huh funny, in colloquial indonesian it kinda have the same thing too but from dutch instead, when someone helps park your car usually the word "ateret" would be shouted. it's from the dutch word "achteruit" and it means to go backwards, similar concept but loaned from different source
I’m from Ireland and when I worked in Malaysia many years ago I was amazed to hear a Malaysian person using the expression “by hook or by crook” which was coined by Oliver Cromwell when he declared that he would take Ireland by hook or by crook. He was referring to Hook head and Crook head- both coastal locations
Fun fact: Back when whaling was a thing the work was seasonal, so the sailors had to have side hustles on land. Some of them ended up working as stagehands and used their shipboard skills in that work -- which is why the system for moving curtains is called "rigging."
More than a side hustle, it was a new profession. Theater was performed outdoors for the most part. When it moved fully indoors, they needed workers who could handle the new scenics that evolved with the new location. So much of the nautical moved in. The stage is the deck. The scenery is hung on battens and hoisted and secured at the pin rail with belaying pins. Some theaters, that haven't modernized from the early days are called hemp houses because they still retain the rope rigging and sand bag counterweight systems with pin rail tie offs. Side note: The move of old sailors as stage crew, in the early years, led to the superstition that to whistle, in a theater, was bad luck. It was in fact to avoid an accidental scene change. Sailors brought with them their habit of whistling commands from the high rigging on ship into the theater.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone, he wanted people to answer the phone with Ahoy instead of hello. That's why Mr Burns answers the phone with Ahoy-hoy.
@@markwalshopoulosI was just pondering the same thing. Since the pronunciations are quite different( a-hOY, vs A-hoy) perhaps they both come from yet third, older origin.
@@borragoAhoy comes from the Dutch 'hoi', which is their way of saying 'hi'. The a- comes from the sharp intake of air just before raising your voice to hail another ship.
The word "strike" to refer to workers stopping work in protest is also a nautical term. It refers to when sailors would furl or "strike" the sails to prevent a ship from moving.
and workers who felt their livelihood threatened by automation flung their wooden shoes called "sabots" into the machines to stop them. Hence the word "sabotage."
@@allocater2 And then there is the gaffer (head lighting person) on set. Possibly named because of the use of a long hooked pole (gaff pole) used to adjust light fixtures up in the grid. Speaking of lighting there's "battens", bars/pipe that lights etc are hung from.
Another is "to get shanghaied". Sailors on the west coast of the US preferred to work shorter trips up and down the coast. In order to get sailors to work the long voyage to Shanghai they would go to sailors bars and slip drugs into their drinks. They'd wake up on a boat already out at sea and have no choice but to work the voyage.
@@OverOnTheWildSide and how does this invalidate what i said? its a rhetorical question. you dont have to answer that. "the geographical location of todays west coast us" is not the origin of the term thats the point i was making and you have been missing. Sailors came from all walks of life and locatons to crew on any one particular ship, and the term shanghaied was a term used in all navies with international crew - which was at the time the standard. Even today you would be hard pressed to find ships with sailors of one nation. (unless it is the navy) The worldst busiest harbours at the time have been in europe, and that is where most of those terms originate from. Americas coastline was blessed by shitloads of european ships, which travelled the world including shanghai china.
I’m a stagehand and so much of theatrical terminology comes from sailors. The explanation that I heard was that they already knew rigging and coukd work at height so they were often hired and their terminology stuck.
@@KasumiRINA”best boy” comes from the old days of Hollywood when film workers were mostly male. The “best boy” would be whoever’s the best/most qualified person in any given department, and eventually the name stuck and it became an official credited title
Much appreciated! Etymologist / Sailing Captain here. An English friend told me another one: cannon balls used to be stacked pyramid-fashion onto a retainer that laid on deck. The retainer was made of brass, which tended to shrink in cold weather, causing the cannon balls to roll off the retainer. The retainer was called a ‘monkey’. Thus, severely cold weather could ‘freeze the balls off a brass monkey’.
That one's a myth, the Royal Navy used boards with holes a bit smaller than the cannonball to store them, stacking round things on a pitching ship is a bad idea
Look up the term 'shot garland'; the stacking of cannonballs retained by a frame on the ground is much more likely to have been done in forts, where the ground could be expected to remain horizontal, instead of on a pitching deck that could throw cannonballs everywhere.
