A.B. - Able-bodied seaman. A merchant seaman’s rating made legal and requirements standardized in Britain in 1894, and in the U.S., under the Seaman’s Act of 1915 and now administered by the Coast Guard.
ADMIRAL (1) Highest ranking officer in most navies. This word comes to us from the Arabic amir-al-baka, prince of the sea; via Latin and early French. (2) A very large fid, usually used by riggers.
ANCHOR – A device for mooring a floating object to the bottom. Clearly traceable from the Greek – agura – possibly from the tenth century B.C., it is believed to have come to that language from the Phoenicians at least 500 years before.
From Greek, it can be traced, through Latin and older European languages, to Middle and Modern English. The word can be recognized in virtually all European languages, including Russian (yaker’).
ARRIVE – Hardly a sea term, but it once was. It came from the French, in turn from the Latin word arripare, which means to land or come ashore.
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