The Prairie Spy

Alan “Lindy” Linda

The phrase: “Keep an eye out” kind of got my attention, because I wondered where it came from. I am always keeping an eye out for something to write about, and this seemed like something.

It seems that “keeping an eye out” originated from the British Navy, back in the early days of sailing ships, when the only way to know what was going on was to put a man up in the crow’s nest. Keeping an eye out was a duty, and the crew rotated on through that assignment.

Then the telescope came along. “Keeping an eye out” soon  began to be associated with the telescope, which although was never officially called an “eye,” soon was nonetheless known as one.

Then the phrase “Turn a blind eye” caught my attention. Aha! Another trail to follow. That trail led to Admiral Horatio Nelson, and to a naval battle known as “The Battle of Copenhagen.” In 1801, Admiral Nelson was captain of one of the many ships that were sent to engage with the combined fleets of Norway and the Danish.

Admiral Hyde was the overall commander of the entire British fleet, and as such, initiated the engagement with the enemy, the Norwegian and Danish vessels. The battle seemed to not be going well, and Admiral Hyde sent a signal to the then Captain Nelson, to retreat.

Captain Horatio Nelson, in order to see what his commanding officer wanted, raised his telescope to better receive the message, which was semaphored to him. Captain Nelson thought they could still win this battle, and didn’t want to get any message telling him otherwise.

Captain Nelson only had one good eye; he was nearly blind in the other one. So he raised the telescope to his blind eye, didn’t see the message to retreat, and continued to fight.

The British won the battle, and Admiral Hyde went back to Britain, where he was relieved of his command, which was given to the now promoted Admiral Nelson. Who turned a blind eye, the better to not get news contrary to his opinion.

Back when I was growing up in rural Iowa on a farm, and attending country school, once in a while another student would show up with some fancy bit of clothing. Wow! Is that brand new, we would ask? (Or think, more likely.)

Huh. Where did that expression originate, anyway. Brand new. Well. Way back a couple of centuries, when china was being shipped any distance, breakage was a problem. Someone found that if the china was packed in a box filled with bran, which are pieces of grain husk separated from flour after milling, the china was protected. Bran was a byproduct, and of course ghost poo–the expanded junk we find being used now for filler–hadn’t been invented, and it was light and cheap.

Somewhere along the way, “bran” became associated with “new,” as in: “This china is bran new.” Over the years, “bran” became “brand,” and here we are, using it even though it makes just about no sense at all.

You could say I just “let the cat out of the bag” on “brand new.” Well, that expression goes back to times when there was very little money, and barter was the main medium of exchange. A burlap bag full of chickens, for example, on market day, seemed okay, and heavy enough to mean those were some nice fat chickens.

Until the cat that was in the bag escaped, and it became apparent that all was not as it seemed. Which, when one is dealing with the English language, is pretty true.

(I’ll leave you with the usage of “Pretty.” And it isn’t beautiful true.)