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opossum-handz

victoriansecret

I didn't think it was possible to shorten words verbally without removing syllables but sailors managed.

victoriansecret

boatswain -> bosun main sail -> mains'l tree nail -> trunnel etc. etc. etc.

ltwilliammowett

May I add a few more?

coxswain - coxsun

crossjack - crojik

forecastle - fo'c'sle - folksil

gunwale - gunnel

mast- mist

sail- sill

schooner - skunner

tackle - taykull

topgallant mast - t'garns'l mist

topgallant sail - t'garns'l sill

hervey-gervey-chip

based on the research i've done (and lived experience) of nautical linguistics- the syllables are the most important part of the word! for every command- historically and on modern tall ships, the command must be repeated by the crew exactly is it was heard: no conjugation, no changing of word order, nothing (referred to as a "call-back"). so it makes sense that these words are shortened in this manner.

boats are big, the ocean is loud, and there's a lot of stuff that gets in the way of words traveling coherently across the deck. it's also so rare to get a command when you aren't already entrenched in something else, and so may not be able to turn your head before acknowledging that you've heard. i've linked an NPR article from 2015 about how words travel in different environments, but basically the big takeaway for this scenario is: consonants get lost easily in windy or obstructed environments. there's been many a time (even in fair weather) where i'm having a conversation, on the opposite side of the boat, or even down below when an order is given, where i just hear the cadence of a command i'm familiar with and know immediately what i'm supposed to be doing.

on particularly well-practiced crews, i notice that even the tonal pattern of the officer giving the command is repeated. even without the tonal match, it's critical for the officer to have immediate feedback AND immediate response. when you get an order, you lay into it with urgency; therefore, if you repeat just as you head to your station, redirection can be given swiftly if an incorrect order has been transmitted, BUT if you heard it right the first time there's no delay in the task.

People speak very differently depending on where they live, and the climate and environment might have something to do with that. Crisp Engl

quick example (callback italicized):

"haul away!" "haul away" clear! exactly the same! i know they heard and the sail is doing the thing!

"haul away" "hauling" sounds an awful lot like holding.. is something wrong? did we forget something? was someone not ready? oh the sail is going up they said HAULing

also explains @ltwilliammowett 's example of "topgallant sail - t'garns'l sill" ... in "gallant" and "garns'l," less than half the consonant sounds are the same but the SYLLABLES match. its just the representation of what the garbled mess that comes across the deck usually sounds like for that Specific Thing!!!

victoriansecret

Merging these versions because they're both really interesting!

edenfenixblogs

@dedalvs

sabertoothwalrus

sometimes you trap a male false black widow under a cup in the middle of the night because he was roaming around on your ceiling looking for female spider pheromones and then his harmless dumb ass fell straight onto your bed so you had to contain him because you were tired and wanted to sleep. and sometimes that spider is no longer in that cup the next morning. as haunting as it is his determination is honestly kinda inspiring. chase your dreams little man hope you get spider laid

sabertoothwalrus

so, I hadn’t seen him since he escaped from his cup prison the other day (I did, however, find a ridiculously tiny vampire bite mark on my tummy— it did not swell or itch, like I said, he’s harmless), and I came home today to find ants swarming my bathroom. and there he was, following the trail and making a meal of em. He really got his revenge by biting me (pathetically) and then made an effort to prove his worth. I think we’re basically best friends now

bumblebeebats

so i hauve covid rn and i must say, American cold medicine is the absolute bees knees. You go to a UK pharmacy and they tenderly press like eight (8) paracetamol into the palm of your hand... God FORBID you're sick in France, i had to scour every pharmacy in Paris for something that wasn't HOMEOPATHIC PASTILLES. meanwhile last night i took the last of my stash of Nyquil that expired in 2019 and it was like getting hit by a fucking baseball bat (affectionate). press X to timeskip. LOVE me a cheeky little medically induced coma. you can really feel that it's a precursor to meth. i know that everything is fucking awful over there my friedns and my heart goes out to every one of you but if you need one small bright light of national pride in this time of strife please know that i envy you your cold medicine every day

slowspinningredemption

i once took an american antihistamine pill just a basic one for seasonal allergies and i had to immediately lay down and while doing so i vividly hallucinated that i was a steerage passenger on the titanic resigned to my death as my cabin filled up rapidly with water. then i blacked out and when i woke up again my allergies were gone for the entire season.

acakewalkofcrocodiles

The Hat Man is our greatest export

thestuffedalligator

There’s a certain folkloric idea that if you die at sea, your soul is sort of. Inextricably stuck in the sea. Because your body is irretrievable, your soul is also irretrievable, down out of the reach of the gods who look at the surface of the world. In Norse mythology, they said that the souls of sailors who died at sea are caught in the sea-goddess Rán’s net and dragged into her domain, a distinct and separate afterlife alongside Hel and Valhalla. Davy Jones Locker. The funayūrei. A lot of cultures agree that once sea has a hold on you, even when your body has rotted and dwindled and been made food for crabs, it still won’t let you go.

