Stiletto

Stiletto (pronounced sti-let-oh)

(1) A small, slender knife or dagger-like weapon intended for stabbing; usually thick in proportion to its width.

(2) An archaic name for the rapier.

(3) A pointed instrument for making eyelet holes in needlework; a sharply pointed tool used to make holes in leather; also called an awl.

(4) A very high heel on a woman's shoe, tapering to a very narrow tip, also called the spike heel or stiletto heel.

(5) A beard trimmed to a pointed form.

(6) A style used in the fashioning of decorative fingernails.

1605–1615: From the Italian stiletto, a doublet of stylet, the construct being stil(o) (dagger or needle (from the Latin stilus (stake, pens))) + -etto (-ette) and from the Latin stilus came also stelo, an inherited doublet.  The etto- suffix was used to forms nouns from nouns, denoting a diminutive.  It was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, and was the alterative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics and existed variously in English & French as -et, in Italian as Italian -etto and in Portuguese & Spanish as -ito.  With an animate noun, -etto references as male, the coordinate female suffix being -etta, which is also used with inanimate nouns ending in -a.  It should not be confused with the homophonous suffix -eto.  Stilus was from the primitive Indo-European (s)teyg- (related to instīgō & instigare) and was cognate with the Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō) (to mark with a pointed instrument) and the Proto-Germanic stikaną (to stick, to stab).  Despite the similarity, there’s no relationship with the Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos) (a pillar).

Lindsay Lohan in Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly black bow platform booties with six-inch (150 mm) stiletto heel.

A quasi-technical adoption in law-enforcement and judicial reports were the verb-forms stilettoed & stilettoing, referring to a stabbing or killing with a stiletto-like blade.  It was a popular description used by police when documenting the stabbing by wives of husbands or boyfriends with scissors or kitchen knives; use faded in the mid-twentieth century.  The idea of a long, slender beard trimmed into a pointed form being "a stiletto" popular in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries but all such forms seem now to be referred to either as "a goatee" or "a Van Dyke".  The adjectival use can also sometimes need to be understood in the context of the phrase or sentence: "a stilettoed foot" can be either "the foot of someone wearing a shoe with a stiletto heel" or "a foot which has been stabbed with a long, thin blade.  Stiletto & stilettoing are nouns & verbs, stilettoed is a verb & adjective and stilettolike (also stiletto-like) is an adjective; the noun plural is either stilettos or stilettoes.

Of blades and heels

The stiletto design for small bladed weapons pre-dates not only modern metallurgy but antiquity itself.  The essence, a short, relatively thick blade, was technologically deterministic rather than aesthetic, most metals of the time not being as sturdy as those which came later.  Daggers were for millennia an essential weapon for personal protection but, particularly after developments in ballistics; they tended to evolve more for formal or ceremonial purposes.

The Schutzstaffel (SS) dagger model M1933 (often abbreviated to M33).

The M1933 was the standard issue to all SS members, the hilt either silver or nickel-plate while the grip was black wood.  Produced in large numbers, collectors are most attracted to the low-volume variations such as those without the manufacturer’s trade-mark or RZM control markings.  Most prized are the rare handful with a complete "Ernst Röhm inscription" which read In herzlicher freundschaft, Ernst Röhm (In heartfelt friendship, Ernst Röhm).  Given his his habits, enjoying Röhm's "friendship" would for a few have proved a double-edged sword.   Some 136,000 of the engraved SA daggers were produced, a further 9900-odd distributed to the SS.  After Röhm (1887–1934; chief of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (the stormtroopers (the SA)) was executed during the Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the Long Knives), also called Unternehmen Kolbri (Operation Hummingbird) in 1934, all holders of the Röhm Honour Dagger were ordered to have the inscription removed and most complied, the unmodified survivors thus highly collectable although in some countries, the very idea of trading Nazi memorabilia is becoming controversial.  As ceremonial devices, bladed weapons were a feature of the uniforms worn during the Third Reich (1933-1945) and they were issued to all branches of the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces) the police, the various paramilitaries, the diplomatic service as well as organizations as diverse as the railways, the fire services, the forestry service and the postal office.  In this they were continuing a long German tradition but the Nazis vision of a homogenous, obedient population included the notion that uniforms should be worn wherever possible and there is something in the cliché that (at least at the time), no German was ever as happy as when they were in uniform.

