When something happens above board, it means things are clear and in the open. But this has nothing to do with being on board a ship. Rather, it comes from the term board meaning “table,” as in room and board, and has to do with poker players keeping their cards above the board, so as to prevent any underhanded sneaky stuff. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Above Board”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Kathy Wilson, and I’m calling today from Richmond, Virginia.
Okay, well, welcome to the show.
Hi, Kathy.
Today.
Thank you.
Hi.
Today you’re calling from Richmond?
Tomorrow you might call from Richmond.
Yes, today I’m calling from Richmond, but this is the end.
No, actually it’s not.
I’m going to Minnesota and then flying home to Mexico.
Wow, okay.
Well, how can we help you?
Actually, my sister and my brother-in-law were having a conversation in Moscow, Idaho, about the expression above board.
And then I was driving in Montana and I heard your show and I thought, this is the perfect people to ask.
Yes.
Yeah, I think so.
No matter what state you’re in.
Yeah.
So the expression above board, in what sense?
How would you use it in a sentence?
Well, like you say, well, I’m making this transaction with you and everything is above board.
Mm—
And we thought, well, maybe it’s like it came from when people were on a ship and they were under the deck.
Maybe when they went above board up on deck, they could see everything.
And so that made it whatever was happening real.
Well, anyway, that’s all we could come up with.
Yeah.
Well, it actually has nothing to do with ships or pirates or anything like that.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
Well, you’re not the first to make that leap and think that that might be the origin, but it’s not.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it sounds plausible, sure.
But this sense of board goes back to the idea of a board being related to a table.
You know, like room and board is, you know, your room and your food on the table.
And if you’re talking about above board as far back as the 1600s, what you were talking about was doing things like cards, playing cards, and you keep your hands above board.
Oh, yeah.
You know, so there’s no cheating.
So you’re not pulling a card out of your lap or you’re not doing some kind of something surreptitious under the table that would give you an unfair advantage.
Right.
Everybody’s on the up and up.
Literally not being underhanded.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Underhanded.
Under the table.
Yeah.
Yeah, I remember movies or books, you know, medieval times or Sir Arthur or something, you know, and they say that the people were eating with plantains and boards.
Yep, exactly.
Something like that.
Well, that’s still done in some places, you know, serving food on a board.
But they’re sanded.
Yeah, yeah, I hope so.
I should hope so.
Unless you really need some roughage.
Yeah, that’d be a heck of a lisp.
Hey, happy trails.
Have a good trip back to all those places.
Oh, thank you.
It was really fun listening to your show.
Take care.
Good luck.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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