Words and Their Stories: Deep Six
05 March 2011
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Sailors seem -- to those of us on land -- to lead exciting, even mysterious lives. Many things are different at sea. Even the language is different.
Simple words like "right" and "left" are not the same. On a ship, "right" is "starboard." And "left" is "port."
Sailors are responsible for many colorful English expressions.
One of these is
deep-six.
It means to hide something or put it where it will not be found. You can also deep-six,
or reject a proposal.
One language expert says that
deep six is the bottom of the ocean. "Deep," in this case, means deepest. The "six" in the expression comes from the six feet that make up a fathom -- which is a little less than two meters.
Sailors measure the depth of the water in fathoms. Thus, the deep six is the deepest fathom...the final six feet at the bottom of the ocean. A sailor who never wants to see something again will
give it the deep-six.
He will drop it from the ship to the ocean bottom.
You can deep-six something even if you are not a sailor. All you do is throw it away or put it where it will never be found. You might, for example,
deep-six an unplesant letter from a former friend.
Another expression linked to sailing is
batten down the hatches.
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