vargord
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A spar or bar used instead of a bowline.
Example Sentences
- "I think the five reefs on the foresail may be a mistake, the two upper cringles serving really for the vargord — not shown. There seem to be two bowlines to the mainsail."
- "The next step towards the lug was the introduction of the vargord. This was a spar that held the weather leech of the square sail forward, serving the purpose of the bowline by means of compression in the spar instead of tension in the ropes forming the bowlines. [...] As with much else in the development of the smaller craft, which proceeded slowly even in comparison with the unhurried changes in the greater world prior to the present century, the vargood persisted, and was still in use in the west country craft less than a hundred years ago, though in association with the lug and not the square rig. [...] To produce the lug, an early example of which appears in Fig. 37 from the square sail with its vargord was not a great step, though like many simple but vital measures of change, one more easily taken in retrospect than initiated without precedent."
- "[...] the European sprit-sail had something to do with a spar called the vargord or beitiáss, which was used by Norse and Cornish sailors as an alternative to bowlines to keep taut the leading edge of a lug-sail or a primitive square-sail."
- "A term for almost any time- or labour-saving device: naval: ca 1850-95. Ex dial. ‘’timmynoggy’’, ‘a notched square piece of wood; used to support the lower end of the “vargood” or long spar serving as a bowline, itself ex dial. ‘’timmy’’, the stick or bat used in the game of rounders. cf. GADEGT"
- "When sailing close to the wind the foremost edge of the sail, or luff, was held taut by a bowline or by a special tacking boom over the stem as a bowsprit. This boom could be fixed in a block on either side before the mast, similar to the 20th century vargord or spar used in Cornish dipping lug-rigged fishing boats."
- "Figure A. Cornish three masted lugger with the foresail luff set taut for windward sailing with a ‘vargood’ or ‘foregirt’. [...] Circa 1815"
Etymology
Most possibly originating from Cornish dialect. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the term vargood back to 1726 in the writing of Samuel Penhallow, politician and historian.