Legging

Legging (pronounced leg-ing)

(1) A covering for the leg, usually extending from the ankle to the knee but sometimes higher, worn by soldiers, riders, workers, etc. 

(2) The pants of a two-piece snowsuit.

(3) In the plural, as leggings, (1) close-fitting trousers worn by mostly by women and girls (as fashion items) & (2) close fitting trousers worn as support in sporting competitions.

(4) In slang, as “legging it”, (1) to proceed somewhere by foot or (2) to proceed somewhere by any means with some alacrity, a variation of the latter being “shake a leg”.

1745–1755: The construct was leg(g) + -ing (the more illustrative alternative spelling being leggin (leg(g) + in).  The noun leg was from the Middle English leg & legge, from the Old Norse leggr (leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk), from the Proto-Germanic lagjaz & lagwijaz (leg, thigh) which may have been from the primitive Indo-European (ǝ)lak- or lēk- (leg; the main muscle of the arm or leg).  It was cognate with the Scots leg (leg), the Icelandic leggur (leg, limb), the Norwegian Bokmål legg (leg), the Norwegian Nynorsk legg (leg), the Swedish Swedish lägg (leg, shank, shaft), the Danish læg (leg), the Lombardic lagi (thigh, shank, leg), the Latin lacertus (limb, arm) and the Persian لنگ‎ (leng).  It almost wholly displaced the native Old English sċanca (from which Modern English gained shank) which may have been from a root meaning “crooked”.  The origin of the Germanic forms remains uncertain and the Old Norse senses may be compared with Bein (“leg” in German) which in the Old High German meant "bone, leg".

A pair of lappet-faced vultures.  Native to parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, there's no evidence the lappet-faced vulture (Nubian vulture (Torgos tracheliotos)) influenced the development of the early leggings.

The slang use is derived from the circa 1500 verb which from the start was usually in the form “leg it”, meaning “proceed on foot by walking or running”.  The meaning "part of pants which cover the leg" is from 1570s and by the 1870s as an adjective it had a acquired the salacious hint of artistic displays focused on the female form with most of the leg exposed.  In the jargon of the theatre, leg-business was slang for "dance; ballet."  The idea of a leg as "a part or stage of a journey or race" dates only from 1920 and was based on the earlier sense (from 1865) applied to sailing ships which meant "a run made by a ship on a single tack when beating to windward" which sailors defined as long leg or short leg, the notion being the leg ending when the direction had to be altered.  The theatre slang “shake a leg” by 1869 meant “dance” and this by 1800 spread to the general population where it meant "hurry up".  To be “on (one's) last legs” meant “close to death”, the earliest known instance in print being from the 1590s.  To take “leg bail” was late eighteenth century underworld and legal slang for "run away" in the sense either of escaping from apprehension or not appearing in court as summonsed.  The phrase “having the legs” meant “enduring success, staying power" emerged in the late 1960s to describe Broadway shows which enjoyed an extended session while “long legged” was an automotive term which referred to a vehicle with an ability effortlessly to cruise at high speed.  Leg-side and off-side are the two hemispheres of a cricket ground, divided down the middle of the batting pitch.  The leg-side is that closest to a batsman's legs while the off-side is that closest to the bat when the normal batting position is adopted; leg and off-side thus swap identities depending on whether the batsman is left or right-handed.  The distinction explains the origin of many fielding positions (long off, deep backward square leg, leg slip etc) but, confusingly, the leg designation is only used for the "leg quarter" of the field, positions forward of square leg using "on" (as opposed to "off") thus long on, long off etc.   

The suffix –ing was from the Middle English -ing, from the Old English –ing & -ung (in the sense of the modern -ing, as a suffix forming nouns from verbs), from the Proto-West Germanic –ingu & -ungu, from the Proto-Germanic –ingō & -ungō. It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian -enge, the West Frisian –ing, the Dutch –ing, The Low German –ing & -ink, the German –ung, the Swedish -ing and the Icelandic –ing; All the cognate forms were used for the same purpose as the English -ing).  Legging & leggings are nouns, legging (in its slang sense) is a verb and legginged is an adjective.  The noun plural is leggings.

Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) & Lindsay Lohan illustrate the enduring appeal of leggings.

In the West, so ubiquitous for so long have been leggings that they seem less a trend than a fixture but historians of fashion have noted that leggings have been in and out of style since first they were worn in the fourteenth century, “going out” and “coming back” for hundreds of years.  Although now (except in sport or hidden under layers when worn by scuba-divers, mountaineers or those on ski fields) associated almost exclusively with women and girls, leggings appear first to have been worn by men in fourteenth century Scotland.  The early leggings were two separate, hip-high, boot-like apparatuses made of either leather or chainmail, intended for both civilian and military use and they evolved into thick garments (like tights), worn under cotehardies (a kind of blend of a cardigan, coat and hoodie (ankle-length for women, shorter for men), from the Old French cote-hardie, the construct being cote (coat) + hardie (hardy)) for the mid-Renaissance until the late eighteenth century (although they fell from favor with women more than a hundred years earlier.  Men abandoned them too as the combination of trousers, shirts and jackets became the standard form of dress, something which endures to this day.

Audrey Hepburn in capri pants, 1954.

The first modern day revival was stimulated by fashion designers in the 1950s using the capri pants in their early post-war shows, the slender waist-defining cropped black pants ideal emphasizing the preferred shape of the era and while they weren’t the now familiar skin-tight leggings, they offered a dramatic contrast with the wider-leg styles associated with the 1940s.  It was the debut of Lycra (spandex) in 1959 which made possible leggings in their modern form and fashion photographers soon honed techniques best suited when they were paired with the new generation of mini-skirts, the lines and allure of leg, paradoxically, emphasized when covered.

Bella Hadid (b 1996) in leggings coming from and going to the gym.  She looks good, coming or going.

The industry notes a brief lull in their popularity during the hippie era when many restraining devices were discarded (and sometime even ceremonially burned) but by the late 1970s they were back and the trend accelerated in the 1980s when the new popularity of active-wear spread beyond the gym to the street and, significantly, the new influencer platform of the music video and the stretchy things survived the onslaught of leg warmers.  Lycra was well suited to bright, shiny colors and the leotard over leggings look became a motif of the decade.  It was perhaps a bit much and things got darker and baggier in the 1990s but the practicality of the things was ultimately irresistible and the innovation of stirrup-leggings was a harbinger of the new century.  It does seem they’re now here to stay and full-length, liquid leggings have in a sense replaced pants, something which upset some Middle-Eastern airlines which were compelled to remind passengers their dress code allowed pants for women but that “leggings are not pants”, a rule enforced in the West on female visitors to some men’s prisons.

Gym pants are a variation of leggings.  Cut usually to calf-length, the design is optimized for exercise.  Ina-Maria Schnitzer (b 1986; who modeled as Jordan Carver) demonstrates the advantages.

Sesquipedalian

Sesquipedalian (pronounced ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn or ses-kwi-pi-deyl-yuhn)

(1) A person given to using long words.

(2) Of a word containing many syllables or one considered long and ponderous.

1605-1615: From the Latin sēsquipedālis & sesquipedalia (of a person or some object a foot and a half long), the construct being sesqui (half as much again) + pedālis (of the foot) from pēs (foot) from the primitive Indo-European ped- (foot).  Sequipedalian is a noun & adjective, sesquipedal is an adjective, sesquipedality  is an adverb and sesquipedalianism & sesquipedalism are nouns.

Bust of Horace, Villa Borghese Park, Rome.

There's nothing to suggest the use in English as a noun was ever widespread but it attained a certain popularity as an adjective in the 1650s, deployed by critics who approved not at all of writers over-fond of long (and often obscure) words.  Enjoying the irony, condemning sesquipedalianism was an early example of the admirable work of the "plain English" movement which still has some work to do among lawyers and the universities where tautology and tortured phrasing seems still to impress many.  The sense of the "sesquipedalian word" was coined as the sesquipedalia verba (literally "words a foot-and-a-half long") in Horace's (65-8 BC) Ars Poetica (thought published circa 8 BC) as a funny way of pointing out the use of many or long words when fewer or shorter will do as well.  Horace unexpectedly included some literary theory and criticism in an earlier work devoted mostly to other matters but returned to exploring the literary theme further in Ars Poetica, written in the form of an epistle.  Sometimes referred to as Epistles 2.3, it’s thought to be his final poem and as a work, it endured well, ranking with Aristotle's (384–322 BC) De Poetica (Poetics, circa 335 BC) in its influence on literary theory and criticism.  Milton (1608-1674) would later commend both works in his treatise Of Education (1644).

Horace’s gift of sesquipedalian was enough for most but there were in the twentieth century those who rose to the challenge, coining hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words) to add to the ever growing list of phobias although it was one of the many formed more in linguistic fun than in response to any great volume of clinical instances.  It was from the earlier jocular construction hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian which built on sesquipedalian with the addition of monstr (from the Latin monstrum (“monstrous being” or something huge or terrifying)) and hippopotamus (chosen presumably both to lengthen of the word and reinforce the fear (the big hippopotamus amphibious (the modern word Hippopotamine meaning “something very large”) actually a dangerous creature annually killing over 500 people whereas lions take only a couple of dozen (although in Greek mythology, Hippô (Ἱππώ or Ἵππωτος) meant "horse" and potámi & potam-os (ποτάμι) meant "river" & "like a swift current") +‎ -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing), from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía); it was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later)).  Even that could be improved (or at least enlarged) and hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia soon emerged as an alternative spelling though presumably it wasn’t adopted by those suffering the neglected (and almost undocumented) mizzpellifobia.

The logophilic Lord Black of Crossharbour (left), taking his seat in the House of Lords, London, 2002.

Anyway, like many of its ilk, the 15-syllable concoction was relegated to the corner of lexicographical curiosities while sesquipedalophobia remains the recognized name for the condition.  Fears and phobias are part of the human condition and the mind is able to develop them towards just about anything or concept.  That sesquipedalophobia is a rare condition does not mean it’s not real because an instance of symptoms doesn’t need to be widespread to be defined; they need only to be specific to at least a single case for the diagnostic criteria to be created.  However, while a phobia can manifest as an aversion, for sesquipedalophobia to be diagnosed the condition must be both enduring and impose on an individual some clinically significant consequences which adversely affect their normal social functioning.  One can dislike the use of long words and (often commendably) avoid the practice but that’s just a preference and a technique of expression, not a phobia.  Perhaps surprisingly, although logophobia & verbophobia are listed as a “fear of words” there is no record of a phobia for “fear of words of unknown meaning”.  Anyone who fears they may suffer this as yet undiagnosed disorder should probably avoid reading the works of Conrad Black (Lord Black of Crossharbour, b 1944), noted for a fondness for the obscure or archaic (though not necessarily the long so it may be safe for sesquipedalophobics to browse).

So those who suffer somewhere on the sesquipedalophobia spectrum are those who tend to experience heightened anxiety when confronted with long words and the extent of the duration and intensity of that anxiety indicates the position on the spectrum (the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR (2022)) notes a specific phobia ((classified as an anxiety disorder)) as an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity, or person, the fear usually proportionally greater than the actual danger or threat).  Most specific phobias are induced by a causal event or trigger recorded by parts of the brain (amygdala and hippocampus) as dangerous or deadly, the body reacting in sympathy especially if the same thing is perceived as bound repeatedly to happen.  In theory, a patient with the most severe case of sesquipedalophobia could suffer a temporary paralysis or even a seizure although both are unlikely, feelings of anxiety or even panic more probable.  It’s thought the condition is learned behavior, induced by an unpleasant episode, often in childhood and the recommended treatment regime is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on a gradual exposure to long words rather than an exploration of the initial causative event, something which may create additional trauma for no benefit; nor are symptom-masking drugs recommended, these considered a last resort and the DSM also notes a gradual exposure during CBT can assist the patient to recognize their fear is excessive or unreasonable.  Interestingly, sesquipedalophobia seems very much a condition suffered by native English speakers and there seems no evidence those with an early exposure to long words (such as Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg) and German (Deutsch)) are afflicted disproportionately, presumably an indication of the significance of events in childhood which may cause the syndrome to appear.

Gruntle

Gruntle (pronounced gruhn-tl)

Happy or contented; satisfied (informal; non-standard).

1500s: A frequentative of grunt.  Grunt was from the Middle English grunten, from the Old English grunnettan (to grunt (and a probably imitative frequentative of grunian (to grunt)), from the Proto-West Germanic grunnattjan, from the Proto-Germanic grunnatjaną (to grunt), frequentative of the Proto-Germanic grunnōną (to grunt), from the primitive Indo-European ghrun- (to shout).  It was cognate with the Old High German grunnizon, the German grunzen (to grunt), the Old French grogner & the Latin grunnire (to grunt) and the Danish grynte (to grunt) and the noun senses are all instances of zero derivation from the verb.

The noun emerged in the 1550s, from the verb.  The name for the fish (now used for any fish of the perciform family Haemulidae dates from 1713 and was so-called because of the noise they made when taken from the water while “grunter” (a pig) was first noted in the 1640s).  The meaning "infantry soldier or enlisted Marine" became US military slang during Vietnam War in the 1960s (and was first noted in print in 1969) although it had been applied to various low-level (and not necessarily manual) workers since early in the twentieth century, the phrase “grunt work” dating from 1977.  Grunt in the sense of horsepower dates from the early 1960s, the first use in print of “grunt machine” noted in 1973.  The dessert of steamed berries and dough (usually blueberries) described as grunt is from North America and exists usually as “blueberry grunt”; “raspberry grunt etc” (although the use takes no account of blackberries, mulberries, and raspberries not actually being berries whereas bananas, pumpkins, avocados & cucumbers are).

Lindsay Lohan looking gruntled.

The more familiar forms are disgruntle (verb), disgruntled (verb & adjective), disgruntling (verb & (occasional) adjective) and disgruntlement (noun) and all reference the sense of “to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction; make discontented”.  Disgruntle dates from circa 1682, the construct being dis- + gruntle.  The dis prefix was from the Middle English dis-, from the Old French des from the Latin dis, from the proto-Italic dwis, from the primitive Indo-European dwís and cognate with the Ancient Greek δίς (dís) and the Sanskrit द्विस् (dvis).  It was applied variously as an intensifier of words with negative valence and to render the senses “incorrect”, “to fail (to)”, “not” & “against”.  In Modern English, the rules applying to the dis prefix vary and when attached to a verbal root, prefixes often change the first vowel (whether initial or preceded by a consonant/consonant cluster) of that verb. These phonological changes took place in Latin and usually do not apply to words created (as in Modern Latin) from Latin components since the language was classified as “dead”.  The combination of prefix and following vowel did not always yield the same change and these changes in vowels are not necessarily particular to being prefixed with dis (ie other prefixes sometimes cause the same vowel change (con; ex)).

Lindsay Lohan looking disgruntled.

The verb disgruntle, dating from circa 1682, means "to put into a state of sulky dissatisfaction".  Because the prefix dis- usually means "to do the opposite of", it’s not unreasonable to assume there must first have been the word “gruntle” meaning “happy or contented; satisfied” but there are cases where the prefix operates as an intensifier (in this case in the sense of “utterly” or “completely”) and this was the path of disgruntle, an extension of gruntle which in English use meant "to grumble" and, grumbling being a noted characteristic of the English, it had some history of use, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) listing a 1589 sermon by Robert Bruce of Kinnaird (1554–1631) in which he uttered ''It becomes us not to have our hearts here gruntling upon this earth”.  Use however faded while disgruntled flourished and although the original OED (1884) noting it was “now chiefly US), a view unaltered by 1933 when the Shorter OED (SOED) was published.  Since then however it’s been revived elsewhere and is now a common form throughout the English-speaking world; given the nature of the human condition, most expect it to endure.

The unexpected re-appearance of gruntle in the twentieth century in the sense of “happy or contented; satisfied” (ie an antonym both of the original meaning and of disgruntle) was thus not a revival of something obsolete but a jocular back-formation from disgruntle, most sources indicating the first known instance in print being from 1926 but the most celebrated example comes from PG Wodehouse (1881–1975) who in The Code of the Woosters (1938) penned: “He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”  Long a linguistic joke, some now take gruntled seriously but for the OED to acknowledge that, we may have to wait decades although the editors were quick to verify couth as a late nineteenth century back-formation from uncouth.

The precedent of back-formation has inspired many and other suggestions have included whelmed (from overwhelmed (underwhelmed another more recent coining)), fused (from confused), plexed (from perplexed), fuddling (from befuddling), settling (from unsettling), molish (from demolish), concerting (from disconcerting), wildered (from bewildered), stitious (from superstitious), shevled (from dishevled), gusting (from disgusting), tracted (from distracted) & juvenate (from rejuvenate).  Combobulate (from discombobulate) seems often also longed for but progress there has begun for in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one can recombobulate.

Spiced Blueberry Grunt by Carolyn Beth Weil

Seemingly an unpromising name for a pudding, Grunts get their quirky name from the fruit which is topped with dumplings and cooked on the stove in a covered skillet, a method which can produce a grunting sound as things steam.  The molasses adds sweetness and depth of flavor.

Ingredients (filling)

4 cups fresh blueberries (from four ½-pint containers)
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
¼ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
¼ cup water
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Ingredients (Dumplings)

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
¾ cup whole milk
Whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream for topping

Step 1 (prepare filling)

Mix all ingredients in 12-inch-diameter skillet. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until berries soften and mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes.

Step 2 (prepare dumplings)

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Add milk; stir just until blended and sticky dough forms.

Step 3 (cooking & serving)

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto simmering berry mixture, placing close together. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover skillet and simmer until dumplings are firm and tester inserted into dumplings comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Scoop warm dessert into bowls and top with whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Column

Column (pronounced kol-uhm)

(1) In architecture, a rigid, relatively slender, upright support, composed usually of relatively few pieces.

(2) A decorative pillar, most often associated with the classical architecture of antiquity, composed of stone and typically having a cylindrical or polygonal shaft with a capital and usually a base.

(3) Any column-like object, mass, or formation.

(4) A vertical row or list.

(5) A vertical arrangement on a page of horizontal lines of type, usually typographically justified.

(6) A regular feature or series of articles in a newspaper, magazine, or the like, usually having a readily identifiable heading and the byline; often related to a single subject or theme

(7) A long, narrow formation of troops in which there are more members in line in the direction of movement than at right angles to the direction.  A column one wide is said to be in single-file.

(8) A formation of ships in single file (largely archaic).

(9) In botany, a column-like structure in an orchid flower, composed of the united stamens and style.

(10) In anatomy or zoology, any of various tubular or pillar-like supporting structures in the body, such as the spinal column, each generally having a single tissue origin and function.

(11) In the design of accounting ledgers or computer-based spreadsheets, the vertical array of data (contrast with the row; the horizontal array).

(12) In chemistry, an object used to separate the different components of a liquid or to purify chemical compounds.

(13) As the fifth column (quinta columna), a group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group, such as a nation, to which it is expected to be loyal.

1400–1450: From the late Middle English columne, columpne & columpe, from the Old French columne, from the Latin columna (column, pillar, post), the construct being colum(e)n (peak) + a (creating the feminine form).  Column replaced the Late Middle English colompne, also a Latin derivation and borrowed from the Anglo-French.  The Latin columna was akin to collis (a hill) & celsus (high), both likely derived from the Ancient Greek κολοφών (kolophṓn), (top, summit).  Ultimate root was probably the Primitive European kel (to project).  The sense of "matter written for a newspaper" dates from 1785; that of the “fifth column” is from 1936.  The most common derived forms are the adjectives columnar, columned or columnated.  The first commercially successful spreadsheet was VisiCalc (1979), Lotus 1-2-3 following in 1983 and Microsoft Excel in 1985; built with columns and rows, the spreadsheet was instantly successful in translating the physical ledger into digital form and is considered the "killer app" which legitimized the use of personal computers in business.

The Fifth Column

A fifth column is group of people who undermine the security of the state in which they’re living, in support of an enemy force, historically as a prelude to invasion.  The more modern and still current variation is the sleeper-cell, individuals or even families integrated into foreign populations where they lie dormant, awaiting activation.  There’s no doubt the origins of the phrase “fifth column” can be traced to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) but, like many things from those years, the details are contested.  The first recorded instance was in a telegram, sent on 30 September 1936 by a German diplomat to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin reporting a "supposed statement” by the nationalist leader General Franco (Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892–1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975) claiming that not only did he have four columns of Nationalist troops marching on Madrid but that inside the city, a secret ”fifth column” (quinta columna) of fellow-travelers within the city would support the nationalist’s military campaign and undermine the Republican government from within.

Hitler and Franco, photographed at their day-long meeting at Hendaye, on the Spanish-French border, 23 October 1940.  Their discussions concerned Spain's participation in the War against the British but it proved most unsatisfactory for the Germans, the Führer declaring as he left that he'd rather have "three of four teeth pulled out" than have to again meet with the Caudillo.  Unlike Hitler, Franco was a professional soldier, thought war a hateful business best avoided and had a shrewd understanding of the military potential of the British Empire. 

