Nazi salute’s nod to Rome
QUESTION Was the Nazi salute developed to prevent the transmission of germs?
The Nazi salute used by hitler was derived from the fascist salute developed in Italy in the Twenties. It was a strong sign of allegiance, supposedly based on the Roman salute.
The fascist salute was not the first time the gesture had been used. It appeared in American schools from 1892 as part of the Bellamy Salute, to accompany Francis Bellamy’s American pledge of Allegiance. It was dispensed with following its adoption by the fascists.
The latter took their inspiration from the Romans, who they believed (incorrectly) had used the salute.
The real influence was Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Oath of the horatii, 1784-1785. It depicts the three sons of horatius, arms raised, swearing on their swords (held by their father) that they will defend Rome to the death.
The salute was adopted by Italian director Giovanni Pastrone in his epic film Cabiria (1914), depicting the Second Punic War. The subtitles were written by Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863-1938), the ultra- nationalist ‘ poet- warrior’ who created many of the ideas and aesthetics adopted by the Italian fascists. In 1919 D’Annunzio, angered by the proposed handing over of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) to the nascent Yugoslavia, invaded the city with 2,000 troops and occupied it for 15 months. he considered himself the descendant of Julius Caesar.
he modelled a proto-fascist state and was the first make the salute an explicit ideological and propagandistic ritual.
Mussolini borrowed many of his ideas from d’Annunzio including the fascist salute. By December 1, 1925, all state civil administrators were required to use it.
Italy’s leader was known for his ‘physical repulsion at human contact’, which might explain Mussolini’s enthusiastic adoption of the salute. Ian Rogers, York.
QUESTION Where does the ‘dab’ come from in the phrase ‘a dab hand’ — someone proficient at something?
The phrase ‘dab hand’ was commonplace by the mid-19th century — ‘I have it heard of a celebrated preacher that he was a dab hand at a sermon’ (1869).
The verb dab, ‘ to strike’ ( i.e. with a forceful blow), dates from the early 14th century in the form ‘ dabben’; derived from the Old Norse word.
By the 16th century its sense had altered to the modern sense, i.e. to ‘tap gently’. This may have been influenced by the word daub, ‘ to smear with soft, adhesive matter’, which comes from the 14th-century French dauber.
The first usage of dab in adjectival form, describing cleverness, appeared in the Athenian Mercury of 1691, ‘[Love is] such a dab at his bows and arrows’. It’s also in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew of 1698-99: a dab there is ‘an exquisite expert’ in some form of criminal activity. It’s not hard to envisage how a ‘light touch’ might lead to the idea of cleverness.
Criminal light- handedness might explain its slang use in the underworld where fingerprints are ‘dabs’.
John Lowell, Bilsthorpe, Notts.
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