Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 1/3/2004

Question
I was wondering why pirates say "Shiver me timbers" all the time.
Thanks.

Answer
Jon:

I think you're exaggerating when you say that pirates say the phrase "all the time."  Robert Louis Stevenson used the phrase just THREE times in his novel "Treasure Island."  Although the phrase was known to pirates before Stevenson used it, he is the one who made it famous.  [And then the Disney people got hold of it . . . .]

The phrase means "shock" or "sudden surprise," as the wooden masts or timbers of a ship would quake when the ship was hit by a cannonball, or if the ship suddenly ran aground or hit an unsuspecting object -- think "whale" in "Moby Dick" or the great white shark in "Jaws."

The "Phrase Finder" folk at Sheffield Hallam University -- the leading authority of phrase history -- and the standard reference book "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" do not have a specific origin for the phrase.  One suspects that an unknown pirate first used it, and it just caught on.  The shivering or quaking referred to the wooden boards or the masts of the old ships, when they were suddenly hit by a cannonball or some other powerful force/object.

Here's an interesting site for pirate lingo -- have your speakers turned on:

<http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/pirate%20talk.html>

The section from "Phrase Finder" is pasted here:

The phrase "Shiver my timbers" occurs three times in Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (We probably remember the 'shiver ME timbers' from the classic film version of the story. Arrrrrrr, Matey.) As an expression of astonishment by the pirate(s), it seems to mean "wasn't that surprising?" or "to my surprise." Just speculating now, but the timbers (beams) of a wooden sailing ship would be shivered (set to vibrating suddenly) by a cannonball attack. There's also an older meaning of shivered that's equivalent to splintered.

For other phrases, you can consult "Brewer's Dictionary" at this site:

<http://www.bartleby.com/81/>

Ted Nesbitt

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