Re: 2003 Maserati 4200 GT Spyder

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

I am curious about Paul Mitchell's statement that "The correct, original
spelling is 'Spyder.' The name's origin is Germany, and was meant to refer to
an open, hillclimb car for competition. One of the first post-war instances
being the unique Porsche Berg Spyder. Note that Porsche used the original
spelling also. So Maserati isn't so wrong with the spelling, but probably can
be faulted for using the name alltogether, since this car is far from a
lightweight, minimal car."

 Neither 'spider' nor 'spyder' exist as a native word in either German or
Italian, at least in my desk dictionaries; the Italian 'ragno' is the German
'spinne', neither of which has been used to name a car-type, as far as I
know.

 The more usual derivation is from eighteenth-century British
carriage-building, which used a vast number of highly inventive names for
fashionable carriages. The phaeton (from Phaethon, son of Helios the sun-god,
who was smote by Zeus for reckless endangerment when he sped too close to
Earth in dad's chariot) was a light, open, and thus relatively recreational
carriage, and a lighter, more intimate version of it was called the spider
phaeton or spyder phaeton, spelling being much more permissive in eighteenth
century society. It was as facile then to call a spider phaeton or spyder
phaeton simply a spider or spyder as it is now to abbreviate Alfa Romeo to
Alfa or Alpha.

 Why these terms should have become fashionable in Italy and, to a lesser
extent, in Germany is no mystery. The British Milords did the Grand Tour to
absorb the culture (and the art) of the Renaissance (and of Greco-Roman
antiquity) from the Mediterranean backwaters, and some of Italian society
aspired to emulate their accouterments; the "Welleyes", which figures
prominently in early Fiat history, was a name coined because to Italians it
sounded British and thus better; similarly the coachbuilder Touring reverted
only briefly and under pressure from Mussolini, during the war, to "Turinga",
and car-competitions for owner-drivers with clean hands were for "Gentlemen".

 Italian coachbuilders normally used 'Torpedo' for the open four door, four
seat bodies which British and American builders usually called a 'phaeton' or
'touring car', and Fusi shows (p.130) a Zagato 'Torpedino', little torpedo,
sport two seater just before both Zagato and Touring settled, perhaps with
encouragement from Alfa, on 'Spider' as a name for the sporting two-seater
body. I can't testify to early use of spider or spyder in Germany, but I doubt
that it preceded, or if so influenced, Italian use.

 As for correctness, the spelling of a word borrowed from another language
need not follow strict rules, especially when that other language (as was true
of English in the eighteenth century) didn't. The point that there is no 'y'
in Italian is irrelevant, as the terms were cherished precisely for their
alien character. Either spelling would be legitimate for the user who chose to
use it; Alfa Romeo chose an 'i', which makes that spelling correct for Alfa
Romeo but has no bearing on another company's decision.

 Paul makes an interesting point when he says Maserati "probably can be
faulted for using the name alltogether, since this car is far from a
lightweight, minimal car." Terms like 'lightweight' and 'minimal' don't mean
what they used to; I suspect that the Maserati Spyder is more lightweight and
minimal than Fiat's Alfa GTA is alleggerita. (Which should earn me another
notch on the p**p list- -)

 Cheers

 John

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