shipbreach

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English schipbreche, schipbrüche, from Old English scipbryċe, scipbroc, scipġebroc (“shipwreck; that which washes ashore from shipwreck, wreckage”, literally “ship-breaking”), equivalent to ship +‎ breach. Cognate with Scots schipbrek (“shipwreck”), Dutch schipbreuk (“shipwreck”), German Schiffbruch (“shipwreck”).

Noun

shipbreach (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Shipwreck.
    • 1893, Bartholomew Anglicus [i.e., Bartholomaeus Anglicus], translated by John Trevisa, edited by Robert Steele, Medieval Lore: An Epitome of the Science, Geography, Animal and Plant Folk-lore and Myth of the Middle Age, London: Elliot Stock, page 93:
      Also in shipbreach men flee to a board, and are oft saved in peril.
    • 1999, Robert M. Torrance, Robert M. Torrance:
      [...] and the third with an harp, and they please so shipmen, with likeness of song, that they draw them to peril and to shipbreach [shipwreck], but the sooth [truth] is, that they were strong [w]hores, that drew men that passed by them to poverty and to mischief.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.