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Subject: In the Olden days
Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water is cold, this is how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children, - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it-hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water". Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice rats, and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became wet, the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs". There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way-hence, a "thresh hold". They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.." Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon". They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat". Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale paisan bread which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite sometime. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mould got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy mouldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth". Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust". Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them or burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up-hence the custom of holding a "wake". England is old and small and they started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer". Sent in by Zack Lindsey The Romans Any Roman soldiers who pondered mutiny had good reason to think twice. A technique used by the Roman army to keep mutinous units in line was to select one-tenth of the men by lot and execute them, thereby encouraging the remaining nine-tenths to follow orders. The Latin verb for this presumably effective form of punishment was decimare, literally 'to take a tenth of', which was derived from decimus, 'tenth', from decem, 'ten'. The old Roman practice has not continued into modern times, of course, but its memorable ferocity has given us the verb decimate, which has been used in English since 1600. Decimate was originally used in historical reference to the Roman disciplinary procedure, but it soon came to be used more broadly in what is now its usual sense, 'to destroy a large part of', as in "the bombing decimated the city" or "the plague decimated the population." This new sense was first attested in 1667. Although it carries no suggestion of 'one tenth', it does retain clearly the overtones of extreme violence or terror associated with the original sense. The Latin decimare was also used in the less ferocious sense 'to tax to the amount of one tenth', and decimate has sometimes had this sense in English, as when the poet John Dryden described someone as "poor as a decimated Cavalier." But the usual word describing a one-tenth tax in English is tithe, which functions as both a noun and a verb and which is derived from the Old English teogotha, a form of tenth. Tithe has had a strong religious connection throughout most of its history. Early use was in reference to the ten-percent tax paid (in money or in produce) by the ancient Hebrews in accordance with Mosaic law. A similar tax, also called a tithe, was required in support of parish churches in Britain until the middle of the nineteenth century. In current usage, tithe is perhaps most familiar in reference to voluntary contributions equal to one-tenth of one's income made in support of a church. The meaning of the verb tithe has overlapped that of decimate more than once; it has had some use in describing the practice of putting to death every tenth man. And, more interestingly, tithe has also been used in a few instances in the opposite sense, in which every tenth man was spared. Tithe is also similar to decimate in having acquired an extended sense in which the etymological connection with 'one tenth' is lost; it is sometimes used to mean simply 'a small part'. Policeman Did you know that the word policeman comes from the latin polis meaning city? So the word policeman literally means man of the city! Cop and Copper Several colorful stories circulate concerning the origin of cop. One is that cop was shortened from copper, a name given because the first London police (or members of some other early police force) wore large copper buttons on their uniforms. Another version has these officers wearing star-shaped copper shields. Details of such word origins vary freely, as the stories are their own justification and people who repeat them seldom see a need to offer supporting evidence. An entirely different approach to explaining cop is through the first letters of a phrase such as 'constable on patrol' or 'constabulary of police' or (least likely of all) 'chief of police'. This story has it that, in signing reports, policemen (presumably the same ones who wore the copper buttons or shields) abbreviated the official phrase beside the name, writing something like "John Smith, C.O.P." The truth is simpler, if less entertaining. Around the year 1700 English gained a slang verb cop, meaning 'to get ahold of, catch, capture' and perhaps borrowed from Dutch. This word is somewhat unusual in having remained slang to this day, unlike most slang words which either die out or become more respectable over time. By 1844 cop is recorded in print as being used to refer to what police do to criminals, though it is probably somewhat older in speech. In very short order the -er agent suffix was added, and a policeman became a copper, one who cops or catches or arrests criminals. This usage first appeared in print in 1846. The connection with the metal copper must have been made almost at once in the popular mind, for a British newspaper reported in 1864 that "as they pass a policeman they will exhibit a copper coin, which is equivalent to calling the officer copper." The noun cop shortened from copper appeared in print in 1859. And just to show I'm not completly Police obsessed, (I am in fact Sci Fi obsessed) here's another one Robots In 1923 a play called R.U.R. opened in London and New York. As well as having a successful run, the play made a lasting contribution to our vocabulary by introducing the word robot into English. The author, Karel Capek, coined robot from the Czech robota, meaning 'forced labor'. In R.U.R. (which stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots" in the English translation) mechanical men originally designed to perform manual labor become so sophisticated that some advanced models develop the capacity to feel and hate, and eventually they destroy mankind. Robot caught on quickly on both sides of the Atlantic, and within a very few years it was being used to denote not only 'a complex machine that looks somewhat human' but also 'a person who has been dehumanized through the necessity of performing mechanical, mindless tasks in a highly industrialized society'. Today robot is also used widely in both scientific and nonscientific circles as a term for 'any automatic apparatus or device that performs functions ordinarily ascribed to human beings or operates with what appears to be almost human intelligence'. And Another: Eavesdrop The verb eavesdrop first appeared in the seventeenth century and is probably a back-formation by subtraction of its agent ending from the noun eavesdropper, which in turn is derived from the Middle English noun evesdrop, now spelled eavesdrop. Dating from the ninth century, eavesdrop and its variant eavesdrip referred to the water that falls in drops from the eaves of a house. Later the term was also applied to the ground on which water falls from the eaves. In English law the term came to denote a special permit that was formerly required before one could build so that water from one's eaves could fall directly on the land of another. The original meaning of eavesdropper, as it was used in the fifteenth century, was 'one who stood within the eavesdrop of a house to overhear what is going on inside', as is evident in the following passage from Termes de la Ley, first compiled by John Rastell in 1527: "Evesdroppers are such as stand under walls or windows by night or day to hear news, and to carry them to others, to make strife and debate amongst their neighbours: those are evil members in the commonwealth, and therefore . . . are to be punished." From such beginnings sprang the word which has come to be applied to the sophisticated electronic eavesdropping carried on by governmental agencies today. Another, and far more scary one if you've ever seen it: Shrapnel In 1784 an obscure lieutenant in the British artillery began experimenting, on his own time and at his own expense, with an antipersonnel weapon that consisted of a hollow spherical projectile filled with shot and an explosive charge and designed to scatter the shot and shell fragments in midair. After years of experimentation Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842) saw his invention adopted by the British artillery in 1803. The Shrapnel shell, as it was called almost immediately following its invention, was first actually used in battle when the British seized part of Dutch Surinam in 1804 and established British Guiana. The device soon found a champion in the Duke of Wellington, who used it in 1808 and later against Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington himself fired off an admiring missive to the inventor, as did other field commanders. The British military decided that Shrapnel merited no reward or financial compensation, however, despite the fact that he had spent 28 years perfecting his invention at a personal cost of several thousand pounds. Many years later, during World War II, it was found that the explosive charge fragmented the casing of the Shrapnel shell so effectively that the use of the shrapnel balls was unnecessary. Since then, shrapnel has been used to refer to the actual shell fragments, as well as to fragments of an explosive bomb or mine. And finally as we all know you like a drink or two : Whiskey Of the relatively few English words that have come from the Celtic languages, certainly one of the most common is whiskey. The Irish Gaelic uisce beathadh and Scots Gaelic uisge beatha, terms for certain distilled liquors made in those countries, can both be translated literally as 'water of life'. Though whiskeybae and usquebaugh have both been used in English, the shorter whiskey (or whisky) is by far the most common form. In sixteenth-century England aqua vitae, taken without change from the Medieval Latin phrase meaning 'water of life', first appears as a term for a distilled alcoholic drink, though as early as 1471 it had been used for medicinal alcohol. From the same Medieval Latin source comes Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian akvavit, which is used in English in the form aquavit as the name for a clear Scandinavian liquor flavored with caraway seeds. English has also borrowed the French translation of Latin aqua vitae in the form eau-de-vie as a term for brandy. The name bourbon which designates some American whiskeys comes from the name of Bourbon County, Kentucky, where such whiskey was first made in the late eighteenth century. Sent in by Pete Bingley Footloose The bottom portion of a sail is called the foot. If it is not secured, it is footloose and it dances randomly in the wind. Booby Hatch Aboard ship, a booby hatch is a sliding cover or hatch that must be pushed away to allow access or passage. First Rate Implies excellence. From the 16th century on until steam powered ships took over british naval ships were rated as to the number of heavy cannon they carried. A ship of 100 or more guns was a First Rate line-of-battle ship. Second rates carried 90 to 98 guns; Third Rates, 64 to 89 guns; Fourth Rates, 50 to 60 guns. Frigates carrying 20 to 48 guns were fifth and sixth rated. Pipe Down Means stop talking and be quiet. The Pipe Down was the last signal from the Boatswain's (also known as Bosun) pipe each day which meant "lights out" and "silence". Chock-a-block Meaning something is filled to capacity or over loaded. If two blocks of rigging tackle were so hard together they couldn't be tightened further, it was said they were "Chock-a-Block". Overbearing To sail downwind directly at another ship thus "stealing" or diverting the wind from his sails. Three Sheets to the Wind A sheet is a rope line which controls the tension on the downwind side of a square sail. If, on a three masted fully rigged ship, the sheets of the three lower course sails are loose, the sails will flap and flutter and are said to be "in the wind". A ship in this condition would stagger and wander aimlessly downwind. Pooped The poop is the stern section of a ship. To be pooped is to be swamped by a high, following sea. As the Crow Flies When lost or unsure of their position in coastal waters, ships would release a caged crow. The crow would fly straight towards the nearest land thus giving the vessel some sort of a navigational fix. The tallest lookout platform on a ship came to be know as the crow's nest. Buoyed Up Using a buoy to raise the bight of an anchor cable to prevent it from chafing on a rough bottom. By and Large Currently means in all cases or in any case. From the nautical: by meaning into the wind and large meaning with the wind: as in, "By and Large the ship handled very well." Cut and Run If a captain of a smaller ship encountered a larger enemy vessel, he might decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and so he would order the crew to cut the lashings on all the sails and run away before the wind. Other sources indicate "Cut and Run" meant to cut the anchor cable and sail off in a hurry. In the Offing Currently means something is about to happen, as in - "There is a reorganisation in the offing." From the 16th century usage meaning a good distance from shore, barely visable from land, as in - "We sighted a ship in the offing." Hoisted by One's Petard The "petard" was a small cask of black powder used to prime cannon fuses. During battle a petard was stored alongside each gun. Ocasionally, a careless crewman would set one off while lighting a fuse, thereby "hoisting" himself in the air. The expression was used by English sailors describing the inept French gunners. The Bitter End The end of an anchor cable is fastened to the bitts at the ship's bow. If all of the anchor cable has been payed out you have come to the bitter end. Toe the Line When called to line up at attention, the ship's crew would form up with their toes touching a seam in the deck planking. Overhaul To prevent the buntline ropes from chaffing the sails, crew were sent aloft to haul them over the sails. This was called overhauling. Slush Fund A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund. Bear Down To sail downwind rapidly towards another ship or landmark. Under the Weather If a crewman is standing watch on the weather side of the bow, he will be subject to the constant beating of the sea and the ocean spray. He will be under the weather. Overreach If a ship holds a tack course too long, it has overreached its turning point and the distance it must travel to reach it's next tack point is increased. Gone By the Board Anything seen to have gone overboard or spotted floating past the ship (by the board) was considered lost at sea. Overwhelm Old English for capsize or founder. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea The devil seam was the curved seam in the deck planking closest to the side of the ship and next to the scupper gutters. If a sailor slipped on the deck, he could find himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. The Devil to Pay To pay the deck seams meant to seal them with tar. The devil seam was the most difficult to pay because it was curved and intersected with the straight deck planking. Some sources define the "devil" as the below-the-waterline-seam between the keel and the the adjoining planking. Paying the Devil was considered to be a most difficult and unpleasant task. Rummage Sale From the French "arrimage" meaning ship's cargo. Damaged cargo was sold at a rummage sale. A Square Meal In good weather, crews' mess was a warm meal served on square wooden platters. Son of a Gun When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Infrequently, but not uncommonly, children were born aboard, and a convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, they were entered in the ship's log as "son of a gun". Taking the wind out of his sails Sailing in a manner so as to steal or divert wind from another ship's sails. Freeze a Brass Monkey Between a ship's guns were lip-edged brass trays called monkeys which held pyramid stacks of cannon balls. In cold weather the brass tray would contract faster than the iron cannon balls and the balls would go tumbling on the deck. In this case it was said to be "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". Let the Cat Out of the Bag In the Royal Navy the punishment prescribed for most serious crimes was flogging. This was administered by the Boatswain's Mate using a whip called a cat o' nine tails. The "cat" was kept in a leather or baize bag. It was considered bad news indeed when the cat was let out of the bag. Other sources attribute the expression to the old english market scam of selling someone a pig in a poke(bag) when the pig turned out to be a cat instead. No Room to Swing a Cat The entire ship's company was required to witness flogging at close hand. The crew might crowd around so that the Boatswain's Mate might not have enough room to swing his cat o' nine tails. Start Over with a Clean Slate A slate tablet was kept near the helm on which the watch keeper would record the speeds, distances, headings and tacks during the watch. If there were no problems during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watch could start over with a clean slate. Taken Aback A dangerous situation where the wind is on the wrong side of the sails pressing them back against the mast and forcing the ship astern. Most often this was caused by an inattentive helmsman who had allowed the ship to head up into the wind. At Loggerheads An iron ball attached to a long handle was a loggerhead. When heated it was used to seal the pitch in deck seams. It was sometimes a handy weapon for quarrelling crewmen. Fly-by-Night A large sail used only for sailing downwind and requiring rather little attention. No Great Shakes When casks became empty they were "shaken" (taken apart) so the pieces, called shakes, could be stored in a small space. Shakes had very little value. Give (someone) a Wide Berth To anchor a ship far enough away from another ship so that they did not hit each other when they swung with the wind or tide. Cut of His Jib Warships many times had their foresails or jib sails cut thinly so that they could maintain point and not be blown off course. Upon sighting thin foresails on a distant ship a captain might not like the cut of his jib and would then have an opportunity to escape. Garbled Garbling was the prohibited practice of mixing rubbish with the cargo. A distorted, mixed up message was said to be garbled. Press Into Service The British navy filled their ships' crew quotas by kidnapping men off the streets and forcing them into service. This was called Impressment and was done by Press Gangs. Touch and Go This referred to a ship's keel touching the bottom and getting right off again. Scuttlebutt A butt was a barrel. Scuttle meant to chop a hole in something. The scuttlebutt was a water barrel with a hole cut into it so that sailors could reach in and dip out drinking water. The scuttlebutt was the place where the ship's gossip was exchanged. Sent in by Pete Bingley |