Murmuration

Murmuration (pronounced mur-muh-rey-shuhn)

(1) An act or instance of murmuring.

(2) In ornithological use, the correct collective name for a flock of starlings although sometimes (controversially according to the ornithologists) extended to bees.

(3) In sociology and zoology, an emergent order in a multi-agent social system.

1350–1400: A Middle English borrowing from the Old French murmure (which endures in modern French) from the Medieval Latin murmurātiōn (stem of murmurātiō), derived from the Latin murmur (humming, muttering, roaring, growling, rushing etc).  The wealth of words related to murmur includes rumble, buzz, hum, whisper, muttering, purr, undertone, babble, grumble, mutter, susurration, drone, whispering, humming, mumble, rumor, buzzing and susurrus.

Murmuration of starlings above the Negev desert, near Rahat, Israel, February 2018.

The adoption of murmuration as the collective noun for starlings is thought derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk.  The ornithologists did not approve of the apiarists borrowing the word to describe bees, maintaining bees exist in a swarm, drift, erst or grist.  There are however no rules for this and an alternative collective noun for starlings is a chattering and this is applied also to chicks, choughs and goldfinches.

Discreet & Discrete

Discreet (pronounced dih-skreet)

(1) Judicious in conduct or speech, especially with regard to respecting privacy or maintaining silence about delicate matters; prudent; circumspect.

(2) Showing prudence and circumspection; decorous:

(3) Modestly unobtrusive; unostentatious:

1325–1375: From the Middle English discret from the Anglo-French & Old French discret (prudent, discerning) from the Medieval Latin discrētus (separated), past participle of discernere (to discern), the construct being dis- + crē- (separate, distinguish (variant stem of cernere)) + -tus, the Latin past participle suffix.  Related forms are the noun discreetly and the adverb discreetness.

Discrete (pronounced dih-skreet)

(1) Apart or detached from others; separate; distinct; that which can be perceived individually and not as connected to, or part of something else.

(2) Consisting of or characterized by distinct or individual parts; discontinuous.

(3) In mathematics, of a topology or topological space, having the property that every subset is an open set; defined only for an isolated set of points; using only arithmetic and algebra; not involving calculus.

(4) In statistics (of a variable), having consecutive values not so infinitesimally close, so that its analysis requires summation rather than integration.

(5) In electrical engineering, having separate electronic components (diodes, transistors, resisters etc) as opposed to integrated circuitry.

(6) In audio engineering, separate and independent channels of audio, as opposed to multiplexed stereo or quadraphonic, or other multi-channel sound.(7) In linguistics, disjunctive, containing a disjunctive or discretive clause.

(8) In angelology, the technical description of the hierarchies and orders of angels

1350–1400: Middle English from the Latin discrētus (separated; set apart) past participle of discernō (divide), the construct being dis- + cernō (sift); a doublet of discreet.  The Middle English adoption came via the Old French discret.  Related forms are the noun discretely and the adverb discreteness.

Strange words

An etymological tangle, it was the influence of the Middle French discret (prudent, discerning) which saw discreet evolve to mean “wise person” in Angle-French.  The Latin source was discrētus (past participle of the verb discernere (to discern; to separate, distinguish, mark off, show differences between)) and in post-Classical Latin discrētus also acquired the sense “prudent, wise,” possibly arising from association with the noun discrētiō, which shows a similar semantic development: physical separation, to discernment, to capacity to discern.

Discrete (apart or detached from others; separate; distinct) was originally a spelling doublet of discreet, sharing meanings, both deriving from the same Latin source.  The spelling discrete is closer in form to the Latin discrētus and is probably an attempt to differentiate discreet from discrete and one has always been more prolific than the other, dictionaries for centuries tending to offer five time the citations for “prudent, circumspect” compared with the sense “separate, distinct” although the history of the latter is long in statistics, angelology, astronomy, and mathematics.  It wasn’t until the late sixteenth century that discrete became restricted to its present meanings, leaving the spelling discreet to predominate in its own use.

In a way not uncommon in English, pre-modern spellings proliferated: discreyt, discrite, discreit, discreete and others existed but, by the late sixteenth century, the standard meanings became discrete in the sense of “individual” and discreet in the sense of “tactful”.  Technically, it should have been the other way around because the Latin ending –etus usually becomes –ete in English.

The Assumption of the Virgin (1475-1476), by Francesco Botticini (1446–1498), tempera on wood panel, National Gallery London.  Commissioned as the altarpiece for a Florentine church, it portrays Mary's assumption and shows the discrete three hierarchies and nine orders of angels.

Waft

Waft (pronounced wahft)

(1) To carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water.

(2) To send or convey lightly, as if in flight.

(3) To signal to, summon, or direct by waving (obsolete).

(4) A sound, odor etc, faintly perceived.

(5) A light current or gust of air; a brief, gentle breeze.

(6) In admiralty jargon, a signal flag hoisted or furled to signify various messages depending on where it was flown (archaic).

(7) To convey by ship (obsolete).

1535–1545:  In the obsolete sense of conveying by ship, a back formation from the late Middle English waughter (armed escort vessel) from the Dutch and Low German wachter guard (a watchman or convoy vessel) which in some historic documents is confused with waff.  The familiar modern meaning “gently to pass through air or space, to float" appears first in 1704, thought likely related to the northern dialect word waff (cause to move to and fro) which dates from 1510 as a variant of wave.

How to Waft

Waft, in the practical laboratory work of chemistry and other sciences, is a term used in safety manuals when describing the recommended way to sniff stuff.  To waft, one uses an open hand with the palm facing the body, moving the hand in a gentle circular motion over or about the substance or gas of interest so as to lift vapours towards the nose.  This permits a lower concentration to be inhaled, especially important with anything dangerous like ammonia, hydrochloric acid et al.

Right: Student in lab.

Wrong: George W Bush (b 1946; US President 2001-2009) in lab.

Atrophy & Hypertrophy

Atrophy (pronounced a-truh-fee)

(1) In pathology, a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, or a failure to grow to normal size as the result of disease, defective nutrition, nerve damage or hormonal changes.

(2) Degeneration, decline, or decrease, as from disuse.

1590–1600: From the earlier Middle French atrophie and Late Latin atrophia from the Ancient Greek ἀτροφία (atrophía) (a wasting away), (derived from trephein (to feed)) from ἄτροφος (átrophos) (ill-fed, un-nourished), the construct being ἀ- (a-) (not) + τροφή (trophḗ) (nourishment) from τρέφω (tréphō) (I fatten).  Atrophic is the most familiar adjectival form.  The a- prefix, a proclitic form of preposition, is from the Ancient Greek ἀ- (not, without) and is used to form taxonomic names indicating a lack of some feature that might be expected.  In Middle English a- (up, out, away) was from the Old English ā- (originally ar- & or-) from the Proto-Germanic uz- (out-), from the primitive Indo-European uds- (up, out); it was cognate with the Old Saxon ā- and the German er-.  The suffix –ia is from Classical Latin from the Ancient Greek -ία (-ía) & -εια (-eia) and was used to form abstract nouns of feminine gender.  It creates names of countries, diseases, flowers, and (rarely) collections of things such as militaria & deletia).

Hypertrophy (pronounced hahy-pur-truh-fee)

(1) In physiology, the abnormal (but usually non-tumorous) enlargement of an organ or a tissue as a result of an increase in the size rather than the number of constituent cells.

(2) By analogy, excessive growth or accumulation of any kind.

1825–1835: A compound word hyper- + -trophy.  Hyper is from the French hypertrophie, from the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér) (over, excessive), from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) (from which English gained over), from upo (under, below) (source of the English up). It was cognate with the Latin super- and is a common prefix appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “over,” usually implying excess or exaggeration (eg hyperbole); on this model used, especially as opposed to hypo-, in the formation of compound words.

Hypertrophied catfish now found in the cooling ponds of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which in 1986 suffered a meltdown and subsequent explosion.  Their huge size is not a radiation-induced mutation but a result of the absence of a predator since humans were removed from their environment.

Redact

Redact (pronounced ri-dakt)

(1) In publishing, to put into suitable literary form; revise; edit (professional technical use only).

(2) To draw up or frame a statement, proclamation etc (rare, mostly in historic references).

(3) To hide or remove (confidential parts of a text) before publication or distribution, or to examine (a text) for this purpose.

(4) To bring together in one unit; to combine or bring together into one; to bring an area of study within the comprehension capacity of a person; To reduce to a particular condition or state, especially one that is undesirable; to reduce something physical to a certain form, especially by destruction (all of which became obsolete between the sixteenth & eighteenth centuries).

1350–1400: Middle English from the Old French redacter from the Latin redāctus (past participle of redigere (to lead back)), the construct being red- (from metanalysis of re- in verbs) + āctus (past participle of agere (to lead; to drive)) and perfect passive participle of redigō (drive, lead, collect, reduce), that construct being re- (back) + agō (put in motion, drive).  Derived forms are the nouns redaction & redactor and the adjectives redactional & unredacted.

An example of a redacted document with the "plain black block" method using the redaction tool in Adobe Acrobat DC.

Lindsay Lohan's conquest list, 2013.

