You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 3.84.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪ST47‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a web host's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and they should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 00:10, 24 April 2026.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪Jon Kolbert‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: See the help page if you are affected .
- Start of block: 05:35, 21 February 2024
- Expiry of block: 05:35, 21 February 2029
Your current IP address is 3.84.95.122. The blocked range is 3.84.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|English exclamatory expression))

'''Son of a gun''' is an [[Interjection|exclamation]] in [[American English|American]] and [[British English]]. It can be used encouragingly or to compliment, as in "You son of a gun, you did it!"

==Definition==
The ''[[Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary]]'' and ''[[Webster's Dictionary]]'' both define "son of a gun" in American English as a [[euphemism]] for [[Bitch (slang)#Son of a bitch|son of a bitch]].<ref name="CAL Dictionary">((cite web| title=Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary entry | url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=75741&dict=CALD | access-date=2006-06-02 ))</ref><ref name="Webster's Dictionary">((cite web | title=Webster's Dictionary entry | url=http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=son+of+a+gun | access-date=2006-06-02 ))</ref> [[Encarta|''Encarta Dictionary'']] defines the term in a different way as someone "affectionately or kindly regarded."<ref name="Encarta Dictionary">((cite encyclopedia | title=Encarta Dictionary entry | url=http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861710372 | access-date=2006-06-02 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111045334/http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861710372 | archive-date=2007-11-11 ))</ref> The term can also be used as an interjection expressing surprise, mild annoyance or disappointment.<ref name="Webster's Dictionary" /><ref name="Encarta Dictionary" />

==Etymology==
((unreliable sources|date=May 2015))
The phrase is found in a piece of comic verse from 1726:<ref>((cite book
|year=1726
|author=[Anonymous]
|title=The British Apollo
|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015030845070?urlappend=%3Bseq=47
|volume=2
|edition=third
|publisher=Theodore Sanders
|location=[London]
|page=379
|hdl=2027/mdp.39015030845070?urlappend=%3Bseq=47
))</ref> ((quote|<poem>You Apollo's son,
You're a son of a gun,
Made up with bamboozle,
You directly I'll puzzle;</poem>))
A 1787 correspondent to ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]'' suggested that the phrase originally meant "a soldier's brat".<ref>((cite journal |page=39 |url=https://archive.org/details/gentlemansmagaz366unkngoog/page/n48 |last=Row |first=T. |title=[Various Etymologies] |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine |date=January 1787 |volume=lvii |issue=1 |location=London ))</ref>
[[File:Batterie inférieure - Victory.jpg|thumb|A 19th-century [[gun deck]] ([[HMS Victory|HMS ''Victory'']]).]]

The phrase potentially has its origin in a [[Royal Navy]] direction that pregnant women aboard smaller naval vessels give birth in the space between the broadside guns, in order to keep the gangways and crew decks clear.<ref>((cite book | last =Kemp|first=Peter| title =The British Sailor: a social history of the lower deck | year =1970 | page =196 | publisher =J.M. Dent & Sons | location = London| isbn =978-0-460-03957-4))</ref> Admiral [[William Henry Smyth]] wrote in his 1867 book, ''The Sailor's Word-Book'': "Son of a gun, an epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage."<ref name="Admiral W.H. Smyth">((cite book | last =Smyth|first=W.H.| title =The Sailor's Word-Book: The Classic Dictionary of Nautical Terms | year =2005 | publisher =Conway Maritime | location = London| isbn =978-0-85177-972-0))</ref>

Alternatively, historian Brian Downing proposes that the phrase "son of a gun" originated from feudal knights' disdain for newly developed firearms and those who wielded them.<ref>((cite book |title =The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe | first =Brian | last =Downing  | year =1992 | publisher =Princeton University Press | page =xi | isbn =978-0-691-07886-1))</ref> An American [[urban myth]] also proposes that the saying originated in a story reported in the October 7, 1864 ''The American Medical Weekly'' about a woman impregnated by a bullet that went through a soldier's testicles and into her womb. The story about the woman was a joke written by [[Legrand G. Capers]]; some people who read the weekly failed to realize that the story was a joke and reported it as true.<ref>((cite web | url = https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pregnant-civil-war-bullet/ | title = Did a Woman Become Pregnant from a Civil War Bullet? |first=David |last=Mikkelson |date=March 7, 2000 | work = [[Snopes]]| access-date = July 21, 2005 ))</ref> This myth was the subject of an episode of the television show ''[[MythBusters]]'', in which experiments showed the story implausible.<ref>((cite web|title=MythBusters Results|url=http://mythbustersresults.com/episode30|access-date=4 October 2013))</ref>

== References ==
((Wiktionary))

((Reflist|2))

((DEFAULTSORT:Son Of A Gun))
[[Category:Military slang and jargon]]
[[Category:Slang]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Son of a gun (edit)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Blockquote (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Blockquote/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Cite book (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite encyclopedia (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite journal (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite web (view source) (protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Plainlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Quote (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Side box (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Sister project (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Unreliable sources (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Wiktionary (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1 (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:Side box (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Side box/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Son of a gun.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_a_gun"