English language & interesting phrases

[Abe]

Andy, Thanks for the one about the brass monkey. All this time I thought it was about a golden simian who lived in the Antarctic and was loosing body parts.

I'm still not sure what a brass monkey is though. Something to hold cannon balls? Was this a naval term?

Hey guys keep it up!!! You are coming up with some very good comments. What the heck, I'm learning something here.

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

This saying also has roots in fact in India. The "Monkey" or brass plate to hold cannon balls was used in some on the barracks that were in colder parts of the continent, When the temperature dropped, the contracting metals would cause the pile to fall.

Definition from Lawson Tremellen: On war ships the cannon balls were of iron and the plate they were stacked on beside the cannon was made of brass, the plate was known as a monkey. In extreme cold the two metals would contract differently and the iron balls would fall off the monkey.