Avast and Belay

Filed Under March 2007, columns | 2 Comments

Haul that keel, and, like, whatever.

Dear Word Detective: I have followed your column in the Green Bay Press Gazette for years, and, before that, your father’s column in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. As a now retired Speech/Language Pathologist, I love word study. I just noted this phrase in a local story about the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out: “Avast and belay!” I know these words are of English derivation, but have never heard the “belay” word before. Can you provide some background –”Arrrgh, Matey!”? — Marycarolyn Jagodzinski, Suring, WI.

Hiya. It’s always nice to hear from long-time readers. Incidentally, this is actually the same syndicated column that my father, William Morris, began back in 1956 under the title Words, Wit and Wisdom, which probably makes it one of the longest-running newspaper columns in the US. My mother, Mary D. Morris, actually contributed greatly to the writing of the column from the beginning, but her name didn’t appear on it until the 1970s.

I’m not sure what my parents would have thought about movies based on theme-park rides, but I was actually considering seeing POTC II until I learned that it runs well over two hours. That’s a bit much, although I’ve loved pirate movies ever since I saw Robert Newton’s classic over-the-top portrayal of Long John Silver in Disney’s 1950 movie of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” Incidentally, a good book for anyone interested in the facts behind Hollywood’s pirate fantasies is “Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates,” by David Cordingly.

Although “avast” is considered a classic pirate word by landlubbers, it’s actually been in general nautical use since the 17th century. “Avast” is an order to “stop, cease, hold still,” and comes from the Dutch phrase “houd vast” (meaning “hold fast”), frequently apparently slurred into “hou’vast.”

“Belay” is a natural companion to “avast,” since it means “to fasten or tie up securely,” as one might tie up a ship to a dock. The root sense of “belay” is “to lay something around another thing,” and in the 13th century to “belay” often meant to ornament a jewel, for instance, with a circle of gold. In the 14th century and thereafter, “belay” was often used in a military sense meaning to surround or lie in wait for the enemy. The most common use of “belay” today is the nautical one, in which a line or rope is “belayed,” or wrapped around, a deck cleat or “belaying pin” in order to secure it. (”Belaying pins,” incidentally, are those wooden things often used to knock people out in pirate movies.) “Belay” is also used in mountaineering, where properly secured lines are even more important, in much the same sense.

 

 

Champ/Chomp

Filed Under March 2007, columns | 1 Comment

Get this thing out of my mouth.

Dear Word Detective: I have always maintained that the phrase for being in a hurry is “…champing at the bit.” I am in the minority, however, since everyone I know says “chomping.” Of course, these are the same people who may cite this clarification as a “mute point” rather than “moot,” but I am always trying to educate them. Can I have your assistance? — Anita.

“To champ at the bit” is a metaphor meaning “to be very eager to get started” on a task or enterprise (”The new owners were champing at the bit to cut employee benefits”). The “bit” in question is the metal bar in a bridle that goes inside the horse’s mouth, and the analogy of “champing at the bit” is to a racehorse at the starting line excitedly chewing on its bit in visible eagerness to begin a race.

While one of those horses will win the race and become the “champion” (at least for a few minutes), the shortened form of that word, “champ,” is unrelated to the bite sort of “champ.” “Champion” is from the Latin “campio,” meaning “combatant,” based on “campus,” or “field,” in this case a battlefield.

But the sort of “champ” that horses do is almost certainly onomatopoeic or “echoic” in origin, meaning that “champ” arose as an imitation of the sound of an animal noisily chewing something. “Champ” is a fairly recent word, dating only to the 16th century, and “champ at the bit” applied figuratively to eager humans is even more recent, first appearing at the end of the 19th century. “Chomp,” incidentally, is simply a popular variant of “champ” (much as “stamp” begat “stomp”), so while “champing at the bit” is the more established form, “chomping at the bit” can’t really be said to be incorrect.

You’re on more solid ground in your rejection of “mute point.” “Moot” was originally a legal term applied to a hypothetical debate (as in “moot court,” where law students practice effective argument), and a “moot point” was originally one well-suited to such lively practice debates. But as hypothetical debates by definition have no real-world consequences, “moot” has gradually come to mean “irrelevant.” “Mute” has nothing to do with either meaning of “moot,” and “mute point” really doesn’t make any sense. It’s a case of people substituting a word they know (”mute”) for an unfamiliar one (”moot”), a process known as “folk etymology.” It’s a very common process in the evolution of language, so brace yourself. Like it or not, if enough people start saying “mute point,” it will eventually become the standard form.

 

 

Conn

Filed Under March 2007, columns | 3 Comments

He’s Fred, Jim.

Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the word “conn”? I think I first heard the word while watching Star Trek: “Number One, you have the conn.” Recently, the word has caught on around the office and the question “Who has the conn?” will often be heard. Sadly, most have never seen the word spelled, so they invariably will type “Who has the con”? I guess a second question would be which is preferred, “conn” or “con”? –Andy.

Are you sure about that? I always thought it was “Mister Sulu, you have the conn,” and that Number One was the actor you’d never seen before who beamed down to Altair Four with Kirk and Spock and then got eaten by a giant clam.

To “have the conn” means to be in charge or have the power of command. I tend to associate the term with movies made from Tom Clancy novels and similar he-man fare, so it’s a bit difficult to imagine “Who has the conn?” being widely used in any office where you’re not required to salute your boss. On the other hand, I’ve been working at home for many years, so maybe I’m unaware of a recent militarization of office life. I can’t say I’d be surprised, but I hope this doesn’t mean I have to buy little uniforms for the cats.

“Conn,” meaning the power to metaphorically steer the course of an endeavor or enterprise, comes from the literal use of that power. When “conn” (in the form “cun”) first appeared in English in the 17th century as a verb, it meant “to direct the steering or course of a ship,” usually from the bridge of the ship or its equivalent. Obviously, the captain of a ship has the primary responsibility for “conning” the vessel, but often delegates the “conn” (the noun appeared in the early 19th century) to subordinate officers. Early battleships actually had elevated “conning towers,” armored to protect the captain, et al., but today the same functions are usually carried out from a “conning station” on the ship’s bridge.

For a term redolent of the high seas and naval battles of yore, “conn” has a remarkably tame origin. “Conn” apparently arose as a variant form of the verb “cond,” also meaning “to direct the steering of a ship,” which in turn derived from the obsolete verb “condue,” meaning “to conduct or guide.” As you might suspect, “condue” itself ultimately harks back to the Latin “conducere” (to lead or guide), which also gave us our modern English “conduct.”

 

 

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