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sharpie

sharpie

9.9
A small sailboat with a flat bottom and sharp front for shallow waters
  • noun
  • /ˈʃɑrpi/
  • Archaic
translation icon : sharpie (embarcación de fondo plano)
  • The fishermen used their sharpie to navigate the shallow waters near the coast.

Examples

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 12A. A two-masted sailing sharpie and dugout canoes being sculled on the Quinnipiac River, Conn.

    Academic text (1996)
  • We saw a beautiful sharpie gliding gracefully across the calm waters of the bay.

  • During the regatta, several sharpies competed for the fastest time around the course.

Surface Forms

sharpie singular
sharpies plural

Morphology

sharpie = sharp (transparent) = sharp + ie

The boat name is directly motivated by the idea of a sharp prow, so the meaning is easy to recover from the base word.

Etymology

The word sharpie for the boat comes from sharp, meaning 'pointed', plus the ending -ie. These small sailing boats have a very pointy front and a flat bottom for shallow water, so the name reminds you of their 'pointed' shape.