Re: the usual (Sp*der, of course)T

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Paul Mitchell writes, of Porsche history, "I continue to defer to those
sources, as well as the fact that I have yet to see a postwar usage and
spelling preceding that of Porsche's, lending weight to the citing in
'Excellence'."

 I have almost nothing on Porsche in my library, and certainly would not try
to dispute that Porsche was the first in Germany, postwar, to spell 'sp*der'
with a 'y'. I had taken Paul's initial statement - "The correct, original
spelling is 'Spyder.' The name's origin is Germany - - " to mean exactly that
- correct, original, and originating in Germany. "Earliest postwar use" is a
more limited concept, which may well belong to Porsche, and Porsche's use may
well have contributed to the popularity of that spelling, postwar, in other
countries.

 I lost all of my then-library, including a long run of "Autocar", in a move
around 1949-50; the earliest periodicals I have are 'Road and Track" from
1950. The first use I find there of a sp*der for a car from any country is an
article in the July 1950 Road and Track on the Touring-bodied Ferrari which we
now call the 'Barchetta'. The third paragraph starts "The Mille Miglia Ferrari
was so named because of the 1949 victory in that event by C.Biondetti, using
the prototype. Catalogued as 'Lo Spyder 166 Mille Miglia' - - " That might
have been a typo, or a miscopy, but it was in quotes and the use of the
correct article 'Lo' seems to lend credibility to the quotation. Assuming it
is correct (as I do) it would be a stretch to assume that Ferrari was copying
the name of Porsche's hillclimb car, the date of which I do not know. Basking
in Porsche's (or any German's) reflected glory would seem out of character for
Enzo Ferrari.

 In popular use in the English-using press Spyder with a 'y' seems to have had
an early edge in references to Alfa Romeo Spiders, despite Alfa's consistent
use of the 'i'. In the Brooklands Gold Portfolio of reprints of road tests and
other articles on Giuliettas it is 'Spyder" with a 'y' in Auto Age (March
1956), Road and Track (April 1956), Sports Cars Illustrated (May 1956),
Consumer Reports (October 1956), Sports Cars Illustrated again in December
'56, Foreign Cars Illustrated (October 1958), Autocar (December 1959), Sports
Car Graphic (May 1960) and Car Illustrated (G.B.) June 1964.

 I don't want to take away any glory from Porsche, even if I thought I could,
but I think there are more variables than any single simple answer can pin
down. Steven Immel's checking both his Wahrig Deutsches Woerterbuch and his Il
nuovo Zingarelli is highly commendable, and the note on pronunciation is very
useful; one west-coast authority had linked the German 'spyder' to the English
'speed' through conventional German pronunciation, which Wahrig repudiates.
The O.E.D. gives a later date (nineteenth century rather than eighteenth) and
gives "originally South-African" for origins, which would be a possible Boer
link to the Germans.

 BUT- this is one of the three or four topics, along with lugnuts, shitlists,
and apostrophes which Tony Martie hopes will soon be left in favor of the
usual "very useful information being shared about the care, maintenance, love
for, and driving of our wonderful Alfas". One could add to his list, but I
won't. Enough!

 John H.

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided