Muffit
April 30th, 2004, 09:20 PM
Just got done watching what was truly a wonderful treat for me. My other love besides BSG is sailing history, particularly the remarkably beautiful lines of naval vessels throughout the ages. A history channel on TV spent all day showing nearly the whole drama of naval evolution, and I was so thrilled I abandoned my Dell the whole day!
What was the most fun was a brief treatment of how several of our very common colloquial expressions csme into being. They were so funny and revealing I thought I would share them with you all.
1) In the 1700's the British naval vessels were like floating bivouacs, holding enough food for good eating for 800+ men for up to 6 months. As a matter of naval standard, the largest meal was served at midday, on ample /square/ wooden plates, one to each sailor. This came to be called, "One square meal a day"... :D
2) At about the same time, it was decided that far too many sailors were going AWOL whenever they put into home port and were given leave. So for most of those years, no sailors were allowed to leave the ship, even when in port. Needless to say, that did not go over well with their wives. So, the British Navy magnanimously allowed the wives to share wedded bliss with their men right on the ships -- despite incredible overcrowding and zero privacy. The inevitable result was... births, right on the ship. One curious tradition was to have the woman placed between two cannon and, if she were having a difficult time with the birth, they would fire both of those cannon to help give her a little "push". The infant born in this way was called, logically, "A son of a gun"... :D
3) This last one wasn't mentioned, but knowing a bit of nautical history and general etymology myself, I imagine it is quite probable. A very rare word was used to describe the rear of a cannon, particularly in regards to how it was loaded -- muzzle loading (front), and breech loading (rear). Breech seems to have been rarely used elsewhere. Except -- once again, for births. It takes little guesswork to imagine that sailors would have called a rearward birth, "A breech baby".
LOL! Fun what you can learn without a computer these days!!! :laugh:
:muffit:
What was the most fun was a brief treatment of how several of our very common colloquial expressions csme into being. They were so funny and revealing I thought I would share them with you all.
1) In the 1700's the British naval vessels were like floating bivouacs, holding enough food for good eating for 800+ men for up to 6 months. As a matter of naval standard, the largest meal was served at midday, on ample /square/ wooden plates, one to each sailor. This came to be called, "One square meal a day"... :D
2) At about the same time, it was decided that far too many sailors were going AWOL whenever they put into home port and were given leave. So for most of those years, no sailors were allowed to leave the ship, even when in port. Needless to say, that did not go over well with their wives. So, the British Navy magnanimously allowed the wives to share wedded bliss with their men right on the ships -- despite incredible overcrowding and zero privacy. The inevitable result was... births, right on the ship. One curious tradition was to have the woman placed between two cannon and, if she were having a difficult time with the birth, they would fire both of those cannon to help give her a little "push". The infant born in this way was called, logically, "A son of a gun"... :D
3) This last one wasn't mentioned, but knowing a bit of nautical history and general etymology myself, I imagine it is quite probable. A very rare word was used to describe the rear of a cannon, particularly in regards to how it was loaded -- muzzle loading (front), and breech loading (rear). Breech seems to have been rarely used elsewhere. Except -- once again, for births. It takes little guesswork to imagine that sailors would have called a rearward birth, "A breech baby".
LOL! Fun what you can learn without a computer these days!!! :laugh:
:muffit: