{"id":1347,"date":"2013-07-01T21:43:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T01:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2013-07-02T08:02:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T12:02:27","slug":"fun-with-nautical-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/07\/01\/fun-with-nautical-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun with Nautical Phrases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our previous post about marine myths and superstitions<\/a> got a lot of response, leading us to write this one on the origin of nautical phrases. We talked about \u201cknock on wood\u201d and \u201cship shape\u201d already. Here are some other commonly used expressions that came from sailors and seafaring.<\/p>\n

Above board \u2013 Pirates were known to hide much of their crew below deck. Ships that displayed their crew openly were thought to be honest and known as \u201cabove board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chew the fat \u2013 Before refrigeration, cured meats were tough but durable and it took a lot of chewing for sailors to make them edible.<\/p>\n

Cut and run \u2013 A ship needing to make a hasty departure might cut its anchor rope and run before the wind.<\/p>\n

Down the hatch \u2013 This drinking expression has its origins in sea freight, where cargo is lowered into the hold.<\/p>\n

Hand over fist \u2013 It comes from the act of hauling a rope or line, which all sailors were expected to do quickly and continuously.<\/p>\n

Miss the mark \u2013 If a sailboat misses a buoy or \u201crounding mark\u201d in a regatta, it must complete a 360-degree circle as a penalty before continuing. <\/p>\n

Over a barrel \u2013 A common method of punishment on a ship was flogging, which was often done with the unfortunate sailor tied over the barrel of a deck cannon.<\/p>\n

Shake a leg \u2013 This was the order given to sailors to put a foot from their hammocks and \u201crise and shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Show his true colors \u2013 Early warships often carried flags from many nations in order to deceive enemies. However, honor called for them to hoist their true flags before firing a shot.<\/p>\n

Three square meals \u2013 English seafarers were served their meals on a square wood platter so they wouldn\u2019t break any dishes in foul weather. (Thanks to David C. for submitting this one!)<\/p>\n

Toe the line \u2013 When a crew was ordered to line up at attention, the sailors knew to stand with their toes touching a particular seam to ensure neat alignment of each row.<\/p>\n

There are lots of other nautical phrases out there, many needing no explanation, like \u201cany port in a storm,\u201d \u201cclose quarters\u201d and \u201cknow the ropes.\u201d What are some of the nautical expressions that you find yourself using in your daily life, or what are some others that you\u2019ve heard?<\/p>\n

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\n\"Featured<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our previous post about marine myths and superstitions got a lot of response, leading us to write this one on the origin of nautical phrases. We talked about \u201cknock on wood\u201d and \u201cship shape\u201d already. Here are some other commonly used expressions that came from sailors and seafaring. Above board \u2013 Pirates were known to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[10,312,330,323],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-on-the-water","tag-boat-insurance","tag-boats-for-sale","tag-fun-nautical-terms","tag-lake-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1367,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}