Although the term is used widely, in the narrow technical sense, not all slim, high heels are stilettos.  The classic stilettos were the extremely slender Italian originals produced between the 1930s and 1960s, the heels of which were no more than 5 mm (0.2 inch) in diameter for much of their length, flaring at the top only to the extent structurally required successfully to attach to the sole; the construction of solid steel or an alloy.  Many modern, mass-produced shoes sold as "stilettos" are made with a heel cast in a rigid plastic with an internal metal tube for reinforcement, a design not having the structural integrity to sustain the true stiletto shape.  However, English is democratic and in the context of footwear, "stiletto" now describes the visual style, regardless of the materials.

The lines of the classic black stiletto (top left) were long ago made perfect and can't be improved upon; such is the allure that many women are prepared to endure inconvenience, instability, discomfort and actual pain just to wear them.  They appeal too to designers and the style, the quintessential feminine footwear, has been mashed-up with sneakers, Crocs, work-boots, sandals and even a scuba-diver's flippers (though their natural environment was the catwalk).  Military camouflage is often seen, designers attracted by the ultimate juxtaposition of fashion and function.  The Giuseppe Zanotti Harmony Sandals (bottom row, second from right) were worn by Lindsay Lohan on The Masked Singer (2019).    

In the world of fingernail fashioning, there are stilettos and stilettos square.  A statement shape, something of a triumph of style over functionally, the stiletto gains its dramatic effect from long and slender lines and can be shaped with either fully-tapered or partially square sides.  They’re vulnerable to damage, breaking when subjected to even slight impacts and almost never possible with natural growth and realistically, pointed nails, certainly in their more extreme iterations (the stilettos, lipstick, mountain peaks, edges, arrow-heads, claws or talons), are more for short-term effect than anything permanent.  Best used with acrylics, the knife-like style can be a danger to the nail itself and any nearby skin or stockings.  Those contemplating intimacy with a women packing these should first ponder the implications (although the "Edge" looks more lethal).  True obsessives insist the stiletto styles should be worn only with matching heels and then only if the colors exactly match.

1964 Hillman Imp.

The Hillman Imp was a small economy car introduced in 1964.  It was the product of the Rootes Group which needed an entry in a market segment which had been re-defined by the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) Mini (1959-2000) and although similar in size, the engineering was radically different: rather than the Mini's front-engine / front wheel drive (FWD) arrangement which became (and to this day remains) the template for the industry, the Imp was configured with a rear-engine and rear wheel drive (RWD), something which had for years been a feature of small Europeans cars but was in the throes of being abandoned.  It never achieved the commercial success of the BMC product although it continued in production after 1967 when the Rootes group was absorbed by Chrysler and, perhaps remarkably, it remained on the books until 1976.  In that time, it sold in not even 10% of the volume achieved by the Mini.

What “Sports Racing Closed” was and what “Sports Sedans” became.  Peter Brock (1945-2006), Austin A30-Holden, Hume Weir, 1968 (left) and Frank Gardner (1931-2009), Chevrolet Corvair, Oran Park, 1976 (right).  The A30 ran a six cylinder Holden engine and sat on a frame built from a Triumph Herald chassis, all these elements bought from wrecking yards.  With a Chevrolet V8, the Corvair was converted to a mid-engined configuration and underneath was essentially a Lola T332 Formula 5000 race car.  Almost unbeatable on the track (except in the wet), the Corvair was legislated out of the sport, the rule changes preventing such a machine for being fielded again.

In Australia, what became the “sports sedans” began in the mid-1960s as a distinctly amateur form of racing called “Sports Racing Closed” which was closer to Formula Libre than any of the rule-bound categories in the mainstream.  What rules there were initially demanded little more than the use of some sort of saloon car (loosely interpreted) with certain safety fittings such as a roll-cage but beyond that builders were limited only by their budget and imagination.  As a non-professional, semi-official category, budgets tended to be tight but deeply imaginations (along with wrecking yards) were mined to compensate, resulting in some occasionally bizarre but often intriguing machines.  A predictably popular theory was to find the smallest and lightest car and install the biggest, most powerful engine one could afford.  The “hot-rod” formula attracted many competitors and a dedicated following but the racing establishment looked (down) upon the Sports Racing Closed category disapprovingly and would liked it to have gone away but, fast and loud, the crowds loved it so race organizers were anxious to invite the little hot rods to compete, knowing they’d draw a large (paying) audience.  By 1969, things had developed to the point where rather than just stage stand-alone races, what was planned was the “Australian Sports Sedan Championship” but CAMS (the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, then the sport’s national regulatory body) refused to grant these upstarts the dignity of a “championship” and would concede only that they may contest a “trophy”.  The dam had however been breached and from that beginning, the sports sedans entered the mainstream, becoming one of the most popular categories of the 1970s.

Harry Lefoe in Hillman Imp-Ford.  Still with small square flares, trying to find traction, Oran Park 1970 (left), be-winged in an attempt to stay on the track, Hume Weir, 1971 (centre) and in final (flared) form, Hume Weir 1974 (right).

