gunwale
/ˈɡʌnəl/ noun
Forms gunwales gunnel
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English gonnewalle, itself from gonne (“gun”) + wale, as it used to support the ship's guns; equivalent to gun + wale.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The upper edge of a vessel's or boat's side; the uppermost wale of a ship (not including the bulwarks); or that piece of timber which reaches on either side from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, being the uppermost bend, which finishes the upper works of the hull.
Etymology [Gun + wale. So named because the upper guns were pointed from it.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gunwale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details