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    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Ebook331 pages4 hours

    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage

    By Martin Robson

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    About this ebook

    As the crow flies'', ''chunder'', ''cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'', ''three sheets to the wind'' - many terms like these are used in everyday English language conversation and writing. But how many landlubbers know that they derive from naval slang or know what the phrase originally referred to? The navy has helped to shape modern society. The navy is famous for its traditions, quirks and nuances. It is disinctly different to wider society and nowhere is this more evident than in language. The naval community once had its own language, incomprehensible to anyone who was not a sailor, which described and explained his unique world. But on shore leave these men introduced their language to the populations of bustling ports and harbours and the usage slowly spread inland. Today through the mediums of film, television and music, naval slang has been brought to the wider public and has become fully integrated into the English language to point where many phrases are used by people who have no concept of their meaning. Presenting terminology thematically, this book provides a compilation of naval slang throughout the world, from terms relating to ship-handling and seamanship through to food and drink, discipline and insults. The text is further enhanced with original black line drawings that illustrate certain technical terms, such as ''splice the mainbrace''.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJan 25, 2018
    ISBN9781472834195
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Author

    Martin Robson

    Dr Martin Robson is a lecturer in defence studies at the University of Exeter. He is the author of several works of military, aviation and naval history including the popular Pocket Manuals on the Spitfire and Lancaster Bomber for Conway as well as the D-Day Kit Bag.

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      Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat - Martin Robson

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