nautical chain
- noun
- /ˈnɔːtɪkəl ʧeɪn/
- Archaic
:
cadena náutica
- Old maritime records often mention distances expressed in nautical chain units.
Examples
-
Navigators once measured harbor depths using a nautical chain as the standard.
-
How many nautical chains do we need for the project?
-
The anchor was attached to thirty nautical chains of heavy steel cable.
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The ship's anchor was secured with a nautical chain.
-
Navigators once measured harbor depths using a nautical chain as the standard.
-
Old maritime records often mention distances expressed in nautical chain units.
-
The anchor was attached to thirty nautical chains of heavy steel cable.
How Long
- Specialized
11
4.4
- Specialized
- Archaic
- Specialized
10
6.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'nautical' (relating to ships) and 'chain' (metal rings) will most likely interpret this as a physical chain used on a ship; the specialized sense 'a unit of length (15 feet)' is a technical/historical extension not derivable from the literal constituents. Because the measurement sense is domain‑specific and unpredictable from the parts, the expression is not transparently compositional for typical learners.
Etymology
The noun nautical chain comes from sailors using a metal chain of fixed length to measure distance at sea. Each chain was '15 feet', so the metal chain itself became the name for that unit.