Do you think we’re going to wind up saying the same thing about astronauts.

livelovelaugh-777

last-fast-naturalist

And, irrigation canals.

Saves 82% of water evaporation. 💧

crane-scissors

Actually do cover our fields.

Solar doesn't compete with agriculture, and can be beneficial to it.

Just also cover our car parks.

playwrongs

I think strange horrible things should stop befalling my friends

catastrophespouse

I think strange wonderful things should start befalling my friends

scooter-witch

rb to give prev strange wonderful things

chiropteracupola

legitimately one of my favorite things in the entire world is the genuinely quite expansive genre of art which is called 'it's MY turn to draw tipu's tiger and do something interesting and specific with it'

chiropteracupola

M.F Husain, Tipu Sultan's Tiger (1986), oil on canvas.

Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Man Slain by a Tiger (2015), screen-print.

Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain (1972), novel (excerpted).

Joe La-Placa, Death of Munrow (n.d.).

Unknown artist, The Death of Munrow (c.1820-1830), lead-glazed earthenware and enamel.

Marianne Moore, Tippoo's Tiger (1967), poem (excerpted).

Karen Thompson, The Death of a Species (2024), ceramic.

yours truly, Choked Out (2024), digital.

John Keats, The Cap and Bells (1819), poem (excerpted).

Jazmin Velasco, The Death of Munrow (2017), ceramic.

Diana Levesque, The Death of Munrow (2018), acrylic on canvas.

do you see what I mean!!

chiropteracupola

Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Tiger (1997), novel (excerpted).

Noé León, Misionero comido por tigre (1967), likely oil on masonite.

yours truly, I Bite You / You Bite Me (2025), glazed earthenware.

Mariah-Rose Marie, Puma & Missionary (2025), jacquard-woven cotton blanket.

chiropteracupola

Chandy Nath and Kat Arney (for Sunday Driver), Clockwork Tiger (2011), song (excerpted).

Carlos Zapata, Tipu's Tiger (2009), painted wood and metal automaton.

Adeela Suleman, Remembering Tipu (2024), carved wood, wood polish, emulsion, oil paint, gold leaf and lacquer.

chiropteracupola

Wayne Thiebaud, Clown and Beast (2018-2019), oil on canvas.

tanou123

☺

bakersfield-row

SOUND FUCKING ON

xxdreamersdesirexx

The art of Nell Brinkley.

Like Henry Clive, Nell Brinkley was another magazine illustrator for "The American Weekly" working during the 20s. Her work primarily focused on beautiful women and lavish, gorgeous costumes. In a way it resembles the style of early shojo manga, and could well have had an influence on it!

pukicho

It’s 7:30am and I have yet to sleep. Please explain this, scientists. Why did I never get tired? It just never happened.

pukicho

I was finally falling asleep by 8am when the sun decided to do this through the fucking crack of my door:

I have genuinely never seen it do this before.

aralintheobsessive

if you want butterflies, you need to live with caterpillars.

i am not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies' and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf

you will not get butterflies if you kill all the things that turn into butterflies! what are you doing!

aralintheobsessive

getting a lot of responses to this going 'ok but it would be good as a metaphor though' so I will accept a metaphorical interpretation as long as you ALSO (!) promise to be considerate towards larval forms of insects specifically and biodiversity in general, deal?

pangur-and-grim

someone accused me of feigning a sexual attraction to spiders for clout. there's easier ways to get clout, man.....

pangur-and-grim

vinceaddams

Someone once called my 22 minute hand sewn 18th century buttonhole tutorial video "Empty, clout driven content" so I think some people will just say anything.

gal-fey

Had a soul-searing moment where I sat unblinking trying to figure out what a "hand sewn 18th century butthole" could be for, until I read that again.

vinceaddams

(x)

jeanbean16

Pro-censorship wattpad refugees drama is so funny to me because when I started using ao3 as a kid I was a devout mormon and I thought that reading anything even remotely pornagraphic was a sin and would ruin my life. So when I was 13 and found ao3 I went "oh awesome I found a fanfic website with a filtering system so I won't ever randomly stumble into porn. This is great! I was really worried about seeing something I didn't want to see on the other platforms." I didn't read any smut online until like three years later. If a mormon 13 year old can figure out 'don't like don't read' wattpad users can too cmon you guys i believe in you.