Where does “gunboat” come from?
Gunboat is a compound of gun and boat, where boat derives from English gonna, which comes from Latin buttis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰeyd-.
gunboat (English): Any of the various types of small armed vessels
Definitions
- Any of the various types of small armed vessels
Ancestry of “gunboat”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | gun | A device for projecting a hard object very... |
| 2 | Middle English | gunne | A trebuchet or similar kind of pellet-firing... |
| 3 | Old Norse | Gunnhildr | — |
| 4 | Old Norse | Gunnr | — |
| 5 | Old Norse | guðr | battle, war |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | gunþiz | battle |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷʰéntis | striking, killing |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷʰen- | to strike, slay, kill |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰon- | — |
Words derived from “gunboat”