Everything about Brass Monkey Colloquial Expression totally explained
» This article is about the colloquial expression. For other uses of the term, see Brass monkey.
The phrase "cold enough to freeze the balls off a
brass monkey" is a
colloquial expression used by some
English speakers. The reference to the
testes (as the term
balls is commonly understood to mean) of the
brass monkey appears to be a twentieth century variant on the expression, prefigured by a range of references to other body parts, especially the nose and tail.
These earlier expressions would seem to indicate that the
brass monkey took the form of a real monkey, rather than being the name for some dissimilar object, without a nose and tail, such as a tray to hold
cannonballs as has been theorised.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, small
monkeys cast from the alloy
brass were very common tourist
souvenirs from
China and
Japan. They usually, but not always, came in a set of three representing the
Three Wise Monkeys carved in wood above the Shrine of
Toshogu in
Nikkō, Japan. These monkeys were often cast with all three in a single piece. In other sets they were made singly. Although three was the usual number, some sets of monkeys added a fourth, with its hand covering its
genitals, which may have given rise to, or contributed to, the current form of the expression.
The theory of the
Three Wise Monkeys as being the source of the expression is supported by Michael Quinion, advisor to
The Oxford English Dictionary and author of
World Wide Words.
Whether or not it was these brass monkeys—common objects that could be purchased in any store selling Asian goods—or some other object, possibly not closely related to actual monkeys, has been a subject of speculation, theories and association.
The phrase, as it's currently used, is found in most English-speaking countries, and is sometimes abbreviated to "brass monkey weather". According to Quinion, the expressions relating to "brass monkeys" have more currency in Australia and New Zealand than elsewhere.
Early recorded uses of the expression
Early references to "brass monkeys" in the
19th century have no references to balls at all, but instead variously say that it's cold enough to freeze the tail, nose, ears, and whiskers off a brass monkey; or hot enough to "scald the throat" or "singe the hair" of a brass monkey. All of these variations imply that an actual monkey is the subject of the metaphor.
- The first recorded use of freezing a "brass monkey" dates from 1857, being on page 108 of Before the Mast by C.A. Abbey in his book, where it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey".
- The expression "hot enough to melt the nose off a brass monkey" dates from 1847. It similarly occurs in the context of heat in Herman Melville's Omoo (1850): "It was so excessively hot in this still, brooding valley, shut out from the Trades, and only open toward the leeward side of the island, that labor in the sun was out of the question. To use a hyperbolical phrase of Shorty's, 'It was 'ot enough to melt the nose h'off a brass monkey.'"
- The Story of Waitstill Baxter, by Kate Douglas Wiggin (1913) has "The little feller, now, is smart's a whip, an' could talk the tail off a brass monkey".
- The Ivory Trail, by Talbot Mundy (1919) has "He has the gall of a brass monkey".
The current reference to the monkey's balls, rather than its nose, tail or other anatomical part or characteristic such as "gall" is in line with a general trend within the 20th century towards sexually orientated or obscene references in colloquial English.
Other theories on the origin of the expression
Cannonballs
One theory, of sufficient popularity as to be an example of so-called
folk etymology, is that a brass monkey is a brass tray used in naval ships during the
Napoleonic Wars, for the storage of
cannonballs, piled up in a pyramid. The theory goes that the tray, would
contract in cold weather, causing the balls to fall off. This theory is discredited by the US. Department of the Navy and the etymologist Michael Quinion and the OED's AskOxford web site
(External Link
) for five main reasons:
The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't record the term "monkey" or "brass monkey" being used in this way.
The purported method of storage of cannonballs ("round shot") is simply false. Shot wasn't stored on deck continuously on the off-chance that the ship might go into battle. Indeed, decks were kept as clear as possible.
Furthermore, such a method of storage would result in shot rolling around on deck and causing a hazard in high seas. Shot was stored on the gun or spar decks, in shot racks—longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy, into which round shot were inserted for ready use by the gun crew.
Shot wasn't left exposed to the elements where it could rust. Such rust could lead to the ball not flying true. Indeed, gunners would attempt to remove as many imperfections as possible from the surfaces of balls.
The physics don't stand up to scrutiny. All of the balls would contract equally, and the contraction of both balls and plate over the range of temperatures involved wouldn't be particularly large. The effect claimed possibly could be reproduced under laboratory conditions with objects engineered to a high precision for this purpose, but it's unlikely it would ever have occurred in real life aboard a warship.
Brass Cannons
A similar theory states that expression refers to a cannon. Quinion notes that there was a cannon nicknamed this in the mid-seventeenth century (for example much too early).
However, although early brass cannons known as 'monkeys' were outmoded by cast iron cannon, cast iron, when very cold, becomes brittle. So, in very cold weather the cast iron cannons could be prone to shattering when fired. Brass isn't subject to the same effect, so brass guns could still be fired safely in cold weather. Thus it became a seamans ironic joke that in extreme cold weather they'd have to revert to using old fashioned 'brass monkeys' (even though the Royal Navy no longer had any in use) Hence it would be 'cold enough to use brass monkeys' - nothing to do with genitals.
Cunard
The "brass monkey" is the nickname of the house flag of the Cunard Line, adopted in 1878, a lion rampant or on a field gules holding a globe. The reference is almost certainly irreverent humour, rather than a source of the expression, of which variants predate it.
Pawnbrokers
Yet another theory is that the traditional sign outside a pawnbroker's shop, three brass spheres suspended from a gantry, was known in some parts as a "brass monkey" and the expression refers to these, very exposed, "balls".
Other references to brass monkeys
Radio
In the propagandist early radio show "I was a Communist for the FBI" "a brass monkey" is used as a variant of the phrase "a monkey on one's back". In the episode on Wednesday 8 April 1953, episode #51, entitled "The Brass Monkey", it referred to a convict with a "brass monkey", meaning a conviction.
Pub name
"The Brass Monkey" is a popular name for pubs in Australia, the United States, Ireland (such as the Brass Monkey in Newry, Co. Down), and the United Kingdom.
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