prow

See also: Prow

English

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /pɹaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): (obsolete) /pɹoʊ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ

Etymology 1

From Middle French proue, proe, from Ligurian prua, proa, from Latin prōra, from Ancient Greek πρῷρα (prōîra).

Noun

prow (plural prows)

2. (nautical) The front part of a vessel.

   Synonyms: bow, stem, fore, forestem, prore

   Antonyms: stern, aft, poop

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     The floating vessel swum / Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow / rode tilting o'er the waves.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     We were already rather close in; but I ordered the U-33's prow turned inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up the water and tasting it to assure ourselves that we didn't get outside the fresh-water current.

3. A vessel.

Derived terms

• prowed
• prowfish
• prowlike

Translations

fore part of a vessel; bow

• Armenian: քիթ (hy) (kʻitʻ)
• Asturian: proba f, proa f
• Bulgarian: нос (bg) m (nos)
• Catalan: proa (ca) f
• Czech: příď (cs) f
• Danish: forstavn c
• Dutch: voorsteven (nl) f, boeg (nl) f
• Esperanto: pruo (eo)
• Finnish: keula (fi)
• French: proue (fr) f
• Galician: proa (gl) f
• German: Bug (de) m, Bugüberhang m
• Greek:

  Ancient: πρῷρα f (prōîra)

• Icelandic: trjóna f, skegg (is) n
• Ingrian: esinukka
• Irish: braine m, gob m
• Italian: prua (it) f, prora (it) f
• Latin: prora f, rostrum (la) n
• Māori: ihuwaka
• Norman: d'vant m
• Plautdietsch: Bug f
• Polish: dziób (pl) m
• Portuguese: proa (pt) f
• Romanian: proră (ro) f, provă (ro) f
• Russian: нос (ru) m (nos)
• Scottish Gaelic: toiseach m
• Serbo-Croatian: prova (sh) f

  Cyrillic: прамац m

  Roman: pramac (sh) m

• Slovene: premec m
• Spanish: proa (es) f
• Swahili: gubeti
• Tagalog: duong, doong
• Turkish: pruva (tr)
• Ukrainian: ніс (uk) m (nis)
• Vietnamese: mũi (vi)
• Volapük: föfastev, föfanaf

Etymology 2

From Middle English prow, from Old French prou, from Late Latin prode; more at proud.

Adjective

prow (comparative prower, superlative prowest)

1. (archaic) Brave, valiant, gallant.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For they be two the prowest knights on ground, / And oft approu’d in many hard assay […]

Related terms

• prowess

Translations

brave, valiant

• Dutch: dapper (nl), moedig (nl)

Etymology 3

Noun

prow (plural prows)

1. Alternative form of proa.

Anagrams

• pow'r, wrop