Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions

by Bill Beavis, Michael Howorth

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. ― An Interdisciplinary Journal

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Nautical

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book of expressions that have made their way to land, via the sea and those who sailed the seas.

Quite a few that have come over, some are pigeon-englished from various other tongues and others were linked to drinking, fighting, being flogged, being drenched etc.... nausea comes to us from the sea, as does windfall.

A very quick read but would be of interest to many, would make an excellent podcast actually.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea so many popular expressions had come from the sea. Mayonnaise especially surprised me.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of this reads as little more than guesswork.

[Tim Corke · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does pretty much what it says on the tin, "the nautical origins of everyday expressions".

'Salty Dog Talk' is an ideal coffee table book to leave, pick up, leave, pick up etc that doesn't matter if you've already read that bit! Alphabetically catalogued and illustrated; its a handy reference and provides great reading.