anchor

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English[edit]

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An anchor (nautical).

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English anchor, from Old English ancor, ancra, from Latin ancora, from (or cognate with) Ancient Greek ἄγκυρα (ánkura), from Proto-Indo-European *ang- (“corner, hirn”). The modern spelling is a sixteenth-century modification to better represent the Latin spelling anchora, a variant of the older Latin spelling ancora.

The verb comes from Middle English anchoren, ankeren, either from the noun or perhaps (via Old French ancrer)[1] from a Medieval Latin verb ancorare, from the same Latin word ancora.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

anchor (plural anchors)

  1. (nautical) A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 10, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.
  2. (nautical) An iron device so shaped as to grip the bottom and hold a vessel at her berth by the chain or rope attached. (FM 55-501).
  3. (nautical) The combined anchoring gear (anchor, rode, bill/peak and fittings such as bitts, cat, and windlass.)
  4. (heraldry) Representation of the nautical tool, used as a heraldic charge.
  5. Any instrument serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, such as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a device to hold the end of a bridge cable etc.; or a device used in metalworking to hold the core of a mould in place.
  6. (Internet) A marked point in a document that can be the target of a hyperlink.
  7. (television) An anchorman or anchorwoman.
  8. (athletics) The final runner in a relay race.
  9. (archery) A point that is touched by the draw hand or string when the bow is fully drawn and ready to shoot.
  10. (economics) A superstore or other facility that serves as a focus to bring customers into an area.
    • 2006, Planning: For the Natural and Built Environment (issues 1650-1666, page 15)
      Supermarkets have also had to adjust. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have put a much greater emphasis on developing smaller high street stores or becoming anchors for mixed-used regeneration schemes […]
  11. (figuratively) That which gives stability or security.
    • Bible, Hebrews vi. 19
      which hope we have as an anchor of the soul
  12. (architecture) A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.
  13. (architecture) Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; part of the ornaments of certain mouldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.
  14. One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges.
  15. One of the calcareous spinules of certain holothurians, as in species of Synapta.
  16. (cartomancy) The thirty-fifth Lenormand card.

Usage notes[edit]

Formerly a vessel would differentiate amongst the anchors carried as waist anchor, best bower, bower, stream and kedge anchors, depending on purpose and, to a great extent, on mass and size of the anchor. Modern usage is storm anchor for the heaviest anchor with the longest rode, best bower or simply bower for the most commonly used anchor deployed from the bow, and stream or lunch hook for a small, light anchor used for temporary moorage and often deployed from the stern.

Derived terms[edit]

Term list

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

anchor (third-person singular simple present anchors, present participle anchoring, simple past and past participle anchored)

  1. To hold an object, especially a ship or a boat to a fixed point.
  2. To cast anchor; to come to anchor.
    Our ship (or the captain) anchored in the stream.
  3. To stop; to fix or rest.
    • Shakespeare
      My invention […] anchors on Isabel.
  4. To provide emotional stability for a person in distress.
  5. To perform as an anchorman or anchorwoman.
  6. To be stuck; to be unable to move away from a position.
    • 2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian‎[1]:
      It is an incredible tale and one that makes no sense on so many levels. Only two years ago Leicester were anchored to the foot of the Premier League and staring at the prospect of relegation to the Championship under Nigel Pearson.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “ankeren” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Anagrams[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Compare anchu.

Noun[edit]

anchor m (plural anchors)

  1. width

Synonyms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From an- (“bad, unnatural”) +‎ cor (“turn”) (compare droch-chor (“bad turn; unfortunate happening, ill plight”)).

Noun[edit]

anchor m (genitive singular anchoir)

  1. ill-treatment

Declension[edit]

Declension of anchor

First declension

Bare forms (no plural of this noun)

Case Singular
Nominative anchor
Vocative a anchoir
Genitive anchoir
Dative anchor

Forms with the definite article:

Case Singular
Nominative an t-anchor
Genitive an anchoir
Dative leis an anchor

don anchor

Mutation[edit]

Irish mutation
Radical Eclipsis with h-prothesis with t-prothesis
anchor n-anchor hanchor t-anchor
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

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