There ’s good reason to believe that sailors have always catapult salty language on the high sea . At least that was the effect of thePuritanpreacher Cotton Mather , who write in a 1699sermon , " It has been an observance , older than the Dayes ofPlato , That theSea is a School of Vice … Is not the Sin of profane Swearing and Cursing , become too notorious among our Sailors ? " Even the adjectival " salty , " signify crude words , originated in the late 1800sas a book of facts to the " colored " culture and vocabulary of sailors .
So , what was it exactly about nautical biography that turned good Christian boy into foul - mouthed seamen and popularise the belief of " swear like a sailor " ?
A Perilous Brotherhood
From the late 17th through the nineteenth century , there was arguably no profession more dangerous and technically demanding as being a crewmember on a magnanimous sailplaning vas , articulate Marc Nucup , public historian atThe Mariners ' Museum and Parkin Newport News , Virginia . Every aspect of seafaring involve coordinated teamwork and a " infirm link " on the crowd could make grave hurt or death . succeed the confidence and respectfulness of your crewmates was essential , which meant win over them you were part of the insular brotherhood of navy man .
" Because this was such a technical skill where the risk of dying or being injured was always present , you were either a sailor or you were n’t a navy man , " suppose Nucup , " Speaking like a skimmer was a big mark of show you belonged to that mathematical group . "
Part of speak like a sailor was being conversant in all of the specialized shipboard jargon — from scuppers to scuttlebutts — which itself could sound like a foreign linguistic process . But technique with foul terminology ( at least according to eighteenth - 100 criterion ) was also a indisputable sign of the zodiac that you were an experienced and trusted hand .
" assert like a leghorn was one identifiable way of making sure you were part of the chemical group , " says Nucup . " Just as there were song and shack that all sailors recognize , level they like to tell , and the way that they dressed in contrast to the civilian on shoring . "
‘Damn’ Was a Serious Swear Word
To New ear , the discussion " damn " scarce registers as unfit language , but in the highly spiritual culture of 18th- and nineteenth - century America , " damn " packed a serious punch . As historian Paul Gilje explained his excellent book , " To cuss Like a Sailor : Maritime Culture in America 1750 - 1850 , " misusing the word " all-fired " could outrage two different Christian taboo : 1 ) taking the Lord ’s name in vain ( as in " God damn you ! " ) or 2 ) putting yourself on the same tier as God by damning everything from bad malarkey to a sottish captain .
Most skimmer were raised in religious homes and fully understood that throwing around the word " damn " was sinful business concern , but that was also part of the appeal . gain ground credence into the navy man ' trade union often meant actively rejecting the mores of mainstream society , at least while onboard the ship . In his book , Gilje quote a repentant sailor in a New York prayer meeting :
If " damn " was risky enough , then what was considered a really vile example of " swearing like a sailor " ?
There are frustratingly few mentions of specific swear words in ship ’s logbooks and sailors ' journals from the geological era , but Gilje found one feller on a whaling ship in 1849 who draw his captain as using " the uncollectible and most secular nomenclature I have ever heard from mortal brim . " If you ’re expecting " F - bombs " and other roentgen - rated cussing , you might be surprised that one of the foulest insults a nineteenth - century crewman could utter was to call another man a " damn boy of a kick . "
What Did You Say About My Momma?
In his Scripture , Gilje found multiple account statement of Isle of Man aboard a ship nearly bolt down each other over being called the musical phrase . Captains whipped and beat men for less , and mutinies were plotted over such seemingly tamed Holy Writ . But as Gilje excuse , there was nothing tamed in those day about prognosticate someone ’s female parent a " bitch . "
In " A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue " published in 1785 , the writer limit " bitch " as a " she domestic dog or dogress " and also " the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English charwoman , even more provoking than that of working girl . " A prostitute had sex with men for money , but a " beef , " according to the eighteenth - C lexicon , was a " woman whose animate being intimate instincts compelled her to take on any and every usable male . "
To call a char a " kick " in the eighteenth and nineteenth one C was to deem her less than human and literally bestial . And to call a man a " Logos of a bitch " was an unforgivable offense considering the pedestals upon which young bluejacket placed their saint mother .
" There ’s a certain sentimentalism , particularly among the young man , " says Nucup . " Some may have had ravisher or wives on shore , but almost all of them had a mother at household and insulting your female parent was a swelled peck . "
In fact , " son of a bitch " might have been the most potent " struggle words " in the English linguistic communication , both on and off the H2O . To drive his item home , Gilje references theBoston Massacre , the ill-famed incident in which British soldiers burn on a crew of riot civilian in Boston in 1770 , killing five American colonists in the lead - up to theRevolutionary War .
As the angry Bostonians first clash with the British soldiers , one boy pointed to a soldier and cried out , " This is the boy of a bitch that knocked me down . " That would have almost sure enough made the soldier ’s descent boil . But the vilification and taunt did n’t stop there . According to another account , someone else in the crowd dared the British to take using some of the most unsanctified linguistic communication they could muster : " Damn you , you rascals ; fire . You dare not , fire . flame and be anathemize . "
‘Cursing with Gusto’
Gilje say that over metre crewman carry more and more pride in their piquant reputation , and while insults like " son of a bitch " became far-flung among 19th - century Americans of all profession , sailors " embraced cursing with a distinguishable gusto " and raise it into an " art form . " The power to avow freely was romanticise as one of the liberties of life at ocean and " swearing like a skimmer " came to stage a certain form of manful maritime life style .
Do New sailors still deserve the repute as fertile and creative cussers ? We pass out to Dave Winkler , a pull back Navy Reserve commanding officer and now a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation , who relayed a tale about a crewmate who practically jumped overboard when the young captain handed down a " no swearing " order . That said , wrote Winkler in an email , " I would not say that sailor have a special possession over swarthy language . I suspect it ’s pervasive throughout industrial environments . Then there are Marine Corps drill teacher ! "
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