imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Friday, August 05, 2005
LIMEY LANGUAGE
Some U.S. Navy Slang
Some of these expressions, like “going ballistic”, have made it into the general lexicon. Most have not. I've limited myself to relatively modern expressions, mostly engineering ones, although there are a couple operational and aviation expressions, too. There are lots more that date back to the age of sail still in general use, e.g., “Take a round turn on that, sailor!”, which idiomatically means, “Stop that immediately and control yourself.” (“To take a round turn” literally means to wrap a line once around some ship or shore tackle, i.e., a cleat or bollard, without letting go of the line, so you can check the line's surge.) Likewise, to take a round turn on someone is to chastise him, to reel him in.
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