Monday lessons in dog speak

Monday. From Old English or Latin names for “Day of the Moon”.

Moondogs. A bright spot in an atmospheric halo around the Moon (observed from Earth). This is caused by a ice-crystals refracting light in the upper atmosphere.

Dogging the hatch. Act of securing a doorway at sea. Ships have hatches, large doors (for people or cargo to pass through) and smaller ones, scuttles, that permit only a person to pass through. Both are intended for water- or air-tight integrity, that is to prevent the sea or a poisonous atmosphere from entering a compartment or other parts of the vessel. This is accomplished by a series of compression tight latches forming a seal at several points around the hatch. (In an emergency, a scuttle is much quicker to seal.)

Dogging the watch. Primarily while operating at sea, sailors are assigned 4-hour shifts called watches. “Dogging the watch” can mean up to a half-shift, usually during meal hours, when an on-coming watch will assume duties for a period of time so the off-going sailor can eat, and then return the duties until the normal watch turnover at the end of the shift.