I grew up in Grand Island, NY—a well-populated, 33-square-mile isle in the Niagara River. (You likely drove across it on the NYS Thruway if you ever headed north to the falls.) For this reason, I spent much of my childhood in and around water—yet somehow, I never learned to sail.

Which is ironic, considering how many of my favorite authors write about the sea (Robb White, Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, Randy Wayne White). So even if I can’t rig a mainsail, I can navigate the terminology.

The vocab of sailing often involves common words that turn out to mean something different on deck. Summer 2025 marks not only watercraft season in Central PA, but also the 50th anniversary of the boat-heavy Jaws; so in honor of those two occasions, here’s a handful of ordinary words that have a special meaning for sailors.

Beam – Generally speaking, the width of the vessel at its widest point.

Boom – Horizontal spar used to extend the bottom of a sail (though it also serves other functions).

Bow – The very front of a boat—pronounced like “cow.” Its antonym is stern.

Bridge – On larger vessels, an upper-deck structure serving as command center for the crew. This term has been transferred to spaceships like the Enterprise, where protocol tends to follow naval tradition.

Draft – “The depth to which a vessel is immersed when bearing a given load” (Dictionary.com).

Flemish – In Jaws, the hardened boatman Quint (Robert Shaw) gauges Hooper’s seamanship by making him tie a complex knot; that’s because sailors must “learn the ropes” (which is where we get the idiom). Sometimes, this involves carefully looping loose rope into a tidy coil on deck or dock. That’s called “flemishing”—from the legendary nautical skills of Flemish sailors (eOceanic.com).

Fore – Toward the front of the ship. Shortened from before, this word has the natural antonym aft (“Take that painter aft, sailor!”).

Jibe – In normal usage, this means “to be in harmony” (“Our theories jibed”). It’s also an alternate spelling for gibe (to mock, jeer, scoff).

But in sailing, jibe means turning the stern so it “passes through an imaginary line to where the wind comes from,” causing the craft to point “dead downwind.” Its antonym—for turning the bow through a headwind—is called tacking (NauticEd.com).

Keel – As a verb, we generally use this with “over”—in which case it means to fall headlong. In boating, the keel is the lower hull, often with a narrow downward projection providing stability. If that underwater-part ever winds up on top, the boat has “keeled over”—which is where we get our more common usage.

And if you ever think “the pirate life’s for me!”, look up keelhaul. Then take a deep breath—and watch for barnacles!

Painter – “A line used for securing or towing a boat” (Merriam-Webster); this seagoing sense is not related to artists but rather to the Latin base pend, meaning “to hang” (e.g., suspend, pendant, pendulum).

Port – The left side of a ship when facing forward; its antonym is starboard. (To remember this, note that both port and left have four letters and end with T.)

According to NOAA, the term starboard is based not on the sky but on steer, from the days of using an oar for this action; since most sailors are right-handed, the “steering oar” was toward the right, so it was easier to unload a ship on the left—that is, the “port side.”

Reef – Of course this already has a sea-related sense—namely, a ridge of coral, rock or sand in the water. On a boat deck, however, it’s a portion of a sail rolled and tied to lessen the area exposed to wind; also a verb for creating this (American Heritage).

Shrouds – Ropes running from a mast to the side of the ship. A similar rope running fore and aft is called a stay.

Two other seagoing notes:

First, the word aweigh describes an anchor being freed from the bottom—as in the Navy’s signature song, “Anchors Aweigh” (in other words, “We’re ready to go!”). It wouldn’t normally belong on this list, but I threw it in because it’s often misspelled when referring to the tune.

And finally: You’ve probably used the expression “under the weather” to describe illness. This originates in the long-standing shipboard tradition of going below deck in stormy seas—where you would literally be under the weather.
– My thanks to NauticEd.org for much of this info. That fine site has many other terms used exclusively for boating (e.g., halyard, abaft, coxswain); perhaps we can look at those next time.

by “Weird Words” Looks at Sailing
By Joseph W. Smith III