Coefficient

Coefficient (pronounced koh-uh-fish-uhnt)

(1) In mathematics, a number or quantity in an equation placed usually before and multiplying another number or quantity; a constant by which an algebraic term is multiplied; a number, value or item that serves as a measure of some property or characteristic.

(2) In physics, a number that is constant for a given substance, body, or process under certain specified conditions, serving as a measure of one of its properties; a number, value or item that serves as a measure of some property or characteristic.

(3) Acting together (rare except in historic references).

1580s: From the Middle English coefficient (that which unites in action with something else to produce a given effect), from the French coefficient, coined by French mathematician François Viète (1540-1603), from the Late Latin coefficient, stem of coefficiēns, which is a nominalisation of the present active participle of coefficere, the construct being co- (together) + efficere (to effect) from efficio.  The alternative spelling is co-efficient and the adjectival sense “acting in union to the same end” was first used in the 1660s.  Coefficient is a noun & adjective, coefficiency is a noun and coefficiently an adverb; the noun plural is coefficients.

In science and engineering, the word is applied for a variety of technical purposes, including:

(1) In physics, as coefficient of friction, the ratio between (1) the magnitude of the force of friction which a surface produces on an object (moving along the surface or being pressed statically against it) & (2) the magnitude of the normal force which is produced by the surface on the object and which is perpendicular to that surface.

(2) In physics, as drag coefficient, a dimensionless quantity quantifying the amount of hydrodynamic drag force experienced by an object with a given area immersed in a fluid of a given density flowing at a given speed.

(3) In statistical analysis, a coefficient of alienation (or coefficient of non-determination), a numerical measure of the lack of relationship between variables.

(4) In physics, as ballistic coefficient, the ratio of the mass of an object to the product of its maximum cross-sectional area and its drag coefficient, used to measure the object's resistance to deceleration by hydrodynamic drag.

(5) In chemistry, as Bunsen coefficient, the number of millilitres of gas dissolved in a millilitre of liquid at atmospheric pressure and a specified temperature.

(6) In statistics, as Dice coefficient, a statistic used to gauge the similarity of two samples.  It is equal to twice the number of elements common to both sets, divided by the sum of the number of elements in each set.

(7) In naval architecture, as prismatic coefficient, the ratio between the total submerged volume of a vessel's hull, on the one hand, and the product of the length of the submerged portion of the hull with the area of the largest cross-sectional slice of the submerged portion of the hull, on the other.

(8) In naval architecture, as block coefficient, the proportion occupied, by the submerged portion of a vessel's hull, of a rectangular prism with dimensions equal to the maximum beam of the submerged portion of the hull, the length of the submerged portion of the hull, and the draft of the vessel.

(9) In measurement, as temperature coefficient, a number which relates the change of the magnitude of a physical property to a unit change in temperature.

(10) In nuclear engineering, as void coefficient, a number quantifying how the reactivity of a nuclear reactor changes due to the formation of bubbles in the reactor's coolant.

Drag coefficient (CD)

Except in a vacuum, objects in motion are subject to drag, the friction created by air or water interacting with the object’s surface.  This friction absorbs energy the object could otherwise use to maintain or increase speed so, except where drag is required (such as the need for a certain amount of down-force), designers of objects which move, shape them to minimise drag. Historically, the drag coefficient was notated as c_d but it’s also written as c_x & c_w (cd or CD a common form in non-specialist literature).  The CD number is calculated according to a equation, the construct of which varies according to the object to be assessed.  For a car, the equation is:

F = 1/2 * rho * S * Cx * v²

F is the dragging force, in expressed in Newtons (N)

S is the frontal surface of the object in square metres (m²)

Cx is the aerodynamic finesse, which varies depending on the shape of the object

v is the relative speed of the object (the car) compared to the fluid (the air), in meters per second (m/s), separated into vc (object speed) and va (air speed) and written (vc - va)

rho is the density of the fluid, the air, in kilograms per cubic meters (kg/ m³) (approximately to 1.55 kg/m³)

The drag coefficient (CD) is a measure of aerodynamic efficiency, expressed as a number and, as a general principle, the lower the number, the more efficient the shape but the CD is often misunderstood.  It’s not an absolute value which can be used to compare relative efficiency of objects of radically different shapes.  A CD for an aircraft needs to be compared with that of other airframes, not those of a train or truck, the CD calculated by an equation using a variable (the reference area) relevant to the function of the object.  For aircraft, the variable is the wing area because it’s relevant for an object moving in three dimensions whereas for road vehicles, it’s the frontal area, cars and trucks almost always moving forward.  That’s why noting a Boeing 747 has a CD of .031 while a Porsche 911 might return .34 is a meaningless comparison.

1963 Jaguar E-Type S1 (XK-E) FHC (fixed head coupé) (left) and 1962 Volkswagen Type 2 (23 Window Samba).

Even among road transport vehicles, the variability in the equations needs to be understood.  Just because a Volkswagen Type 2 returns a CD of .42 doesn’t mean it’s a more aerodynamic shape than a Jaguar E-Type (XK-E) which produces a notionally worse .44 CD.  The numbers are a product partly of the variable, the frontal area, so the efficiency of the Volkswagen can be assessed only if compared to other, similarly sized vans.

Ambrosia

Ambrosia (pronouced am-bro-zia)

(1) In classical mythology, the food (sometimes called nectar) of the gods and said to bestow immortality.

(2) Something especially delicious to taste or smell.

(3) A fruit dish made of oranges and shredded coconut.  Sometimes includes pineapple.

(4) Alternative name for beebread.

(5) Any of various herbaceous plants constituting the genus Ambrosia, mostly native to America but widely naturalized: family Asteraceae (composites).  The genus includes the ragweeds.

1545-1555.  From the Middle English, from the Old French ambroise, from the Latin ambrosia (favored food or drink of the gods) from the Ancient Greek ambrosia (food of the gods), noun use of the feminine of ambrosious (thought to mean literally "of the imortals") from ambrotos (immoratlity; immortal, imperishable).  The construct was a- (not) + mbrotos (related to mortos (mortal), from the primitive Indo-European root mer- (to rub away, to harm (also "to die" and used widely when forming words referring to death and to beings subject to death).  Writers in Antiquity woud use the word when speaking of theit favorite herbs and it's been used in English to describe delectable foods (though originally of fruit drinks) since the 1680s and came to be used figuratively for anything delightful by the 1730s.  Applied to certain herbs by Pliny and Dioscorides; used of various foods for mortals since 1680s (originally of fruit drinks); used figuratively for "anything delightful" by 1731.  The adjective ambrosial dates from the 1590s in the sense of "immortal, divine, of the quality of ambrosia", the sense of "fragrant, delicious" developed by the 1660s.  The other adjectival forms were ambrosiac (circa 1600) & ambrosian (1630s).

Ambrose was the masculine proper name, from the Latin Ambrosius, from the Ancient Greek ambrosios (immortal, belonging to the immortals),  The Biblioteca Ambrosian (Ambrosian Library) in Milan (1609), established by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564–1631), is named for Saint Ambrose of Milan (circa 339–397) Bishop of Milan 374-397.

Cupid, Psyche and the Nectar of the Gods

In Greek mythology, Psyche was the youngest and loveliest of a king’s three daughters.  So haunting was Psyche’s beauty that people travelled from afar to pay homage, neglecting the worship of Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty, instead venerating the nymph.  Venus became enraged at finding her altars deserted, men instead turning their devotions to the young virgin, watching as she passed, singing her praises and strewing her way with chaplets and flowers.

Indignant at the exaltation of a mortal, Venus began her righteous rant.  "Am I then to be eclipsed in my honors by a mere mortal girl?  In vain then did that royal shepherd, whose judgment was approved by Jove himself, give me the palm of beauty over my illustrious rivals, Pallas and Juno. But she shall not so quietly usurp my honors. I will give her cause to repent of so unlawful a beauty."  Venus summoned her winged son, the mischievous Cupid and telling him of Psyche, ordered her revenge.  "My dear son, punish that contumacious beauty; give your mother a revenge as sweet as her injuries are great; infuse into the bosom of that haughty girl a passion for some low, mean, unworthy being, so that she may reap a mortification as great as her present exultation and triumph."

Obediently, Cupid set to his task.  In the garden of Venus lay two fountains, one of sweet waters, the other of bitter.  Cupid filled two amber phials, one from each fountain and suspending them from the top of his quiver, hastened to the chamber of Psyche, finding her asleep.  He shed a few drops from the bitter fountain over her lips and although though the sight of her moved him almost to pity, touched her side with the point of his arrow.  At the touch she awoke and her eyes gazed upon the invisible Cupid which so enchanted him he became confused and pricked himself with his own arrow.  Helplessly in love, his only thought now was to repair the mischief he had done and he poured the balmy drops of joy over all her silken blonde ringlets.

Psyche, henceforth frowned upon by Venus, gained no benefit from her charms.  While all cast covetous eyes upon her and all spoke her praises, not prince, plebeian or peasant ever asked for her hand in marriage.  Her two sisters had become betrothed to princes but Psyche sat in solitude, feeling cursed by the beauty which had failed to awaken love.  The king and queen, thinking they had incurred the wrath of the gods turned for guidance to the oracle of Apollo who answered: “The virgin is destined for the bride of no mortal lover. Her future husband awaits her on the top of the mountain. He is a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist."

Her parents, distraught, abandoned themselves to grief but Psyche was fatalistic, saying "Why, my dear parents, do you now lament me? You should rather have grieved when the people showered upon me undeserved honors, and with one voice called me a Venus. I now perceive I am victim to that name.  I submit.  Lead me to that rock to which my unhappy fate has destined me."  Accordingly, amid the lamentations of all, she was taken to the peak of the mountain and there left alone.  When the tearful girl stood at the summit, the gentle Zephyr raised her from the earth and carried her on the breeze, bringing her to rest in a flowery dale where she laid down to sleep.  When she awoke, refreshed, she looked around and beheld nearby a grove of tall and stately trees.  Entering the forest, she discovered in its midst a fountain from which bubbled crystal-clear waters and nearby, a splendid palace, so magnificent she knew it the work not of mortal hands, but the retreat of some god.  Drawn by admiration and wonder, she ventured to enter the door.  Amazed at what she saw, she walked along a marble floor so polished it shimmered, golden pillars supported a vaulted roof, walls were enriched with carvings and paintings of fantastic beasts.  Everything upon which her eye fell delighted her.

Soon, although she saw no one, she heard a voice.  "Sovereign lady, all that you see is yours. We whose voices you hear are your servants and shall obey all your commands with utmost care.  Retire, should you please, to your chamber, recline upon your bed of down and when you see fit, repair to the bath.  Your supper awaits in the alcove”.  Psyche took her bath and seated herself in the alcove, whereupon a table appeared laden with extraordinary delicacies of food and nectarous wines.   While she ate, she heard the playing of lute and harp and the harmony of song.

That night she met he husband but he came only in the darkness, fleeing before the dawn, but his words and caresses were of love and inspired in her a like passion.  Often she would beg him to stay so she might behold him in the light but he refused, telling her never to attempt to see him, for no good would come of it and that he would rather have her love him as a man than adore him as a god.  This, Psyche accepted but the days grew long and lonely and she began to feel she was living in a gilded cage.  One night, when her husband came, she told him of her distress, her charms enough to coax from him his unwilling acquiescence that her sisters could visit.  Delighted, she summoned the obedient Zephyr who brought them to the mountain and in happiness, they embraced.

