... someone is called "son of a gun"?
Today, the expression is used in a friendly, joking manner, but originally it had a quite
different meaning.
There was a time when women were allowed to live on board naval ships, and it is said that when
secret rendez-vous took place between these women and the ship's crew, the meeting place was usually
behind a canvas screen near the midship gun. Therefore, when a male child of uncertain parentage was
born aboard the ship, he was entered in the ship's log as a "son of a gun."
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