2004-06-30, 21:37
#1
Jag är inte tillbaka i språkforumet, 
det här är bara ett kort besök. Tänkte bara att jag skulle dela med mig av några engelska uttryck som ni säkert har hört, men kanske inte känner till att de har sitt ursprung inom marinen.
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Son of a Gun -
When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Infrequently, but not uncommonly, children were born aboard, and a convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, they were entered in the ship's log as "son of a gun".
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Balls Out -
Refers to an early design of engine governor, in which a pair of masses (balls) spun at an increasing rate as engine speed increased. Centrifugal acceleration threw the masses outward, so "balls out" refers to maximum possible engine speed.
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Balls to the wall -
Maximum speed, or maximum effort.
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Turn a Blind Eye -
Admiral Lord Nelson of the British Navy lost his left eye during a battle while still a Captain (At Tenerife). Later on, while a junior admiral or Commodore, he was in a battle (Copenhagen) under the over-all command of Fleet Admiral Earl St. Vincent. During the fighting, Vice Admiral Parker sent a signal to Nelson to get closer to him. Nelson, however, had seen a gap in the enemy battle line, and knew he could win the battle if he sailed into it instead, thus splitting the enemy fleet. Rather than flagrantly disobeying orders, he simply held up a telescope to his blind eye and said, "I don't see the signal," and thus went on to win the battle. Since that time, this term is used when a high-ranking official chooses not to see a situation - If it's for the greater good, of course.
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Shake a Leg -
In the British Navy of King George III and earlier, many sailors' wives accompanied them on long voyages. Also, wives were allowed to stay for the night when the ship was in port. This practice could cause some problems, but some ingenious bosun solved the situation which tended to make reveille a hazardous event: The problem of distinguishing which bunks or hammocks held males and which held females. To avoid dragging the wrong "mates" out of their hammocks, the bosun asked all to "shake a leg" or "show a leg". If the leg was shapely and/or adorned with silk, the owner was allowed to continue sleeping. If the leg was obviously male, such as being hairy and/or tattooed, then he was rousted out. In today's Navy, showing a leg is a signal to the reveille petty officer that you have heard his call and you are awake.
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Hunky-Dori -
This term, meaning everything is OK, was coined from a street named Honki-Dori in Yokohama. As the inhabitants of this street catered to the pleasures of Sailors, one can readily understand why the street's name became synonymous for anything that is enjoyable or satisfactory.
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Horse Latitudes -
Towards the southern climates (Tropic of Cancer) near the Equator, which was roughly about a month's sail from England and Europe. Because of the doldrums (Lack of wind) in the area, ships were often becalmed for many days or weeks at a time, causing a water shortage. Livestock, especially horses, died first, or were simply killed and thrown overboard to save water. Their carcasses were often sighted by other ships traveling in this area, and so the region acquired that name.
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Honcho -
Japanese in origin. "Han" (squad) and 'cho" (head) which was combined to mean "squad leader". Loosely applied to mean "Boss" or "Big Shot". Adopted by the US Pacific Fleet after WW II and popularized during the Vietnam War.
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Grog -
1) Grog is an expression for watered rum. In 1740, Admiral Vernon, RN (whose nickname was "Old Grog") ordered that rum rations be watered.
2) Grog originally referred to a mixture of rum cut with water. The admiral in question, Edward Vernon (1684-1757), had given an order in 1740 that the rum normally served to seamen be watered down -- previously, they had gotten straight rum as part of their standard ration. Vernon's nickname was Old Grog, after his custom of wearing a grogram cloak, and Grog was transferred from the admiral's nickname to the name of the drink he required for his men. The word is first found in the 1750s.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doughnut (or, Donut) -
When first invented, it was a ring of bread dough deep-fried in fat and flavored with sugar, honey, or molasses. A popular treat in early American history, both out West and at sea. Legend has it that an early New England sea captain by the name of Hansen Gregory designed them so that helmsmen on watch could slip them over the spokes of the ship's wheel. Thus making them handy for eating or allowing them to cool if they were freshly made.
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Devil to pay -
Today the expression "devil to pay" is used primarily to describe having an unpleasant result from some action that has been taken, as in someone has done something they shouldn't have and, as a result, "there will be the devil to pay." Originally, this expression described one of the unpleasant tasks aboard a wooden ship. The "devil" was the wooden ship's longest seam in the hull. Caulking was done with "pay" or pitch (a kind of tar). The task of "paying the devil" (caulking the longest seam) by squatting in the bilges was despised by every seaman.
