Why do we say, “It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”?

Early warships fired iron cannonballs from a stack piled next to the cannon. To keep them in place, they used a square piece of rust-proof brass with indentations to secure the bottom layer of balls. This plate was nicknamed the monkey. When it got cold enough, the mischievous brass monkey would shrink, causing the balls to fall out and roll all over the deck. It was “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.”

How did a crushing public humiliation become known as a “Roman holiday”?

The Etruscans of ancient Italy ritually honoured their dead war heroes by sacrificing the lives of all prisoners seized in battle. After conquering the Etruscans, the Romans borrowed and embellished the ritual by having the prisoners kill each other. They turned the slaughter into public gladiatorial games and declared the spectacle a Roman holiday, which became an expression synonymous with any cruel and crushing public destruction.

Why is gossip called “scuttlebutt”?

The word scuttlebutt comes from sailors of the British Navy. Nineteenth-century warships had large wooden casks with holes cut in the lid for drinking water. The word scuttle means a hole, like the one created to scuttle a ship, or in this case, the one in the cask. The water cask itself was called a butt. And just as is done around the water coolers of today’s offices, sailors exchanged the latest gossip while getting a drink at the scuttlebutt.

Why when abandoning ship do we say “women and children first”?

In 1852, the HMS Birkenhead was off to war in South Africa when she ran aground and sank off the coast of the Cape. The only useable lifeboats were quickly filled by the 20 women and children on board, while the 476 soldiers lined up on deck to go down with the ship. This is where the tradition of “women and children first” was born, and in naval circles is still called “the Birkenhead drill.”

Why do we call a traitor a “turncoat”?

Someone who changes sides during a war is called a “turncoat” because of the actions of a former duke of Saxony who found himself and his land uncomfortably situated directly in the middle of a war between the French and the Saxons. He quickly had a reversible coat made for himself, one side blue for the Saxons, and the other side white for the French. Then, depending on who was occupying his land, he could wear the appropriate colour of allegiance.

Why, when someone we trusted turns against us, do we say he’s “shown his true colours”?

Sailing under false colours means to sail under the enemy flag, and it was once a legitimate naval manoeuvre used to get close enough to the enemy for a surprise attack. At the last moment, just before opening fire, the false colours were lowered and replaced by the ship’s “true colours.” Although such deception is now considered dishonourable, we still say when someone we trusted reveals himself as the enemy that he is showing his “true colours.”

What does the D stand for in D-Day?

Although D-Day has become synonymous with the Allied landing on June 6, 1944, in Normandy, it was used many times before and since. The D in D-Day simply stands for “day,” just as the H in H-Hour stands for “hour.” Both are commonly used codes for the fixed time when a military operation is scheduled to begin. “D minus thirty” means thirty days before a target date while “D plus fifteen” means fifteen days after.

Why are those for and against war called “hawks” and “doves”?

Those who side with war have been called “hawks” since 1798, when Thomas Jefferson coined the term war hawk. The description of those who favour peace as doves is from the biblical book of Genesis. When Noah sent a dove over the water to see if it was receding, it returned with an olive leaf, indicating there was land nearby. The modern use began during the Cuban Missile Crisis and continues to the present.

Why is a secret enemy amongst us referred to as a “fifth column”?

Any secret force within an enemy’s midst during wartime is called a fifth column. The phrase comes from the Spanish Civil War, when the general leading the 1936 siege of Madrid with four columns of infantry was asked if four were enough. He replied that he had a fifth column hiding inside the city. Since then a fifth column has meant a secret organized force amongst the enemy or ourselves.

Why is the bugle call at day’s end called “taps”?

In the seventeenth century, the British borrowed a Dutch army custom of sounding a drum and bugle to signal soldiers that it was time to stop socializing and return to their barracks for the night. The Dutch called it “taptoe,” meaning “shut off the taps,” and the abbreviated “taps” became a signal for tavern owners to turn off the spigots on their beer and wine casks. After lights out, taps signals that the soldiers are safely home, which is why it’s played at funerals.

Why do the military say “Roger” then “Wilco” to confirm a radio message?

During the Second World War, the U.S. Navy used a phonetic alphabet to clarify radio messages. It began, Alpha, Baker, Charlie, Dog, and went on to include Roger for “R.” Because “R,” or “Roger,” is the first letter in received, it confirmed that the message was understood. On the other hand, “Wilco” is a standard military abbreviation for “will comply.”

Why when two people share the cost of a date do we say they’re “going Dutch”?

War has influenced the slurs in our language more than anything else. For example, when a soldier runs from battle the French say he’s gone travelling “English style,” while the English say he’s on “French leave.” During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, British insults were that “Dutch courage” came from a bottle while a “Dutch treat” meant that everyone paid their own way, which of course was no treat at all.

Where did the word assassin come from?

While mounting a jihad against the invading Christian Crusaders in the 1300s, Hassan ben Sabah controlled his command of radical killers with a potion that gave them dreams of an eternity in a garden where young women pleased them to their heart’s content. The potion was from hashish, and these young killers became known as hashish eaters, which in Arabic is hashashin, or as the Crusaders pronounced it, “assassin.”

Why is an overly eager person or group said to be “gung-ho?”

The adjective gung-ho comes from the Chinese word gonghe, meaning “work together.” It entered the English language through U.S. Marines who picked it up from the communists while in China during the Second World War. Because the marines admired the fervour of the Chinese leftists in fighting the Japanese, while the rightists under Chiang Kai-shek seldom fought, they adopted “gung-ho” as a slogan. They emulated the communists with “gung-ho” meetings and eventually called themselves “the gung-ho battalion.”

In modern warfare, is it infantry or machines that determine the outcome?

Machines win modern wars. A 1947 study found that during the Second World War, only about 15 to 25 percent of the American infantry ever fired their rifles in combat. The rest, or three-quarters of them, simply carried their weapons, doing their best not to become casualties. The infantry’s purpose is not to kill the enemy, but rather to advance on and then physically occupy his territory.

What is the origin of the twenty-one gun salute?

All salutes are signals of voluntary submission. Early warriors simply placed their weapons on the ground, but when guns came along, the ritual of firing off or emptying cannons was done to illustrate to approaching foreign dignitaries that they had nothing to fear. In 1688, the Royal Navy regulated the number of guns to be used in saluting different ranks. For a prime minister, nineteen guns should be used, but for royalty or heads of state, the salute should be done with twenty-one guns.

Where did the expression “the whole nine yards” come from?

During the South Pacific action of the Second World War, American fighter planes’ machine guns were armed on the ground with .50 calibre ammunition belts that measured exactly twenty-seven feet, or nine yards, in length before being loaded into the fuselage. If, during mortal combat, a pilot gave everything he had by firing all his ammunition at a single target, it was said he’d given it “the whole nine yards.”

What exactly is a last-ditch stand?

In the sixteenth century, when an army attacked a walled city or fortress, they would advance by digging a series of trenches for protection until they were close enough to storm the walls. If there was a successful counter-attack, the invaders would retreat by attempting to hold each trench in the reverse order from which they had advanced until they might find themselves fighting from the “last ditch.” If they failed to hold that one, the battle was lost.

During the American War of Independence, which country contributed the most soldiers to fight alongside the British?

The country that contributed the most soldiers to fight with the British against Washington was America itself. By 1779, there were more Americans fighting alongside the British than with the colonists. Washington had about thirty-five hundred troops, but because onethird of the American population opposed the revolution, up to eight thousand loyalists either moved to Canada or joined the British Army.

Where did croissants, or crescent rolls, originate?

In 1683, during a time when all the nations of Europe were at war with each other, the Turkish army laid siege to the city of Vienna. The following year Poland joined Vienna against the Turks, who were ultimately forced to lift the siege in 1689. As a celebration of victory, a Viennese baker introduced crescent-shaped rolls, or “croissants,” copying the shape of the crescent Islamic symbol on the Turkish flag.