(1) A
polytheistic religion practiced chiefly by those in or from the Caribbean deriving
principally from African cult worship and containing ritualistic elements
borrowed from the Catholic religion.
(2) A
person who practices this religion.
(3) A fetish
or other object of voodoo worship.
(4) A group
of magical and ecstatic rites associated with voodoo.
(5) Generalized
slang term for black magic; sorcery.
(6) Of
or pertaining to, associated with, or practicing voodoo.
(7) In
informal use as pejorative adjective applied as a critique of anything characterized
by deceptively simple, almost as if magical, solutions or ideas.
1850s: A creation of US English derived
from several words in the Louisiana Creole French vandoux, vandoo and vodun,
from the Haitian Creole vodou, the
exact origin of which remains uncertain but etymologists conclude the source
was West African, such as Ewe vódũ (deity,
idol), the Fon vòdún (fetish) or vodũ which existed in a number of Kwa
languages although in the anthropological record there are references to Vandoo, said to be the name of an
African deity, from a language of Dahomey).
The documentation is sparse but the researchers also recorded vodun (a fetish connected with snake
worship in Dahomey) which they linked to vo
which had the senses of “to be afraid” & “harmful”. Use as a verb was first noted in 1880.
Slavery in the Caribbean had the
interesting effect of bringing the religious practices of enslaved West
Africans into contact with the ritualistic Roman Catholicism practices in the French
and Spanish colonies, and structurally, there were striking similarities, the absorption
of the Church’s influence (in form if not theology) resulting in distinct New
World religions like Haitian Vodou
and Louisiana Voodoo.Voodoo is best
known as a form of animism involving trances and other rituals including
communicating with the souls of the dead and it remains widely practiced in the
Caribbean.The late nineteenth century word
Hoodoo is thought a variation and it may have been an imperfect echoic but
there are specialists who list it as a separate practice derived from the Vodun of Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso
(formerly the Upper Volta).The words
Voodoo and Hoodoo interact in practice, a Hoodoo often a physical object said
to be vested with magical powers or qualities as a result of some Voodoo
ritual.For some time, the common name
in English for all these religious traditions was Voodoo and it remains part of
the modern English vernacular (sometimes figuratively (eg voodoo economics))
but the capitalized proper noun Voodoo should be used only to describe the religion
as practiced in Louisiana, the spellings Vodou
and Vodú correct if referring to the
traditions in Haiti and Cuba respectively.
However, Voodoo was appropriated
by popular culture to describe a number of practices both poorly understood and
deliberately exoticized in the West.In
some cases, there were pure inventions and spiritual practices involving
charmed objects inspired imaginative authors and script-writers to create the so-called
“voodoo doll,” despite there being no record of stabbing an effigy with pins in
Africa, the Caribbean or the US slave states.Hollywood also embraced the zombie.In Vodou, the zombie is a
living but soulless individual whose free will has been taken by a powerful
sorcerer or bocor, not the risen dead
monster depicted in films, books, and video games. Ultimately, use of the word voodoo is
complicated by widespread familiarity with the appropriated, secular, pop
culture mythology of the entertainment industry—a mythology that poorly
represents or directly conflicts with the authentic religious and historical
core of Voodoo and related spiritual traditions such as Vodun, Vodou, and Hoodoo.
Crooked Hillary Clinton voodoo doll (2016). Crooked Hillary Clinton has never denied practicing voodoo.
In the 2016 US presidential election, there
were plenty who hated one or other of the candidates and a good many who found
the choice uninspiring. These three
target markets were served by artist Shane Bugbee (b 1968) who offered voters a
practical device with which to visit a plague on either or both their hoses:
Donald Trump and crooked Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls.Hand-made in the US (a small contribution to
making America great again (MAGA)) with a screen printed appliqué, each stood
six inches (150 mm) tall and was supplied with a handful of stick pins although
the blood-thirsty who wished to inflict more severe injuries could certainly
use their tools, instruments or devices of choice.No information was provided as to flammability
but anyone wishing to see crooked Hillary burned at the stake (the Lord forbid) wasn’t
discouraged from trying. Each voodoo
doll was produced in a run of 666 hand-numbers editions and listed at US$13
each or US$20 for the pair.
In 2005. Mattel released a Lindsay Lohan
doll, the accessories including a velvet rope, popcorn, a director's chair,
make-up case, designer handbag, shoes, clothes and jewelry. The doll could be re-purposed for anyone
wanting a Lindsay Lohan voodoo doll (the Lord forbid).