The splendor and celestial delights of Psyche’s palace astonished her sisters but also aroused their envy and they began to pepper her with questions about her husband and she told them he was a beautiful youth who spent his days hunting in the mountains.  Unconvinced, the soon drew from her that she had never seen him and they began to fill her mind with dark suspicions, recalling the Pythian oracle had declared her doomed to marry a direful and tremendous monster.  Psyche protested but they told her the folk living in the valley say the husband is a terrible and monstrous serpent, amusing himself while nourishing her with dainties that he may by and by devour her.  They told to one night to take with her a lamp and sharp blade so that when he slept she might light the lamp and see his true form.  If truly he is a monster they told her, "hesitate not and cut off its head".

Psyche tried to resist her sisters’ persuasions but knew she was curious and that night she took to bed a lamp and a long, sharp knife.  When he had fallen to sleep, silently she arose and lit her lamp, beholding but the most beautiful of the gods, his golden ringlets falling over his snowy neck, two dewy wings on his shoulders whiter than snow, with shining feathers like the tender blossoms of spring.  Entranced, as she moved her lamp better to see his face, a drop of hot oil fell on the shoulder of the god and startled, he opened his eyes and fixed them upon her.  They both were frozen for a few seconds, then suddenly and without a word, he spread his wings and flew out of the window.  Psyche, crying in despair, in vain endeavored to follow but fell from the window to the ground below.

Hearing her fall, Cupid for a moment paused in his flight and turned to her saying, "Oh faithless Psyche, is it thus you repay my love? After I disobeyed my mother's commands and made you my wife, will you think me a monster and would cut off my head?  Go, return to your sisters, who you trust more than me.  I punish you no more than to forever leave you for love cannot dwell with suspicion."  With those words, he flew off, leaving poor Psyche crying into the earth.  For hours she sobbed and then looked around, but her palace and gardens had vanished and she found herself in a field in the city where her sisters dwelt.  She repaired thither and told them her story at which, though pretending to grieve with her, the two evil sisters inwardly rejoiced for both thought as one: that Cupid might now choose one of them.  Both the next morning silently arose and snuck secretly to the mountain where each called upon Zephyr to bear them to his lord but leaping up, there was no Zephyr to carry them on the breeze and each fell down the precipice to their deaths.

The devastated Psyche meanwhile wandered.  Day and night, without food or rest, she searched for her husband and one evening saw in the distance a magnificent temple atop a lofty mountain and she felt her heart beat, wondering if perhaps there was Cupid.  She walked to the temple and there saw heaps of corn, some in loose ears and some in sheaves, mingled with ears of barley.  Scattered about, lay sickles and rakes, the instruments of harvest, without order, as if thrown carelessly from the weary reapers' hands in the sultry hours of the day.  This unseemly confusion disturbed the neat and tidy Psyche and she put herself to work, separating and sorting everything and putting all in its proper place, believing she ought to neglect none of the gods, but prove by her piety to prove she was worthy of their help.  The holy Ceres, whose temple it was, finding her so religiously employed, thus spoke to her, "Oh Psyche, truly your are worthy of our pity, though I cannot shield you from the frowns of Venus, I can teach you how best to allay her displeasure. Go, then, and voluntarily surrender yourself to your lady and sovereign, and try by modesty and submission to win her forgiveness, and perhaps her favor will restore you the husband you have lost."  Filled with both fear and hope, Psyche made her way to the temple of Venus.

Venus met her with anger.  "Most undutiful and faithless of servants," said she, "do you at last remember you have a mistress or have you come to see your sick husband, the one injured by the wound given him by his worthless wife?  You are so ill favored you can be worthy of your lover only by showing industry and diligence.  I shall put you to work".  She led Psyche to temple’s storehouse in which sat vast piles of wheat, barley, vetches, beans and lentils, the food for her birds.  “Separate these grains, put them all in sacks and have it done by night” she commanded, leaving her to the task.  Shocked, Psyche sat silent, moving not a finger.  While she despaired, Cupid ordered an ant, a native of the fields, to bring all ants from the anthill and they gathered on the piles.  Quickly and with the efficiency of their breed, they took grain by grain, making perfect parcels of each and when done, vanished from sight.  As twilight fell, Venus returned from a banquet of the gods and seeing the sacks neatly stacked, became enraged.  "This is no work of yours, wicked one, but his, whom to your own and his misfortune you have enticed."  So saying, she threw her a piece of black bread for her supper and stormed off.

Next morning Venus ordered Psyche to be called and said to her, "Behold yonder grove which stretches along the margin of the water.  There you will find sheep feeding without a shepherd, with golden-shining fleeces on their backs.  Go now, fetch me some of that precious wool gathered from every one of their fleeces."  Standing on the riverbank, wondering at the difficulty of her task, Psyche was about to cross but river god made the reeds speak, telling her "Oh maiden, tempt not the dangerous flood, nor venture among those rams for as long as the sun shines, they burn with a cruel rage to destroy mortals with their sharp horns or rude teeth.  But when the noontide sun has driven them to the shade, and the serene spirit of the flood has lulled them to rest, you may then cross in safety, and you will find the woolly gold sticking to the bushes and the trunks of the trees."  Psyche did as they said and returned with her arms full of the golden fleece but Venus was not pleased.  "Well I know it is by none of your own doings that you have succeeded I do not believe you are of use but I have another task for you.  Here, take this box and go your way to the infernal shades, and give this box to Proserpine and say, 'my mistress Venus desires you to send her a little of your beauty, for in tending her sick son she has lost some of her own'.  Be not too long on your errand, for I must paint myself with it to appear this evening at the circle of the gods."

Psyche now believed her own destruction was at hand and, with no wish to delay what was not to be avoided, dashed to the top of a high tower, preparing to cast herself headlong, thus to descend the shortest way to the shades below.  But then, a voice from the tower said to her, "Why, poor unlucky girl, do you design to put an end to your days in so dreadful a manner? And what cowardice makes you sink under this last danger when you have been so miraculously supported in all your former?"  Then the voice told her how by a certain cave she might reach the realms of Pluto, and how to avoid all the dangers of the road, to pass by Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and prevail on Charon, the ferryman, to take her across the black river and bring her back again. But the voice also cautioned, "When Proserpine has given you the box filled with her beauty, you must never once open or look into the box nor allow your curiosity to pry into the treasure of the beauty of the goddesses."

Encouraged, Psyche obeyed the advice and travelled safely to the kingdom of Pluto. Admitted to the palace of Proserpine, she delivered her message from Venus and soon, she was handed the box, shut and filled with the precious commodity. Then she returned the way she came, glad once more to be in the light of day.  But as she walked along the path, a longing desire overcame her, an urge to look into the box for, as she imagined, a touch of the divine beauty would make her more desired by Cupid so, delicately, she opened the box.  But in there was nothing of beauty but only an infernal and truly Stygian sleep which, being set free from its prison, took possession of her, and she fell in the road where she stood, plunged into a deep sleep, lying there without sense or motion.

But Cupid was now recovered and could no longer bear the absence of his beloved Psyche and slipping through a crack in the window, he flew to where Psyche lay.  He gathered up the sleep from her and closed it again in the box, waking her with the gentlest touch of one of his arrows. "Again," said he, "have you almost perished by the same curiosity.  But now perform exactly the task imposed on you by my mother, and I will take care of the rest."  Then Cupid, as swift as lightning, presented himself before Jupiter with his supplication.  Jupiter was impressed and so earnestly did he plead the cause of the lovers that he won the consent of Venus and on hearing this, sent Mercury to bring Psyche up to the heavenly assembly, and when she arrived, he handed her a goblet ambrosia saying, "Drink this, Psyche, and be immortal; nor shall Cupid ever break away from the knot in which he is tied, but these nuptials shall be perpetual."  Thus Psyche became at last united to Cupid, and in time, born to them was a daughter whose name was Pleasure.

Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche (circa 1517) by Raphael (1483–1520).

The story of Cupid and the OCD Psyche is told by the Roman writer Apuleius (circa 124-circa 170) in three chapters in his rather risqué picaresque novel, The Metamorphoses of Apuleius (which Saint Augustine dubbed Asinus aureus (The Golden Ass (by which it’s today known)).  The Golden Ass is notable as the only full-length work of fiction in Classical Latin to have survived in its entirety and is a work with aspects which would be regarded as novel centuries later, including fantastical imagery, passages like fairy tales and elements which would now be called magic realism.  Like many modern fairy tales, there is a moral to the story and for Apuleius it was that it is love which makes to soul immortal and there was no need for subtlety, Cupid the son of the goddess of desire and Psyche's name originally meant soul.

With the re-discovery (and some re-invention) of much of antiquity during the Renaissance, the story gained much popularity and attracted the interest of artists and from Raphael’s (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, 1483–1520) studio came the best known evocation.  One of the scenes is the wedding feast, painted in the form of a hanging tapestry.  Psyche’s guest list was a roll-call of the gods, Ganymede, Apollo, Bacchus and Jupiter are all at the table, the Graces and the Hours in attendance.  The artists (for some the work was executed by professional painters under Raphael’s guidance) do have some fun, very much in the spirit of Apuleius for above the flying Mercury sits, artfully arranged, a suggestive conjunction of certain vegetables and fruits.

The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche (1532) by Giulio Romano.

The romance of Cupid and Psyche drew other artists including the Italian Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi, circa 1499-1546), a student of Raphael whose influence permeates.  While not highly regarded by critics and better remembered as an architect, Romano is of note because he was among the earliest of the artists whose work can be called Mannerist and certainly his wedding feast painting includes the mythological, a staged and theatrical setting, eroticism and an unusual sense of perspective; all characteristic of Mannerist art although he remained entirely naturalistic in the callipygian rendering of Psyche’s buttocks.

In Shakespeare's late drama The Winter's Tale there’s an allusion to Romano as “that rare Italian master” but despite the bard’s apparent admiration, historians of art treat him as little more than a footnote; the shadow Raphael cast was long.  Some critics seem determined to devalue his work, the Catholic Encyclopaedia (1913) noting it was “prolific and workmanlike, always competent…” but with “…no originality; as a painter, he is merely a temperament, a prodigious worker. His manual dexterity is unaccompanied by any greatness of conception or high moral principle.  His lively but superficial fancy, incapable of deep emotion, of religious feeling, or even of observation, attracted him to neutral subjects, to mythological paintings, and imaginary scenes from the world of fable. Therein under the cloak of humanism, he gave expression to a sensualism rather libertine than poetical, an epicureanism unredeemed by any elevated or noble quality.  It is this which wins for Giulio his distinctive place in art.  His conception of form was never quite original; it was always a clever and bookish compromise between Raphael and Michelangelo.  His sense of color grows ever louder and uglier, his ideas are void of finesse, whatever brilliancy they show is second-hand. His single distinctive characteristic is the doubtful ease with which he played with the commonplaces of pagandom.  In this respect at least, paintings like those of the Hall of Psyche (1532) are historical landmarks.  It is the first time that an appeal is made to the senses with all the brutal frankness of a modern work”. 

Damning with faint praise perhaps.  Grudgingly, the editors did concede that despite being “…distinguished by such characteristics and marked by such defects, Romano occupies nevertheless an important place in the history of art. More than any other, he aided in propagating the pseudo-classical, half-pagan style of art so fashionable during the seventeenth century. It’s mainly through his influence that after the year 1600 we find so few religious painters in Europe”.

One could hardly expect The Catholic Encyclopedia (sub-titled An International work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church), to find much worthy in a mannerist (or perhaps anything modern).  Mannerism, novel in some ways as it was, was rarely original in form or content.  It was a reaction against the perceived perfection of the neo-classicism of the High Renaissance and artists from Romano on were drawn to Greek mythology, characters like Psyche and Echo able simply and unambiguously to represent the psychological problems muddied by Christian theology.

Vanity

Vanity (pronounced van-i-tee)

(1) An excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, etc; character or quality of being vain; conceit.

(2) An instance or display of this quality or feeling.

(3) Something about which one is vain or excessively proud.

(4) Lack of real value; hollowness; worthlessness.

(5) Something worthless, trivial, or pointless.

(6) A small case, usually used for make-up items.

(7) A usually small dressing table used to apply makeup, preen, and coif hair. Normally quite low and similar to a desk, with drawers and one or more mirrors on top.  Often paired with a bench or stool to sit upon.

(8) A type of bathroom fitting, usually a permanently-fixed storage unit including one or more washbasins.

(9) An alternative name for a portfolio maintained as a showcase for one's own talents, especially as a writer, actor, singer, composer or model.

(10) Any idea, theory or statement entirely without foundation (UK only, now obsolete).

1200-1250: From Middle English vanite, borrowed from Old French vanité (self-conceit; futility; lack of resolve) derived from the Classical Latin vānitās (emptiness, aimlessness; falsity (and when used figuratively "vainglory, foolish pride”), root of which was vānus (empty, void (and when used figuratively "idle, fruitless”).  A more precise equivalent in Latin was probably vanitatem (emptiness, foolish pride).  Root was the primitive Indo-European wano-, the suffixed form of the root eue- (to leave, abandon, give out).  English also absorbed many synonyms and related words: egotism, complacency, vainglory, ostentation, pride, emptiness, sham, unreality, folly, triviality, futility.  Except in religious texts, the old meaning (that which is vain, futile, or worthless) faded from general use, the modern meaning (self-conceited), which endures to this day, is attested from the mid-fourteenth century.  The first reference to furniture was the vanity table, dating from 1936, a use adopted by manufacturers of bathroom fittings in the later post-war period.  The first vanity table seem to have been advertised in 1936.

The Old Testament

Vanity of vanities, said the preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

The word translated as vanity appears 37 times in Ecclesiastes, more than in the entirety of the rest of the Old Testament so is clearly a theme of the text.  The meaning of vanity is used here in its original form of something that is transitory and quickly passes away.  In that it’s a literal translation of the Hebrew hebel, best understood in this context as meaning breath of wind, something which, whatever its immediate effects, is soon gone.  Unfortunately for nihilists, emos and other depressives trawling texts for anything confirming the pointlessness of life, biblical scholars agree the phrase is not an assertion that life is meaningless or that our labors in this fallen world are ultimately useless.  Instead, it’s a saying to help people put their lives in the proper perspective.  Ecclesiastes is not saying all our efforts are worthless, just observing that all we do in our three score and ten years upon this earth is but a brief prelude to our eternal existence and much of life escapes our understanding, for we cannot comprehend how everything fits into the grand story of creation.

All very poetic but, perhaps sadly, improbable.  It’s more likely the universe is a violent, doomed, swirl of matter and energy, life is pointless, right or wrong are just variable constructs, everything is meaningless and all any can hope for is a fleetingly brief false consciousness which might make us feel happy.

Vanity Fair

Published in 1678, John Bunyan’s (1628–1688) The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian’s spiritual journey through the sins and temptations of earthly existence to the salvation of the Kingdom of Heaven; a symbolic vision of an English worthy’s pilgrimage through life.  In the village of Vanity is a perpetual fair, selling all things to satisfy all desires and Vanity Fair represents the sin of man’s attachment to and lust for transient worldly goods, a critique echoed later in secular criticisms of materialism.

Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), although making no mention of Bunyan or his work when he published Vanity Fair in 1848, could rely on his readers being well acquainted with the symbolism of the earlier allegory.  By the mid-nineteenth century when Thackeray’s portrait of British society was published, the term had become laden too with secular and class-conscious meanings, suggesting the imagery both of self-indulgent playground and the sense of that stratum of society where the only habitué are the idle and undeserving rich.  Thackeray explored both.

Lindsay Lohan. Vanity Fair Italia, August 2011

Over the years, on both sides of the Atlantic, a number of periodicals have used the masthead Vanity Fair.  The current one has its roots in Condé Nast’s purchase in 1913 of a men's fashion journal called Dress, and Vanity Fair, a magazine devoted to performing arts with an emphasis on theatre.  After a brief, unsatisfactory foray as the combined title Dress and Vanity Fair, in 1914 he re-launched as Vanity Fair and success was immediate, continuing even until well into the depression years of the 1930s.  Curiously different to the vicissitudes of the digital age, although revenue from advertising had collapsed, by the time Condé Nast in 1936 folded Vanity Fair into his companion title Vogue, circulation had reached an all-time high.  The problem was the cover price of an issue wasn’t sufficient profitably to cover production and distribution costs; advertising was essential.  In a situation familiar to newspaper publishers in their halcyon days, it wasn’t advantageous to achieve higher sales.

Condé Nast Publications revived the title, February 1983 the first issue.  Like most print publications, its advertising revenue has declined but, critically in this market, so have newsstand sales.  Its subscriber base is said to be stable but Condé Nast doesn’t release data indicating the breakdown mix and it’s thus unknown how much of this is made up from less lucrative bundled packages.  Newsstand sales of single-issue copies are a vital metric in this market, editors judged by monthly sales, a school of analysis now devoted to deconstructing the relationship between the photograph on an issue’s cover and copies sold; editorial content, while not ignored, seems less relevant.

The magazine’s future is thus uncertain as are the options were it not to continue as a distinct, stand-alone entity with a print version.  It’s a different environment from 1936 when it was absorbed into Vogue and different even to the turn of the century when Mirabella, a similar publication facing similar problems, closed.  The now well-practiced path of ceasing print production and going wholly digital may become attractive if circulation continues to suffer.  While it true Condé Nast already has digital titles which would seem to overlap with Vanity Fair, that’s less of a concern than cannibalization in print where the relationship of production and distribution costs to individual sales is different; both are marginal in gaining additional digital subscriptions.

Vanity Cases

The vanity case is an ancient accessory, one, three-thousand years old, made from inlaid cedar containing ointment, face-paint, perfume and a mirror of polished metal, was discovered during one of Howard Carter’s (1874–1939) archaeological digs.  Well known in something recognizably modern from the fourteenth century in France and Italy, they became fashionable in England only during the 1700s and then for men, as a small box called a “dressing case”, designed to fit into larger “dressing case”.

Enamel vanity case by Gérard Sandoz, Paris, circa 1927.

Cigarette case by Cartier, Paris, circa 1925.

During the 1920s, the modern styles evolved.  Most exquisite were the art-deco creations designed as companion pieces to the cigarette cases newly fashionable with women as the social acceptability of young ladies smoking became prevalent.

Mandamus

Mandamus (pronounced man-dey-muhs)

At common law, an order of a superior court or officer commanding (an inferior tribunal, public official, or organ of the state) a specific thing be done.  Formerly a writ, now issued as an order.

1530-1535:  From Middle English, a borrowing from the late fourteenth century Anglo-French, from the Latin mandāmus (we order (which were printed as the opening words of a writ of mandamus), first person plural present indicative of mandāre (to order).

Some writs

A mandamus was a writ compelling a court or government official correctly to perform that which the law required; for technical reasons it’s now issued as an order rather than a writ.  It’s one of a number of procedures called the prerogative writs, an evolutionary fork of the common law which ensured courts could compel governments to adhere to the law.  These devices constitute the means by which the rule of law is maintained and, because of the intent, a mandamus must follow black-letter law.  If a law says a minister must review something, the court can force only the review and cannot instruct what the finding should be.  The use is now generally limited to cases of complaint someone having an interest in the performance of a public duty, when effectual relief against its neglect cannot be had in the course of an ordinary action.

There are other mechanisms in this class.  The subpoena duces tecum (order for production of evidence) is a summons ordering the recipient to appear before the court and produce documents or other tangible evidence for use at a hearing or trial.  It’s similar to the subpoena ad testificandum (summoning a witness orally to testify) but differs in that it requires the production of physical evidence.  The literal translation was "under threat of punishment, you will bring it with you", the construct being sub (under) + poena (penalty) + duces (you will bring) + te (you) + cum (with).  Habeas corpus in the Medieval Latin meant literally "that you have the body".  It provides recourse in law by which a person can report an unlawful detention to a court and request the court order those holding the person to bring the prisoner before a court so it might decide whether the imprisonment is lawful; it is best understood in modern use as "bring us the body".  The quo warranto, which in Medieval Latin was literally "by what warrant?" required a person to show the court by what authority they have for exercising some right, power, or franchise they claim to hold.  A prohibito (literally "prohibited") directed the stopping of something the law prohibits.  A procedendo, from Medieval Latin in the sense of the meanings “proceed; prosecute”, was a writ sending a case from an appellate court to a lower court with an order to proceed to judgment and was also the writ by which the suspended commission of a justice of the peace was revived.  A writ of certiorari was a request for judicial review of the findings or conduct of an inferior court, tribunal, or other public authority ands in its pure form it existed by right, not by leave of the court.  The Medieval Latin was certiorārī (volumus), a literal “we wish to be informed".  Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin verbs certioro, certiorare (to inform, apprise, show).

William Marbury (left) & James Madison (right).  Marbury's former house in Georgetown, Washington DC is now the Ukrainian Embassy to the United States.

Marbury v Madison (5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803)) was the US Supreme Court case which established the principle of judicial review in the United States, the consequence being US courts have the power to strike down laws they find to violate the US Constitution; it’s thus regarded as the single most important decision in US constitutional law, establishing that the constitution, although a foundation political document, is also actual law and thus the country’s basic law.  It was this decision which made possible the enforcement of the separation of powers between the federal government’s executive and judicial branches.

The case had an unlikely origin in a political squabble which sounds remarkably modern.  John Adams (1735–1826; US president 1797-1801) had lost the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; US president 1801-1809) and in March 1801, two days before his term ended, Adams appointed several dozen Federalist Party supporters to judicial offices, intending to sabotage the Democratic-Republican Party’s incoming administration.  A compliant Senate confirmed the appointments with a haste which would seem now extraordinary but the outgoing Secretary of State John Marshall (1755–1835; US secretary of state 1800-1801 & chief justice 1801-1835) did not deliver all of the papers of commission before Jefferson's inauguration, thus encouraging the new president to declare them void.  One undelivered commission was that of William Marbury (1762–1835) and in late 1801, after Madison had more than once declined to deliver his commission, Marbury filed suit in the Supreme Court requesting the issue of a writ of mandamus, requiring Madison to deliver the papers.

