leeward: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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	Word of the Day for Friday, March 1, 2013 leeward \LEE-werd; Naut. LOO-erd\, adjective: 1. pertaining to, situated in, or moving toward the quarter toward which the wind blows (opposed to windward). noun: 1. the lee side; the point or quarter toward which the wind blows. adverb: 1. toward the lee. Look out to leeward, a little afore the beam, and you will see one a long way out of the ordinary. -- Patrick O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 1993 Two of the most daring flew to the main-rigging, one ascending to windward and the other to leeward. -- Frederick Marryat, The King's Own, 1830 While the ultimate origin of leeward, first appearing in English in the 1500s, is not known for certain, it contains the Old English hleo meaning "strong." This in turn came from the Old Norse hly meaning "shelter" and "warmth." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom? Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges Check out the Quote of the Day ›› Lexical Investigations: Balaclava A motley combination of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Germanic dialects, the English language (more or less as we know it) coalesced between the 9th and 13th centuries. Since then, it has continued to import and borrow words and expressions from around the world, and the meanings have mutated. (Awesome and awful once meant nearly the same... Read more ›› Dictionary.com Word of the Day You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: e-dict...@googlegroups.com Subscriber since: January 06, 2008 Unsubscribe from the Word of the Day To subscribe to the Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wor...@lists.lexico.com ©2013 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to the Word of the Day can also be managed online   Tell a friend about the Word of the Day!