The Britishisation of American English

[Rogie]

Let me see, if the starboard was the side the boat was steered from, then port must relate to some function that was carried out on the other side. A few guesses (and it will be obvious I am utterly flying kites as I have almost zero nautical knowledge apart from sailing on a yacht once):

• it is the side the anchor is dropped
  
• the side the fishing nets are hauled aboard (assuming it is a fishing boat!)
  
• the side the dinghy is lowered (or any similar kind of vessel used to transport seamen to 'port')
  
• so, following on from previous guess, 'port' could just be shorthand for 'transport'
  
• the location for the infamous plank, as in 'walk the plank'
  

Apart from one guess I have no idea where the actual word 'port' was derived from.

[Bob]

No clue whatsoever. I'm still trying to figure out whether to the enter the left or right door of the port-a-potty.

[Guest fountainhall]

If Koko for President does not mind, I'll add a little clue. Don't think as Rogie does of what it is; think more what it is not!! Koko - over to you.

[kokopelli]

For those who know the answer it is obvious, as it always is. Rogie you are on the right track when you mentioned "port".

[Rogie]

A couple more wild guesses: is it related to portholes? or Porters? (the guys who lug the stuff aboard).

 

Or, anything to do with import/export?

[kokopelli]

Consider you are the captain of the good ship pictured above and you are entering the harbor/port; which side of the ship are you going to dock the ship?

[Rogie]

I'm gonna dock it in the dock, silly!

 

I guess no amount of bravado can disguise my abject failure to suss that one out. I've definitely gone off seafaring and have resolved never to run away to sea to seek my fortune. I shall evade the pressgangs and what's more the king can keep his shilling!

 

I need a glass of good vintage port to steady my frayed nerves. 2000 was a good year, maybe khun FH has a bottle going spare!

[kokopelli]

Oh, oh, better give the answer before something dreadful happens. Since the steering mechanism, the steerboard, is on the right side of the ship, the captain will port his ship with the left side when he enters the port so as not to damage the steerboard against the dock/wharf. Likewise, if the steerboard is pressed against the wharf it will not be effective when casting off. That is why a ship has a starboard side and a port side. Kind of like the driver's side and the passenger side of a car, but that does get confusing depending on what country you are driving in!

[Bob]

Couple of questions, Khun Koko:

 

(1) Did all the old boats have this feature (the so-called steering board sticking out of the right rear side)? If so, then it only made sense that why they docked such a boat on the left side to avoid damaging/smashing the so-called steering board.

 

(2) But I thought your question was why the word "port" is used to designate the left side (facing front) of a boat. Unless I missed it (a possibility), I don't think anybody's answered that. And, no, I don't have a clue.

[Guest fountainhall]

Port because that is the side used to dock the ship when it is in port. In other words, it is the 'port' side.

[Bob]

Hmm, duh.....and guess it sounds logical. Sounds like a rather modern term.

 

Playing the "google" game, here's what Carribean-Pirates.Com (yep, true name) has to say:

 

Why do we say Port and starboard?

 

Early English boats were built like large canoes, (influenced by the Vikings dragon ships) which didn't have rudders. Most sailors were right handed so steering the boat was done by swinging a steering paddle or oar over the right side.

 

boat builders would fasten two pegs into the top strake of the boat, near the back on the right side. The steering oar would then be placed between the two pegs and secured with leather (simple rudder).

 

The sailors using these boats would lean on the top strake on the left side ( larboard), and steer from the right so sailors began calling the right side strake as the steering board or Starboard in early english'

 

Since these boats had big steering Oars on the right side it was much easier to tie the boat up on the left side. Supplies had to be "ported" (carried by a porter a person employed to carry supplies) so the port side comes from the word "porter"

 

‘The left side of the ship is called port, by Admiralty Order, in preference to larboard, as less mistakable in sound for starboard’

 

This is why we use the word Port as a place for cargo to be loaded and unloaded, as in returning to port.

 

This terminology became official in1844 for the British Navy and 1846 for the U.S. Navy.

[Rogie]

Supplies had to be "ported" (carried by a porter a person employed to carry supplies) so the port side comes from the word "porter"

 

Is that true I wonder? The origin of many an exp

ression has several possibilities ('ok' anyone?). When I guessed port comes form porter in post #30 I was imagining groups of porters scurrying backwards and forwards loading or offloading the goods. As we already knew or had worked out the starboard side was furthest away from the harbour, it would be the side that the porters used that was the side the boat was docked on.

[Bob]

There probably are all sorts of theories. From what I've read, all of the early (Athenian, Phoenician, etc.) ships were actually powered by oars on both sides of the boat as well as often being assisted by sails. Here's one quote regarding the steering:

"The ship's primary propulsion came from the 170 oars (kōpai), arranged in three rows, with one man per oar. Evidence for this is provided by Thucydides, who records that the Corinthian oarsmen carried "each his oar, cushion (hypersion) and oarloop."The ship also had two masts, a main (istos megas) and a small foremast (istos akateios), with square sails, while steering was provided by two steering oars at the stern (one at the port side, one to starboard)."

 

Regardless, the actual words "port" and "starboard" seem to come from somewhat modern Anglo-Saxon times and language. I'm wondering how the ancient Greeks or Phoenicians differentiated the two different sides. Anyone have a clue?

