Brass monkey (colloquial expression)
Encyclopedia
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
speakers. The reference to the testes
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...
(as the term balls is commonly understood to mean) of the brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
monkey appears to be a 20th century variant on the expression, prefigured by a range of references to other body parts, especially the nose and tail.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, small monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
s cast from the alloy brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
were very common tourist souvenir
Souvenir
A souvenir , memento, keepsake or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. The term souvenir brings to mind the mass-produced kitsch that is the main commodity of souvenir and gift shops in many tourist traps around the world...
s from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. They usually, but not always, came in a set of three representing the Three Wise Monkeys
Three wise monkeys
The Three Wise Monkeys , sometimes called the Three Mystic Apes, are a pictorial maxim. Together they embody the proverbial principle to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"...
carved in wood above the Shrine of Toshogu
Toshogu
A Tōshō-gū is any Shinto shrine in which Tokugawa Ieyasu is enshrined with the name Tōshō Daigongen . Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate , which is the third and last of the shogunal governments in Japanese history. It is part of Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage...
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. Old brass monkeys of this type are collectors items. Michael Quinion
Michael Quinion
Michael Quinion is a British etymologist and writer. He runs the web site World Wide Words, devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied physical sciences after which he joined BBC radio as a studio manager.-Writer:...
, advisor to The Oxford English Dictionary and author of World Wide Words says "It’s more than likely the term came from them".
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 is 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 known recorded use of the phrase "brass monkey" appears in the humorous essay "On Enjoying Life" by Eldridge Gerry Paige (writing under the pseudonym "Dow, Jr."), published in the New York Sunday Mercury and republished in the book Short Patent Sermons by Dow, Jr. (New York, 1845):
:When you love, [...
- The second known published instance of the phrase appeared in 1847, in a portion of Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's autobiographical narrative OmooOmooOmoo: A Narrative of the South Seas is Herman Melville's sequel to Typee, and, as such, was also autobiographical. After leaving Nuku Hiva, the main character ships aboard a whaling vessel which makes its way to Tahiti, after which there is a mutiny and the majority of the crew are imprisoned on...
:
- "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 first recorded use of freezing a "brass monkey" dates from 1857, appearing in C.A. Abbey, Before the Mast, p. 108: "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey".
Michael Quinion's World Wide Words website says:
"it was first recorded in the USA, in the 1850s...in the oldest example known, from Herman Melville’s Omoo (1850)"
- 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".
- Thomas WolfeThomas WolfeThomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
(1900–1938) wrote in one of his notebooks:
- Ernest said, "It would freeze the balls off a brass monkey — that's how cold it gets."
Supposed etymology
It is often stated that the phrase originated from the use of a brassBrass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
tray, called a "monkey", to hold cannonballs
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
on warships in the 16th to 18th centuries. Supposedly, in very cold temperatures the "monkey" would contract
Thermal expansion
Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change in temperature.When a substance is heated, its particles begin moving more and thus usually maintain a greater average separation. Materials which contract with increasing temperature are rare; this effect is...
, causing the balls to fall off. However, nearly all historians and etymologist
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
s consider this story to be an urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
. This story has been discredited by the U.S. Department of the Navy
United States Department of the Navy
The Department of the Navy of the United States of America was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy and, from 1834 onwards, for the United States Marine Corps, and when directed by the President, of the...
, etymologist Michael Quinion
Michael Quinion
Michael Quinion is a British etymologist and writer. He runs the web site World Wide Words, devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied physical sciences after which he joined BBC radio as a studio manager.-Writer:...
, and the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED).
They give five main reasons:
- The OED does not 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 was not 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 NavyRoyal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, into which round shot were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. - Shot was not left exposed to the elements where it could rust. Such rust could lead to the ball not flying true or jamming in the barrel and exploding the gun. Indeed, gunners would attempt to remove as many imperfections as possible from the surfaces of balls.
- The physicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
does not stand up to scrutiny. The contraction of both balls and plate over the range of temperatures involved would not 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 is unlikely it would ever have occurred in real life aboard a warship.
Cunard
The "brass monkey" is the nickname of the house flag of the Cunard LineCunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
, adopted in 1878, a lion rampant or
Gold (color)
Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of orange-yellow color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold....
on a field
Field (heraldry)
In heraldry, the background of the shield is called the field. The field is usually composed of one or more tinctures or furs. The field may be divided or may consist of a variegated pattern....
gules
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
holding a globe. The reference is almost certainly irreverent humour, rather than a source of the expression, of which variants predate it.
Beverage
A "brass monkey" is one of any number of citrus-flavored alcoholic drinksBrass Monkey (cocktail)
Brass Monkey is a name given to a number of different cocktail recipes. As with many lesser-known cocktails that are named after colloquial expressions, there are some wildly differing recipes that share the same name....
. In 1986, the hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
band the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
released a single called "Brass Monkey
Brass Monkey (song)
"Brass Monkey" is a song by the New York hip hop group Beastie Boys. It was a single released from their first album Licensed to Ill. It is also on the Beastie Boys' compilation album Solid Gold Hits. It samples "Bring It Here" by Wild Sugar. The song features the Roland TR-808 drum machine...
" from their album Licensed to Ill
Licensed to Ill
In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Sources 100 Best Rap Albums.It is still the only album by a white hip-hop act to receive the coveted 5 mics from The Source....
, although the song's lyrics are focused on the drink of the same name
Brass Monkey (cocktail)
Brass Monkey is a name given to a number of different cocktail recipes. As with many lesser-known cocktails that are named after colloquial expressions, there are some wildly differing recipes that share the same name....
.
Inventions
US patent 4634021 describes "A release mechanism is disclosed for releasing an object such as a ball from a body under the force of gravity. A bimetallic element obstructs or opens an opening in the body for retaining or releasing the object depending upon the temperature of the bimetallic element. The release mechanism may be incorporated into a novelty "brass monkey" for "emasculating" the monkey when the temperature decreases to a predetermined temperature at which the balls in the "brass monkey" are permitted to drop to a base which is designed to produce an audible sound when struck by the balls."Midnight's Children
In Midnight's ChildrenMidnight's Children
Midnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie about India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism...
, the protagonist's little sister is nicknamed the Brass Monkey because of her personality and hair. ( see List of Midnight's Children characters)
Other uses
Currently, 3rd Platoon of C Company, 1/503 IN (ABN) of the 173rd ABCT173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team is an airborne infantry brigade combat team of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy...
refer to themselves as the Brass Monkeys.
A racehorse named "Brass Monkey" is buried in the infield of Rockingham Park
Rockingham Park
Rockingham Park is a horse racing establishment in Salem, New Hampshire, in the United States. First built in 1906, it was used as an area for many to gamble on the weekends. Seabiscuit raced there in 1935 and 1936, and Mom's Command ran in her first race and gained her first victory there in...
in Salem, New Hampshire
Salem, New Hampshire
Salem is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 28,776 at the 2010 census. Salem is a marketing and distributing center north of Boston, with a major amusement attraction, Canobie Lake Park, and a large shopping mall, the Mall at Rockingham Park.- History :The...
.