argosy
pronunciation
How to pronounce argosy in British English:
UK ['ɑːgəsɪ]
How to pronounce argosy in American English:
US [ 'ɑrgəsi]
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- Noun:
- one or more large merchant ships
Word Origin
- argosy
- argosy: [16] On the face of it argosy, an archaic term for ‘large merchant ship’, gives every appearance of being connected with the Argonauts, members of the crew of the ship Argo who sailed with Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece; but in fact the words are completely unrelated. When English first acquired argosy, from Italian, it was ragusea, which meant literally ‘vessel from Ragusa’ (an important city and seaport on the Dalmatian coast, now known as Dubrovnik). From the hotchpotch of spellings used in English in the 16th and 17th centuries (including ragusye, rhaguse, argosea, and arguze), argosy finally emerged as victor.
- argosy (n.)
- 1570s, from Italian (nave) Ragusea "(vessel) of Ragusa," maritime city on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic (modern Dubrovnik in Croatia). Their large merchant ships brought rich Eastern goods to 16c. England. The city name sometimes was Aragouse or Arragosa in 16c. English.
Example
- 1. Microsoft doesn 't promote the boat tour , but argosy says it has approval from gates .
- 2. It is a relatively small tributary glacier by antarctic standards ( about two miles across at the camp site ) , and joins with the argosy glacier before flowing into the huge marsh glacier ( 10 to 15 miles across ) .