Boatswain

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbəʊ.sən/

Definitions

1. A naval officer or petty officer responsible for supervising the deck crew, rigging, anchors, and maintenance of a ship
2. An officer on a ship tasked with overseeing the deck team, managing rigging needs, and ensuring the vessel's equipment is properly maintained
3. A maritime official accountable for directing the crew on deck, managing the ship's rigging, and maintaining onboard equipment

Etymology: The boatswain's name is a fossil of an older English. Its first element is plainly "boat", but the second, "swain", once meant a young man or servant, and it came into English from Old Norse "sveinn", meaning "boy". So the officer who looks after a ship's rigging and deck is, in origin, simply the boat's servant or lad. The word was already in use in late Old English, which means it predates the Norman Conquest and was not a French import. It appears in Middle English as "botswain" and "bote-swayn", spellings that show how the vowels and consonants drifted before settling into the form we use now. The spelling is the real trap. Nothing in the modern written form hints that the word is pronounced "bo's'n", which is why the abbreviation "bosun" is so common in naval slang and in the official titles of some navies.

Synonyms: bosun, ship's officer