thumb the nose

[Dan Goncharoff]

As I understand it, outside the language of the US Navy, all ships are
boats, but not all boats are ships.

DanG

On 5/16/2010 4:51 AM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton<robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: thumb the nose
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>> I first thought "longship" was a mergeword ~merjwerd for "long lasting
>> relationship", but it's a boat.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
>>
> Well, some sailors might quarrel with the term boat (for ship) ...

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