Sailors slang

Learn the ropes: 10 common sayings that came straight from sailors

Life on ships was all about teamwork and facing the unknown. Sailors dealt with changing weather, rough waters, and threats that weren’t always easy to anticipate. Many phrases that still sound familiar today came out of that world, even though most of us don't use ropes or read the wind anymore. Even far from the ocean, these 10 expressions still describe everyday life.

Can you imagine what "true colors" meant in sailing slang? It was actually a direct reference to a ship’s flag. Back then, flags could show a ship’s country or empire, loyalty, or even surrender. But ships could also sail under false colors to deceive other ships and hide their real intentions. When those intentions were finally revealed, the ship showed its true colors.

That meaning is not far from the one we use today. Today, the expression is used when someone reveals their real feelings or intentions after keeping them hidden for some time.

We’ve all entered a new job or tried a new activity, and had to learn how the whole system works before taking the first steps. That is the moment you get to learn the ropes, before things start to flow naturally. And on a ship full of real ropes, sailors had to learn, one by one, which rope was for which function and where it belonged before starting to sail by themselves.

When the ship faced a dangerous or urgent situation at sea, everyone’s help was needed, and the call was simple: all hands on deck. In that phrase, "hands" meant the sailors or workers on board. It was a call for when the crew had to act quickly. The phrase keeps almost the same spirit these days. We use all hands on deck when a task is too big for one person, and everyone’s effort is required to get the job done.

Imagine standing on the shore and spotting a ship far out at sea, which isn’t close enough to arrive yet. That distant part of the sea was called the offing, so when a ship was in the offing, people knew it was on its way. The phrase made its way from ships to everyday life, and today, "in the offing" means something will happen soon, and you already see it coming.

When getting ready for difficult situations, we often say we’d better "batten down the hatches." Originally, the expression meant getting ready for rough weather. Sailors would close and secure the ship's hatch covers so water couldn’t get below deck. The word "batten" refers to strips used to fasten things down. Years had passed, and the meaning went from protecting a ship from bad weather to protecting yourself before any challenge.

Cannons were extremely heavy and mounted on wheeled carriages. If the heavy ropes or tackles securing them broke during a battle or a heavy storm, the cannon would become a "loose cannon," sliding and rolling violently across the gun deck, destroying everything and everyone in its path. That dangerous image stuck over the decades, and today, we use the phrase to refer to someone who is unpredictable or to a situation that is dangerously getting out of our control

In sailing, the sheets were the ropes or chains that controlled the sails, and when the sheets came loose, the sails could flap, and the boat would start to move in a messy, unsteady way. The comparison is easy to imagine: someone very drunk can stumble like a boat that can’t stay steady. Sailors already used that image for a person who was too drunk to walk straight, and to this day, there may be no better way to describe it.

Out at sea, "by_"_ meant sailing close to the wind, while "large" meant sailing with the wind coming more from behind or from the side. So, when a ship sailed well by and large, it was capable of handling different kinds of wind. Over the years, that idea became a way to express something in a broad sense; it is used when talking about something in general, describing the big picture without getting stuck in every small detail.

Currently, "taken aback" describes a shocking or unexpected situation, but back in the sailing days, it was all about the wind. It described the moment when the wind hit the sails from the wrong side and pushed back against the mast. Now, when people are taken aback, it's probably because they received unexpected news or were caught off guard, leaving them unsure how to react.

The phrase smooth sailing comes from the kind of trip every sailor wanted: calm water, good wind, and no major trouble ahead. When conditions were right, the ship could move forward easily. Today, the phrase works almost the same way, but outside the sea. People use it when situations become easier after a problem is fixed. A work project or a trip can become smooth sailing once the hardest part is over.

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE

"Love Is Blind" And 10 Other Phrases That Came From Shakespeare

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Shakespeare’s genius even influenced many phrases and idioms we unknowingly use every day. That's why we have comprised this list of ten common expressions that were either created or made famous by Shakespeare and his characters.

American literary critic Harold Bloom once said, "Shakespeare will not make us better and will not make us worse, but he may allow us to overhear ourselves when we talk to ourselves." The Bard’s impact on modern literature can’t be denied, but to limit it to the written word would be an extreme disservice to countless other works of art inspired by his works.

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Thinking back on your youth can be a bit of a double-edged sword: one might enjoy reminiscing about our heyday and carefree years, but we might also end up remembering those embarrassing moments when inexperience got the best of us. In any case, the beauty of the phrase "salad days" lies in its ability to encompass both the comfort and the naivete of youth.

Shakespeare coined this expression in the first act of Antony and Cleopatra, when the Queen of the Nile looks back on her relationship with Julius Caesar saying, "My salad days, / When I was green in judgment...." While it is true that Shakespeare’s original meaning for the phrase was about youthful inexperience, currently, "salad days" is more commonly used to refer to someone’s prime.

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To be the butt of an innocent joke or prank is usually harmless. When done in good fun, it’s good to laugh at ourselves. Having said that, to be the laughing stock is an entirely different matter: This expression means to be subjected to general mockery or ridicule, most of the time at one’s expense.

The Bard knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this line in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the play, Sir Hugh Evans advises Dr Caius, "Pray you let us not be laughing stocks to other men’s humours." What’s so effective about this phrase is that it conjures up the image of medieval stocks, wooden restraining devices usually used for public embarrassment. In that sense, the ridicule of being the laughing stock could be considered equivalent to being publicly displayed for humiliation.

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No, we are not talking about The Hulk here, unless Marvel’s city-wrecking superhero is now fueled by jealousy instead of anger. "Green-eyed monster" alludes to both a physical manifestation of jealousy (as some sort of unmanageable creature) or someone who is so overridden by this nasty feeling that they lose control of themselves. Shakespeare used this expression in his play Othello: In it, the double-faced advisor Iago tries to make Othello doubt the faithfulness of his wife, and warns him, "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on."

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"To wear your heart on your sleeve" is a fairly common expression nowadays, and it is used to describe displaying intimate feelings openly to someone. While there is some debate as to where this expression comes from, the first recorded use comes (once again) from Othello: Curiously, a phrase as honest and sincere as this one comes from the duplicitous villain Iago, who says, "But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at: I am not what I am."

It is worth noting that the sleeve used here may not necessarily refer to a piece of cloth that covers our arm. Some linguists believe that the expression might originate from medieval jousting, where knights would wear a token of a lady of the court on their arm armor, known then as a sleeve.

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Contrary to popular belief, this expression does not come from chasing wild geese (or from the substantially scarier image of being chased by them). It refers to a type of horse race practiced in Elizabethan times, where a group of riders would follow and try to keep up with a single rider galloping ahead of them. The name comes from the shape the formation takes since it is similar to the pattern taken by geese in flight.

Shakespeare used this expression in Romeo and Juliet, where the character of Mercutio compares an exchange of jokes between Romeo and himself to a "wild goose chase" race. Mercutio states, "Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou / hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I / have in my whole five."

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"Cry 'havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war!" This phrase has been endlessly repeated in several pieces of media, muttered by cold and heartless villains ranging from Star Trek to Superman. It’s almost funny how such a somber, heavy line has evolved up to the point of it becoming a bit of a corny cliche. Shakespeare uses this line in Julius Caesar as a way to convey the horrors and bloodshed of war when Mark Anthony instigates the Roman people to rise against Julius Caesar’s assassins.

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This one is a little bit baffling. You, like many others, might be wondering what’s the story behind this commonly-used idiom: We all know what it means, but since when is a doornail synonymous with death? Does that mean that the doornail was at one point alive? And, for that matter, why specifically a doornail? Is the way they move through the eternal, unchanging cycle of life and death truly the main difference between common nails and those specifically hammered into a door?

We might have gone a bit off track here. Going back to Shakespeare, the Bard made this expression popular in Henry IV Part 2, when Jack Cade complains about his hunger by saying, "I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail." Some believe the expression comes from how doornails used in Shakespeare's times could not be retrieved after being hammered. Since those nails were left unusable, they were considered "dead."

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Shakespeare’s use of "In a Pickle" in The Tempest is considered the first recorded appearance of this expression. In the play, King Alonso asks his Trinculo, "How camest thou in this pickle?" and the jester, who is both drunk and in trouble, answers "I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, I will never out of my bones. I shall not fear flyblowing.’

What Trinculo is saying here is that he is so drunk that his body will be well-preserved after his death, the same way brine or vinegar is used to preserve pickled food. While, nowadays, this expression is most commonly used to refer to an unpleasant situation or problem, "pickled" can also be used for someone who is extremely drunk.

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Another phrase incessantly repeated in romantic movies and books, the line "Love is blind" appears in three plays by Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In The Merchant of Venice, Jessica meets with her lover Lorenzo while disguised as a boy to trick her father, Shylock. Upon seeing Lorenzo, Jessica feels self-conscious about her appearance, but she later realizes that he won’t mind her clothes since he loves her. Jessica says "I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me,/ for I am much ashamed of my exchange./ But love is blind, and lovers cannot see/ the pretty follies that themselves commit."

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It’s funny how one of the least commonly used expressions on this list comes straight from Shakespeare’s most famous speeches: Hamlet’s "to be or not to be" soliloquy. In this monologue, the prince of Denmark grimly ponders on what comes after death, and reflects: "To die, to sleep,/ To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,/ for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,/ when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/ must give us pause."

Curiously, the expression is believed to originate from grass bowling, one of the favorite hobbies of the Elizabethan era. In this sport, an obstacle on the playing field, like a hill or a mound, would be called "a rub" since the bowl would be slowed down or deflected by rubbing against it. While Shakespeare included this phrase in other plays like The Tempest and King Lear, Hamlet’s iconic soliloquy is probably responsible for popularizing "That’s the rub" as a way to refer to an unavoidable problem.