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starboard

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 18 September 2026
The starboard (etymology 1, noun sense 1) of the pilot vessel Eyre berthed at Port Lincoln, South Australia.

Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną
Proto-West Germanic *stiurijan
Proto-Germanic *burdą
Proto-West Germanic *bord
Old English stēorbord
Middle English sterbord
English starboard

    The noun is derived from Middle English sterbord, stere-bourd, stere-burd (“starboard”),[1] from Old English stēorbord (“right side of the ship looking forward, starboard”),[2] from Proto-West Germanic *steurubord, from *stiurijan (“to direct, steer”) (from Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną (“to direct, steer”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to propel; to urge on”)) + *bord (“board, plank”) (from Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board, plank”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”) or *bʰers- (“point; tip; top”, noun)), referring to early Germanic ships where the rudder or steering oar was set to the right side to accommodate right-handed crew.[3][4] By surface analysis, steer (verb) +‎ board (“side (of a ship)”, noun).

    The adverb, adjective,[3] and verb[5] are derived from the noun.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    starboard (countable and uncountable, plural starboards)

    2. (aviation, space flight, nautical) The right-hand side of, originally, a ship or other marine vessel, and now also an aircraft or spacecraft, when one is facing the front, or the bow or fore.
      Synonym: right
      Antonyms: backboard, (archaic) larboard, (archaic) leeboard, left, port
      I see another vessel off the starboard side.
      We’re on starboard tack, so the other boat has to give way.
      • 1591, [Walter Raleigh], A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Iles of Açores, this Last Sommer. Betwixt the Reuenge, One of her Maiesties Shippes, and an Armada of the King of Spaine, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature B2, recto:
        After the Reuenge vvas intangled vvith this Philip [i.e., San Felipe], foure other boorded her; tvvo on her larboord, and tvvo on her ſtarboord.
      • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 8, page 183:
        We have had enough of action, and of motion we, / Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge was seething free, / Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.
      • 1877, William Black, “The Isobars”, in Green Pastures and Piccadilly. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 144:
        [P]orting the helm will make your steamer sheer off to starboard, […]
      • 1883, Richard F[rancis] Burton, Verney Lovett Cameron, “From Lisbon to Madeira”, in To the Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 47:
        As our anchor rattles downwards, two excise boats with the national flag take up their stations to starboard and port; and the boatmen are carefully watched with telescopes from the shore.
    3. (by extension, nautical) One of the two traditional watches aboard a ship standing a watch in two.
    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    • Tok Pisin: stabot
    Translations
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    Adverb

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    starboard (comparative more starboard, superlative most starboard)

    1. (aviation, space flight, nautical) On or towards the right-hand side of a ship or other marine vessel, aircraft, or spacecraft when one is facing the front; right.
      • 1600, Richard Hakluyt, “A Relation of a Memorable Fight Made the 13. of Iune 1591. against Certaine Spanish Ships & Gallies in the West Indies, by 3. Ships of the Honorable Sir George Carey Knight, then Marshall of Her Maiesties Houshold, and Captaine of the Ile of Wight, now Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlaine, and Captaine of the Honourable Band of Her Maiesties Pensioners”, in The Third and Last Volume of the Voyages, Nauigations, Traffiques, and Discoueries of the English Nation, […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Bishop, Ralfe Newberie, and Robert Barker, →OCLC, page 566:
        [T]hey bid vs amaine Engliſh dogs, and came vpon our quarter ſtar-boord: and giuing vs fiue caſt pieces out of her prowe, they ſought to lay vs aboord: but wee ſo galled them with our muſkets, that we put them from our quarter.
      • 1883, Richard F[rancis] Burton, Verney Lovett Cameron, “Preliminary: Trieste to Lisbon”, in To the Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 4:
        Starboard rose bleak Ithaca, fronting the black mountain of Cephalonia, now bald and bare, but clothed with dark forests till these were burnt down by some mischievous malignant.
    Translations
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    Adjective

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    starboard (comparative more starboard, superlative most starboard)

