Nautical Language & Terminology
As I have spent several years building the Timeline, and it's now several decades since the Caronia's demise, I've recently noticed a change in the seemingly greater use of old language terms returning to common use. Many of them come from memories of my days “in the Merch”.
While there is a page here of common nautical terms derived mostly from publications issued to Caronia's passengers, there's no point in copying pages that have already been fully researched on external sites. There are two sources derived both from common naval parlance and from something a little more secretive.
Many terms now in use in the English language around the World owe their beginnings to slang terms originated by sailors of both the British Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy.
Do Note: the external page linked-to above contains fruity language that could offend!
Polari - A Secret Language
Polari is an additional secretive language that was once widely used by the British gay community, mostly by sailors from the 1900s to the 1970s. It is based on slang words derived from a variety of different sources, including rhyming slang, Yiddish and backslang (spelling words backwards).
With LGBT “gay pride” lately featuring regularly on mainstream news it seems that with it Polari has had a recent resurgence. It's mostly used to confound listeners who could potentially be embarrassed or hurt by the often personal or cutting remarks.
No-one, but no-one could dress anyone down more completely than an “on-form” and angry queen! You'd know that you'd been “cleaned”! Whether LGBT gay, straight, or not yet made up your mind, you were never immune to such attacks. Me? For a while, as I licked my wounds, I'd just wonder for days about whether it was wise to seek an explanation of a polari term I'd not heard before.
A while back, the Merseyside Maritime Museum had a touring exhibition called “Hello Sailor” and among their on-line pages is a better explanation of Polari.
Mediterranean 
