Dispone

Dispone (pronounced dis-pohn)

(1) In common law, to convey legal authority to another.

(2) To arrange or set in order; to dispose (obsolete).

(3) In Scots law, legally to assign, make over, grant; to convey land, until 1868 an essential word in any valid conveyance of land in Scotland. 

Circa 1400: A borrowing from French, from the Latin disponĕre (to arrange), second-person singular future passive indicative of dispōnō, the construct being dis- (a prefix from the Middle English dis-, borrowed from Latin dis-, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and used in Latin and beyond as an intensifier of words with negative valence) +‎ pōnō (place, put); pōnō from the Proto-Italic poznō.  In Latin the construct was thus dis- (apart, away) + ponere (to place, put) and the word was used in Roman administrative law to mean "to arrange, distribute, or dispose of".  Over time, disponere evolved in various Romance languages, including Old French and Middle English.

Memories of the First Earl of Eldon, Bedford Square, London.

Dispone was a technical word in Scottish property law which, historically, implied the transfer of feudal property by a particular deed while not being equivalent to the term alienate.  Technical it certainly was and whatever the legal theory, the distinction seems to have had no practical purpose and Lord Eldon (1751-1838; Lord Chancellor 1801-1806 & 1807-1827), eventually clarified things by noting “with respect to the word dispone, if I collect the opinions of a majority of the judges rightly, I am of opinion that the word dispone would have the same effect as the word alienate.”  From that point on, the disponer or maker of the deed “sells and dispones,” or, where the deed was gratuitous, “gives, grants, and dispones,” the subject of the deed to the receiver, who technically was called the disponee.  As verbs the difference between convey and dispone is that convey is to transport; to carry; to take from one place to another while dispone is to convey legal authority to another.  A pone was conceptually similar but did not involve real property.  A pone was a common law writ, from the Anglo-Norman pone and its source, the Late Latin pone, from the Latin pōne, imperative form of pōnere (to place).  It had two forms, (1) a writ used by the superior courts to remove cases from inferior courts and (2) a writ to enforce appearance in court by attaching goods or requiring securities.

Knocker

Knocker (pronounced nok-er)

(1) A person or thing that knocks.

(2) A sometimes ornamental hinged knob, bar, etc on (usually) a door, for use in knocking.

(3) In informal use, a persistent and carping critic; a faultfinder; nit-picker.

(4) In vulgar slang, a female breast (usually in the plural, for obvious reasons).

(5) In slang as “on the knocker”, canvassing or selling door-to-door (UK); promptly; on time; a correct (Australia & New Zealand).

(6) In slang, one who defaults on payment of a wager (an archaic North of England dialectical form).

(7) In slang, a person who is strikingly handsome or otherwise admirable; a stunner (an archaic variation of “a knock-out”).

(8) A dwarf, goblin, or sprite imagined to dwell in mines and to indicate the presence of ore by knocking (South Wales, archaic dialectical eighteenth & nineteenth century form).

(9) In the arcade game pinball, a mechanical device in a pinball table that produces a loud percussive noise.

(10) In entomology, a large cockroach, especially Blaberus giganteus, of semitropical America, which is able to produce a loud knocking sound.

(11) In geology, a large, boulder-shaped outcrop of bedrock in an otherwise low-lying landscape, chiefly associated with a mélange.

1375-1400: An agent noun from the Middle English knock, the construct being knock + -er.  Knock was from the Middle English knokken, from the Old English cnocian, ġecnocian & cnucian (to knock, pound on, beat), from the Proto-West Germanic knokōn, from the Proto-Germanic knukōną (to knock), a suffixed form of knu- & kneu- (to pound on, beat), from the primitive Indo-European gen- (to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up, concentrate). The English word was cognate with the Middle High German knochen (to hit), the Old English cnuian & cnuwian (to pound, knock) and the Old Norse knoka.  It was related to the Danish knuge and the Swedish knocka (to hug).  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought usually to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius and reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant was -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  The –er suffix was added to verbs to create a person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb; used to form an agent noun.  It added to a noun it denoted an occupation.  The sense of "door banger" is from the 1590s although the precise use in architecture of a "metal device fixed to the outside of a door for banging to give notice when someone desires admission" seems not to have been formalised until 1794.  The use to refer to breasts wasn’t noted until 1941.

Knocker-upper using bamboo knocker, circa 1900.

Mentioned in Charles Dickens’ (1812-1870) Great Expectations (1860-1861), the knocker-upper (or knock-up) was an occupation created by the demands of the industrial revolution in late eighteenth century which demanded an often newly-urbanized workforce to appear in factories on time for shifts, the punctuality important because of the need to synchronize the attendance of labour to machines.  At the time, alarm clocks were neither cheap nor generally available but the role persisted in some parts of northern England, well into the twentieth century, long after electricity and alarm clocks became ubiquitous, the knocker-uppers sometime on the payroll of mill or factory owners.  The role was sometimes combined with employment by local authorities, the knocker-upper paid while on his “waking-up” rounds manually to extinguish the street-lamps.

Bronze door knockers from earlier centuries.

Knocker-upper Mary Smith using peas-shooter, London, circa 1930.

The tool used depended on the need.  Knocker-uppers tended to use a short, hardwood stick to bang on doors and a lighter one, often made of bamboo to tap on windows, the latter in some towns long enough to reach the upper stories although there are photographs of pea-shooters being used in London, apparently a dried pea projective the only practical way to reach the third floor.  The nature of service was customised according to need.  In places where shifts were invariable, the knocker-upper tended to work from a list which only occasionally changed whereas in areas where industries ran multiple shifts and an employee’s start and finish times could change from day to day, slate boards were often attached to the wall next to the door with the desired hour nominated, these known as "knocky-up boards" or "wake-up slates".

When door knockers go rogue.

Solvent

Solvent (pronounced sol-vuhnt)

(1) Able to pay all just debts; meet all financial obligations (ie not insolvent).

(2) Something with the power of dissolving.

(3) A usually liquid substance that dissolves another to form a solution.

(4) Something that solves or explains (archaic).

1620–1630:  From the Middle English solvent, from the French, from the earlier form solver.  Latin root was solventem, accusative singular of solvēns (releasing), present participle of solvō, derived from the construct se (away) +‎ luō (to untie, set free, separate), most usually as solvere (to loosen, to free).  The meaning as applied to financial debts, originally a French form, dates from the 1650s.  As a substance able to dissolve other compounds, use emerged in the 1670s.  Unfortunately, the Czech noun solvence (solvency) was never picked up by English; its adoption would have made the odd clumsy phrase more elegent.  Solvent & insolvent are nouns & adjectives and solvency & insolvency are nouns; the noun plural is solvents.

Solvents and exfoliants.

Although the end result of use should (helpfully) be similar, technically, solvents and exfoliants differ both  in composition and application.  A solvent is a substance capable of dissolving other substances, typically for the purpose of removing them from the surface to which they've become adhered although in science and industry, they're used also for dilution or extraction and in all but some specialized products, they tend to be liquids, whether used in cleaning, manufacturing or chemical processing.  The concoctions are many but the best known solvents include water, alcohol and the acetone familiar to users of nail-polish removers.  Exfoliants are best-known as the commercially packaged substances used to remove dead skin cells on the face, the hope being an improvement in the texture of the skin and thus a more glowing, youthful appearance.  Unlike solvents which dissolve stuff, exfoliants work by the mechanical-chemical process of physically scrubbing or sloughing off the outermost layer of dead skin cells and are packaged variously as scrubs with abrasive particles, brushes, loofahs, or chemical mixes such as alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) or beta hydroxy acids (BHAs).

In praise of Orange Solv.

Orange Solv is a water-soluble solvent marketed as an alternative to the petroleum, chlorinated or glycol-ether mixtures used in heavy duty cleaning and de-greasing.  Applications include grease and tar removal from engines and parts, paint removal from solvent-resistant hard surfaces and it’s widely used commercially to remove chewing gum and stains from industrial carpets.  It’s been adopted by local governments as an additive to high-pressure water systems in the removal of graffiti and one vlogger (influenced presumably by practical experience) endorsed Orange Solve as the preferred solvent to remove the CHEATER signs spray-painted onto cars by vengeful WAGs.  Orange Solve is made from D-Limonene, an extract from the peel of oranges and lemons.  Low in toxicity, it’s pleasant to use, has minimal skin impact and is biodegradable.  Produced using the waste from the citrus industry, it's classified as non-flammable and when diluted with equal parts water, pH is a mildly alkaline 9. After use, there remains a citrus fragrance wafting about which some enjoy and others find intrusive.

Eliminate, Exterminate & Eradicate

Eliminate (pronounced ih-lim-uh-neyt)

(1) To remove or get rid of, especially as being in some way undesirable.

(2) To omit, especially as being unimportant or irrelevant; leave out.

(3) To remove from further consideration or competition, especially by defeating in sport or other competitive contest.

(4) To eradicate or kill.

(5) In physiology, to void or expel from an organism.

(6) In mathematics, to remove (a quantity) from an equation by elimination.

(7) In sport, as elimination & eliminator (drag racing): category classifications. 

1560–70: From the Latin ēlīminātus (thrust out of the doors; expel), past participle of ēlīmināre, the construct being ē- (out) + līmin- (stem of līmen (threshold)) + -ātus (the Latin first/second-declension suffix (feminine -āta, neuter -ātum)).  The most commonly used form in Latin appears to have been ex limine (off the threshold).  Used literally at first, the sense of "exclude" was first attested in 1714; the now obsolete sense of "expel waste from the body" emerged circa 1795 although the general sense of an "expulsion of waste matter" is from 1855.  Eliminate is a verb, if used with an object, the verbs are eliminated & eliminating, eliminability, eliminant & eliminability are nouns and eliminable, eliminative and eliminatory are adjectives.

Exterminate (pronounced ik-stur-muh-neyt)

Totally to destroy (living things, especially pests or vermin); annihilate; extirpate.

1535–1545: From the Latin exterminātus, past participle of extermināre (to drive away (from terminus boundary)), perfect passive participle of exterminō, the construct being ex- + terminō (I finish, close, end), from terminus (limit, end).  In Late Latin there was also the sense "destroy" from the phrase ex termine (beyond the boundary), ablative of termen (boundary, limit, end).  The meaning "utterly to destroy" appeared in English only by the 1640s, a sense found earlier in equivalent words in French and in the Vulgate; earlier in this sense was the mid-fifteenth century extermine.  Exterminator actually came earlier: as early as circa 1400, the Late Latin exterminator (from past participle stem of exterminare) had the sense of "an angel who expells (people from a country) and, by 1848, as a “substance for ridding a place of rats etc) and by 1938 this was applied to a person whose job it was.  Exterminate is a verb, used with an object the verbs are exterminated & exterminating, exterminable, exterminative & exterminatory are adjectives and extermination & exterminator are nouns.

Eradicate (pronounced ih-rad-i-keyt)

(1) To remove or destroy utterly; extirpate.

(2) To erase by rubbing or by means of a chemical solvent or other agent.

(3) Of plants, to pull up by the roots.

1555–1565: From the Latin ērādīcātus (usually translated as “destroy utterly”; literally “pull up by the roots”), past participle of ērādīcāre (root out, extirpate, annihilate), the construct being ē- (out) + rādīc- (stem of rādīx (root) (genitive radicis)) + -ātus (the Latin first/second-declension suffix (feminine -āta, neuter -ātum)).  The assimilated form of ērādīcāre is derived from the primitive Indo-European wrād (branch, root) and from the same source, the native form of the same idea existed in mid-fifteenth century Middle English as outrōten (to root (something) out; eradicate).  A surprisingly recent creation in 1794 was ineradicable and within a few years, ineradicably.  Eradicate is a verb, eradicant is an adjective and noun, eradicated & eradicating are verbs (used with object), eradicable & eradicative are adjectives, eradicably is an adverb, eradication & eradicator are nouns.

Eliminate, exterminate and eradicate in the age of pandemics

In Modern English usage, eliminate, exterminate and eradicate are often used interchangeably despite differences in nuance.  This means also the wealth of synonyms the three enjoy are sometimes haphazardly used although some overlap does exist, the synonyms including: annihilate, expunge, abolish, erase, uproot, extinguish, efface, demolish, total, abate, liquidate, obliterate, trash, squash, purge, extirpate, scratch, slaughter, decimate, execute, massacre, abolish, erase, extirpate, destroy, oust, waive, ignore, defeat, cancel, exclude, disqualify, invalidate, drop, eject, expel, liquidate, omit, terminate, slay, discard & disregard.

In the (relatively) happy times before the emergence of SARS-Cov2's Delta variant, the New Zealand prime minister declared COVID-19 “eradicated but not eliminated” which did sound given that, regarding disease, the words have specific, technical meanings.  In the context of disease, eradication refers to the complete and permanent worldwide reduction to zero new cases through deliberate effort.  Elimination refers to the reduction to zero (or a very low defined target rate) of new cases in a defined geographical area, which can be any size, a province, country, continent or hemisphere.  As used by virologists and epidemiologists therefore, eradication is used in its normal conversational sense but elimination is applied with a specific technical meaning.  There is a quirk to this. The World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1980 although small cultures remain in US and Russian research laboratories.  If these residual stocks are ever destroyed, the WHO may adopt some new term to distinguish between eradication in the wild and an absolute extermination from the planet.  Nobody seems now to believe COVID-19 will ever be eliminated, exterminated or eradicated.  It seems here to stay.

Defendants in the dock, International Military Tribunal (IMT, the main Nuremberg trial (1945-1946)). 

The meanings of eliminate, exterminate & eradicate, both in their English senses and in translation from German have been debated before.  Although not defined in law until the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), the newly (1944) created word genocide appeared in the indictments served at the main Nuremberg trial (1945-1946) upon those accused under count IV, crimes against humanity.  This attracted the interest of lawyers who noted the words exterminate and eliminate appear both in the academic and legal discussions about the novel concept of genocide and in translations of many documents from the Third Reich which related to the Jews.  Defense counsel probed what was meant by these words and whether, in original or translation, their actual meaning in the context of their use was in accord with what was meant when applied to genocide.  The etymological excursion didn’t much help the defendants, most of whom were hanged.  Hermann Göring also raised an objection to a translation from the German being rendered as "final solution to the Jewish problem" rather than "total solution" which, he argued, should compel the court to draw a different inference.  In both discussions, the judges concluded what was being discussed was mass-murder and the relative degree of applicability between synonyms was not a substantive point.

Professionals in the field of pest control actually stick more closely to classic etymology in their technical distinction between the two central words: extermination and eradication.  Extermination (from the Latin, exterminare meaning “out of the boundary” and related to the deity Terminus who presided over boundaries) means to drive the pests beyond the boundaries of the building.  It doesn’t of necessity mean the pests are all dead, just that they are no longer in the building.  Eradicate (from the Latin eradicare meaning to root out) refers to the processes leading to extermination, to bring to light the breeding spots, the places where the infestation has, so to speak, taken root.

Dolichocephalic

Dolichocephalic (pronounced dol-i-koh-suh-fal-ik)

(1) The state of having a head much longer than it is broad, especially one with a cephalic index under 75.

(2) Any creature with such a head.

(3) A creature thought to have a disproportionately long head.

1852: The construct was dolicho + cephalic.  From New Latin dolichocephalus (long-headed) derived from the Greek dolichos (long) + kephalos (head); original form of kephalos was kephalē.  Used mostly in zoology and anthropology, forms include dolichocephaly (noun), hyperdolichocephalic  (adjective), hyperdolichocephaly (noun), subdolichocephalic (adjective), subdolichocephalism (noun), subdolichocephalous (adjective) and subdolichocephaly (noun).

Zoanthropic NFT: Lindsay Lohan's Furry canine (some suggested it was wolf-like) was rendered in dolichocephalic form.  The Lohanic fursona was first mentioned in September 2021 but not minted until October.

The cephalic index or cranial index is the ratio of the maximum width of the head of a creature multiplied by 100 divided by its maximum length.  The index is important to dog and cat breeders who seek mating pairs with an index number as close as possible to the defined ideal for a particular breed.  In general zoology, skull are classified into three types,  Those with ratios below seventy-five indicates skulls that are long and narrow, (dolichocephalic); those between seventy-five and eighty are slightly broader (mesocephalic); those with ratios above eighty are rounder (brachycephalic).

