broadside

Etymology

It is a compound from English broad + side.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The spelling with a space between the parts was usual until the late 18th century.^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The broader side of something, and on a ship the side above the water between the bow and the quarter: both before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's translation of Virgil's Aeneid.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dated the ship's side only to 1591,^[7] as Merriam-Webster still does,^[8] and Etymonline gives the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the side of a warship the word passed to the guns mounted along it and to their firing all at once (1540),^[2] and then, by 1622, to a fierce attack, especially in words.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave the ship's side, the volley fired from it, and, in printing, a sheet of paper forming one large page.^[6] For that printing sense, a large sheet printed on one side only, such as a ballad or proclamation, Etymonline and the 1989 edition of the OED had records from the 1570s,^[3][7] but the revised OED's first record is from 1683.^[2] Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book (1867) still connects both senses, naming the old folio sheets on which ballads and proclamations were printed.^[9] The adverb, sideways on, is recorded from 1820 in the revised OED^[2] (1870 in the 1989 edition and in Etymonline^[7][3]), though Merriam-Webster dates it to 1786.^[8] The verb first meant to fire a broadside at (1744); it later meant to crash into the side of something (1850) and to skid sideways (1888), and in speedway racing to take a corner in a controlled skid (1925).^[2][4] Etymonline dates the skidding verb only to 1930 and the colliding sense to 1970.^[3] In dialect, a broadside was in Somerset the board of a plough that turns over the sod, and in Scotland at a broadside meant suddenly or unawares;^[10] in Vermont it was a side of fat salt pork.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1522 – the broader side of something; the side of a ship above the water.^[2]
• 1540 – the guns on one side of a warship, or their firing all together.^[2]
• 1622 – figurative, a fierce attack, especially in words.^[2]
• 1676 – broadside to broadside, side by side.^[2]
• 1683 – a large sheet of paper printed on one side only.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1570s, and the 1989 edition of the OED to 1575.^[3][7]
• 1744 – verb, to fire a broadside at.^[2]
• 1820 – adverb, with the side turned towards something.^[2]
• 1850 – verb, to crash into the side of something.^[2]
• 1888 – verb, to skid sideways.^[2]
• 1925 – verb, in speedway racing, to go round a corner in a controlled skid; adverb, of text set sideways on a page.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The side of a ship above the waterline, between the bow and the quarter.^[2][12][8]
2. All the guns on one side of a warship, or their firing all at once.^[12][2][4]
3. A strong or abusive attack in speech or writing: The senator fired a broadside at the new tax.^[12][2][4]
4. A large sheet of paper printed on one side only, such as a ballad or proclamation; a broadsheet.^[12][2][8]
5. The broad side of any object.^[8][2]

Adverb

1. With the side turned towards something; sideways on: The truck slid broadside across the road.^[2][8][4]

Verb

1. To crash into the side of a vehicle.^[8][2]
2. To skid sideways, or, of a rider, to take a bend in a controlled skid.^[2][4]
3. To fire a broadside at; to attack.^[2][8]

Related words

• broadsheet
• broad
• side

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins