shanty
/ˈʃænti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.75 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A rudimentary or improvised dwelling, especially one not legally owned.
verb
To inhabit a shanty.
noun
A rhythmic work song, traditionally sung by sailors or stevedores, functioning to set the pace for hauling, turning a capstan, loading, or other such activities.
Example Sentences
- "A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well."
- "He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned."
- "1965 January, Stuart James, Angling′s New Gadgets, Popular Mechanics, page 224, The ice fishing shanty is not a necessity, but it does add to the comfort. A shanty can be any size or shape, four pieces of plywood banged together with a plywood roof, or as elaborate as one I was told about by a Minneapolis fisherman that has four rooms with gas heat and wall-to-wall carpeting."
- "1999 January, Lawrence Pyne, In Vermont: Rental Shanties Give Hassle-Free Ice-Fishing, Field & Stream, page 78, The solution is to use ice-fishing shacks, called shanties on Champlain. Every winter, veritable shanty towns spring up as safe ice develops, and their snug occupants harvest fresh meals of perch, pike, walleye, salmon, trout, and smelt without first being flash-frozen themselves."
- "Shanties are the most interesting and original of early housing in the Adirondacks.[…]Bark for roofs and even walls on occasion seems to be an attribute of the shanty. Large shanties at staging grounds in the woods included bunkhouses holding one to three dozen men, so not all shanties were small."
- "Shanties along canal banks and road reserves have emerged since independence in 1948 onwards, and consist of unauthorized and improvised shelter without legal rights of occupancy of the land and structures."
Etymology
From Canadian French chantier (“lumberjack's headquarters”). An alternative theory that the word derives from Irish seantí (meaning "old house") is not considered likely by lexicologists. * (unlicensed pub): New Zealand from 1848.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: chantier, chantez
Usage
- Australian usage
- New Zealand usage
- American usage
- Derogatory
Inflected Forms
shanties (plural)
shanties (present, singular)
shantying (participle, present)
shantied (participle, past)
shantied (past)
shantey (alternative)
chanty (alternative)
chantey (alternative)
more shanty (comparative)
most shanty (superlative)