Luggers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small sailing vessels rigged with lugsails ; people or machines that haul or carry heavy loads by hand or with effort
2. Compact sailing craft fitted with sails of the lug type ; workers or devices whose task is to drag, heave or transport weighty items
3. Little two-masted boats propelled by lug sails ; those who tote, drag or heft bulky or heavy objects from one place to another

Etymology: "Luggers" is simply the plural of "lugger", a small sailing vessel. The noun is most likely built from "lug", a term for a quadrilateral sail hung from a yard set obliquely across the mast, plus the agent suffix "-er". Sailors named the boat after its distinctive rig, so the vessel is in effect "the lug-sailer." The name may have a Dutch counterpart. Dutch "logger" also means a small sailing vessel of this kind, and it may come from Middle Dutch "loggen" or "luggen", meaning "to fish with a dragnet." That link would point to fishing rather than rigging as the original idea, though the connection is uncertain, and the English word's own derivation from "lug" remains the more likely explanation.