Sounds like we'll need an episode 2 to get the rest of the terms, please! It's so cool to finally learn where all these sayings came from after using them for so long
As a Brit whose family came from Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy, I know my fair share of these phrases. I have to admit though, the Dutch ones were definitely new to me - it makes sense that so many came into English though as the Dutch were excellent sailors and the Dutch royals William and Mary became king and queen of England and Scotland after the Glorious revolution.
@@masonharvath-gerrans832True, and I should have remembered that. As a history buff, you may be interested to hear that just yesterday I was in St Germain, near Paris, outside the church where the deposed James II is buried!
@@masonharvath-gerrans832 The Stuarts were descended from a Breton knight, Alan fitzFlaad 'The Dapifer of Dol', who came to Britain after 1066. He had two sons, one the male line ancestor of the Stuarts, the other the ancestor of the FitzAlan family, Earls of Arundel. Mary Stuart was more English than Scottish, she was born in London, her mother was English and the last Stuart born in Scotland was Charles I (Dunfermline), her grandfather.
If you've seen Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk. "Cunk on Britain"/The Daily Wipe. One of the best lines is "Adolf Hitler wanted to make Britain more German... to match its Royal Family"
the intermingling with english came from the fact that sailors at the time came from all places germany, netherlands, nordics, england etc - this is how sailers overcame the language barrier when they had to work together. "pidgin english" was born on sailships - and even the german navy has shitloads of terms that clearly have english roots. Which is where i did my servcie on bord ;) Then again, dutch and english are germanic languages - so there always have been similarities. But i will never forgive the english for stupid sentences like this. Look, there is a port to port .............. WHY! !!!? germans say backbord instead, and steuerbord on the other side. WHY use a word that has at least 2 other meaning already. PORT is something my ship is leaving, or it is a nice beverage from portugal - but it is not supposed to be the left side of your ship...... Yes, i stand by that. Do to me what you must. If i ever become a helmsman on an english ship, i would never turn to port - unless there is actually a port. I would always do 270 degree turns to starbord instead :) cheers with beers - my greatest respect to the royal navy, and porthsmouth
@hunterrogersmusic "Holy mackerel!" does seem to have both nautical(fish ie:mackerel) and English(Holy ie: an adulterous King who makes up a religion to exonerate himself), ahh back to point. "Holy mackerel!" is actually "Ye Olde Monty Pythonish" of "Grailian" in nature!
As a sailor, for me the bitter end is the last chain on the anchor that is secured to the boat and can be cut off to release the anchor in an emergency. Whilst the strong point on the dock to which lines are tied is called a "bitt", the phrase "to the bitter end" is from the ship side and not the dock side.
Yes; an anchor cable has two ends, of course, the anchor end and the inboard end that takes a turn around the ship's own bitts to make it fast when anchored, so is the bitter end. When a ship was at anchor and the wind and storm were rising, in order to increase the horizontal hold of the anchor's flukes on the seabed, and could veer more (hemp, not chain) cable until there was no more to let out and one was 'right at the bitter end'. Not in a hopeless situation, but in one where there was nothing more that could be done but hold fast (and perhaps pray!).
The original nautical term referring to ropes, not chains. Before chains, heavy ropes or cables were used for anchors. The bit end was the end o a rope. For anchors, colored pieces of cloth were tied near the bit end or bitter end. If the anchor was being lowered and the crew saw these, they knew they were at the end of their rope. The terminology remained when anchor chains came into use.
Fun fact. English also affects my native language Malay with nautical terms like the word "gostan" (meaning to reverse) which comes from the phrase "to go astern".
Awesome - word origins fascinate me. We also use a few blacksmithing terms, such as : Strike while the iron’s hot - Forge ahead - Go at it hammer and tongs - Hammer out a deal - Lose your temper - The heat is on - Too many irons in the fire - Familiar ring to it.
I severed 30 years in the Navy and use most of these phrases throughout and still do today. Learning where some originated from was fascinating! Here's another one for you "BZ"!
