;Posted on 02/12/2014 5:20:28 AM PST by TruthShallSetYouFree
Word For The Day, Wednesday, February 12, 2014-- copper-bottomed
;In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
copper-bottomed
adjective
reliable, esp financially reliable, genuine, trustworthy
Origin: (from The Phrase Finder)
If you come across something that is copper-bottomed these days, it is most likely to be a saucepan. In the 18th century, it would have been a ship. It is unusual for an idiomatic phrase to have such a literal derivation as this. 'Copper-bottomed' described ships that were fitted with copper plating on the underside of their hulls. The process was first used on ships of the British Navy in 1761 to defend their wooden planking against attack by Teredo worms a.k.a. Shipworms (actually a type of bivalve clam) and to reduce infestations by barnacles.
The method was successful in protecting ships' timbers and in increasing speed and manoeuvrability and soon became widely used. This piece from The London Magazine, March 1781, records the introduction of its use on all the ships of the Royal Navy:
Admiral Keppel made a remark upon copper bottomed ships. He said they gave additional strength to the navy and he reproached Lord Sandwich with having refused to sheath only a few ships with copper at his request, when he had since ordered the whole navy to be sheathed.
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, may have been otherwise occupied. He is said to have once spent twenty-four hours at the gaming-table without refreshment other than some cold beef placed between slices of toast - hence giving name to the sandwich.
Before long, 'copper-bottomed' began to be used figuratively to refer to anything that was certain and trustworthy. Washington Irving, in his work Salmagundi, 1807, included this line:
"The copper-bottomed angel at Messrs. Paff's in Broadway."
It wasn't all plain sailing. Pay attention at the back, here's the science bit:
Copper and iron, when immersed in a suitable electrolytic fluid, like fruit juice or, at a pinch, seawater, form an electrochemical couple and the arrangement becomes a serviceable galvanic battery. Over time, the iron is eaten away to nothing by the electrochemical action. That wasn't good news for mariners who fixed their boat's copper plates using iron nails - the iron eroded and the plates went to visit Davy Jones. Copper nails were the answer and soon afterwards ships began to be described not only as copper-bottomed but also copper-fastened. Such technically top-of-the-range ships were well thought of; an example is found in the 9th July 1796 edition of The Hull Advertiser:
She is copper-fastened and copper-bottomed, and a remarkable fine ship.
The expression 'copper-fastened' was and is used quite infrequently and is often wrongly taken to be a simple misstating of 'copper-bottomed'. Its meaning is similar but with the emphasis on security and lack of any ambiguity, rather than of certainty and trustworthiness. It had to wait longer to be taken into metaphorical use - until the 20th century in fact. An example of such is to be found in The Evening Independent, November 1948:
We had some striking examples of what happens when a guy gets so big for his britches that any pal of his is automatically a copper-fastened genius.
Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence.
The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day.
I never had any brothers.
Aye! A But then again, but even our pennies were copper-bottomed, copper-fastened, and copper-middled back when our dollar was as “sound as a dollar”
Light icing so far here in Atlanta .... Lots and lots of news hype. Worse further south though.
A+++
Stay warm.
Second oldest of five boys, four girls.
brothers are a pain in the @$$ ; )
Hah! When I saw the WFTD, I had a mental picture of a photoshopped Michelle Antoinette with a copper saucepan on her butt...
Have a nice trip!
Copper-bottomed health care
Promised in two campaigns
Won Obama those elections,
But such a mess remains
Of websites and sign-ups
And insurance at low cost
Many think they signed up-
And millions of others lost
The coverage they paid for
And were pleased with when
Obama trashed it with no clue
Of how to put it right again...
What a nice offer Truthy -
It is actually above freezing-39-and sunshine for the first time in days-it must be a heat wave...
One of the hated songs-Cats in the Cradle-I also dislike-but about 15 years ago, a parody of it was e-mailed to my compadre and boss and I at work-it went, in part-have you ever wondered when you eat Chinese, is it really chicken, or a fat Siamese? Oh, the cats in the kettle at the Shanghai Moon, etc. It had everyone laughing...
A+++
Really nice work.
I’m at DFW, through security in a breeze.
Thanks for the good wishes.
Thanks.
Woohoo - Nagin found guilty!!!
Thank you!
I was gathering some tile samples to show to a customer when I heard about Nagin, and I had to stop and laugh-it has been long in coming, but his smartass attitude and deeds have come to bite him...
Yeah, glad to finally see a cheating politician get his due. Well, he hasn’t gotten it yet - sentencing sometime in the future
well since we are supposed to get the CATASTROPHIC storm, i had a ton of errands to do so left work at noon, got xsbaby from her class and home and went out and did them. Am ready now come what May. xshub’s plane took off from Dallas, xsteen still in NYC, hopefully will be able to get home without a hitch.
May not may? Now you have me yearning for May flowers and warm breezes...
You don’t think our lameduck won’t pardon him?
Is it even warm there in may? Grad is in May we are still waiting to hear who the commencement speaker will be.
It’s 3 months away, they don’t have one yet?
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