Chanty

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A rhythmical song sung by sailors to coordinate labor tasks on a ship
2. A traditional seafaring song used to help synchronize group work during voyages
3. A maritime chant performed by crew members to maintain timing during physical shipboard duties

Etymology: The spelling "chanty" is simply a variant of "shanty," and the sailors' song is the same word whichever way it is spelled. Its story begins not on the sea but in the forests of Canada. Canadian French "chantier" meant a lumberjack's headquarters, the camp where loggers lived and worked, and it was in those camps that men sang rhythmic work songs to keep their axes and saws moving together. English speakers borrowed the word for those songs, and the sense of the camp itself, the rough shack where the loggers slept, appears in the same family of meanings. The sailors' version came later. Once the songs had been carried over to the sea, the word followed them onto ships, where crews sang to coordinate hauling ropes and turning capstans. Some older accounts also connect the word with the imperative "chantez," meaning "sing," but the Canadian French lumber-camp origin is the one the evidence supports best.

Synonyms: shanty, song, hymn, sea song, INVALID