Hi All,
I am going to raise an issue here that I fear may become quite contentious. It is regarding the use of the terms 'Bitter End' and 'Bitters'.
Before I go any further I'd just like to say that I'm not sniping at or picking on any one individual, and I hope we can have a mature,frank and friendly discussion of the terminology.
So, My issue is that I have noticed a growing use of the terms 'Bitter End' and or 'Bitters' to refer to the end of any rope, but in particular what I would call the 'Working End' or 'Working Part', that being the end with which one is working, as opposed to the 'Standing End or Part' that being the other end of the rope in use, which is already more or less fixed in its location (as in 'Standing Rigging'). It is also on occasion being used to denote the tailstock end of of a rope in process of being laid up.
My contention is that the 'Bitter End' and it's derivation 'Bitters' is solely and only the end of an anchor cable left inside the vessel inboard of the 'Bitts' (bollards, cleats, posts, horns, or whatever) or, where the cable is shackled to the bottom of the chain locker as in some modern sailing boats, the extent of the cable between the winch drum or chain gypsy, and that shackle.
I quote Dan Lehman below from 2009
"I wish we could kill this mistaken meaning: the "bitter" end was named for
the *end*/part of the rope "ABAFT THE BITTS," not some ultimate end-point of
that bit of rope. "bitter" from "bitts", not from some connotation of taste. I think
that this is well enough documented without other than common misunderstanding
and mis-use going against it."
Also from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/65800.html
"Enter stage left, Captain Smith. Here's what he has to say, in his publication Seaman's Grammar, 1627, which is the earliest citation of the phrase in print:
"A Bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the Bits, and veare it out by little and little. And the Bitters end is that part of the Cable doth stay within boord."
As you might have deduced, a bitt is a post fastened in the deck of a ship, for fastening cables and ropes. When a rope is played out to the bitter end, it means there is no more rope to be used."
So, here we have two Authorities plus me appealing for a return to the olde original meaning of the term 'Bitter End', for the use of the term 'Working End' for the working end, and the appropriate original term for the sled or tailstock end of a rope in the making, whatever that may be.
I realise that language is a dynamic and living beast that mutates and evolves over time, but mostly a breeder will send all but the best stock for slaughter, keeping only that which pleases his eye for breeding.
That's all I wish to say on the subject for now, Over to You
Best Regards, Peter H