release the nautical masses from nautical terms

[O C Diver]

Questioning why we use certain words to describe certain items is interesting to me. A dashboard is called a dashboard because on a buggy it was basically a screen to keep dirt from being kicked up on the driver when his horse was "dashing", a glove box is named for the location you put your driving gloves once again while driving your buggy. I was just interested in why we continue to use words in a specific situation , when it is really not necessary, head vs toilet and so on. BUT , confusing questioning norms and word usage with a lack of adventure and assuming a love for a big screen tv on a boat are two different things. I don't have a t.v. on my boat but I bet you have several on yours, probably one of those cool pop up screens next to your sub zero.

So is this a compliance issue where you determine your not going to use traditional boating terms and the rest need to change to your vocabulary?

There isn't a TV or a sub zero on my boat.

Ted

 

[Hippocampus]

Spend less than 10% of our boat time in a marina and on shore power. Still had a TV on the last few and the current boat. Need to watch Capt Ron at least once a year. Need a occasional Yankees or Pats game. Occasionally there’s actually something good on the screen like Yellowstone or Marvelous Mrs which we’ll stream. So good for 3-4h of TV per week. Also like putting the chart on the TV for those not in the pilot house to glance at. Find using the satellite view helpful to orient yourself as you glance outside Or to scroll through our pictures. For others it’s a constant background counter irritant.

Think both for sail and power there’s those who are social animals and those who enjoy solitude in nature. Those who need constant intense stimulation. Those who could spend an hour passively observing their surrounds. Rather be a renaissance man and savor a bit of everything.

The house is subzero/wolf. The boat is more efficient AC/DC units. Forget brands. Pick what works best for the setting.

 

[OldDan1943]

and the lighter in the car was originally called a 'cigar lighter', I guess because women did not smoke and gentleman smoked cigars.

 

[backinblue]

and the lighter in the car was originally called a 'cigar lighter', I guess because women did not smoke and gentleman smoked cigars.

And now they are called "power outlets". lol

 

[Seevee]

Boy, has this thread gone sideways....

There's nothing wrong with nautical terms for boating... that's how we communicate and understand others. Same with any other industry/activity....... aviation, cars, golf, fishing etc., etc have their own language and 1000s of other things. Speak the language or don't be understood.


What the heck a TV or sub zero has to do with this... I have no clue....

 

[backinblue]

Great points SeeVee. I'm thinking maybe someone wishes they had a TV or Sub Zero on board. Speaking of TV, I still sometimes say I'm going to "tape" a show, or hand me the "clicker". lol

 

[Seevee]

Great points SeeVee. I'm thinking maybe someone wishes they had a TV or Sub Zero on board. Speaking of TV, I still sometimes say I'm going to "tape" a show, or hand me the "clicker". lol

I have a large TV on board, and use it, mostly for the Admiral and I have no issue with it. It's often nice to relax and watch a movie at nite, pickup the weather, or news. We also have 3TB of recorded movies and TV shows. However, it's not the main reason we're on the boat. Just a nice diversion.


Also, I'm a forum junkie and want to keep up with the gossip on the forums I attend, so spend some time on the computer. I'm also a weather junkie... have to check it several times a day.

 

[charlesamilton]

anyone know why this is called a thread?

 

[SteveK]

anyone know why this is called a thread?

A thread is a string of messages that make up a conversation. Threads begin with an initial message and then continue as a series of replies or comments. Threads are essential to keeping track of conversations in most forms of online communication, including social media and email.

 

[soin2la]

A thread is a string of messages that make up a conversation. Threads begin with an initial message and then continue as a series of replies or comments. Threads are essential to keeping track of conversations in most forms of online communication, including social media and email.

You described the obvious structure, but didn't answer the question.
Why is it called a thread?

 

[SteveK]

You described the obvious structure, but didn't answer the question.
Why is it called a thread?

Because bullshit monologue and obtuse replies was not PC.

 

[KnotYet]

You described the obvious structure, but didn't answer the question.
Why is it called a thread?

'Thread' in computing dates to the 60's when it described programing sequences.
When the nerds started to communicate between computers they naturally kept
using terminology they were familiar with.

 

[soin2la]

Because bullshit monologue and obtuse replies was not PC.

But why a “thread?”

Why not a coupler, a union, a daisy chain?

Perhaps yarn would be more appropriate, because most are and they often unravel.

 

[soin2la]

'Thread' in computing dates to the 60's when it described programing sequences.
When the nerds started to communicate between computers they naturally kept
using terminology they were familiar with.

 

[rgano]

we have specific terms in carpentry, I dont call 2x 4s "sticks", but a rafter is a rafter, a joist is a joist, but right is right and left is left. If I am on my boat right is not according to where I am standing just as starboard is not dictated by which way I am facing. starboard is right, just call it right. A cleat is a cleat just call it a cleat not a watchamacallit. A bathroom and a toilet are a bathroom and a toilet, even on a boat. An anchor is an anchor, there is no other name for it, that is my point. Using the english language to describe things is its basis but giving new names to accepted definitions is fun but a little silly

Your opinion, not mine because I literally grew to adulthood afloat and didn't swallow the anchor until I was in my sixties.

Specifically, starboard is a specific place/direction no matter which way your wife is facing when she screams out, "There is a boat about to hit us on to the right (her's if she faces aft, sorry back (?) or astern maybe)." You will never get back the seconds it took you to look to starboard while instinctively throwing LEFT rudder on only to then look to port to find a bow in your face."

But it's your boat. You case is nonethelss weak and just plain argumentative in some cases.

I could care less what you want to call a bathroom because it pontentially makes no difference in safety.

 

[Northern Spy]

If one truly wonders about the use of nautical terminology perhaps it would help, philosophically, to read (or reread) Victor Hugo's dissertation about his use of Argot in Les Miserables.

Call anything on your boat whatever the heck you want to; just don't expect other sailors and boaters to accept your language or try to understand you.

I can't understand much of a modern rap song. But I am not the intended audience. Rappers don't care, and neither do I.

 

[O C Diver]

Call anything on your boat whatever the heck you want to; just don't expect other sailors and boaters to accept your language or try to understand you.

I can't understand much of a modern rap song. But I am not the intended audience. Rappers don't care, and neither do I.

Wished I had said that in my first post!

Ted

 

[Marco Flamingo]

Some resistance to using nautical terminology reminds me of a Steve Martin joke. He pretends to be ridiculing the French. "They have a different word for everything!!" The funny part is that he is impersonating the American who believes that learning anything after high school is an infringement on their Constitutional rights. Boating, like the French language, uses some different words. Some of the words are similar and you can get by with sign language and pidgin English. Your choice. If you "drive your boat from the steering wheel on the roof," that's fine by me. But if others don't understand you, or suspect your nautical experience, it isn't their fault.

One of the things in this thread that caught my attention was a link to a website that had nautical terminology. "Son of a gun" was attributed to sailors having their wives onboard and having their babies hung in hammocks between the cannons. Man, is that a all-ages, PC, cleaned up version of anything that I've ever heard. Which reminded me of the terminology I learned as the youngest deck hand. I found that every "nautical term" had a "salty synonym" having to do with defecation, fornication, masturbation, misogynist, chauvinist, racist, etc. It took month ashore before I could speak in polite company.

 

[phillippeterson]

Perhaps yarn would be more appropriate, because most are and they often unravel.

 

[Art]

Thread
/THred/

noun
1.
a long, thin strand of cotton, nylon, or other fibers used in sewing or weaving.
"he had a loose thread on his shirt"
2.
a theme or characteristic, typically forming one of several, running throughout a situation or piece of writing.
"a common thread running through the scandals was the failure to conduct audits"

 

[Northern Spy]

Some resistance to using nautical terminology reminds me of a Steve Martin joke. He pretends to be ridiculing the French. "They have a different word for everything!!" The funny part is that he is impersonating the American who believes that learning anything after high school is an infringement on their Constitutional rights. Boating, like the French language, uses some different words. Some of the words are similar and you can get by with sign language and pidgin English. Your choice. If you "drive your boat from the steering wheel on the roof," that's fine by me. But if others don't understand you, or suspect your nautical experience, it isn't their fault.

On the same album he discusses teaching children the wrong word for items.

The kid goes to school and says, "Can I mamma dogface in the banana patch?"

 

[backinblue]

we have specific terms in carpentry, I dont call 2x 4s "sticks", but a rafter is a rafter, a joist is a joist, but right is right and left is left. If I am on my boat right is not according to where I am standing just as starboard is not dictated by which way I am facing. starboard is right, just call it right. A cleat is a cleat just call it a cleat not a watchamacallit. A bathroom and a toilet are a bathroom and a toilet, even on a boat. An anchor is an anchor, there is no other name for it, that is my point. Using the english language to describe things is its basis but giving new names to accepted definitions is fun but a little silly

Sorry Charlie but starboard and port do not mean right and left. Starboard is the right side of the boat when you are facing the bow. If you were on the bow facing aft, does your right hand suddenly become your left hand? Just like when you are a mechanic working on a car. Right and left side can be ambiguous, driver's side and passenger side are not. You can argue all day about bathroom vs. head, but you'll never convince me that starboard and port are not more useful than right and left.

 

[kthoennes]

I've mostly been just skimming this thread because I use nautical terms out of habit since I was a kid around Mystic and there's no debate or need for justification in my mind, but it seems to me there are at least a couple of very clear reasons to use nautical terms. There's the functional or practical *utility* of nautical terms -- like so many have pointed out with port and starboard -- but then there's also a ton of vocabulary where regular household or residential substitutes just don't work, they're simply not descriptive. My house has walls, the boat has bulkheads. If I called the bulkheads walls, how does anybody know the difference between the hull and the interior "walls?" (I know, somebody raised that one already.) Other than the fact you look through both of them, the portlights on the boat are almost nothing like the windows in my house. The aft deck -- what would I call that area if I didn't call it an aft deck? (Or poop deck, or fantail, or whatever, as we beat to death in a recent thread.) What would I call the anchor windlass, the anchor chain twirly thing? The anchor windey thing? The anchor sucker-upper. What would I call the dinghy, the "little-boat-that-trails-behind-that-we-use-to-get-to-shore?" I could go on but you get the idea.

And then I also think that if this were a sailing forum rather than power (former sailors notwitstanding), we wouldn't even be having this discussion. How do we more efficiently or simply describe the difference between standing rigging and running rigging? Describe a "shroud" in one alternative, non-nautical word. Or any of the sails -- spinnaker = that balloon-lookin' sail in front? Or any sailboat type or configuration -- yawl, ketch, sloop, schooner. Or the phrases used to describe points of sail. Helm = "area with the steering wheel?" Well, unless it has a tiller. Wait, can't use tiller. The galley on the boat is very different than our kitchen at home, and perish the thought of my installing electric macerators in our home "bathrooms." Anybody who thinks we ought to ditch nautical terms, I'd like to see a glossary of the modern substitutes.

Rudder = big flat underwater flap that swings back and forth to change the boat's direction.

Keel = yeah, I have no idea. Bottom edge that runs fore to aft? Oops, can't use fore or aft.

Sponson = what, flotation-outrigger-attached-directly-to-the-hull?

Capstan = round cranking thingie. I guess a furling jib is a sail that sucks itself back in around the -- wait, can't use forestay...

 

[Art]

kth - Being from around Mystic - You Gots Da Words! Mystic is one of my favorite locations ever for boaty type thangs and old-time marine doings!!

 

[Peter B]

Just wondering if I am the only one that really don't see the necessity of nautical terms. Is it really a sin to call a bathroom a bathroom on a boat? or right and left, or bedroom, and does it make any difference if you call a rope a rope, and a kitchen a kitchen? What is the reason for this lingo? Are we cool cuz we have our own language and are part of a exclusive club that feels it is important to call a wall a bulk head?

YES

I am a carpenter by trade and you know what guys that are ashamed of being a carpenter call themselves... a "housewright" I guess having a club with its own clever lingo is fun but is it really necessary?

Again...YES.
In Aussie, carpenters are also called chippies...electricians, sparkies...but plumbers are just plumbers, for some reason...

It's all to do with the concept of the secret sign thing I think. Adds to the mystique, and keeps land-lubbers in their rightful place.

 

[Art]

It's all to do with the concept of the secret sign thing I think. Adds to the mystique, and keeps land-lubbers in their rightful place.

I'll understand someone on or around a boat using terms like bathroom, right, left, kitchen, front, back, rope, and other descriptive words generally affixed to land based items.

I simply won't speak with them very often while on or around boats.

If a person can't recognize the importance of accurately understanding nor utilizing marine terms... then they likely must not be able to recognize the importance of accurately understanding nor utilizing marine safety measures.

Marine words and items have to do with marine doings. Land based items and words have to do with land based doings. Two very different stations of life conditions for existing in and upon.

 

[rgano]

I wonder what the aviation professionals think about us earth-bounders calling the wings horizontal air foils just cuz that's what "they really are." Propellers - whirling air foils. Jet engines - large hot air pumps. Fuselage - people tube. But I digress.....

 

[AlaskaProf]

I wonder what the aviation professionals think about us earth-bounders calling the wings horizontal air foils just cuz that's what "they really are." Propellers - whirling air foils. Jet engines - large hot air pumps. Fuselage - people tube. But I digress.....

As an aviation professional who is a tenured creator of other aviation professionals, I can tell you they wouldn't even understand what this argument is about.:lol:

 

[Alaskaflyer]

I wonder what the aviation professionals think about us earth-bounders calling the wings horizontal air foils just cuz that's what "they really are." Propellers - whirling air foils. Jet engines - large hot air pumps. Fuselage - people tube. But I digress.....

That’s “meat tube.”

 

[Northern Spy]

People-tank in submarine lingo.

Our primary concern is to keep water out of the people tank.