The court’s judgement was handed down by John Marshall, now the chief justice.  The court held that (1) the president’s refusal to deliver the commission was illegal and (2) in those circumstances a competent court would order the official in question to deliver the commission.  However, despite the facts of Marbury v Madison, no writ of mandamus was issue, the rationale being that upon examining the law with which Congress had granted the Supreme Court jurisdiction in such matters, the legislature had expanded the definition of its jurisdiction beyond that which was specified in the constitution.  The Court then struck down that section of the law, announcing that American courts have the power to invalidate laws they find violate the Constitution.  The finding in Marbury v Madison was the origin of judicial review in the US.

Forrest-Marbury House, 3350 M Street NW, Georgetown, Washington DC, once the home of William Marbury.  It was in this house on 29 March 1791 that George Washington (1732–1799; president of the US 1789-1797) negotiated the real-estate deal for the land that would become Washington DC.  Since 1992, it has been the chancery of the Embassy of Ukraine.

Dysmorphia

Dysmorphia (pronounced dis-mor-fiah)

(1) In clinical anatomy, characterized by anatomical malformation.

(2) In general medicine, having or exhibiting an anatomical malformation.

(3) In psychology and psychiatry, the perception of anatomical malformation; any of various psychological disorders whose sufferers believe that their body is wrong or inadequate, such as anorexia, bulimia, and muscle dysmorphia (bigorexia).

(4) As Dismorphia astyocha, a butterfly in the family Pieridae, found in both Argentina & Brazil.

From Ancient Greek δυσμορφίᾱ (dusmorphíā) (misshapenness, ugliness), the construct being δυσ- (dus-) (hard, difficult, bad) + μορφή (morphḗ) (shape, form) + -ίᾱ (-íā).  The prefix dys- was from the New Latin dys-, from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-), (hard, difficult, bad”) and was used to convey the idea of being difficult, impaired, abnormal, or bad.  Morph was a back-formation from morpheme & morphism, attested since the 1950s, from the Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ) (shape, form) and related to the German Morph, from Morphem (although dating only from the 1940s).  It’s probably now most familiar in (1) formal grammar & linguistics as a physical form representing some morpheme in language (it exists as a recurrent distinctive sound or sequence of sounds), (2) in linguistics as an allomorph (one of a set of realizations that a morpheme can have in different contexts) and (3) in digital image processing where shapes are changed from one form to another with the use of specialized software, a popular type being that which wholly or (especially) partially blends two images.  The plural is dysmorphias and, in clinical use, the synonym is dysmorphosis.

The word dysmorphia first appeared in the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus (circa 484–circa 425 BC) when he referred to the myth of the “ugliest girl in Sparta”.  Herodotus, even in his lifetime, was criticized for making an insufficient distinction between legend and historical fact but the veracity of much of his work, subject to forensic analysis by modern archeologists and archivists, has been established.  The story of the “ugliest girl in Sparta” however, Herodotus acknowledges as “a magical myth” in which a baby girl, born in Sparta, was terribly disfigured (which he described as dysmorphia (meaning “misshapenness” or “ugliness”).  Fortunately, she was from a well-connected family and her nanny suggested taking her to the shrine of Helen of Troy on hilltop of Therapne, and there pray for a cure.  There the nurse sat with the baby and while praying before the agalma (a carved image of Helen), from nowhere a apparition of Helen appeared and smiling, laid her hand upon the child’s head.  As the years passed, the disfigured infant would grow to become the most beautiful girl in the kingdom.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental disorder.  It’s defined as an individual’s obsession with the idea that some aspect of their appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or rectify the offending part(s).  In BDD's delusional variant, the flaw is imagined and if some minor imperfection exists, its importance is severely exaggerated.  Sufferers find the symptoms of BDD pervasive and intrusive, symptoms including excessive attention to the perceived defect, social avoidance, camouflaging with cosmetics or apparel, the seeking of verbal reassurances, avoiding mirrors, repetitively changing clothes or restricting eating.

Italian physician Enrico Morselli (1852-1929) in 1886 reported a disorder he termed dysmorphophobia, a term still sometimes used in European literature to describe BDD.  Use spiked in academic literature in the 1950s although it wasn’t until 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognized the condition in the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).  The APA classified it as a distinct somatoform condition (characterized by symptoms suggesting a physical disorder but for which there are no demonstrable organic findings or known physiological mechanisms) and in 1987 replaced dysmorphophobia with body dysmorphic disorder as the preferred descriptor.

With the 1994 publication of DSM-IV, the APA noted BDD was a preoccupation with an imagined or trivial defect in appearance, one causing social or occupational dysfunction, and not better explained as another disorder such as anorexia nervosa but in DSM-5 (2013), it was reclassified as an obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorder, adding diagnostic criteria including repetitive behaviors and intrusive thoughts.  Although the World Health Organization's (WHO) current International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10 (1994)) described BDD as just another hypochondriacal disorder, the revised ICD-11 (2019) aligned for all functional purposes with the DSM-5.

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for BDD requires the following:

(1) A preoccupation with appearance: The individual must be preoccupied with one or more nonexistent or slight defects or flaws in their physical appearance and “Preoccupation” is usually defined as thinking about the perceived defects for (in aggregate) at least an hour a day.  A distressing or impairing preoccupation with real and obvious flaws in appearance (anything easily noticeable such as obesity) is not diagnosed as BDD, being instead classified with “Other Specified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.”

(2) Repetitive behaviors: Repetitive and compulsive behaviors must manifest in response to the concern with appearance.  These compulsions can be behavioral and thus observed by others (such as either excessively standing before or avoid a looking-glass, frequent grooming, skin picking, reassurance seeking or repeatedly changing clothes.  Other BDD compulsions include mental acts, the most often diagnosed being an individual frequently comparing their appearance with that of other people.  The DSM-5 included the note for clinicians cautioning that subjects meeting all diagnostic criteria for BDD except this one are not diagnosed with BDD; they are diagnosed with “Other Specified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorder.”

(3) Clinical significance: The preoccupation must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important aspects of functioning.  This criterion was included to differentiate the disorder BDD, which requires treatment, from more normal appearance concerns that typically do not need to be treated with medication or therapy.  This has been one of the more controversial revisions because of concerns it may exclude from helpful treatment some who have developed better coping mechanisms while still suffering from the underlying condition.

(4) Differentiation from an eating disorder: If the appearance preoccupations focus on being too fat or weighing too much, it may be that the appropriate diagnosis is an eating disorder and this applies especially if the subject’s only concern with their appearance focuses on excessive weight; provided the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder are otherwise met, that should be the diagnosis, not BDD.  If not, BDD can be diagnosed, as concerns with fat or weight in a person of normal weight can be a symptom of BDD and it’s not uncommon for subjects to have both an eating disorder and BDD.

There are specifiers to BDD and following diagnosis, the subject should be sub-classified using the two (DSM-5) BDD specifiers:

(1) Muscle dysmorphia: Muscle dysmorphia is the (predominately male) concern that the build of their body is too small or insufficiently muscular, something which not untypically manifests with preoccupations with other body areas; the muscle dysmorphia specifier should still be used in such cases.  Studies have shown that among those diagnosed with BDD, those with muscle dysmorphia suffer the highest rates of suicidality and substance use disorders, as well as poorer quality of life.  Accordingly, the DSM-5 notes their treatment regimes may require some modification.

(2) Insight specifier: This specifier indicates the degree (not directly frequency although this is a factor in the analysis) of a subject’s insight regarding their BDD beliefs (eg “I look ugly”; “I look deformed”), an expression of how convinced the subject is that their beliefs about the appearance of the disliked body parts is true.  The DSM-5 levels of insight are (2a) with good or fair insight, (2b) with poor insight and (3), with absent insight/delusional beliefs (which are to be diagnosed as BDD, not as a psychotic disorder.

BDD has often been misdiagnosed, most often as one of the following disorders:

(1) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: If preoccupations and repetitive behaviors focus on appearance (including symmetry concerns), BDD should be diagnosed rather than OCD.

(2) Social anxiety disorder (social phobia): If social anxiety and social avoidance are due to embarrassment and shame about perceived appearance flaws, and diagnostic criteria for BDD are met, BDD should be diagnosed rather than social anxiety disorder (social phobia).

(3) Major depressive disorder: Unlike major depressive disorder, BDD is characterized by prominent preoccupation and excessive repetitive behaviors. BDD should be diagnosed in individuals with depression if diagnostic criteria for BDD are met.

(4) Trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder): When hair tweezing, plucking, pulling, or other types of hair removal is intended to improve perceived defects in the appearance of body or facial hair, BDD should be diagnosed rather than trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder).

(5) Excoriation (skin-picking disorder): When skin picking is intended to improve perceived defects in the appearance of one’s skin, BDD should be diagnosed rather than excoriation (skin-picking disorder).

(6) Agoraphobia: Avoidance of situations because of fears that others will see a person’s perceived appearance defects should count toward a diagnosis of BDD rather than agoraphobia.

(7) Generalized anxiety disorder: Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety and worry in BDD focus on perceived appearance flaws.

(8) Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: BDD-related psychotic symptoms (ie delusional beliefs about appearance defects or BDD-related delusions of reference) reflect the presence of BDD rather than a psychotic disorder.

(9) Olfactory reference syndrome: Preoccupation with emitting a foul or unpleasant body odor is a symptom of olfactory reference syndrome, not BDD (although these two disorders have many similar characteristics).

(10) Eating disorder: If a normal-weight person is excessively concerned about being fat or their weight, meets other diagnostic criteria for BDD, and does not meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, then BDD should be diagnosed.

(11) Dysmorphic concern: This is not a DSM diagnosis, but it is sometimes confused with BDD.  It focuses on appearance concerns but also includes concerns about body odor and non-appearance related somatic concerns, which are not BDD symptoms.

One aspect of the condition BDD is that it’s not uncommon for subjects to be reticent in revealing their concerns or BDD symptoms to a clinician because of embarrassment or being negatively judged as vain or too concerned with trivial matters.  Case notes do suggest there is a pattern of subjects hinting at their issues and clinicians should thus be encouraged to respond by explicitly asking about BDD symptoms.

Although the brand-name is, strangely, no longer used, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chubbettes was a fashion-house supplying “slenderizing designs… designed to make girls 6 to 16 look slimmer” and therefore become “as happy and self-assured as her slimmer schoolmates”.  With a target market including those with eating disorders or BDD as well as the naturally chubby, Chubbettes helpfully offered with its fashion catalog a free booklet, Pounds and Personality.  Intended for parents of a chubby girl and written by Dr Gladys Andrews of New York University’s School of Education, it was packed with helpful hints about “understanding her problems, talent development, shyness, tactless remarks & the “game” of dieting etc.).  Chubettes’ clothing range was said to be “available, coast to coast at stores that care”; the parent company was L Gidding & Co Inc, 520 Eighth Avenue, New York City.

Times certainly have changed and with them the perception of body shapes.  Parents who would now regard young ladies of the type pictured in the Chubbette advertisements as being chubby might now be suspected of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP).  In the mind of the girl herself, a similar perception wouldn't necessarily alone be enough for a diagnosis of BDD but might be considered in the context of other behaviors.  

Crooked Hillary Clinton, the Hamptons, August 2021.

Paradoxically, although in the early twenty-first century there’s a larger than ever market for what Chubbettes once served as a niche, the brand is long gone and a revival seems unlikely.  Many factors including more sedentary lifestyles and a higher consumption of processed food, the sugar content of which has risen alarmingly, means demand for more accommodating clothing will likely continue to increase but many manufacturers have stepped into the Chubbette void and customers enjoy a wide choice.