Sling (pronounced sling)
(1) A (sometimes improvised) device for hurling stones or
other missiles, constructed typically by the use of a short strap with a long
string at each end, operated by placing the missile in the strap, and, holding
the ends of the strings in one hand, whirling the instrument around in a circle
and releasing one of the strings to discharge the missile; often called a slingshot
(or sling-shot).
(2) A bandage used to suspend or support an injured part
of the body, most commonly in an arrangement suspended from the neck to support
an injured arm or hand.
(3) A strap, band, or the like, forming a loop by which
something is suspended or carried, as a strap attached to a rifle and passed
over the shoulder.
(4) As sling-back, a design used for woman’s shoes which uses
an exposed, usually thin strap which wraps around the ankle.
(5) A rope, chain, net, etc, used for hoisting freight or
other items or for holding them while being hoisted.
(6) An act or instance of slinging.
(7) In nautical use, a chain or halyard for supporting a
hoisting yard (an in the plural (as slings), the area of a hoisting yard to
which such chains are attached; the middle of a hoisting yard.
(8) To throw, cast, or hurl; fling, as from the hand.
(9) To place in or secure with a sling to raise or lower;
to raise, lower, etc by such means; to hang by a sling or place so as to swing
loosely.
(10) To suspend.
(11) An iced alcoholic drink, typically containing gin,
water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice.
(12) In mountaineering, a loop of rope or tape used for
support in belays, abseils, etc.
(13) A young or infant spider, such as one raised in
captivity or those in labs used in scientific or industrial research (a shortening
of s(pider)ling.
1175–1225: From the Middle English noun slynge (hand-held implement for throwing
stones) & verb slyngen (past
tense slong, past participle slungen & slongen) (to knock down" using a sling (and by the mid-thirteenth
century “to throw, hurl, fling, especially if using a sling), probably from the
Old Norse slyngja & slyngva (to hurl, to fling), from the Proto-Germanic
slingwaną (to worm, twist) which was cognate
with the Middle Low German slinge (a
sling), the Old High German slingan and
the Old English slingan (to wind,
twist) and etymologists speculate that while the Middle English noun may be derived
from the verb, the sense of “strap, hoist” may be of distinct (an uncertain) origin. The Old English slingan (to wind, twist) came from the same source and comparable
European forms include the German schlingen
(to swing, wind, twist), the Old Frisian slinge,
the Middle Dutch slinge and the Danish
and Norwegian slynge, from the
primitive Indo-European slenk (to
turn, twist) which may be compared with the Welsh llyngyr (worms, maggots), the Lithuanian sliñkti (to crawl like a snake) and the Latvian slìkt (to sink). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) approved
the past tense slung but not slang. Sling
is a noun & verb, slinger is a noun, slinging & slung are verbs and
slinged is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is slings.
The notion of the verb was doubtlessly that of the
missile being twisted and twirled before it is released and the stone or piece
of metal hurled was by the late fourteenth century known as a sling-stone, the older
English word for which was lithere,
from the Old English liþere (related
to leather), the connection being the strips of tanned animal hide used in
slings. Etymologists note the likely influence
of Low German cognates in the sense development in English, the use to describe
a “loop for lifting or carrying heavy objects” documented since the early
fourteenth century and the “leather shoulder strap for a musket or other
long-arm” was in use by at least 1711.
As pieces of fabric used to support injured arms, there evidence of use
dating back thousands of years but such things seem formally to have been
called slings only after the 1720s, the earlier medical word in Middle English for
a “sling or supporting loop used in treating dislocations”, although there was
also the early fifteenth century stremb
& suspensorie, from the Medieval
Latin stremba. The slingshot (also sling-shot or hand-catapult)
dates from 1849 and although it seems likely to have previously been in oral
use, it’s not documented as a verb until 1969.
The slung-shot, first recorded in 1848, was a rock wrapped in a sling,
used as a weapon by the criminal class and those living in rough neighborhoods.
As a battlefield weapon, the sling is ancient and has endured (often in improvised form) to this day because it’s simple, reliable and can readily be fashioned from whatever falls to hand. As projectiles, rocks can be lethal if delivered with force and in many environments (include urban), ammunition is effectively limitless. In Antiquity, the armies of Greece, Rome & Carthage all had units of slingers attached to their infantry formations and used continued into the sixteenth century when the first grenades were developed. There’s a political aspect too, the Palestinian resistance fighters gaining notably more international sympathy when they restricted their weapons to stones and slings rather than guns and bombs. The sweetened, flavored liquor drink known as the sling was a creation of US English, dating from 1792, the origin mysterious although it may have been from the notion of “throwing back” a drink or linked with the German schlingen (to swallow). In the nineteenth century, it was used also as a verb in the sense “to drink slings”. The noun gun-slinger, although now associated with the Hollywood version of the nineteenth century American west, is documented only since 1916 and sling hash was US slang for a waiter or waitress, especially one employed at a lunch counter or cheap restaurant. In Australian slang a sling was a (1) a part of one’s wages paid in physical cash, thereby avoiding taxation and (2) that part of a business’s turnover not entered in the transactional record, again as a form of tax evasion. It picked up- on the earlier use of sling to mean “to sell, peddle, or distribute something (often drugs, sex etc) illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.). A rare variation was undersling (to sell with an implication of illegality) and that presumably was for emphasis, being a blend of “under the table” and “sling”.
Slingback shoes are so-named for the distinctive ankle
strap which crosses around the back and sides of the ankle and heel. In this it’s a style distinct from a
conventional arrangement in which a strap completely encircles the ankle. Produced in a variety of heel heights and in
open & closed-toe styles, most slingbacks are made with a low vamp little
different from those with enclosed heels.
In a sense, the slingback shoe is related to the many types of sandal but
is almost always more formal. To
accommodate different ankle sizes, slingback straps are almost always of adjustable
length, typically with a buckle and such is the design that it’s rarely necessary
for the wearer to re-buckle after the first fitting. In that sense, slingbacks are effectively
slip-ons.
The Singapore sling cocktail said to have been invented
in 1915, by a bartender at Raffles Hotel’s (named after Sir Stamford Raffles
(1781–1826), a colonial official who under the Raj was a notable figure in the
early development of Singapore) Long Bar.
Selling sometimes a thousand a day during the peak season, the current
price of a Singapore sling (including taxes) is SGD$46 (US$34) so the Long Bar’s
cash flow is usually positive. The
unusual story of its origin is also a tale of one of the Far East’s early
contributions to women’s rights because although the European men in the Long
Bar coped with the heat & humidity with gin & tonics or whisky &
sodas, they didn’t approve of women drinking alcohol in public places so they
were served iced teas or fruit juices. However,
although it’s not recorded where it was a product of feminist agitation or
local initiative, a bartender created a drink visually indistinguishable from
the fruit juices usually served but which was actually a cocktail infused with
gin, cherry liqueur & grenadine, the latter chosen for the pinkish-red hue
it produced, something said to lend it some “feminine appeal”. Thus was born the Singapore Sling which, more
than a century later remains a symbol of the city-state although there have
been many variations over the years including the addition of ingredients such
as lime, pineapple juice, Cointreau or Benedictine liqueur.
The Singapore Sling Chicane in its original form (left) and before & after (2012-2013, right).
Conducted on a street circuit the Singapore Grand Prix was
added to the Formula One (F1) calendar in 2008 and is notable as the first ever
night time Grand Prix, a wise move in the equatorial zone. Although regarded as one of the more challenging
of the street circuits, the city-state had previously staged motor-racing
events and they were conducted on an a narrow and treacherous course called the
Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit, created overnight from public roads which
offered almost no run-off areas and featured monsoon drains, bus stops, and
lampposts, all dangerously close to the racing line which itself was marked by
the oil trails left by the cars, trucks and buses which usually percolated
around. More than one driver called the
circuit the “most dangerous in the world”.
The racing however was good, the original Grand Prix on the course run
in 1961 under Formula Libre rules (much more interesting than the current, dull
Formula One cars) and the events between 1966-1973 were usually Formula Two (F2)
events but by 1973 Singapore had developed to such an extent the organization was
just too disruptive and the safety concerns about Thomson Road were not merely theoretical
because there had been injuries and deaths.
However, in 2008 the Marina Bay Street Circuit was designed and despite
being regarded as “difficult”, it conformed to all modern safety requirements. Notably, it contained 23 corners, more than any
other on the calendar and by far the most famous was turn 10 which attracted
such interest it was divided by analysts into 3 smaller turns (10a, 10b, &
10c). The corner was called the Singapore
Sling Chicane.
It was well-named because between turns 9 & 10, F1 cars were travelling at around 170 mph (273 km/h) and the Singapore Sling was defined with raised kerbing which, it hit at speed would literally launch a car into the air if the driver varied by less than an inch (25 mm) from the ideal line. One driver called them “little tortoises that would wreck the car if you get something wrong” and after many complaints from various drivers the height of the kerbing was reduced. However, that only reduced the danger they posed and crashes continued so in 2010 Turn 10 was modified but there were still airborne adventures and broken cars still littered the chicane at every event. Physicists even ran the number through one of the super-computers used usually to model the climate or simulate thermo-nuclear weapons and determined that if a F1 machine hit “a tortoise” at racing speed, it was guaranteed to hit the wall. Accordingly, in 2013 Turn 10 became just a left-handed turn instead of the left / right / left format of the notorious Singapore Sling Chicane. That in itself was unusual because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation which is international sport’s dopiest regulatory body) has for decades adored chicanes to the point of fetishism, such is their desire to make racing as slow and processional as possible. In recent seasons however, F1 has become so predictably processional, there have been calls to bring back the Singapore Sling Chicane and given nobody has come up with a better suggestion to make the competition interesting, it may be worth considering. Of course, they could change the rules relating to the cars and the adoption of large capacity hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines would be a good start.