    1. (aviation, space flight, nautical) Of or relating to, or located on, the right-hand side of a ship or other marine vessel, aircraft, or spacecraft when one is facing the front; right.
      • 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Terrors of the Night: Or, A Discourse of Apparitions, London: […] Iohn Danter for William Iones, […], →OCLC, signature Gij, recto:
        Fellovvs they vvere that had good big pop mouths to crie Port a helme Saint George, and knevv as vvell as the beſt vvhat belongs to haling of bolings yare, and falling on the ſtar-boord buttocke.
      • 1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XII, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 171:
        "Sail on the starboard-bow," cried the look-out man.
      • 1877, William Black, “The Isobars”, in Green Pastures and Piccadilly. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 144:
        [T]he other vessel, if there is to be a collision, will come crashing down on the port side; hence take your berth on the starboard side, for there you will be at least a trifle safer.
      • 2026 April 20 (last accessed), “RS Quest Rigging Instructions”, in Sacramento State Aquatic Center‎[2], Sacramento, Calif.: California State University, Sacramento, archived from the original on 20 April 2026, page 3:
        Now stow the mainsail as follows, preferably with the sail still lying in the starboard cockpit: beginning at the head, fold the upper section so that the upper two battens are aligned together; then tightly roll the sail from the head down to the foot. Reinsert the sail into its bag.
    Translations
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    Verb

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    starboard (third-person singular simple present starboards, present participle starboarding, simple past and past participle starboarded) (nautical)

    1. (transitive) To turn (the helm of a vessel) towards the starboard or right side, causing the vessel to turn to port or the left.
      • 1605, W. Salustius, Lord of Bartas [i.e., Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas], “[The Second Weeke: or Childhood of the World. […]] The Furies. The Third Booke, of the First Day, of the Second Weeke.”, in Iosuah Syluester, transl., Bartas His Deuine Weekes & Workes […], London: […] Humfrey Lownes […], →OCLC, page 328:
        But, yet vve farther paſſe, our ſlender Barke / Muſt heere ſtrike top-ſailes to a Princely Arke / VVhich keepes theſe Straights: He hailes vs threatfully, / Star-boord our helme; Come vnderneath his Lee.
      • 1724, Charles Johnson [pseudonym], “The Tryals of the Pyrates, Taken by His Majesty’s Ship the Swallow, Begun at Cape Corso-Castle, on the Coast of Africa, March the 28th, 1722”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], →OCLC, page 286:
        In half an Hour more, approaching ſtill nigher, they Starboarded their Helm, and gave her a Broadſide, the Pyrate bringing to, and returning the ſame.
      • 1813, Thomas Downey, “The Battle of Trafalgar”, in Naval Poems. Pleasures of the Naval Life, and The Battle of Trafalgar, London: […] T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […], for C[harles] Cradock and W[illiam] Joy, […]; and J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 131:
        Unmoved the conqueror to their line draws nigh, / Starboards her helm, her headmost sheets lets fly.
      • 1889 July 31, “The Steamship Martello, App[ellan]t v. Ichabod Willey et al.”, in Stephen K[eyes] Williams, editor, Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States: October Term, 1898 […], lawyers’ edition, book 38, Rochester, N.Y.: The Lawyers’ Co-operative Publishing Company, published 1898, →OCLC, page 639, column 1:
        If when the steamer first sighted the barkentine, the master of the latter had been advised that the steamer was starboarding her wheel, he could have ported and avoided the collision.
        An extract from the findings of fact made by the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York. The Supreme Court’s judgment was delivered on April 16, 1894.
      • [1907], F[rederick] William Wallace, chapter 6, in Blue Water: A Tale of the Deep Sea Fishermen, Toronto, Ont.: The Musson Book Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 100:
        The steamer held her course, and while the watchers stood petrified on the schooner's decks, someone up in the port fore-rigging snatched the lantern out of the light-bracket and waved it. The officers on the steamer's bridge must have seen it; the helm of the liner was starboarded at the critical moment, and with torches aflare on her decks the Kastalia scraped the liner's steel plates with her long bowsprit.
    2. (intransitive):
      1. Originally, to turn the helm of a vessel towards the starboard or right side, causing the vessel to turn to port or the left.
        • 1612, Thomas Dekker, “If This Be Not a Good Play, the Divell Is In It”, in If It Be Not Good, the Diuel Is In It. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for I[ohn] T[rundle] [a]nd are to be sold by Edward Marchant, […], →OCLC, signature E, verso:
          VVhoes at Helme? bear vp hard: and hard vp: and thou beeſt a man beare vp; Star-borde, Port-agein: off vvith your Drablers, and your Banners; out vvith your Courſes: Ho— […]
      2. Now (chiefly), to turn a vessel to starboard or the right side; also, of a vessel: to turn to starboard or the right side.
        • 1916, Lord Sumner [John Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner], judge of the Privy Council, “The River Steam Navigation Co. v. The Hathor Steamship Co.”, in S[rinivas] Varadachariar [et al.], editors, The Madras Law Journal, volume XXXI, part V, Madras, Tamil Nadu: G. Ramaswamy Naidu & Son [for] R. Narayanaswamy Aiyar, →OCLC, page 162:
          [T]he "Punjab" was fine on her port bow, only about 300 feet away, when she was seen to be starboarding.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Etymology 2

