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Post by elystokie on May 6, 2021 16:57:51 GMT
Where does the brass come into it in that scenario? I've always thought it was to do with cannonballs and the brass holding frame (monkey) as mattyd says, contracting at different rates. I'm interested in other theories and happy to be corrected tho. There’s no etymological evidence for it whatsoever, plus it’s riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies - the cannonballs weren’t stored in that way, nor were they routinely referred to as “balls”, the things they were stored on weren’t called “monkeys”, or made of brass, the contraction rate would be nowhere near enough to make such a difference to the storage system... etc. Plus then that offers no explanation for the conspicuously suggestive image conjured up by the phrase, which makes far more sense if it’s just a literal reference to a brass statuette of a monkey or something. “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” makes perfect (amusing) sense on its own without the contrived back story. It’s definitely a myth 🙂🙊 I see, I haven't looked into it, it was just something I was told whilst I was in the RN.
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