There's a lot of talk about logs lately, but do you know why we call it a “log”?

https://twitter.com/Cyber_Cox/status/1471912802256404481

by jonas21 • 5 years ago

49 2 5 years ago

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th3iedkid• 5 years ago

That explains so much!

JoeAltmaier• 5 years ago

Lots of ordinary phrases have their origin in sailing.

Touch and go - when a ship didn't dock but just put in a boat for resupply/rewater

Devil to pay - putting pitch between cracks in deck boards for waterproofing, and the 'devil' was the board right at the rail, difficult to 'pay out' pitch there

Leeway - allowance perpendicular to ship's desired direction of travel, due to slipping sideways due to wind pressure

By and large - you either sailed 'by the wind' (nearly into the direction the wind was coming) or you sailed 'large' (with the wind)

Pipe down - last signal of the shift from the piper; all quiet after this

Six sheets to the wind - a slack ship might not have all the 'sheets' or small cords used to trim sails, properly tied off. The would flap in the wind, and everybody would know you were a slack crew

Cat's out of the bag - when a sailor stood before the officers to address some accusation, the officer in charge of the whip (cat-o-nine-tails) kept it in a bag. If it wasn't going well for the sailor, they might take the cat out of the bag and perhaps begin practicing

The list goes on and on. Read Patrick O'Briens series "Master and Commander" to get a good sense of their prevalence and usage.

There's a lot of talk about logs lately, but do you know why we call it a “log”?

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