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-
    Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr
    Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr
    Proto-Germanic *sternǭ
    Proto-West Germanic *sternō
    Proto-West Germanic *sterrō
    Old English steorra
    Middle English sterre
    English star
    Proto-Germanic *burdą
    Proto-West Germanic *bord
    Old English bord
    Middle English bord
    English board
    English starboard

      From star (“asterisk”, noun) + board (“short for message board”, noun). The earliest known use was in 2013 on Meta Stack Exchange: see the quotation.

      Pronunciation

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      Noun

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      starboard (plural starboards) (social media)

      1. A list which shows messages starred in a community space.
        • 2013 June 24, Lightness Races in Orbit, “Room owners should not be throttled in the Chat systems”, in Meta Stack Exchange‎[3], archived from the original on 1 October 2015, Questions:
          The unlimited starring power is an arguably useful feature because it enables management of the starboard with notifications and the like, but I see nothing in the informal job description of a room owner that says they have any more right to spam the room than I do.
        • 2014 April 7, michaelb958--GoFundMonica, “Starred fixed-width messages break in the starboard”, in Meta Stack Exchange‎[4], archived from the original on 7 August 2014, Questions:
          TFHRC#1 indicates a backquote in a chat message using fixed-width formatting, which is (correctly) output literally. FHRC#2 shows that the same backquote is misinterpreted by the sidebar starboard as a formatting character, wrecking the intended look and feel even more.
        • 2025 January 19, celiinna, “discord bots for servers?”, in Reddit‎[5], retrieved 5 April 2024, r/discordapp:
          i also use carlbot for warnings, bans, mutes—and my starboard!!
      2. (figurative, synecdochic) A system that enables such a list.
        • 2017 September 21, DimMagician, “I made a Starboard site!”, in Reddit‎[6], archived from the original on 7 June 2023, r/discordapp:
          In case you don't know what a starboard is, it's basically a system used on Discord that whenever you react with a star emoji, the message is showcased inside of a #starboard channel.
        • 2023 July 16, MadHuarache, “About the pin limit...”, in Reddit‎[7], r/discordapp:
          We used to do that until someone suggested adding a bot that had a starboard.
        • 2024 August 3, GroovySpookyDeadite, “Does anyone know how to make a channel just for pinned messages?”, in Reddit‎[8], r/discordapp:
          You could use a form of starboard to put messages into a read only channel, but then anyone with react permissions could theoretically add to it
      Translations
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      References

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      1. ^ “[stẹ̄r] bord” under “stẹ̄r(e, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
      2. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “steór-bord”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 917, column 2.
      3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Compare “starboard, n., adj., and adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026; “starboard, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
      4. ^ As such a ship had to dock on its left side because the steering oar on the right would get in the way, the left side became known as the port side: “Why Do Ships Use ‘Port’ and ‘Starboard’ instead of ‘Left’ and ‘Right?’”, in National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‎[1], 18 July 2026 (last accessed), archived from the original on 18 July 2026
      5. ^ “starboard, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026; “starboard, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

      Further reading

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      Anagrams

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