forestay

C2+ Topic:Transportation

US /ˈfɔrˌsteɪ/ UK /ˈfɔːsteɪ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a rope or stay supporting a ship's foremast from the bow

The crew tightened the forestay before the gale hit.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a rope or stay supporting a... stay shroud brace rope

Word family

Related forms fore staybackstay

Etymology

A nautical compound of fore- ('toward the bow') and stay (from Old English stæg 'a rope supporting a mast'), denoting the stay running forward from the foremast to the bow.

fore Old English stæg Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Transportation Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# forestay

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈfɔrˌsteɪ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈfɔːsteɪ/

## Meanings
1. a rope or stay supporting a ship's foremast from the bow

## Examples
- The crew tightened the forestay before the gale hit.

## Synonyms
- stay
- shroud
- brace
- rope

## Related Forms
- fore
- stay
- backstay

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: fore
- Root: stæg

## Etymology
A nautical compound of fore- ('toward the bow') and stay (from Old English stæg 'a rope supporting a mast'), denoting the stay running forward from the foremast to the bow.

## AI Etymology
Forestay is a nautical compound of fore- ('toward the bow') and stay (from Old English stæg 'a rope supporting a mast'), denoting the stay running forward from the foremast to the bow. The compound structure is semantically important: one element narrows the setting, direction, or quality, and the other supplies the object, action, or base idea. As a noun, it denotes "a rope or stay supporting a ship's foremast from the bow", keeping the historical idea close to its dictionary sense. Relevant historical forms include Old English fore and Old English stæg. Related words include fore, stay, backstay.

## Topics
- Transportation
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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