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"Cold Enough to Freeze The Balls Off A Brass Monkey" -
This term has nothing to do with testicles or primates, and a good deal of debate remains to this day regarding the origin of the phrase. In the days of smoothbore cannon, particularly ashore, ready-use cannon balls were stored near the guns. The balls were stacked in a ‘monkey,’ a metal frame which was laid on the deck to help contain the bottom layer of cannon balls. Monkeys were typically made of brass. In extremely cold temperatures, the brass monkey shrank more than the iron cannon balls, and the stack of balls would collapse. The root of the debate is whether such an event is possible at all, though the phrase appears to be more a traditional exaggeration than an engineering possibility.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bully Boy -
Bully boys, a term prominent in Navy chanties and poems, means in its strictest sense, "beef eating Sailors." Sailors of the Colonial Navy had a daily menu of an amazingly elastic substance called bully beef, actually beef jerky. The term appeared so frequently on the messdeck that it naturally lent its name to the sailors who had to eat it. As an indication of the beef's texture and chewability, it was also called "salt junk," alluding to the rope yarn used for caulking the ship's seams.
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The Bitter End -
As any able-bodied seaman can tell you, a turn of a line around a bitt, those wooden or iron posts sticking through a ship's deck, is called a bitter. Thus the last of the line secured to the bitts is known as the bitter end. Nautical usage has somewhat expanded the original definition in that today the end of any line, secured to bitts or not, is called a bitter end.
The landlubbing phrases "stick to the bitter end" and "faithful to the bitter end" are derivations of the nautical term and refer to anyone who insists on adhering to a course of action without regard to consequences.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Your P's & Q's -
There are few of us who at one time or another have not been admonished to "mind our P's and Q's," or in other words, to behave our best. Oddly enough, "mind your P's and Q's" had nautical beginnings as a method of keeping books on the waterfront.
In the days of sail when Sailors were paid a pittance, seamen drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many salts were illiterate, keepers kept a talley of pints and quarts consumed by each Sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person's name, a mark was made under "P" for pint or "Q" for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught.
On payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his P's and Q's" or he would get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, Sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of "mind your P's and Q's."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Superstition of Friday -
The reluctance of seaman to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that many years ago the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. They then placed her in command of one Captain Friday and sent her to sea on Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback... neither ship nor crew were ever heard from again.
det här är bara ett kort besök. Tänkte bara att jag skulle dela med mig av några engelska uttryck som ni säkert har hört, men kanske inte känner till att de har sitt ursprung inom marinen.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Son of a Gun -
When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Infrequently, but not uncommonly, children were born aboard, and a convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, they were entered in the ship's log as "son of a gun".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balls Out -
Refers to an early design of engine governor, in which a pair of masses (balls) spun at an increasing rate as engine speed increased. Centrifugal acceleration threw the masses outward, so "balls out" refers to maximum possible engine speed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balls to the wall -
Maximum speed, or maximum effort.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn a Blind Eye -
Admiral Lord Nelson of the British Navy lost his left eye during a battle while still a Captain (At Tenerife). Later on, while a junior admiral or Commodore, he was in a battle (Copenhagen) under the over-all command of Fleet Admiral Earl St. Vincent. During the fighting, Vice Admiral Parker sent a signal to Nelson to get closer to him. Nelson, however, had seen a gap in the enemy battle line, and knew he could win the battle if he sailed into it instead, thus splitting the enemy fleet. Rather than flagrantly disobeying orders, he simply held up a telescope to his blind eye and said, "I don't see the signal," and thus went on to win the battle. Since that time, this term is used when a high-ranking official chooses not to see a situation - If it's for the greater good, of course.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shake a Leg -
In the British Navy of King George III and earlier, many sailors' wives accompanied them on long voyages. Also, wives were allowed to stay for the night when the ship was in port. This practice could cause some problems, but some ingenious bosun solved the situation which tended to make reveille a hazardous event: The problem of distinguishing which bunks or hammocks held males and which held females. To avoid dragging the wrong "mates" out of their hammocks, the bosun asked all to "shake a leg" or "show a leg". If the leg was shapely and/or adorned with silk, the owner was allowed to continue sleeping. If the leg was obviously male, such as being hairy and/or tattooed, then he was rousted out. In today's Navy, showing a leg is a signal to the reveille petty officer that you have heard his call and you are awake.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hunky-Dori -
This term, meaning everything is OK, was coined from a street named Honki-Dori in Yokohama. As the inhabitants of this street catered to the pleasures of Sailors, one can readily understand why the street's name became synonymous for anything that is enjoyable or satisfactory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horse Latitudes -
Towards the southern climates (Tropic of Cancer) near the Equator, which was roughly about a month's sail from England and Europe. Because of the doldrums (Lack of wind) in the area, ships were often becalmed for many days or weeks at a time, causing a water shortage. Livestock, especially horses, died first, or were simply killed and thrown overboard to save water. Their carcasses were often sighted by other ships traveling in this area, and so the region acquired that name.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honcho -
Japanese in origin. "Han" (squad) and 'cho" (head) which was combined to mean "squad leader". Loosely applied to mean "Boss" or "Big Shot". Adopted by the US Pacific Fleet after WW II and popularized during the Vietnam War.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grog -
1) Grog is an expression for watered rum. In 1740, Admiral Vernon, RN (whose nickname was "Old Grog") ordered that rum rations be watered.
