"all stove up"

[Geoff Nathan]

At 08:35 AM 6/1/2004, you wrote:
>I've heard "all stove up" all my life (Oregon and Washington). I don't
>know the actual derivation of it, but I've always heard it in the sense of
>being very stiff and sore, or having severe stiffness in one's joints and
>having difficulty moving, not necessarily being badly injured. Since the
>way I heard the expression used indicated being stiff and sore, I always
>figured it being used as a form of "to stiffen" in the expession "stiffen up".

Having read lots of seafaring books I'm making a WAG here, but I'd guess
that 'stove-up' is derived from the same root as 'stove-in', meaning busted
up, smashed, especially of the hull of boats.  According to the OED it
derives from 'stave' (v.) meaning to break up a barrel into its component
staves.

Geoff