Turkey

Turkey (pronounced tur-kee)

(1) A large, gallinaceous bird of the family Meleagrididae, especially Meleagris gallopavo, of America, typically of green, reddish-brown, and yellowish-brown plumage of a metallic luster; domesticated in most parts of the world.

(2) The flesh of this bird, used as food.

(3) Any of a number of other similar birds, so described.

(4) As Turkey, the former name of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye).

(5) In slang, a person or thing of little appeal; dud; loser; a naive, stupid, or inept person.

(6) In the slang of the theatre, an unsuccessful production; a flop (a synonym of “a bomb” in some countries, an antonym in others); now used beyond the theatre and applied to just about any failed product including political candidates or policies.

(7) In ten-pin bowling, three strikes in succession.

(8) In the (derogatory) slang of clinical medicine, a patient feigning symptoms, illness or injury; a malingerer.

(9) In rural slang (US & Australia), a pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase (archaic).

1545–1555: A short for Turkey cock and Turkey hen (“cock of Turkey” & “hen of Turkey”), applied firstly to guinea fowl (apparently because the bird was brought through Turkish territory) and later (erroneously) to the American bird.  The noun plural is turkeys by depending on context, turkey can be a plural.  The erroneous “turkies” & “turkies” does occasionally appear because of a belief all nouns ending in "y" should form a plural ending in "ies". When a noun ends with [vowel] + y, only an appended "s" is needed to form the plural.

Tararind and honey-glazed roast turkey, before & after.

The clipping of turkey-cock (male) and turkey-hen (female) applied originally to the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) which was brought to Europe (via Turkey) from Madagascar by Portuguese traders who really were called “turkey merchants”.  In English, the word turkey was first applied to the bird in the 1550s, either because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl or because reached wider Europe from Spain by way of North Africa, then under Ottoman (Turkish) rule.  For the same reason, in English, Indian corn was originally “turkey corn” or “turkey wheat”.  The word was subsequently applied to the larger northern American fowl (Meleagris gallopavo) which conquistadors had brought to Spain in 1523 after finding the species had been domesticated by the Aztecs.  The adoption of the name (initially as “wild Turkey”), documented in North American records since 1607, wasn’t until later recognized as a taxonomical error and it’s thought it happened simply because the of the visual similarity between the birds.  There was once speculation that it may have been something more considered, either because the North American turkey was in part introduced through Ottoman territories or else to indicate it was foreign; these theories are now little supported.  It’s a strange linguistic soup because in Turkish the name is hindi (literally "Indian") a use probably influenced by early seventeenth century French dinde (contracted from poulet d'inde (literally "chicken from India", which endures in Modern French as dindon), based on the then-common misconception that the New World (the Americas) was eastern Asia (hence “Red Indians”, “West Indies” etc).  The bird from the Americas may have appeared in England as early as 1524 but documentary evidence confirms its presence in 1534.  Large, tasty, easily fattened and well adapted to the climate, turkey by the late sixteenth century had become the standard fare at an English Christmas dinner.

In an example of the way mistakes in science can linger as orthodoxy if vested with sufficient academic respectability, even after the different biology of the two birds were distinguished and the names differentiated, turkey was erroneously retained for the American bird, instead of the African.  From this confusion, Melagris, the ancient name of the African fowl, was listed as the generic name of the American bird by Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), the Swedish physician who defined the modern system of taxonomy which applies a binomial nomenclature to botanical and zoological organisms.

Leslie Grace (b 1995) as Batgirl.

In August 2022, it was announced the release of the film Batgirl, commissioned for Warner Bros’ streaming platform HBO Max, had been cancelled.  Although never intended to show in cinemas, such was the negative feedback from test audiences it was sent to editing experts who are said to have declared it irredeemable, the turkey consigned to the Warner Bros vault.  Said to involve the write-off of what sounds a rather inflated US$90 million, cynics immediated speculated Warner Bros' accountants might have calculated the guaranteed profit offered by a tax off-set a more lucrative business model than a release on any platform.  In earlier times the odd turkey did eventually end up a cult-favorite on VCR or DVD but there's no prediction how long it'll take Batgirl to leak out.  In idiomatic use, the sense of “a turkey” meaning "inferior show, a failure" is show business slang dating from 1927, presumably because of the bird's reputation for stupidity, this meaning soon extended to just about any failed product including political candidates or policies.  In this sense, there’s also the slang meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" but surprisingly, there’s no record of use prior to 1951.

