While on holiday in Digby, Nova Scotia we noticed a sign by a waterfront park: Muster Point. One such sign had also been on the Digby-Saint John ferry, which I have ridden a couple of times to avoid driving the long way around the Bay of Fundy when visiting my Canadian relatives.
My brain went back to militia musters of Colonial America, where the citizen-soldiers would show up to drill, practice marksmanship, and get drunk. One hopes it was in that order!
On a ship it makes sense to have a designated place for crew and passengers to assemble, in case of emergencies. On land it seems less clear. Digby has the world’s largest scallop fleet. Perhaps the muster is for Coast Guard rescues?
While I never figured out why Digby has such a spot, I can at least share with you the term’s etymology. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces our word to Antiquity, with the Latin word monstrare, “to show,” which we see in our modern “demonstrate.” Later, the term evolved to indicate “show up” or “gather” and we have our militia showing up in the 18th century or crew gathering on deck in a crisis.
There is also a fine share of difference between a muster and assembly point. Read more about that here.
Muster your courage and send me words and metaphors worth covering in the blog. Email me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leave a comment below. Want to write a guest entry? Let me know!
See all of our Metaphors of the Month here and Words of the Week here.
Image: crew muster aboard the International Space Station, NASA at Flickr.