All ahoo Upset, chaotic, unpredictable.
Androphile From the Greek andros (man) and philos (love). Androphile mollies, men without a large difference in age who sought other men, differed from rakes, adult men who sometimes teamed up with youths. In seventeenth-entury England, “rake” meant a libertine who indulged in liquor, women, and often boys.
Archduke A comical or eccentric fellow.
Aristocratic vice The royal courts of seventeenth-and eigteenth-century England and Europe were famous for sexual license. Since the sodomitic practices of royals were well-known, “aristocratic vice” became a euphemism for same-sex eroticism.
Bang-up Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. A bang-up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely.
Banyan party An old naval name for a picnic party. The word “Banyan” originates from the time when, as an economy in the Royal Navy, meat was not issued on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays: these days were called “Banyan Days.” Men saved up their rations to tide them over the meatless days, then went ashore to gather fruit.
Barber’s chair Prostitute. “She is as common as a barber’s chair, in which a whole parish sit to be trimmed.”
Bashi-bazouk Mercenary soldier belonging to irregular troops of the Turkish army, notorious for lawlessness, plundering, and savage barbarism.
Battle lantern Ship’s lantern made of thick horn to prevent fire and explosion, so called because one was placed at each gun to light up the deck during a night engagement.
Blackstrap Inferior port wine. Also, drink of rum and molasses.
Blateroon A blowhard; a babbler.
Boggard Specter or goblin, especially a spirit that haunts a gloomy spot or scene of violence.
Bombay Oyster A laxative drink consisting of a double dose of castor oil in a glass of milk.
Boot-topping To clean the upper part of a ship’s bottom by daubing it over with a coat of tallow, sulfur, resin, etc. when there is no dock or when there is not enough time to clean the whole bottom.
Bugger Simply, a chap or fellow. “I am nothing but an old bugger, it makes no odds whether I’ve got one leg or two.”
Bun-hght An old naval officers’ slang name for a tea party with ladies ashore.
Bunter A low dirty prostitute, half whore and half beggar.
Catamaran Quarrelsome or offensive woman
Caulk, take a After being caulked, deck seams are paid with hot pitch. To take a caulk is to have a nap, from the fact that a man who had been napping on the hot deck would be obvious by the pitch marks on his clothes.
Chapeau bras Bicorne naval hat; also “cocked hat.”
Cheese it Be silent; don’t do it. “Cheese it, the coves are fly” means be silent, they can hear us talking.
Chinese wedding cake Rice pudding with currants or raisins in it.
Choused To cheat or trick: “he choused me out of it.”
Clinchpoop A boor. This sixteenth-century term of contempt is now obsolete according to OED, but at least one writer is wrestling with the idea of resurrecting it. “I’ve been looking for an occasion to write the word ‘clinchpoop’ ever since stumbling over it… It is a word that challenges writers to find the perfect setting for it.” (Russell Baker, New York Times, 1987). In theory, clinchpoop is probably a word that should be reserved for drunken mariners and other seagoing boors. That is assuming OED’s guess about its etymology is correct: “One who clinches or clenches the poops of vessels.”
Come in through the hawse holes A sailor who “came in through the hawse-holes” had entered the service at the lowest level.
Criminal conversation A tort under common law that involved the seduction of another’s spouse. Criminal conversation is not the same as alienation of affection, which does not necessarily involve adultery.
Cunt-splicing Splice formed when two ropes are overlapped and joined to form an eye. Also called “cut-splicing.”
Cushion thumper A parson, many of whom in the fury of their eloquence, heartily beat their cushions.
Dead Chelsea A village near London. “Dead Chelsea, by G-d!” was an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, upon having his leg carried away by a cannonball.
Docking A punishment inflicted by sailors on the prostitutes who have infected them with venereal disease; it consists in cutting off all their clothes, petticoats, shift and all, close to their stays, and then turning them into the street. “Docked smack smooth” is one who has suffered an amputation of his penis from a venereal complaint.
Duck-fucker The man who takes care of poultry on board a ship of war.
Ducks and drakes Skipping a stone. A schoolboy’s game, played with pieces of tile, oyster shells, or stones, which are skimmed along the water’s surface.
Fag-ends Last part or remnant, end of rope; the frayed end.
Flemish fakes Method of coiling rope into concentric circles that don’t overlap so it’s rendered flat and solid to walk on and the rope will run freely when needed.
Flogging the glass To shake the watch-glass in order to speed up the passage of sand inside and shorten the watch.
Gammon and spinnage Talk, chatter, nonsense for deceiving simpletons. A bunch of hot air or bilgewater.
Ganymede In Greek mythology Ganymede, a mortal shepherd boy so beautiful that the god Zeus spirited him away to Olympus, served as the god’s cupbearer and lover. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and England, “Ganymede” came to be used for the boyish lovers of older men, and eventually for any male willing to be penetrated. A fellatrix. Captain Grose in 1790 wrote “GOBBLE PR — K, a rampant, lustful woman.” In 1837 it was deleted from the dictionary.
Gobble-prick A delay in the explosion of a gun’s charge or of a blasting charge.
Hanging fire When a soldier lit the fuse in a cannon, there could be quite a delay until the charge ignited, and this was known as hanging fire.
Hedge creeper A robber of hedges.
Hedge whoree An itinerant harlot who cheats the whorehouses by disposing of her favors on the wayside, under a hedge.
Hell-hre Dick A mysterious luminary who apparently assisted Captain Grose in compiling his 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence.
Hoop, go through the To undergo an ordeal. From the practice in some ships of passing hammocks through a hoop gauge to check they were of uniform size before allowing them to be stowed in the nettings.
Horn-book A primer for children, often covered by a plate of animal horn and mounted on a wooden board with a handle, consisting of a piece of paper containing the alphabet and sometimes ten digits, rules for spelling, or the Lord’s Prayer.
Hubble-bubble Rudimentary form of hookah in which smoke bubbled through a coconut shell half filled with water.
Humane Society The Royal Humane Society for the rescue of drowning people, founded in England in 1774.
Lay up in ordinary Said of a ship when out of commission.
Ironmonger’s shop To keep an ironmonger’s shop by the side of a common, where the sheriff sets one up; to be hanged in chains.
Jackass US Navy name for hawse-bag, a canvas bag filled with oakum used to plug hawse-holes to keep seawater out.
Jesuit To “box the Jesuit and get cockroaches” is a sea term for masturbation.
Jib, cut of his A person’s facial appearance. From the days of sail when a ship’s nationality could be told at a distance by the cut of her sails.
Ladrones A disaffected set of Chinese who revolted against the oppression of the Mandarins; christened Ladrones by the Portuguese at Macao.
Little snakesman A little boy who gets into a house through the sink-hole and then opens the door for his accomplices; so called from writhing and twisting like a snake in order to work himself through the narrow passage.
Lobcock A large relaxed penis; also a dull inanimate fellow.
Looby An awkward, ignorant fellow.
Matter of fancy waistcoats A nicety
of detail of no importance to the major issue.
Merry-Andrew Someone who entertains with antics and buffoonery, a clown.
Newgate solicitor A roguish attorney who assists villains in evading justice.
Nocky boy A dull, simple fellow.
Piping one’s eye Crying
Plum-duff, or duff Suet pudding steamed with currants.
Poking Charlie To treat anyone with derision; to make fun of.
Pooped A ship is said to be “pooped” when a heavy sea breaks over her stern, a potentially hazardous situation in a gale. Falconer quoted pooping as “the shock of a high, heavy sea upon the stern or quarter of a ship … This circumstance is extremely dangerous to the vessel which is thereby exposed to the risk of having her whole stern beat inwards, by which she would immediately be laid open to the entrance of the sea, and founder or be torn to pieces.”
Public ledger A prostitute. Because, like that paper, she is open to all parties.
Pucker A fright. “She was in a terrible pucker.”
Ripsnorter Person or thing that is wonderful, superior.
Rouse and shine Traditional morning awakening cry, often improperly quoted as “rise and shine.”
Run like a rigger To run fast. A corruption of “running a rig,” a trick practiced by pirates of running away from a more powerful vessel and quickly altering the appearance of the ship.
Scrub A reprimand. Also a low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.
Scuppered Killed. If a man on deck was washed into the lee scuppers by a heavy sea, he was almost certain to sustain serious injury.
Sea daddy In the Royal Navy, an experienced senior man who helped guide and instruct younger boys.
Sea lawyer A sailor who is fond of arguing and thinks he knows all the regulations. One of the pests of the navy as well as the mercantile marine. Richard Henry Dana referred to them as “lawyers of the fo’c’sle.”
Sea pie Dish of meat, vegetables, and fish layered with crusts of dough.
Sewn up A man who is so completely drunk and incapable, he might as well be sewn up in his hammock and tipped over the side.
Show a leg In the days when women were allowed to sleep on board vessels, they let them lie abed late. “Show a leg!” was called to ensure it really was a woman sleeping in.
Sixes and sevens Condition of confusion, disorder, or disagreement. From the language of dicing, the phrase was “to set on six and seven,” which was a fanciful exaggeration of “to set on cinque and sice,” the two highest numbers.
Skeleton at the feast A reminder of serious matters at a time of lightheartedness.
Skinned up As in “to skin up a sail in the bunt,” to make a furled sail smooth and neat using part of the sail to cover the remainder of the furled canvas.
Skittles Game traditionally played with nine pins set to form a square on a wooden frame, with the object being to bowl down the pins in as few throws as possible; nine-pins.
Sneaksby A mean-spirited fellow, a sneaking cur.
Squib A small firecracker. A damp squib is something that fails to deliver; an anticlimax, a disappointment.
Squirrel A prostitute, because she, like that animal, covers her back with her tail.
Swallow the anchor To leave life at sea for good.
Tea-wagon East Indiaman used to transport tea.
Under weigh At one time, “under weigh” could be regarded as the standard spelling. The Dutch gave us “onderweg,” meaning “on the way.” This became naturalized as “under way” and is first recorded in English around 1740 specifically as a maritime term. Some seafaring individuals erroneously linked it with the phrase “to weigh anchor.”
There are many examples of “under weigh” in the following two centuries, such as Thackeray, Captain Marryat, Melville, Byron, and Dickens. It was still common as recently as the 1930s (C. S. Forester) but “under weigh” is rarely used now.
Wafter An armed vessel employed as a convoy.
Waister Only the best hands were employed aloft in the rigging; others were employed in the waist of the ship. Melville referred to waisters as “the rag-tag and bobtail of the crew” who “haul aft the fore and main sheets, besides being subject to ignoble duties, attending to drainage, etc.”
White squall A squall not accompanied by clouds. Thought of by some as a myth, a white squall is the culprit of many sea stories and is blamed for quite a few tragedies. It is described as a sudden increase in wind velocity in tropical and sub-tropical waters.
SOURCES
Captain Grose et al, 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence
Dean King, A Sea of Words
Hugh Rawson, Wicked Words
GLBTQ, An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Culture
Olivia A. Isil, When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay
Frigate Richmond Ship’s Company 1775 Naval Terms and Slang, originally compiled by Commander A. Covey-Crump, RN
Random House, Historical Dictionary of American Slang
THE HINTERLANDS KAREN MERCURY
THE YEAR IS 1896. IN THE VAST NETWORK OF THE NIGER Delta waterways, where palm oil and blood flow from the hinterlands, the ancient Kingdom of Benin is under siege. Legendary trader and leopard hunter Brendan Donivan battles to protect his adopted homeland’s sacred civilization from the colonial expansion of the British, while balancing his commerce with the whiteman’s world. Life is not exactly easy. And it’s about to get worse.
Enter Elle Bowie, New York anthropologist. She says she’s come to study clitoridectomy. She claims the crazy Texan traveling with her, the one whose jungle attire consists wholly of a Stetson, boots, and a gun, is her husband. But Brendan suspects there’s a lot more to the lovely lady’s story than she’s letting on.
Brendan, of course, is right. Elle has a lot more on her private agenda than the sexual surgical practices of the Benin women. And she’s about to get herself into a bigger adventure than she’d planned on.
Because Mateus, descendant of Portuguese soldiers, who’s supposed to be her guide, is a traitorous gnome. The majestic and brutal General Ologboshere, in command of thousands of warriors, has taken an unhealthy shine to her. A passel of bumbling British consular appointees are screwing things up for everybody. There’s a war in the wings … you get the picture. But the worst, the absolute worst, is that super-feminist Elle is falling in love. With a guy who wears a skirt, no less.
And although he dwells in Benin, land of ritualistic human sacrifice and juju religion, a land about to run red with blood … although the lives and loves of many hang in the balance in The Hinterlands … Brendan’s grinning.
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KAREN MERCURY
THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE WORLD
ONE DERANGED EMPEROR UNIFIED A COUNTRY.
ONE FEARLESS ADVENTURER CAN DESTROY IT.
Abyssinia, 1866. The crazed (some say) but dynamic Christian King of Kings has taken power as Tewodros II. His vision: to reunite Ethiopia under one crown, one God. To that end he moves his massive, gorgeously arrayed army from province to province. But rebellion is continuous and, in the end, he is Emperor of only the remote and inaccessible rock Magdala, where he holds political prisoners, spouses, and relations he’s tired of and fifty Europeans.
Into the barbaric and breathtaking kingdom comes American adventurer, linguist, and ethnologist, Captain Ravinger Howland. Becoming Tewodros’ right-hand man, Ravi is allowed all the privileges of a royal son: concubines, armory, all the raw beef he can eat but not the returned Queen of Sheba.
American doctor Delphine Chambliss, Tewodros believes, is the reincarnation of Makeda from who all Abyssinian kings are descended. But even as Ravi begins to question Tewodros’ sanity, he falls for the bitterly bereaved Dr. Chambliss
. And now, as the kingdom crumbles, Ravi and Tewodros lock horns over the woman in a battle to the death.
ISBN#9781932815443
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The Strangely Wonderful: Tale of Count Balásházy Page 42
