battleship

Etymology

It is a shortening of line-of-battle ship,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded from 1705, a ship large enough to take its place in the line of battle in a main attack.^[3][6] The longer name is formed from battle and ship.^[3] Dictionary.com marks the word as an Americanism.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A line-of-battle ship: 1794, in D. Humphreys's Poem on Industry.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The name first belonged to the largest wooden warships, which in the line of battle carried 74 guns or more.^[7][3] In the United States Navy it was later used for the class of ships with the biggest guns, which were made obsolete by air power and guided missiles;^[3] Etymonline notes that the last American battleship was decommissioned in 2006.^[3] Battleship gray, a dull bluish grey, is recorded from 1916.^[3][5] In slang a battleship was a large, formidable woman (from 1936, after the earlier line-of-battleship matrons of 1865), the feet (1919) or a heavy shoe (1940),^[9] and among railwaymen a large locomotive.^[5] The board game Battleship was registered as a trademark in 1968, but the paper-and-pencil game was played in the American North and North Midland by 1950.^[10]

Timeline

• 1794 – a ship of the line; a warship of the largest, most heavily armed class.^[2][3]
• 1909 – cruiser-battleship, a faster, more lightly armoured battleship.^[2]
• 1916 – battleship gray.^[3]
• 1919 – slang, the feet.^[9]
• 1936 – slang, a formidable woman.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A warship of the largest, most heavily armed and armoured class, carrying guns of the largest calibre.^[5][11][2]
2. Formerly, a warship large enough to fight in the line of battle; a ship of the line.^[11][2]
3. Battleship gray.^[5]
4. (slang) A large, tough, aggressive woman.^[9]
5. (slang) A large railway locomotive.^[5]
6. Battleship or battleships: a game in which each player tries to find the ships hidden on the other's grid.^[10]

Word family

• battleship gray
• pocket battleship

Related words

• battle
• ship
• line-of-battle ship

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins