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.