ORIGIN OF SEA TERMS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 20

ORIGIN OF SEA TERMS

.'TAKEN FROM MANY NATIONS. 1/._r ■j ■ > _•■•_ ■ •:■ - Speaking at tho.aunualWiiinor of tho Master Mariners' Company'in London oji 21st March,, Mi". Baldwin, .the Prime Minister, referred to thd origin pf^words in common uso among British, mariners. The word '.'anchor" canio- to England from the Romans via the Angles and the Saxons. The Vikings came along to waken them up, and they left behind Ayoirjlp. Hko '"k'qul," "reef,", "stern," and' the "wake" of 'aship, which was tli'p pfir'jis'ci used'for the track 7 through jilie-.4c<)..iyh'6Vi.tlic.y;ikiiigs.' "ship: travelled fronj Norway', to Greenland.- ' i'i'oiii.. tho Byzantine .Greeks our sailors , brought back _tjie word "pilot," which took the placer of-Che Old English wort], "lodesman." From Italy came "briguntinc," from ,the Dutch "skipper," "luggerj" and "smack"; from the ' Spaniards ' c cargo,'' "_. and (' binnacle.'' Even almost in'oiir own lifetime descenidants of our own name iii America had . senti across-to this country the familiar words "schooner" and "clipper." He wanted to see the seamen's words connected with the sailing1 ships'kept in our language, oven though the sailing ship might bo passing away. Our sailors had exported our terms into nearly •overy language on earth, and he, who had always had an immense faith in . the plain and simple people of liis country, wished that tho care of tho English language might. be left to the sailors to look-after. Even within the last'generation things new had been named by them—good English words like ".''battleship," ironclad,"- "dreadnought," words that hit.you like a hain.mer. Other people went floundering iabout inventing' words like "cinemalo"graph" aud "hydro-aeroplane1."