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>> How is this illogical? "Steering board" is simply that
side of the ship
>> where the rudder is located. There is no need for "board"
in this
>> context to mena anything else than "side of the ship".
>No, it's supposedly "the board used for steering", not the side of
the ship.
>It's a natural mistake, since in most landbound contexts a board is
a piece
>of wood. Presumably some hack made the inference without checking
his
>sources, and other hacks copied him, until this misinformation was
enshrined as
>gospel. An example of why you should not treat a reference book as
holy writ.
In Old England, `steer board' was the steering paddle or rudder (which, in
ancient
times, when vessels typically were small, actually was an elaborate board).
Ships
were always steered from the right side, at the back of the vessel. Since
star
sightings with a sextant were taken from this area, and language being what
it was,
`steerboard' became `starboard'.
So it wasn't a miscopy, per se. It was just a change over time. Just like:
`gunnel'
The upper edge or of the side of a boat. The top surface hull above the
side members
above the deck. A wale was any of the strakes on the side of a vessel (from
`walen',
an Old English word meaning "ridge." A "gunwale" was thus that part of the
bulwark
structure along the main deck where the guns were carried.
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