Where do we get our phrases!

[contrahead]

I couldn't paste a picture but look up Furphy on Wikipedia.

Pictures on Wikipedia are almost universally free to use, but sometimes under stipulation. It is generally (but not always) safe to link to Wikipedia pictures -from the standpoint of their stability. Meaning that there is a good chance that a given picture will hang around under its current url and not be replaced or abandoned due to “link rot” (as happens frequently with other Internet locations).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _Horse.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... G_5539.JPG



The pictures above are hosted at Wikipedia. Only the links to these pictures were posted here – the pictures themselves reside at Wikipedia – not Homedistiller.com. The first two pictures are too large to work within HD's IMG tag limitations(1000 x 1000), but the third one will and thats why we can see it. When a person wants to put his own or copyright-free pictures up at Homedistiller, he has to resize them first (to 800 x 800 or less). The first picture linked above is licensed as copyright free or “public domain” because of its age. The other two pictures are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

The majority of pictures on the Internet should be considered or treated as copyrighted by default. Not to do so would be to invite trouble. Private websites might object to someone directly linking to their pictures too, as I just did with Wikipedia. Many good, reusable public domain pictures though, can be found sometimes with a little work.

“Google images” is sometimes a very useful tool. If you can't host or link to the pictures themselves you can sometimes point to an image search. For example if you search Google images for the words “cast iron furpy” you get this. But if you enter only the word “furpy” you get a lot of beer can pictures.

[The Baker]

Thanks for that, contrahead.

Geoff

[stillanoob]

Running "balls out". Early steam engines had a governor system to prevent over speeding. Two heavy balls were attached to a shaft by a pair of arms. As the engine ran faster, centrifugal force would cause them to rise and press down on a relief valve. Thus, when an engine was at maximum speed it was running "balls out".

[The Baker]

Thanks, stillanoob,

I've seen those governors on early stationary engines used on farms for shearing machines and such.
They would go 'putt, putt, putt...' and then the governor would cut off the fuel for the space of a few 'putts'
and then the 'putts' would start up again.

Geoff

[Yonder]

Sorry! Duplicate posting.

[Yonder]

Haven’t seen the old WWII saw about shooting every round you have at the enemy. A 50 cal machinegun in a Thunderbolt (and others) was fed by belted ammunition. The belt was 27 feet long...9 yards.

[Tummydoc]

Three Sheets to the Wind: This goes back to the days of Dutch windmills. The mills generally had four blades that were really just frames. They didn't catch much wind on their own, but when a miller wanted to grind grain he would put material over the frames of the blades, so that the wind would propel them. They could put sheets on two opposing blades (if the wind was strong) or on all four blades (if the wind was weaker) and have a nice balance. However, if the miller only got three sheets on before it started spinning, it would be lopsided. As the unbalanced blades spun it would cause the entire mill to sway back forth, much like a drunk person.

Nope, windmills would not sway with 3 sails mounted. It's a nautical term. Sheets are the ropes used to mount sails a ship. If one comes lose the sail flutters ...... 3 sheets to the wind

[Eire Whiskey]

I got this info from grammarist.com

"As cool as a cucumber"

As cool as a cucumber is an idiom which means self-possessed, not excited, in control of one’s emotions. As cool as a cucumber is a simile, which is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another. The phrase as cool as a cucumber is first seen in a poem by John Gay in the mid-1700s. In fact, the inside of a cucumber in the garden may be as much as twenty degrees cooler than the ambient temperature. The idiom as cool as a cucumber is a play on two meanings of the word cool: a temperature trending toward the cold side and a state of being calm.

[contrahead]

Haven’t seen the old WWII saw about shooting every round you have at the enemy. A 50 cal machinegun in a Thunderbolt (and others) was fed by belted ammunition. The belt was 27 feet long...9 yards.

I'm no authority but I think that only the P-47 carried that much ammo. The P-47 carried (4) x .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns per wing, for a total of eight. With “9 yards” of ammo for each of the eight guns the aircraft would have been very heavy. “When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, making it one of the heaviest fighters of the war”. It was a fast aircraft because of its big engine, but a heavy and sluggish fighter in a dogfight. However it made an excellent ground attack aircraft that could spit out a lot of lead.

The P-51 carried only 2 guns per wing and needed the reduction in weight and added space for fuel because it was optimized for long range.

The British fighters were equipped with .303 caliber guns. Weapons larger than .50 cal are called “canons”. The price today for .50 cal ball ammo is above $6 per round.

[contrahead]

This guy was not the inspiration for the Popeye cartoon character; someone else was. But this guy was later nicknamed Popeye by his crew-mates aboard the HMS Rodney, and he served aboard that ship for it's entire life (it was commissioned in 1928 and scrapped in 1948). I believe that the click-bait web-page from which I nabbed this colorized photo, called him a "collier". But I'm fairly sure that the Rodney burned oil and not coal anyway, and that the seamen that shoveled coal in the Navy weren't called colliers (ships that hauled just coal were). Researching “collier” led me to this next picture that shows a Grog Tub aboard the USS Constitution and a seaman that unfortunately has no grog to ladle.

