Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “flagship” come from?

I need to identify what "flagship" means and trace it through the provided chain, but I notice the chain given doesn't actually lead to "flagship"—it traces "ship" and "flack." Let me reconsider: "flagship" is a compound of "flag" + "ship." The chain provided appears incomplete or misdirected for the headword "flagship." Given the constraint that I can "state only what the chain supports" and cannot invent steps, I cannot accurately write an etymology sentence for "flagship" using the chain provided, as it doesn't connect to that word. However, if I'm meant to work with what's given and treat this as a test of the rules: I should decline to write a sentence rather than violate the instruction "State only what the chain supports." **I cannot complete this task as instructed** because the etymological chain provided does not support the headword "flagship." To write accurately

flagship (English): The ship occupied by the fleet's commander ; it...

Definitions

  1. The ship occupied by the fleet's commander ; it...

Ancestry of “flagship”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishshipA water-borne vessel generally larger than a...
2EnglishrelationshipConnection or association; the condition of being...
3EnglishrelationThe manner in which two things may be associated;...
4Middle Englishrelacion—
5Old Frenchrelacion—
6Latinrelātiō—
7Latinreferō—
8Latinrĕ-—
9Latinprōdūcō—
10Latinprō-—
11Proto-Italic*pro-—
12Proto-Indo-Europeanpro-toward, forward
13Proto-Indo-Europeanpor-to give birth; forward, through; going, passage
14Proto-Indo-Europeanper-before, in front; first; to go through
15Proto-Indo-Europeanpr̥tóspassed , crossed
Every word from Proto-Indo-European pr̥tós →