Boat

Forms: 1–3 bát, 4 bot, 4–5 boot, (4–6 boote), 4–7 bote, 6–7 boate, (6 botte, boitt, 7 Sc. pl. bottes), 6– boat; north. 4–6 bate, 5–6 bait, bayt, (5 pl. bat(t)is). [OE. bát: the subsequent phonetic history in Eng. is perfectly normal; but the origin of the OE. word, and its relation to forms in other languages presents difficulties.

  OE. bát (unless onomatopœic) must have been either the regular representative of an OTeut. *baito-, (-u-), or an adoption of a word bāt from some other language. (1) The chief relevant fact in Teutonic is that ON. had also bát-r in the sense ‘small boat,’ whence regularly Sw. bât, Da. baad ‘boat.’ But the OE. and ON. words were not cognate, since the ON. form corresponding to OE. bát would have been *beit-r, while the OE. form corresp. to ON. bát-r (= OTeut. *bǽto-) would have been *bǽt, bét, giving mod.Eng. *beet. In one of the two langs., therefore, bát- must have been adopted from the other: the accessible evidence is on the whole in favor of its priority in OE. This is further favored by the actual occurrence in ON. of a neuter sb. beit ‘boat’ (Hávamál st. 90, etc.), which, exc. in gender, is the required form corresponding to OE. bát, from OTeut. *baito-. It is therefore highly probable that the OE. bát is original, and bátr an ON. adoption of it. (2) In any case the absence of the word from continental West Germanic is remarkable: here an OTeut. *baito- would have given OS. bêt, Du. beet, OHG. beiȝ, Ger. beisz; an OTeut. bǽto- would have given OS. bât, Du. baat, OHG. bâz, mod.G. basz. No such forms exist; on the contrary, mod.Du., LG. and mod.G. have actually boot: of these the Ger. word is a recent adoption from LG. or Du. boot, found in early MDu. c. 1250, the ō of which can be accounted for only by its adoption from early ME., or from Scand., at a date when the á of these langs. had already become (ǭ). (3) A stem bāt- or batt- must have had an early diffusion in Romanic: cf. F. bateau, OF. batel, Pr. batelh, Cat. batell, Sp. batel, It. batello (Florio), now battello, diminutives from a primitive *bāto, batto (the latter actually used in It. in sense of ‘small sea-vessel’), OF. bat ‘small boat’ found in 12th c.; med.L. had also bātus, battus, the former app. only in English documents, the latter (as well as batellus) continental. But no etymology of these is found in Romanic; on the contrary Diez can only refer them back to OE. bát; this is extremely improbable, and the difficulties are only a little lessened by substituting ON. bátr as the presumed source. Moreover this derivation requires *bātus as the original type, while the form really indicated by OF., med.L. and It. is *battus. Unless the latter could be a neben-form of bātus (cf. It. tutto, beside L. tōtus, Sp. todo etc.), it could hardly have any etymological connection with English-Norse bát-. A Celtic source has been frequently attributed to both the OE. and Romanic words; but Celtic scholars now know that the cited OWelsh bat, Welsh bad, is merely an adoption of the OE. word. (4) Franck points out that, in MDu., boot fem. meant ‘cask,’ as in mod.Sc. meal-boat = ‘cask, barrel, tub,’ prob. identical with F. botte, Pr. and Sp. bota, It. botte, med.Lat. bota, butta, BUTT; and suggests that this may bear at least upon the Du. and LG. boot; it is true that words of general sense like ‘vessel,’ vaisseau, and specific words like ‘tub,’ have been applied to ships and boats; but besides that no vestige of any such sense as ‘cask, tub,’ etc., appears either in ON. or OE. bát, these last could in no way be connected in form with bota, botta, or butta. (5) The conclusions at present tenable are, therefore, that apparently there was an OTeut. *baito-, preserved only in ON. beit and OE. bát; that the latter was also adopted in ON. as bát-r, and that either from Eng. or Norse the word was adopted in Low Ger. and Dutch, as bôt, boot. But that the Romanic batto, bāto, and its family, arose out of the English-Norse word is very doubtful.]

  1.  A small open vessel in which to traverse the surface of water, usually propelled by oars, though sometimes by a sail.

891.  O. E. Chron. (Parker MS.). Þrie Scottas cuomon to Ælfrede cyninge on anum bate. Ibid., 1046 (Laud MS.). His sciperes wurpon hine on þone bat, and … reowan to scipe.

a. 1225.  Juliana, 60. Buten brugge ant bat.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 156. Philip … To boote mad him bone.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 13280 (Fairf.). Petre & Andrew … laft þaire batis [Cott. scipps, Gött. schippis] twin.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, III. 408. Na bait fand thai.

1423.  James I., Kingis Q., xvii. My feble bote full fast to stere and rowe.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, IV. xi. 8. Othir schip or bait.

1552.  Lyndesay, Monarche, II. 3039. Twoo thousand boittis with hir scho careis.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. vi. 33. To hazard all our liues in one small Boat.

1616.  R. C., Times’ Whis., v. 2266. Being olde, One foote already within Charons bote.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., VII. vii. The boat came close beneath the ship.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., cxxi. iv. The market boat is on the stream.

  b.  Extended to various vessels either smaller than, or in some way differing from, a ‘ship’; esp. small sailing vessels employed in fishing, or in carrying mails and packets, and small steamers. (Sometimes applied to large ocean steamers, though these are more properly ‘steam ships.’)

1571.  Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 140. Some thirteene botes out of Waterford.

1703.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3888/4. Boats to Convoy Letters and Pacquets between England and the Islands of Barbadoes, Antego, [etc.].

1764.  Tucker, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 83. At King-Road … the officers observed the king’s boat to float suddenly.

1861.  Sala, Tw. round Clock, 14. Boats from Hartlepool, Whitstable, Harwich, Great Grimsby, and other English seaports…. They are all called ‘boats,’ though many are of a size that would render the term ‘ship’ … far more applicable.

1880.  Whitaker’s Alman., Advts. 22. White Star Line…. The Boats are uniform and vary very little in point of speed.

Mod.  To take the boat to Gravesend. Waiting at Margate Pier for the ‘husbands’ boat’ on Saturday afternoon.

  c.  With qualifications: as COCK-BOAT, FERRY-BOAT, GUNBOAT, STEAMBOAT, etc., q.v.

  d.  Phrases. To take boat: to embark in a boat. To have an oar in another’s boat, in every boat, etc. (fig.): to meddle with other people’s affairs, to be a busybody. To be in the same boat (fig.): to be in the same position or circumstances. To sail in the same boat (fig.): to pursue the same course, act together.

1548.  Hall, Chron. (1809), 279. Duke Charles of Burgoyne … would nedes have an Ower in the Erle of Warwickes boate.

1576.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 179. Thomas Becket secretly tooke boate at Rumney.

1577.  Holinshed, Chron., II. 173. The pope must have his ore in everie mans bote, his spoone in everie mans dish.

1584.  Hudson, Judith, iii. 352 (D.).

1668.  R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 30. Medlers … that will have an Oar in every Boat.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, 131. ‘But my face is all muddy,’ argued Tom. ‘Oh, we’re all in one boat for that matter.’

  2.  A vessel or utensil resembling a boat in shape: a. A dish used to serve sauces, etc., in.

1684.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1990/4. A Silver Tankard … and a silver Boat and silver Spoons.

1796.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, iii. 18. Make some good apple-sauce, and send up in a boat.

1834.  D. Fox, Pregnancy, 102. The child should be obliged to receive its food in this manner, instead of from a spoon or boat.

1875.  Chamb. Jrnl., No. 133. 13. There being some sauce in the boat.

  b.  ‘The vessel that holds the incense before it is put into the censer.’ Lee, Direct. Angl., 352.

  3.  Comb., chiefly attrib., as boat-bedding, -builder, -building, -head, -hire, -keeper, -load, -pole, -race, -racing, -rowing, -shop, -side, -song, -work; boat-green, -less, -like, -shaped adjs.; boat-fashion, -wise advs.; also boat-bone, a bone of the carpus and tarsus, os naviculare; boat-bridge, a bridge of boats; boat-chain, a chain by which a boat is moored; boat-cloak, a large cloak worn by officers on duty at sea; † boat-haw (see quot.); boat-hook, an iron hook and spike fixed at the end of a long pole, by means of which a boat is pulled towards, or pushed off from, any fixed object; boat-house, a house communicating with the water, in which boats are kept; boat-insect, the BOAT-FLY; boat-launch, a place or contrivance for launching a boat; boat-master, the captain of a boat; boat-plug, a plug in the bottom of a boat to let water out when on shore; boat-rope (see quot.); boat-setter, a steersman; boat-shell, the genus Cymba of mollusks; boat-slide, a double inclined plane (with rollers), over which a boat may be drawn, instead of passing through a lock; boat-slip = boat-launch; boat-tail, a genus of birds (see quot.); boat-train, a railway train timed to meet a boat, a tidal train; † boat-ward, a boat-keeper; boat-wright, a boat-builder. Also BOAT-BILL, BOAT-FLY, BOATFUL, BOATSWAIN, BOAT-WOMAN, q.v.

1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, 1007. The outside of this *Boate-bone is large, round and sinuated…. It … endeth into an internall narrow processe [Fig. 10], resembling the prow of a ship.

1679.  Bedloe, Popish Plot, 19. A Fire … which began … in a *Boat-Builders-yard.

1863.  Fawcett, Pol. Econ., I. v. (1876), 57. *Boat-building has not hitherto required any great division of labour.

1773.  Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 144. All hid in a captain’s *boat-cloak.

1821.  Shelley, Fugitives. One *boat-cloak did cover The loved and the lover.

1766.  Entick, London, IV. 365. The church … took its … name from a *boat-haw, or boat-builder’s-yard.

1832.  Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, IV. 24. As the *boat-head wound along, The willowy hills and fields among.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 45. *Boothyr, potomium.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyss. (1677), 188. Somewhat else boat-hire to pay.

1611.  Cotgr., Havet … a *boat-hooke, a pole hauing a hooke at th’ ende.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast., xxiii. 71. The bow-man had charge of the boat-hook and painter.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 90. A point of view presenting the *boat-house, the water, the poplars.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), *Boat-Keeper, one of the rowers, who remains … to take care of any boat.

1792.  Gentl. Mag., LXII. I. 270. The natives … stole away the cutter one night, murdered the boat-keeper who was in her.

1872.  Taunt, Sh. Guide Thames, 41. There is a *boat-launch here…. It consists of a series of rollers down an incline.

1884.  St. Nicholas, II. 373. Left *boatless on a desert-isle.

1630.  Drayton, Noah’s Flood (R.). His [the swan’s] *boat-like breast.

1836–9.  Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., II. 73/2. A person having a heavy *boat-pole in his hands.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., I. xiii. 244. In order to get a man into training for a boat-race now-a-days, it is not thought of the first importance to keep him in a constant state of consuming thirst.

1882.  Black, Shandon Bells, xxiii. At the Bell Inn at Henley, when all the confusion of the boat-races was about.

1831.  Disraeli, Yng. Duke. There was no end to *boat-racing.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., vi. 28. The *Boat rope is that which the ship doth tow her Boat by, at her sterne.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, vi. The *boatsetter dodged him.

1871.  Alabaster, Wheel of Law, 269. *Boat shops … moored in close lines on one of the smaller canals.

1882.  Taunt, Sh. Guide Thames, 4. Iffley Lock … a new *boat slide on the mill stream … saves waste of time for small boats.

1886.  Act 49 Vict., xvii. 7. The Commission may construct … any pier, quay, *boat-slip, or landing-place.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlvi. The … melancholy *boat-song of the rowers, coming on the ear with softened and sweeter sound.

1868.  Wood, Homes without H., xxv. 473. A group of birds … scientifically known as Quiscalinac. They are also called *Boat-tails because their tail-feathers are formed so as to take the shape of a canoe.

1884.  Pall Mall Gaz., 3 April, 8/1. He proceeded at once to Victoria by *boat train.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xvi. 63. Scho a *Batward eftyr þat Tyl hyr spowsyd Husband gat.

1697.  Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 29. Canoes are nothing but the tree it self made hollow *Boat wise.

1767.  W. L. Lewis, Statius’ Thebaid, VI. 287 (R.). Vessels boat-wise form’d.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 45. *Botwryhte [1499 botewright], navicularius.

1606.  Wily Beguiled, in Hazl., Dodsley, IX. 308. I am a boat-wrights son of Hull.