Docks

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɒks/

Definitions

1. Structures built along shorelines for ships to load and unload cargo or passengers ; designated areas where boats are tied up or moored safely ; the act of subtracting a portion from an amount of money owed or paid
2. Platforms extending from land into water enabling goods and people to be transferred from vessels ; harbor zones used for securing ships temporarily ; a process of diminishing an employee's wages by a set amount
3. Man-made constructions for facilitating the transfer of freight and travelers from ships ; waterside locations for securing boats when not in use ; to take away part of a salary or payment as a penalty or adjustment

Etymology: The word we want is the plural of "dock", and the "dock" meaning a loading platform is a different word from the one meaning a weed. The loading sense arrived in English as a borrowing from Dutch or Middle Low German, where "dok" meant a harbour or wharf. Early English speakers first used it for a patch of mud where a ship could settle at low tide, and the original picture may have been the furrow a grounded vessel carved into the mud bank. The Dutch word's own origin is uncertain, and some scholars link it to a ghost word, a supposed Middle Dutch term for a trench or canal that is inferred from medieval Latin records rather than attested directly. The plural form simply reflects the usual English pattern: "docks" names several such waterside installations at once, as in the port's docks, the London Docks, or the row of docks along a river.

Synonyms: harbors, ports, wharfs, quays, marinas