In a sailboat’s rig, where would you find the D-1?
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Congratulations to Phillip Troutman of Poole, England who gave a good answer to last week’s Mindbender, which was a tricky one. “Most etomologists, but not all, think the phrase “the devil to pay” comes from the world of wooden boats in the eighteenth century. The “devil” in those days was the first seam of a planked hull above the keelson. The word “pay” or “paying” refers to the act of calking a boat’s seams with rope and hot tar. Since the devil is underneath the boat or ship, it is the most difficult to calk and fill with tar, hence the phrase “the devil to pay” came to mean that something that was difficult and frustratingly hard to accomplish.”
