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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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IP wrote : "Hello, sailor," often works for...well it often works!!  ---------------------------------------------------------- Really gave my son (Major, Army Reserves) a "start" when I walked up to him, unnoticed, at a restaurant lounge and standing slightly behind him, whispered in my sexiest voice, "Hi, Soldier, buy a Lady a drink?" He bought me the drink AND paid my dinner check, too! So it apears it will work. Anyone done any "research" on this concerning those serving in any other nation's Armed Forces? {cackling madly} wow Anyplace else use "start" to mean a surprise, overlaid with a momentary shock while a thousand reasons/responses run through your mind?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Start--as in a short hand of startled-- sure I know that-- and use start the same way.
I used to work for a consulting company, with had a major Dutch bank as an account. My son worked for an other computer service company, and had the same Dutch bank as a client.
One day, one of the Exec. VP at the bank, hosted a party, and invited the consultants.. I found my self sitting at the bar, and looked about-- 20 feet away in a booth, was my son. I walked over, gave him a kiss, and introduced my self to the others in the booth-- ("Hi I'm Benjamin's mom" )-- none believed me, and my son gave me a pained look-- Benjamin bought me a drink, and i returned to sitting with my own work mates-- who thought it hillarious that we were both at the same party.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
A phrase with which our military friends who served in Viet Nam (and, possibly, Korea) should be familiar is now used by a certain bridge partner and myself. When partner or I put down an especially fortunate dummy hand (given the bidding and the declarer's own hand), we are known to tell the other, "Love you long time." 
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
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Bringing together the "start" discussion and nautical terms - in the age of sail, the bosun and his mates would use rattan canes or knotted ropes to "start" hands that were slow to move when orders were given - giving them a good whack to get them going.
Ah, the good old days of management.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm: can you tell us which one of these opinions is correct?
"One word that is said to have arisen from travelling by sea is `posh'. I read in a book, on British rule in India, that it is an abbreviation for `portside outward starboard homeword' to signify the best rooms in the ship to avoid the heat while travelling from Europe to Asia and back. However, the M-W Online Dictionary says that the etymology is unknown, and the word appeared in 1918."
This is from Mike & Melanie, at the Burnside site:
"Believe it or not, we have been waiting years for someone to ask this question as pal is one of the very few English words which derives from Romany (posh is another)."
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm: can you tell us which one of these opinions is correct?He did. The thread can be read at: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=1717. Q&A, thread title Often, posted June 2, 00. ======================================================== tsuwm (enthusiast) Wed Jun 14 23:29:57 2000 Re: posh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- elegant, fashionable, fancy (slangy) there is an interesting story behind the origin of posh-- http://quinion.com/words/qa/qa-pos1.htm=========================================================== Well-I could not get this link to work, but this one should: http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-pos1.htm==================================================Re: sailors called taffs--this is reminding me of my barrow-boy guess, but could it be because of the association with salt-water taffy?
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
First some terms:
Sea-legs: the wobbly state of one's legs after disembarking from time spent on the water (in boat or ship). Which, of course, leads to "just getting his sea-legs" referring to a virgin voyage or a novice sailor. And, then, to
"come on and get your sea-legs," an idiom akin to "breaking the ice" or "taking the plunge"... encouraging someone to do something for the first time.
Tack: to change the direction of a sailing ship by turning the bow to the wind and shifting the sails; the direction of a ship in relation to the trim of its sails. Also the rope that holds in place the lower corner of a course on a sailing ship; and the corner of the sail to which a tack is fastened. (And a myriad of other variations of meaning for nautical action and hardware (on a sailing ship)..Hence the word "tacky"?
Nautical slang: My father served in the Navy in the South Pacific in WWII (Navy Corspman), and I've heard him, countless times, use the terms "swab," "swabs," or "swabbies" in referring to sailors (the low-ranking midshipmen, I presume). After "swabbing the deck"...mopping the deck.
And, since the term at the end of this sentence hasn't appeared, it proves you're all just a bunch of LANDLUBBERS!