Traditional forms of redaction were as simple as crossing-out with a black pen or smudging entries to the point of illegibility and these methods can be emulated by the software tools but software houses caution that if undertaken in the simpler image editors, it is sometimes possible to reverse engineer the process of "smudging" or "swirling", making things appear in their original form.  In 2014, In Touch magazine published a partially redacted list of three-dozen names compiled by Lindsay Lohan.  Written in a Beverley Hills hotel room in 2013, the 36 names were those said to be Ms Lohan's "conquests" although it wasn't clear if the list was selective or exhaustive and it produced reactions among those mentioned ranging from "no comment" to a Clintonesque "I did not have sex with that woman".  Points of interest included Ms Lohan's apparently intact short & long-term memory and her commendably neat handwriting.  She seems to favor the "first letter bigger" style in which the style is "all capitals" but the first letter (in each word in the case of proper nouns such as names) is larger.  In typography, the idea is derived from the "drop cap", a centuries-old tradition in publishing where the opening letter of a sentence is many times the size of the rest, the text wrapping around the big letter.  In many cases, a drop cap was an elaborate or stylized version of the letter.   

Tit

Tit (pronounced tit)

(1) Any of numerous small active old world songbirds of the family Paridae, especially those of the former genus Parus.

(2) Medieval slang for a girl or young woman thought something of a minx.

(3) A small, worthless or worn-out poor horse; a nag (archaic).

(4) Slang for a despicable or unpleasant person (archaic).

(5) Slang for a teat (used in agricultural and other circles).

(6) As tit-bit, a small morsel of food.

(7) An imperfect echoic used in the phrase “tit for tat” (thought derived from the medieval phrase “this for that”).

(8) One of the many vulgar slang terms for the female breast (although in certain contexts applied also to men and used in the phrase "taking the bull by the tits" to suggest someone is doing something wrong or misunderstands things).    

Pre 1100: Entered Middle English circa 1550 as titte, drawn from Old English titt; cognate with Middle Low German & Middle Dutch titte and existed in German as zitze, Icelandic as tittr and Norwegian as titta.  The Scandinavian forms applied to small birds and the Old English titt was a variant of teat.  The modern slang variation, attested from 1928, seems to be a recent reinvention from teat, used apparently without awareness it’s a throwback to the original form although the form is on record from 1746 as an English and Irish nursery diminutive of teat.

Tits constitute the Paridae, a large family of small birds, most of which were formerly classified in the genus Parus.  Typically known as tits in the most of English-speaking world, these birds are also called either chickadees or titmice in North America. The creatures are mainly small, stocky, woodland species with short, stout bills, some with crests.  Ranging in length between four and nine inches (100 to 220 mm), they have a mixed diet including seeds and insects and appear to have adapted well to co-habitation with humans in urban environments.

Small tits (Cyanistes teneriffae)

Great tits (Parus major)

Species in taxonomic order

Genus Cephalopyrus

Fire-capped tit Cephalopyrus flammiceps

Genus Sylviparus

Yellow-browed tit, Sylviparus modestus

Genus Melanochlora

Sultan tit, Melanochlora sultanea

Genus Periparus

Black-breasted tit or rufous-naped tit, Periparus rufonuchalis

Rufous-vented tit, Periparus rubidiventris

Coal tit, Periparus ater

Genus Pardaliparus

Yellow-bellied tit, Pardaliparus venustulus

Elegant tit, Pardaliparus elegans

Palawan tit, Pardaliparus amabilis

Genus Lophophanes

European crested tit, Lophophanes cristatus

Grey crested tit, Lophophanes dichrous

Genus Baeolophus

Bridled titmouse, Baeolophus wollweberi

Oak titmouse, Baeolophus inornatus

Juniper titmouse, Baeolophus ridgwayi

Tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Black-crested titmouse, Baeolophus atricristatus

Genus Sittiparus

Varied tit, Sittiparus varia

Owston's tit, Sittiparus owstoni

Iriomote tit, Sittiparus olivaceus

Chestnut-bellied tit, Sittiparus castaneoventris

White-fronted tit, Sittiparus semilarvatus

Genus Poecile

White-browed tit, Poecile superciliosus

Sombre tit, Poecile lugubris

Père David's tit, Poecile davidi

Marsh tit, Poecile palustris

Caspian tit, Poecile hyrcanus

Black-bibbed tit, Poecile hypermelaenus

Willow tit, Poecile montanus

Sichuan tit Poecile weigoldicus

Carolina chickadee, Poecile carolinensis

Black-capped chickadee, Poecile atricapillus

Mountain chickadee, Poecile gambeli

Mexican chickadee, Poecile sclateri

Grey-headed chickadee, Poecile cinctus

Boreal chickadee, Poecile hudsonicus

Chestnut-backed chickadee, Poecile rufescens

Genus Cyanistes

Small tit, Cyanistes teneriffae

Eurasian blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus

Azure tit, Cyanistes cyanus

Genus Pseudopodoces

Ground tit, Pseudopodoces humilis (previously "Hume's ground jay" in crow family Corvidae)

Genus Parus

Great tit, Parus major

Japanese tit, Parus minor (often included in Parus major)

Cinereous tit, Parus cinereus (split from Parus major)

Green-backed tit, Parus monticolus

Genus Machlolophus

White-naped tit, Machlolophus nuchalis

Yellow tit, Machlolophus holsti

Himalayan black-lored tit, Machlolophus xanthogenys

Indian black-lored tit, Machlolophus aplonotus

Yellow-cheeked tit, Machlolophus spilonotus

Genus Melaniparus

White-shouldered black tit, Melaniparus guineensis

White-winged black tit, Melaniparus leucomelas

Southern black tit, Melaniparus niger

Carp's tit, Melaniparus carpi

White-bellied tit, Melaniparus albiventris

White-backed black tit, Melaniparus leuconotus

Dusky tit, Melaniparus funereus

Rufous-bellied tit, Melaniparus rufiventris

Cinnamon-breasted tit, Melaniparus pallidiventris

Red-throated tit, Melaniparus fringillinus

Stripe-breasted tit, Melaniparus fasciiventer

Acacia tit or Somali Tit, Melaniparus thruppi

Miombo tit, Melaniparus griseiventris

Ashy tit, Melaniparus cinerascens

Grey tit, Melaniparus afer

Scimitar or scimiter

Scimitar or scimiter (pronounced sim·i·tar or sim-i-ter)

An oriental sword with a curved blade broadening towards the point

1540s: Originally written also as cimiterie, from the Middle French cimeterre or the Italian scimitarra.  Most etymologists agree it’s from an unknown Ottoman Turkish word and ultimately from the Persian شمشیر‎ (šamšir) (sword), an unusual event because the linguistic variations in the Ottoman dialects are so well documented.  There are contested variations too in the Persian, shimshir (pronounced shamsher) is said by some to be derived from the Greek sampsera (a barbarian sword) but most authorities find this explanation unsatisfactory.  There were many variations too in spelling, the preferred modern form scimitar reflecting the influence of Italian but at least one dictionary preferred simitar as late as 1902.  Scimitared is the somewhat gruesome adjective.

Antique Persian scimitar with leather wood scabbard featuring natural engraving on pommel and wooden handle adorned with embossed metal.  The heavy curved blade is hand-forged and thirty inches (760mm) in length with a deep blood grove.  The leather-covered wooden scabbard is equipped with a pair of belt rings and wire decoration.  The drag is heavily embossed with nature designs and is thirty-eight inches (965mm) long.

Produced between 1968-1986 (and based on an earlier coupé of the same name launched in 1964), the Reliant Scimitar was an early and successful attempt to combine the stylistic appear of a coupé with the practicality of an estate.  Although English manufacturers had a long tradition of (mostly bespoke) two-door estates called shooting-brakes, they were expensive and often rather staid designs.  The Scimitar, although rather crude and lacking refinement, was at the time unique in the market and sold well, starting a trend for the design which is still sometimes used.

Appellate

Appellate (pronounced uh-pel-it)

(1) Of or pertaining to that which can be reviewed by a power or authority vested with the necessary jurisdiction.

(2) A court, tribunal or other body having the power or authority to review and decide appeals made against decisions issued by subordinate individuals or institutions.

1726: From the Classical Latin appellātus (called upon, summoned), past participle of appellāre (to appeal) and perfect passive participle of appellō (address as, call by name), the construct being ad (to, towards) +‎ pellō (push; impress).  Details of appellate jurisdiction in English courts appear in Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769).

Courts of appeal

Appellate courts, usually styled as courts of appeal, are those vested with the jurisdiction to an appeal from a subordinate court within the same hierarchy.  In Australia, as a general principle, the court system exists in three layers (1) a trial court, (2) an intermediate appellate court and (3) a final court of appeal although variations exist and appeals from lower courts are not always of right; in many cases an application for leave to appeal can be declined.  The Australian court systems are now unitary which means that, depending on the law(s) involved, the avenue of appeal lies to a state, territory or Commonwealth court, appeals to the Privy Council in London sundered for commonwealth matters in 1968 and for those involving the states in 1986 by the Australia Acts.

Usually, it’s the more serious cases which proceed to the highest courts of appeal but the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear parking-ticket and other minor matters if the law under which a conviction was obtained happened in a jurisdiction where the offence was deemed one of absolute liability and an appeal not permitted.  In those matters, the court held that in the US, a legal principle existed that the state could not convict a citizen of something without granting a means of appealing the decision.