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sunbuff10
69 / male
Tidewater area, Virginia, US
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Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
Have you heard someone say "cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey". Well what the hell is a brass monkey?
Seems that in the early sailing days something was needed to keep the cannon balls from rolling around the deck of the ship. A square shaped plate with indentions for the cannon balls was casted from brass. The cannon balls where then stacked on this plate forming a pyramid. The plate was called a brass monkey. Brass will shrink when exposed to severe cold. This shrinkage caused the cannon balls to become dislodged from the brass monkey and roll around the deck of the ship, hence the saying we here today.
I had no idea about this till I read it one day. What can you add? 
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| August 7, 2004, 20:15 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
We had another post not to long ago about sailors, something about amunition and "the whole nine yards". Ive have heard the monkeys brass ball saying many years ago, never thought much about it, those sailors have their hands in everything dont they?
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| August 7, 2004, 21:08 |
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hardrock1955
69 / male
McGaheysville, Virginia, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
iof I was a brass monkey, my balls would fall off tonight. record cold tonight,for this time of year 
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| August 7, 2004, 21:20 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
I've read where the term "hooker" dates back to General Hooker of the civil war. He was a womanizing ladies man, and always had a posse of prostitutes near by, the soldiers began referring to the girls as Hookers.
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| August 8, 2004, 00:29 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
What is the origin of "brass monkey"? "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"?
(Etymology)
The word "monkey" is of uncertain origin; its first known usage was in 1498 when it was used in the literary work Reynard the Fox as the name of the son of Martin the Ape. "Monkey" has numerous nautical meanings, such as a small coastal trading vessel, single masted with a square sail of the 16th and 17th centuries; a small wooden cask in which grog was carried after issue from a grog-tub to the seamen's messes in the Royal Navy; a type of marine steam reciprocating engine where two engines were used together in tandem on the same propeller shaft; and a sailor whose job involved climbing and moving swiftly (usage dating to 1858). A "monkey boat" was a narrow vessel used on canals (usage dating to 1858); a "monkey gaff" is a small gaff on large merchant vessels; a "monkey jacket" is a close fitting jacket worn by sailors; "monkey spars" are small masts and yards on vessels used for the "instruction and exercise of boys;" and a "monkey pump" is a straw used to suck the liquid from a small hole in a cask; a "monkey block" was used in the rigging of sailing ships; "monkey island" is a ship's upper bridge; "monkey drill" was calisthenics by naval personnel (usage dating to 1895); and "monkey march" is close order march by US Marine Corps personnel (usage dating to 1952). [Sources: Cassidy, Frederick G. and Joan Houston Hall eds. Dictionary of American Regional English. vol.3 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996): 642; Wilfred Granville. A Dictionary of Sailors' Slang (London: Andre Deutch, 1962): 77; Peter Kemp ed. Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea. (New York: Oxford University; Press, 1976): 556; The Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933; J.E. Lighter ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 580.; and Eric Partridge A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. 8th ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company): 917.]
...
It has often been claimed that the "brass monkey" was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the "monkey." This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. These shot racks or garlands are discussed in: Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981): 64. A top view of shot garlands on the upper deck of a ship-of-the-line is depicted in The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1991): 17.
(extract from the U. S. Naval History FAQ)
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq107.htm
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| August 8, 2004, 05:20 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
for more incredibly long and tortuous word and pharase descriptions:
http://www.yaelf.com/questions.shtml
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| August 8, 2004, 05:23 |
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sunbuff10
69 / male
Tidewater area, Virginia, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
Kb, very interesting, You are a wealth of information! 
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| August 8, 2004, 07:00 |
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bawbie
63 / female
mesa, Arizona, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
"happy as a dead pig in the sunshine" always kinda puzzled me. but i guess that's a southern expression.
how bout "happy as a clam?"
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| August 9, 2004, 07:09 |
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Re: Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
QUOTE (bawbie @ August 9, 2004, 07:09) "happy as a dead pig in the sunshine" always kinda puzzled me. but i guess that's a southern expression.
how bout "happy as a clam?"
Heard of 'happy as a pig in mud' but not 'dead in sunshine' lol
Not sure, but I think my mom made this one up. She's the only one I ever heard say it. When I would tell her I wanted something she'd say, "people in hell want ice water."
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| August 9, 2004, 07:17 |
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bawbie
63 / female
mesa, Arizona, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
nope. my dad says that all the time. someone can be "as ugly as homemade soap" or "as useless as tits on a boar pig"
he has a saying for every occasion.
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| August 9, 2004, 14:59 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
How about pee like a russian race horse? Where did that come from?
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| August 12, 2004, 19:08 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
Horses urinate in large volume and with force. The expression I have heard is "pee like a pack mule." Maybe a race horse would rattle the leaves even more and "Russian" was added for alliteration.
How about "raining like cats and dogs."
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| August 12, 2004, 21:50 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
Raining cats and dogs is a term we use a lot around here during spring. It goes right along with, "it's comin' up a turd floater out thar."
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| August 12, 2004, 22:49 |
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hardrock1955
69 / male
McGaheysville, Virginia, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
it rained cats and dogs here all day, but not quite a turd floater.
when i was a teen , a popular saying was , " thats as ugly as home made shit"
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| August 12, 2004, 23:12 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
As apposed to what? The stuff in the can? Box?
lmao!
 
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| August 13, 2004, 06:20 |
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sunbuff10
69 / male
Tidewater area, Virginia, US
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Re: Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
QUOTE (hardrock1955 @ August 12, 2004, 23:12)it rained cats and dogs here all day, but not quite a turd floater.
when i was a teen , a popular saying was , " thats as ugly as home made shit"
Looks like it might end up a turd-floater Rock! Lot of rain on the way!! 
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| August 13, 2004, 07:55 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
that one gets used around here allot, minus the word rock..! could eat a pumkin throgh a hog wire fence means someone has a bit of an overbite
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| August 13, 2004, 08:12 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
another variation on one that has been posted before by hothands (where is he?) raining harder than a doulble cunted cow pissing on a flat rock...
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| August 13, 2004, 08:15 |
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Re: Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
QUOTE (Chazzy @ August 13, 2004, 08:12)that one gets used around here allot, minus the word rock..! could eat a pumkin throgh a hog wire fence means someone has a bit of an overbite
Or:
Could eat corn on the cob through a chain link fence
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| August 13, 2004, 08:42 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
the blind hog found an acorn
means "dumb luck"
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| August 13, 2004, 08:50 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
QUOTE (Chazzy @ August 13, 2004, 08:50)the blind hog found an acorn
means "dumb luck"
Damn it's colder then a witches tit in a brass bra!
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| August 13, 2004, 09:56 |
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bawbie
63 / female
mesa, Arizona, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
my mom used to tell me to go out in the street and play with a plastic bag.
you know that shiverey feeling goes down your back for no reason? that's somebody walking on your grave.
if you use the wrong name, it means that person is thinking about you.
if you forget what you where going to say "it musta been a lie"
what does it mean if a woman has a butt like a government mule?
and what about this brick shithouse?
ever have somebody threaten to slap you naked and hide your clothes? yet?
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| August 13, 2004, 17:32 |
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
sorry, I am just bumping another post to the second page where I hope it dies.
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| August 13, 2004, 20:20 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
British husband was quite confused hearing someone say, "never stick anything larger than your elbow in your ear"
then there's "full as a tick"
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| August 15, 2004, 03:28 |
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bawbie
63 / female
mesa, Arizona, US
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Re: Ever wondered where that strange saying comes from?
beam me up, scotty
i'm sorry
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| August 17, 2004, 16:23 |
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