Trivia...Word and Phrase Origins

[Dr. Rumack]

"Tits up"

I do not remember the airplane but it had a gyro, like many others, with two indentations on the bottom of the horizon line. If inverted (ie a/c on its back) they looked like a rack thus coining a machine not working or dead as being 'tits up'.

 

[Rik717pilot]

Which leads us to many other nautical themes:

Three sheets to the wind; is when after setting all nine yards, someone doesn't tie off the "sheets" or they go all a hughey and you are rapidly sailing towards the shoals... without any control on the sails or other propulsion means; oopps! Run the bugger aground.

Son of a gun; Many young boys from the ghettos of London were obscounded to the navy for the purpose of being powder monkeys and/or ships boys. Many at the tender age of 6 or so. When they were assigned to a "gun", they became the "son of a gun". Life expectancy was short.

Many more terms from nautica to come. We in aviation use a lot of nautical terms, expressions and calculations due to the trigonometrical functions of longitude and latitude that are constant between the the sea faring and aviating worlds.

 

[Huck]

Early transponders were called "parrots" - hence "squawk your parrot" became just squawking....

 

[Gorilla]

Since we are venturing into Nautica, Rik, have you heard this one?

"It's cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey."

What I've heard - There were racks made of brass that were called "monkeys" on a warship, and these racks had hollowed areas to hold round shot for the guns. In normal use, they worked fine, but in extreme cold, the brass contracted at a different rate than the iron shot, and the balls would be released to roll about.

"scuttlebutt" is the barrel of water available for deck hands to sip from during work, and of course gossip over.

 

[Dizel8]

"Buy the farm".

Supposedly the story is: With engines less than reliable, the early barnstormers often ended up landing in farming fields and were expected to
pay for damaged crops, hence one bought part of the farm. So, if you crashed and died, you bought the whole farm or just shortened to "the farm".

"The field is socked in": Apparently, in the early days of aviation, the french aviateurs would, in inclement weather such as a light mist, take down the cloth windsock and bring it indoors, hence the term "sock in", now known as "socked in".

 

[wings421]

SH!T

From what I've heard, in the early days of the colonies, they used to ship cow manure from Europe to use as fertilizer in the lowest part of the ship (for smell suppression). As they sailed west to the new world someone would go to the lower deck to retrieve something in the hold and of course they would need to take a lantern to see in the dark. All of the gas from the manure would have built up by then and when the flame and the gas came in contact an explosion would occur.

So, after a few times of this happening, they learned that the manure needed to be well ventilated. Placarded on the side of each container of manure had the words

Ship
High
In
Transit

Take it for what its worth, probably just a joke, but it sounded good to me.

 

[flyboyike]

FU CK

In medieval England you needed the King's permission for dang near everything, including copulation. The equivalent of the "Do Not Disturb" sign back then actually read "Fornication Under Consent of the King". No, this is not a joke.

 

[mullet]

Mind your P's & Q's.
Pints & Quarts...in other words, don't get snockered.

 

[Whine Lover]

The popular phrase: "Don't hit that Monkey in the Head" is derived from people who, upon seeing monkeys being hit in the head, would exclaim..."Hey, don't hit that Monkey in the head!"

"No Soap....Radio".


YKW

 

[JP4user]

FU CK

In medieval England you needed the King's permission for dang near everything, including copulation. The equivalent of the "Do Not Disturb" sign back then actually read "Fornication Under Consent of the King". No, this is not a joke.

Here is another explanation:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/f-word.html

WARNING CRUDE CONTENT!!!!

 

[Dangerkitty]

FU CK

In medieval England you needed the King's permission for dang near everything, including copulation. The equivalent of the "Do Not Disturb" sign back then actually read "Fornication Under Consent of the King". No, this is not a joke.

Sorry but that IS a joke and it is not true.

No one really knows where that word comes from, but the most credible evidence comes from the German word ficken which means to rub or strike.

I bet you think Mr. Rogers was a decorated war veteran with an arm covered in tatoo's. Thats why he wore sweaters all the time.

 

[FedEx1]

I was in Powell's Books in PDX and found The Dictionary of Idioms. Great bathroom reading. Has origins and meanings of every saying you can think of.

 

[flyboyike]

I bet you think Mr. Rogers was a decorated war veteran with an arm covered in tatoo's. Thats why he wore sweaters all the time.

Who the FU CK is Mr Rogers?

 

[Rik717pilot]

Gorilla; Absolutely correct about the cannon ball "monkey". Also the scuttlebutt is the correct term for the water cask on deck for the hands, which carries over to the water cooler of the modern day office, or its evolved equivalent.

 

[freightdogfred]

The Crapper

American doughboys, passing thru England on their way to the front during WW1 noticed the inscription "T.Crapper-Chelsea" on the porcelain tanks on trains. These tanks were part of Thomas Crapper's "Siphonic waste discharge" system, for which he held 6 patents. Apparently, the doughboys coined the word "crapper" for the entire system.