A few days ago
Anonymous

can anyone tell me what the term “Davy Jones Locker” means ?

can anyone tell me what the term “Davy Jones Locker” means ?

Top 7 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

Davy Jones’ locker

Meaning:

The bottom of the sea; the resting place of drowned mariners.

Origin

Davy Jones is the evil spirit of the sea. There are various possible attempts to explain the name by associating it with someone of a similar name:

Jones may be a corruption of name of the biblical seaman Jonah. Jonah denoted bad luck on to seamen.

Davy Jones was a 16th century publican who imprisoned drunken sailors in a locker and press-ganged them to serve on ships.

The name comes from the patron saint of sailors – St. David.

None of these is supported by any evidence – they are little more than guesses.

The first source of the use of the name comes from Tobias Smollett’s The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 1751:

“‘By the Lord! Jack, you may say what you wool; but I’ll be damned if it was not Davy Jones himself. I know him by his saucer eyes, his three rows of teeth, his horns and tail, and the blue smoke that came out of his nostrils. What does the blackguard hell’s baby want with me? I’m sure I never committed murder, except in the way of my profession, nor wronged any man whatsomever since I first went to sea.’ This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks, and other disasters, to which a seafaring life is exposed; warning the devoted wretch of death and woe.”

The first source that mentions Jones’ locker is the 1803 Naval Chronicle:

“…seamen would have met a watery grave; or, to use a seaman’s phrase, gone to Davy Jones’s locker.”

Website: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/davy-jones-locker.html

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A few days ago
ragann63
Davy Jones’s Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea — the resting place of drowned sailors. It is used as a euphemism for death at sea (to be sent to Davy Jones’ Locker). Davy Jones is a nickname for what would be the devil of the seas. The origins of the name are unclear, and many theories have been put forth, including incompetent sailors, a pub owner who kidnapped sailors, or that Davy Jones is another name for the devil – as in, “Devil Jonah”. This nautical superstition was popularized in the 1800s.
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A few days ago
Thor
davy jones’ locker is a mariner’s slang used to refer to something unretrievable at the bottom of the ocean …. now used for anything unretrievable. the concept came from the infamous pirate davy jones whose ship sank at the crucial moment of just being caught , taking with it an incredible treasure down to the bottom of the ocean .. which was never retrieved.
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A few days ago
papercrane
“Davy Jones’s Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea — the resting place of drowned sailors.”

It’s also the name of a place in Pirates of the Caribbean.

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A few days ago
poppa.carson
when a person died at sea they used to bury them at sea and there souls would wait in Davy Jones locker until thy were resurrected all Navy men used to be buried at sea …
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A few days ago
Anni
I always thought it ment the bottom of the ocean.
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A few days ago
johnmayerisamazing
i think it is where they keep prisoners trapped :p idk or maybe he stole it from his high school……good mmmrs? sorry never got that either
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