Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions

By Bill Beavis and Richard McCloskey

Most of us never realise how many words and expressions used in
everyday English have a nautical origin. This fascinating and charming
pocket book explains the seafaring beginnings of over 200 such phrases - colourful, bizarre and surprising - and how they came ashore.

Just a few examples are:


Chock-a-block
Chance your arm
Money for old rope
Spic and span
Push the boat out
At close quartersThis entertaining book has been a popular title for boaters and landlubbers alike, ever since first publication in 1983.

'Good fun' Yachts and Yachting
'Entertaining, informative, educational and lots of fun' Multihull International
'An entertaining and informative little book' Motor Boats Monthly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Sep 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781472901477

Bill Beavis

Bill Beavis was a seaman turned journalist who had long been interested in nautical etymology. He died a number of years ago.

Book preview

Contents

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

A

A.l

From the famous classification ‘A.1 at Lloyds’ which described the construction of a merchant ship as being of the highest quality. Coincidentally the same understanding is given today to what was formerly the highest qualification of warship – first rate. A ‘First Rate’ ship was one with 100 guns or more spaced over three decks. Admiral Nelson’s Victory was a first rate ship of the line. Another expression with the same meaning is top drawer. This came to be used because the ship’s documents and important papers were always kept in the top drawer.

Above Board

Literally the wooden boards of planking which make up the deck. Any activity which went on ‘above boards’ would be in the open for everyone to see. Thus it has come to mean honest and fair dealing.

Adrift

At the will of the wind and tide. Sailors began to use the word to describe anything which had become undone or gone missing, which is how it acquired its shoreside meaning of somebody late, lost or wandering in their mind. From this word has also come drifter, a person with no aim in life.

All My Eye (and Betty Martin)

The English never try very hard to get their tongue around a difficult foreign word or phrase, much easier they find to anglicise it. Thus ‘Oh Mihi Beate Martine’, an expression frequently used by Portuguese sailors fighting alongside the British in the Peninsula at War, became ‘All My Eye in Betty Martin’. For the Portuguese it invoked the help of the blessed Saint Martin known for his charity; for the English it meant bullshine.

Book title

Adrift

Aloof

From the old Dutch word loef, meaning windward. It was adopted by English sailors in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in books of old voyages it is written variously as aluffe, a-luff and aloof. Describes a vessel which is sailing along a lee shore with her head pointing high into the wind to prevent her being set inshore; also said of a vessel amongst a fleet of ships which sails higher into the wind so that she draws apart. Thus it has come to mean ‘one who stands apart’.

B

Back and Fill

From the long and tedious operation of getting a large sailing ship to change tacks in light or fickle winds when the crew would have to back the fore and aft sails so that the wind could fill on their reverse side and help to blow the ship’s head around. Systematic backing and filling was also used as a way of holding the ship steady in one position.

Bamboozle

The word first appears in print in the early part of the 17th century where one authority suggests it was the name of the Spanish custom of hoisting false flags to deceive or bamboozle their enemies. Certainly that was the general understanding throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, although the word also made an appearance in fairgrounds where it was the name of a betting game in which the showman placed a pea under one of three jugs and players had to guess which.

Barcarole

A song with slow tempo and sad refrain of Venetian origin. It comes from the Italian barca, a small boat and barcaruoli which was the name given to the men who sang and rowed the gondolas through the canals of Venice.

Beaker

Spelt barrico. From the Spanish barrica, a wooden water keg found in a ship’s boat. Shoreside, it has become a ‘beaker’, another name for a mug or cup.

Beam Ends

A ship on her beam ends is one about to sink, i.e. laid over on her side so far that her beams, or deck supports, are in the water. It was an expressive way for the sailor to say he was broke and the expression still means impecunity. Good name for a country cottage.

Book title

Backing and filling

Bearing Up

One of several colloquialisms which describes a sailing ship’s heading relative to the wind, or to another vessel. A ship is said to bear up when she brings her head closer into the wind; when she bears away it means she is steering further from the wind. To bear down is to steer towards an object – and frequently this meant an enemy ship, hence the suggestion of a threat; while overbearing meant simply to come close.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The devil was the name given to a seam between two planks which every so often had to be ‘payed’ or repacked with oakum and pitch to prevent it from leaking. All seams need this routine treatment but the devil seam was the most difficult to do and so called because of it! There remains some conjecture as to which seam it actually was, devil is not a word which has survived and nobody can remember any old hands ever speaking of it. Some believe it lay next to the keel and suggest that the seaman who ‘payed’ it would have to hang from a rope, suspended between the devil and the deep sea. But the more likely explanation is that it was the outside seam of the deck planks next to the scuppers. This would have made it the longest seam and also the most difficult to do due to the spray coming over the side. It also gives more sense to the expression because in bad weather a man knocked over by a sea would be washed into the scuppers to find himself literally between the devil seam and the deep sea. Another expression, the devil to pay, supports this. Originally it ran ‘The devil