Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A two-masted vessel with a square-rigged foremast and a schooner-rigged mainmast.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical a two-masted
sailing ship which has square sails on theforemast combined with aschooner rig on themainmast (triangular topsail over agaff mainsail ). As such it has a mix of the two main types of sail plan, hence the term hermaphrodite.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast
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yarb commented on the word hermaphrodite brig
The wind was light, and we spread more canvas than she did, having royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and ten studding-sails; while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a gaff topsail aft.
- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 4
September 6, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word hermaphrodite brig
Yarb, you are totally winning the Read All the Books Chained_Bear Wants to Read Before She Gets to Them Award.
Congratulations! Looking forward to more entries from this one. :)
September 6, 2008
reesetee commented on the word hermaphrodite brig
Oh, it's a good one, all right--I agree. :-) Lucky yarb!
September 7, 2008
yarb commented on the word hermaphrodite brig
At times it collapses under the weight of the nautical terminology, as Dana describes in detail every procedure taken to set the ship on a particular course. Also, and this is probably expecting too much, I wouldn't mind Dana being a little less documentary and more poetic when talking about his feelings.
We're just embarking on the voyage home now, so I'm looking forward to rounding the Cape again. The best bits so far have been the excursions ashore in Mexican California, and the portraits of his fellow tars.
September 9, 2008
reesetee commented on the word hermaphrodite brig
I remember this book from my years in the rare book business--had my hands on a first edition for cataloguing purposes, but I never did get a chance to read it (and wouldn't have wanted to read that copy--too much responsibility). Thanks for the mini-review. :-)
September 9, 2008