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Long ago in a world filled with explorers sailing to new lands, bringing exotic goods to new continents, and fearing attacks from pirates or sea monsters, a whole boating culture evolved. Like most cultures, it developed it's own language that has traveled over the centuries to become a part of our everyday conversations. The peculiar part of these common expressions, is that they don't really make any sense out of their own context from which they were created.

Fortunately, we can trace the origins of such sayings as, "Sleep tight!" through documents such as ship logs or insurance records. Today, who would think that by saying this bedtime wish, you are hoping that the ropes supporting the bunk of the sleeper are kept tight rather than loose from a rocking boat and causing a bad night's sleep.
Have you ever had to "cut and run"? If so, it means that you are going to cut the anchor rope and run ahead of the wind to make a quick get away.
If you have ever had to describe yourself as "three sheets to the wind", then you are saying that you are a boat that is lurching about like a drunken sailor. The sheets refer to the ropes that are fixed to the lower corners of sails to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing in the wind, then the boat takes on the character of the stereotypical drunken sailor. If you are tipsy, then you are just two sheets to the wind.
If you have ever been told, "No bananas on board!" by a captain or other authority figure, you are being told to comply without question. Bananas are strictly forbidden on ships as they are thought to bring bad luck. This theory was developed after sailors harbored their boats at tropical locations. They bought crates of bananas from locals, that once on board, would release venomous spiders and other critters that spread about the boat causing disease and death.
So often when out on a boat, someone will inevitably greet you with, "Ahoy!" This is usually meant to be a friendly greeting, but it is actually the dreaded war cry of the Vikings.
When reading books or watching movies about pirates, someone always exclaims, "Avast!" The mates then freeze and prepare for trouble.
It is a contraction of the two French words hold' and fast'.
Sailors have always loved and feared the sea. The bottom of the ocean was refered to as, "Davy Jones' Locker." So, who is Davy Jones? Some say he was an incompetent sailor or a bartender who kidnapped sailors. Or it simply refers to the devil's domain by calling him Devil Jonah'.
The most popular pirate phrase by far has always been, "Shiver me timbers!". This catch phrase was made popular by characters in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island'. They would exclaim this in surprise as if their very boat broke into pieces. That is literally what it means. Shiver means, to break into pieces', and timbers are the largest support beams for decks and ribs of a boat.
These along with countless other bizarre clich's can be traced back to our maritime roots. This phenomenon is so common and inundated into our culture that a person could spend a lifetime researching it. Or they could join The Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything. Or better known as CANOE. .

Learn more about this author, Melissa Kay Bishop.
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