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terminology question
You need to go back to earlier times when these terms came into use. These orders were given to large crews of men who were not standing next to the helmsmen. The terms had to be distinctive, discriptive, and audible.
The commands on a tack were quite discriptive. Historically, ''Stand by to tack'' had everyone move into place standing by thier tacking station. This became the more common ''prepare to tack''. ''Hard a lee'' or ''Helm Down'' was the captain''s order to the helmsman. That order meant to turn the helm hard in the leeward direction. That one is easy.
''Prepare to jibe'' also began as ''stand by to jibe''. ''Jibe Ho'' is less obvious except that jibes happened much more quickly than tacks and a quick loud sound ''Ho'' was probably more in character with the rapid need for action during a jibe.
Jeff
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