2) Grog originally referred to a mixture of rum cut with water. The admiral in question, Edward Vernon (1684-1757), had given an order in 1740 that the rum normally served to seamen be watered down -- previously, they had gotten straight rum as part of their standard ration. Vernon's nickname was Old Grog, after his custom of wearing a grogram cloak, and Grog was transferred from the admiral's nickname to the name of the drink he required for his men. The word is first found in the 1750s.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doughnut (or, Donut) -
When first invented, it was a ring of bread dough deep-fried in fat and flavored with sugar, honey, or molasses. A popular treat in early American history, both out West and at sea. Legend has it that an early New England sea captain by the name of Hansen Gregory designed them so that helmsmen on watch could slip them over the spokes of the ship's wheel. Thus making them handy for eating or allowing them to cool if they were freshly made.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devil to pay -
Today the expression "devil to pay" is used primarily to describe having an unpleasant result from some action that has been taken, as in someone has done something they shouldn't have and, as a result, "there will be the devil to pay." Originally, this expression described one of the unpleasant tasks aboard a wooden ship. The "devil" was the wooden ship's longest seam in the hull. Caulking was done with "pay" or pitch (a kind of tar). The task of "paying the devil" (caulking the longest seam) by squatting in the bilges was despised by every seaman.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Cold Enough to Freeze The Balls Off A Brass Monkey" -
This term has nothing to do with testicles or primates, and a good deal of debate remains to this day regarding the origin of the phrase. In the days of smoothbore cannon, particularly ashore, ready-use cannon balls were stored near the guns. The balls were stacked in a ‘monkey,’ a metal frame which was laid on the deck to help contain the bottom layer of cannon balls. Monkeys were typically made of brass. In extremely cold temperatures, the brass monkey shrank more than the iron cannon balls, and the stack of balls would collapse. The root of the debate is whether such an event is possible at all, though the phrase appears to be more a traditional exaggeration than an engineering possibility.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bully Boy -
Bully boys, a term prominent in Navy chanties and poems, means in its strictest sense, "beef eating Sailors." Sailors of the Colonial Navy had a daily menu of an amazingly elastic substance called bully beef, actually beef jerky. The term appeared so frequently on the messdeck that it naturally lent its name to the sailors who had to eat it. As an indication of the beef's texture and chewability, it was also called "salt junk," alluding to the rope yarn used for caulking the ship's seams.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bitter End -
As any able-bodied seaman can tell you, a turn of a line around a bitt, those wooden or iron posts sticking through a ship's deck, is called a bitter. Thus the last of the line secured to the bitts is known as the bitter end. Nautical usage has somewhat expanded the original definition in that today the end of any line, secured to bitts or not, is called a bitter end.
The landlubbing phrases "stick to the bitter end" and "faithful to the bitter end" are derivations of the nautical term and refer to anyone who insists on adhering to a course of action without regard to consequences.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mind Your P's & Q's -
There are few of us who at one time or another have not been admonished to "mind our P's and Q's," or in other words, to behave our best. Oddly enough, "mind your P's and Q's" had nautical beginnings as a method of keeping books on the waterfront.
In the days of sail when Sailors were paid a pittance, seamen drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many salts were illiterate, keepers kept a talley of pints and quarts consumed by each Sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person's name, a mark was made under "P" for pint or "Q" for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught.
On payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his P's and Q's" or he would get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, Sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of "mind your P's and Q's."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Superstition of Friday -
The reluctance of seaman to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that many years ago the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. They then placed her in command of one Captain Friday and sent her to sea on Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback... neither ship nor crew were ever heard from again.