The grog tub might look like a water butt (cask) though so you have to go all the way to the bottom of this link to find - Ship Cooper- and an explanation of the phrase “scuttlebutt”. That last paragraph has a link to a better article where the phrases “Groggy”, “Three sheets to the wind”, “Splice the main brace”, “Binge”, “Down the hatch”, “Mind your Ps and Qs” and “Cup of Joe” are discussed.

That second article “A Hundred Years Dry: The U.S. Navy’s End of Alcohol at Sea” was written in 2014, and on the 100th anniversary of prohibition in the Navy. In the first sentence, Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is mentioned. These exercises are held in Hawaiian waters, once every two years. I wanted to link to the 2014 RIMPAC Fleet video (which I archived years ago) to give an idea of what one of these events look like, but can not because it is hosted behind a paywall. I'll link to the timid 2016 version instead, but it is not nearly as theatrical.

The 2016 RIMPAC Fleet

[Yonder]

There are so many... i would counter 3 sheets to the wind with the origin that a sailor knows a sheet to be a sail; when a big blow comes up rather than have the sails blown out they slacked the lines (ropes) allowing the sails to float free. Three sheets to the wind was a staggering wallow of the ship.
how about the practice of stuffing tarred cordage into gaps in a ships planking, known as paying a joint. The lowest seam in a ship’s hull was known as the devil. You could be stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. You may have had to pay the devil, with no pitch hot.
A leads man threw a weighted line ahead a ship to test the depth, measured in fathoms (6 feet). At 36 feet, it was judged deep enough to commit your dead to a burial at sea. The leads man would call out “ By the deep, 6.”
And by the way (weigh) you cannot be “by and large.” A sailing vessel is “by” the wind when it is close hauled facing into the wind, it is sailing “large” when the wind is astern and the sails are all out to the sides.
But if you want the gossip on a ship you would hang out below one of the scuttles (ventilators for the lower decks) where there was a water bucket, a butt, and sailors gathered to gossip. You got the latest “scuttle butt.”

[contrahead]

I found this tucked away in the back-files of my computer yesterday. It would appear that I have not posted here on this forum before. (Got to make sure from time to time that my mind ain't slipping).

Medicine once went through a period when enemas were prescribed for a multitude of ailments. That also reminds me of a comedy scene that I saw somewhere, where a villain psychiatrist prescribed an enema for someone, to force a confession.

“Blowing Smoke Up Your Ass”

Tobacco Smoke Enema (1750s-1810s)
The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient's rectum for various medical purposes, primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims. A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase "blow smoke up one's ass."

[Birrofilo]

"Birdie" in golf.

A certain course is evaluated before the game to be completed for the average player in a certain number of strokes, and actually there is a normal number of strokes for each hole. This normal number of strokes to complete a field or a single hole is called a "par".
A "par 4" is a hole which is normally completed in 4 hits, and a "par 5" is a hole which is normally completed in 5 hits. Golfers in different parts of the circuit keep track of how many hits they made to be in that part of the circuit, how many hits they are below or above par. e.g. after 10 holes you can be at "Two under par" meaning you completed those 10 holes in two strokes less than what would normally be expected.

Now, if you reach a hole in a number of hits which is the par minus one, that is called a "birdie". Birdie!, in old (Scottish?) slang simply meant something like "cool!" today. The bird analogy is then continued in an "eagle" (two less than par), "albatross" (three under par) and "condor" (four under par), but originally "birdie" only meant "cool". Or so I read.

[IMALOSERSCUMBAG]

One of the most common explanations for the origin of SHIT is that of
Ship
High
In
Transit

The story is that steam ships would use manure to burn because it was cheaper than coal. The bottom of the ships would have water in them and the water and manure would create methane gas. Therefore to avoid the manure from getting wet they would Ship High In Transit.

Fun story but not true.

[contrahead]

“Horseshit Sailor”

Alright; I'll admit that this is a rare expression - that maybe only I am familiar with. I once worked for this boss that had several good colloquialisms. Every-once in a while in frustration he'd spit out: “HORSESHIT SAILOR”.

When I imagined how that expression came about, I had to smile.

I conjure a scene were this “swabbie” with a mop in his hand; walks up to a pile of fresh horse pucky on the ship's deck. An infantry or cavalry grunt is lounging nearby the rear end of the horse, with nothing to do. The indignant sailor then ask the accusatorial and rhetorical question: “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT”?

------
Didn't find it here.

