Prow

The story of the word

πρῴρα is the forepart of a ship, built on πρό, before. It rode into Latin as prora, on through Italian and French proue, and into English in the sixteenth century, keeping its exact sense the whole way while most nautical vocabulary was churning. A trireme's prow carried the bronze ram, so the word named the business end of a warship long before it named the pretty end of a yacht.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → Italian → French → English

First recorded

16th century