Hardwired

Hardwired (pronounced hahrd-wahyuhrd)

(1) In electronics, built into the hardware.

(2) In mainframe computing, a terminal connected to the CPU(s) by a direct cable rather than through a switching network.

(3) In the behavioral sciences, a cluster of theories pertaining to or describing intrinsic and relatively un-modifiable patterns of behavior by both humans and animals.  Published work describes genetically determined, instinctive behavior, as opposed to learned behavior.

(4) In computer programming, a kludge temporarily or quickly to fix a problem, done historically by bypassing the operating system and directly addressing the hardware (assembly language).

(5) Casual term for anything designed to perform a specific task.

1969:  A compound word: hard + wired.  Hard is from the Middle English hard from the Old English heard, from the Proto-Germanic harduz, derived ultimately from the primitive Indo-European kort-ús from kret (strong, powerful).  Cognate with the German hart, the Swedish hård, the Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús), the Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu) and the Avestan xratu.  Wire is from the Middle English wir & wyr from the Old English wīr (wire, metal thread, wire-ornament) from the Proto-Germanic wīraz (wire) from the primitive Indo-European wehiros (a twist, thread, cord, wire) from wehy (to turn, twist, weave, plait).  The suffix ed is used to form past tenses of (regular) verbs and in linguistics is used for the base form of any past form.  It’s from the Middle English ede & eden from the Old English ode & odon (a weak past ending) from the Proto-Germanic ōd & ōdēdun. Cognate with the Saterland Frisian ede (first person singular past indicative ending), the Swedish ade and the Icelandic aði.  The earliest known citation is from 1969 although there are suggestions the word or its variants had been used earlier, both in electronics and forms of mechanical production.  The word migrated to zoology, genetics and human behavioral studies in 1971.  Hardwired, hard wired and hard-wired are used interchangeably and no rules or conventions of use have ever emerged.

SysCon

In the world of the pre-modern mainframes, there might be a dozen or thousands of terminals (a monitor & keyboard) attached to a system but there was always one special terminal, SysCon (system console), hardwired to the central processor.  Unlike other terminals which connected, sometimes over long distances, through repeaters and telephone lines, SysCon, used by system administrators, plugged directly into the core CPU.  When Novell released Netware in 1983, they reprised SysCon as the name of the software layer which was the main administration tool.

Armageddon

Armageddon (pronounced ahr-muh-ged-n)

(1) The place where the final battle will be fought between the forces of good and evil.

(2) The last and completely destructive battle; the scene of a decisive conflict on a great scale; any great and crucial conflict. 

(3) A catastrophic and extremely destructive conflict.

(4) In chess, as "armageddon round", an arrangement in some competitions used when a match would otherwise end in a draw, the rules being (1) black wins drawn games and (2) white is granted more time in compensation.

From the biblical Book of Revelation (New Testament 16:16) and the familiar modern use in the figurative sense of a final conflict apparently dates only from 1811.  The actual word was from the Late Latin Armagedōn, from the Ancient Greek Ἁρμαγεδών (Harmagedōn)), from the Hebrew הר מגידו or ‎הַר‎ מְגִדּוֹ‎ (har megiddo) (Mount of Megiddo), the mountain district of Megiddo, in northern Palestine, site of a number of battles mentioned in the Old Testament, most notably that associated with the Last Judgment.

The Last Judgment (circa 1488), triptych by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516).

In the Book of Revelation, Armageddon is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle at the end of times.  Theologically, the western consensus is to interpret this as the battle between good and evil, often expressed as between God and the Kings on earth (Revelation, 16:14).  However, most biblical scholars regard the text as highly symbolic (even cryptic), regarding Mount Armageddon as an idealized location, concluding the final battle between good and evil, while inevitable, may well take place in some other location.  Others are more specific, a sect called the Dispensationalists suggests Armageddon will be a campaign (sometimes dramatically styled as the war of a thousand years) and not a specific battle.  All however agree it will be fought in and for the lands we call the Middle East.

Also disclosed in Revelation is the number of the Beast (Revelation 13:15–18).  In most English translations the number of the beast is 666 (although some early Greek translations prefer 616).

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.  He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

The unfortunate condition Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is the fear of the number 666.  It's said to be rare.

Apse

Apse (pronounced aps)

(1) In architecture, a semicircular or polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used especially at the end of a choir in a church.

(2) The bishop's seat or throne in ancient churches.

(3) A reliquary (or case) in which the relics of saints were kept.

(4) In astronomy, an alternative name for an apsis (either of two points in an eccentric orbit, one (higher apsis) farthest from the centre of attraction, the other (lower apsis) nearest to the center of attraction); largely obsolete.

1815–1825; A variant of apsis & hapsis, from the Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís) (arch, vault), from ἅπτω (háptō) (I bind, join) from haptein (to fasten).  The Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís) (from the Ionic apsis) originally meant "a fastening, felloe of a wheel," from haptein (fasten together) which is of unknown origin. The original sense in Greek seems to have been the joining of the arcs to form a circle, especially in making a wheel.  As an architectural term, it’s attested in English (in the Latin form) as early as 1706. Apse is a noun, apsidal is an adjective and apsidally is an adverb; the noun plural is apses.  

A more familiar derivation of haptein was the noun synapse (junction between two nerve cells), an 1899 creation of medical Latin, from the Greek synapsis (conjunction), from or related to synaptein (to clasp, join together, tie or bind together, be connected with), the construct being syn- (together) + haptein (to fasten).  It was introduced by English physiologist Charles Sherrington (1857-1952), summarizing recent work by other neurologists, in an 1897 revision of Sir Michael Foster's (1836–1907) Textbook of Physiology; the form of the coinage suggested by the English classical scholar Arthur Woollgar Verral (1851-1912).

The cathedra (bishop's chair) of Rome, in the apse in the Basilica of St John Lateran, Rome.

Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus (pronounced sahr-kof-uh-guhs)

(1) A stone coffin, especially one bearing sculpture, inscriptions, etc, often displayed as a monument.

(2) In Ancient Greece, a kind of limestone thought to consume the flesh of corpses, used for coffins.

(3) In contemporary use, any (usually large) structure used to encase something.

(4) A form of wine cooler used in the eighteenth century.

1595-1605: From the French sarcophage, from the Latin sarcophagus, from the Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos) (coffin of limestone), noun use of the adjective sarcophagous.  The original in Ancient Greek was so named because of the limestone’s supposed property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it: σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos) (flesh-eating, carnivorous), from the genitive σαρκός (sarkós) of σάρξ (sárx) (flesh; meat) + -φάγος (-phágos) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon), past of φάγω (phágō) (eat), the root of phagein (to eat) being the primitive Indo-European bhag- (to share out, apportion; to get a share).  The preferred plural remains sarcophagi although all dictionaries list the unpalatable sarcophaguses as an alternative.

In English, the sense "stone" was the earliest, the meaning "stone coffin, often with inscriptions or decorative carvings" didn’t emerge until 1705. The Classical Latin was shortened in Vulgar Latin to sarcus, source of the French cercueil (coffin, casket), the German Sarg (coffin) and the Dutch zerk (tombstone).  The reputation of lime as a means of causing the rapid putrefaction of corpses persisted well into the twentieth century and was the downfall of some murderers subsequently surprised to learn it acted instead as a preservative on the bodies they had buried.

The Chernobyl incident

Before incident

The incident at the Chernobyl power-plant on 26 April 1986 was trigged by an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction which happened because of a series of events over two days, ironically during was supposed to be a test of safety systems.   After several explosions, during which quantities of radioactive material were released and spread widely over Europe, the core of reactor number four melted down.  Despite this, other reactors continued to operate and the Chernobyl power plant wasn’t finally decommissioned until December 2000.  The surrounding area is now an exclusion zone and will not be habitable for at least twenty-thousand years with the highly contaminated reactor number four encased in what was intended to be only a temporary concrete sarcophagus (the original Russian name was Объект Укрытие (Obyekt Ukrytiye) which translates as sheltering or covering); it’s since been covered with a metal enclosure.

After incident

The contaminated ruins of reactor number four were so dangerous that work on a sarcophagus began within a month of the meltdown, construction of the reinforced concrete structure substantially complete by November 1986.  However, the building had become so radioactive it became impossible for workers to approach close enough to finish the work and the robots used instead were not able completely to seal the sarcophagus.

