eye for the condition Botryosphaeria obtusa, a plant pathogen that causes Frogeye leaf spot, black rot and cankers on many plant species.  The fungus was first described by in 1832 as Sphaeria obtusa, refined as Physalospora obtusa in 1892.  Final classification dates from 1964.

Bugeye or frogeye: The Austin-Healey Sprite

1960 Austin-Healey Sprite (left) & 1972 MG Midget (right).

The Austin-Healey Sprite was produced between 1958 and 1971 (although in the last year of production they were badged as Austins, reflecting the end of the twenty year contract with Healy).  Beginning in 1961, the car was restyled and a more conventional frontal appearance was adopted, shared with the almost identical MG Midget, introduced as at the same time as a corporate companion and the Midget outlived the Sprite, the last built in 1980.  Upon release, the Sprite immediately picked up the nicknames frogeye (UK & Commonwealth) and bugeye (US) because the headlights were mounted prominently atop the bonnet, bearing a resemblance to the eyes of some frogs and bugs.  The original design included retractable headlights but to reduce both cost and weight, fixed-lights were used.  As purely functional mountings, such things continue to be fitted to rally-cars.

The linguistic quirk that saw the Sprite nicknamed bugeye in the US and frogeye in the rest of the English-speaking world is a mystery.  Etymologists have noted the prior US use of bugeye as a nautical term but it was both geographically and demographically specific and that use, visually, was hardly analogous with the Sprite.  No other explanation has been offered; the English language is like that.

1963 Lightburn Zeta (left) 1964 Lightburn Zeta Sports (Centre) & Lightburn Zeta Sports with "sports" lights (right).

Although distinctive, the look wasn’t new, Crosley in the US using a similar arrangement a decade earlier and in Australia, Lightburn were forced to adopt them for the woeful Zeta Sports to meet headlight-height regulations.  The Zeta Sports was better looking than the Trabant-like "two-door sedan" which preceded it but that truly is damning with faint praise.  An adaptation (development seems not the appropriate word) of the Meadows Frisky microcar of the mid-1950s, the Zeta was built in South Australia and it wasn't initially realized that headlight-height rules in New South Wales were such that the low-slung Zeta couldn't comply, even were the suspension to be raised, an expedient MG was compelled to use in 1974 to ensure the bumpers of the Midget & MGB sat at the height specified in new US rules.  Instead "sports lights" were added to the bonnet (hood) which lent some more cartoon-like absurdity to the thing but did little to increase its appeal, only a few dozen built in the two years it was available.

1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, Tipo (type) 101.20. 

Ungainly the bugeye lights may have been but they were a potentially handy addition given the original headlights doubled as bumper bars.  That seems a silly idea and it is but it wasn't unique to the Zeta and some examples had exquisite (if vulnerable) coachwork, such as the early (low-nose) versions of the much-admired Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS (Sprint Speciale, Tipo (type) 101.20; 1957-1962).  It was only the first 101 cars which were produced in lightweight, bumper-bar less form, that run to fulfil the FIA's homologation rules which demanded a minimum of 100 identical examples to establish eligibility in certain classes of production-car racing.

Lindsay Lohan in "bugeye" sunglasses, the look made popular by Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963). 

So aerodynamically efficient (the drag coefficient (CD) a reputed .28) was Carrozzeria Bertone's design that although using only a 1290 cm³ (79 cubic inch) engine with barely 100 hp (75 kW), the SS could achieve an even now impressive 200 km/h (124 mph).  Fitted with a 498 cm³ engine which yielded 21 hp (15.5 kW), the Zeta Sedan thankfully wasn't that fast but did feature a four speed manual gearbox with no reverse gear; to reverse a Zeta, the ignition key was turned the opposite direction so the crankshaft turned the other way.  All four gears remained available so top speed in reverse would presumably have been about the same as going forward but, as Chrysler discovered during the testing for the doomed Airflow (1934-1937), given the vagaries of aerodynamics, it may even have been faster, something which certainly may have been true of the Sports, (at least with the soft top erected) given the additional drag induced by the bugeye lights.  This was never subject to a practical test because unlike the sedan, the diminutive roadster had a reverse gear.  

Austin Healey Sprite, Coupe des Alpes rally, 1958.