Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
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finlay
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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by finlay »

thetha wrote:
finlay wrote:what about Davy Jones' locker?
I watched too many cartoons as a child so I thought that meant like, "hell" or something in sailor talk. Does it really just mean the sea?
Well it means dying at sea and being thrown overboard, so yeah, maybe both.

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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by jmcd »

'theory' may well be a similar word to 'metaphor' in that it has a somewhat different meaning as a technical term as compared to being an everyday word.

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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by Imralu »

My mum says funny things like "Careful! I don't want you falling in the drink!" ... with "the drink" referring to whatever river or ocean I was playing perilously close to. I have a feeling this is not just a mummism but haven't googled it as I should actually be sleeping. In fact, I think she told me where her saying that comes from at one point when I was a kid ... her dad ... Ireland ... bus drivers ... I don't know.
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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by Zaarin »

Imralu wrote:My mum says funny things like "Careful! I don't want you falling in the drink!" ... with "the drink" referring to whatever river or ocean I was playing perilously close to. I have a feeling this is not just a mummism but haven't googled it as I should actually be sleeping. In fact, I think she told me where her saying that comes from at one point when I was a kid ... her dad ... Ireland ... bus drivers ... I don't know.
I've heard the term as a kid, as well, though not sure it was from my parents. Only pop culture reference I can think of is from the bridge of "Nobody Else But You" from A Goofy Movie, though given it's used by Goofy it might be intended to sound folksy or dated.
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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by Vijay »

I think I've seen something like "drink" being used to refer to a whirlpool in some kind of cartoon, possibly some Disney comic (Uncle Scrooge? Donald Duck?).

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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by Salmoneus »

Imralu wrote:My mum says funny things like "Careful! I don't want you falling in the drink!" ... with "the drink" referring to whatever river or ocean I was playing perilously close to. I have a feeling this is not just a mummism but haven't googled it as I should actually be sleeping. In fact, I think she told me where her saying that comes from at one point when I was a kid ... her dad ... Ireland ... bus drivers ... I don't know.
It's very common, yes. It's certainly used (or was used?) in the RAF, but I don't know whether it was their own invention. There is, for instance, apparently a book called "Shot down and in the drink" about the heroic exploits of RAF crew.
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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by clawgrip »

The Atlantic Ocean is often called "the pond" as in the expression "across the pond", though I am not so sure I would call this poetic.

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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by richard1631978 »

Salmoneus wrote:
Imralu wrote:My mum says funny things like "Careful! I don't want you falling in the drink!" ... with "the drink" referring to whatever river or ocean I was playing perilously close to. I have a feeling this is not just a mummism but haven't googled it as I should actually be sleeping. In fact, I think she told me where her saying that comes from at one point when I was a kid ... her dad ... Ireland ... bus drivers ... I don't know.
It's very common, yes. It's certainly used (or was used?) in the RAF, but I don't know whether it was their own invention. There is, for instance, apparently a book called "Shot down and in the drink" about the heroic exploits of RAF crew.
Another slang term for the sea is The Briny, due to salt content.

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Re: Poetic words for "sky" and "sea"

Post by svld »

The most commonly used poetic word for sky in Chinese is "穹蒼" which means "dôme bleu" literally.

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