Old sayings and their origins

I'll start this off with one I'm sure you've all heard:
"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

The story I heard about the origin of this (I'm not sure it's true, but it makes a good story) is that it is an old sailing expression. You've all seen the movies about the old sailing ships with the cannons on deck with a neat stack of iron cannonballs beside each one. Ever wonder what kept the stack from collapsing as the ship pitched and yawed? Supposedly they had a plate at the bottom of the stack with cup-like depressions for each of the cannonballs on the bottom layer. The balls on the upper layers fit down between the ones on the next lower layer, so for example, the bottom layer was 4x4, then 3x3, 2x2, etc. Now the cannonballs were iron but they got shot frequently enough (war or practice) to not get too rusty, but the plates, which were called monkeys, were made of brass because they stayed on the ship for many years. Normally, this worked well, but it could be a problem in really cold weather, because the dimensions of the brass changed more with temperature than did the iron balls. In really cold weather, the brass monkeys shrank so much from the cold that the depressions became smaller and forced the bottom layer of cannonballs up. The bottom balls, not being held firmly enough had a tendency to roll free, causing the stack to collapse, so the sailors said that it is "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". And all this time, you thought it was about simian gonads.

Anyone have some similar stories?

It seems that about half the sayings are based on nautical expressions, you son of a gun, you.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

It seems that about half the sayings are based on nautical expressions, you son of a gun, you.

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"Three sheets to the wind" - three sheets (lines, or ropes used to trim sails) flying loose, therefore the ship out of control.

This "jibes with" that. Jibe being a sailing maneuver executed with the wind coming from the rear, so "going in the same direction as".

The whole nine yards - If you look at a typical square-rigger you will see that there are three masts with three yards on each mast. So if you had all of the square sails a flying on board you would have the whole nine yards in operation. ie. everything. And it doesn't have anything to do with Bruce Willis.

wild said:

The whole nine yards - If you look at a typical square-rigger you will see that there are three masts with three yards on each mast. So if you had all of the square sails a flying on board you would have the whole nine yards in operation. ie. everything. And it doesn't have anything to do with Bruce Willis.

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I thought a traditinal kilt was also supposed to be nine yards of fabric. Seems to be a LOT of heavy wool, but that's what I've been told.

So, if you bought a really quality kilt, you were getting the whole nine yards.

Cash on the barrel head.

A barrel head is the top flat side of a barrel. Picture a sea port and a ship is delivering barrels of salt or tar or some other item. The seller and the buyer stand facing each other with a barrel between them and strike a deal. The cash is put on the barrel, the seller takes the cash and the buyer takes the barrel after he paid for it "on the barrel head".

I read a book with these sayings and one of them was, "The Devil to Pay". They claimed that it meant patching a hull with pitch. Supposedly, if you were not good, the captain made you stay at the ship when it was in port and you had to repair the ship instead of going ashore to have a good time.

Frankly, I dispute the claim. I believe it obviously meant actually paying the devil, because we all know the old story of making a deal with the devil and he takes more in payment than expected. Plus, if I'm a captain just getting back to port from a long journey, the last thing I want to do is to make any of the crew mad by keeping them on the boat. I think that would be akin to suicide.

"crab shoe"

origin- a few years ago, my wife

She misheard me when I said "crap shoot" and asked me what a crab shoe was. It has stuck since.

dataz722 said:

"crab shoe"

origin- a few years ago, my wife

She misheard me when I said "crap shoot" and asked me what a crab shoe was. It has stuck since.

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Awwe. Idn't that cuuuuute!

DeafSmith said:

I'll start this off with one I'm sure you've all heard:
"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

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Snopes does not like your fanciful explanation. (I do, though, and I might just repeat it!)

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp

passedpawn said:

Snopes does not like your fanciful explanation. (I do, though, and I might just repeat it!)

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp

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and it sounded so logical... (sigh)

I've heard a ton of aswers to "the whole nine yards", another is that it takes 9 yards of fabric to make a traditional 3 peice suit.

Not big enough to swing a cat -- apparently refers to the swinging of the cat o nine tails below decks on a sailing ship.

The sun being over the yardarm - had to do with sailors getting their daily grog ration and rumor has it also related to being drunk enough to go up to the crows nest after said ration.

The Full Monty is a complete 3 piece suit from the tailors (Montgomery) Burton's. After WWII, demobbed soldiers got an allowance for clothing. Those that bought a full suit were getting The Full Monty.

steinsato said:

I've heard a ton of aswers to "the whole nine yards", another is that it takes 9 yards of fabric to make a traditional 3 peice suit.

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Weird. I've heard the suit reference as an explanation of the phrase "dressed to the nines".

"hair of the dog (that bit you)"

We use it now for referring to curing a hangover by drinking some of whatever you drank last night.

The phrase comes from medieval times, when it was believed that you could cure an infected wound from a dog bite by applying some of the hair of the dog that had bitten you.

"The whole lock, stock and barrel" are the three pieces required to build a firearm back in the day. So if you wanted a complete gun instead of the pieces that is how you ordered it.

Going off half cocked comes from the fact that an old flintlock gun had two positions full cock and half cock, half cocked was when the gun was safe and wouldn't fire, however after constant use the mechanism would wear and could slip causing the hammer to drop and result in the gun going off unintentionally.
We now use this phrase to refer to acting hastily or unexpectedly without much thought.

The dog's bollocks (English expression meaning that something is very good)

If a dog will spend all day licking his balls....Well, they gotta be something special!

If I could spend all day licking my own bollocks I would. So would you. Just admit it.

bad coffee said:

If I could spend all day licking my own bollocks I would. So would you. Just admit it.

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If I could spend all day licking my own bullocks, why would I need to ever leave the house?


The terms "Pass the Buck" and "The Buck Stops Here" and the word buck itself all originate from playing Poker.

while playing poker, the deal changes player every hand. Nowadays most poker houses have a constant dealer, but back in the day the players dealt. In order to help curb cheating, the dealer changed every hand and moved around the table. Many times a knife was used as a marker in front of the dealer to signify who was dealing. Many knifes were made from a buck deers horn, so it bacame known as a buck, and as it moved around the table you were passing the buck, or shifting the responsibility to the next player.

The Buck Stops Here is a play on this same poker reference. As play moved around the table, it ulitmatley stopped at the dealer location. President Truman was known to be a poker player and kept a sign on his desk with this saying written on it.

A Dealer button is still used to this day so the deal does still rotate but only notionally, it's so that people know where the small and big blind are to come from.

wild said:

The whole nine yards - If you look at a typical square-rigger you will see that there are three masts with three yards on each mast. So if you had all of the square sails a flying on board you would have the whole nine yards in operation. ie. everything. And it doesn't have anything to do with Bruce Willis.

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My understanding of this was that a machinegun belt is nine yards long.
If the enemy was attacking the gunners were said to have fired "The whole nine yards"

EoinMag said:

A Dealer button is still used to this day so the deal does still rotate but only notionally, it's so that people know where the small and big blind are to come from.

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that is true, and so the buck is still being passed today!

It is also believed that is the reason a dollar is known as a buck. It evolved from the original deer antler horn knife, to the use of a silver dollar. It was still being called the buck, hence the use of the term for a dollar.

The dealer button, or buck, is no longer a silver dollar but maintains its basic shape. Usually its a flat round disk that signifies who the dealer is.

The whole nine yards originates in Mexico....No person in Mexico thought it was possible to mow more than 8 lawns in one day because nobody had good lawns due to the climate, so 8 lawns was the maximum.....One day, Manuel Di Lawnmower made it across the border into Arizona and found 8 yards that badly needed mowing. He got the job done in record time. He then saw the record breaking 9th yard at the back of John McCain's house. He managed to mow that yard while John was beating him with a stick to try and make him stop, but Manuel persevered and won through and completed the whole nine yards.

To this day, Manuel is remembered in Mexico when they parade his corpse though the streets with money pinned to his rotting flesh.

Edit: it's on the internet now, so it's true.

This thread actually got me to search one I have been wondering about:

"All Hopped Up"...sounds like it would have something to do with beer eh?

Apparently "hopped" comes from the chinese pronunciation of opium and "all hopped up" was a term originally used to describe someone high on opium.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Edit: it's on the internet now, so it's true.

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Sorry.. I won't believe this unless you cut-n-paste it into Wikipedia.

There are a lot of sayings, or slang, out ther that are nothing more than a minced oath, or just changing what would be considered a swear word or a blasphemy into somthing else. Using freaking, frickin, frackin, fraggin, fargin, or farkin in place of.... well you know.

Or using terms like Judas Priest or By Joe. Which I never really understood, if you believe god doesn't want you to us his name in vain do you think he is fooled by such stupidity?

One of my favorites, because my cousin always said it wrong, is Jiminy Christmas.

Ceedubya said:

that is true, and so the buck is still being passed today!

It is also believed that is the reason a dollar is known as a buck. It evolved from the original deer antler horn knife, to the use of a silver dollar. It was still being called the buck, hence the use of the term for a dollar.

The dealer button, or buck, is no longer a silver dollar but maintains its basic shape. Usually its a flat round disk that signifies who the dealer is.

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Here in PA the story on the word buck for a dollar is not the same. Way back when, timber was king in PA and so was hunting deer. Deer hides were sold/traded and valued at $1.00. A doe or yearling had a smaller hide sooooo the terms were often changed to 5 bucks or what ever bucks since the hides on bucks were larger.

Ceedubya said:

Or using terms like Judas Priest or By Joe. .

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"By Joe" - By Jove, if that isn't a new one for me!

"Sleep tight"

comes from the days when people slept on rope beds, and you had to tighten them periodically.
Also there are more sayings that come from firearms. "lock, stock, and barrel" has already been mentioned. "going off half-cocked" is another, as is "flash in the pan"

DeafSmith said:

"By Joe" - By Jove, if that isn't a new one for me!

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haha! busted me there, I think thats another one that has been so corrupted over time.

But thanks for "Throwing me Under the Bus!"

not sure where that one comes from.