Bob's A Dying

[retrocop]

Can any one explain the origin of this saying please.I believe it is 18th or 19th C naval term to mean creating a disturbance or exhubrant merry making.But why "Bob's a dying?"

[heathfield]

There's a comment here...

http://www.charlieipcar.com/lyrics/merchant.htm

[Mamyalynne]

bobs-a-dying
A drunken revel (naval slang)
W.N.Glascock, Sailors and Saints, 1829 (I, 179), ‘Nothing but dining, and dancing, and Bobs-a-dying on deck from daylight till dark’. (Moe.)
Search on google books for etymologic data and examples.

[retrocop]

Thank you both very much for your answers.I particularly liked the Merchant's Island shanty.I came across the saying in a Julian Stockwin seafaring novel and always wondered who Bob was who "is a dying".Did'nt realise it appeared also in a Patrick O'Brien novel.

[Nibble]

Also from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=38255


BOB'S-A-DYING. A great row or racket is called a Bob's-a-dying. "What a Bob's-a-dying they made!" means "What a row they kicked up."
--from "Northumberland Words" By Richard Oliver Heslop, 1892.

[Quizmonster]

An alternative form is bobsy-die, with no capital 'B' and no 'ing'. This would suggest that it has nothing to do with the name, 'Bob', as such, or anything much to do with dying! It seems rather to be a meaningless phrase such as hoo-hah, which also means a bit of a racket.

[Quizmonster]

Yes, I know it's odd to speak of a meaningless phrase which means something, but I'm sure you see what I mean!