Davy Jones's locker
English
Alternative forms
- Davy Jones' locker, Davy Jones locker, Davey Jones's locker, Davey Jones' locker, Davey Jones locker, Davie Jones's locker, Davie Jones' locker, Davie Jones locker, Davy's locker, Davey's locker, Davie's locker
Etymology
There has been much speculation about the origin of this term, but none has been substantiated. See more at Davy Jones' Locker on Wikipedia.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Proper noun
- (nautical, idiomatic) The bottom of the ocean, seen as a grave for sailors and the resting-place of anything that goes overboard and is lost.
- 1774, Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-7:
- "Damn my eyes," says he, "they are gone to Davy Jones's locker."
NOTE: Partridge erroneously refers to this as from the journal of Richard rather than Nicholas Cresswell.
- 1781 August, Isaac Kimber, Edward Kimber, “The Summer Theatre”, in The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, volume 50, page 360:
- ... are discovered singing a melancholy duet, bewailing the loss of an honest tar, whom they suppose (to use the burthen of the song) "is in Davy Jones's locker."
Translations
See also
- Davy Jones's Locker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Davy Jones's locker, Davey Jones' locker, Davy Jones' locker at Google Ngram Viewer
- Eric Partridge (1984) Paul Beale, editor, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English […] , 8th edition, New York: Macmillan
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