This week’s theme
Words with unusual pronunciations

This week’s words
blackguard
cwm
victual
gunwale
sidhe

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(GUHN-l)

MEANING:

noun: The upper edge of the side of a ship or a boat.

NOTES:

The word is often used in the idiom “to the gunwales” meaning to be full, almost overflowing.

ETYMOLOGY:

From gun + wale (a plank along the side of a ship), from its use as a support for guns in earlier times. Earliest documented use: 1466.

USAGE:

“Lord’s was full to the gunwales on Thursday; never fuller.”
Michael Henderson; A Day for Deadheads as Rain Drowns Out the Famous Lord’s Buzz; The Times (London, UK); Aug 17, 2019.

See more usage examples of gunwale in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: