Q From Pete Brown: I have always understood a lead-swinger to be
a slacker, someone who feigns illness or injury to avoid
working. A bit of cursory research unearthed a definition that
described it as a World War I army phrase referring to the
taking of a sounding to determine the depth of water, which was
apparently an easy task. This doesn’t quite ring true in my
mind: first, this depth-sounding technique is much, much older
than World War I; second, I know military slang transfers fairly
freely between different branches of the service, but how or why
would this nautical practice come to be associated with a land
army instead of a navy? Any insights would be most welcome. A
The expression does seem extremely puzzling, but it is possible
to rationalise the maritime and army usages. To fill in the
blanks we need to go into the background a bit more. Aficionados
of Captains Aubrey and Hornblower can skip the next paragraph.
At sea, the lead was a literal lump of lead weighing nine pounds
(four kilos) fixed to