Grumman F6F Hellcat.

A turkey shoot was "something easy", slang which is listed as being of World War II-era but most seem to agree it had likely been in oral use much earlier, especially south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The reference was to (presumably mostly informal) contests of marksmanship in which turkeys were tied behind a log, only their moving heads visible as targets; it sounds barbaric now but it was a different time and to the bird, the experience may have been little different from any other method of dispatch.  The sudden popularity of “turkey shoot” during the war was probably associated with the events in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (19-20 June 1944), the last of the conflict’s big, set-piece carrier battles and the engagement which ended the capacity of the Imperial Japanese Navy strategically to deploy carrier groups.  US Naval aviators described the air battles as “the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” because of the disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon the Japanese and the ease with which their aircraft could be downed.  The air engagement was a classic example of the approach of the US military: Problems are not merely to be solved but overwhelmed.  It was also a example of how superior technology will tend to prevail, the combination of proximity fuses which meant American gunnery didn’t need to be especially accurate when trained on Japanese aircraft still mostly without self-sealing fuel tanks as decisive a difference as earlier advantages in hardware had been for the British in the Sudan or the Italians in Ethiopia.  To “talk turkey” dates from 1824 and, according to folklore, comes from the tale of a Yankee attempting to swindle a Native American (then called a Red Indian) in dividing a turkey and buzzard as food.

Cold turkey refers both to (1) a sudden and complete withdrawal from a dependent substance (especially narcotics) and (2) the physiological effects of such a withdrawal.  The origin of the term is murky and may date from a number of nineteenth century references to unwelcome guests being served literally cold slices of turkey at Christmas rather than the more pleasing hot, dressed dish.  In that sense it came to refer both to suffering and social ostracization, the meaning in the sense of term and the term "withdrawal from an addictive substance" (originally of heroin) dating from 1921, probably based on the idea of a meal of cold turkey being something served with little preparation.

Lindsay Lohan with president of Türkiye  (formerly Turkey) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his wife Emine and Syrian internally displaced person (IDP) Bana Alabed (b 2009), Ankara, January 2017.

The country formerly known as the Republic of Turkey straddles West Asia and South East Europe, the Bosporus (on the banks of which sits Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople)), an ancient gateway between the two continents.  The Ottoman Empire emerged in Anatolia (the western portion of Asian Turkey) during the thirteenth century, surviving until 1918.  During the sixteenth century, the empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria and included most of southeastern Europe, leaving an architectural heritage visible to this day.  Modern Turkey was created in 1923 as a secular state.  The English name of Turkey is ultimately from the Medieval Latin Turchia & Turquia (land of the Turks)but it wasn’t until as recently as the early eighteenth century that the spelling “Turkey” began to be standardized.  In the Middle English the spellings included Turkye, Torke, Turkie & Turky and those who complain about the lack of proof-reading and editing in modern documents should note that it was not unusual for more than one form to appear in the same short text.  The most common form in the Middle English was Turkye, from the Anglo-Norman Turkye, from the Medieval Latin Turcia, from Turcus (usually translated as “Turk” and of unknown origin but many suggest and original meaning of “strength”), from the Byzantine Greek Τοῦρκος (Toûrkos), from the Persian ترک‎ (Turk), from the Middle Persian twlk' (Turk), from the Old Turkic.  The original meaning of the Persian Turk is also uncertain and may have varied with context, various documents suggesting it could be used to mean “warrior”, “beautiful youth”, “barbarian” or “robber” and how wide a net that casts may depend on one's opinion of males aged 17-25.

National flag of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti.

In May 2022, the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations announced the Republic of Turkey had changed its name to Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye).  Whether the authorities in Ankara were much concerned about sharing a name with the large gallinaceous bird native or the colloquial use to describe dud movies or stupid and inept people isn’t clear but certainly, they were no longer happy about an anglicized version of the name being used around the world.  In a press release, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime minister of Turkey 2003-2014, president since 2014) stated “Türkiye is accepted as an umbrella brand for our country in national and international venues...” and the name “…is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people’s culture, civilization, and values.”  Effectively a national re-branding, the change will be reflected in the label “Made in Türkiye” appearing on manufactured goods and adjustments have been made to institutional names such as the nation carrier which would henceforth operate internationally under the name Türk Hava Yolları (Turkish Airlines).

