[ti:Words and Their Stories] [ar:Voice of America] [al:VOA Special English] [by:WWW.51VOA.COM] [00:00.00]51VOA.COM [00:10.80]Now,the VOA Special English program, [00:15.24]Words and Their Stories. [00:18.28]Sailors seem -- to those of us on land [00:23.27]to lead exciting, [00:25.25]even mysterious lives. [00:28.05]Many things are different at sea. [00:31.43]Even the language is different. [00:34.91]Simple words like "right" and "left" [00:38.43]are not the same. [00:39.83]On a ship,"right" is "starboard. [00:43.70]" And "left" is "port." [00:45.74]Sailors also are responsible [00:48.42]for many colorful English expressions. [00:51.56]One of these is deep-six. [00:54.27]It means to hide something or put it [00:58.74]where it will not be found. [01:00.49]You can also deep-six, [01:03.03]or reject a proposal. [01:05.01]One language expert says [01:08.60]that deep six is the bottom of the ocean. [01:11.77]"Deep," in this case,means deepest. [01:16.24]The "six" in the expression [01:19.48]comes from the six feet that make up a fathom [01:22.78]which is a little less than two meters. [01:26.05]Sailors measure the depth of the water in fathoms. [01:31.23]Thus,the deep six is the deepest fathom. [01:36.25]the final six feet at the bottom of the ocean. [01:39.90]A sailor who never wants to see something again [01:44.60]will give it the deep-six. [01:47.01]He will drop it from the ship [01:49.50]to the ocean bottom. [01:51.21]You can deep-six something [01:54.95]even if you are not a sailor. [01:56.93]All you do is throw it away [02:00.40]or put it where it will never be found. [02:03.55]You might,for example, [02:05.73]deep-six an unpleasant letter [02:08.18]from a former friend. [02:09.76]Another expression linked to sailing [02:14.17]is batten down the hatches. [02:16.72]That is what sailors do to prepare their ship [02:20.28]for a storm at sea. [02:21.64]Battens are thin pieces of wood. [02:25.33]Hatches are the openings in the deck. [02:28.52]Before a storm, [02:30.52]sailors cover the hatches [02:32.55]with waterproof material. [02:34.08]Then they nail on battens [02:36.95]to hold the hatch coverings firmly in place. [02:40.19]This keeps rain and waves out of the ship. [02:43.84]Now,people use the expression to mean [02:48.80]to prepare for dealing with any kind of trouble. [02:52.97]A news report,for example, [02:55.05]might say that people in Washington [02:57.43]were battening down the hatches [02:59.99]for a big winter storm. [03:01.86]Or a newspaper might report [03:05.31]that "defense lawyers were 'battening down [03:08.62]the hatches' for testimony [03:10.46]by someone who observed the crime." [03:12.99]An old expression of the sailors [03:17.58]that is still heard is to sail [03:21.19]under false colors. [03:22.76]Experts on language say [03:26.02]the expression was born [03:27.95]more than two hundred fifty years ago, [03:30.74]when pirates sailed the seas, [03:32.78]attacking and robbing trade ships. [03:35.43]Pirate ships often flew the flag [03:39.04]of a friendly country as they sailed [03:41.58]toward the ship they planned to rob. [03:43.71]They sailed under false colors [03:46.78]until they were close enough to attack. [03:49.86]Then the pirates pulled down the false flag, [03:54.55]and showed their true colors. [03:57.31]They raised the pirate flag -- [04:00.04]with its picture of a skull and crossed bones. [04:03.39]Today,a person,not a ship, [04:08.62]is said to sail under false colors. [04:12.26]Such a person appears to be [04:16.83]something he is not. [04:18.41]His purpose is to get something from you. [04:23.49]If you are careful, [04:26.31]you will soon see his true colors, [04:29.54]and have nothing to do with him. [04:32.26](MUSIC) [04:42.52]This VOA Special English program, [04:45.51]Words and Their Stories, [04:47.87]was written by Marilyn Christiano. [04:50.38]This is Warren Scheer. [04:52.50]