|
|
Shiver Me Timbers!
Arrrrrrr!!!!! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Ye'll be only wantin to talk like a pirate today. Yarrrr...
If ya don't be talkin like one, you all be Sons of a Biscuit Eater! YARR!!! Be sure you be talking like a pirate all day. Yarr..arrr..arrr!!!
what does shiver me timbers mean?
Posted by: john on February 17, 2004 03:25 PMaccording to this site:
http://www.takeourword.com/Issue065.html
It's a mock oath ascribed to sailors, though it appears to be a comic embellishment of a slightly different oath, my timbers. The latter dates from the late 18th century, while shiver me/my timbers is first recorded in 1835: "I won't thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do" from Frederick Marryat's Jacob Faithful. Apparently Mr. Marryat invented the phrase with an eye toward avoiding his readers taking offense at stronger words. It's also possible that my timbers was invented, for it first appears in a song: "My timbers! what lingo he’d coil and belay."
A shiver, is literally "a splinter". Hence, when timbers are shivered, they are broken into splinters. A curiously similar word is shake, a fissure that forms in wood while it is still growing.
The phrase shiver my timbers was purportedly adopted later by cricket to refer to the scattering of wickets.