This week’s theme
Words having nautical origins

This week’s words
trimmer
bilge
nauseate

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(bilj)

MEANING:

noun:	1. The bottom (inner or outer) part of a ship or a boat.
	2. Water, oil, and waste that collect in the lowest part of a ship or a boat.
	3. Nonsense; rubbish.
	4. The bulging part of a barrel or a cask.
verb:	1. To bulge or swell.
tr., intr.	2. To break a hole.
	3. To spring a leak.

ETYMOLOGY:

Probably a variant of bulge, from Old French boulge, from Latin bulga (bag). Earliest documented use: 1522.

NOTES:

A ship’s bilge is where water, oil, and assorted gunk settle, a sort of maritime garbage disposal, but without the convenience of a “clean” button. The stench was so legendary that sailors naturally extended bilge to mean absolute nonsense.

USAGE:

“Mr [Don] Blankenship is a doughy, charmless ex-convict who praised China’s ‘dictatorial capitalism’ and spent a year in prison for conspiring to evade federal mine-safety standards after an accident killed 29 men at one of his company’s mines. His campaign ads featured him staring into the camera while droning racist bilge.”
The Centre Mostly Holds; The Economist (London, UK); May 12, 2018.

“The boat crashed down on the rail instantly, bilged itself out of further action; and in so doing killed and injured several of the seamen engaged in hoisting it out.”
Frank H. Shaw; A Proud and Noble Tragedy: The Sinking of the Birkenhead; Sea Classics (Canoga Park, California); Oct 2001.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: