Freeze the balls of a brass monkey

[jay]

CANNON BALLS!!! DID YOU KNOW THIS?

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen.
Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small 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 with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys.
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled.
Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. And all this time, folks thought that was just a vulgar expression?





You live and learn

 

[user123]

I did know, I did know!! :hurray: And did you know where the word 'posh' comes from?

 

[jay]

I did know, I did know!! :hurray: And did you know where the word 'posh' comes from?

Nope...

 

[Brinkley]

port over starboard home posh

 

[jay]

port over starboard home posh

That is a bit disappointing was expecting more

 

[Del W]

I need to get out more on a Saturday night.!

Elegant, swanky, rich.
[h=3]Origin[/h]'Port out, starboard home' might be rather a strange inclusion on a website about phrases, for, as we shall see, it isn't much of a phrase at all. The much-repeated tale is that 'Posh' derives from the 'port out, starboard home' legend supposedly printed on tickets of passengers on P&O (Peninsula and Orient) passenger vessels that travelled between UK and India in the days of the Raj. Another version has it that PO and SH were scrawled on the steamer trunks used on the voyages, by seamen when allocating cabins.
Britain and India are both in the northern hemisphere so the port (left-hand side) berths were mostly in the shade when travelling out (easterly) and the starboard ones when coming back. So the best and most expensive berths were POSH, hence the term. A very plausible and attractive explanation and it would be nice to be able to confirm it. The belief was widespread enough in 1968 for it to have been included in the lyrics of the song 'Posh' in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

O the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me
First cabin and captain's table regal company
Pardon the dust of the upper crust - fetch us a cup of tea
Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P-O-S-H, posh
​

There is no evidence to confirm this story though and it appears to have been dreamed up retrospectively to match an existing meaning. Whoever thought it up must have been quite pleased with it, and it appeals to enough people to get repeated endlessly. It also panders to the popular craving for the employment of acronyms as the explanation of common phrases - golf ('gentlemen only, ladies forbidden'), cop ('constable on patrol') etc. These are nonsense but they keep cropping up. It's worth remembering that acronyms are a 20th century phenomenon and researchers are hard pressed to find any examples before the 1920s. The word acronym itself wasn't coined until the 1940s. Any such explanation of older words, like 'golf', or indeed 'posh', is sure to be false.
P&O say they have never issued such tickets and, although many tickets from that era still exist, no 'POSH' ones have been found. These have the status of an etymological Holy Grail and occasionally someone claims to have seen one. Needless to say that hasn't yet been backed up with any evidence. Mind you, even if this mode of travel were the source of the phrase, there's no particular reason that tickets would have been stamped with POSH, so the absence of such tickets doesn't prove anything. The same goes for the alleged chalking of POSH on steamer trunks. The evidence for this is even less likely ever to come to light. The finding of luggage from that period with the appropriate chalkmarks is hardly evidence, as the marks could have been added ten minutes previous to the find. We would need photographic evidence that could be dated to the period of the Raj - needless to say, no such photos have come to light. The lack of any citation of 'port out, starboard home' in any of the numerous letters and literary works that remain from the British Raj is a more convincing argument against that origin.

 

[user123]

Huh... I really feel the port over starboard home has a ring of truth to it, it makes sense! It just does! Huh... :lol:

 

[Ajax123]

Peterborough united football club are also known as the posh........

 

[jay]

Pretty outrageous house see= posh

 

[Ajax123]

Pretty outrageous house see= posh

Dyslexic?? Lol

 

[Del W]

Pretty outrageous house see= posh

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Del W]

Are yuo drink Jey :8:

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

I was told it was Port out Starboard home, in the old British Empire days, the toffs could afford to pay for a Port cabin (the left side) on the journey to India and Starboard (the right side) on the return trip. To do with the Sun, being in it or in the shade, (not sure which), you can tell I'm very well up on ships. I also know that "fore "is the pointy end, and "aft" is the blunt end.

As for the brass monkeys I knew that one. It was very cold last week, and I saw a brass monkey looking for a welder.:lol:

 

[jay]

Bugger

Pretty outrageous seaside house =posh

 

[Ajax123]

Bugger

Pretty outrageous seaside house =posh

Better ;p

 

[jay]

It is only 8,20 am coffee hasn't kicked in yet

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Why we in the UK drive on the left hand side of the road, I could be wrong but I like this notion. as in the middle ages mainly noblemen/knights etc carried swords, as between 8 to15% of the population are left handed. It made sense to ride your horse on the left side of anyone coming in the opposite direction.

As most people are right handed, we being on the left side of the track/path, could draw our swords and cut up, or put the fear of god into any oncoming scoundrels/ salesmen, ex-wives, tax collectors etc, I might be wrong but iI like the idea.

Just one more I heard, a military salute comes from the days when a knight would raise the visor of his helmet, to show his face, signifying respect to a fellow knight. This could be a figment of my imagination.

 

[user123]

Why we in the UK drive on the left hand side of the road, I could be wrong but I like this notion. as in the middle ages mainly noblemen/knights etc carried swords, as between 8 to15% of the population are left handed. It made sense to ride your horse on the left side of anyone coming in the opposite direction.

As most people are right handed, we being on the left side of the track/path, could draw our swords and cut up, or put the fear of god into any oncoming scoundrels/ salesmen, ex-wives, tax collectors etc, I might be wrong but iI like the idea.

Just one more I heard, a military salute comes from the days when a knight would raise the visor of his helmet, to show his face, signifying respect to a fellow knight. This could be a figment of my imagination.

Or a memory.... go on, admit it, you and whitebeam, you got that Knight Mark and Knight Phil thing going on.... :lol:

 

[John Benton]

I was told it was Port out Starboard home, in the old British Empire days, the toffs could afford to pay for a Port cabin (the left side) on the journey to India and Starboard (the right side) on the return trip. To do with the Sun, being in it or in the shade, (not sure which), you can tell I'm very well up on ships. I also know that "fore "is the pointy end, and "aft" is the blunt end.

As for the brass monkeys I knew that one. It was very cold last week, and I saw a brass monkey looking for a welder.:lol:

That's how I understood it as well Phil for POSH

 

[Ajax123]

Why we in the UK drive on the left hand side of the road, I could be wrong but I like this notion. as in the middle ages mainly noblemen/knights etc carried swords, as between 8 to15% of the population are left handed. It made sense to ride your horse on the left side of anyone coming in the opposite direction.

As most people are right handed, we being on the left side of the track/path, could draw our swords and cut up, or put the fear of god into any oncoming scoundrels/ salesmen, ex-wives, tax collectors etc, I might be wrong but iI like the idea.

Just one more I heard, a military salute comes from the days when a knight would raise the visor of his helmet, to show his face, signifying respect to a fellow knight. This could be a figment of my imagination.

In the middlw ages it was almost illegalto be left handed.......

 

[nybor62]

posh, pay online save half

 

[Rich]

I is well proper clever cuz I knew all of these apart from the posh thing :smilewinkgrin:


What about "upper crust"? This came from when bread was made for huge dinning parties, the bottom of the loaf would burn so the loaf would be cut in half sideways (to cut the bottom off). The richguestss would eat the top of the loaf and the black bottom of the loaf was given to theservantss. Hence "upper crust"

Then "giving the cold shoulder". This is from when woman used to cook a shoulder of lamb for the husband when he was out hunting. If the man was late because he had been out with the boys, the wife would not keep the shoulder warm but give him the cold shoulder.

The word "plumber" is meant to come from the roman word from lead but i could well be wrong about that one.

To "show your metal"? This came from the guys in the old days that used to use a huge mill for grinding grain to make bread, when the mill needed fixing or maintaining, there would be peoplequeuingg up for the work as money was alway tight. But it was veryimportantt to get someone that knew what they were doing. In the process of fixing these mills, the workmen would get lots of metal splinters in their forearms, so to see how muchexperiencee the guy had he was asked to how muchmetall he had in his arms "show your metal".

 

[Del W]

Proper Overboarding Saves Headaches. POSH.

 

[Rich]

I have just realised that my spell check likes to stick words together :mad2: