soo my game crashed ... why is it going to take me 6 days to log back in ?

[Kelli May]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

I'm only going by what the guides told us. I wasn't around at the time, of course. But 'sleep tight' was explained at the castle and then we visited a very large house (called a hall). In the hall were old beds and under the matress was rope (I asked and it was shown to me). The corner is where the knot is to tighten the rope. I'm happy to accept that as the source of the saying, especially as it accompabied by the bit about bugs.

The 'upper crust' makes good sense as it was explained to us, and

"Kutt the upper crust for your soverayne" appears to support it. It's easy to imagine that the nobility came to be known as the 'upper crust'.

So all-in-all I'll accept the origins as they were told to us. After all, nobody can be certain. 'Sleep tight' may well have been a nautical term, but that doesn't mean that it's origin was nautical.

---

I didn't want to have to post a storm of links to support my opinion on 'sleep tight', but here are a few...

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1570/whats-the-origin-of-the-expression-sleep-tight

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-phrase-sleep-tight

http://www.word-detective.com/2008/08/sleep-tight/

Neither did I say it was a nautical term (that was Drake). I was only pointing out the meaning of 'fast' as 'secure' to be a common nautical term (it's used eslewhere too) for my comparison of 'fast asleep' to 'sleep tight'.

Folk etymologies get passed on in just this way, heard and repeated without anyone checking their facts. Tour guides are rarely historians or experts in language; many are just working from a script and throwing in colourful anecdotes they've picked up. Such definitions make make clever stories, but they are largely just stories. There are definitely rope-strung beds (I've slept in one and they can be very comfortable), but the origin of sleep tight has little or nothing to do with them.

[Phil Deakins]

My explanation was a joke but I guess you didn't get Only Fools and Horses over there.

[Snugs McMasters]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

My explanation was a joke but I guess you didn't get Only Fools and Horses over there.

---

We have both fools and horses over here. With Maddy's help, the fools outnumber the horses by a wide margin.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

I absolutely loved this hijacked and twisted thread - Woot Woot

Can we start a new contest?

How quick can we answer then hijack one of Splatulated's forum threads is the contest theme...

 

[Dillon Levenque]

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Kelli May wrote:

---

Phil Deakins wrote:

I'm only going by what the guides told us. I wasn't around at the time, of course. But 'sleep tight' was explained at the castle and then we visited a very large house (called a hall). In the hall were old beds and under the matress was rope (I asked and it was shown to me). The corner is where the knot is to tighten the rope. I'm happy to accept that as the source of the saying, especially as it accompabied by the bit about bugs.

The 'upper crust' makes good sense as it was explained to us, and

"Kutt the upper crust for your soverayne" appears to support it. It's easy to imagine that the nobility came to be known as the 'upper crust'.

So all-in-all I'll accept the origins as they were told to us. After all, nobody can be certain. 'Sleep tight' may well have been a nautical term, but that doesn't mean that it's origin was nautical.

---

I didn't want to have to post a storm of links to support my opinion on 'sleep tight', but here are a few...

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1570/whats-the-origin-of-the-expression-sleep-tight

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-phrase-sleep-tight

http://www.word-detective.com/2008/08/sleep-tight/

Neither did I say it was a nautical term (that was Drake). I was only pointing out the meaning of 'fast' as 'secure' to be a common nautical term (it's used eslewhere too) for my comparison of 'fast asleep' to 'sleep tight'.

Folk etymologies get passed on in just this way, heard and repeated without anyone checking their facts. Tour guides are rarely historians or experts in language; many are just working from a script and throwing in colourful anecdotes they've picked up. Such definitions make make clever stories, but they are largely just stories. There are definitely rope-strung beds (I've slept in one and they can be very comfortable), but the origin of sleep tight has little or nothing to do with them.

---

 

Interesting on the usage of 'fast'. Does 'fast asleep' have something to do with 'make it fast'? One expression I DO know came from old naval use is what my dad used to say when we were getting ready to go away from a visit to relatives or elsewhere: "It's time for us to shove off.". From hearing it so often I knew it meant 'leave' probably by the time I was old enough to parse words: one and a  half, two? It was not until I read Patrick O'Brian's novels (in my forties) of Jack Aubrey and the Royal Navy in the 18th century that I discovered it was an actual nautical term. Shove off, meaning those in charge of rowing the boat should put the ends of their oars against the ship (or pier) and push, to move their boat out far enough so they could begin rowing away.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

---

Dillon Levenque wrote:

---

Kelli May wrote:

---

Phil Deakins wrote:

I'm only going by what the guides told us. I wasn't around at the time, of course. But 'sleep tight' was explained at the castle and then we visited a very large house (called a hall). In the hall were old beds and under the matress was rope (I asked and it was shown to me). The corner is where the knot is to tighten the rope. I'm happy to accept that as the source of the saying, especially as it accompabied by the bit about bugs.

The 'upper crust' makes good sense as it was explained to us, and

"Kutt the upper crust for your soverayne" appears to support it. It's easy to imagine that the nobility came to be known as the 'upper crust'.

So all-in-all I'll accept the origins as they were told to us. After all, nobody can be certain. 'Sleep tight' may well have been a nautical term, but that doesn't mean that it's origin was nautical.

---

I didn't want to have to post a storm of links to support my opinion on 'sleep tight', but here are a few...

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1570/whats-the-origin-of-the-expression-sleep-tight

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-phrase-sleep-tight

http://www.word-detective.com/2008/08/sleep-tight/

Neither did I say it was a nautical term (that was Drake). I was only pointing out the meaning of 'fast' as 'secure' to be a common nautical term (it's used eslewhere too) for my comparison of 'fast asleep' to 'sleep tight'.

Folk etymologies get passed on in just this way, heard and repeated without anyone checking their facts. Tour guides are rarely historians or experts in language; many are just working from a script and throwing in colourful anecdotes they've picked up. Such definitions make make clever stories, but they are largely just stories. There are definitely rope-strung beds (I've slept in one and they can be very comfortable), but the origin of sleep tight has little or nothing to do with them.

---

 

Interesting on the usage of 'fast'. Does 'fast asleep' have something to do with 'make it fast'? One expression I DO know came from old naval use is what my dad used to say when we were getting ready to go away from a visit to relatives or elsewhere: "It's time for us to shove off.". From hearing it so often I knew it meant 'leave' probably by the time I was old enough to parse words: one and a  half, two? It was not until I read Patrick O'Brian's novels (in my forties) of Jack Aubrey and the Royal Navy in the 18th century that I discovered it was an actual nautical term. Shove off, meaning those in charge of rowing the boat should put the ends of their oars against the ship (or pier) and push, to move their boat out far enough so they could begin rowing away.

 

---

Dad was in the Navy, and flew a Corsair, so I learned nautical and aeronautical lingo, including cast off, shove off, heave ho, one trough four sheets to the wind (from drinking torpedo juice), BFH, SNAFU, ping (what I do to judge melon ripeness while other people thump), kludge, clear!, tailspin, crabbing, buzzing, etc. On driving trips, directions might be of the form "turn starboard" or "ice-cream at 10 o'clock." I loved hearing the words used out of context like that.

When I joined the sailing club in college, the "skipper" of my boat was a testosterone addled nutcase with an annoying fetish for nautical terminology. It was my nature to oppose him. So, I said rope instead of line, pole instead of mast, left, right, front, back... anything to peeve him. Within a half dozen outings, he was trying to toss me in the water. I'd be hanging straight out over the side of the boat, holding a rope fastened to the top of the pole, with my feet on the edge thingie (gunwale), trying to keep us upright (not much chance of that at 5'2" and 96 lbs) and he would tack... hard. The boat would come up and over I'd go backwards into the water with the boom rushing towards me.

He thought that was hilarious.

I did too.