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Speaking of nautical terms, how did "sheets" come to mean "ropes"?
sheet rates two headwords in OED2, for which the second goes something like this:
[OE. scéata wk. masc., having the meanings of OE. scéat (see SHEET n.1), also = lower corner of a sail, ‘pes veli’; in comb. scéatlíne ‘propes’ (see Wr.-Wülcker 183/26 and 288/24) = MLG. schôtlîne, in which sense the simple word is recorded from the 14th c. For the cognate forms and their meanings see SHEET n.1; cf. SHOOT n.2]
anticipating a bit:
three sheets in the wind: very drunk.
a sheet in the wind (or wind's eye) is used occas. = half drunk.
comment: if you're numerically inclined you're prolly thinking, shouldn't half-drunk be a sheet and a half?
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted bight baporopat 11/21/05 06:42 PM Re: bight Father Steve 11/22/05 12:14 AM Re: bight Faldage 11/22/05 12:47 AM Re: bight Father Steve 11/22/05 07:09 AM Re: bight Buffalo Shrdlu 11/22/05 10:13 AM Re: bight Alex Williams 11/23/05 12:53 PM Re: bight tsuwm 11/23/05 03:34 PM Re: bight tsuwm 11/23/05 10:18 PM Re: bight Casacontento 11/23/05 09:21 PM Re: bight consuelo 11/24/05 11:05 AM Re: bark worse than bight Buffalo Shrdlu 11/24/05 11:15 AM Re: bark worse than bight maverick 11/24/05 11:33 PM
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