Speaker 1: Hey folks, Aaron here. I know we're only about halfway
Speaker 1: through this season's exploration of pirates, but today is a
Speaker 1: perfect reason for a special bonus episode. Why? Because it's
Speaker 1: international talk like a pirate day. If you've ever watched
Speaker 1: a pirate themed movie or Television Show, you might have
Speaker 1: noticed one of the most distinctive features of the pirate
Speaker 1: culture their speech. But, as everyone knows, there's more to
Speaker 1: a cultural or regional dialect than a unique accent. There's
Speaker 1: also the vocabulary itself. So today I want to pause
Speaker 1: our journey across the high seas and focus on those
Speaker 1: amazing words and phrases that are scattered throughout the history
Speaker 1: of pirates. This episode is going to be a little
Speaker 1: bit story and a little bit dictionary. Either way, the
Speaker 1: information is guaranteed to be Quirky and fun. So if
Speaker 1: you're ready, let's set sail. I'm Aaron Manky, and let's
Speaker 1: learn to talk like a pirate. No one wants to
Speaker 1: look like a land lover today, so I'm here to
Speaker 1: help you navigate some fun words and phrases we've associated
Speaker 1: with the rogues of the sea. After all, our season
Speaker 1: on pirates wouldn't be complete without addressing the history behind
Speaker 1: pirate lingo, from argue to hornswoggle. First, though, a little
Speaker 1: history on how talk like a pirate day came to
Speaker 1: be in the first place, because that's what we do
Speaker 1: here at Grimm and mild. We talked about history. Friends
Speaker 1: John Bauer and mark summer started with some good natured
Speaker 1: kidding as they played a game of racketball back on
Speaker 1: June six the pair frequently found themselves saying are in
Speaker 1: frustration whenever they missed a shot. Before long, they began
Speaker 1: using other pirates speak during their games. They even adopted
Speaker 1: pirate nicknames. Bauer became Old Chum Buckets, and summers called
Speaker 1: himself captain slappy. The two had so much fun that
Speaker 1: they decided to declare the day talk like a pirate day. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that date was also D day. Out of respect for
Speaker 1: the day that allied troops arrived at Normandy to fight
Speaker 1: Nazi Germany, the friends thought of shifting the day to
Speaker 1: another date, September nine. It was a day with unusual
Speaker 1: significance too. You see, it was the birthday of summer's
Speaker 1: ex wife. He claimed that he harbored no ill will
Speaker 1: toward her. In response, she declared that she had never
Speaker 1: been more proud to be his ex. Bauer and Summers
Speaker 1: promoted the day to everyone they knew, and as much
Speaker 1: fun as friends and family had calling each other Scali
Speaker 1: wags and laughing over words like cackle fruit, the idea
Speaker 1: never really took off the way the men had hoped.
Speaker 1: So in two thousand two the pair turned to humor
Speaker 1: columnists Dave Berry for help. The idea delighted Barry and
Speaker 1: he happily wrote about the holiday and the rest, as
Speaker 1: they say, is history. Over the years the holiday has
Speaker 1: attracted some unconventional fans with their own sense of humor.
Speaker 1: Bobby Henderson, a self proclaimed pastafarian who established the Corky
Speaker 1: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, loved the idea of
Speaker 1: talk like a pie day. He and fellow Postafarians had
Speaker 1: joked that the lack of pirates caused global warming and
Speaker 1: fully embraced celebrating the day. In two thousand twelve, Lake worth,
Speaker 1: Florida mayor, Pam Triolo, made a lighthearted request for her
Speaker 1: constituents to embrace talk like a pirate day festivities, citing
Speaker 1: that the city shared a few swashbuckling, high spirited traits
Speaker 1: associated with pirates. Others didn't find her fun loving nature appropriate, though.
Speaker 1: Joanne golden of former commissioner, claimed such an association with
Speaker 1: murderous seamen was highly offensive. Since Barry's post promoting the holiday,
Speaker 1: talk like a Pirate Day has become an international success.
