This month’s Latitude 38 thoughtfully included a bit about what actually IS a “Poop Deck.” I wonder how many letters per month it took for them to finally dispatch the intern to the archives in hopes of shutting up the potty-humored masses.

So here it is: it’s NOT a deck that is covered in poop, as we’ve all been led to believe. Nor is it in close proximity (say, underneath) the, um, “head” (har har). I know what you are thinking (besides wtf) because I’m thinking the same thing: Latin must surely be involved, and so it is. The term is derived from the Latin puppis, which means “stern.” And that’s Latin for you—taking a perfectly reasonable word like ‘stern’ and coming up with a far freakier word that recalls insect larvae or very young dogs or poop and handing it back to us with no explanation. And before you know it, boat decks in the back are being called “Poop Deck” by sandal-wearing pseudo-intellectuals and, er … here’s a photo of TimeMachine’s Poop Deck.

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