Botswain

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A petty officer on a ship responsible for the rigging, anchors, sails and deck crew
2. A senior seaman who supervises the maintenance of a vessel's ropes, equipment and deck work
3. The ship's officer, also called a bosun, who directs the crew handling sails, cables and tackle

Etymology: The spelling "botswain" is a corruption of "boatswain," and the pronunciation "bo'sun" is older still. The word comes from Old English "batswegen," literally "boat servant" or "boat swain," where "swain" meant a young man or servant, the same root that survives in "swain" as a lover in poetry. Its sense, a petty officer in charge of a ship's deck crew, rests on that plain meaning: the boatswain was the servant who looked after the vessel itself. The spelling drifted because the word was mostly spoken. Sailors said something close to "bo'sun," and writers, trying to reflect that sound, wrote forms like "bosun" or "bosn," while the older "boatswain" survived in formal use. "Botswain" is a misspelling that arises from the same confusion, since the spoken form hides the "t" and the "a" that the written word preserves.

Synonyms: boatswain, bosun, bo'sun