Language/Etymology/brass monkey more

The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Language
Etymology
brass monkey more

From: mindless@schools.minedu.govt.newzealand_spamfuscated (Steve Caskey)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Brass in Pocket was: taps
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 97 16:59:52 +1200

In Article <64hmgq$ogi$1@ezekiel.eunet.ie> Ben Walsh <benw@iona.nospam.please.we'reirish.com> writes: >There is also
>http://tafkac.org/language/etymology/brass_monkey.html
>
>which agrees, but admits to being non-authoritative.

As the author, on December 22 1993, of that article, I would like to frankly recant it. I don't even remember writing it, though I don't deny it's mine. And I think I make it clear there that I was only relaying the story, rather than seeking to promote it. I was still quite new to AFU back then, and smarting from the scar of a posh hook in my cheek. Witness my opening line

>How about I put my two cents in, purely because I like the story, >then you can all ridicule it.

and closing remark

>Me? I think the literal interpretation is good enough. "Non-authoritative" doesn't begin to cover it, I think.

In subsequent posts to AFU on the same topic, which are sadly not present in the archive, I have done a little more hunting around. Here's a few salient points:

There are many naval uses of the word "monkey" in various dictionaries. "Brass monkey" is not among them in any I have consulted.
None of the reference books on naval sail, nor any of the novels works set in that era, that I have read make any mention of "brass monkeys". The derivation does not appear to enjoy any currency with writers of period fiction.
Shot was stored in the "shot locker". Ready-use shot was stored on the gundecks in racks with hemispherical depressions. These racks were called "garlands". Once again, no monkeys, brass or otherwise.

I am near convinced now that if there is any substance to the popular etymology of the expression "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" as relating to cannonballs, it has nothing to do with _naval_ gunnery at least.

Upping the ante, however, a friend of mine with similar interests, sent me the following in email, early in 1996, which I don't think I ever got round to forwarding to the froup:

I have found out what a Brass Monkey is.

According to the Concise OED, the two volume version with four-pages-in-one printed in micro lettering, it is "a kind of gun or cannon." The usage seems to be archaic. The dictionary cites a 1650 book called Art. Rendition Edinbur. Castle as referring to "28 short brass munkeys alias dogs", and a 1663 (1672) publication called Flagellum, O Cromwell as referring to "Twenty eight brass drakes called Monkeys."

How this relates to 'freeze the balls off a brass monkey' is unclear, but [...] Perhaps it is a reference to the coefficient of expansion, ie; if it was very cold, perhaps the muzzle of the cannon was too small to prevent the iron balls from being loaded (differing coefficients of expansion)? I may be stretching the point a bit, but food for thought anyway.

(private email quoted with permission of the author)

Note there is no explicit naval connection, the reference predates the era of Nelson and Napoleon it is popularly associated with, and the brass monkey is the gun, not some kind of repository for iron balls.

Steve "is there a welder in the house?" Caskey --
Just another mindless public servant at the Ministry of Education

          "Did you know that a uniform attracts women like flies?"
          "I wondered why all your women looked like flies."

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