Early in the eighteenth century, wives and girlfriends, as well as the occasional prostitute, were allowed to go to sea with the sailors during long voyages.
When one of them became pregnant and was about to give birth at sea, a canvas curtain was placed near the midship gun where the birth would take place.
If the newborn’s father was in doubt, and it often was, the birth was registered in the log as the “son of a gun.”
Related Posts
-
Where does the expression “son of a gun” come from and What does Son of a Gun mean?
Nowadays the expression "son of a gun" is likely to be a respectable or nice-Nelly substitute for an epithet of the when-you-call-me-that-Smile variety, a male offspring of the female of the canine family.…
-
Where does the phrase “Son of Belial” come from and What does Son of Belial mean?
Belial is the Anglicized form of the Hebrew b'li-ya'al, from b'li, "not," and ya'al, "worth, profit." Thus the original sense of belial was merely "unprofitable." From this sense, though, the term Belial came…
-
Who wrote the book Native Son and When was Native Son published?
Native Son, written by Richard Wright (1908-1960) and published in 1940, was the story of a young black man who murdered a white woman. It showed the horror and hatred that could be…
-
What Does “Pull Out All the Stops” Mean and Where Does the Expression “Gun it” Come From?
"Gun it" comes from early aviation and auto mechanics, who coined the phrase as an instruction to get more speed by pulling out the full throttle. This sudden injection of fuel caused a…
-
Where did the phrase “to jump the gun” come from and What does it mean?
The expression "to jump the gun" is of racing origin, especially foot racing. A contestant so keyed up as to spring from the starting mark a moment before the starter fires his pistol…
-
How Did the Twenty-One Gun Salute Originate and Where Did the Tradition Come From?
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…
