s---k pot, 1805 (?)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/6/2010 02:17 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>I suspect it really was "stink pot", which the Ladasha-ellipsis
>serving to indicate that "stink" here is really "shit", thereby
>forming a kind of double euphemism. Or maybe blending the two
>euphemistic devices together inadvertently.

Although I did not say so explicitly, that underlay my question about
whether a naval stink-pot might have contained excrement. See the
"trans." usages from the OED, including Smollet's.

>(Not that that answers
>the yardarm-display puzzle.  But then again I'm only familiar with
>yardarms in connection with their relation to solar positioning and
>libation schedules.)

In my previous message (which crossed with Larry's) I guessed about
the placement on the yard-arm.

Joel

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