That drew in television coverage, sponsorship and the involvement of factories, a new professionalism which doomed the era of hybrid machines built with parts salvaged from wrecking yards.  In the last days of amateurism however there were still a few old-school machines fielded and was wilder most.  The Hillman Imp did enjoy some success in competition, winning three successive British Saloon Car Championships between 1970-1972 (competing in Class A (under 1000 cm3)) but before that, the light weight and diminutive dimensions held great appeal for Australian earth-moving contractor Harry Lefoe (1936-2000) who had a spare 302 cubic inch (4.9 litre) Ford (Windsor) V8 sitting in his workshop.  By 1969 the Imp was a Chrysler product and the recently formed Australian Sports Sedan Association (ASSA) had published guidelines which included restricting engines to those from cars built by the manufacturer of the body-shell but because the Windsor V8 had earlier been used in the Sunbeam (a corporate companion to Hillman) Tiger (1964-1967) the mix qualified.  So the big lump of an iron V8 replaced the Imp's 875 cm³ (53 cubic inch) aluminium four and such was the difference in size that Lefoe insisted his Imp had become “mid-engined” although it seems not to have imparted the handling characteristics associated with the configuration, the stubby hybrid infamous for its tendency to travel sideways.  It was never especially successful but even more than most at the time it was loud, fast, spectacular and always a crowd favourite.  The prodigious power and short wheelbase made the thing “twitchy” and in an attempt to improve traction and keep the rear wheels in contact with the road Lefoe fitted an elevated wing in the style which had been briefly popular in Formula One and the Can Am until being banned following a number of accidents caused by component failure.  In Australia a similar ban was soon imposed so Lefoe’s only obvious path to grip was to fit wider tyres which necessitated the fashioning of enveloping flares.  The approach brought some success but it was the end of an era as the fields increasingly were filled by highly developed (and expensive) machines, created often with factory support and the use of chassis not far removed from open-wheel racing cars.  Lefoe’s Imp was most influential because the car which in the mid 1970s was the dominant sports sedan was a (much modified) Chevrolet Corvair, another rear-engine machine transformed into something mid-engined.  So dominant was it the rules were changed limiting how far an engine could be moved from the original location.

1970 Sunbeam Stiletto Sport.

Introduced in 1967, the Sunbeam Stiletto was a “badge-engineered” variant of the Imp (there were also Singers), the name an allusion to the larger Sunbeam Rapier (a stiletto a short blade, a rapier longer).  Badge engineering (a speciality of the British industry during the post-war years) was attractive for corporations because while it might increase unit production costs by 5-10%, the retail price could be up to 40% higher.  Very much a “parts-bin special” (although there was the odd unique touch such as the quad-headlamps and the much-admired dashboard), mostly it was a mash-up, the fastback bodywork already seen on the Imp Californian and some interior fittings and the more powerful twin carburettor engine shared with the Singer Chamois.  Curiously, some sites report the fastback lines proved less aerodynamically efficient than the Imp’s more upright original, the opposite of what was found by Ford in the US when the “formal roof” Galaxies proved too slow on the NASCAR ovals, a “semi-fastback” at essentially the same angle as the Stiletto proving the solution; the physics of aerodynamics can be counter-intuitive.  Stiletto production ceased in 1972 with the Sunbeam brand-name retired in 1976 although Chrysler used it as a model name until 1981.

Dagger

Dagger (pronounced dag-er)

(1) A short, double-edged weapon with a pointed blade and a handle, used historically for personal protection in close combat (although some were weighted for throwing), but since the development of side-arms, increasing only for ceremonial purposes (many produced without sharpened edges).

(2) In typography a mark (†) used to indicate a cross reference, especially a footnote (also called obelisk).  The double dagger (‡) is also used.

(3) In sport and military strategy, a offence which thrusts deep into opposition territory on a short front.

(4) In glaciology, the long, conical ice-formations formed from drops of water (al la the stalactites in caves).

(5) In the slang of clinical medicine, anything that causes pain like a stabbing injury (typically, some sort of barb)

(6) In basketball & American football, a point scored near the end of the game (clutch time) to take or increase the scorer's team lead.

(7) In nautical architecture, as daggerboard, a retractable centre-board that slides out to act as a keel; a timber placed diagonally in a ship's frame.

(8) To stab with a dagger or similar bladed weapon (archaic).

(9) In typography, to mark with a dagger (obelisk).

