Hello CF,
I'm always fascinated when I learn that an everyday word or phrase began it's life as a nautical term and what that definition was.
Here's a couple that I know:
A square meal.....It got it's start on board ships because in order to utilize the
galley storage space as efficiently as possible, plates were made square instead of round so there was no wasted space in between.
The Head.....Long before their were bathrooms on board, the sailors (all men) would go forward and relieve themselves on either side of the
bowsprit, just above the part of the
hull in which the decorative carved figurehead was mounted.
Without just looking on line, what are some of the words or terms that you know of that have a nautical
history?
Jeff