Recent changes of name

2019: The Republic of Macedonia changed to Republic of North Macedonia to resolve some regional disputes.  For a time, because of earlier disputes, it had been known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which was usually written as FYROM (pronounced fire-rom). 

2018: The Kingdom of Swaziland became the Kingdom of Eswatini.

2016: Czechia introduced as country name although Czech Republic remains the state title.

2014: Republic of Cape Verde became Republic of Capo Verde.

2013: The Democratic Republic of Somalia became the Federal Republic of Somalia.

2011: The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya became simply Libya.

2010: The Union of Myanmar became the Republic of the Union of Myanmar although the SLORC at the time issued some contriductory statements and Burma is still widely used.

2009: The Republic of Bolivia became the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

1997: Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

1990-1992: New country names were gazetted consequent upon the breakup of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro & Republic of Slovenia

1990-91: New country names were gazetted consequent on the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): Republic of Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus (initially Belorussia, but adopted Belarus in 1992), Republic of Estonia, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Latvia, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Moldova (initially Moldavia, but adopted Moldova in 1992), Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Republic of Uzbekistan.

1990: People’s Republic of Benin became Republic of Benin.

1990: Unification of Germany; German Democratic Republic (East Germany, the GDR) absorbed by the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, the FRG).

1989: The Union of Burma became the Union of Myanmar, previously Union of Burma.  Confusingly, it appeared the SLORC maintained Burma as the country name for most purposes.

1984: The Republic of Upper Volta became Burkina Faso.

1981: British Honduras became Belize.

1980: Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.

1979:  New Hebrides became the Republic of Vanuatu.

1979: The Imperial State of Iran became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1972: Ceylon became Sri Lanka.

1971: East Pakistan became Bangladesh; West Pakistan became Pakistan.

1971: Bechuanaland became the Republic of Botswana.

1971: Basutoland became the Kingdom of Lesotho.

1964: Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

1964: Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia.

1961: Northern Cameroons became part of Nigeria (now Federal Republic of Nigeria) & Southern Cameroons became part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon (now Republic of Cameroon).

1957: The Gold Coast became the Republic of Ghana.

1953: Formation of the Republic of Korea (South Korea, the ROC) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, the DPRK).

1949: The Republic of China became the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

1949: Formation of German Democratic Republic (East Germany, the GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, the FRG).

1949: Transjordan became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

1947: India became the Republic of India; the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was created (as East Pakistan & West Pakistan).

1939: The Kingdom of Siam becomes the Kingdom of Thailand.

1935: Persia become the Imperial State of Iran.

1929: Vatican City gained independence from Italy as a city-state.

1923: Turkey; Republic of Turkey created after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Club

Club (pronounced kluhb)

(1) A heavy stick, usually thicker at one end than at the other, suitable for use as a weapon; a cudgel.

(2) A group of persons organized for a social, literary, athletic, political, or other purpose.

(3) The building or rooms occupied by such a group.

(4) An organization that offers its subscribers certain benefits, as discounts, bonuses, or interest, in return for regular purchases or payments.

(5) In sport, a stick or bat used to drive a ball in various games, as golf.

(6) A nightclub, especially one in which people dance to popular music, drink, and socialize.

(7) A black trefoil-shaped figure on a playing card.

(8) To beat with or as with a club.

(9) To gather or form into a club-like mass.

(10) To contribute as one's share toward a joint expense; make up by joint contribution (often followed by up or together).

(11) To defray by proportional shares.

(12) To combine or join together, as for a common purpose.

(13) In nautical, use, to drift in a current with an anchor, usually rigged with a spring, dragging or dangling to reduce speed.

(14) In casual military use, in the maneuvering of troops, blunders in command whereby troops get into a position from which they cannot extricate themselves by ordinary tactics.

(15) In zoological anatomy, a body part near the tail of some dinosaurs and mammals

(16) In mathematical logic and set theory, a subset of a limit ordinal which is closed under the order topology, and is unbounded relative to the limit ordinal.

(17) In axiomatic set theory, a set of combinatorial principles that are a weaker version of the corresponding diamond principle.

(18) A birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inwards and downward.