As a teacher of Social Studies and the English Language… and a man named MISTER HATCH, I am battening down (liking and confirming my subscription!) this video and sharing it with my Sixth Graders on the first day of school! Doctor Brovozsky & Otherwords staff, thank you so much for this! 😊
Seeing the amount of influence sailing has had on English, it's easier to see why Joseph Conrad became such an important English writer despite learning English in adulthood. He learnt English from sailors and turns out that's the perfect place to learn English.
One of my favourite obscure nautical terms is "In the offing". The "offing" is the area of the sea that can be seen by the naked eye. Thus is a ship is in the offing, it is near, but not quite here yet. Now it is used more rarely as something that will happen soon, but not quite yet.
Knowing what "offing" means opens you to being irritated when people say "what's in the OFFERING" 😔 Of course, back in the day, if you were a merchant or ship owner, seeing what was newly arrived in the offing (it specifically refers to what can be seen from shore, probably from "off shore") was critical business intelligence.
@@williamivey5296 who says what's in the offering??? Nobody You sound as though you have confused the offing with goods on ships having actually arrived in port. If they are in the offing it means you can see ships on the horizon. So roughly 3 miles away or less. They are about to arrive that's why " _in the offing_ " means something that is about to happen soon
Here in Malaysia, a Malay slang word for Westerners or White Men is "Mat Salleh". It actually derives from term "Mad Sailor". As you can imagine, whenever British sailors had leave in colonial Malaya, they would and did paint the town red. It seemed that their favourite pastime during the British Colonial Rule here was to get drunk and get into fights, not necessarily in that order. As you can imagine, the local didn't think too highly of their antics.
When I tell people learning English as a second language,, I always tell them if you’re learning British English you need to know the ocean if you’re learning American English you need to know railways Also I forgot baseball. So many idioms.and for a Canadian english many hockey terms.
thats actually really insightful the British historically dominated the seas so it makes sense and the Americans well not just railways but also a major exporter of culture and technology too so a lot of films, RU-vid English-speaking videos, programming documentations are written in the American one actually in Vietnam where i live, almost all the keyboards and laptop keyboards have the dollar sign above number 4 so i feel the impact of American English too
USGC vet here , 6 year of my time was on cutters getting underway, and to this day I still use sailor jargon, I will say I need to use the head (the bathroom) I still use scuttlebutt. when we have new co workers join out team i say welcome aboard, and also some more colorful word I don't think I cay say here. But use it is funny how for me most of there jargon sound normal :D
From what I understand, old English and old Dutch are apparently largely mutually intelligible, as English originates from the Angles and Saxons, they were closely linked to early Dutch origins due to location.
@@MrMountainFace Not old Dutch, Frisian, to be clear. Old Dutch & Modern Dutch are a different strain of Germanic languages more closely related to Flemish and modern West German dialects (with some Alemannic influence as well). While there has been linguistic diffusion between them and Dutch + Flemish, English and Frisian are more closely related to Danish through Jute/Geat linguistic influences in addition to the Anglo-Saxon hybrid base. What we know currently as Old Dutch barely even existed in what is now the Netherlands until around late Medieval period, around the same time Frisians gave up Viking-style subsistence piracy, which was partially caused by political upheaval & residential instability in the wider Non-Scandinavian Germanic world force Dutch speaking populations westward, around the same time the Hanseatic League was being formed.
Also, "bear with me," didn't originally mean something like "put up with me until I can explain," but rather simply, "follow my course; set your bearing to mine."
Three sheets to a wind is a bit more specific than the flapping of loose sails, I'm told. The "sheets" are the rope lines coming down from the sides of a sail's supporting spars, and they help you keep a sail facing in a given direction... so if the sheets are not tied down to something to keep the sail in place, and there's a stiff wind, you might get a situation where the entire vessel lurches and surges irregularly from side to side, as the sails swing about and impart varying amounts of forward and sideways force on the ship. Basically, by the time three sheet lines are flapping about and three big square sails are free to swing as they will, the entire ship will find herself drunk-walking across the water until the sails can be brought back under control.
I'm a First Mate and Engineer in the Merchant Navy. I have to say, what a wonderful, entertaining and informative video. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you ❤
@@Ana_crusisFirst of all, nautical and military terms are closely related so it is absolutely relevant. Have you ever heard of a NAVY? Second, just because you personally haven't heard others use the term "shell shocked" doesn't mean that no one anywhere does. It's listed in the dictionary as a slang term for shocked. Sure, it's usage was probably more common in the 20th century, but it wouldn't be an entry if "no one ever said that," as you claim. Smh.
I once asked a friend "How's tricks?", another bit of sailor jargon. She got seriously offended thinking I was asking her how her prostitution was going. I had to go to great pains to explain to her that my question had zero to do with prostitution and that Bugs Bunny certainly was not meaning that when he used it either.
"Bunny Girl" was a term derived from what the girls wearing big floppy ears and fluffy tails were called as they lined up for a private audience with Bugs Bunny in his dressing room. I might of just made that up.
This is mindblowing, and English is always such a fascinating language. I wonder how many of the dirty words came from pirates, the sailor’s more wicked cousin
Sailors were plenty wicked and pirates and privateers were often just as well regarded depending on era and background, pirates as a bunch of rapscallions is a more modern and romanticized version of it when mostly they were desperate or hard on their luck sailors who'd abandon their original post and go rogue, often returning to sanctioned sailing if they could find the means.
@@clivematthews95 Yeah legal sailors had it very rough and governments legally did things like North Atlantic slave trade so while many pirates were also slavers, tons of legitimate shipping companies were, plus the other horrible stuff they did as part of colonization.
@@underdog353777 hmm, sounds pretty revisionist to me. Can't get away from the fact they used fear, surprise and intimidation to terrorise the seas, whether out of desperation or not
As I understand, the term “broad”, as an unflattering term for a woman, comes from broadside. When a ship came into port, and tied up at a dock, prostitutes would show up, loitering around the broadside of the ship; they were called broadsiders.
Yes! Specifically, it attaches to the clew on the leeward side of the sail. The line (not rope) that controls the windward side of a sail is called a guy. And the line that raises or lowers the sail is a halyard.
@@Tom-kp2lv On loose-footed square sails such as courses, the lines on either side (windward or leeward) leading aft are called sheets and the ones leading forward are tacks.
Nice rapid summary, but I've got a couple of comments/corrections. The term "sheet" refers to the ropes that control the sails, not the sails themselves. The "flying colors" was almost correct, but it also refers to a battle at sea were the losing captain would "strike (lower) his colors" to indicate his surrender. To come through a battle (test) with "flying colors" meant that you survived and was on the winning side.
I've noticed a ton from baseball. "Knock it out of the park" "Step up to the plate" "Three strikes and you're out" "Swing for the fences" and many more
And in Commonwealth English, barring Canada, (sorry, eh) it's cricket, as I posted elsewhere here.... Bowled Out: When a batsman gets out in cricket. Yorker: A type of delivery by a bowler (comparable to a curveball in baseball Rain stop play: (how could England invent a sport that can't be played in the rain?) Bowl a Googly: A deceptive delivery. (another one like a curveball) Stumped: Confused (but a method of getting out, similar to a run out.) Sticky Wicket: A difficult situation. Captain's innings: when you lead by example Hit for Six: A powerful shot A Good Innings: A successful period. It’s Just Not Cricket: Something unfair. End of the day (probably not just cricket) because first class cricket (not limited-over pyjama cricket) takes 5 days (and often still ends in a draw) BTW, for a good intro to cricket see the Bluey Season 3, Episode 47 cartoon episode aptly titled "Cricket".
That would be the British isles, Great Britain or the UK. As England is attached to Scotland and Wales. Northern island also had a big shipping history. However, it is not unusual for foreigners to get it wrong as it is confusing.
Watching a scene from a British film about Nelson at Trafalgar brought the realization of the phrase "clear the deck". The order to stow hammocks and gear and removing room dividers to clear the deck to ready for battle.
Geography makes a huge influence in a language. England being a kinda maritime nation, it is full of sayings like 'Chart your course' 'trecherous waters' 'test the waters'. . .
