Fishing and Nautical Terms

As a professional linguist who has spent over 40 years teaching and writing about the English language, occasionally in this monthly column I want to write about the language of fishing and boating. This month I want to look into the origin of 2 nautical terms, the etymology of a maritime idiom, and the reason behind a famous “fish” nickname of a ball player.

First, two common nautical terms: “starboard” and “port.” The word “starboard” comes from Old English and refers to the right-hand side of the boat/ship as you face the bow. In Old English the original word “steorbord” meant the “steer-board, the side on which the vessel was steered.” The word “steor” meant “rudder, steering paddle.” Early boats were steered by someone handling a paddle on the right-hand side of the vessel.

The other side of the vessel, the part on your left hand as you face the bow, was called the “port” because pilots would dock the vessel with the left side against the pier, i.e. at the port of a town. Sailors once used the term “larboard,” which came from two words meaning “to load on board,” but that word could be confused with “starboard,” so sailors began using “port” for the left-hand side.

The maritime idiom is “between the devil and the deep blue sea.” This phrase refers to being in a difficult situation. As with many really old sayings, we cannot be sure of the origin, but here is one: the “devil” refers to the longest seam on a wooden ship, one that ran from the bow to the stern. If the “devil”/longest seam had to be caulked at sea, the sailor chosen to do so had to be suspended between the “devil,” i.e. the longest seam, and the water. That was very dangerous when the ship was at sea. If he fell, he would probably die.

A “fishy” nickname of a sports figure is that of baseball player Jim “Catfish’ Hunter, pitcher for the Kansas City Athletics, the Oakland Athletics, and the New York Yankees (1965 – 1979). He was the first pitcher since 1915 to win 200 games by the time he was 31, a member of five World Series championship teams, and an inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The picture here shows Catfish Hunter (on the left) with manager Billy Martin (in the middle) and catcher Brad Gulden (on the right).

According to his autobiography, “Catfish: My Life in Baseball,” when Athletics owner Charles Finley signed the 19-year-old to a $75,000 contract in 1965, he told the young man that he needed a nickname for crowd appeal. When Finley found out that Hunter liked to hunt and fish, Finley came up with this story, which stuck: when Jim was six years old, he ran away from home and went fishing. When his mom and dad finally found him, Jim had caught two catfish. So the young pitcher became Catfish Hunter. Now you know.

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