Yacht

As opposed to a normal vessel under sail, a Dutch-named Jaghtschip was a fast, lighter, hunting/pirate ship—jagen being the Dutch verb to hunt. This is from where we get our word, Yacht.

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Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

In the Age of Sail, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons which fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply of them near the cannon. And the best method to stop them rolling about the deck was to stack the balls as a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be arranged in aismall area right next to the cannon.

There was only one problem—how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a ‘monkey’ with sixteen round indentations. However, if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. So the remedy was to make the ‘monkey’ out of brass.

Then another problem arose—when in very cold weather with the temperature dropping too far, because brass contracts faster than iron, the iron cannon balls would pop off the ‘monkey’.

Hence, meaning it was very cold weather, we got the phrase :

“Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" or sometimes in the shorter form “Brass monkeys!"

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Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan and Derelict

Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo, or something fallen off of a ship. Its origins are Anglo-Norman floteson from the verb floter—to float.

Jetsam is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposefully cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore. The word comes from the Anglo-Norman getteson, in turn from the Old French getaison and earlier from Latin jactatio—to cast, or jactare—to throw.

Lagan (also called Ligan) is cargo that is lying on the bottom of the ocean, sometimes marked by a buoy, which can be salvaged or reclaimed. It comes from Old French and possibly the Old Norse lagn—to lie.

Derelict is cargo or a ship that is also on the bottom of the ocean, but which is abandoned and no one has any hope of reclaiming. Its origins are Latin derelictus—left, or derelinquere—forsake wholly, abandon.

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Hip! Hip! Hoorah!

Next time you are cheering at a birthday party, here’s something to think about :

Hip is a notarikon*, composed of the initials of Hierosolyma est perdita. And when the German knights headed a Jew-hunt (Horrifying!!) in the Middle Ages, they yelled “Hip! Hip!” as a way of saying “Jerusalem is destroyed!".

The “Hoorah" part was derived from the old Slavonic hu-raj meaning “to Paradise”.

Hence “Hip! Hip! Hoorah”—and now “Hip! Hip! Hooray”—would translate as “Jerusalem is lost to the infidel … we are on the road to Paradise.”

* notarikon (Latin, notarius, a shorthand writer) is ‘a cabalistic word denoting the old Jewish art of using each letter in a word to form another word, or using the initials of the words in a sentence to form another word’.

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The Barbershop Pole

In the Middle Ages the early barbers were also the early surgeons, both having a collection of scissors, knives and other sharp, gouging instruments.

After operations, the surgeons bound the bleeding wounds in bandages, which often seeped blood between the binds, looking much like a barbershop pole.

Hence, the sign for the barber / surgeon was this Barbershop Pole, which continues to be seen outside some barbershops today.

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Sabotage

In the early Industrial Revolution in France many textile mill workers were disgruntled that their jobs were being replaced by machinery.

Taking their wooden clogs—sabots—they threw them into the machinery causing malicious destruction of their employer’s property. Hence Sabotage.

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Sarcophagus

A mixture of Greek and Latin meaning flesh-eating.

There was a kind of stone known among the Greeks to have the properties of eating any flesh deposited on it. Hence, early coffins were made of this stone, and subsequently devoured the dead within.

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