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Salty
Dog Talk The
Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions |
by Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey. Written in 1983 and first published in 1995
by Sheridan House, Inc., |
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One of the things that happen to a model railroader when in the umpteenth hour of a train show is breaking down into numb sycophant that speaks pirate. So when my wife gave me this little book as a stocking stuffer this Christmas as a joke, I took it to heart and saw an opportunity to become a better versed numb sycophant. Salty Dog Talk isn’t really a dictionary of pirate-speak, but is rather a collection of words and phrases with their nautical etymologies explained. Right from the beginning you get “A.1”, meaning first rate, as being derived from the insurers at Lloyds of London and their opinion as to the construction of a merchant ship. And then it ends with “Write Off”, ironically now another insurance term. While the insurance business owes a lot to the maritime (Though we may believe that they are pirates.), it is not the only group that would use these expressions. You get things like bitter end, close quarters, real McCoy, and groggy. Speaking of groggy, there are indeed, lots of drinking related words, like: half slewed, Harry Freeman, or bottle up. I do need to comment on how the illustrations don’t help the reader to understand the meanings of the words they supposedly are depicting. For example, lash-up originally meant to lash or secure items aboard ship so that they wouldn’t bounce about, especially as a temporary repair. Since then, lash-up has come to mean a hurried, poorly performed job. Fine. The illustration shows a man emptying a laundry basket into a garbage can that also has an outboard motor in it. Maybe I’m not clewed-up, but I don’t get that. My all time favorite has got to be “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” A monkey, I learned, is the square frame that would hold cannon balls in place near the canons. Typically made of iron, but for ceremonies, showy brass monkeys would be displayed and the canonballs would be stacked in the familiar pyramid shape. (Alert! Caution! Engineering concept ahead!) In very cold weather when the different coefficients of expansion meant that the brass trays would contract more rapidly than the cannonballs causing the pyramid to collapse. I would love for the boys at Mythbusters to take a moment to confirm or bust this. So crack-on with Dutch courage into the maelstrom, maties. For we be in hot pursuit of a Harry Freeman. But ye be careful that you don’t end up over a barrel or, worse yet, hitched out of the blue. Aye!
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Pay no attention to the illustrations! |
