Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Unavailable
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Unavailable
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Ebook331 pages3 hours

    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage

    By Martin Robson

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    As the crow flies'', ''chunder'', ''cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'', ''three sheets to the wind'' - many terms like these are used in everyday English language conversation and writing. But how many landlubbers know that they derive from naval slang or know what the phrase originally referred to? The navy has helped to shape modern society. The navy is famous for its traditions, quirks and nuances. It is disinctly different to wider society and nowhere is this more evident than in language. The naval community once had its own language, incomprehensible to anyone who was not a sailor, which described and explained his unique world. But on shore leave these men introduced their language to the populations of bustling ports and harbours and the usage slowly spread inland. Today through the mediums of film, television and music, naval slang has been brought to the wider public and has become fully integrated into the English language to point where many phrases are used by people who have no concept of their meaning. Presenting terminology thematically, this book provides a compilation of naval slang throughout the world, from terms relating to ship-handling and seamanship through to food and drink, discipline and insults. The text is further enhanced with original black line drawings that illustrate certain technical terms, such as ''splice the mainbrace''.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781844861965
    Unavailable
    Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat: Naval slang and its everyday usage
    Author

    Martin Robson

    Dr Martin Robson is a lecturer in defence studies at the University of Exeter. He is the author of several works of military, aviation and naval history including the popular Pocket Manuals on the Spitfire and Lancaster Bomber for Conway as well as the D-Day Kit Bag.

    Read more from Martin Robson

    Related to Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat

    Related ebooks

    Linguistics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Time Out

      Feb 25, 2022

      Time Out
      3 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      Feb 25, 2022

      Time Out
      3 min read

    • Article

      Down To The Sea In Tall Ships

      Dec 14, 2021

      As a boy growing up in southern Indiana, magazines (including SAIL, of course!) and books were pretty much it in terms of the “sailing” I did in between summer trips to my grandparents’ place in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Among my favorites were C. S

      2 min read

    • Article

      Where the Water Meets the Railway

      Mar 16, 2021

      Where the Water Meets the Railway
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Round-up 0f The Latest

      Nov 11, 2022

      I always approach these books with a mixture of excitement and trepidation; the former because I am fascinated by yacht design, the latter because I fear, once again, I won’t understand it. This time, renewed by a recent victory against prismatic coe

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Praise of Displacement

      Jun 15, 2021

      As I write this, it’s springtime in New England, and I’ve begun sailing out on Boston Harbor again, getting warmed up for the summer sailing season. As I’ve been doing so, I’ve been struck, not for the first time, by just how awesome it is being aboa

      2 min read

    • Article

      Building Struggles

      Jan 5, 2023

      Building Struggles
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ships Mail

      Jul 29, 2022

      The letter (SM, June) which appeals for ‘British vessels to be built in British shipyards, manned by British crews, owned by British shipowners and registered in British ports’ is a nice sentiment. During my time at sea I sailed only with British cre

      3 min read

    • Article

      "The Fact We Still Have This Lifeboat Institution Standing By To Help Offers Extraordinary Continuity"

      Feb 15, 2024

      This year marks the bicentenary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Why are you such a keen supporter of the charity? Some of my earliest memories are sitting in my father’s boat in Bosham, West Sussex. You become conscious, I think, i

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tarred Yarns And Shanties

      Dec 9, 2022

      Tarred Yarns And Shanties
      5 min read

    • Article

      Life On The High Seas

      May 14, 2020

      In an age when few working-class men travelled outside their home county, deep-water sailors traversed the globe, encountering new and strange worlds, exotic flora and fauna, and endless opportunities for a ‘run ashore’ to the local bars, brothels an

      2 min read

    • Article

      Waves And Beaches

      Jun 2, 2021

      Waves And Beaches
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Very Australian Dictionary

      Feb 27, 2019

      A Very Australian Dictionary
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 5, 2019

      The article about me ‘Pacific Survival’ in September 2019 issue is nicely done, but has an error, writes six-time circumnavigator Webb Chiles. My inflatable was 9ft long, not 5ft. I have gone over my correspondence with you to see if I made a typo ab

      4 min read

    • Article

      WRECK Ommendations

      Feb 22, 2016

      Written by Richie Kohler with Charlie Hudson I am fortunate to be able to review many books about truly historical shipwrecks. Some are more exceptional than others. When our dear friend, Richie Kohler, presented his new book, Mystery of the Last Oly

      7 min read

    • Article

      On The

      Aug 1, 2021

      On The
      4 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      Sep 27, 2019

      This book is a very practical guide to long-distance ocean sailing, compiled by a very accomplished and experienced practitioner and aimed at the would-be ocean sailor. It is not a ‘how to do it’ manual, more a compendium of the most important issues

      4 min read

    • Article

      Skipper’s View

      Mar 25, 2022

      Skipper’s View
      1 min read

    • Article

      Skipper’s View

      Mar 25, 2022

      Skipper’s View
      1 min read

    • Article

      John Rousmaniere

      Mar 14, 2017

      John Rousmaniere is a titan of yachting journalism, having written hundreds of articles and several books on sailing and seamanship. He was an onboard reporter for both the 1972 Bermuda Race and the infamous 1979 Fastnet Race, races in which both fle

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Compatibility Test

      Mar 16, 2021

      The Compatibility Test
      4 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Note

      Mar 25, 2019

      Editor’s Note
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Translation

      Feb 13, 2019

      AFTER a recent translation conference, a young colleague brought up an interesting question: “I keep hearing people say that they translate from the Spanish, they translate from the French. Why the?” Why indeed. This was asked of a carful of people,

      12 min read

    • Article

      Crazy Times at Sea

      Feb 3, 2017

      A long time ago in an office far, far away, I received a typewritten manuscript that told a harrowing tale of a transatlantic voyage gone horribly wrong. The author and his girlfriend had answered a magazine advertisement for crew (yes, it was that l

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews By Marsali Taylor

      Aug 5, 2021

      Book Reviews By Marsali Taylor
      3 min read

    Reviews for Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words