copper bottomed

idiom

- safe and certain to succeed

- that you can trust or rely on completely

- reliable, esp. financially reliable


Cambridge Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

From the eighteenth century, wooden ships could have their hulls sheathed in sheets of copper. The copper helped protect the timber from shipworms and other marine organisms, while also reducing the accumulation of barnacles and weeds that slowed a vessel down. The Royal Navy began experimenting with copper sheathing in the mid-eighteenth century, and the technique became increasingly widespread. 

The literal adjective is recorded in the eighteenth century. The first known figurativeuse is generally dated to 1807, when Washington Irving used “copper-bottomed” metaphorically in Salmagundi.

From there, the physical image became a metaphor for something sound, secure and dependable.

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BUILT TO LAST

Imagine being an eighteenth-century sailor.

Your ship is made of wood. Beneath you is cold, deep, horizon-wide Atlantic water. Somewhere below the waterline, microscopic marine creatures are quite literally eating your ship.

One of the worst offenders was the shipworm, Teredo navalis. Despite its name, it is not actually a worm but a small marine bivalve mollusc. It bores into submerged timber, creating tunnels that can seriously weaken wooden structures. Barnacles and weeds presented another problem: they accumulated on hulls, increasing drag and slowing ships.

Copper sheathing offered an ingenious solution. The metal formed a protective barrier against shipworms and discouraged marine growth. It also made a vessel faster and more manoeuvrable by keeping its underwater surfaces cleaner. The technique was so successful that coppering became an important feature of naval shipbuilding.

When we call something copper-bottomed today, we are not really thinking about copper. We are thinking about risk.

A copper-bottomed guarantee is one you would trust. A copper-bottomed investment is one that appears unusually secure. A copper-bottomed plan is one whose chances of going wrong seem reassuringly small.

Copper-bottomed does more than say reliable. It carries an implication of robustness — something has been strengthened against the things that normally cause failure.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

air-tight, assured, bulletproof, cast-iron, certain, COPPER BOTTOMED, fail-safe, foolproof, gilt-edged,,, dependable, established, fail-safe, firm, foolproof, guaranteed, gilt-edged, impregnable, infallible, ironclad, reliable, rock-solid, safe, secure, sound, steadfast, sure-fire, trustworthy, unassailable, unimpeachable, unshakeable, watertight

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“The nautical etymology of COPPER BOTTOMED is fascinating.”

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