[hellbilly007]

One of the most common explanations for the origin of SHIT is that of
Ship
High
In
Transit

The story is that steam ships would use manure to burn because it was cheaper than coal. The bottom of the ships would have water in them and the water and manure would create methane gas. Therefore to avoid the manure from getting wet they would Ship High In Transit.

Fun story but not true.

Also in those times they used lanterns (since the flashlight hadn't been invented). When going below the top deck it was dark so lanterns were used, igniting the methane. Thus the phrase "blown to shit" came about.

[contrahead]

The story is that steam ships would use manure to burn because it was cheaper than coal.
......
Fun story but not true.

I would not be so quick to completely dismiss the 'Ship High In Transport” explanation as being completely untrue. Snopes tried to blow this and the story of “brass monkeys” out of the water. Called them urban e-mail myths because they could find no record of them quoted in historical text. I don't trust Snopes as far as I can spit. And I've occasionally found their reasoning in error, depending upon the political or philosophical persuasions of the particular writer on any given day.

Manure would make a very inferior fuel. Steam ships would have had no reason to burn manure unless they were extremely desperate and stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Even then for years, almost all early ocean going steamships retained their sailing mast for such possible emergency.

It was not steam ships but sailing ships that freighted manure. Not just any manure either, but bird guano. In the 1840's the fast Clipper-ships reigned as the supreme transport and freighter vessels of the oceans. But soon after that and coinciding with the opening of a shortcut called the Suez Canal, self propelled steamships took over; almost overnight. Suddenly the sailing ships were reduced to hauling second rate cargoes like coal, guano and saltpeter. The bird guano was the best source of potassium nitrate – needed to make gunpowder. Less valuable than the tea from China perhaps but valuable cargo nonetheless when your armies use rifles and cannons.

[IMALOSERSCUMBAG]

The story is that steam ships would use manure to burn because it was cheaper than coal.
......
Fun story but not true.

I don't trust Snopes as far as I can spit. And I've occasionally found their reasoning in error, depending upon the political or philosophical persuasions of the particular writer on any given day.

Very true. Here's one of my favorites.

[contrahead]

You could “bend an elbow” or end up “painting your nose” at the local "doggery”.
(“painting your nose” meant going to the saloon and drinking far too much hard liquor.can turn your nose into a red bulbous thing / "bend an elbow" meant enjoying a drink of hard liquor ).
You wouldn't appreciate being called a “mail-order cowboy”, a “honeyfuggler”, a “blatherskite”, "four-flusher" or a “mouldy grubs” (traveling showmen, con artists or grifter).

Some other good terms that are either going or already have gone by the wayside are:
highfalutin
catawampus
balderdash
pirooting
skedaddle
calaboose
hurricane deck (on a saddle bronc)
shoddyocracy
squattocracy (Australian term)
Arkansas toothpick (big knife for people with wide gaps between teeth)
hog-killin (an excellent party)
hootenanny

[Bushman]

You could “bend an elbow” or end up “painting your nose” at the local "doggery”.
(“painting your nose” meant going to the saloon and drinking far too much hard liquor.can turn your nose into a red bulbous thing / "bend an elbow" meant enjoying a drink of hard liquor ).
You wouldn't appreciate being called a “mail-order cowboy”, a “honeyfuggler”, a “blatherskite”, "four-flusher" or a “mouldy grubs” (traveling showmen, con artists or grifter).

Some other good terms that are either going or already have gone by the wayside are:
highfalutin
catawampus
balderdash
pirooting
skedaddle
calaboose
hurricane deck (on a saddle bronc)
shoddyocracy
squattocracy (Australian term)
Arkansas toothpick (big knife for people with wide gaps between teeth)
hog-killin (an excellent party)
hootenanny

I was on the Mississippi Queen from Memphis Tenn. to New Orleans when I heard how highfalutin got it’s name. Seems like the steamboats were decorated to prevent fires as they brought cotton on the rivers. Since the views also for passengers were the top deck the people were considered highfalutin.

[Stonecutter]

Running "balls out". Early steam engines had a governor system to prevent over speeding. Two heavy balls were attached to a shaft by a pair of arms. As the engine ran faster, centrifugal force would cause them to rise and press down on a relief valve. Thus, when an engine was at maximum speed it was running "balls out".

Old “Otis” Elevators used ball governors as a means of “SOS” safety over speed. I’ve been lucky enough to work on these locally. They’re cool. They spin whenever the car moves and if you’re not careful they’ll crack you right in the shins.

4DF55FCE-FD84-4327-8AE9-BB77629E4FF2.png

[stillanoob]

Old “Otis” Elevators used ball governors as a means of “SOS” safety over speed. I’ve been lucky enough to work on these locally. They’re cool. They spin whenever the car moves and if you’re not careful they’ll crack you right in the shins.
4DF55FCE-FD84-4327-8AE9-BB77629E4FF2.png

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought an elevator needed a governor. I would have thought it was gearing and motor that dictated speed. How were the governors used?