I used to live in Cornwall, and had a flat right on the front, for a few years with big windows to view with chairs it was sweet. Everything is by the sea in Cornwall. 10 miles is the farthest point from sea. You miss the sea if you move away. It smells like salt and it's always making noise. I had a boat and jetty to the Falmouth harbour and around the Carrick Roads. Every resident of Falmouth get the use of one lobster trap if they want it. True story. If I left the harbour I would get capsized if a storm came in because it's the ocean. It's the joint second deepest natural harbour in the world and mail 'cutter' or 'cutty sark' 'packet' ships left from their with mail 'packets' from the railway to go out to the empire. Falmouth has a maritime museum and it's a fun time.
@iwanttocomplain Hmm, Cornwall is on the coast in the English Sputh, right? Facing the channel. I don't know if you have read that author, but I believe Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is situated there. I, however, am from the desert. But I have read, apart from the aroma of salt, there would be the breeze from sea to land in the day and from land to sea at night. Is that correct?
@@The-Cosmos I looked up the locations. It looks like she wrote it at Burgh Island Hotel in the 30's in Devon on the south coast. But the locations are around London and Cornwall in three locations: the North coast, near Newquay, Holywell Bay. Then Mullion Cove and Kynance Cove on the Lizard peninsula which is the south coast. There's lot's of nice places there. There is a BBC drama from 2015 filmed there so I might like that. The sea never gets really fierce around the whole of Cornwall as a general rule as it's not really the high seas. This man likes to film waves. Here is a video showing a storm from north and south coasts compared from the same storm. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qJxSIb7nnjw.htmlsi=4yf_Hl3kqQ6XKdDr
@@The-Cosmos I watched episode one but I didn't like it. It was so cliched, but I suppose in it's defence, it was probably the blueprint for other whodunnit rippoffs as it was written in the 30's.
The word “grog” comes from a British admiral who ordered the watering down of the daily rum ration. He was known for wearing a great coat made of a material called Grogham, and sailers referred to the admiral as “Old Grogham, and then named the beverage grog. Coincidentally this admiral was a great friend of George Washington’s family. His name was actually Admiral Vernon, now immortalized in the estate name Mount Vernon.
A parallel, when the American Navy ceased serving wine and substituted coffee it was by the order of Admiral Joseph - I forgot the last name. I don't forget my morning cup of Joe however.
Having served over 8 years in the United States Navy I continue to love these terms and approve of this message. A typical American sailor from aft to forward.
@@shottabitz Strictly speaking the very front of a boat is called the stem, the bows are the area either side of the stem. Though as a recreational sailor I used to refer to the bow of the boat, like most people.
@stevebarlow3154 I can sit here and split hairs about most things said on here, but I don't. But if this makes you feel a bit more knowledgeable, then you go for it.. enjoy your weekend 😘
@@shottabitz Thank you and enjoy yours. The front end of a boat or ship is commonly and incorrectly known as the bow. But in fact bow should be plural and is the area either side of the stem, the very front bit. But unless you are a naval architect or a boat builder, most people refer to it as the bow.
As a non-native speaker, I always find it really interesting where the majority of idioms come from. Now I just need to finally crack the code why German seems to have so many animal related expressions
"Hot Seat" is also US Navy jargon from WW2. In the ship's head there would be an open row of toilets. One of the toilets would have a red lid. Sailors who had active STDs were confined to using the hot seat until cleared by the ship's doctor. "Cats out of the bag" literally means the Captain has issued punishment and the cat o nine tails has been removed from the bag it is stowed in and punishment is about to be administered.
"Friggin" is actually a glass maker's term, from the Victorian era. At the end of the week, a team of glass workers would sometimes endeavour to make very intricate and complex glass frigate ships. More often than not, this would result in failure and the piece would end up in the bin. They were said to be "friggin around" (wasting time). In more modern times the term has been adopted as a substitute for a more colourful adjective/noun/verb.
When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse, There’s the Devil To Pay: Seafaring Words In Everyday Speech by Olivia A. Isil. This book has over 250 nautical terms, explained for us landlubbers.
"Don't sweat the small stuff" is another one. Small stuff is rope that is less than one inch in circumference. To sweat up a line is to put it under high tension by pulling it at right angles. If you sweat the small stuff, you will probably break it. An expression that is rarely heard today, but was fairly common a century ago, is "chock a block," meaning crowded or tightly squeezed together, as in, "Their large family was forced to live chock a block in a small apartment." It derives from when the blocks of a tackle (pronounced TAY-k'l) are jammed together preventing further movement. And, when you're paying out a line, the last thing you want is to reach the end of your rope and have it slip through your fingers.
