![]() or “Port Out, Starboard Home”.įrom the mid 17th to the mid 18th century, the Oriental Steam Navigation Company ferried passengers from England to India. ![]() The origin of the adjective may stem from the anecdotal tale of P.O.S.H. So we all heard posh used to denote a person with style and money. Personally, stacking cannonballs in this manner on a ship on the open sea seems challenging at best but let’s not have facts stand in the way of a great idiom… ![]() In any case, a nice well-circulating folk tale. The brass monkey became too small to contain the bottom layer of cannonballs and hence, the cannonballs would roll-off freezing the balls of a brass monkey… In freezing conditions, the brass plate contracted at a quicker and at a more pronounced rate compared to the iron cannonballs positioned on the plate. It had the appropriate number of indentations to hold the bottom layer of cannonballs. This pyramid was constructed on a brass plate which was called the brass monkey. (An interesting mathematical conundrum but that is a different story). We have all seen it at the movies, where 1 cannonball sits on 4, sit on 9 sits on 16 sit on 25 cannonballs. It finds its origin (arguably not) in maritime folklore where the iron cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid next to the cannon for ready use when the need arose. That seems very cold to me and I guess that is precisely what the idiom is trying to say. So hold those bottoms up so we can check.” “So gents, you all look like you can use a beer.” “Sure mate, and end up like my brother Smithy! Before we accept your beer, we would like to see if there isn’t something hidden at the bottom of the glasses. We sail tomorrow at high tide and these 6 large rough-looking gentlemen will escort you right now to your new home for the next 6 years.” “Whaaaaaat!”Īfter some time, the unsuspecting citizens of coastal towns and villages caught on to this legal but despicable practice and became a bit more cautious. Have one on me…” “Gee, thanks glug, glug, glug, glug ahaaaa… Hey, what is this penny doing in the bottom of my glass?” “Well Smithy, that my man, is the payment you just accepted to serve in Her Majesty’s Navy. “So Smithy, (yes, by an extreme coincidence it was the same Smithy as above), you look like you can use a beer. So with this background out of the way, where did “bottoms up” originate from? Well in torts (judge-made law), contracts require some basic elements for a contract to be legal. The unscrupulous individuals engaged in shanghaiing were called crimps hence crimping is synonymous with shanghaiing. It was most likely called “shanghaiing” because at the time a lot of ships simply sailed to Shanghai. In essence, you would be tricked (at best as some were just kidnapped) into contracting with the Navy for your services. It is called shanghaiing or crimping and was a common practice to combat an enormous labour shortage in the navies around the world. However, the origin of “ bottoms up” is much more sinister. So to cut a long story short, the brandy was in all likelihood sucked out of the barrel during the trip by the crew and that is simply too disgusting to ever forget!īottoms up! A cheerful gesture in today’s language encouraging your mate to finish his drink already so you can order another one… Looking around for answers to solve this mystical disappearance of alcohol, they found most of the crew looking relatively happy with themself with rather glazed over eyes. “I have an idea, let’s double him over and stuff him in one of the barrels of brandy so the alcohol will preserve him and all will be okay.” “Smithy, that is a great idea: make it happen.” Up to now, the story is a bit bizarre but it was 1805 after all so what the heck, let’s just accept it…īut then the story becomes a bit creepy because when they arrived in Gibraltar to take a still fine-looking Horatio out of the barrel, they discovered that the brandy was gone. Now, remember Lord Nelson and his glorious demise at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 where his fleet defeated the Frenchies and Spainyards off the coast of Spain? So he died during the battle and the rest of the fleet wanted to bring their hero back to England but they were a long way from home and corpses do not last very long in the sun so a solution needed to be found. So in modern-day language, if you are “tapping the Admiral” you are stealing booze often by using a straw or any such acts that falls within a broader scope. ![]() Okay, this one is a bit obscure and to be honest, rather disturbing.
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