1175-1225: From the Middle English clubbe, derived from the Old Norse klubba (club or cudgel) akin to clump, from Old English clympre (lump of metal) related to the Middle High German klumpe (group of trees).  The Proto-Germanic klumbon was also related to clump.  Old English words for this were sagol and cycgel.  The Danish klőver and Dutch klaver (a club at cards) is literally "a clover."  Ultimate root is the classical Latin globus or glomus (forming into a globe or ball), a later influence the Middle Low German kolve (bulb) and German Kolben (butt, bulb, club).  The sense of a "bat used in games" is from mid-fifteenth century; the club suit in the deck of cards is from the 1560s although the pattern adopted on English cards is the French trefoil.  The social club emerged in the 1660s, apparently an organic evolution from the verbal sense "gather in a club-like mass", first noted in the 1620s, then, as a noun, the "association of people", dating from the 1640s.  The Club Sandwich was probably first offered in 1899, the unrelated club soda in 1877, originally as the proprietary name Club Soda.  Club, clubbishness & clubbing are nouns & verbs, clubber is a noun, clubbed is a verb & adjective, clubby & clubbish are adjectives and clubbily is an adverb; the noun plural is clubs.

On her Only Fans page, Tash Petersen shows her club membership.

Something of a local legend in the world of vegan activism, Tash Peterson (b circa 1995) is an animal rights activist based in Perth, Australia.  Not actually part of the the militant extreme of the movement which engages in actual physical attacks on the personnel, plant & equipment of the industries associated with animal slaughter, Ms Peterson's form of direct action is the set-piece event, staged to produce images and video with cross-platform appeal, the footage she posts on social media freely available for re-distribution by the legacy media, her Instagram feed providing a sample of her work in various contexts.  The accessories used include blood (reputedly from slaughterhouses) and very fetching figure-fitting costumes styled to resemble various animals including cows, her favored locations including the meat section of supermarkets, cafés and restaurants serving animal flesh, processing facilities associated with the slaughter industry and any events celebrating the carnivorous.  Ms Peterson's other club membership is that of the vegansexuals (vegans who chooses to have sex or pursue sexual relationships only with other vegans).

The Club Sandwich

A majority of historians of food suggest the club sandwich, as an item able to be ordered, first appeared on a menu in 1899 at the Union Club of New York City.  It was however made with two toasted slices of bread with a layer of turkey or chicken and ham between them, served warm, not the three slices with which it’s now associated; at that point the "club" was merely self referential of the institution at which it was served.  Others suggest it originated in 1894 at an exclusive gambling club in New York’s Saratoga Springs.  The former is more accepted because there’s documentary evidence while the latter based on references in secondary sources.  It’s a mere etymological point; as a recipe, what’s now thought of as a club sandwich had doubtless been eaten for decades or centuries before the words Club Sandwich appeared on a menu.

The notion that club is actually an acronym for "chicken and lettuce under bacon" appears to be a modern pop-culture invention, derived from a British TV sitcom, Peter Kay’s Car Share (episode 5: Unscripted, 7 May 2018) in what’s claimed to be an un-scripted take, although, on television, very little is really ad-lib and "reality" has a specific technical meaning.  On the show, the discussion was about the difference between a BLT (bacon, lettuce & tomato) and a club sandwich.  It spread quickly on the internet but was fake news.

Seemingly sceptical: Lindsay Lohan contemplates club.

Ingredients

12 slices wholegrain or rye bread

12 rashers rindless, shortcut, peach-fed bacon

Extra-virgin olive oil

2 free-range eggs

1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise

12 cos lettuce leaves

320g sliced lean turkey breast

4 ripe Paul Robeson heirloom tomatoes, sliced

A little freshly-chopped tarragon

Ground smoked sea salt & freshly cracked black peppercorns

Instructions

(1) Preheat a grill tray on medium.  Place half the bread under grill and cook until lightly toasted.  Repeat with remaining bread.

(2) Lightly brush both sides of bacon with oil.  Place under grill and cook for 2-4 minutes each side according to taste.  Once removed, place on a paper towel, turning over after one minute.

(3) Fry eggs, preferably leaving yokes soft and runny.  Fold tarragon into mayonnaise according to taste.   

(4) Spread 8 of the slices of toast with mayonnaise.  Arrange half of the lettuce, turkey and tomatoes over 4 slices.  Evenly distribute the fried eggs.

(5) Top with a second slice of toast with mayonnaise. Then, add remaining lettuce, bacon and tomato. Season well with salt and pepper. Top with remaining pieces of toast.

(6) Cut each sandwich in half or quarters according to preference, using toothpicks driven through centre to secure construction.

Variations

Chefs are a dictatorial lot and tend to insist a club sandwich must be a balanced construction with no predominant or overwhelming taste or texture.  Trick is to agree with everything they say and then make things to suit individual taste.  By varying the percentages of the ingredients, one can create things like a bacon club with extras and vegetarian creations are rendered by swapping bacon and turkey for aubergine and avocado.  A surprising number find tomato a mismatch, some add cheese or onion while many prefer butter to mayonnaise.  In commercial operations like cafés, tradition is to serve clubs with French fries but many now offer salads, often with a light vinaigrette dressing.  Served with soup, it’s a meal.

1946 Lincoln Club Coupe (body style 77).  When production of the V12 Lincoln Zephyr (1936-1942) resumed in 1946, the cars were sold simply as Lincolns with no model designation, differentiated by the style of coach-work (Sedan, Club Coupe & Convertible Coupe).  When production ended in 1948, it was the last of the American V12s.

The mysterious term “club coupe” emerged in the 1930s to distinguish the style from the “business coupe”, the latter a two door car with only a front seat, the rear compartment used to augment the space in the trunk (boot), the target market the numerous “travelling salesmen” who needed a vehicle with lots of secure storage for their wares.  What the term “club coupe” described was a two-door car with a rear passenger including a bench seat for two or three.  The use of the word “club” was an example of “aspirational branding”, a marketing flourish intended to suggest something more upscale than the utilitarian business coupe, the invocation that of the style and exclusivity of the “private club”.  Being a product of the marketing department, “club coupe” was never precisely defined and while the characteristics associated with the style were sometimes identifiable they were never consistent.

1951 Ford Custom Deluxe Club Coupe; long model names are nothing new.

The mid-century tendency was to use a body shorter than that of a sedan but retaining the convenience of a full-size back seat (unlike the single-seat business coupe) but as the “two door sedan” emerged as a descriptor things became fuzzy and by the time the two door hardtops appeared at scale in the 1950s, it wasn’t surprising “club coupe” fell from favour.  Ford in 1954 offered a club coupe but they were the next season renamed “Tudor sedan” (ie a two-door sedan) but made the use murkier still by calling the Customline Six two-door a "Tudor Sedan" and the new V8 Fairlane a “Club Sedan”, business coupes and club sedans lingering for years in the line-up but the club coupe vanished until 1966.  The 1960s revival was a use of the word to allude to the upmarket fittings once associated with the more luxurious club coupes of the pre-war years and like “landau”, “brougham” and such, was just another model designation, suggestive of some link to the past.

Promotional images used for 2015 Holden Commodore Clubsport R8 25th anniversary edition.  Note the bogan-themed tyre marks; Holden knew their target-market.

The meaning denoted was different in 1990 when Holden added the V8 HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) Clubsport to the VN range as a “de-contented” entry-level model, along the lines of the original Plymouth Road Runner (1968-1970), the message being: fewer fittings meant lower cost and higher performance.  The Clubsport would remain in the line-up until the end of Commodore production in 2017 although for various reasons, equipment levels steadily increased.

1992 Porsche 911 Club Coupé in Familiengrün.

Porsche also used the word and until the US use in the 1930s which was an allusion to the generic “private club”, the German like was to a literal club.  In 2012, Porsche celebrated the company’s 60th anniversary and part of the programme was the creation of 13 911 Club Coupés, the unusual production volume a tribute to the 13 fanboys who formed the world’s first “Porsche Club”: the Westfälischer Porsche Club Hohensyburg.  Although “fanboy” is understood to mean something like übertriebener Fan (excessively obsessive fan), blinder Anhänger (blind follower) or fanatischer Anhänger (fanatical follower), German has absorbed the English slang “fanboy” and uses it unmodified.  Based on the 991 series 911, the Club Coupé was bundled with the Sport Design package, X51 Powerkit, body-colored Sport Techno wheels, PCCB (Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes which used a ceramic disk-rotor reinforced with carbon fibre), Club-themed door sills, and PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management).  One marker of uniqueness was the color; although the factory listed the hue as Brewster Green, it was actually known internally as Familiengrün (Family Green), used for Wolfgang Porsche’s personal 911s.

