In the pirate days, the ships were all equipped with cannons. The cannon balls were places upon a holder that were called ‘Brass Monkeys’ Since the metal used to make the cannon balls were extremely different from the metal used to make the brass monkeys, on an extremely cold day, they would contract at different rates (Different metals react differently to temperature). The cannon balls would literally fall off the holder when the temperature drop to the extremes. Hence the term.
Derived from one of the worst prisons in England: the Clink Prison. The Clink Prison was the home of some of the most unthinkable tortures in Medieval times.
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Clean Slate
Edmond Yates (1868) – The Rock Ahead.
‘He had passed the wet sponge over the slate containing any records of his early life.’
During the 1500’s, the Spanish coins were not cut in perfectly round shapes. The weight was what mattered, and not shape.
Cheaters would chisel a little bit off of the borders of the coins to later combine to more coins.
These people were called chiselers.
One can still see coins of certain countries that have dimple borders reminiscent of the chiseled coins.
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Attic
The term was plundered from the Greeks with the 18th Century revival of the era in British architecture with the triangular roofs.
The space that was immediately underneath the roof was thus termed for the mimicked architecture on the peninsula of Attica.