5 ms·
It's quite amazing how many words (and phrases) in common usage are actually nautical terms. For example...when was the last time you said: 'Everything is abov
by brc 12y ago
It's quite amazing how many words (and phrases) in common usage are actually nautical terms.
For example...when was the last time you said:
'Everything is above board'
'That company needs a bailout'
'A storm is coming, we better batten things down'
'Did someone just let the cat out of the bag?'
'We better clear the deck so we can start this new project'
'This project is doomed. We need to cut and run'
'My son is an excellent student. He passed his exam with flying colors'
'They successfully used a loop hole to get around the rules'
'You better toe the line' (usually mis-spelled as 'tow the line' on the internet these days)
There are many, many more.
But then you have to remember, at one point in history, all things shipping and nautical were the high tech of its day, and for a long time period.
As for me, I'll be giving any more phrases a wide berth and waiting until the sun is over the yardarm so I can pop a beer.
- bildung 12y agoInteresting, I did not realize the nautical context of some of these phrases :) Could you explain 'letting the cat out of the bag' in this context? I'm asking because I've read a different legend: Apparently on markets a few centuries ago, young pigs were frequently sold in bags. Sometimes people tried to sell captured cats as farrows in the hope the buyer would not open the bags before the deal was made and the seller far enough away. IIRC they chose cats because they sounded similar to farrows. Lacking farrows I cannot confirm that :)
- LeChuck 12y agoIt refers to the cat o' nine tails, which was used to punish sailors in the Royal Navy and was, supposedly, kept in a special bag. It's also where "not enough room to swing a cat" is said to come from. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Cat-o%27-nine-tails_(PSF).jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Cat-o%27-...
- n0nick 12y agoThis seems to correlate to a Hebrew expression "buying a cat in a sack", meaning taking something without confirming its quality. Indeed, same legend is presented as the source for this expression as well.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- brc 12y agoThe nautical origin of the 'cat out of the bag' definitely refers to taking the cat o'9 tails out of the bag it was kept in. Whether that, in itself, was linked to hiding a cat in a bag to pass off in a market isn't clear. As always, there is dispute about the origins of terms.
- LeChuck 12y agoI personally like 'aloof', coming from the Dutch word loef which means windward. The devil to pay is another cool one. From Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin series (great books by the way): ""'Why, the devil, do you see,’ said Jack, ‘is the seam between the deck-planking and the timbers, and we call it the devil, because it is the devil for the caulkers to come at: in full we say the devil to pay and no pitch hot; and what we mean is, that there is something hell-fire difficult to be done – must be done – and nothing to do it with. It is a figure.’""