Norfolk wherry
- noun
- Archaic
:
barca Norfolk
- The Norfolk wherry was once a common sight carrying goods across the Broads.
Examples
-
Restorers have carefully rebuilt a 19th-century Norfolk wherry for educational tours.
-
Sailing enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the annual Norfolk wherry regatta.
-
The Norfolk wherry glided smoothly across the river.
-
Many Norfolk wherries are now used for tourism.
-
The Norfolk wherry was once a common sight carrying goods across the Broads.
-
Restorers have carefully rebuilt a 19th-century Norfolk wherry for educational tours.
-
Sailing enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the annual Norfolk wherry regatta.
Synonyms
6
8.6
A flat boat with sloping ends that carries goods in shallow water
1
9.9
A flat-bottomed boat used to carry heavy loads on canals
1
9.9
A long narrow boat used on rivers to carry people or goods
A flat-bottomed boat that carries goods on rivers and river mouths
How Big
26
3.0
57
3.9
- Archaic
13
1.0
18
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Norfolk + wherry
The compound is compositionally built from a place name plus a noun: if a learner knows 'wherry' as a river-transport boat and recognises 'Norfolk' as a place, they can infer it denotes the Norfolk variety of that boat. The place-name + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common, so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
The name Norfolk wherry comes from the county Norfolk and the old word wherry for a flat-bottomed river boat. These boats used one tall mast and a wide hull to carry heavy goods across shallow rivers and lakes, so the name came to mean 'a large cargo sailing barge' from that area.