Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Etymology of "son of a gun"

+4
−1

What's the origin of the expression "son of a gun"?

This comic explains a possible origin: British Navy used to allow women on naval ships, and any child born on board who had uncertain paternity would be called "son of a gun" (because "gun" would be a slang for "a military guy"). This is supported by other sources, such as this and this.

But Wiktionary says that "Folk etymologies suggesting nautical origins are not supported by evidence".

Considering those contraditory sources, which one is correct?

Is the kid-born-on-a-ship history true? In case it's not, what would be the origin of this expression?


According to Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Collins dictionaries, "son of a gun" is an euphemism for "son of a b*tch", but I'm not interested in how the expression became an euphemism, only in its origin, regardless of the meaning it has today.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

General comments (8 comments)

1 answer

+5
−0

According to Snopes, who knows what the true origin is.

The faintly derogative epithet “son of a gun” has been documented as part of the lexicon of the English language since 1708, but no one can really lay claim to knowing how it began or what the phrase originally signified. Numerous interesting backstories have emerged in the centuries since, and it’s possible one might even be the right one, but we no longer have any way of knowing.

They do, however, reject several proposed histories. In addition to a twist on your proposed answer, where the women (most of them prostitutes) facetiously answered that they literally were impregnated by one of the ship's cannons, they cite several explanations which all revolve around guns somehow helping women aboard the ship to give birth. All of these share several an important element in common, namely women giving birth aboard a ship without their husbands present, which the Snopes article methodically proves is either impossible or nonsensical.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »