Word: starboard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Eliot boat raced with an "Italian rig," having the number four and five men both rowing starboard. This rig is designed to reduce the torque in the middle of a shell resulting from the time delay in the starboard rowers; the world champion German Ratzeburg crew has also adopted...
...Lehmann and Mike Horn both in four "B" division races, but were hampered by the erratic winds. In the third race, a gust of wind caught Horn's boat, causing the starboard shroud to let go and forcing the mast off to leeward. Horn had managed a fine start and was leading the fleet, but the point system gave him only a fourth place...
...tenth-deck bridge of the world's largest ship, he looked on as depth charges were exploded just 700 ft. away, shaking the great ship as if it were a dog just out of a bath. Afterward. Kennedy accepted a windbreaker and moved with McNamara to the gusty starboard side of the ship to watch an aerial display. Two Terrier missiles homed in on a drone plane, but missed-although naval officers explained that they would have been close enough to the target if they had been armed with real warheads...
...general, the etymologies have been shortened; but, in one case, at least, there is an example of simple ignorance. The editors list "posh" as having an "unknown origin." Actually, it is quite well known that "posh" is an abbreviation for "port out, starboard home." It is supposed to have referred to the luxury accommodations on ships between England and India in the heyday of the Empire...
...acronyms are a kind of regression. They do not really enrich the language because they are words already. Still, they cap a fine old tradition that probably began with the Romans' SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus). Britons in the 19th century, for example, contributed posh (port out, starboard home), a way to remember the breeze-cooled side on Indiabound ships. Acronyms first picked up speed in World War I with such coinages as Anzac, for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, AWOL, for absent without official leave, and asdic (Allied Submarine Detection Investigation Committee), which eventually led to the development...