'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.'

[BTS]

Bet you didn't know this! In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon.

However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations.

However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys.' Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.' (All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you.)

One more tidbit..........

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to 'go sip some ale' and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. 'You go sip here' and 'You go sip there.' The two words 'go sip' were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term 'gossip.'

[OpenMind]

I think it's very interesting how much of English is based on slang and colloquial terms. New terms are being coined every year. Some make it to the dictionary while other new terms don't catch on.

[dubs]

I hadn't heard of the gossip one, but I did know about Brass Monkeys..

On the gundecks of wooden warships, where it paid to be small, quick and agile. Young boys were used to fetch gunpowder charges from the ships magazines, and became known as Powder Monkeys. And the brass trays, as BTS said, were known as Brass Monkeys...

[Rapunzel]

Its always interesting to know where colloquialisms came from. I've never heard these explanations before and they were fascinating. Thanks BTS. :-6

[Clodhopper]

Yes re brass monkey. Not sure about "gossip" though. My book of word origins has it as late Old English godsibb, Old norse gudsefi and meaning godparent, but gradually coming to mean one with whom one has an affinity and can talk easily. Certainly Shakespeare uses the word as a noun - your gossip was a close friend you could chat easily with.

[YZGI]

Is this where,



Fornication

Under

Consent of

King







Came from?:D

[Clodhopper]

Is this where,

Fornication

Under

Consent of

King



Came from?


...too rude for my little book, I'm afraid. Goes straight from "fuchsia" to "fucus" without stopping on the way....

I can tell you that the "c-word" was originally spelled "queynte" by Chaucer and was no ruder than "fanny". The word was almost certainly in use before then, but that's the first case I know of where it was actually written down.

[Bill Sikes]

YZGI;1175428 wrote: Is this where, Fornication Under Consent of King Came from? D


No, that's just someone's idea of a jokey story - however, I do wonder where this belief came from.

[cogob]

Talking of cannon balls, I believe it was in the American Civil War that the first sea battle between two iron or iron clad vessels took place, (the names Monitor and the Virginian come to mind) the only problem was that they fired cannon balls at each other which failed to do any damage to the hulls of the two ships. I believe they both got fed up after a while and gave up trying to sink each other and sailed away.

[Swimming maggie]

OpenMind;1174984 wrote: I think it's very interesting how much of English is based on slang and colloquial terms. New terms are being coined every year. Some make it to the dictionary while other new terms don't catch on.


I agree with you OM, and I also find in fascinating how different expressions have come about even in the same county. I was born in a place called Bradford about 10 miles from where I now live in Leeds and some expressions that I grew up saying people in Leeds look at you with blank expressions when you use them. It is surprising that just 10 miles can make such a difference. For example my partner who was born in Leeds looked at me totally blank when I said one day that I felt "pogged", which meant I felt over full, apparently in Leeds you would say I feel "stuffed". No sarcy coments please anybody:wah:

[OpenMind]

Swimming maggie;1184326 wrote: I agree with you OM, and I also find in fascinating how different expressions have come about even in the same county. I was born in a place called Bradford about 10 miles from where I now live in Leeds and some expressions that I grew up saying people in Leeds look at you with blank expressions when you use them. It is surprising that just 10 miles can make such a difference. For example my partner who was born in Leeds looked at me totally blank when I said one day that I felt "pogged", which meant I felt over full, apparently in Leeds you would say I feel "stuffed". No sarcy coments please anybody:wah:


That's an interesting point you make and I have experienced this myself having moved about a bit. It's more interesting when you consider that the UK has always been a place where people of many races have come and gone. Local variations would also show up in dialect differences between neighbouring towns and villages.

[Chookie]

Clodhopper;1175439 wrote: I can tell you that the "c-word" was originally spelled "queynte" by Chaucer and was no ruder than "fanny". The word was almost certainly in use before then, but that's the first case I know of where it was actually written down.


I was under the impression that it was first used in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie. where we find the line "c**t-bitt'n crawdon Kennedie", but I'll go with Chaucer as he was earlier.

[Clodhopper]

Chookie: Perhaps that's the first known "modern" spelling?

What is the "Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie" thing? That's old words in itself...?

[Chookie]

Flyting is a contest of insults, usually conducted in verse.

The word has been adopted by social historians from Scots usage of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, in which makaris (poets) would engage in public verbal contests of high-flying, extravagant abuse structured in the form of a poetic joust; the classic written example is The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie, which records a gloriously scurrilous contest between the poets Walter Kennedy and William Dunbar.

The term "flyt" is Scottish for “quarreling,” or “contention.”

It's been claimed that this isn't done anymore. Little do "they" know........