Speaker 1: In two thousand thirteen, Michigan made the dates an official holiday.
Speaker 1: Even President Obama is said to have celebrated the holiday
Speaker 1: while at the White House, and it's even been celebrated
Speaker 1: in space. During an interview, Summers claimed that the astronauts
Speaker 1: aboard the International Space Station Awoke on the morning of
Speaker 1: September nineteen to a pirate's life. For me, the crew
Speaker 1: of astronauts spent the day adding a little pirate speak
Speaker 1: to their vocabulary. Of course, the Internet is full of
Speaker 1: translators and definitions, and facebook joined in on the festivities,
Speaker 1: allowing users to change their profile to include pirates speak
Speaker 1: for the day. There's even a song about the holiday
Speaker 1: written by Pirate Fan Tom Smith. It's a fun day
Speaker 1: for sure, but it might leave you wondering what specific
Speaker 1: phrases and words really mean, and you might wonder if
Speaker 1: pirates actually talked like pirates. Well, yes and no, but
Speaker 1: for that we have to start in Hollywood. In nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty an actor named Robert Newton played the pirate long
Speaker 1: John Silver in the screen adaptation of Treasure Island. Four
Speaker 1: years later he reprised that role in a film called
Speaker 1: Long John Silver. His use of exaggerated RS, as well
Speaker 1: as having a talking parrot for a sidekick, became synonymous
Speaker 1: with pirates in the public eye. Newton, you see, was
Speaker 1: born in dorsets and began his acting career in London's
Speaker 1: west end and brought a variation of his West country
Speaker 1: accent to the screen where he portrayed pirates long John
Speaker 1: Silver and even later on, blackbeard. Many real pirates came
Speaker 1: from working class England and Newton's accents may have actually
Speaker 1: been reasonably close to how pirates spoke during the golden
Speaker 1: age of piracy. The working class in the region often
Speaker 1: replaced words like is and are with the word be
Speaker 1: and said are in place of Yes. Other pirates, though,
Speaker 1: hailed from Scotland and Ireland, which would have had their
Speaker 1: own dialects. Linguists theorized that some pirate crews may have
Speaker 1: created a variation on a couple of words to better
Speaker 1: communicate with their diverse shipmates. It's speculative, since pirates didn't
Speaker 1: keep a lot of records and we're mostly uneducated. Those
Speaker 1: who could read and write probably wrote and spoke more
Speaker 1: like traditional sailors and merchants. But historians and linguists agree
Speaker 1: that few, if any, pirates used words that Newton portrayed
Speaker 1: in his calls. So what's real pirates speak and what isn't?
Speaker 1: When we envisioned pirates, we think of them raiding ships,
Speaker 1: fighting with swords and other acts of violence. Did Pirates
Speaker 1: say booty? Sure thing, this one is real, taken from
Speaker 1: medieval times in Germany, from a word that meant the
Speaker 1: distribution or sharing of stolen goods in battle. We've often
Speaker 1: heard the phrase give no quarter. It's the opposite of
Speaker 1: what pirates called showing mercy or offering shelter in the
Speaker 1: ship's living quarters. A Red Flag signified that no quarter
Speaker 1: would be given and the hopes that the targeted crew
Speaker 1: would simply surrender without a fight. And of course, we
Speaker 1: can't talk about pirates without the word savvy and pirate lingo,
Speaker 1: savvy is used to ask if someone understands what the
Speaker 1: speaker said. Savvy dates back to and comes from the
Speaker 1: Portuguese word Sabe, meaning to know. And then, of course,
Speaker 1: there's the famous dead men tell no tales. The phrases
Speaker 1: pretty self explanatory. However, it's unclear if the words originated
Speaker 1: with pirates or if they even said them at all. And,
Speaker 1: as we know, pirates were often hanged for their crimes,
Speaker 1: and there are a few terms for that punishment. In
Speaker 1: a decade between seventeen sixteen and Seventeen Twenty six, they
Speaker 1: referred to hanging as dancing the hemp and Jig, and
Speaker 1: before that pirates simply called it the short drop. The
Speaker 1: hempen halter refers to the noose usually made from hemp fibers.
