sailyard

English

Mast and sailyards

Etymology

From Middle English saylyerde, sailyerd, seilȝerd, from Old English seġlġyrd, seġelġyrd (“sailyard”), from Proto-West Germanic *seglagaʀdī and *seglagaʀd (“sailyard, mast”, literally “sail-rod, sail-staff”), equivalent to sail +‎ yard (“staff, rod, stick”). Cognate with German Segelgerte, Norwegian seilgård.

Noun

sailyard (plural sailyards)

(nautical) A yard (spar or shaft) to which the sails of a ship are bent (tied or fastened to).
(obsolete) One of the structural arms of a windmill to which the vanes or sails are attached.
(entomology, obsolete) An antenna of an insect.

References

“sailyard”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.