Technically, what is in popular culture
called a voodoo doll should probably be called a hoodoo doll or even just a hoodoo
because it is an inert object transformed by a spell or other ritual. Although Voodoo priests have for decades
confirmed the use of effigies for this purpose has no part in their traditions,
the practice does exist in other cultures and voodoo dolls are widely available
in shrink-wrap while for those who prefer to make their own, instruction sets
are downloadable. For those with a doll,
the process is much the same as the process of consecration familiar in many
Christian denominations in that once the ritual of choice is performed, doll
becomes voodoo doll. When it has served
its purpose, it may be returned to an inert status by the appropriate ritual
(the equivalent of the act of de-consecration).
The Love
Me or Die by C W Stoneking
I studied evil, I can't deny,
Was a hoodoo charm called a Love Me or Die,
Some fingernail, a piece of her dress,
Apocathery, Devil's behes'
I will relate, the piteous consequence my
mistake,
(2) A
period of a month or so immediately after a marriage.
(3) By
extension, any period of blissful harmony.
(4) Any
new relationship characterized by an initial period of harmony and goodwill.
(5) In
politics, as honeymoon period, a period of heightened popularity enjoyed by a
new leader or government.
(6) To
spend one's honeymoon (usually followed by in or at); to take a honeymoon.
(7) As
second (and presumably third and beyond) honeymoon, a holiday which is intended
to capture something of the feeling of the first.
1540–1450:
A compound word, the construct being honey + moon, from the earlier hony moone (though most etymologists
suspect that in the oral tradition it was much older).Honeymoon may be compared with the Middle Low
German suckermânt (honeymoon (literally
“sugar-month”) and the German Low & German Hönnigweken (honeymoon (literally “honey-weeks”). The German Honigmond, the French lune de miel and the Turkish balaki are all calques of the English
term and one intriguing German variation is the plural flitterwochen, the construct being flitter (tinsel) + wochen (week),
presumably an allusion to the insubstantial and fleeting nature of a couple’s
early affections.Babymoon and family
moon were constructions in line with the original cynical sense of honeymoon
the idea that the joy brought by a new-born soon fades as the demands of
parenthood become apparent.Honeymoon is
a noun, verb & adjective, honeymooner a noun, honeymooning a noun, verb
& adjective and the (simple past tense and past participle) honeymooned is
usually a verb but can be applied adjectivally.As a modifier it’s associated with forms such as honeymoon suite,
honeymoon cottage etc.The noun plural
is honeymoons.
The
pre-900 honey (a viscous, sweet fluid produced from plant nectar by bees and often
used to sweeten tea or to spread on baked goods and (by extension) used often
to describe anything literally sweet, smooth or in some way desirable (animal,
vegetable or mineral)) was from the Middle English hony & honi, from the Old English hueng & huniġ, from the Proto-West Germanic hunag, from the Proto-Germanic hunagą
(related to the Old Norse hunang, the
Old Saxon hanig, the West Frisian hunich and the German Honig), from the earlier hunangą (related to the Swedish honung), from the primitive Indo-European
kn̥honk-o-s, from kn̥hónks. It was cognate with the Middle Welsh canecon (gold), the Latin canicae (bran), the Tocharian B kronkśe (bee), the Albanian qengjë (beehive), the Ancient Greek
κνῆκος (knêkos) (safflower; yellowish), the Northern
Kurdish şan (beehive), the Sanskrit kánaka- (gold) and the Northern Luri گونج (gonj) (Bee).Honey
has been productive in English phraseology and word creation including honeybee,
honeybun, honeycreeper, honeydew, honeyeater, honeypot & honeysucker.The alternative spelling was hunny.
The
pre-900 moon (with an initial capital the Earth's only permanent natural
satellite and without, the technical term to describe other such bodies in the
universe) was from the Middle English mone,
from the Old English mōna (moon),
from the Proto-West Germanic mānō,
from the Proto-Germanic mēnô (moon), from
the Gothic mena, from the primitive Indo-European
mḗhn̥s (moon, month), probably from meh- (to measure).It was akin to the Old Frisian mōna, the German Mond (moon),
the Latin mēnsis (month), the Ancient
Greek mḗnē (moon) and the Sanskrit māsa (moon, month).Poetically,
it refers to a month, particularly a lunar month, a measure of time
used by pre-modern cultures, surviving in modern use as “many moons” (a long
time).In cartomancy, the moon is the thirty-second
Lenormand card and since the emergence of crypto-currencies has been used to
describe a rapid increase in value of a coin or token.Moon has been productive in English
phraseology and word creation including ask for the moon, blood moon, blue moon,
moonbounce, moonbow, moonless, moonlet, moonstruck, moonwake, moonwalk & moonsick.
In
English, although honeymoon always denoted the period of time following a
wedding, the idea now is honey in the sense of sweetness, the first fine
careless rapture of love, the happy time in a marriage before reality
bites.However, the original reference
was a more cynical reference to that first affection waning like the moon.Fortunately, the later (attested
since 1546), more romantic interpretation prevailed and the meaning is now (1) the
first month after marriage", which tends to be the sweetest or
(2) dating from circa 1800, the holiday the couple take immediately after the
ceremony which, for some, will also be the consummation.The timing of that consummation could be
significant, some claiming (though the evidence is slight) that the honeymoon
is a relic both of (1) the old tradition of elopement and (2) marriage by
capture, both practices during which the couple (happy and not) went into hiding
to avoid reprisals from relatives, the plan being that by the end of the month,
the woman would be with child, thus rendering the marriage immune from
annulment by the Church.Whatever the
origin, the tradition of a honeymoon crossed the English Channel, known from
the 1820s in France as the voyage à la
façon anglaise (English-style voyage).Whether by coincidence or as a product of opportunistic commerce, the
adoption on the continent became part of the new industry of (relatively)
low-cost mass tourism and honeymoon tours (sometimes in groups) were among the
first examples of packaged tourism where transportation, accommodation and
sight-seeing were bundled and sold at a fixed price.
A most
attractive tale from ancient Babylonia, though not one all historians accept is
that upon marriage, a bride’s father would supply all the “honey kash” (a type of beer to which honey and sweet herbs were
added) the groom could drink for one month after the wedding and, because the calendar
was lunar based, this month was referred to as the “honey moon”.Many anthropologists too doubt the story but Persian
does have the similar ماهعسل (Māh-e Asal) ("month of honey" or "moon of
honey").
Just as
the Medieval period was a source of many Greek “myths” reputedly from
antiquity, in the nineteenth century, encouraged by the popularity the works of
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) had lent to the Norse legends, new “legends” were created, one
borrowing from Ancient Babylonia and claiming the source of honeymoon was the
“custom of the higher order of the Teutones to drink Mead (or Metheglin, a
beverage brewed with honey and, in genuine Norse mythology, the nectar the Valkyries
serve in Valhalla to the fallen warriors), for thirty days after every wedding.Long discredited by historians, the fanciful tale still occasionally
is quoted.
The high priest of Haitian voodoo, Max Beauvoir (1936-2015) and a relief painting depicting a
voodoo ceremony, Port au Prince, Haiti, February 2010. Mr Beauvoir was a biochemist before succeeding his grandfather as a Voodoo priest, attaining eventually the title of Supreme Servitur (supreme servant), one of the high titles in the Voudou priesthood.
In
December 1975, Bill and Hillary Clinton spent part of their honeymoon in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti.The honeymoon seems to have been a
success although in his autobiography, Mr Clinton did note the “…most
interesting day of the trip…” was when they both witnessed a voodoo ceremony
conducted by voodoo-priest Max Beauvoir, the highlight apparently when a woman bit the head off a live chicken.Helpfully, Mr Beauvoir also gave the honeymooners
what Mr Clinton described as a "…brief
course in voodoo theology" (and since that day, crooked Hillary
Clinton has never denied practicing voodoo).Mr Clinton described the rituals:
"After several minutes of rhythmic dancing to
pounding drums, the spirits arrived, seizing a woman and a man.The man proceeded to rub a burning torch all
over his body and walk on hot coals without being burned. The woman, in a frenzy, screamed repeatedly,
then grabbed a live chicken and bit its head off. Then the spirits left and those who had been
possessed fell to the ground."
He
added that the experience had profoundly transformed his understanding of God
and human nature, the way “…different
cultures try to make sense of life, nature, and the virtually universal belief
that there is a nonphysical spirit force at work in the world.""The
Lord works in mysterious ways" he added.
(1) A set of spiritual practices and traditions created
and concealed from slave-owners by enslaved Africans in North America, based on
traditional African beliefs.Practiced
predominantly in the south-east US, its identifiable features include folk
magic, rituals of protection, herbal medicine, charming of objects, and
ancestor veneration.
(2) In casual use, bad luck, or a person or thing that
brings bad luck, not necessarily associated with the supernatural; to jinx, to
bring bad luck or misfortune.
(3) In geology, a pillar of rock, created by various
forces of erosion (also known as spires of rock, fairy chimneys, earth pyramids
(and in particular formations) tent rocks).
1870: A creation of US English meaning "one who
practices voodoo", apparently a variant of Voodoo.The meaning "something that causes or
brings bad luck" seems to have emerged in the 1880s and it was being used
as a verb by 1886.Interestingly, in 2002,
it was documented also as a distinctly non-religious American folk magic.Until the late twentieth century, hoodoo was
spelled with & without an initial capital letter in a most inconsistent matter,
both forms sometimes appearing in the one document.The modern practice (which seems compelling) is
to capitalize in when the word is used in the context of the spiritual practice
or the cultural identification but to use all-lowercase when referring to the
geological formations or used as casual slang (perhaps surprisingly, there’s
been little apparent interest in proscribing hoodoo in this sense on the
grounds of cultural appropriation).Hoodoo
is a noun & verb, hoodooed & hoodooing are verbs and hoodooism is a
noun; the noun plural is hoodoos.
The first known instance of Hoodoo in English was in 1870
but the origins are wholly speculative, etymologists concluding it was probably
an alteration of voodoo, a word drawn from the Ewe and Fon languages of Ghana
and Benin which reference a divinity although the Akan odu (medicine) may be related and there’s also the possibility of a
link to the Hausa hu'du'ba (resentment
and retribution).Less likely, but not
impossible is that it’s from the variant Hudu
(spirit work) in the Ewe language spoken in Ghana and Togo.The link with Voodoo however is most
convincing because Hoodoo was as early as the late nineteenth century identified
as an African dialect with practices similar to the mysteries of Obi (Obeah) in
the Caribbean.
Pre-production de Havilland Comet (DH 106) with the original, square windows, England, 1949.
The term hoodoo is often attached to objects thought
jinxed.When the de Havilland Comet (DH 106;
the first commercial jet airliner), within a year of its first flight in 1949, began
to suffer a number of catastrophic in-flight accidents, newspapers wrote of the
“Comet hoodoo”, something encouraged because, in the pre “black-box” era, analysis
of aviation incidents was a less exact science than now and for some time the crashes
appeared inexplicable.It was only when
extensive testing revealed the reason for the structural failures could be
traced to stresses in the airframe induced aspects of the design that the hoodoo
was understood to be the operation of physics.Other manufacturers noted the findings and changed their designs.It’s because of the lessons learned from the
Comet hoodoo that the apertures of airliner windows have rounded edges, the
traditional four-cornered openings creating four weak spots prone to failure
under stress.
Pre-dreadnought battleship, USS Texas ("Old Hoodoo"), 1898. Note the sailors' washing hanging from the railings, a long naval tradition.
Sailors are said to be notoriously superstitious and
probably didn’t need much persuasion to call the USS Texas “Old Hoodoo”.The US Navy’s first (pre-dreadnought)
battleship, she was commissioned in response to the naval arms race which
developed in the Americas in the late nineteenth century although despite the
tensions, the construction was undertaken as what would soon seem a leisurely
pace; ordered in 1886, it wasn't until 1889 the keel was laid down and when
finally commissioned in 1895, although not yet obsolescent, she was hardly in
the forefront of naval architecture.The
ships accident-prone reputation was well deserved and had stated early with incidents
of grounding, flooding (drowning three of the crew) and a collision with the
dock.However, she rose to the occasion
and provide sterling service during the Spanish–American War (1898) but
ironically, the reputation gained was such that the Navy decided to use the now
storied name for a new dreadnought and the USS Texas (BB-35), commissioned in 1914, was
later declared a national historic landmark and is the last surviving World War
I era dreadnought.As sailors know, it’s
bad luck to change the name of a ship and, now named the USS San Marcos, so it
proved, towed as a hulk to shallow waters in Chesapeake Bay where, resting on
the bottom, she became an increasingly battered target ship and the navy used
her for gunnery practice until the late 1940s.Increasing water traffic however mean the remains had become a navigational
hazard and most of the remains were removed as scrap in 1959.
Hoodoos short (left), tall (centre) and clustered (right), Arizona, south-west US.
In geology, a hoodoo (also known as spires of rock, fairy
chimneys, earth pyramids (and in particular formations) tent rocks) is a tall,
typically thin, spire of rock formed by the processes of erosion (wind, rain,
floods) and are forms usually of a relatively soft rock (such as sandstone) topped
by harder stone which better resists the forces of nature.Mostly, they exist within sedimentary rock
and volcanic rock formations.Hoodoos can
be only a few feet high or exceed the level of multi-storey buildings and the
shape they assume is wholly dictated by the composition of the rocks from which
they’re formed, the erosional patterns differing according to the hardness of
the material.The introduction of the word
hoodoo to geology seems to have happened in the late nineteenth century at the
time when it had entered the vernacular to describe both the rituals of certain
folk magic and the sense of doom or bad luck.As the more remote regions of the western US were explored, the rocky
structures were noted to be of not dissimilar spiritual significance to First
Nations peoples and in some cases literally to be the petrified remains of those
punished by the gods for their transgressions.
In the natural environment, temperature can also create structures
with a hoodoo-like appearances.Trees in
Finland (left), a frozen fountain in Shevchenko Garden, Kharkiv, Ukraine (centre)
and frozen Geyser in Letchworth State Park, New York with volcano-like flow
maintained at the top (right).
(1) In voodoo,
the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less,
by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.
(2) The
supernatural force itself.
(3) In
informal use, a person whose behavior or responses are wooden, listless, or
seemingly rote; automaton.
(4) In
informal use, an eccentric or peculiar person.
(5) A snake
god of African origin, worshiped in West Indian and Brazilian religious
practices.
(6) A cocktail
made typically with several kinds of rum, citrus juice, and often apricot
liqueur.
(7) In
financial market slang, a financial institution which continues to exist barely
trades and has an asset book and balance sheet of zero value or less.
(8) In
computing, a piece of code that instructs an infected computer to send a virus or
other infection to other systems.
(9) In
fiction, a deceased person who becomes reanimated to attack the living.
(10) In
industrial relations, a worker who has signed a nondisclosure agreement.
(11) In
computing, a process or task which has terminated but has not been removed from
the list of processes, typically because it has an unresponsive parent process.
(12) In
WWII Canadian military slang, a conscripted member of the military assigned to
home defense rather than to combat in Europe.
(13) A
slang term for various illegal narcotics in several markets.
(14) In
philosophy, a hypothetical being indistinguishable from a normal human being
except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience.
(15) In the
slang white collar crime, fake (invented, departed, deceased etc) employees
maintained on a payroll for purpose of fraud.
1819 (in
wider use after 1871): From a Bantu language, derived from either the Kongo zumbi (good-luck, fetish) or the Kimbundu
nzambi (god).It was originally the name of a snake god, the
meaning "reanimated corpse" came later following the adoption by voodoo
cults.The familiar form is directly
from Caribbean folklore's jumbee (a
spirit or demon) and in this likely influenced by a Louisiana Creole French
word meaning "phantom or ghost" and related to the Spanish sombra (shade; ghost).
Artist’s
depiction of Lindsay Lohan as a zombie.
The
sense of "slow-witted person" is recorded from 1936, influenced by
the depictions of zombies in cult literature during the decade, a use that was
widespread in film and other popular culture by the 1950s.However, although in Haitian folklore, a
zombie (Haitian French: zombi,
Haitian Creole: zonbi) is an animated
corpse raised by means of witchcraft and the concept has been popularly
associated with the religion of voodoo, academic research has made clear it’s
not part of the faith's formal practices.In the theological sense, when practiced in the region, it’s a thing of
cults and the relationship to voodoo is akin to that between Satanism and
Christianity.
Zucchetto (pronounced zoo-ket-oh or tsook-ket-taw (Italian)
A small, round skullcap worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, a priest's being black, a bishop's violet, a cardinal's red, and the pope's white; a calotte; the style is worn also by Syriac (or Malankara Orthodox) and some Anglican clergy.
1850–1855: From the Italian zucchetto, a variant of zucchetta, diminutive of zucca (gourd, squash, pumpkin) from the Late Latin cucutia (gourd), probably from the Classical Latin cucurbita. Depending on the country or order, a zucchetto may also be referred to as a pilus, pilos, pileus, pileolo, subbiretum, submitrale, soli deo, berrettino, calotte or calotta. Although unattested, it may be related to the primitive Indo-European tjukka (gourd) and the alternative spelling was zuchetto which most dictionaries seem now to list as non-standard. The Italian noun zucchetta was (1) a tromboncini (a kind of squash), (2) an ecclesiastic skullcap or (2) a military helmet worn in the 16th century. The relationship between the small vegetable and the head-covering is the shape, the construct being zucca (gourd, squash, pumpkin) + -etto. The etto- suffix was used to forms nouns from nouns, denoting a diminutive.It was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, and was the alterative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics and existed variously in English & French as -et, in Italian as Italian -etto and in Portuguese & Spanish as -ito.With an animate noun, -etto references as male, the coordinate female suffix being -etta, which is also used with inanimate nouns ending in -a.It should not be confused with the homophonous suffix -eto. Zucchetto is a noun; the noun plural is zucchettos.
The first head covering recognizably zucchettoesque was the Greek pilos which evolved also into the modern beret which was in its early forms a larger, irregularly-shaped zucchetto. A classic medieval adaptation to the climate, it covered a monk’s tonsure (that part of the head from which the hair was shaved, a practice not formally abandoned in the Roman Catholic Church until 1972) thus providing, depending on the season, either insulation or protection from the sun. It is similar in appearance to the Jewish kippah and this presumably was intentional although the theological basis of two differs.
Ecclesiastical fashion statement: Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) wearing zucchetto with matching choir cape.
In the Roman church, the color of the zucchetto can be used to determine the office held but the distinctions are not absolute. A pope for example obviously wears a white but bit that right extends also to those in orders where white vestments are worn. Cardinals wear scarlet, archbishops, bishops and other notables amaranth and the more junior ranks black. Apparently informally, some monks wear the brown of their traditional habits. By convention, a prelate (a bishop or cardinal) removes his zucchetti when in the presence of a more senior appointee and all doff the things when the pope is in the room. Observers of such things have noted that except during the most formal occasions, this etiquette seems wither to be waived or ignored.
The zucchetto is worn throughout most of the Mass, is removed at the commencement of the Preface, and replaced at the conclusion of Communion, when the Blessed Sacrament is put away, the zucchetto never worn at any occasion where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and it’s always removed at the end of the last secret prayer, replaced after the ablutions. Thoughtfully, there’s usually provided also a funghellino (literally “little mushroom”), a kind of hat-stand fashioned usually from brass or wood on which a zucchetto sits when not worn.
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) & Cardinal Pell in the Vatican.
The zucchetto has also entered the long list of the Catholic Church’s list of cargo cult items. In a tradition which is said to have be started by Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958), cardinals & bishops, if presented with a new zucchetto, may kiss theirs and give it to the generous faithful soul. Some prefer to take the gift, place it briefly on their heads and hand it back with a blessing. Recent popes have also adopted the practice, presumably thinking it a good photo opportunity. Obviously the system could be open to abuse. Should a zucchetto which has adorned the head of a pope or cardinal fall into the hands of a voodoo priest, they could use it to make a voodoo doll.
(1) In
chemistry, a compound usually having a sour taste and capable of neutralizing
alkalis and reddening blue litmus paper, containing hydrogen that can be
replaced by a metal or an electropositive group to form a salt, or containing
an atom that can accept a pair of electrons from a base. Acids are proton
donors that yield hydronium ions in water solution, or electron-pair acceptors
that combine with electron-pair donors or bases; having a pH value of less than
7.
(2) In
chemistry, any compound which easily donates protons (a Brønsted acid); any of
a class of water-soluble compounds, having sour taste, that turn blue litmus
red, and react with some metals to liberate hydrogen, and with bases to form
salts; any compound that can accept a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond
(a Lewis acid).
(3) A
substance sour, sharp, or biting to the taste; tart; having the taste of
vinegar.
(4) Something,
as a remark or piece of writing, that is sharp, sour, or ill-natured.
(5) A
slang term for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
(6) In
metallurgy, noting, pertaining to, or made by a process in which the lining of
the furnace, or the slag that is present; functions as an acid in
high-temperature reactions in taking electrons from oxide ions: usually a
siliceous material, as sand or ganister.
(7) Of
or pertaining to an acid; acidic.
(8) In
pop music, a genre that is a distortion (as if hallucinogenic) of an existing
genre, as in acid house, acid jazz, acid rock etc.
1620-1630:
From the French acide, from Latin acidus (sour, sharp, tart (and used also
figuratively to suggest "disagreeable” etc)), adjective of state from acere (to be sour, be sharp) and akin to
ācer (sharp) & acētum (vinegar), from aceō (I am sour); doublet of agita.Root was the primitive Indo-European ak (be sharp, rise (out) to a
point, pierce).
The figurative
use (sour-tempered; acerbic) in English dates from 1775 and came to be applied
to intense colors after 1916.The
process of the acid dye was invented in 1888 and used an acid bath. The “acid
test” is American English from 1881, originally a quick way to distinguish gold
from similar metals by application of nitric acid, it came to be used
figuratively (and not always accurately) in the same senses as “litmus
test”.The “Acid drop”, a kind of hard
sugar candy flavored with tartaric acid, was first sold in 1835, the noun “drop”
applied in the sense of a lozenge.The
noun appeared in the 1690s, derived from the adjective and was originally applied
(rather loosely) to just about any substance tasting like vinegar; the more
precise parameters defined only in the early eighteenth century as the
techniques of modern chemistry came to be refined.In the chemical sense, the antonym is alkaline.The term “acid rain” (highly acidic rain
caused by atmospheric pollution) was in 1872 coined by Scottish chemist
(Robert) Angus Smith (1817–1884) although it wouldn’t be for another hundred
years before if came into general use.Diana,
Princess of Wales (1961–1997) coined a nickname for her step-mother, Raine
Spencer (1929-2016): Acid Raine.
Acid as
a slang term for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) dates from 1966.From the same year “acid rock” was originally a descriptor applied to
music performed by those who were tripping on LSD (or what they sounded like suggested
they might be) but, as acid rockers, soon applied equally to the audience.The adjective before long was bolted onto a wide
variety of pop music (acid jazz, acid folk etc), acid house from 1988 probably
the most enduring as a marketing term.
LSD-25
Auto.
In an example of cross-breeding in marketing,"LSD-25 Auto"
is a strain of weed.The retailers
recommend LSD-25 Auto to those who “love
purple strains”, praising her “tightly
packed trichomes”… “clustered around
the hypnotic purple shining buds that have a stacked and long characteristic”.“Bag appeal”
is said to be “on the next level” and
able to “blast you into another dimension
and keep you there”.Being “mind-bending and certainly on the trippy
side”, she’s said to be “best suited
for smokers with a high tolerance to cerebral roller coasters and those who
enjoy high concentration levels and spurts of creativity”.For those still unsure, they caution that “novice smokers should take in moderation”.
Cutaway
drawing of limited slip differential (LSD).
LSD is also the abbreviation for
the limited slip differential, a device used in motor vehicles which allows a
differential’s two output shafts to rotate at different speeds within a defined
permissible difference in speed.LSDs
are used to improve traction under extreme conditions and the usual slang is “slippery-diff”.LSD was also the historic abbreviation for
the currency denominations used by UK prior to the decimalization of Sterling
in 1971.Although pre-1971 Sterling (based
on there being 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound) also
used guineas, half crowns, threepenny bits, sixpences and florins, LSD
referenced just the base units: pounds, shillings and pence.The abbreviation LSD dates from Ancient Rome when
a pound of silver was divided into 240 pence (or denarius) and the Latin
currency denominations were librae,
solidi, and denarii. In veterinary science, LSD is also the standard abbreviation for lumpy skin disease, a viral disease of cattle and water buffalo.
Lindsay
Lohan in Peter Thomas Roth’s campaign promoting Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud
Hydra-Gel Eye Patches.
The active
ingredient in the patches is hyaluronic acid, a gooey, slippery substance produced naturally
throughout the body and at its highest concentration in the eyes, joints and
skin. Best visualized as a lubricant, it
works by providing a fluid cushion between tissues which would otherwise grind
against each other. As a lubricant, hyaluronic
acid has remarkable properties, one teaspoon of the stuff able to absorb and
retain some 6 US gallons (22¾ litres) of water, a reason why it’s used in
the treatment of dry eyes and is a popular additive in in moisturizing creams,
lotions, ointments and serums. Hyaluronic
acid is often produced by fermenting certain types of bacteria (rooster combs
(the red, Mohawk-like growth on top of a rooster’s head and face) a common
source) something the beauty industry dwells on less than the use to enhance
the way skin stretches and flexes, reducing wrinkles. It said also to be helpful in wound healing
and the reduction in scarring.
Because
of the popular association science fiction and gaming with toxic, flesh dissolving
fluids (sometimes flowing through the veins of aliens) the word “acid” evokes
horror in many but the body naturally produces many acids and it depends on
these interacting with everything else to ensure good health and acids in many
forms are in every diet. An apple (a
typical example containing up to 300 chemicals) for example includes pantothenic
acid (B5), citric acid, tartaric acid & acetic acid while its taste depends
on the concentration of malic acid. Pantothenic
is a combination of pantoic acid and β-alanine, the name pantohenic from the Greek
πάντοθεν (pantothen) (from everywhere),
the name chosen by chemists because, at least in tiny quantities, it’s present
in almost all foods. Familiar too is the
pain-killer aspirin, now taken by many in low-dose form (100 mg or 1½
grains), a regime first
recommended as a blood-thinner for those with certain risk factors for heart
disease but later adopted by those impressed with the apparent protection
offered against many internal cancers.
To a chemist, what we call the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug aspirin
is acetylsalicylic acid (usually pronounced uh-seet-l-sal-uh-sil-ik as-id).
Lysergic
acid diethylamide
LSD,
known colloquially as acid, is a drug known for its psychological
effects. This includes altered awareness of surroundings, perceptions, and feelings
as well as sensations and images that seem real though they are not.It’s thus most often described as a
hallucinogenic and the one which first generated a moral-panic although there has never been any evidence to support the stories which circulated telling cautionary tales of users leaping to their deaths from tall buildings, thinking themselves able to fly. The urban myths persist to this day.
LSD was created in Basel in November, 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906–2008). Dr Hofmann synthesized LSD after examining the constituents of the well-known medicinal plant Drimia maritima (squill) and the fungus ergot, the breakthrough moment apparently his understanding of the chemical structure of the squill's Scilla glycosides but the famous properties were discovered only serendipitously, his pharmaceutical research for a unrelated purpose. It wasn't until 1943 that Dr Hofmann conducted any research on the possibilities LSD might offer using what he then regarded as side-effects. In a long-known scientific tradition, he tested it on himself, thus enjoying the first acid-trip.
Having no bad trips, he continued the research and LSD (acronym
for the German Lyserg-säure-diäthylamid) was in 1947 introduced asa commercial medication under the trade-name Delysid and intended for various psychiatric uses.In the 1950s, the CIA thought the drug might
be useful for mind control and chemical warfare, their tests conducted on young
servicemen and students, usually without anything even close to informed consent. Its possibilities interested psychiatrists and
it was a popular subject in experimental research, the design of many of which
would today appall ethics committees and terrify the lawyers.
President
Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) explaining to congress
aspects the message sent to the Congress on 17 June 1971, requesting the
appropriation of an additional US$155 million for a “war on drugs”.Egil Krogh (1939-2020 left) was deputy director of the Domestic Council and Dr Jerome Jaffe (b 1933, right) was hired to
lead a new drug strategy and was usually referred to as Nixon’s “drugs tsar”. Egil Krogh was later jailed for his involvement in the Watergate affair.
The subsequent recreational use in the Western
world, an outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture, resulted in its worldwide prohibition
in 1971, one of the most obvious casualties of the Nixon administration’s “war
on drugs” which has around the world been for fifty-odd years waged with many
consequences but little apparent effect on the demand for drugs, supply now at historically high levels, outpacing the increase in population.Fifty years on, LSD remains popular though
the extent of its use varies according to supply which tends to be dictated
more by the economics of production and distribution than demand, the illicit
drug business really preferring other substances because LSD is not addictive.Of late there’s been much renewed interest in
the possibilities offered by therapeutic hallucinogenics, the encouraging
findings in DMT, LSD, mescaline & psilocybin research drawing in venture
capital, the odd start-up picking up not only where things were left off in
1971 but working with more recently synthesised compounds. Their difficulties are less scientific than regulatory.
Notable
moments in Acid Rock
Todd
Rundgren: A Wizard, a True Star
(1973).
It’s not known if most listeners recovered from this but Todd Rundgren probably
never did, his subsequent output so discursive that the many audiences he
sought and sometimes gained never coalesced into a consistent following.A
Wizard, a True Star is there to be enjoyed as his psychedelic phase; just
don’t expect more of the same.
Grateful
Dead: Aoxomoxoa (1969).
Anthem of the Sun (1968) cast such a
shadow that few dead heads list Aoxomoxoa
as the band’s finest but none deny it’s the most psychedelic the Dead ever got in
the studio.The hippie-dippy vibe is of
course more on display on many of the live releases (bootlegs and otherwise)
but on Aoxomoxoa there are enough of
the long, circular guitar lines for any tripper to keep tripping.Unlike some of the European electronica which
would follow, the Dead sound best through speakers rather than headphones but,
at the time, the effect of Quadraphonic divided opinion.
The
Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric
Ladyland (1968).
Not all of Electric
Ladyland was as psychedelic as the reputation suggests but, spread over two
records, there was room to move and psychedelia does at least tinge much of the
blues for which this is remembered.Some
trippers however resist the epic length Voodoo
Chile and go straight to side three of the original vinyl, setting the
turntable to repeat.
Spirit:
Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus (1970).
Although
not released until the era’s historic moment had passed with the implosion of
the San Francisco ecosystem which fed the beast, Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus is the retrospective encapsulation of
the psychedelic and is Spirit’s masterpiece. Lyrically one long, strange trip, it’s also
musically playful, mixing (rather than fusing) the most clichéd of the motifs
of jazz, pop & rock.This is acid
rock’s period piece.
Pink
Floyd: More (1969).
So much has Dark Side of the Moon (1973) loomed over Pink Floyd that their
early work is neglected by all but a few.In some cases the indifference is not undeserved but, influenced by the
late Syd Barrett (1946-2006), before they were a staple of FM radio, Pink Floyd
were certainly somewhere on the psychedelic spectrum and while The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)
hints at it, their work in a trilogy of film soundtracks, More (1969), Zabriskie Point
(1970) & Obscured by Clouds
(1972) tracks the path of acid-rock.The best approach is said to be to watch Zabriskie Point with the sound turned down while the album plays on
repeat and a true aficionado will drop some acid a few minutes before putting on the headphones.
Sheryl
Crow: There goes the neighborhood
Hey let's party Let's get down Let's turn the radio on This is the meltdown Get out the camera Take a picture The drag queens and the freaks Are all out on the town And cowboy Jane's in bed Nursing a swollen head Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov Don't like the scene any how I dropped acid on a Saturday night Just to see what the fuss was about Now there goes the neighborhood The photo chick made to look sickly Is standing in her panties in the shower She plays the guitar in the bathroom While the police dust her mother's plastic
flowers And Schoolboy John's in jail Making a killing through the U.S. mail Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov Don't like the scene any how I dropped acid on a Saturday night Just to see what the fuss was about Now there goes the neighborhood This is the movie of the screenplay Of the book about a girl who meets a junkie. The messenger gets shot down Just for carrying the message to a flunkie. We can't be certain who the villans are 'cuz
everyone's so pretty But the afterparty's sure to be a wing-ding as it
moves into your city Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov Don't like the scene any how I dropped acid on a Saturday night Just to see what the stink was about Now there goes the neighbourhood.
