rhyming slang

[hugoboss]

brass monkeys...i know it means cold/freezing...but what is it's rhyming slang route?

[Quizmonster]

It isn't rhyming slang. Click http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bra1.htm for an explanation.

[mr. piper]

or alternatively, read this.

it isn't rhyming slang as QM says, it is short for and i quote"COLD ENOUGH TO FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY!" but the short version is often used for politeness. i have been told it comes from the british soldiers during the raj in the khyber pass northern india.

[IndieSinger]

Two points, mr. piper:

1) That's exactly what Quizmonster's link says, only in much better detail; and

2) If the story you've heard is similar to this one, it is, as you can see there, or read in Quizmonster's original post, probably false.

[McHi]

One coment;

IndieSinger if YOU read the link that quizmaster stated you would find that it says nothing about British soldiers in northern India. The links on about the Royal Navy, ie ships, not the khyber pass in northern India( there is no sea ajoining the north of India).T'was a good question though.

[SimonMorton]

Recently performed experiments (see Scientific American, June 2004) suggest that, unless the circumference of said balls was less than 2cm and the join to the body less than 0.5cm across, then it would in fact require the temperature to drop to -179 C for said saying to take effect. How cold does it get in India then? Brrrrrrrrr   ....

[Quizmonster]

The earliest close reference to the phrase was in a publication called 'American Speech' issued in 1928. That read: "Cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey". Only when Eric Partridge published his 'Dictionary of Slang'  in 1937 do we first find the tail being replaced by other anatomical parts!

It's surely perfectly clear that these dates are much too late to have anything to do with naval cannon-balls or military manoeuvres on the North-West Frontier!

Apart from anything else, my link was to - not just some crummy website - but to that of Michael Quinion. He is a noted etymologist and lexicographer who has worked on the 'bible' of etymology and lexicography...'The Oxford English Dictionary'. In other words, what he says is worth listening to and you'd certainly need some very convincing, proven evidence to disagree with him. No such evidence appears to be forthcoming.

[IndieSinger]

McHi - read the first part of my second point again, only this time, concentrate on what it actually says.

 

Also apologies to Quizmonster as I think I worded my first point wrong - I meant to imply that your post (Michael Quinion's research) is the better-detailed one, not mr. piper's.

[Quizmonster]

With all due respect to Mr P, Indie, I knew which way around you meant things! Thanks for the name-clarification, too. Cheers

[summer]

It is something to do with old ships. As I recall there were brass monkeys on deck for something..and thier private bits fell off in the cold.

[Mr.Ix]

Oh Dear. If I was Stephen Fry I would be hooting at you now summer

[Skids]

A brass monkey is the triangular frame, place on the gun deck of a Royal Navy galleon, in which cannonballs were stored, in pyramid formation, to stop them rolling about.  It was precisely the right size to hold the formation together without the cannonballs rattling about.  When the temperature dropped the frame shrank in size and could no longer hold the formation of cannonballs, so it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.