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Betelguese
| Ãëîññàðèé ìîðñêîé ëåêñèêè è òåðìèíîëîãèè (àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê) |
The lucida of orion, {a} orionis, and a standard greenwich star of the first magnitude.
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Betty martin, àíãëèéñêèé
- See martin.
- The origin of the 18th century seafarer’s expression of disbelief “all my eye and betty martin” is obscure. the first part clearly comes from the ancient french dismissive phrase “mon oeil” and the translation “my eye” is still used to indicate skepticism. the british prefixed it with “all,” and for some uncertain reason later added the suffix “betty martin.” there are at least three explanations for this, none of which seems credible or satisfactory. • the oxford english dictionary cites the earliest appearance of the phrase as being in a 1781 letter from samuel crisp to his sister sophia, which refers to it as “a sea phrase that admiral jemm frequently makes use of.” from this, it has been postulated that a betty martin was an item of nautical equipment whose name has long been forgotten. but it would be most unusual for such a term to totally disappear from the extensive records and dictionaries of the time. there is no admiral jemm in the 1660–1815 list of royal navy sea officers, but massachusetts historian j.l. bell says “admiral jemm” was used by english author and diarist fanny burney as an affectionate nickname for her brother james, who was only a captain at the time, but was “yellowed” to rear-admiral on retirement. • some suggest there was a real betty martin, variously reported to be either a contemporary london actress or a notorious waterfront prostitute. however, it is unclear why seamen would have added her name to a perfectly good expression already in common use. • it has been proposed that the entire phrase is a corruption of roman catholic prayers overheard and misunderstood by a protestant english sailor visiting a foreign port. when asked what it was like ashore, he is supposed to have replied “all i heard them say was ‘my eye and betty martin.’” the most commonly accepted version of this garbled prayer comes from a french book of hours, dated 1500, in the royal danish library which reads, “ora pro mihi, beate martine,” meaning pray for me, blessed martin. however the latin is ungrammatical and the supplication does not appear in any liturgy. an alternative is “mihi, beate mater,” meaning (roughly) grant my wish, holy mother. neither seems very credible, although “mee hye” is how my eye would have been pronounced by a cockney-speaking seaman.
Best bower, àíãëèéñêèé
- See bower-anchors.
- Sailing ship term for the starboard of two bow anchors. the one on the port side was called the “small anchor,” even though it was the same size.
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