A Sea Painter is a Rope, Not a Naval Picasso

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mark Hanlon. I’m from Bismarck, North Dakota.

Hi, Mark. Welcome to A Way with Words. What’s on your mind?

Many years ago, I sailed on the Great Lakes, and the first time I went aboard a ship, or shortly after that, I was part of some emergency routine they would go through every week to practice. And above my bed was a sheet to tell me what to do. And it said I was to go to the back of the ship and on the port side attend the sea painter. And I had no clue what a sea painter was until I got there and somebody pointed out it was a rope. I think it was a rope attached to a lifeboat. But I’ve often wondered since then why a rope would be called a sea painter.

Yeah, when I hear the expression sea painter, I sort of think of an artist standing with an easel.

No, that’s not going to be right, Martha.

Well, it’s not. It’s not right. It just comes to mind, isn’t it?

In terms of this rope, Mark, do you remember about how long it was? Like, was it a really short rope or a really long rope?

I think it was probably 20 to 30 feet long. I think it was attached to the lifeboat on the port side at the back of the ship.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it was, yeah.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, Mark, because the term painter itself is a term that means a rope at the bow of a little boat or a dinghy that you would use to tie it to a dock. And a sea painter is a much longer rope, a strong rope that would be attached to something like a lifeboat so that it would, you know, withstand the action of the sea.

But why would we call it a painter? P-A-I-N-T-E-R.

Well, we’re not 100% sure, but we suspect that it has French roots. There’s an old French word pendu, which means a kind of rope. And it goes back even farther to words that have to do with hanging, like pendant and pendulum and pending and pendulous. So this word painter was adopted into English, into Middle English from French, where it was more like pendue.

I see.

And so it was a rope for hanging things on a ship, like hanging a boat from the side of a ship?

Yeah, like hanging a lifeboat from a ship. And there was also a really interesting, this word goes way back to the 14th century, painter. And there’s also an interesting idiom, cut the painter or slip the painter, which means simply to sever a connection metaphorically or to break free.

I’m going to slip the painter. You know, I’m going to quit my job and slip the painter or quit working on that ship and slip the painter.

I see.

Well, Mark, I hope you get some sailing there in North Dakota. I don’t imagine there’s anything like the Great Lakes, but if you still got a hanker on, I hope you can get it.

Oh, I get out in my fishing boat.

Nice. Very good. Take care of yourself and thanks for calling and sharing your memories.

Thank you.

All right. Take care.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Mark.