"GG" <nos
...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
...
> [Police getting their weapons out of the armament locker for action]
> "Let's break out the stun-guns."
> Is "break out" OK here?
This is sailors' slang from the 17th century (or earlier) that
has entered everyday speech. A breaker was a wooden
barrel -- 400 years ago the only common type of container,
used to store both fluids (drinking water) and objects (e.g.
trade goods.) "Break out" (verb) thus means to open the
container. Typically, all ships carried weapons (in case
pirates were encountered), securely locked away in a special
container controlled by the officers (to inhiibit mutiny.) The
order to arm the sailors was "Break out the weapons."
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
