Friday, April 24, 2015

Under the Weather

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Okay, so I looked this one up. I was curious about it, anyway. 
It seems that when sailors or persons who were on a ship would become seasick, they went below deck, where the rocking motion of the ship was not so great and the stomach could settle. 

The illness would most often happen when the weather made the seas rough, thus causing the deck to be more difficult to stand on.

Hence, one would be "under the weather" below deck, when they had to leave the deck and go below. 

I always pictured a person who was said to be under the weather, walking around with a rain cloud over their head. Ha. 

 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting where some of our common expressions come from. I wasn't aware of where 'under the weather' came from. Our folks had lots of interesting sayings....some of them we still use.

jaybird said...

Funny, the last place I want to go when seasick is below deck. I never knew that's where this expression came from. Good to know that little bit of trivia! Thanks Granny.

Arlee Bird said...

I had to check to make sure you were okay!

That explanation makes total sense. I never thought of it that way. If I were on an old sailing ship I'm sure I'd frequently be in the lower decks.

Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out

Grammy said...

Hi, Y'all! Yes, it is a very interesting expression. Lots of old sayings littering our language, eh?

Joanne said...

This is the second A-Z post I've read that's explained this expression. I live on the coast and did not know that's where the phrase came from.
Thanks for the info!
Happy A-Z
www.gvpeasachantrant.blogspot.com