• thegiddystitcher
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    1 year ago

    To scupper something is to ruin it, prevent it, etc.

    “We wanted to have a BBQ, but the rain’s scuppered that!”

    Never thought about it before. Now it looks weird written down 😄

    • vivadanang
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      1 year ago

      “Scupper - an opening cut through the bulwarks of a ship so that water falling on deck may flow overboard”

      like so much other bullshit, this comes from the navy. can’t just say tossed overboard, nope, gotta have a whole new nomenclature regarding gutters on gunwales to say the same damned thing as landlubbers

      • letsgocrazy
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        1 year ago

        Surely “tossed overboard” is also a nautical phrase?

        And it doesn’t mean the same as scupper anyway.

      • quinkin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well that’s where it originated from. Scuppers on ships were the deck drains that let water that came over the railings drain back out.

        A ship was deemed scuppered when it was so low in the water that water could now enter through the scuppers, which is a bit of a point of no return in sinking a ship. No bailing or pumping will help at that point.