Where did that word come from?
John Souter continues his series exploring the origins of commonly used boating terms.
MANY of you may be familiar with what a lot of the words that boaters use mean – but have you ever stopped to wonder where the words we are all too familiar with actually originated from? Here are more examples of words whose origins may hopefully inform you, and, in some cases, perhaps even surprise you.
Keel
This word is often used to refer in a general sense to the very bottom of a vessel, but more correctly it is the principal lengthways metal or timber piece along the base of a ship or boat to which the frames are fixed. The principle involved was that the keel would provide enough strength for the boat to sit on when not afloat, e.g. when resting on the river bed after the tide has ebbed.
From this word derives the term ‘keelhauling’ or ‘to be keelhauled’, referring to being dragged along the very base of a boat or ship as a severe form of punishment.
It’s thought to date from the mid-14C, possibly from the Old Norse ‘kjolr’ meaning ‘keel’.
Legging
The method of moving boats through tunnels by people ( leggers) pushing the boat, usually by lying on the roof on special boards, with their feet pushing against the tunnel walls. This was widely used on horsedrawn boats where tunnels had often been built without a towpath. Often the leggers were the boat’s own crew but some leggers were full-time workers who stationed themselves at most long tunnels specifically for doing this arduous work. The boards, usually attached to the front of a boat, were known as legging boards, or wings, and some boats would carry two sets; one for narrow tunnels and one for wide tunnels.
The word most likely comes from a late-13C Scandinavian source e.g. the Old Norse word ‘legger’ meaning ‘leg, leg-bone’, which is believed to have replaced the Old English word ‘shank’ which had a similar meaning.
Lock (also pound lock)
A generally short section of canal or river closed off by gates at either end and between which the water level can be varied up or down to help boats navigate from one water level to another. Controlled changes in the water level within the lock by means of paddles set into the gates or lock sides will allow a boat to rise or fall to its new level as it navigates changes in the contours of the land.
The word comes from the Old English word ‘loc’ meaning ‘barrier, enclosure’. This, in turn, led to the development of the specific meaning of ‘a barrier on the river’ around the early 1300s, and then in an even more specific sense in the 1570s of ‘gate and sluice system on a water channel used as a means of raising and lowering boats’.
Monkey boat
A slang term for a traditional narrowboat found mostly in use by boaters on the Grand Junction and London waterways.
It’s thought that the origin and use of the term is said to have stemmed from a London boat owner called Thomas Monk, who is credited with designing the first living-in cabin that became the accepted design for narrowboat cabins. ‘Monk boat’ developed into ‘monkey boat’ with usage over a period of time.