Well, that's all I have to add to the list at this point, except for "list"...as in "listing," taking on water in the process of sinking.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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yeah, it's one of those urban legend sort of stories that just won't go away, because it makes such a good story. actually®, it appeared quite a bit before 1918, as you will see from the OED citations. I think that the notion that it may have just evolved from earlier heteronyms has much merit.
Of obscure origin, but cf. posh n.2 The suggestion that this word is derived from the initials of ‘port outward, starboard home’, referring to the more expensive side for accommodation on ships formerly travelling between England and India, is often put forward but lacks foundation. The main objections to this derivation are listed by G. Chowdharay-Best in Mariner's Mirror (1971) Jan. 91–2. [having, I assume, primarily to do with the dates]
[1903 Wodehouse Tales of St. Austin's 37 That waistcoat+being quite the most push thing of the sort in Cambridge.] 1918 Punch 25 Sept. 204 Oh, yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there. 1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves vii. 72 Practically every posh family in the country has called him in at one time or another.
posh.n.2 - [App. thieves' slang (cf. Romany posh half).]
1. slang. Money; spec. a halfpenny; a coin of small value.
2. slang. A dandy. Perh. a different word.
1890 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 146/2 Posh,+a dandy. [1892 G. & W. Grossmith Diary of Nobody 197 Frank+said+he had a friend waiting outside for him, named Murray Posh, adding he was quite a swell.]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hyla wrote: >In the age of sail, at least in Europe, it was generally considered bad luck to have a woman on board ship.<
That's why the two notorious woman pirates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny, had to live disguised as men! Only their captain, Captain Calico Jack Rackham (and in Mary Read's case her pirate husband) knew the truth. (Anne was the Captain's mistress). And it was Anne Bonney who taunted Captain Jack at his hangin' with: "If you'd've come up and fought like a MAN, you wouldn't have to be hanged like a DOG!" Nice ladies.
Course, Grace O'Malley, the feared and fierce Irish pirate of the 16th century, captained her own ship...so she could dress any way she damn well wanted!
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 86 |
To WOW/Rodward (drifting leewardly?) In reply to:
Taff as nautical nickname for UK sailors
Taff or Taffy is a general nickname for Welshman, after the River Taff
Let's start w/ some additional info (facts?) and then segue quickly to some speculative faux- folk etymology seeking to link Ancient St. David, (7th Cent) the patron saint of Wales, to some latter day Welsh Mariners. First, some "facts" from my paper (no "goo-gooing around) copy of The Facts On File Dictionary Of First Names, quoting randomly from the entry "David"( which, not co-incidentally, happens to be my own "first" name.)
"Saint David (7th c.) became the patron saint of Wales and caused the name to be intensively used there at all times thereafter. ....Pet forms include Welsh Taffy, Dai, Davy". For "Taffy", cf. "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief," etc.(and maybe a sailor as well?) And now for our faux-etymology. It seems a logical line from >St David > ST Davy >St Davy's Day> (and note, e.g. S's humourous treatment of Welsh accents w/ Fluellen in HenV -"P"s for "B"s and other mistaken initial consonants >Sint Davvy's Day and then an elided "D' replaced by the final "t" of Saint to arrive at "St Tavvy" and finally, but easily, logically, "Taffy". Query, which came first, "River Taff" or "Taffy" from the ancient, good St David. Who knows or cares, but that's why we have these discussions - a few facts twisted about w/ a bit of speculation seeking to answer some unanswerable Qs. We personify our breeds of warriors. ("Johnny" marching home from WWI and "GI Joe" in a foxhole in WWII. Perhaps a large number of Welsh sailors became, generically, "Taffies" during those centuries when (as even now?) Brittania ruled the waves. Now,( carefully replacing my paper volume to its familiar place) I shall leave it to the on-line researchers to verify or discredit my daffy etymology. ..... This is an "Edited Post" after-thought (or, as I call it, a Post-Scribble) I just remembered (about five minutes after posting the foregoing) that Shakespeare, in Hen V, has Fluellen say, somewhere, "f"alorous" meaning "v"alorous" "f" substituted for "v" as in "Davvy" becoming "Daffy" and the "t" of Saint sliding over the "D' of Davvy to become "Taffy". I don't know about you, but I have just convinced myself. .......
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