| 释义 |
† ˈjolywat Obs.
Also 5 iolywet, 6–7 gellywatte.
[Of obscure origin and uncertain form, the earlier instances having joly-, the later gelly-.
Conjectured by some to be a corruption of Sp. and Pg. galeota, F. galiote, Du. galjoot (galliot1). But this is extremely doubtful. It is difficult to comprehend how galeota could be transformed into jolywat; and the things differ even more than their names, for the galliot was an independent vessel with sails and many rowers, while the jolywat was a ship's boat of small size. It is true that the Pg. galeota appears to have become galleywat or gallivat, in the East Indies, but this, like the original, was a vessel of 60 or 70 tons with sails and 40 or 50 rowers, carrying sometimes 8 guns—a very different thing from the jolywat, to say nothing of the impossibility of any connexion between an Indo-Portuguese word and an English word before 1500. The variation jolly-, gelly-, reminds us of the numerous forms of the Scandinavian and Low German word jol, jolle, gelle, cited under jolly-boat; but the evidence for this as yet does not carry us back to the date of jolywat.]
A ship's boat of small size; ? = jolly-boat.
1495–7Naval Accts. Hen. VII (1896) 143 The Soueraigne with her grete bote and Iolywet. Ibid. 181 The Soueraignes grete Bote and Iolywat. Ibid. 272 (The Regent) Cokke Botes Belongyng to the seid Ship j, Botes called Iolywates j. 1513in Oppenheim Admin. Roy. Navy (1896) 80 For the boat 40 [men]; the cok, 20; the gelly-watte 10. 1613Downton in Purchas Pilgrims (1625) I. 501 As soone as I anchored, I sent..Master Spooner, and Samuell Squire in my Gellywatte to sound the depths within the sands. |