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In Part I of a series, LEUT Aaron Matzkows takes a look at some of
the naval expressions that have made it into everyday language.
I was taking a bit of a stand easy from
my dhobying the other day and sipping on a mug of kai while leafing through
a book.
As I read it dawned on me just how much richer the English language has
grown thanks to the Navy and its expressions, its slang and idioms, so
many of which have become such everyday terms that the normal person would
be all at sea trying to fathom out their origins.
Some are obvious, such as the unflattering “she’s a bit broad
in the beam” or “shipshape and Bristol fashion” (although
that one could do with some explanation), but many have become buried
by time since the days of warships wearing into the line of battle under
sail.
Here is just a few common words and idioms, some requiring their etymology,
others obvious. Many are still in naval as well as civilian use today.
To arrive: A word in English since the early 1200s, arrive starts from
the Latin ripa, meaning shore or river bank. A late (Vulgar) Latin verb
was arripare, meaning to land, or to come ashore. It came into English
from the old French ariver, which still meant to bring a ship to shore
or to come ashore. This meaning persisted until the 19th century. Today’s
meanings of reaching a destination or achieving success developed gradually,
first noticed in Chaucer in the late 14th century.)
To bear down upon, to be in the same boat, a bonanza: Far from its modern
connotations such as suddenly winning the jackpot at the club or a favourite
advertising catch-word, bonanza entered the language via the Americas.
A Spanish word, it simply means “good sailing weather”. Its
etymology is again Latin, from bonus, good, and malacia, calm at sea,
together making bonacia. Its journey through Spanish saw the word come
to mean prosperity or good wishes, especially for a safe journey. So when
the Spanish found mountains of Inca gold, that became a (prosperity) bonanza.
By and large: Meaning “generally speaking” in the modern world,
the by came from its old use as close-hauled, which in sailing men’o’war
from the 17th century was “to within six points of the wind”.
The large meant with the wind on the quarter, so by and large was an average
state for sailing, with the wind both before and abaft, or behind, the
beam. So today, it has come to mean, more or less, “to take the rough
with the smooth”, to take something in its broad perspective.
To cut and run: Means to make a quick getaway, but it has a deeper history.
In the days when anchor cables were made of rope, usually hempen, if a
warship at anchor was at risk of sudden enemy attack or if a sudden squall
blew up, there would not be time for the crew to man the capstan and haul
up the anchor. They would simply cut the cable with an axe and let their
ship run before the wind.
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