Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Galley
/ˈɡæli/noun
A long low ship driven by oars, used in the Mediterranean for war and trade.
The Greek roots
γαλέα
galéa
light oared warship
Literally: “light oared warship”
Follow a root:γαλέα2 words
The story of the word
Byzantine Greek γαλέα names the fast oared ship of the medieval Mediterranean. Where the name itself came from is argued; the usual guess is γαλεός, a dogfish, a shark's outline for a hull built to run. Italian and Provençal carried the word west and English had it by 1300. A ship's kitchen is a galley because the cooking hearth stood in that low central space, and the printer's galley, the shallow tray holding set type, is the same word borrowed again for its long narrow shape.
- How it travelled
- Medieval Greek → Medieval Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1300
Same family
galleongalliotgalleass
In a sentence
Venice kept its galleys in service long after sailing warships had taken over elsewhere.
He heated soup in the yacht's cramped galley.