@@caramelldansen2204"IPA" means Indian pale ale and it originally meant liquor intentionally watered down to reduce cases of drunkenness among sailors sailing to far places like India.
@syafiqjabar it wasn't watered down, if anything early IPA'S were slightly stronger They would have been hopped more heavily to survive long journeys as they first came around from the british east India trading company and it was the only ale that was found to last a journey on a ship down to India
A thought about something that bothers me "Long time no see" and "no can do." According to the 2001 book Speaking Of Chinese, both phrases came to English through sailors in Hong Kong as a direct translation of Chinese phrases, as those are the words spoken in that order in Chinese taken directly into English. Chinese and English sailors in close quarters on board the same ship engaged in cultural cross-pollination, those phrases came to be seen as worldly marking the speaker as well traveled, and got into the larger English lexicon through early Hollywood. What bothers me? I've seen several recent lazy clickbait articles saying that these phrases are mocking Chinese or Native American speakers. BS. That's internet brained BS. It's the opposite, these phrases show the power of cross cultural communication and sharing of culture.
I've seen clickbait alleging ugly origins of terms when I've seen simpler and more innocent etymology for those words in scholarly works that cite sources. I suspect some of these creators simply give the most scandalous explanations they can dream up because it's easier and more profitable than research and reality.
in Australia, ""Fair dinkum" i am very sure is a Cantonese saying for "fair gold" which would have come from Cantonese miners in the 1800s Australia selling off their gold to the Royal Mint at that time. At that time i am guessing the Royal Mint would have given a bad price so i imagine expression "真金 ah !! " which i guess become "fair 真金 mate"
Well she herself glossed over "Gerry-Rigged" (it's not her "Jerry Rigged" Liverpool whatever). It was U.S. and British soldiers' jargon/reaction to how the German Army had to repair their equipment with whatever was available because Germany was under heavy embargo. Germans were called "Gerrys" or "Jerrys". It also where the term "Gerry/Jerry Can" comes from, as that type gas can was first used by the German Army. It is also no coincidence of words that many things were often "Gerry Rigged" with "Gerry Cans".
@@myradioon Good comment A little more history from a transportation officer in the US Army The Americans used flimsy metal cans for gas that had a habit of breaking and spilling, called flimsies. Some old men still use that word. The American truck drivers were always looking for those solid, well-built German fuel cans, the jerry can that were so often thrown over into a ditch during movement. A good American transportation unit would have a stock pile of the German cans. Our current fuel cans are modeled on them, and they still call them jerry cans.
Seeing Dr. B. without the characteristic red lipstick at the end was a culture shock! 😄 Really made me appreciate how much easier it is to follow the movements of the mouth when it's painted with such a well-defined frame!
Another example of embedded culture persisting long after the origin has gone, is the the floppy-disk icon for 'Save' - and the fact that many people wouldn't even know what it is.
Well done, Dr.! As an amateur student of language since before college you are inspiring. Nautical terms are used in aviation as well. Port and starboard for left and right wing on large aircraft as well as 'Nautical Miles, or Knots (kts) for distance and airspeed and rudder for, well, the rudder. Aileron, fuselage and empennage are French terms that are now English terms for aircraft terminology. English is, indeed, a sponge. Your videos are quite enjoyable. Thank you.
Samuel Clemens better know by his pen name as Mark Twain, was a huge fan of steam boats. Crewmen would measure the water's depth using the twain scale and yell out the measurements to the captain "Half twain...quarter twain...mark twain " A "Mark Twain " was about 12feet (3.7m) . I guess he liked the way it sounded and reminded him of steam boats
I love language videos and this is the first I've watched on this channel. I really did not expect her to come up with so many examples! It's unbelievable how many are common phrases.
Don't give me that "bilge". "Under the weather" could refer to the fact that the top deck is called the "weather deck". The ship moves (rocks less) the closer one gets to the keel. So if a "passenger" was seasick from being on the "weather deck", they'd go closer to the keel and be "under the weather (deck). My hobby is "scrimshaw" so I "Start from Scratch!"