1380s: From the Middle English daggere, daggare & dagard, probably an adaptation from the thirteenth century Old French dague (dagger), from the Old Provençal or Italian daga of obscure origin but related to the Occitan, Italian & Spanish daga, the Dutch dagge, the German Degen, the Middle Low German dagge (knife's point), the Old Norse daggarðr, the Danish daggert, the Faroese daggari, the Welsh dager & dagr, the Breton dac and the Albanian thikë (a knife, dagger) & thek (to stab, to pierce with a sharp object).  Etymologists have speculated on the source of dagger, some suggesting a Celtic origin.  Others prefer the unattested Vulgar Latin daca & dacian (knife) (the name from the Roman province), from the Classical Latin adjective dācus while an entry in an eighteenth century French dictionary held the French dague was from the German dagge & dagen (although not attested until much later).  More speculatively still is the notion of some link with the Old Armenian դակու (daku) (adze, axe), an alternative to which is some connection with the primitive Indo-European dāg-u-, suggesting something cognate with the Ancient Greek θήγω (thḗgō) (to sharpen, whet).  Dagger is a noun & verb, daggering is a noun & verb, daggerman & daggerpoint are nouns, daggerlike is an adjective and daggered is a verb; the noun plural is daggers.

Daggers drawn: Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, left) and Vanessa Lachey (née Minnillo, b 1980, right), staged shot, June, 2007.

The association of the dagger with knightly weaponry can be traced back to French writings in the twelfth century while the other Middle Latin forms included daga, dagga, dagha, dagger, daggerius, daggerium, dagarium, dagarius & diga (the words with the -r- being late fourteenth century adoptions of the English word.  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists an English verb dag (to stab) from which dagger as a verb could be derived but the verb is attested only from the turn of the fifteenth century.  Long used as a weapon of personal protection, skilled sixteenth & seventeenth century swordsmen would use one in their other (usually left) hand to parry thrusts from the opponent's rapier.  It was a high-risk technique.  The use in texts as a reference mark (also called the obelisk) dates from 1706.  The wonderfully named “bollock dagger” was a dagger with a distinctively shaped shaft having two oval swellings at the guard resembling the male testes (the polite term was “kidney dagger”).  An “ear dagger” was used in the late medieval period and gained the name from its distinctive, ear-shaped pommel.  In slang, to be “stabbed with a Bridport dagger” was to be executed by hanging, the origin of that being the district of Bridport in Dorset being a major producer of the hemp fibre used in the production of the ropes used by hangmen.  In idiomatic use, to “look daggers at” is to stare at someone angrily or threateningly, something one would do if “at daggers drawn” (in a state of open hostility) with them.

Lindsay Lohan in stiletto heels, February 2009.  Whether much would have changed in the fashion business if the style of heel had come to be known as "dagger" instead of "stiletto" is unlikely.

Other names for the short bladed weapon included stiletto & poniard.  Stiletto was from the Italian stiletto; doublet of stylet, the construct being stil(o) (dagger or needle (from the Latin stilus (stake, pens))) + -etto (-ette).  From the Latin stilus came also stelo, an inherited doublet.  Stilus was from the primitive Indo-European (s)teyg- (related to instīgō & instigare) and was cognate with the Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō) (to mark with a pointed instrument) and the Proto-Germanic stikaną (to stick, to stab).  Despite the similarity, there’s no relationship with the Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos) (a pillar).  The -etto suffix was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus and was an alternative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives and hypocoristics.  The noun plural is either stilettos or stilettoes and stilettolike (appearing also as stiletto-like) is an adjective.  A technical adoption in law-enforcement and judicial reports were the verb-forms stilettoed & stilettoing, referring to a stabbing or killing with a stiletto-like blade.  It was a popular description used by police when documenting the stabbing by wives of husbands or boyfriends with scissors or kitchen knives; use faded in the early twentieth century.  The use of “stiletto heel” to describe the elegant, narrow high heel in women's shoes dates from as recently as 1953.  Poniard (a dagger or other short, stabbing weapon) dates from the 1580s and was from the early sixteenth century French poinard, from the Old French poignal (dagger (literally “anything grasped with the fist”)), from poing (fist), from the Latin pungus (a fist (a pugio being “a dagger”)), from a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root peuk- (to prick).  It’s thought it was probably altered in French by association with poindre (to stab).  It was used a verb from the turn of the seventeenth century in the sense of “to stab with or as if with a poniard”.

Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Adolf Hitler' (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) in Luftwaffe general’s uniform with Model 1935 Luftwaffe ceremonial dagger.

