Dead reckoning is certainly not a litteral translation from the Dutch language. We call it in Dutch 'gegist bestek', which is translated as 'guessed position' and that is much more the treality.
The dogwatch is called in Dutch the 'Hondewacht'. That is the exact translation. During my training in the Navy this was always explained as being the times of the day that only dogs are supposed to be awake. Dogwatch is the litteral translation from the Dutch language. Neap tide is called in Dutch 'doodtij' which is literaly translated 'dead tide'. So in this case it is certainly not translated from the Dutch language. At 20:30 12-2-99 +0000, you wrote: -----Original Message/Oorspronkelijk bericht-------------- > I'm interested in origin of the term "dead reckoning". I read >somewhere that it came from "ded' reckoning" i.e. "deduced reckoning". >Any thoughts? > >Tony Moss. > > >Tony and all, > >I doubt if "dead" reckoning has anything to do with "deduced" reckoning. >There is a parallel nautical case where "dog" watches, the half watches >used to change watch order in successive days, was supposed to be >derived from "docked" watches. I recently wrote to the "Mariner's >Mirror" as follows: > >That the word "dog" is a corruption of some other word, as "dock", or >"dodge", seems to me unlikely. > >Is it not more probable that the word is one of a family of modifying >prefixes used to signal that the substantive is not the real thing. >Examples include dog-latin, french leave, dutch courage, horse-chestnut >and cat-silver. Other examples are easily supplied and the usage is so >common that this seems a sufficient explanation. > >Dog-watches are not real watches but only half watches. > >In the same way I think we should concentrate on possible meanings of >"dead" and not look for corruption of other words. There are similar >problems with "neap" and "spring" tides. >-- >Frank Evans > ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thibaud Taudin-Chabot, home email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (attachments max 500kB, in case of larger attachments contact me)
