mainmast

See also: main-mast

English

Alternative forms

• main-mast

Etymology

From main +‎ mast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪn.mɑːst/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪn.mæst/

Noun

mainmast (plural mainmasts)

1. (nautical) The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em; now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’ld thrust a cork into a hogshead.

   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Chapter 11,^[1]

     When we were in the latitude of Martinico, and near making the land, one morning we had a brisk gale of wind, and, carrying too much sail, the main-mast went over the side.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 96, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     The try-works are planted between the foremast and mainmast, the most roomy part of the deck.

   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

     […] skating farther than their wont that day they reached that part of the river where the ships had anchored and been frozen in midstream. Among them was the ship of the Muscovite Embassy flying its double-headed black eagle from the main mast, which was hung with many-coloured icicles several yards in length.

Usage notes

• On a ship with three or more masts, it is the second mast from the bow.

Derived terms

• mainmast head

Translations

mainmast

• Bulgarian: грот-мачта f (grot-mačta)
• Catalan: pal major m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 主桅 (zh) (zhǔwéi)

• Danish: stormast
• Dutch: grote mast m
• Esperanto: ĉefmasto
• Finnish: isomasto (fi)
• French: French: grand mât (fr) m
• German: Großmast (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: stórsigla f
• Italian: albero maestro
• Japanese: メインマスト (meinmasuto)
• Maori: turuturu matua
• Norman: grand mât m
• Portuguese: grande (pt) m, mastro grande m
• Russian: грот-ма́чта (ru) f (grot-máčta)
• Spanish: palo mayor (es) m
• Swedish: stormast c

See also

• foremast
• jiggermast
• mizzenmast
• spankermast