Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, December 2. 2022

True colors, etc.

We routinely use a lot of phrases in English which derive from the days of sailing ships.


This lengthy list does not include "true colors," which refers to the naval warfare trick of sailing under false colors (false flag), and the gentlemanly tradition of raising your true flag before firing a first shot. My error - it does include that term.





Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 17:00 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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I didn't see "sailing under false colors" or "all hands on deck" either.
#1 feeblemind on 2022-12-02 20:01 (Reply)
Another common term missing: "The bitter end" (which, of course, means the "very end.")

The bitter end is a nautical term. The bitt end (or bitter end) refers to the final part of the anchor rope near to where the rope is fixed to the ship’s deck. Usually marked with coloured rags, the bitter end gets its name from the bollards (or bitts) on the deck to which the anchor rope was tied. When the sailors lowering the anchor came across the rags on the bitter end, they knew there was no more rope left, meaning the water was too deep to set anchor. To go to the bitter end means to go to the very end (i.e., right to end last few yards of the anchor rope).
#2 PCB on 2022-12-02 21:18 (Reply)

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