Gunport

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An opening cut through the side of a warship through which a cannon could be fired
2. A small hatch in the hull of an old sailing vessel that allowed a gun barrel to project outward
3. A square porthole in a ship's wall, closed by a lid, through which artillery was aimed during battle

Etymology: A gunport is, quite literally, a port for a gun: a square opening cut through the side of a warship's hull, fitted with a hinged lid, through which a cannon could be run out and fired. The ports let heavy guns sit on the lower decks, close to the waterline, without exposing the crew above, and they could be shut tight against heavy seas. The word is a plain compound of "gun" and "port," and both halves carry older senses than the combination suggests. "Port" in the nautical sense is the opening itself, a sense that goes back to the days when ships had small doors in their sides for loading cargo, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the English navy built its fighting power around exactly this arrangement. The gun was the dominant feature of naval warfare for centuries, so the opening through which it fired took its name from the weapon rather than from the hull. Few compounds in English describe so exactly the single thing they refer to.

Synonyms: porthole