A cool thing about fathoms, the quickest way to measure a line as you pull it in is to stretch it across your wingspan before you grab another section. I still use it when I use a leadline or when I'm roughly measuring lines.
Not sure about falconry making much a contribution to English but French legal terminology certainly did. For a long time French was the principle language of what is now the UK. So it was that the words: jail, bailiff, defendant, inquiry, judge, plaintiff, summons, verdict; were absorbed into the English language. Each and everyone of these is a French (often old French) word. Used first in English courts for very many years and in due course delivered to the USA (as it now is) by the early arrivals.
@@victorwaddell6530 Interesting the differences between Royal Naval [and other Commonwealth Navies’] jargon. Another example is the RN cand Commonwealth merchant navy call the anchor chain an anchor cable. Do youknow why they call it a cable?
@@piratedaveyjones1903 No I don't . Let me guess . Anchor chains are measured in lengths called cables ? In the US Navy anchor chains are measured in lengths called shot .
This might actually be my favourite of the Otherwords series, gobsmacked to learn that even words like ahead and underway have nautical origins! Just loving this series Dr. Brozovsky, keep them coming!
In Spanish, ‘to tie’ is ‘atar’. But in Latin America, which the Spaniards had to make a long sea voyage to, they don’t tie things but instead they moor them (‘amarrar’).
A lot of the examples in this video are really old(almost all from wind powered ships!) but sailing jargon is still used today, and it's been evolving. I go to a maritime school and any time I try to explain anything about what I do here I have to wrestle around my brain for words and phrases that people will actually understand because my speech is so jargon-y. I didn't even notice until I got off of the boat after 2 months and people were confused whenever I would talk about the trip. It's a really big industry that was dominated by English for a while, so yeah I'm not very surprised a lot of words and phrases got traded around.
5:42 I must disagree with this one. "3 sheets to the wind" is actually because having 3 sheets (3 sails) capturing the blowing power of a strong wind causes the ship to lean over quite a bit. This is similar to how a drunk person leans as they walk.
Three sheets to the wind, as the U.S. Navy tells it, is sails that are not under control, they are blowing around wildly. A sailor coming back from a drunk is not in control of his ability to walk, swaying and stumbling around on the pier.
I think Erica is correct. Sheets are not sails, but parts of the rigging that restrain them, so the phrase means a sail that cannot be used as it is not able to catch the wind.
A sheet to the wind is still a sailing phrase and it still means an unrestrained jib sheet. If you’re sailing along and you blow your jib sheet and let the jib go sheet to the wind, it flaps like crazy. It’s louder than you can imagine. It’s pure chaos in a fresh breeze. Modern sloops only have one jib, cutters and slutters carry 2, but big sailing ships would routinely carry 3 headsails. And on those big square rigged ships the headsails were absolutely necessary to make any progress windward or to have any control in a reach. An old sailing ship with no trim in her headsails would be out of control, and ultimately would turn down and run with the wind despite any efforts to keep heading. The phrase “3 sheets to the wind” evokes a very loud, very chaotic image of a tall ship that has blown all three of its headsails and left them flapping wildly, and is subsequently turning to run downwind out of control. It’s basically the old sailing slang for “dumpster fire”
The sheets are the lines that control the sail's position relative to the wind. On a traditional square rigger, 2 sheets are used to control each mainsail, of which there are typically several of. Having only "3 sheets to the wind" obviously makes the rig unbalanced and out of control.
I absolutely love naval etymology. I’m a total dork for it. Slush fund is one of my favorites because it made no sense until I learned what it meant. Two notes from this video and I am fairly certain I’m correct but I’d love to know if I’m wrong! Boatswain is pronounced “bosun” and three sheets to the wind refers to loose ropes on a sail. The ropes are called sheets. So it is about a loose sail, but it’s a little confusing. Thank you for this video!!! I loved it!!!!
Also a great reference for more naval terms is Sea of Words by Patrick O’Brian, the author of the Master and Commander series. It’s a dictionary of nautical terminology and expressions written to accompany his books because they are just impossible to read without it. 😅
In many places in america we use the term vittles which comes from the sailing word Viticuals. which means supplies used for sailing and also sharing its origin from Latin.
