Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: (All) at sea

 

If you're feeling a little at sea in these uncertain times, I assure you, you are not alone. But before we get a little green around the gills with all the swaying and lurching about in the greater world "outside," let's take a look at the idiom all at sea (because this is, after all, a blog about language and only in the most devious/clandestine way about anything else)...

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The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer defines the idiomatic all at sea or at sea to mean "perplexed, bewildered," which is as good a definition as any. The dictionary continues, "This idiom transfers the condition of a vessel that has lost its bearings to the human mind," and dates it to the later 1700s. The Phrase Finder tackles the phrase as well, defining it to mean "in a state of confusion and disorder," and provides an early example from Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the laws of England, 1768: "If a court of equity were still at sea, and floated upon the occasional opinion which the judge who happened to preside might entertain of conscience in every particular case." .... Ooookay. I'm no lawyer, and even after slogging through the Wikipedia explanation of "court of equity," I'm still not sure what these courts are. I guess you could say I'm at sea (which reflects my state of being after certain present-day high court decisions, which have me feeling a little sick to my stomach, so there you go).

Batten the hatches, rough seas ahead...
Ocean by Ivan Aivazovsky, 1896, WikiArt