The dagger was the standard 1935 issue for Luftwaffe officers.  Updated in 1937 and fashioned always with a 260 mm (10¼ inch) blade, the pommel and crossguard were aluminum, bearing the swastika (occasionally finished in anodized gold) on the pommel face with a Luftwaffe flighted eagle and swastika on the crossguard.  The grips were celluloid over a wood base and in various production runs they were finished in colors ranging from pure white to a deep orange.  The scabbards were all in anodized grayish blue steel with a striped decoration on the body face with an oak leaf pattern on the face of the drag.  Worn suspended from straps bearing twin silver stripes on a dark grayish blue background with square buckles, it featured a short aluminum cord knot.  In an example of the expanding list of recipients entitled to wear a dagger, after 1940, authorization was extended to non-commissioned officers though without the portepee (the sword-knot which denoted an officer’s right to bear a sword).  Although it's not clear why, the 1935 Luftwaffe dagger was apparently the template for a range of similar items commissioned by the foreign ministry to used as gifts for one reason or another.  Many embassies and other overseas delegations received them although if there were guidelines suggesting how they were to be allocated, no copies are known to have survived.  The ones ordered for diplomatic use were genuine replicas of the shape and construction (although embellished with symbols of the state or Nazi party rather than anything military) but the manufacturer also did a line of miniatures in display cases and even some letter-openers (!) which seem to have been a purely commercial product rather than anything official although, adorned with the swastika, in the nature of the way things happened in the Third Reich, a commission likely was paid to someone.      

Cheryl sees Hermann Göring: This fragment is from the opening sequences for one of the television shows of English comedian Alexei Sayle (b 1952), a left-wing activist most active during the administration of Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013; UK prime-minister 1979-1990) when there was much for such folk about which to be active.  His depictions of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) were in the absurdist tradition and very well done.

General Alexander Patch (1889–1945, left), Harry S Truman (1884–1972; US president 1945-1953, centre) and General Lucian Truscott (1895–1965, right) inspecting Göring’s Reichsmarschall baton, Washington DC, 1945.

Göring’s baton would be replaced with an even more extravagant, jewel-encrusted creation when in 1940 he was appointed Reichsmarschall (a sort of “six star general” although really a sop to his vanity because at the same time Hitler created a dozen field marshals in recognition of the Wehrmacht’s success in the Western campaigns in 1940) and it's now on display in the US Army's West Point Museum at Highland Falls, New York.  Convicted of by the IMT (international Military Tribunal) at the first Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946 1946) on all four counts ((1) conspiracy to wage aggressive war, (2) waging aggressive war, (3) war crimes & (4) crimes against humanity, Göring was sentenced to be hanged but, shortly before the scheduled hour, he committed suicide by crushing between his teeth an ampule of a potassium cyanide (KCN), smuggled into his cell in circumstances never confirmed.  For decades it was not uncommon for historians to refer to Göring taking “prussic acid” (the older name for hydrogen cyanide (HCN)) but while they’re related, KCN is the potassium salt of HCN: KCN is a stable storage form of cyanide, while HCN is a volatile liquid or gas.

Daggers out: The Night of the Long Knives

Germans have long adored uniforms and especially prized are the accessories, among the most distinctive of which are ceremonial daggers.  During the Third Reich, a period in which many institutions of state were increasingly re-ordered along military lines, the issuing of ceremonial daggers was at its most widespread and in addition to the expected recipients in the army, navy & air force, the SS, the SA, the Hitlerjugend (the HJ, (Hitler Youth)), the diplomatic service and the police, they were also part of the uniforms of organizations such as the fire department, the postal & telegraph service, the forest service, the labor service, the customs service the railway & waterways protective service and the miners association.  While it’s true that in Germany daggers had in the past been issued even to civilians, under the Nazis the scale and scope proliferated and they seem to have exerted a particular fascination within the ranks of the SS.

The SS (ᛋᛋ in Armanen runes; Schutzstaffel (literally “protection squadron” but translated variously as “protection squad”, “security section" etc) was formed (under different names) in 1923 as a Nazi party squad to provide security at public meetings (then often rowdy and violet affairs) and was later re-purposed as a personal bodyguard for Adolf Hitler.  The SS name was adopted in 1925 and during the Third Reich the institution evolved into a vast economic, industrial and military apparatus more than two million strong to the point where some historians (and contemporaries) regarded it as a kind of “state within a state”.  The Waffen-SS (armed SS (ie equipped with military-grade weapons)) existed on a small scale as early as 1933 before Hitler’s agreement was secured to create a formation at divisional strength and growth was gradual even after the outbreak of hostilities in 1939; it was the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 which triggered the Waffen-SS’s expansion into a multi-national armoured force with over 900,000 men under arms.  As well as the SS’s role in the administration of the many concentration and extermination camps, the Waffen-SS was widely implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Der SA Fuhrer Heft Nr.3 (Zeitschrift der SA Fuhrer der NSDAP), Published by Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf. GmbH., Munich, 1938.  The title of the publication is best translated as “The SA Leader’s Magazine”.