The first known public use of the term is in the 3 October 1936 issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero.  In a front-page article the party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri (1895–1989; known as la Pasionaria (the Passionflower) for her strident oratory) referred to the same statement as reported to Berlin but attributed it to General Emilio Mola (1887-1937).  On the same day the another activist made a similar claim during a public rally and the Republican newspapers would in subsequent days repeat the story although with variations, some attributing the phrase to a different general.  Whether all this was some of the fog of war or part of the disinformation campaigns inevitable in any conflict will never be known but by mid-October media, the press were already routinely referring to the "famous fifth column".  Historians have never identified the original statement or its source.  All the verified documentary evidence of people using the words quinta columna is of instances after the publication in the Republican press.

Although renowned for its art deco buildings, there's also much neo-classicism in Miami, Florida.  A staple of gossip columns, Lindsay Lohan is pictured here among the columns, December 2013.

The “fifth column” caught the public imagination and became popular, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) using it as the title of the only play he wrote, published in his 1938 book The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories.  Initially, use tended to be restricted to military operations but it came to be applied more broadly to describe sympathizers of any cause not formerly attached to any structure and was by the early 1940s, used to warn of potential sedition and disloyalty within the borders both of the UK and US, the popular press running stories warning of a “Nazi Fifth Column”.  Always one with a fondness for a pungent phrase, Winston Churchill reassured the House of Commons the "…parliament has given us the powers to put down fifth column activities with a strong hand".  In Australia, a radio drama exploring the theme, The Enemy Within, was banned by the censor, the authorities apparently concerned listeners might confuse fact with fiction and become alarmed or worse.

General Franco’s troops interview a suspected fifth columnist.  This was actually a photo "staged" for publicity purposes.

Zedonk

Zedonk (pronounced zee-dongk, zee-dawngk or zee-duhngk)

The offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

1970-1975: A portmanteau word created from the first syllables of zebra and donkey (ze(bra) + donk(ey)).  Zedonk is a noun and the noun plural is zedonks; the alternative spelling is zeedonk.  According to zoologists, zedonk & zeedonk are popular creations and the correct terms are Zonkey (a blend of z(ebra) +‎(d)onkey (the noun plural being zonkeys)) if the offspring is sired from a male Zebra and a female Donkey and zebadonk (zeb(ra) + -a- + donk(ey)) if by a male donkey out of a female zebra.  Zonkey is pronounced zong-kee, zawng‐kee or zuhng‐kee.  The advantage of zedonk is it can be used to refer to any hybrid although the correct term is zebroid.  Like mules and ligers, zebroids are sterile creature so unable to procreate and while they can live in the wild, almost all known examples are in captivity.

Zebroids both: A zebadonk (left) and a zonkey (right).  Presumably, experts in such things can tell them apart.

Zebra (any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris (E. grevyi, E. quagga & E. zebra) with black and white stripes and native to Africa)) dates from circa 1600 and was from the Italian zebra, from the Portuguese zebra & zebro (zebra), from the Old Portuguese enzebro, ezebra & azebra (wild ass), from the earlier cebrario & ezebrario, from the Vulgar Latin eciferus, from the Latin equiferus (wild horse), the construct being equus (horse) + ferus (wild).  Being black and white, “zebra” was used in a 1970s CBS TV sitcom as a term of derision used by an African-American character directed at the offspring of an interracial couple (who were actually the first married interracial couple to appear on US network TV) although the word (acknowledged by dictionaries as a vulgar, derogatory, ethnic slur applied to a biracial person, specifically one born to a member of the Sub-Saharan African race and a Caucasian) in that context never gained traction in the general community.  Interestingly, prior to the twentieth century, the word was pronounced with a long initial vowel before the adoption of the initial short vowel.  Despite US phonetic imperialism, this latter use is still most prevalent in the UK and most Commonwealth nations while the long vowel form remains standard in Canadian and US English.

Zebraesque: Lindsay Lohan using Jimmy Choo Zebra Clutch as protection from the paparazzi (left), Lindsay Lohan with blow-up zebra, annual V Magazine black and white party, New York Fashion Week, September 2011 (centre) and Lindsay Lohan in zebra-print dress, GQ Men Of The Year Awards, September 2014.

In many sports, a black and white striped shirts was often reserved for umpires & referees and “zebra” was often applied as a nickname (they attracted other sobriquets too).  In clinical medicine, “a zebra” is slang for an improbable diagnosis, the origin lying to the advice given to medical students to at first instance assume the most common cause for symptoms: “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras".)  Because of the distinctive appearance, the zebra lent its name to other branches of zoology.  In Ichthyology, it’s the informal name for a fish, the zebra cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata, native to Central America).  In lepidopterology, the word is applied to any of a number of papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis of the genus Graphium, their distinguishing characteristic being the black and white markings.

Lindsay Lohan on Abbey Road zebra crossing with Natasha Richardson (1963-2009) in The Parent Trap (1998) (left) and one of Sydney City Council’s re-interpretation of the zebra crossing as the “rainbow crossing”, first installed in 2013 to mark Oxford Street’s role in the history of the gay movement.

The zebra crossing (Usually as marked crosswalk or crossing point in the US) (American English) is a pedestrian crossing marked with white stripes, the name adopted because road surfaces tend usually towards black.  Zebra crossings originated in England in the early 1950s to improve pedestrian safety and the idea quickly spread world-wide although as technology evolved, increasingly sophisticated means have been implemented to improve the concept.  In England, they were almost always accompanied by belisha beacons (upright poles on either side of the crossing with an illuminated, orange globe atop and named after Leslie Hore-Belisha (1893–1957; Liberal (and later Tory) MP & cabinet minister) who oversaw their introduction while minister of transport; they’re still used in England and some Commonwealth countries.

Lindsay Lohan meeting zebras while on safari in Mauritius, June 2016.

The origin of donkey ((a domestic animal, Equus asinus asinus, similar to a horse)) is obscure and it first emerged in the late eighteenth century as a slang term.  It’s thought most probably from the Middle English donekie (a miniature dun horse), a double diminutive of the Middle English don, dun & dunne (a name for a dun horse), the construct being dun (a brownish grey colour) + -ock (a diminutive suffix) + -ie (a diminutive suffix).  There was also the Middle English donning (a dun horse) and the English dunnock and donkey in modern use came largely to replace the original term ass (memorable because it’s one of the Bible’s Ten Commandments that (thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ass) because of the homophony and partial merger with arse.

1955 Daimler DK400 Golden Zebra.  The last of the Docker Daimlers, the Golden Zebra was a two-door fixed head coupé (FHC) with coachwork by Hooper, built on the existing DK400 chassis.  The interior was finished with an African theme, the dashboard of ivory and the upholstery in zebra-skin while external metal trim was gold-plated.  Lady Docker personally chose the zebra skin, claiming mink was unpleasantly hot.  It was first shown at the 1955 Paris Motor Show, the French apparently appalled and it's of note this stylistic relic appeared in the same building used for the debut of the Citroën DS.

In idiomatic use, donkey was used to suggest “a stubborn person”, something extended with greater frequency to “mule” and it meant also “someone bad at something”, a use which seems to have begun at the poker table but applied also in many fields to both people and machines which perform less impressively than was hoped.  In admiralty jargon a donkey-engine was a small, auxiliary engine used to run things like pumps or winches and the term was later picked up by the hot-rod community in the US where it was shortened to “donk” and applied to engines large and small (although in that community the attitude was usually “the bigger the better”).  In the sail age, donkey in admiralty slang was a box or chest (especially a toolbox) and it’s though donkey-engine evolved from this because the small engines were often installed in the spots where the boxes sat.

Big donk: Scania DC16 (16.4 litre (1000 cubic inch) diesel V8).

Herringbone

Herringbone (pronounced her-ing-bohn)

(1) A pattern, the weave resembling the skeleton of a herring fish, consisting of adjoining vertical rows of slanting lines, any two contiguous lines forming either a V or an inverted V, used in masonry, textiles, embroidery etc and .  Also called chevron, chevron weave, herringbone weave; a type of twill weave having this pattern.

(2) A fabric constructed with this weave.

(3) A garment made from such a fabric, applied especially to jackets and coats.

(4) In skiing, a method of going up a slope in which a skier sets the skis in a form resembling a V, and, placing weight on the inside edges, advances the skis by turns using the poles from behind for push and support.

(5) A type of cirrocumulus cloud.

