Re: Scupper
Trout
Posted by Jim on February 20, 2002
In Reply to: Scupper Trout posted by Jim
on February 20, 2002
: : : : : "He alleges that Microsoft scuppered
a 1998 deal with Compaq to produce..."
: : : : : Anyone know what "scuppered"
means?
: : : : I looked up scupper in an American dictionary where it explains
that a scupper is a nautical term for the holes at the side of a ship that allow
the water to run off.
: : : : I have also heard it used to describe destroying
a ship - if not by sinking than grounding. "After passengers ceased to visit the
aging steam boat, the owners scuppered it."
: : : : So in the sentence you gave,
it means that Microsoft deliberately destroyed the deal with Compac. And as it
happens, that's completely consistent with Microsoft.
: : : : I suspect the
Brits will find this use of scuppered in their dictionaries and it will be in
the OED of course.
: : : Scuppering is deliberate.
: : Camel is entirely right.
To scupper is a nautical term meaning to sink a ship deliberately by opening the
scuppers. To clarify Camel's run-off holes, scuppers are sealed hatches/holes
below the waterline that can be opened to drain the bilges and/or lower decks
if the ship is ever in dry dock. Sir Francis Drake famously sailed into Cadiz
in the 16th century to scupper a large portion of the Spanish fleet, and many
a brave captain has scuppered his own ship during wartime in order to prevent
it falling into enemy hands - as happened with the French naval fleet at Toulon
at the beginning of the 2nd World War.
: : A strangely similar word also used
to describe the deliberate sinking of a ship is "to scuttle". I have no idea if
this is just coincidence.
: : As for Microsoft deliberately getting up to some
corporate naughtiness, who'da thunk it from the oh so whiter than white Church
of St. Bill of Seattle?
: I've read that the plumbing aboard navy ships sometimes
regurgitate unsavory items from shower drains. These items are affectionately
nicknamed scupper trout.
"Harper's", February, 1999
http://www.matthewklam.com/nonfiction/pilotstale.html
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