Speaker 1: Jack Ketch is an English term referring to an executioner,
Speaker 1: a nickname that was taken from an actual executioner, by
Speaker 1: the way, who served under King Charles the second. Oh
Speaker 1: and walking the plank seems to be the quintessential punishment
Speaker 1: aboard pirate ships, doesn't it? But while it wasn't unheard of,
Speaker 1: it also wasn't as common as we think. Hollywood has
Speaker 1: played this one up. Pirates were honestly much more likely
Speaker 1: to just Maroon someone as a form of punishment, which,
Speaker 1: if I'm honest, really puts a new spin on that
Speaker 1: classic old phrase, the Desert Island wish list. Of course,
Speaker 1: when we think of pirates we also think of rum
Speaker 1: and all those wild parties, and that's where we get
Speaker 1: the phrase clap of thunder. It's a particularly strong drink,
Speaker 1: although the origin isn't known. Then there's the word Squiffy,
Speaker 1: meaning someone who is really drunk. Following the same theme,
Speaker 1: there's also three sheets to the wind, which has been
Speaker 1: traced back to the mid nineteenth century. What about Yo
Speaker 1: Ho Ho? Sadly, pirates never said this. It comes from
Speaker 1: a song in Robert Louis Stevenson's three novel treasure island.
Speaker 1: In the book, the pirates sing about rum and a
Speaker 1: dead man's chest. That chest, by the way, is an island,
Speaker 1: not a treasure and while pirates singing Yo Ho Ho
Speaker 1: is fictional, that island is real. Today it's called dead
Speaker 1: chest island and it's located in the British Virgin Islands. Now,
Speaker 1: folklore teaches us that Edward Teach, a k a blackbeard,
Speaker 1: Maroon to crew who attempted mutiny on dead chest island.
Speaker 1: The Island is less than hospitable, with high clips, no
Speaker 1: fresh water and the only wildlife consisting of Pelicans and snakes.
Speaker 1: I think it's clear why that would be quite the punishment.
Speaker 1: In the story, blackbeard gave each man a cutlass and
Speaker 1: a bottle of rum, and then he left, feeling certain
Speaker 1: that the men would kill each other off. When he
Speaker 1: returned a month later, though, he found them all alive.
Speaker 1: Now one of the most iconic words on talk like
Speaker 1: a pirate day is going to be Ahoy. Oddly, the
Speaker 1: greeting was once the preferred way to answer the phone,
Speaker 1: thanks to Alexander Graham Bell. The word comes from the
Speaker 1: Dutch word Hoy, which means hello. In fact, the word
Speaker 1: was also commonly used in the fourteenth century to drive cattle.
Speaker 1: Sailors took to adding the A, creating the nautical term
Speaker 1: Ahoy as a means to get someone's attention. And speaking
Speaker 1: of attention seeking, another word pirates and seafares used in
Speaker 1: the late seventeenth century was a vast, originally from the
Speaker 1: Dutch phrase cood vast, which means to stop or hold fast.
Speaker 1: Pirate crews may have altered the phrase to fit their needs,
Speaker 1: and a glance through any number of searches for pirate
Speaker 1: lingo will will reveal shiver me timbers. Actor Robert Newton,
Speaker 1: who he mentioned a bit ago, famously coined that Golden
Speaker 1: Nugget of a term in his pirate film long John Silver.
Speaker 1: What's it mean? Well, timbers refers to a ship's support frame.
Speaker 1: Shiver in this instance means to startle. but did pirates
Speaker 1: really say shiver me timbers? While the term does have
Speaker 1: its roots in nautical slang, the phrase itself seems to
Speaker 1: be fictional. That's not to say that some pirates still
Speaker 1: operational in the late eighteen hundreds didn't have a word
Speaker 1: to describe surprise, frustration or disbelief. The word blind me,
Speaker 1: for example, stems from the English phrase God blind me.
Speaker 1: Other Times they might have said scupper that, which was
Speaker 1: to tell someone to toss an item overboard, literally or figuratively.
Speaker 1: And earlier I mentioned the word hornswoggle. It means to
Speaker 1: cheat or deceive. Oddly, the first time the words showed
Speaker 1: up in written history was in the United States in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nine, over a century after the golden age
Speaker 1: of piracy had come to an end. And how about
Speaker 1: that old fan favorite, the word I? Linguists suggests that
Speaker 1: it's a Scottish or middle English word. Meaning yes or
Speaker 1: I assent, and has origins dating back to the late
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds. It's likely that pirates and other mariners said
Speaker 1: I and, of course, what fun is a specialized dictionary
Speaker 1: without insults? And friend, let me tell you, pirates were
Speaker 1: experts at using them. For example, pirates and other seafares
Speaker 1: used the term bilge rat to identify vermin that lived
Speaker 1: in the bilge, the lowest compartment on the ship, and
Speaker 1: since pirates considered a bilge rat to be the lowest
Speaker 1: form of life on board any ship, you can imagine
Speaker 1: that calling a person a bill rat was definitely an insult.
Speaker 1: The phrase scurvy dog isn't about a dog at all.
Speaker 1: Sailors were often referred to as dogs, which had connotations
Speaker 1: of UH promiscuity, although scurvy was a disease many sailors
Speaker 1: and pirates got from a lack of vitamin C. It
Speaker 1: was also used to refer to someone without pride, without
Speaker 1: strength or much enthusiasm. Other insults of notes are Pickaroon,
Speaker 1: scally wag and rap scallion, which is another way of
Speaker 1: saying that someone is a scoundrel. But pirates didn't just
Speaker 1: have words to insult one another, calling someone. Bucko might
Speaker 1: sound rough, but it was actually considered friendly. Lad and
Speaker 1: lass were polite ways to address someone in their youth and,
Speaker 1: of course, the most common of them all, mate Maydie,
Speaker 1: and me hardy's, which weren't insults at all, but instead
Speaker 1: words of friendship and endearment. Let's wrap things up for
Speaker 1: today with one more big concept that most of us
Speaker 1: have heard of, Davy Jones Locker. In the Disney movie
Speaker 1: pirates of the Caribbean, at world's end, we even see
Speaker 1: Captain Jack Sparrow spend months there on a beach with
Speaker 1: no wind and no ocean. But did real pirates have
Speaker 1: a Davy Jones locker? The legend first appeared during the
Speaker 1: mid eighteenth century. That refers to a place at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the sea where an evil spirit known as
Speaker 1: Davy Jones keeps the souls of deceased sailors in a locker.
Speaker 1: And by Locker, of course, I'm in a chest like
Speaker 1: a steamer trunk that you might find in a grandparents house,
Speaker 1: kept at the foot of your bed. That chest can
Speaker 1: sometimes be referred to as a foot locker. Now you know. Well,
Speaker 1: that's it for our little detour today. We hope you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed our adventure into pirate lingo. Today we may not
Speaker 1: have been swilling rum or sailing the high seas in
Speaker 1: search of treasure, but we can embrace our inner pirate.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the rest of your international talk like a Pirate Day,
Speaker 1: and if you love this episode, be sure to reach
Speaker 1: out and say Ahoy. Pirates was executive produced by Aaron
Speaker 1: Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and Alexandra Steid. Writing
Speaker 1: for this season was provided by Michelle Muto, with research
Speaker 1: by Alexandra Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided
Speaker 1: by Josh Thane, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm
Speaker 1: and mild and I at Radio, visit Grimm and mild
Speaker 1: dot com. M HM