Meaning
A jocular way of declaring that it is late enough in the day for an alcoholic drink to be socially acceptable. The yardarm is the outer end of the yard, the horizontal spar from which a square sail hangs, and the saying points to the sun climbing clear of that spar. Now usually invoked at noon or later, often with mock ceremony. Humorous and self-aware; almost always said with a wink about daytime drinking. Regional use: General English; rooted in British naval tradition and still common in British and Commonwealth English.
Origin
The phrase belongs to sailing-ship culture but was not recorded in print until near the end of the nineteenth century: the earliest example collected by the OED is Kipling's From Sea to Sea (1899), and an earlier instance appears in Life magazine on 31 May 1883. The traditional explanation is that in the North Atlantic summer the sun cleared the topmost yardarm at about 11 a.m., which by naval custom marked the first rum issue of the day to officers and men, so the sun's height served as a clock for opening time. Michael Quinion, who recounts this account, repeatedly hedges it with 'seems', and no written regulation has been produced to confirm it, so the rum-issue link is plausible tradition rather than documented fact. The literal vocabulary, at least, is secure: yards are the spars from which square sails hang, and yardarms are their tapered outer ends.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- sun over the yardarm
- the sun is barely over the yardarm
- the sun isn't over the yardarm yet
- the sun's over the yardarm
Usage Examples
- It's barely noon and you're pouring gin - is the sun even over the yardarm?
- He liked a martini as soon as the sun was over the yardarm.
- By the time lunch arrived, the sun was well over the yardarm, as her uncle kept announcing.