Squinch

Squinch (pronounced skwinch)

(1) In architecture, a small arch, corbeling, or the like, built across the interior angle between two walls, as in a square tower for supporting the side of a superimposed octagonal spire or generally to support any superstructure such as a spire or dome.  Also called a squinch arch.

(2) To contort (the features) or squint (now rare).

(3) To squeeze together or crouch down, as to fit into a smaller space (now rare).

1490–1500: A variant of the obsolete scunch, short for scuncheon, from the Middle English sconch(e)on from the middle Middle French escoinson (The reveal of an aperture (such as a door or window) from the frame to the inner face of the wall) & esconchon.  Escoinson is drawn from its original formation es- & ex- (both from the Latin ex (out of, from)) + coin (corner).  The meaning in the sense of a squinting of the eyes emerged during the 1830s, the origin uncertain but likely an imperfect echoic.

The Hagia Sofia

Built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537 AD, the Hagia Sophia ((from the Greek `Αγία Σοφία (Holy Wisdom), Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia in Latin)) sits at what has often been the strategically important point on the Bosporus between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, long thought the boundary between Europe and Asia.

The four minarets were added at different times after 1453.  Thought aesthetically successful, they add also to structural integrity.

The Hagia Sophia was originally a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey), consecrated briefly as a Catholic church in the thirteenth century.  Noted for its vast dome, it was an extraordinary achievement of engineering, architecture and mathematics, for centuries the biggest building on Earth, remaining the largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years until the dedication in 1520 of the basilica in Seville.  In 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, it became a mosque, remaining one until 1935, when, as part of the modernity project that was the Turkish Republic created by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938; (President of the Republic of Turkey 1923-1938)), it was made a museum, later becoming one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.

Hagia Sofia dome with four (corner) squinch arches with supporting pendentives.

The pendentive is the construction element which permits a dome to be placed over a square or rectangular space.  Pendentives are triangular segments of a sphere that spread at the top, tapering to points at the bottom, thereby enabling the continuous circular or elliptical base needed to support the dome.  The horizontal curve of the dome’s base is connected directly to the vertical curves of the four supporting arches on each corner. Where the curve of the pendentive and dome is continuous, the vaulting form is known as a pendentive dome. 

Pendentives receive the outward force from the dome’s weight, concentrating it at the four corners from where it's transferred down the columns to the foundations below.  Before there were, pendentives, domes needed either the supporting structure to be round (The Pantheon) or were supported by corbelling or the use of squinches allowing the dome to sit on top of four arches.  Both methods imposed limitations of width and height whereas pendatives, which directed forces away from the walls, made possible bigger structures.  Invented in Ancient Rome, Byzantine architects perfected the technique and they came to be seen too in Islamic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

From the late twentieth century, religious sentiment in the secular state became more combative and by the early 2000s, demands were being heard from both the Christian Orthodox and Sunni Islam for the Hagia Sofia to again be a place of worship.  Political sentiments hardened and, in July 2020, on the very same day a court annulled the 1934 law which enabled the site to become a museum, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime minister of Turkey 2003-2014 & president since 2014) signed a presidential decree under which the museum reverted to being the Great Mosque of Ayasofya.  Mr Erdoğan had flagged his intentions and the move was no surprise, this the fourth Byzantine church converted from museum to mosque during his time in office.  Architectural repurposing is hardly unknown west of the Bosporus either, thousands of mosques in Spain and Greece having over the centuries been converted to Christian churches.

The court’s rationale for annulling the 1934 decree was interesting, the judges finding it unconstitutional, under not only the contemporary Turkish constitution but also Ottoman law.  The court held that Mehmed II (1432-1481, محمد ثانى‎ in Ottoman Turkish, romanized as Meḥmed-i sānī), who conquered Constantinople in 1453, gained the Hagia Sofia as his personal property and, by the creation of a waqf (In the Arabic وَقْف‎ (ˈwɑqf), also known as a hubous (حُبوس); an inalienable charitable endowment of property under the Hanafi (Sunni law)), had lawfully made the structure permanently a mosque and thus unable to be used for any other purpose.  Under the Hanafi, Mehmed’s waqf was held to be valid, as was his gaining personal ownership in 1453 by virtue of the war code of the time.