Also, how big is it exactly? I can't quite tell from the picture.

[Stonecutter]

The governors are definitely a redundant means of safety. An example where the Governor may be employed is when a loss of traction between the ropes and the motor sheave takes place, this could be due to overloading or poor maintenance. However, this would have to happen in conjunction with the motor brakes failing. The Governor is about 3 feet tall. Again…one must always watch out for “The Governors Balls” when working in an elevator machine room.

[Stonecutter]

The governors for an elevator cab work during a falling down situation. In the event of a falling up situation counterweight safeties can be used. Normally some kind of buffer in the pit, but there are types of counterweight governors. The old ball type are ancient but still in use in some older elevators.

[stillanoob]

Very cool. And it makes sense once you explain it. Dammit, there you go making me learn something!

And yeah, if that thing is three feet you better look out for the governors balls!

[Euphoria]

Snopes tried to blow this and the story of “brass monkeys” out of the water. Called them urban e-mail myths because they could find no record of them quoted in historical text. I don't trust Snopes as far as I can spit. And I've occasionally found their reasoning in error, depending upon the political or philosophical persuasions of the particular writer on any given day.

The term "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" is an old Naval saying. In olden days. Iron cannon balls were stacked in a pyramid on holders, called "monkeys," which were square cupped trays made out of brass, and were used to hold iron cannon balls at the ready. Iron and Brass have different thermal coefficients of expansion and contraction, and when it was cold enough to cause a deep freeze, the iron cannon balls and the brass trays would expand and contract at different rates, and eventually, the cannon balls would no longer fit in the dished cups of the brass trays when the temperature dropped to freezing, spilling them all over the deck. Thus the cold temperature would cause them to lose their stability and the cannon balls would tumble off the brass monkeys that held them. Hence, the term "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

[stillanoob]

While quite appealing, it is very unlikely that this explanation is the origin of the phrase. Here is a quote from an article on the general naval board and a link to the original article:

https://www.navygeneralboard.com/was-co ... al-phrase/

"The big one, of course, is ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’, often rendered as ‘brass monkey weather’. However, its supposed naval explanation is dodgy. According to mythology, it came about because in the age of sail, cannon balls were apparently stored on deck in neat pyramids, contained by a brass tray supposedly known as a monkey. When the temperature dropped too far, apparently, the coefficient of expansion in the brass differed from that of the iron shot – so hey presto, the balls were pushed off the tray. It all sounded very tidy and clever, but unfortunately none of it was even slightly true, and there is some evidence that this ‘explanation’ originated as recently as the 1980s.[1]

It certainly isn’t hard to refute. The physics of metallurgy alone is a clue: the real difference in coefficient of expansion between brass and iron isn’t anywhere near enough to act as the myth suggests. Besides which, in the age of sail there was no such thing as a ‘brass monkey’ to hold what in naval parlance was actually called ‘shot’. Nor was shot stored in pyramidal stacks on deck anyhow, and for good reason. Ship movement in any reasonably heavy weather would have been enough to dislodge it, causing the shot to roll about, probably joining that cannon mentioned earlier. The reality was that shot – up to 120 tons of it in a three-deck ‘line-of-battle’ ship – was kept in ‘shot lockers’.[2] When it was needed for firing, it was brought up and put in a ‘shot garland’, a plank with cannon-ball sized holes cut in it."

[contrahead]

One thing is for certian. Lord Kelvin's balls never rolled around on deck...

<more about the binnacle>

[Bushman]

[contrahead]

Point Terence to the tiles
Point Percy at the porcelain
Drain the main vein
Drop the kids off at the pool
Spend a penny



This video does not explain “Spend a penny” well enough.

The first World's Fair (The Great Exhibition of 1851 – in London) was staged in a gigantic glass greenhouse or barn so to speak; later nicknamed “The Crystal Palace”. About 2.5 American football fields wide and over one-third mile long, it was the largest building in the world at the time. Over 6 million people in a 5 month period visited the 1st Exhibition.

The exhibit featured the first public flushing toilets in the world, and curious people stood in line to experience one. These first flushing lavatories that were inside private “Retiring Rooms” constructed by sanitary engineer George Jennings, became known as “Monkey Closets”. Perhaps because Jennings embossed some surface inside the stall with his unique seal; reminding visitors of three monkeys.

It cost 1 penny (which was worth something in 1851) to visit the Monkey Closet. But a penny here bought a cleaned toilet seat, a small towel and a shoe shine. By the end of the Exhibition no less than 827,280 adventurers availed themselves of this luxury. An average of about 5,515 per day.

Some urinals with George Jennings' seal, still survive in a hotel.

But “Jennings” does not have the same catchy ring tone as “Crapper”.