Monosail

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of sailboat featuring a single sail that captures wind for propulsion
2. an arrangement often associated with particular designs in sailing crafts
3. a maritime vessel that utilizes one main sail for navigation on water

Etymology: Monosail is a compound of "mono-", from Greek "monos" meaning "single" or "alone", and "sail", the canvas that catches the wind. Its meaning is simple: a boat carrying just one sail, rather than the several a schooner or ketch would hang. The name describes the rig itself, so there is no famous coiner or dramatic shift in sense to report. The term is mostly used in sailing and yacht design writing, where it marks a rig type rather than a separate craft. Its early appearances are in specialist nautical literature, and the exact date of first recorded use is uncertain, so it is safest to say it arose as a descriptive technical coinage built from familiar classical parts, much like "monoplane" was coined for single-wing aircraft.

Synonyms: single sail, one-sail boat

Antonyms: multisail, multisail boat