tusk-hoister

[Jonathan Lighter]

1918 _The Hatchet_ (USS George Washington) (Apr. 4) (Pvtly.ptd., 1919) 40: 
SAILORS' LINGO Floor, deck; stairs, ladder; upstairs, above; downstairs, below; dining room, mess hall: meals, chow; bed, bunk, hammock; retire, turn in; arise, turn out; hospital, sickbay; ahead, forward; behind, aft; toilet, head; window, port; wall, bulkhead, rope or string, line; derrick pole, boom; post, stanchion; dentist, t. h. (tusk hoister;) get ready, stand by; runway, gangway: pail, bucket (or movable bathtub;) scrub brush, caiyi; overalls, dungarees; carpenter, chips; electrician, sparks; ship policeman, jimmy legs; chaplain, sky pilot.
 
Note the insistence that a rope must be called a "line."  Hence the civilian yachtsman's superstition that there is just one rope (the bell-rope) on shipboard.
 
HDAS and other reputable sources spell "caiyi" as "kiyi."
 
JL
 
JL




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