Scupper Trout
Posted by Jim on February 20, 2002
In Reply to: Scupper Trout posted by Word Camel 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.
: Is there such thing as a scupper hamster? I think I pulled one out of the shower drain last week... It ran away and now appears to have purchased an exercise wheel.
There is now. You deserve attribution. Leads to "Idea Hampster". Slang phrase for someone in a business meeting whose idea wheel is always spinning.