Sarcophagus

Envisaged by engineers to have a life of thirty years, the sarcophagus deteriorated more quickly than had been expected and in 1997 an international project was formed to design and build something more durable.  Known as New Safe Confinement, it is a metal arch some 344 feet (105 metres) high and spanning 843 feet (257 metres), prefabricated and moved on rail lines, sliding over the existing sarcophagus.  The project team noted the adoption of the word confinement, rather than containment, commonly used in nuclear facility architecture.  The distinction is the difference between a reactor containment building which designed to contain radioactive gases and a structure built for the confinement of solid radioactive waste.

New Safe Confinement

Construction was completed in late 2018, after which trials and tests of the internal systems were run.  Unlike the sarcophagus, New Safe Confinement is designed to permit, using robotic devices, the remains of reactor number four safely to be dismantled and removed.  This is of course a man-made structure and like them all, nothing lasts forever and there is still no agreement between engineers about when a replacement layer will have to be added although all agree the new sarcophagus should adequately serve for decades; the discussion is about how many.

Elegiac

Elegiac (pronounced el-i-jahy-uhk or el-i-jahy-ak or ih-lee-jee-ak)

(1) Used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.

(2) Expressing sorrow or lamentation.

(3) In classical prosody, a technical classification noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.

(4) An elegiac or distich verse.

(5) A poem constructed in such distichs or verses.

1575-1585: From the Middle French élégiaque, from the Latin elegīacus (poem or song of lament) and the Ancient Greek ἐλεγειακός (elegeiakós) (from the earlier eleigeia).  In ancient Greece the verse form was associated with laments and other mournful tunes.  The meaning “pertaining to an elegy or elegies” emerged in English in the 1640s while the loosened sense of “expressing sorrow, lamenting” dates from the turn of the nineteenth century.  The adjective elegiacal was first used in the 1540 as a technical term in the sense of “of meter”.  Elegiac & elegiacal are adjectives and elegiacally is an adverb.

A technical rule in poetry

In the study and practice of poetry, the elegiac is that said to be written in the form of elegiac couplets.  It’s a highly technical definition, understood and applied (critically rather than deconstructively) by a handful of specialists in the field: An elegiac couplet consists of one line of poetry in dactylic hexameter (a stressed (or long) syllable followed by two unstressed (or short) syllables, repeated five times to create a pentameter line) followed by a line in dactylic pentameter (a hexameter with six feet).  In Text thus constructed, purists insist, each foot needs to be a dactyl (a long and two short syllables), but, since antiquity, the classical meter has always tolerated the substitution of a spondee (two long syllables) in place of a dactyl in most places; technically the first four feet can either be dactyls or spondees.  Got it?

Among critics, the dactylic hexameter is regarded as the higher form because, since antiquity, it has been the structural framework of the epic whereas the elegiac form was thought both less demanding and more popular.

Yates & Auden.

In Memory of WB Yeats by WH Auden (1939)

 

He disappeared in the dead of winter:

The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,

And snow disfigured the public statues;

The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.

What instruments we have agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

 

Far from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,

The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;

By mourning tongues

The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

 

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

 

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities

And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,

To find his happiness in another kind of wood

And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.

The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living.

 

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow

When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the bourse,

And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed

And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom

A few thousand will think of this day

As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.

 

What instruments we have agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

 

II

 

You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:

The parish of rich women, physical decay,

Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives

In the valley of its making where executives

Would never want to tamper, flows on south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,

Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,

A way of happening, a mouth.

 

III

 

Earth, receive an honoured guest:

William Yeats is laid to rest.

Let the Irish vessel lie

Emptied of its poetry.

 

In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark,

And the living nations wait,

Each sequestered in its hate;

 

Intellectual disgrace

Stares from every human face,

And the seas of pity lie

Locked and frozen in each eye.

 

Follow, poet, follow right

To the bottom of the night,

With your unconstraining voice

Still persuade us to rejoice;

 

With the farming of a verse

Make a vineyard of the curse,

Sing of human unsuccess

In a rapture of distress;

 

In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start,

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise.

 

Although written by WH Auden (1907-1973) as a tribute to WB Yeats (1865–1939), the work is also something of a reflection on the nature of poetry.