Baffle

Baffle (pronounced baf-uhl)

(1) To confuse, bewilder or perplex.

(2) To frustrate or confound; to thwart (a now archaic and probably obsolete seventeenth century use which didn’t of necessity involve the creation of confusion or bewilderment).

(3) To check or deflect the movement of (sound, light, fluids, etc.).

(4) To equip with a baffle or baffles.

(5) To cheat or trick; to hoodwink or deceive someone (used between the sixteenth & eighteenth centuries and now obsolete).

(6) To struggle ineffectually, as a ship in a gale (a nineteenth form rare except in Admiralty use).

(7) Publicly to disgrace, especially of a recreant knight (used between the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries and now obsolete).

(8) Something that balks, checks, or deflects (also called a baffle-board); an artificial obstruction for checking or deflecting the flow of gases (as in a boiler), sounds (as in the loudspeaker system of a radio or hi-fi set), light (as in a darkroom) or fluids (as in a tank).

(9) In audio engineering, any boxlike enclosure or flat panel for mounting a loudspeaker.

(10) In military camouflage, an architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.

(11) In coal mining, a lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine (US dialectal use).

1540-1550: Of uncertain origin but may have entered English from the Scots dialectal bauchle (to disgrace, treat with contempt, especially a perjured knight), from bauch or bachlen (publicly to condemn) and probably related to the early-modern French bafouer (to disgrace, to scorn, abuse or hoodwink) or the obsolete French befer (to mock) which was definitely picked up from the Scots bauchle.  The most likely root is the German natural sound of disgust, like bah which appears in the language as baff machen (to flabbergast) and the familiar modern meaning “to bewilder or confuse” is from 1640s while that of “to defeat someone's efforts” is from 1670s.  The use meaning “shielding device” dates from 1881 and “artificial obstruction” is from 1910.  The alternative spellings bafful & baffol are both obsolete.  Baffle is a noun & verb, bafflement & baffler are nouns and baffled & baffling are verbs & adjectives; the noun plural is baffles (or the rare bafflers).

As a noun, baffle emerged in the early 1880s, initially used mostly of the shielding device attached to stoves and ovens where it was short for “baffle-plate”, derived from the noun.  The earlier noun (from circa 1860) in the same sense was baffler, a word which can still be used to describe (1) something that causes one to be baffled, particularly a difficult puzzle or riddle & (1) in gaming, one of the projections inside a dice tower that serve to deflect the die unpredictably.  The noun bafflement (state of being baffled) dates from 1841 while the adjective baffling (bewildering, confusing, perplexing) was from 1733; it was the present-participle adjective from the verb baffle but also emerged in Admiralty slang (soon picked up in the merchant service) in the eighteenth century as a sailor's adjective for winds that blow variously and make headway difficult; although now rare, it survived into the age of steam.  The noun and verb bafflegab was first noted in 1952 and describes pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language, especially legal or bureaucratic jargon; a synonym of gobbledygook (but not “hocus-pocus” or “mumbo-jumbo” which reference something nonsensical although use of those two is now probably proscribe because of their origin when speaking dismissively of the speech of African “witch doctors”.  The companion word is baffound (to perplex, bewilder by the use of bafflegab).

Although it had probably before been on the tips of not a few tongues, the words “baffle”, “baffling” & “baffled” in connection with Lindsay Lohan really spiked in 2016 when footage circulated of her speaking in distinctively different accent which used a conventional US English vocabulary but was delivered, with an occasionally halting delivery, the accent vaguely Russian or eastern European.  She later clarified thing by saying it was “…a mixture of most of the languages I can understand or am trying to learn”, adding that she’d been “…learning different languages since I was a child.  I'm fluent in English and French can understand Russian and am learning Turkish, Italian and Arabic”.  Taking advantage of the interest, she named the latest addition to the planet’s linguistic diversity “LiLohan” and a limited edition LiLohan clothing line was quickly made available as a philanthropic endeavour, part of the proceeds from each item sold going to Caudwell Children and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD).  Turkey is now properly called Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye); the accepted short form Türkiye.

Baffled sump (left) and fuel tank (right).In cars, baffles are used in sumps and fuel tanks to prevent fluids sloshing around when subjected to the high lateral forces encountered in high-speed cornering.  With fuel tanks this ensures weight transfers are minimized while the purpose in a sump is to (1) avoid the oil surge or starvation which can happen if movement means the oil becomes removed from the oil-pump’s pickup & (2) assist in reducing the oil’s tendency to foam.  In Australia Ford included a baffled sump on the Falcon GTHO Phase III (1970-1971) and this was to be carried over to the abortive Phase IV (1972), the novelty with the latter being the race cars gaining tear-drop shaped “ears” welded to each side of the sump, adjacent to the oil pump.  The ears not only increased oil capacity but also, sitting as they did in the air-flow passing under the body, enhanced cooling.

Speak no evil: Alan Tudge.

Given the number of times the Australian Liberal Party has in recent years sought to celebrate the virtue of “personality responsibility” the evidence given by Alan Tudge (b 1971) to the royal commission investigating the “robodebt” scheme (a system which sought to “recover” what were alleged to be debts incurred by citizens who had failed to inform the government about their earnings) must to some have seemed baffling; not necessarily surprising, just baffling.  The scheme had been found to be unlawful but Mr Tudge, who served as (Liberal) minister for human services in 2017-2018 and was (under the Westminster system) “responsible” for the administration of “robodebt”, refused during questioning to accept ministerial responsibility for the unlawfulness of the scheme.  Despite being the minister in charge, Mr Tudge said it was not his responsibility check whether or not the robodebt scheme was lawful although he did seem to concede he was responsible for the scheme’s “lawful implementation”, adding that he assumed it was lawful, and had never been shown legal advice regarding its legality.  His position appeared to be based on what sounds a reasonable assumption: that the departmental secretary (the public servant in charge of the department) would not be implementing a program which he or she would know to be unlawful, something he described as “unfathomable”, adding that the scheme had gone through a rigorous cabinet process “which always has a legal overlay”.

Justice Jackson prosecuting, Albert Speer in the dock, Nuremberg, 1946. 

There are many books by academics, historians and former politicians which discuss the doctrine of ministerial responsibility but it's not known if the transcript of 20 June 1946 of the International Military Tribunal (the Nuremberg Trial) was in Mr Tudge's mind: Mr Justice Robert Jackson (1892–1954; US Supreme Court Justice 1941-1954; Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg (IMT) trials of Nazi war criminals 1945-1946) cross-examining Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945):

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Your statement some time ago that you had a certain responsibility as a Minister of the Government.  I should like to have you explain what responsibility you referred to when you say you assume a responsibility as a member of the Government; your common responsibility, what do you mean by your common responsibility along with others?

DEFENDANT SPEER: In my opinion, a state functionary has two types of responsibility.  One is the responsibility for his own sector and for that, of course, he is fully responsible.  But above that I think that in decisive matters there is, and must be, among the leaders a common responsibility, for who is to bear responsibility for developments, if not the close associates of the head of State?

This common responsibility, however, can only be applied to fundamental matters, it cannot be applied to details connected with other ministries or other responsible departments, for otherwise the entire discipline in the life of the state would be quite confused, and no one would ever know who is individually responsible in a particular sphere. This individual responsibility in one's own sphere must, at all events, be kept clear and distinct.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, your point is, I take it, that you as a member of the Government and a leader in this period of time acknowledge a responsibility for its large policies, but not for all the details that occurred in their execution. Is that a fair statement of your position?

DEFENDANT SPEER: Yes, indeed.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I think that concludes the cross-examination.

Alan Tudge at the 2017 Midwinter Ball with Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller.

Ms Millar also provided some interesting evidence to the “robodebt” royal commission and (pursuant to an unrelated matter) received from the Commonwealth a taxpayer-funded Aus$650,000 settlement for damages while working in two ministerial offices.  Ms Millar had accused Mr Tudge of being physically abusive towards her while in a consensual relationship and part of the settlement related to these matters, including compensation for loss of earning, hurt, distress, humiliation & medical and legal costs.  The Commonwealth did not admit liability but in paying Aus$650,000 seems to have assumed responsibility.  In a Clintonesque touch, Mr Tudge admitted he was at times sexually intimate with Ms Miller but insists he did not have “sexual intercourse” with that woman.