XPost: rec.arts.drwho, alt.usage.english   
   From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   On 2025-12-28 15:00:29 +0000, J. J. Lodder said:   
   > Daniel70  wrote:   
   >> On 28/12/2025 7:41 am, Sam Plusnet wrote:   
   >>> On 27/12/2025 18:50, athel.cb@gmail.com wrote:   
   >>>> lar3ryca  posted:   
   >>   
   >>    
   >>   
   >>>>> And they meet at -40, which happens occasionally around here.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Most of France is starting each day at -2°C or so at present (which you   
   >>>> probably wouldn't call cold in Regina), but not here: in Marseilles we   
   >>>> do our shivering at 8°C or so.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> One consequence of the cold is that I learned a new word today: greloter   
   >>>> means shiver.   
   >>>   
   >>> Does it also have the other meaning of "shiver" - to break into small   
   >>> fragments as in "shiver me timbers"?   
   >>   
   >> Might that be because the Water would get into the wood and, on a cold   
   >> day, the water might freeze and, as ice takes up greater volumn than   
   >> water, the 'timber' would crack .... disabling the ship??   
   >   
   > That is not the correct explanation,   
   >   
   > Jan   
      
   True. The *correct* explanation is that it is simply a phrase made up   
   by a writer back around 1795 (not the later Robert Loius Stevenson in   
   1883 that some places claim), and there's no proof that any real   
   sailors / pirates ever actually said it. It is based it on the   
   definition of "shiver" meaning "to split in two".  :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)