Ahoy, me mateys.

I came across "under weigh" in a short story by H. G. Wells. At first I thought it was a malapropism (elsewhere the narrator uses "wreck and ruin"), but looked it up, and both "way" and "weigh" are acceptable.

What is the nautical explanation of "under weigh". The anchors are being weighed and the ship is ready to depart? If so, it seems to imply the onset of an activity, whereas "under way" implies that something has already started and is making good progress.



Last edited by Hydra; 12/26/07 06:16 AM.