Sally Boy

This is the real definition for a Sally Boy. It's the original definition used for a ship hand/steward on a ship.

I'm sorry everyone, sally boy was not originally meant to mean a homosexual or an effeminate male. The word "Sally" came from the word salay. Salay boy is a cabin boy, steward, ship hand, etc. Their job is to help maintain the ship and assist each other (if there's more than one aboard the ship), the sailors (and pirate sailors), officers, cooks, the captain, any co-captains, and the first mate (who is also a co-captain). They also assisted the passengers on the ships as well.

The dress style back then may have seemed effeminate due to the time period and dress style at that time (prior to current dress style used by sailors in the merchant marines and other garb with by sailors from other localities). These boys (adolescents)/men (unless they were new to the job as an adolescent) were treated as men and respected as men for their jobs (no offense to the women, we all know the superstitions back then; unless a woman tricked or was allowed to trick the sailors and Captain ;) and became a Salay Boy). They are very important individuals on the ship. It is a respected career/profession.

The derogatory term that is used today, is from a difference in dialects. It's the clothing that I'd assume is the reason for the term being used to wrongly discriminate against someone and to treat someone badly due to being different by societies norms.

The sally boy (salay boy) was called on to help find the first mate on the ship.

by Padraig81 August 21, 2023

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