I notice this has got a couple of other people besides me making their first post. I'm unwilling to accept at face value that 'argosy' (a large ship, a fleet of ships) is unrelated to Jason's large ship the Argo and his argonauts, particularly if the word first appeared in 1577, when the classics were still being rediscovered and translated (Chapman's Homer apparently dates from 1614). It's just too much of a coincidence and the Ragusa angle seems implausible by comparison, though as suggested above, there might be some combination of sources going on. I wonder how these things are verified?

Last edited by Wodwo; 01/24/12 01:15 PM.