a whale of a time

noun phrase; informal; usually in "have a whale of a time"

- a great time

- to enjoy yourself very much

- used to say that someone enjoyed themselves enormousl

- Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Collins

—

PHRASE ORIGIN

The phrase is American. Its earliest known appearance in print is in the Emporia News of Kansas on 14 July 1871. The writer says that some people never merely have a time; they have a whale of a time.

The logic is size. In 19th-century American slang, "whale" could mean anything outsized, and "a whale of a…" became a handy intensifier, as in a whale of a difference or a whale of a story. In 1895 Willard C. Gore's glossary of student slang at the University of Michigan recorded "whale" for something exceptionally large.

Colourful claims that the phrase came from whalers partying ashore have no evidence behind them. The idiom later crossed the Atlantic, and to many ears it now sounds comfortably British.

—

OLDER THAN THE HARPOON

In May 2007, Iñupiat hunters off Barrow, Alaska, landed a 50-ton bowhead whale. Deep in its neck, under the blubber, was a three-and-a-half-inch piece of metal.

It was part of a bomb lance, an exploding whaling projectile made in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and probably fired around 1890. The whale had survived a Victorian attempt to kill it and carried the evidence for more than a century. Researchers put its age at between 115 and 130.

That wasn't a freak. Scientists can estimate a bowhead's age from slow chemical changes in the proteins of its eye lens. One animal came out at 211 years, give or take 35. Bowheads are now regarded as the longest-lived mammals on Earth.

Part of their secret seems to be pace. They live in near-freezing Arctic water, grow slowly and take decades to mature. They are the biological opposite of the mayfly.

Helga & Paul Smith

—

SYNONYMS

a ball, a blast, a field day, a high old time, a hoot, a rare old time, a riot, a roaring time, a rollicking good time, the time of your life, A WHALE OF A TIME

—

SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Most visitors to the Oktoberfest expect to have A WHALE OF A TIME.”

____________________

PLEASE SUPPORT US

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga (my lovely wife and business partner) and our insightful daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren't already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:

https://donorbox.org/owad-q4-2023-5
   or
Bank transfer:

Paul Smith

IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40
(Important: please state as 'Verwendungszweck': "OWAD donation" and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD)

Thanks so much,
Paul Smith