Where do we get our phrases!

[Bushman]

Thought I would start a fun thread on little known facts. Got these sailing terms from my Marina news letter.

Clean Bill of Health: A document issued to a ship showing that the port it sailed from has suffered no epidemic or infection.

As the Crow Flies: When lost or unsure of its position in coastal waters, the ships crew would release a caged crow. The crow would fly toward the nearest land giving the crew some sense of direction. The tallest lookout platform on the ship became known as the crows nest.

Son of a Gun: When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship, women were allowed to live aboard. Sometimes children were born on the ship and a convenient place was between the guns on the gun deck. If a child's father was unknown, as was often the case, the boy or girl was entered into the ships log simply as "son of a gun".

[kiwi Bruce]

COLD ENOUGH TO FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY

During the days of sail, most of the world's navies would keep 14 cannon balls ready for action. They were stored on an iron plate with 9 divots, called a Deck Monkey, that was bolted to the deck beside each gun. The balls were stacked on each monkey in a 9-4-1 configuration. The plates were prone to rust in the salt water, so US Navy adopted to make it's deck monkeys out of brass. Everything worked fine until the United States acquired Alaska in 1867. This required the US Navy to patrol in the Bering sea...as the temperature drops brass shrinks in the cold, where as iron doesn't. As the temperature dropped way below freezing the brass shrank so much, that finally the balls couldn't stay in the brass deck monkeys divots anymore and rolled all over the deck...on a 44 gun frigate like the USS Constitution, that would be 600 plus canon balls rolling all over the deck at once !
So the saying... cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

[Fart Vader]

Educational and entertaining.

[Truckinbutch]

Educational and entertaining.

I agree Hope this thread has a good run .

[kiwi Bruce]

I was told this while on a tour of HMS Victory and there were several of these on the decks...very crudely made and shi#y looking.
The Royal Navy needed a tool to pry cannon balls that had "frozen" with rust to their deck monkeys, but each gun deck had a caliber of cannon, that was larger and heavier, the lower down you went in the ship. The tools, and there were several on each gun deck, needed to be adjustable in case it was needed on the deck above or below you. It was called a "Monkey Wrench"
I know...I can hear the calls of BS from here...AND the RN guys are not always known to the tell the truth...that said, I enjoyed the story, BS or not.

[Saltbush Bill]

The brass monkey thing is a Urban Myth, look into it further.

[Bushman]

Highfalutin: I was told on a cruise down the Mississippi that years ago while taking cotton on steamboats down the Mississippi River they were afraid of the cotton catching fire by the stacks on the ships so they decorated them to prevent sparks from escaping and landing on the cotton. Since the best rooms for passengers were also on the top deck the term highfalutin.

Also the decorations on these stacks came the term She's well stacked. Not sure about that one but it sounds good.

[Saltbush Bill]

Here in Australia a common phrase is "Buckley's chance" (meaning "little or no possibility" or "no chance at all")
At other times it can be ( Buckley's and none")
As in " that horse has two chances of winning that race Buckleys and none.
The link below explains its origins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_%26_Nunn" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Still Life]

Murphy's Law
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
And at the most inopportune time.

..and there really was a Murphy.

[Saltbush Bill]

That's a good one that I had forgotten about SL

[Bushman]

Breaking the Ice: Before the days of trains or cars, port cities that thrived on trade suffered during the winter because frozen rivers prevented commercial ships from entering the city. Small ships known as “icebreakers” would rescue the icebound ships by breaking the ice and creating a path for them to follow. Before any type of business arrangement today, it is now customary “break the ice” before beginning a project.

[thecroweater]

Buckley's chance means possible but highly unlikely. It is in reference to the life of escaped convict William Buckley who was presumed dead but found 30 plus years later living with aboriginal tribes people.

[kiwi Bruce]

A Black Swan Event
In Roman times there was the expression " As rare as a black swan" that was used in a way similar to "As rare as hens teeth" is used today. The "Black swan" simple doesn't exist...an impossibility. The expression survived into the nineteenth century. Then in the early 1800's a Dutch ornithologist made the shocking announcement to the world...he had found Black Swan... in Australia. Now the meaning of the expression has totally changed. Now it means "a totally unexpected event"

[Saltbush Bill]

Seems like there are two possibilities there Crow .....Id never heard you version before.
"Buckley's improbable survival is believed by many Australians to be the source of the vernacular phrase "you've got Buckley's or none" (or simply "you've got Buckley's"), which means "no chance", or "it's as good as impossible". The Macquarie Dictionary supports this theory, although the ANU Australian National Dictionary Centre tends to support a second theory:[23] that the expression was a pun on the name of a now defunct Melbourne department store chain, Buckley & Nunn.[24]"

[kiwi Bruce]

THE SHI#Y END OF THE STICK
Another expression from ancient Rome...in the public poop stalls, a slave came around with a bucket of soapy water and a piece of wood with a cloth pad attached. You took the wood and washed your butt with the cloth and passed the plank on to the next patron. But I you didn't like the person you COULD hand them the cloth end...the shi#y end of the stick.

[Bushman]

Cant Hold a Candle to....: Before electricity, workers needed a second set of hands to hold a candle for them. Holding a candle was clearly a less challenging job, so someone who isn't even qualified to provide light to a competent worker obviously wouldn't be able to perform the task himself.

[contrahead]

The brass monkey thing is a Urban Myth, look into it further.

I read the apparent “myth” and the accusations against it, years ago. Oftentimes the explanations and reasoning from quasi-authoritative websites (like Snopes.com) are flimsy and inconclusive. For me, there is often enough rationality behind an argument like this 'brass monkey' story, to accept the explanation. Especially when considering the lack of an alternative explanation. Ships of War had to keep those heavy dam cannonballs somewhere, and they had to keep them from rolling around. What else were those divit trays called? I've also heard the term “tossing a monkey wrench into the works” for most of my life. Where else in the English language have you encountered the usage of wrenches and monkeys within the same sentence? Probably we are witness to the phrase's loss of origin due to its meaning being mixed with vulgarity during the prudish 'Victorian age'.. Swept under the carpet and lost with time.

* The lightest cannons aboard ship (usually quick loading but very powerful short-barreled, short ranged “carronades”) were placed on the upper decks. The heaviest cannon were deliberately put on the lowest deck - to lower the ship's center of gravity.

For the road:

WHY do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

Because in earlier times it used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

[Bushman]

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.

[Bushman]

Found this one on the Internet.
Hooch: Meaning a strong, cheap, and usually vile spirit, the word hooch can be traced back to Alaska. Following the U.S. purchase in 1867, American soldiers were dispatched to the area, and booze wasn't readily available. There was a native tribe up there called the Hoochinoo. While it's not exactly clear who taught what to whom, the Hoochinoo began distilling a sort of rum made primarily from molasses. It's said the still was an old five gallon oil can and the piping was a barrel of an old musket.

It was, as you might have guessed, extremely nasty, but also cheap and extremely potent. The Hoochinoos became famous for it, and the product became known among Americans as "hooch." The term came back into vogue amongst illegal distillers during prohibition in the 1920s and remains in circulation to this day.

[Kareltje]

Rum in Alaska??

I like this thread! Like language, sing shanties, like stories.
As the crow flies: I was told it is the translation of "hemelsbreed": the distance measured in a straight line, not on earth but in the sky (hemel).
And as how the crow flies: now I'm gone teach you how the crow flies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TT7qS9wzbs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
at 2:30 or something.

[Kareltje]

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.

??
Do not know such a phrase in Dutch!

[heynonny]

'One fell swoop'. A quick action

first by William Shakespeare?

Fell is the deadly strike of a hawk when it swoops down on its victim. About the only place you would find this use of the word fell, , ,

[contrahead]

WHY are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?
BECAUSE in France, where tennis became popular, the round zero on the scoreboard looked like and egg and was called 'l' oeuf', which is French for 'the egg'.
When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (naturally), misprounced it 'love'.
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WHY do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?
BECAUSE this comes from the French word m'aidez - meaning 'help me' - and is pronounced, approximately 'mayday'.
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[The Baker]

WHY is a zero score in cricket called 'a duck' ?

In some old schoolboy stories it is called a 'duck egg'. Yes, because it looks like an egg.

It became shortened to 'a duck'.

Geoff

[Bushman]

Groggy: Comes from the British term Grog, a drink the British navy consumed in the 1700s. Generally it was rum watered down with water or beer. Drink too much of it at night, and you wake up all tired and out of it, or groggy. It was, essentially, a synonym for hangover.

[kiwi Bruce]

Right Hand Man
During the Parthian War, the Persian army attracted the Greeks from behind and captured their hospital, rather than kill everyone, the Persians, “showed mercy” and only cut off the wounded Greeks right hands so they could no longer fight. When Alexander won the war he took young captured Persian solders as slaves and gave one to each of his men who had lost a hand, these slaves where called “ your right hand man.”

[yakattack]

Right Hand Man
During the Parthian War, the Persian army attracted the Greeks from behind and captured their hospital, rather than kill everyone, the Persians, “showed mercy” and only cut off the wounded Greeks right hands so they could no longer fight. When Alexander won the war he took young captured Persian solders as slaves and gave one to each of his men who had lost a hand, these slaves where called “ your right hand man.”

That's really interesting. Thanks for that kiwi

[bentstick]

go off half-cocked

Going off "Half Cocked"

Derived from the middle 1800's, it's a term that was used concerning a weapon; when the hammer of a long or short, black powder firearm was positioned in the "half cocked" position in order to prime the flint and chamber. Once the chamber is "charged" filled with enough powder to be ignited by the striking of the flint causing a spark, the internal charge is then exposed to ignition thus propelling the lead ball. The "hammer" of the fire arm must be pulled back to the "firing position" in order to create the correct chain of reactions igniting the internal (barrel) black powder charge. If the person using the weapon does not pull the "hammer" from the "half cocked position" the charge will not be able to perform the action of igniting the main firing load to it's capacity and in most cases will "misfire". It should be known by the person operating this weapon that the charge may still ignite in the "half cocked" position". In this case "ignorance is NOT bliss" it may cause you to be injured by your own lack of diligence or even defeated by your enemy.

In business this phrase "going off half cocked" (v.) is used as to mean; Performing an action before getting all facts in or acting prematurely; it's a negative term.(Don't go off half cocked and assume anything.), Performing a task without having all the information required to make a "professional decision". Going off "half cocked without having the correct materials to effectively complete a task.


Russ Henry

[bentstick]

worse for wear= poor condition

[Kareltje]

Groggy: Comes from the British term Grog, a drink the British navy consumed in the 1700s. Generally it was rum watered down with water or beer. Drink too much of it at night, and you wake up all tired and out of it, or groggy. It was, essentially, a synonym for hangover.

Nice to read!
When someone catches a cold, I always advise a grog to cure it: hot water, sugar, cognac or any other 40 % drink, lemonjuice and, if you have it at hand, elderberry blossom. Drink it and than go to sleep in a warm bed. You sweat out the cold, if you are lucky. Or else you repeat the recipe.