Brass monkey, cold enough to freeze the balls off a

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
When I went to school this expression was explained in terms of the British navy in the 19th century----monkeys were devices for carrying small cannon balls . These devices were made of brass and got their name from the ==================================================

A Semitic word for brass is peh-lamed-zaiyin
PeLeZ. Most Arabic dialects use B for P, so
that sounds like bells or BaLLS.

A Semitic word for "shudder" is peh-lamed-tzadi
PeLeTZ = shudder (as from cold). Compare palsy:
2. any of a variety of atonal muscular conditions
characterized by tremors of the body parts or of
the entire body.

kuf-feh-(vav)oo-aleph KaFoo? = freeze/frozen
kuf-(vav)oo-feh KooF = monkey

So, the Semitic equivalent of "brass monkey"
is a near homonym for, and therefore a pun on,
the Semitic equivalent of "shudder-frozen".

That is, with translations in [brackets],

PeLeTZ [shudder/palsy] KaFoo? [frozen]
BaLLS oFF
PeLeZ [brass] KooF [monkey]

What we have here is the transliterated sound of
"shudder-freeze" [probably in Arabic] followed by
its translation into English: brass monkey.

Israel Cohen
izzy_cohen@bmc.com