[Guest fountainhall]

I wonder if they actually needed such words 3,000 years ago. The ships certainly had oars on both sides, sometimes several tiers on battleships. But surely these were retracted as necessary - as in battle or entering harbour, for example?

[kokopelli]

Most likely it was only warships that had oars and rowers so merchant ships relied on sale power for the most part.

 

Not really sure if there was not another steering oar on the left side of ancient vessels; a lot of images on google do show this. As for port it does derive from the Latin word portus. From what I read, porter, was not used until somewhere around the 12th century. Omnes manus in ponte: induc navis ad portum et præpara expositura onerariae.

 

Of course you are all familiar with the nautical expression "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" and they were not referring to the powder monkey which, of course, any true sailor would know.

[kokopelli]

Bless my sole! Koko committed a homophone or is it a lmtuism?

 

In the first sentence above, it is sail power not sale power.

[Rogie]

Of course you are all familiar with the nautical expression "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" and they were not referring to the powder monkey which, of course, any true sailor would know.

 

Yes, I'm familiar with the powder monkey which was the person, often a young lad, whose job it was to get the gunpowder, from wherever it was stored, to the guns.

 

The brass monkey expression is a good one, and if you haven't heard it before, it's pretty unlikely you'd guess it correctly.

 

How about the expression "mind your P's and Q's"? I've come across it but don't know its origins.

[Guest thaiworthy]

That's odd. Powder monkey is the name I lovingly call the bf when he wears too much makeup.

[Rogie]

The powder monkey was often a young lad or short sailor because it meant they were less of a target for the enemy guns, being able to keep out of sight better that a strapping 6-footer. It must have been extremely dangerous work. I don't suppose many powder monkies survived into middle or old age.

 

Sailors often wore a gold earing but I would be surprised if any wore makeup, that wouldn't have gone down too well with His Majesties Navy or any other western country. I am not aware of Thailand having a navy back in the days naval battles were common. If they had, I expect makeup might have been used as some of the sailors would have been ladyboys (unless they were deemed unfit for service; if so that would have been a shame as they might have fulfilled other useful functions . . . )

[Rogie]

Some more about why sailors often wore gold or silver earrings:

 

From Blackbeard to Jack Sparrow, pirates and sailors of old are often depicted wearing earrings. But the gold hoops weren't just swashbuckling fashion statements – they served several useful purposes.

 

Seamen proudly sported earrings as a mark of their travels and voyages. Earrings were given to young sailors to commemorate their first crossing of the equator, or when they rounded the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America.

 

Earrings were also worn for superstitious reasons. Some pirates were convinced that wearing an earring would improve or even cure bad eyesight, as they believed that the precious metals in an earring possessed magical healing powers. Another tale was that pierced ears would prevent seasickness. Others believed that a gold earring served as a protective talisman and that a man wearing an earring wouldn't drown.

 

 

This, of course, often proved to be false. But earrings made of silver or gold were worth enough to pay for a sailor's funeral if his body washed ashore. Some seamen even engraved the name of their home port on the inside of the earring so that their bodies could be sent to their families for a proper burial. If a man died on a ship, the earrings helped to cover the cost of transporting his body home so that he wouldn't be buried at sea or on foreign soil.

 

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1181-why-did-pirates-wear-earrings-.html

[kokopelli]

Some of you old salts who served on HMS Victory as a powder monkey should know about a brass monkey.Cannon balls were stored on a rack known as a monkey and often made of brass. In extreme cold the monkey would contract and off would come the balls, thus the expression.As for minding your Ps & Qs supposedly not Pints and Quarts but Pitch & Queues and any Jack Tar worth his salt would know why to mind them. Do you?

[Guest fountainhall]

Speaking of brass monkeys -

 

There was a young lad from Madras

Whose balls were made of brass;

In windy weather

They clashed together

And sparks came out of his arse!

[kokopelli]

Re: Ps & Qs correction. Probably the real meaning is Pints and Quarts but there is a suggestion it is Peas (Pea Jacket) and Queues (pig tails). Someone might steal your Pea Jacket and your tarred Queues might soil your uniform.

Now I have to take a mental break from all these word gymnastics.

[Guest fountainhall]

More Ps and Qs! Of the many supposed derivations, the one that seems the most likely is surely the old letterpress printing technique where small blocks with individual letters had to be manually placed in the printing frame. The frame would then be inked and paper passed over it. But since the letters had to be inserted to read from right to left, they were reversed in their blocks. To the typesetter, lower case p's therefore looked like q's and vice versa.

[Guest thaiworthy]

I have noticed the differences in spelling between British and US. as in Britishisation instead of Britishization. There are many such words like this ending in ". . . sation" instead of ". . . zation." So while minding our "Ps" and "Qs" let's not forget our "s" and "z."

 

Mini-quiz of typesetting trivia. Does anybody know what the following terms refer to? Easiest are first. Galley, straight matter, picapole, leading, Mergenthaler, Compugraphic, em-dash, mutt, nutt, and chicken-plucker (obscure, but I promise you--very interesting). The prize is a bag of M&Ms I stole from Fountainhall's last prize. (He'll never miss it!)