The cover photograph of Göring in Luftwaffe (German Air Force) field marshal’s uniform with baton and sword was a study by Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957), Hitler’s court photographer.  The sword was a bespoke one-off manufactured by the Eickhorm company to mark his wedding on 10 April 1935, the pommel engraved with a facsimile of the Pour Le Merite (the “Blue Max”) he was awarded during his World War I (1914-1918) service as a pilot with the Jagdgeschwader (fighter squadron) 1 (better remembered as von Richthofen’s Flying Circus (named after the squadron's leader Manfred von Richthofen (Baron von Richthofen or "the Red Baron"; 1892–1918)).  Unlike his Reichsmarschall's creation, the baton he carried after being appointed a field marshal in February 1938 (also a sop after Hitler had sense enough not to appoint him Minister of Defense) was similar in size & style to earlier German versions.    

The Sturmabteilung (SA and translated usually as Storm Troopers) was the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary formation.  It played a significant role in the party’s success, used extensively to provide security at gatherings or political events and they were notorious for their street-fighting with communists and other opponents.  Even before the party gained power in 1933, the death toll associated with the SA was in the hundreds, mostly from battles on the streets although some murders really were assassinations, planned and otherwise.  Although the SA had been essential in Hitler’s rise to power, once he’d taken control of the state (and crucially, the military), the ongoing presence of literally millions of unruly SA street thugs became not merely an embarrassment but also a genuine threat to regime stability.  Accordingly, Hitler, on the pretext the SA’s leadership was about to stage a revolt (the so-called “Röhm putsch”, named after the SA chief Ernst Röhm (1887–1934)) in June 1934 conducted an operation which came to be called Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the Long Knives) during which as many as 180 were murdered, including some innocent bystanders who were what would now be called “collateral damage”.  It was a remarkably successful (if bloody) operation and illustrated like nothing before that a bunch of violent gangsters had taken over the country: Hitler had in his hand the baton and had no intention of “passing it on” or allowing it to be prized from his grip.  Notably, although Hitler (like most of Germany), had for years been well aware Röhm was a most active “confessed homosexual”, to hear his words of disgusted outrage after the pre-dawn raid (which, as head of state, personally he’d led, pistol in hand!), one would have thought he’d discovered “such depravity” only when he’d had Röhm and his SA cadre dragged from each other’s beds.

The “mission creep” which resulted in so many deaths was the consequence of many party figures taking advantage of the chaos to dispose of enemies, rivals or simply those against who they held some grievance.  Even Hitler, who’d reckoned on a manageable handful of dead bodies, seems to have been shocked at the extent of the bloodbath but soon rose to the occasion and ensured it was all retrospectively declared a lawful defense of the state.  At that point he realized his control was as absolute as it need to be and he never forgot the lesson the success of this pre-emptive strike.  In January 1941, while contemplating the invasion of Russia, he advised Ion Antonescu (1882–1946; wartime fascist dictator of Romania) how to solve the similar problem presented by Horia Sima (1906–1993; fascist politician and head of Romania’s wartime fascist paramilitary formations), telling him: “You have to get rid of them.  In every movement there are fanatic militants who think that in destroying they are doing their duty.  These people must not be allowed to act.”  Within days Antonescu acted on this helpful advice and solved his (immediate) problem although unlike the murdered Röhm, Sima lived to 86, unlike the unfortunate Antonescu who, convicted for some of his crimes by the "People's Court" of Romania's new communist government, was in 1946 executed.

The SS was an outgrowth of the SA, something which wasn’t planned but, in a manner typical of the way things were done in the Third Reich, was a consequence of factional empire-building and manoeuvrings to gain power and influence.  Until the outbreak of war in 1939 when they adopted field grey, the SS wore black (Hitler, always sceptical of Heinrich Himmler’s (1900–1945; Reichsführer SS 1929-1945) mysticism and general weirdness would, in moments of annoyance at their antics, call them der schwarze Nebel (the black mist)) uniforms, many of which were tailored by Hugo Boss, something on which that fashion house’s documents of corporate history don’t much dwell; it is a myth Hugo Boss designed the SS uniforms, it handled only the production.  The SS black was a choice but the SA’s brown was a thing of coincidence and economics because, after Germany’s defeat in World War I, the tropical colonies were lost so the state’s warehouses were packed with now surplus hot weather kit, most of the fabric in a shade like “desert brown”.  To be taken seriously in Germany, one has to wear a uniform and because the surplus stock was available in great quantity and at a low price, it was purchased by the right-wing nationalist movement which ultimately coalesced into the Nazi Party, the SA thus gained the nickname “Brownshirts”, an allusion to the equally thuggish “Blackshirts” used in the 1920s by Mussolini as a fascist paramilitary.  For the Italians, black had been a fashion choice but the Nazis ending being associated with brown just because of the strange circumstances.  Strange circumstances like this do happen and the original “Air Force Blue” used for the uniforms of the UK’s RAF (Royal Air Force) was chosen simply because the Ministry of Supply was offered a significant discount on large quantities of a blue fabric ordered by the government of Imperial Russia, a contract abruptly abrogated by the Kremlin after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.  The “brown” association stuck (the party’s Munich headquarters was dubbed der Braunes Haus (the Brown House) and its officials (much despised variously for incompetence, corruption etc) wore uniforms in richer tones of brown, leading them to be labelled Goldfasane (golden pheasants), the derisive nickname used of high-ranking members (and their wives), the name an allusion to (1) the golden hue of the fabric of the party uniform, (2) their tendency to appear well fed (al la a plump pheasant fattened for slaughter) at a time when much of the population was living under food rationing and (3) their ostentation and self-importance (likened to a colorful and strutting pheasant).

Masonic daggers, purposes unknown.

Among their many mysterious rituals, the Freemasons also have their own lines of daggers which they claim are purely “ceremonial” but because all that they do is so shrouded in secrecy, the true nature of their purpose isn’t known, something of little consolation to those with a fear of being murdered by the Freemasons.  It is however believed that the styles of daggers conferred reflect the grades and offices which evolved from the medieval craft guilds and presumably, the more exalted one’s place in the Masonic hierarchy, the more elaborate the dagger to which one is entitled.  Top of the pile in a Masonic Lodge is the Worshipful Master, other intriguing titles including Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Chaplain, Senior Deacon, Junior Deacon, Steward, Tyler, Mentor and Almoner.  Whether all get their own daggers or some share with others are among the many mysteries of Freemasonry.  Of the even more opaque Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or, nothing is known about whether their rituals include the use of daggers, ceremonial or otherwise.

Randall Made Knives of Orlando, Florida: The Arkansas toothpick

To gain a sense of the way the folk in the state of Arkansas have long been perceived, consider the Arkansas toothpick, an impressive dagger produced usually in lengths between 12-20 inches (300-500 mm) and claimed to be ideal for “thrusting and slashing”.  The weapon is said to be the creation of US knifemaker James Black (1800–1872) and is described by many historians as an “improved version” of the famous Bowie knife, the design of which was credited to James Bowie (1796–1836) who enjoyed the sort of varied career often seen south of the Mason-Dixon Line, his activities including land speculation (lawful and not, slave trading (mostly lawful) and military adventures (official and not).  In truth, Mr Black’s original dagger seems to have been a slight variant of the Bowie knife because there’s little in documents from the nineteenth century to suggest the two were regarded as sufficiently different to be used for different purposes.  The term “Arkansas Toothpick” seems first to have been used in the late 1820s or early 1830s by European travellers who told tales of the rugged characters they encountered in the backwoods of Arkansas, including them using long-bladed daggers to “pick their teeth”.  Some have speculated the term might have pre-dated the debut of the Bowie knife in (circa 1830) and that the notion of two different knives evolved in the nineteenth century only because of this casual journalistic slang.  However it happened, the Arkansas Toothpick and Bowie knife are now established items in the knifemakers’ catalogues.

Squoval

Squoval (pronounced sqwoh-vuhl)

(1) In cosmetology, a description applied mostly to describe the shape of certain fingernails and faces; essentially an oblong (a rectangle with partially ovoid shorter sides).

(2) In commerce, a trademark of the bicycle company Cervélo, describing the cross sectional shape of the downtube used in frame construction.

1984: A portmanteau word, sq(uare)- + oval.  Square was from the Middle English square, sqware & squyre from the Old French esquarre & esquerre, (which survives in modern French as équerre), from the Vulgar Latin exquadra, derived from the Latin quadro, from quadrus (square), from quattuor (four).  Oval was from the Late Latin ovalis, from ovum (egg); it was cognate with the French and Italian ovale and the Dutch ovaal.  Used both as noun and adjective, coinage is credited to Paula Gilmore, a noted manicurist (nail technician) and owner of Tips Nail Salon in San Mateo, California.  Squoval is a noun & verb, squovaled & squovaled are verbs and squovallike is an adjective; the noun plural is squovals.

Art of the fingernail

A pleasing creation, sqoval is misleading because it’s used to reference a shape which is actually a rectangle with the shorter sides defined by curves which tend to the semi-circular.  In geometry, such a shape is called a stadium, discorectangle or an obround.  It’s not to be confused with a square with rounded corners which, despite frequent use, is neither a "quartic" nor a "sqound".  A quartic is “an algebraic equation or function of the fourth degree or a curve describing such an equation or function” and sqound (a portmanteau word, the construct being sq(uare) + (r)ound is the ultimate niche word, the only known use by collectors of C4 Chevrolet Corvettes (1984-1996) describing the shift in 1990 from round to "square with rounded corners" taillights.  Mathematicians insist the correct word for a "square with rounded corners" is "squircle" (in algebraic geometry "a closed quartic curve having properties intermediate between those of a square and a circle").  The construct of squircle is squ(are) +c(ircle).  Few etymologists (and certainly no lexicographers) appear to have listed sqound as a "real" word but it's of interest because it's a rare example of a word where a "q" is not followed by a "u"; such constructs do exist but usually in the cases where initialisms have become acronyms such as Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services).  Such words do appear in English language texts but they tend to be foreign borrowings including (1) qat (or khat) (a plant native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, often chewed for its stimulant effects, (2) qi (a term from Chinese philosophy referring to life force or energy), qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying, towards the Kaaba in Mecca and (4) qiviut (the soft under-wool of the musk-ox, valued when making warm clothing).  

Squoval is thus a commercial descriptor in the fingernail business rather than a precise geometric description.  The basic rectangle metaphor is important in fingernail shaping because manicurists borrow from art and architecture the golden ratio which suggests humans find most aesthetically pleasing, shapes with an aspect ratio of about 1.6:1 which, coincidentally, is the relationship between a kilometre and a mile.  Nails can be shaped beyond the nominally perfect 1.6:1 but tend either to be thought exaggerated or created purely for artistic display, often to create a large surface for designs.  Manicurists, certainly in the Instagram age, are an imaginative profession and there’s been a proliferation of terms to describe species.  However, within the fingernail family, there are eight basic genera, practitioners inventing or classifying species as they emerge.  To date, the lipstick is the only widely-used form which is asymmetric.

The classic oval is said to be a symmetrical ellipse where the curve of the tip exactly mirrors the curve of the cuticle but, in real-world conditions, the former usually only tends to the latter.  The shape is natural, flattering and adaptable to both long and short nails.

Long coffins.

A natural coffin demands long nails with the fragility that implies.  The nail needs to be sufficiently long so both sides can be filed to a tapered point something like a stiletto before the tip is squared-off.  Because of that, they’re often constructed with acrylics.  Coffin in this context is actually a modern appropriation to describe what was historically known as the ballerina, a descriptor some European fashion houses still prefer but the Instagram generation has moved on and like coffin.  Coffins are rare worn in the elongated form.

Square nails provide a shape which is less susceptible to damage than many but doesn’t suit all shapes.  It’s best adopted by those with a narrow nail bed because the flat tip creates an optical illusion of additional width, making nails appear wider than they are.  Rarely seen variations include the cut out (a twin-peaked effect), the lipstick (uniquely, with an asymmetric tip) and the trapeze or flare (where the metaphor is the bell-bottom trouser leg).

A statement shape, something of a triumph of style over functionally, the stiletto gains its dramatic effect from long and slender lines and can be shaped with either fully-tapered or partially square sides.  They’re vulnerable to damage, breaking when subjected to even slight impacts and almost never possible with natural growth.  True obsessives insist they should be worn only with stiletto heels and then only if the colors exactly match.

Squovals in Dior 999.

With straight sides and a curved top, the squoval, while not as dramatic as a coffin, is good, functional engineering because its softer edges are less prone to snagging and tearing than those of a square and break less the more more delicate almonds.  Technically, the squoval is just a species of the square but its popularity meant it came to be classified as its own genus.

Usually very long, the almond has an elongated shape and a tapered tip.  Even when applied to nails with a narrow bed, they’re inherently weak at the tip so most are constructed from acrylics.  It’s a style which attracts many variations on the theme, often tending to a truer emulation of the nut at which point some should probably be classified as pointed.

Realistically, pointed nails, certainly in their more extreme iterations (sometimes called mountain peaks, edges, arrow-heads, claws or talons), are more for short-term effect than anything permanent.  Best used with acrylics, the knife-like style can be a danger to the nail itself and any nearby skin or stockings.  Those contemplating intimacy with a women packing these should first ponder the implications.

Lindsay Lohan with rounds, 2006

Rounds are less a style than a detailing of the natural human shape.  Usually worn short and simple and rarely needing an acrylic overlay, it’s a classic look with the added benefit of durability and low maintenance.