Brass monkeys?

[mariner2]

I just got an email saying this was something to do with cannon balls and the thing holding them in place on a ship's deck . . . . is this true?

[chrisrob]

A popular misconception.
See this: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold%20enou gh%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20bra ss%20monkey.html

[fredpuli47]

No. The story is along the lines that a monkey was a frame made of brass which held cannon balls .Apart from anything else, nobody would be daft enough to use expensive brass to make such a basic thing when it could be made of timber.Second, there's no record of any such device,such as a rack, being called a monkey. What there was, on board ship, was a 'powder monkey' That was a boy employed to carry the gunpowder to the guns.

It's more likely that 'brass monkeys' is a reference to the popular brass ornament, 'the three wise monkeys' representing 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'.It is made of brass, does show monkeys and if the weather was cold enough, it could freeze the testicles off them!

[Quizmonster]

As has already been said, there is no connection whatsoever between cannon-balls piled up on old sailing-ships and the phrase �cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'.
For a start, given the way ships rolled, pitched and yawed in heavy seas, they would not have stayed in any kind of vertical pile for long, whatever the weather. In fact, they were invariably kept in what were called �shot garlands'...ie planks with appropriately-sized holes. There is no historical record of the word, �monkey', ever having been used to mean a brass ring either.
The plain truth is that �balls' here refer to �testicles'. An early connection between monkeys and weather appears in a Herman Melville novel in which he wrote: "It was �ot enough to melt the nose h'off a brass monkey." Obviously, hot weather was as significant to the poor monkey as cold! Another writer referred to cold weather, saying: "It would freeze the tail off of a brass monkey." Both of these quotes - amongst others relating hair, ears and other simian body-parts to the weather - come from the mid-19th century. It is not until 1937 that the �balls' version was recorded.
There are, therefore, several historical connections behind the phrase, but not one of them has anything to do with cannon-balls!

[MRJWA]

I prefer: it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey