Why are ships always called she or her.
Actually, they aren’t always female. The Russian and, IIRC, German, tradition has ships as male.
But, from an old quote I remember imperfectly:
This comes, again IIRC, from an English sailor in the mid 1700s.
Dunno if that helps, but there you are.
Thanx for that Tranquilis much appreciated.
The Liner she’s a lady by the paint upon ‘er face,
An’ if she meets an accident they count it sore disgrace:
The Man-o’-War’s 'er 'usband, and 'e’s always 'andy by,
But, oh, the little cargo-boats! they’ve got to load or die.
Yeah, the relevence is questionable, but it seemed like an excuse to Kipple.
I heard about one boat that went out and scuttled itself. It was depressed when it found out ita mother was a tramp and its father was a ferry.
Thank you! I’ll be here all week. Be sure to try the buffet!
I once read that airships (Zeppelins and so on) used to be referred to as male, even if they bore a female name. Maybe this was intentiously done to set a difference to naval ships I don’t know.
In German, ships are always referred to as “she” too, btw. About Russian I don’t know.
Phallic symbolism.
Fun Factoid-- Any watercraft intended & designed for use in fresh water only is always refered to as a boat. Even the million ton ore freighters that ply the waters of North America’s Great Lakes are called “ore boats”.
I seem to remember something from my German classes about the gender system that they have for nouns. I think that things of beauty or power are often feminine. English is related to German, and although we have lost most of the gender aspect in our language, maybe it’s a holdover from the old way the language was used.
Thanx for all the reply’s.
Except that it’s das Schiff and das Boot. “Das” is neuter.
Right, but if you refer to a ship by name, you always use the feminine form in German; it’s “die Otto Hahn” for example, and “die” is feminine, although Otto Hahn after whom the vessel was named was a man.
I never heard about the beauty-and-power-is-feminine-rule, but I thought about it and it seems to be true in most cases.