Letters to WB

A "Seasonal" Question

Dear WB:

Hello. I am looking for the origin of the phrase, "old salt". Please let me know where this can be referenced. Thank you kindly.

Cap180

Well, Cap, the oceans of the world are salty. (I might sound a bit condescending, but trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.) Who, then, is more salty than a sailor? Sailors use "salty" language, and an old sailor is known as an "old salt". 

James R. Watson, Origins Guy

Can You Bear the Bull?

Dear WB:

In the California Gold Rush days, the miners up in them thar hills had a lot of money and not much to spend it on. So they bet. On anything. A variation on bear baiting was to put a bear and a bull in the ring together. The bear would win by standing up and bearing down on the bull with its teeth and claws. The bull could only win by gouging the bear when rearing up with its horns. Hence the Bull or Bear Markets: A bear market goes down, a bull market goes up.

Bert Crews
Tomales, California

Good theory, Bert, but I have it on good authority that these stock market terms have been around a lot longer than Gold Rush days. I doubted your story on two rather frivolous grounds. First, bears live in the woods, and bulls don't. Second, I don't think the forty-niners spent a lot of time on Wall Street (or on Bay Street here in Canada). The "bear" in question probably comes from the old saying "sell the skin before you bought the bear", and refers to the situation when investors drive market prices down to profit from the anticipated lower prices. A "bull" market is one that charges up like "a bull in a china shop".

By the way, bear and bull baiting was outlawed in England in 1835. Looks like the master baiters had to move to the frontier to continue their business.

James R. Watson, Origins Guy