From: tgpedersen
Message: 60099
Date: 2008-09-18
>How?
> At 1:49:18 PM on Wednesday, September 17, 2008, tgpedersen
> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Yes, that's what the dictionaries say.
> > But look at this:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_rig
> > Bark and brig are principally square-rigged.
> > Barkentine and brigantine are hybrid square-rigged and
> > fore-and-aft rigged.
> > So it would seem those endings mean something like
> > "-like", and that 'brigantine' is derived from 'brig', not
> > the other way round.
>
> The explanation is much simpler and much more plausible.
> Originally <brig> was simply a colloquial abbreviation ofDocumentation? OED doesn't provide that.
> <brigantine>;
> as the OED explains, 'while the full name hashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig
> remained with the unchanged brigantine, the shortened name
> has accompanied the modifications which have subsequently
> been made in rig, so that a brig is now
>
> (b) A vessel with two masts square-rigged like a ship's
> fore- and main-masts, but carrying also on her main-mast
> a lower fore-and-aft sail with a gaff and boom.'
>