“Shiver Me Timbers” Isn’t About Being Cold

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Allison from San Diego.

So my son was reading a book last month, and the title of the book was Shiver Me Timbers, Five Pirate Stories. And he had asked me what Shiver Me Timbers means and where it came from. And I often, with him in the car on Sundays while we’re driving errands, listened to A Way with Words and thought, you know what, this might be a really good question for you guys.

Oh, that’s a good one indeed. What did you tell him?

I told him that it probably had something to do with pirate ships being made of wood and masts and storms shaking, but that was just me sort of pulling something together based on logical thought.

And did he pick up the expression?

He did. He started saying it to me more as an expression when he was concerned or worried about something.

Oh, really?

So if he had a test coming up in the morning, you know, we’d get up and get ready for school and he’d be like, oh, shiver me timbers. I hope I do well on that math test.

Very cute.

Oh, that’s adorable. Yeah, you’re on the right track there. Timber in this sense, it’s timbers, refers to the wooden beams that make up the structure of a ship’s hull and ribs, which, of course, are really important to sailors.

And in the late 18th century, you might hear sailors exclaiming, my timbers, as part of a mild oath. You know, may God split my timbers, or may God smite my timbers. And to invoke that kind of disaster, them being burst or split or smitten, it’s a kind of mild oath.

And the shiver part of this is super interesting because it has nothing to do with the word that has to do with your teeth chattering and your body shaking because you’re so cold. That’s an old word of uncertain origin. But this shiver, this verb, is a completely different but similarly spelled word that means to shatter or to break into lots of small pieces.

Later, the phrase shiver my timbers was used in comic fiction to suggest the language of pirates, you know, pirates are. And it was popularized then in 1881 by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, along John Silver is always talking about shivering someone’s timbers, shivering his own timbers. So it became sort of, over time, sort of a caricature of pirate language.

Yeah, in the book, Long John Silver says things like, shiver my sides and shiver my soul. My favorite quote in the book from Long John Silver, he’s threatening his crew because they’re getting mutinous. And he’s talking about the deadly consequences if they mutiny. And he says, cross me and you’ll go where many a good man’s gone before you. First and last these 30 year back, some to the yardarm shiver my sides, and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes.

Don’t cross him.

Yeah, so it’s a good book. I think it’s good that your son is having his pirate phase. It’s a little bit after the dinosaur phase, right?

Yes, yes, a bit after. Dinosaurs, dragons, and now we’re into pirates, yes. And what’s next? Vampires?

Maybe, we’ll see. Aliens? Maybe aliens.

Yeah, maybe aliens. Yeah, but you might explain to him that this kind of shiver has nothing to do with the kind of shiver that happens when you’re cold. This kind of shiver means to shatter or break into lots of small fragments.

There may have been a post-influence by people who thought they were related, but they didn’t start being related. So it’s very complicated. English is ridiculous.

But fun, so that’s good. But Allison, thank you for your call and keep that kid reading, all right?

Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We’d love hearing about the books you’re reading or the books your kids are reading. And whatever language you picked up from it, do you have questions about? Well, we’ll help you sort through it.

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