To “let the cat out of the bag” is a reference to the ‘cat of nine tails’ whip mentioned in the video. The cat of nine tails was kept in a bag tied to the mast. If someone let the cat out of the bag it means that they let something slip and someone got lashed as a result.
Three sheets to the wind does not refer to sails. There are three main types of ropes / rigging on a sailing ship, sheets, stays, and braces. Sheets were lines that attached to the corners / edges of sails and connected them to the ship. If you broke one the sail was harder to control. If three sheets were broken the sail flapped around wildly, just like a drunken sailer.
Loved that last note on phrases losing their literal meaning. I have an antique rotary phone in my living room. Unlike most people who use the phrase constantly, I have the option still to "hang up" my phone.
If a sailor says, "Where's the head", it means his bladder is full and he wants to empty it by urinating off the front (the head) of the ship. The term now just means, "could you please show me where the nearest restroom is?" I worked as civilian contractor on a naval base, for 5 years, and everybody, even the women called the restroom, "The Head".
@@gj1234567899999I was wondering that, too. But I recall touring a classic sailing ship (old, or maybe a replica). Near the bow, perched at the edge, overhanging the water, was a board with several holes, just like the hole in the middle of a toilet seat. Does anyone else know about this? Did I remember correctly? And it seems to me that a (male) sailor could choose to pee from anywhere along the leeward side or stern, but would need toilet-like accommodations for defecating. Maybe such accommodations are not placed at the stern, as the captain’s quarters are there.
@@gj1234567899999 Because the holes through which the crewmen could relieve themselves (in both ways, not only peeing), were in planks fixed inside the headrails, inside the bows of the vessel. If you find the sequence on the 'fillum' where Surprise is rounding the Horn there is a short clip, perhaps a couple of seconds or so, where you may see a crewman so occupied, though in fact he is depicted sitting the wrong way round and he wouldn't have been able to use those regular heads in those stormy weather conditions. Officers had more private facilities, mostly at the quarters, or stern, of the vessel.
Thank you this is a good coverage of "English" history. Three sheets to the wind refers lines ( ropes ) used to control the shape and angle of the sails. It is easy to believe that "sheets" refers to the sails, but that is not the case. Example, on a sloop there are two sheets for controlling the Jib, and one sheet controlling the main sail. ( three sheets )
Slipping away or to slip away is definitely nautical, from slipping your moorings. Cut and run would also I think more apply to cutting your mooring lines rather than cutting your anchor.
A new Otherwords posting is always the best part of that day. Who was the old salt that insisted women were bad luck on a ship? Clearly he never had the pleasure of setting sail with the ever charming doctor all things spoken.
Well, I was certainly wrong about "jury rig". I thought it came from actually rigging a jury and that people would conflate it with the WWII term "gerry rig". I read somewhere that "starboard" comes from the fact that steering boards in the days before rudders would most often hanging off the right side of the ship.
And that is also why the left side was called the port side. They had to tie up on the port side since the steer board would get damaged if they tied up on that starboard side. When I was in the Coast Guard, we almost always tied up on the port side and only on the starboard side if there were really something necessitating it.
read a lot of british royal navy of the napoleonic era letters & dispatches.. 'under the weather', way i 'take' it, is anytime you can literally put a plank above you & the weather. in the surgeons' area where invalids laid, is where perhaps it came from as we know it (usually the very front under the water line, safer from incoming 'shot')
@@nickmiller76a boat is a boat, even if it's a riverboat. And marking lines to measure depth happens on the sea as well as rivers, just like fathoms in the video.
I learned some phrases in our modern US Navy: make a hole, meaning get out of the way, nuts to butts, meaning fall into a line, topside mean going up, below means going down, put a strain on that guy, tighten a guy wire….
What a great episode! It's very entertaining, but also highly informative about language and culture (not that the two can really be separated). Also, Dr. Brozovsky is an excellent presenter and scholar - and so adorable that I can barely stand it.
the "unfriended" at the end made me cackle, cause when my son is info dumping, and I've already asked him to stop repeatedly, I say "UNSUBSCRIBE!" and he stops. 🤣
