▪ I. schooner, n.1
(ˈskuːnə(r))
Forms: 8 scooner, skooner, 8– schooner.
[Of uncertain origin; recorded early in the 18th c. as skooner, scooner; the present spelling, which occurs only a few years later, may be due to form-association with school, or with Du. words having initial sch. The word has passed from English into most of the European langs.: Du. schooner, schoener, G. schoner, schooner, schuner (recorded 1786), F. schooner, schoaner, Da. skonnert, Sw. skonare, skonert.
The story commonly told respecting the origin of the word is as follows. When the first schooner was being launched (at Gloucester, Mass., about 1713), a bystander exclaimed ‘Oh, how she scoons!’ The builder, Capt. Andrew Robinson, replied, ‘A scooner let her be!’ and the word at once came into use as the name of the new type of vessel. The anecdote, first recorded, on the authority of tradition, in a letter of 1790 (quoted in Babson Hist. Gloucester, p. 252), looks like an invention. The etymology which it embodies, however, is not at all improbable, though there seems to be a lack of evidence for the existence of the alleged New England verb scoon or scun, ‘to skim along on the water’. Cf. Sc. (Clydesdale) scon, ‘to make flat stones skip along the surface of the water’, also intr. ‘to skip in the manner described’ (Jam.). The early examples afford strong ground for believing that the word really originated about 1713 in Massachusetts, and probably in the town of Gloucester. The evidence of two or three old prints seems to prove that the type of vessel now called ‘schooner’ existed in England in the 17th c., but it app. first came into extensive use in New England.]
1. a. A small sea-going fore-and-aft rigged vessel, originally with only two masts, but now often with three or four masts and carrying one or more topsails.
The rig characteristic of a schooner has been defined as consisting essentially of two gaff sails, the after sail not being smaller than the fore, and a head sail set on a bowsprit.
| 1716 in Hist. Rec. (Boston) XXIX. 231 Y⊇ Skooner May⁓flower from North Carolina. 1721 Moses Prince Let. in J. J. Babson Hist. Gloucester (Mass.) (1860) 252 Went to see Capt. Robinson's lady. This gentleman was the first contriver of schooners, and built the first of the sort about eight years ago. 1724 Boston (Mass.) News-Letter 16 Apr., Upon the 4th instant Benjamin Chadwell in the Scooner Good-Will, of Marblehead, was taken by a private sloop. 1725 Ibid. 22 Apr., The Schooner Swallow. 1741 in Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas (1743) 126 Witness our Hands, on Board the Speedwell Schooner, in the latitude 50: 40 S. this 8th Day of November, 1741. 1774 T. Hutchinson Diary I. 336 We are in pain for Cap. Dundass and passengers in a scooner sent Express from Gen. Gage, and spoke within Scilly the 16th. 1840 Longfellow Wreck of Hesperus i, It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea. 1908 Toilers of Deep Sept. 178/2 Both the warship and the fishing schooner were sounding fog-alarms. |
b. schooner on the rocks (see
quots.).
Naut. slang.
| 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Carry On! 28 A ‘schooner on the rocks’ does not refer to a nautical disaster, but to meat and potatoes baked in a peculiar way. 1922 Mariner's Mirror VIII. 222/1 Schooner on the Rocks. This dish consists of a joint baked in a sea of batter. 1927 P. Riley Memories ii. 11 Dinner..varied from salt beef,..‘Schooner on the Rocks’, i.e., joint of meat roasted on potatoes, or ‘toad in the hole’. |
2. U.S. (See
quot. 1904).
| 1858 [see prairie schooner]. 1882 B. Harte Flip i, The blinding white canvas covers of mountain schooners. 1891 E. Roper By Track & Trail xii. 174 Goods and passengers are delivered by the railway to be conveyed by ‘prairie schooners’ over this road. 1904 P. Fountain Gt. North-West xxviii. 342 A prairie schooner is a waggon furnished with all sorts of stores likely to be required in outlying stations and farms. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
schooner-rigged adj.;
schooner-man,
schooner-sail [
tr. G.
schonersegel foresail];
schooner barge, (
a)
U.S., a short-masted vessel designed to be towed; (
b) a flat-bottomed vessel rigged as a topsail schooner;
schooner-frigate,
-gun-vessel,
-yacht, vessels of various classes resembling a schooner in build or rig;
schooner yawl, a variety of two-masted schooner.
