What does yare mean?

lal...@delphi.com

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Oct 25, 1994, 10:23:19 PM10/25/94

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>From: xris...@vax.sbu.ac.uk
>What does "yare" mean? Anyone heard of it.Can't find it in Oxford Dictionary.

My old Oxford Universal lists "yare".

Yare, a. and adv. arch. and dial.
A. adj. 1. Ready, prepared. 2. Brisk, quick
B. adv. Quickly, promptly -1513. b. As exclam.: = Quick! esp. in
nautical use. arch. 1606.

I heard the word used years ago to refer to a sleek boat as, "she's very yare",
and all these years I thought it meant a boat that handled well.

Les

Dennis Baron

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Oct 26, 1994, 10:41:03 AM10/26/94

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Yare is what gets Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn back together again in
"The Philadelphia Story" I believe the line is, "My, she was yare" --
they're holding a model of the boat (name?).

dennis
--

Steve Hayes

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Oct 26, 1994, 2:05:29 AM10/26/94

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In article <AAC887DE9...@mousa.demon.co.uk> bi...@mousa.demon.co.uk (Bill Bedford) writes:

>>What does "yare" mean? Anyone heard of it.Can't find it in Oxford
>>Dictionary.

>>Many thanks
>>
>
>Its a river in Norfolk

ready, brisk or eager

(of a vessel) answering swiftly to the helm, easily handled

============================================================
Steve Hayes, Editorial Department, University of South Africa
P.O. Box 392, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa
Internet: haye...@risc1.unisa.ac.za Fidonet: 5:7106/20.1
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Nancy Gill

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Oct 27, 1994, 1:57:02 AM10/27/94

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Dennis (deb...@uiuc.edu) wrote:

DB>Yare is what gets Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn back together again in
DB>"The Philadelphia Story" I believe the line is, "My, she was yare" --
DB>they're holding a model of the boat (name?).
DB>

The name of the boat was the 'True Love.' The model is a wedding present from
Grant to his ex-wife on the occasion of her second marriage. This plot point
occurs some time before Grant & Hepburn get back together.

NJG
Alameda, CA
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Christopher T. Barber

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Oct 27, 1994, 2:49:10 PM10/27/94

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In article <debaron-2610...@gauss.english.uiuc.edu>,
deb...@uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron) wrote:

> Yare is what gets Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn back together again in

The boat's name is "True Love" (hence the goopy song in the remake -- "High
Society"). The next lines are:

H: I wasn't, was I?
G: Not very. You kept the brightwork shiny, though.

Question (for the real maritime slang aficionado): what's brightwork?

1. Brass and other stuff that needs polishing.
2. Varnished wood.
3. ... ?

Aloha,

CTB
The MITRE Corporation
-- information in this message is my own personal opinion
it is not a position of The MITRE Corporation
or the U.S. Government --

Mirabelle Severn & Thames

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Oct 31, 1994, 3:02:43 PM10/31/94

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In article <ctb-2710...@c-t-barber.mitre.org> c...@mitre.org (Christopher T. Barber) writes:
>The boat's name [in The Philadelphia Story] is "True Love" (hence the
>goopy song in the remake -- "High Society"). The next lines [from Hepburn
>and Grant] are:

>
>H: I wasn't, was I?
>G: Not very. You kept the brightwork shiny, though.

G: Not very. Ah, you were good at the brightwork, though.
H: I made her shine...

Actually, the first time the word comes up, Grant has left
the scene, and Hepburn and her fiance are examining the
model of the True Love he gave them. Her fiance (who has
worked his way up from the coal mines, rather than being
born to the purple) asks what "yare" means, and she defines
it, ending with "Everything a boat should be -- until it
develops dry-rot".

Naomi

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