speronara

English

Etymology

From Italian speronara, Sicilian spirunara.

Noun

speronara (plural speronaras)

  1. (nautical, historical) A small, usually single-masted, sailing boat, used especially for transport between Sicily and Malta, remaining in use along the coast of Sicily until the mid-20th century.
    • 1850, William O. S. Gilly, Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849‎[1]:
      'Whilst my boat was preparing (a Maltese speronara, with a crew of twelve men, selected for their knowledge of the coast,) I wrote two letters, one to Malta, and the other to Lisbon, stating the loss of the ship.
    • 1854, Bayard Taylor, “The Festival of St. Agatha”, in The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 365:
      We had the ponente, or west-wind, all night, but the speronara moved sluggishly, and in the morning it changed to the greco-levante, or north-east.

Italian

Etymology

From Sicilian spirunara, a reference to the distinctive spur (Sicilian spiruni, Italian sperone) on the bow.

Noun

speronara f (plural speronare)

  1. (nautical) speronara or lugger

Descendants

  • → English: speronara

Further reading

  • speronara in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
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