1645–1655: The construct was herring + bone.  Herring was from the Middle English hering, from the Old English hǣring, from the Proto-West Germanic hāring (herring) of unknown origin but it may be related to the Proto-Germanic hērą (hair) due to the similarity of the fish’s fine bones to hair. It was cognate with the Scots hering & haring, the Saterland Frisian Hiering & Häiring, the West Frisian hjerring, the Dutch haring, the German and Low German Hereng & Hering, the French hareng, the Norman ĥéren and the Latin haringus; all borrowings from the Germanic.  Bone is from the Middle English bon, from the Old English bān (bone, tusk; bone of a limb), from the Proto-Germanic bainą (bone), from bainaz (straight), from the primitive Indo-European bheyhz (to hit, strike, beat).  It was cognate with the Scots bane, been, bean, bein & bain (bone), the North Frisian bien (bone), the West Frisian bien (bone), the Dutch been (bone; leg), the Low German Been & Bein (bone), the German Bein (leg), the German Gebein (bones), the Swedish ben (bone; leg), the Norwegian and Icelandic bein (bone), the Breton benañ (to cut, hew), the Latin perfinēs (break through, break into pieces, shatter) and the Avestan byente (they fight, hit). It was related also to the Old Norse beinn (straight, right, favorable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen) (from which Middle English gained bain, bayne, bayn & beyn (direct, prompt), the Scots bein & bien (in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cozy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen), the Icelandic beinn (straight, direct, hospitable) and the Norwegian bein (straight, direct, easy to deal with).  The use to describe a type of cirrocumulus cloud dates from 1903.  The alternative form is herring-bone (not herring bone which would be a bone of a herring).

The herringbone shape (left) and a herring's bones (right).

The herringbone pattern picked up its rather fanciful name because of a resemblance to the fine bones of the fish.  First used in masonry, the motif has for centuries been used in wallpaper, mosaics, upholstery, fabrics, clothing and jewellery.  In engineering, the pattern is found also in the shape cut for some gears but this functionally deterministic.

Roman herringbone brickwork, Villa Rustica, Mehring, Trier-Saarburg, Rhineland, Germany.

The original herringbone design was a type of masonry construction (called opus spicatum, literally "spiked work”) used first in Ancient Rome, widely adopting during medieval times and especially associated with Gothic Revival architecture; it’s commonly seen today.  It’s defined by bricks, tiles or cut stone laid in a herringbone pattern and is a happy coincidence of style and structural integrity.  Although most associated with decorative use, in many cases the layout was an engineering necessity because if tiles or bricks are laid in straight lines, the structure is inherently weak whereas if built using oblique angles, under compression, loads are more evenly distributed.  One of the reasons so much has survived from antiquity is the longevity of the famously sticky Roman concrete, the durability thought in part due to chemical reactions with an unusual Roman ingredient: volcanic ash.

Lindsay Lohan in herringbone flat-cap.

Of gears

Although the term “herringbone cut gears” is more poetic, to engineers they’re known as double helical gears.  In both their manufacturing and operation they do present challenges, the tooling needed in their production demanding unusually fine tolerances and in use a higher degree of alignment must be guaranteed during installation.  Additionally, depending on use, there is sometimes the need periodically to make adjustments for backlash (although in certain applications they can be designed to have to have minimal backlash).  However, because of the advantages the herringbone structure offers over straight cut, spur or helical gears, the drawbacks can be considered an acceptable trade-off, the principle benefits being:

(1) Smoothness of operation and inherently lower vibration:  The herringbone shape inherently balances the load on the teeth, reducing vibration and generated noise.

(2) A high specific load capacity: The symmetrical design of herringbone gears offers a high surface area and an even distribution of load, meaning larger and more robust teeth may be used, making the design idea for transmitting high torque or power.

(3) A reduction in axial thrust: Probably the reasons engineers so favour the herringbone is that axial thrust can be reduced (in certain cases to the point of effective elimination).  With helical gears, the axial force imposed inherently acts to force gears apart whereas the herringbone gears have two helical sections facing each other, the interaction cancelling the axial thrust, vastly improving mechanical stability.

(4) Self-regulating tolerance for misalignment. Herringbone handle small variations in alignment better than spur gears or single helical gears, the opposing helix angles assisting in compensating for any axial misalignment, contributing to smoother gear meshing and extending the life of components.

(5) Heat dissipation qualities: The symmetrical structure assists heat dissipation because the opposing helices create a distribution of heat through a process called mutual heat-soak, reducing the risk of localized overheating, something which improves thermal efficiency by making the heat distribution pattern more uniform.

Gears: helical (left), herringbone (or double helical) (centre) and straight-cut (right).  Although road cars long ago abandoned them, straight-cut gears are still used in motorsport where drivers put up with their inherent whine and learn the techniques needed to handle the shifting.