Son of a gun
Son of a gunis anexclamationinAmericanandBritish English.It can be used encouragingly or to compliment, as in "You son of a gun, you did it!"
Definition
[edit]TheCambridge Advanced Learner's DictionaryandWebster's Dictionaryboth define "son of a gun" in American English as aeuphemismforson of a bitch.[1][2]Encarta Dictionarydefines the term in a different way as someone "affectionately or kindly regarded."[3]The term can also be used as an interjection expressing surprise, mild annoyance or disappointment.[2][3]
Etymology
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The phrase is found in a piece of comic verse from 1726:[4]
You Apollo's son,
You're a son of a gun,
Made up with bamboozle,
You directly I'll puzzle;
A 1787 correspondent toThe Gentleman's Magazinesuggested that the phrase originally meant "a soldier's brat".[5]
The phrase potentially has its origin in aRoyal Navydirection that pregnant women aboard smaller naval vessels give birth in the space between the broadside guns, in order to keep the gangways and crew decks clear.[6]AdmiralWilliam Henry Smythwrote in his 1867 book,The Sailor's Word-Book:"Son of a gun, an epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage."[7]
Alternatively, historian Brian Downing proposes that the phrase "son of a gun" originated from feudal knights' disdain for newly developed firearms and those who wielded them.[8]An Americanurban mythalso proposes that the saying originated in a story reported in the October 7, 1864The American Medical Weeklyabout a woman impregnated by a bullet that went through a soldier's testicles and into her womb. The story about the woman was a joke written byLegrand G. Capers;some people who read the weekly failed to realize that the story was a joke and reported it as true.[9]This myth was the subject of an episode of the television showMythBusters,in which experiments showed the story implausible.[10]
References
[edit]
- ^"Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary entry".Retrieved2006-06-02.
- ^ab"Webster's Dictionary entry".Retrieved2006-06-02.
- ^abEncarta Dictionary entry.Archived fromthe originalon 2007-11-11.Retrieved2006-06-02.
- ^[Anonymous] (1726).The British Apollo.Vol. 2 (third ed.). [London]: Theodore Sanders. p. 379.hdl:2027/mdp.39015030845070.
- ^Row, T. (January 1787)."[Various Etymologies]".The Gentleman's Magazine.lvii(1). London: 39.
- ^Kemp, Peter (1970).The British Sailor: a social history of the lower deck.London: J.M. Dent & Sons. p. 196.ISBN978-0-460-03957-4.
- ^Smyth, W.H. (2005).The Sailor's Word-Book: The Classic Dictionary of Nautical Terms.London: Conway Maritime.ISBN978-0-85177-972-0.
- ^Downing, Brian (1992).The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe.Princeton University Press. p. xi.ISBN978-0-691-07886-1.
- ^Mikkelson, David (March 7, 2000)."Did a Woman Become Pregnant from a Civil War Bullet?".Snopes.RetrievedJuly 21,2005.
- ^"MythBusters Results".Retrieved23 May2024.