Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions

by Bill Beavis, Richard McCloskey

Overview

Most of us never realize how many words and expressions used in everyday English have a fascinating nautical origin. This charming pocketbook explains the practical ship-board beginnings of over 200 such phrases—colorful, bizarre and surprising—and how they came ashore. For anyone with an interest in the sea & its traditions—landlubbers, boaters, historians, linguists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472907981
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	12/30/2014
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	1,061,649
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Bill Beavis was a seaman turned journalist who had long been interested in nautical etymology. He died a number of years ago. Richard McCloskey is a distinguished American marine historian.

Editorial Reviews

Those interested in word etymology might be surprised to find that some common English phrases have nautical origin. In Bill Beavis and Richard McCloskey's Salty Dog Talk, the origins of such expressions as no room to swing a cat (referring to either lack of flogging room, lack of room for a sailing collier to swing at anchor, or a derivation of cot, a sailor's name for his hammock) are discussed, supplemented by Beavis' whimsical cartoons. The pocket-sized book contains more than 20 phrases and describes how they came ashore.

Bill Beavis was a seaman turned journalist, and Richard McCloskey is a marine historian.

Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Those interested in word etymology might be surprised to find that some common English phrases have nautical origin. In Bill Beavis and Richard McCloskey's Salty Dog Talk, the origins of such expressions as no room to swing a cat (referring to either lack of flogging room, lack of room for a sailing collier to swing at anchor, or a derivation of cot, a sailor's name for his hammock) are discussed, supplemented by Beavis' whimsical cartoons. The pocket-sized book contains more than 20 phrases and describes how they came ashore. Bill Beavis was a seaman turned journalist, and Richard McCloskey is a marine historian.

Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal