Under the weather.

We met our friends last night for a drink and to catch up with tales of their recent two week jaunt abroad. At some point P picked up a bug and had to stay confined to barracks whilst she recovered. As soon as she said it had been a couple of days before she stopped feeling "under the weather" TWANG went the nosey bone as I suddenly thought why do we all say that and where has it come from? Now I had always assumed that these three little words simply referenced the effect bad weather can have upon our emotions, but this apparently is not so. The full phrase is "under the weather bow" and originates from when people were travelling by sea and were on the weather bow side of the ship...this is the side which receives the full force of any bad weather. Makes a little more sense now. More useless trivia for all ye good folks! Arilx