Language Myths #2: Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls off a Brass Monkey, Giving the Cold Shoulder, Cop, Costing an Arm and a Leg, Crack a Smile

 

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Here are some more phony stories that you'll find on the internet about the origin of common words and phrases.

 

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (really, really cold!)

MYTH: On sailing ships, cannon balls were stacked in pyramid shape using a triangular piece of brass calledthe monkey. When it got cold enough, the metal would contract, and the cannon balls would scatter all over the deck.

REALITY: There is no historical evidence validating “monkey” in this sense. In fact, cannon balls were storedbelow deck near the cannons on wooden racks with holes in them (shot racks or shot garlands). Rolling cannonballs would have been totally unacceptable, a toe-crunching danger to the crew on a rocking vessel. Like it or not, what we have here is a vulgar anatomical reference. Herman Melville had a character say this in his seafaringnovel Omoo: “It was ‘ot enough to melt the nose h’off a brass monkey.” The temperatures are opposite and the body parts differ, but the affinity is obvious.

 

Cold shoulder (deliberate disregard or disrespect)

MYTH: In the Middle Ages [here we go again!], unwelcome guests were given a cold shoulder of meat ratherthan the customary hot meal. They would get the message that they were unwanted, and be on their way the next day.

REALITY: Meat of any kind was a luxury in the Middle Ages, not a thinly coded message. The phrase doesn’t even show up in print until 1816, when Sir Walter Scott used it in The Antiquary. Its use in that novel makes it clear that it referred to human anatomy, not mutton. It’s a dismissive shrug, a prelude to turning one’s back on someone.

 

Cop (police officer)

MYTH: This is an acronym for “Constable on Patrol” or “Constabulary of Police” or . . . [fill in the blank.]Analternative explanation is that  it started because policemen wore copper buttons on their uniforms.

REALITY: It arose because of what they did: capture people. As a verb, cop was a slang term for “grab” in GreatBritain in the late 18^th/early 19^th century. Ultimately, it tracks back to the Latin verb capere, to take or seize.

 

Cost an arm and a leg  (heavy price to pay)

MYTH: In George Washington’s day, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted.Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back whileothers showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are limbs; therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”

REALITY: It has nothing to do with physical reality. It’s a deliberate hyperbole, an exaggerated statement,much like “This’ll kill you!” “That blew me away!” “I work my fingers to the bone,” and “I split my sideslaughing!” Besides, it doesn’t appear until the 20^th century.

 

Crack a smile  (produce the beginnings of a smile)

MYTH: In the old days, many women and men had developed acne scars or smallpox scars by adulthood. Thewomen would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. If a woman smiled, the wax would crack, leading to the expression, “to crack a smile.”

REALITY: First, refer to mind your own beeswax. Second, to crack a smile literally means to part the lipsslightly, the same way we’d say, “crack that window open a bit,” or “leave that door open a crack.”