| 1819 Western Rev. I. 361 The River is navigated by steam boats, barges, keel boats, *schooner barges. 1867 Mitchell's Maritime Reg. 1620 On Monday the fine schooner-barge Edith was launched. 1900 Bath (Maine) Daily Times 22 May 5/3 The new three-masted schooner barge Flora for the Commercial Towboat Co. of Boston was launched yesterday. 1945 Amer. Neptune V. 139 In the East Coast schooner-barge fleet, only a few have been built with five masts. 1951 F. G. C. Carr Sailing Barges 126 As far as the hulls of these big barquentine and schooner barges were concerned, they were like very large boomies. |
| 1799 Naval Chron. II. 271 Admiral Knowles constructed..a *schooner frigate, that carried twenty twelve-pounders on the main-deck, and two eighteen-pounders on her fore⁓castle. |
| 1806 A. Duncan Life of Nelson 136 The..*schooner gun-vessels made their escape. |
| 1914 W. D. Steele Storm 270 Then he scrutinized the rank of *schooner-men flanking me. 1972 F. E. Bowker Blue Water Coaster 30 We thought that he had picked up an old schoonerman, but it wasn't long before we discovered that he was an unemployed shoemaker. |
| 1769 *Schooner-rigged [see rigged ppl. a. 1 b]. 1812 Examiner 7 Sept. 576/1 A large schooner-rigged canoe. 1895 Oracle Encycl. I. 503/2 Brigantine, a small vessel, partly square⁓rigged and partly schooner-rigged. 1924 R. Clements Gipsy of Horn iii. 47 All hands were working schooner-rigged, going at it with their blood up. 1935 Amer. Speech X. 79/1 Schooner rigged, unequipped with proper clothes or other necessities. 1946 R. E. Higginbotham Wine for My Brothers vi. 126 The Dane travelled schooner-rigged, and philosophically heaved his mail overboard. |
| 1930 D. Martin Boy Scout with Sea Devil 48 We hoisted up the Fores'l and the *Schooners'l. 1952 G. Cowan Log of Pelican vi. 41 We cleaned out lockers,..bent the schooner sail and got the fore-canvas up in stops, and found a place for everything. |
| 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta xxxv, A *schooner-yacht, whose sheets gleamed like bridal satin. |
| 1889 Forest & Stream 4 Apr. 227/3 Adding a jigger mast..cuts off the nasty big boom and large mainsail..making the yacht a *schooner yawl. 1970 Amer. Neptune XXX. 196 Not counting the schooner-yawl White Cap, which was discussed among the schooners, yawls made up 8.7 percent of American sailing yachts in 1902. |
▪ II. schooner, n.2 (
ˈskuːnə(r))
[Of obscure origin; perh. a fanciful use of prec.] 1. a. U.S. ‘A tall glass, used for lager-beer and ale, and containing about double the quantity of an ordinary tumbler’ (Webster,
Suppl. 1879).
b. Hence, in British use, a customary measure (see
quot. 1896) by which beer is sold by retail in various places.
| 1886 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 21 July 2/4 Scene: A beer garden. Mr. Schweitzer (referring to the music): ‘Dot vos Meyerbeer.’ Mr. Hooligan (excitedly, in view of the fact that only one schooner stands on the table between the two gentlemen): ‘Ye're a liar, it's my beer’. 1895 N.B. Daily Mail (Glasgow) 23 Sept. 4 He..had two glasses of whisky and a schooner of beer. 1896 Ibid. 7 Mar. 2 Of these [local measures] ‘the schooner’ containing 14 fluid ounces, or 2 4-5ths imperial gills, occupied perhaps the most prominent place.., being found in everyday use, under various names, in London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and elsewhere. |
c. Austral. and
N.Z. A large beer-glass of locally variable capacity (see
quots. 1966 and 1973); the (measure of) beer contained in such a glass.
| 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Feb. 10/1 In Brisbane, a standard pint served in a long glass is a ‘schooner’. 1947 D. M. Davin Gorse grows Pale 126 Sitting in the pub with a schooner under his nose. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Austral. & N.Z. viii. 163 A schooner in New South Wales is a fifteen-ounce glass, in Adelaide a nine-ounce glass. 1969 Advertiser (Adelaide) 12 May 5/4 Just because someone wants to spend an arvo sinking a few schooners in his own way. 1973 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 1 Dec. 17/7 The traveller finished up at the Federal with 128 schooners (the local term for an eight ounce glass). 1977 Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 27/2 He calculated he would consume eight schooners (15oz glasses) of beer, plus some spirits, over three hours. 1981 Advertiser (Adelaide) 2 July 6/6 Mr Connelly and Mr McKenzie said the second stage of the change was planned for October when the 285 ml (10 oz) glass would be introduced to replace the 255 ml (9 oz) schooner. |
d. Comb.:
schooner-house, a place for the sale of schooners of liquor.
| 1893 E. M. Whittemore Delia ix. 59, I was having a big time sporting round schooner houses. |
2. A tall, waisted sherry glass; the measure contained by this.
| 1967 J. Potter Foul Play xvii. 204 What about joining me in a schooner of sherry? 1973 Times 20 Oct. 14/3 The abominably proportioned waisted Elgin glass, sometimes used for sherry, or its vulgar outsize version, the schooner. 1975 [see noshery]. 1977 Habitat 1977/78 Catal. 121 Elgin schooner. For large sherries. 3½ oz. |