Origin of a saying

My sister emailed me a couple of days ago to ask me the origin of a particular saying. She started by saying, "Oh great guru of useless knowledge I have 2 questions. We have a patient who wants to know these answers and I knew you would probably know. 1. Why is it cold enough to freeze the brass balls of a monkey? 2. Why is it 3 sheets in the wind?"

For some reason, she thinks I am a fountain of useless knowledge flowing forth from my brain. I guess she is probably right because I actually knew about the origins of those sayings. But, I did some more research to give her some more information. So, here's what I found out.

The phrase "It's cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey" probably didn't start that way.

In sailing times, the young boys who helped with the loading of cannons on naval ships were called powder monkeys. Other seafaring monkey business relates to ancient forms of cannon called a brass monkeys, or drakes, or dogs. So, it seems likely that the inanimate object in question was in fact a naval cannon. There were many other sayings referring to the brass monkeys such as - less bashful than... (1867), - scald the throat of... (1870), - talk the leg off... (1872), - as cheeky as... (1873), - burn the ears off... (1876), - had touched the heart of... (1878), and - singe the hair on... (1879). The 'balls' are a recent appendage and definitely refer to testicles and actually didn't show up until the middle of the 20th century.

'Three sheets to the wind' is indeed a seafaring expression.

To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Sailors' language is, unsurprisingly, all at sea and many supposed derivations have to go by the board. Don't be taken aback to hear that sheets aren't sails, as landlubbers might expect, but ropes (or occasionally, chains). These are fixed to the lower corners of sails, to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the sails will flap and the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor.

The phrase is these days more often given as 'three sheets to the wind', rather than the original 'three sheets in the wind'. The earliest printed citation that I can find is in Pierce Egan's Real Life in London, 1821: "Old Wax and Bristles is about three sheets in the wind."

Sailors at that time had a sliding scale of drunkenness; three sheets was the falling over stage; tipsy was just 'one sheet in the wind', or 'a sheet in the wind's eye'.

So now we know.