texas

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   on a western river steamboat, the uppermost cabin structure, usually containing officers' or crew quarters near the pilothouse

   Huck crept toward the texas while the wrecked steamboat listed in the current.

The lowercase nautical noun is transferred from the U.S. state name Texas. Mississippi steamboat cabins were named for states, and the large officers' quarters took the name of what was then the largest state; the name spread to the upper cabin structure itself. The state name comes through Spanish Tejas from Caddo taysha, 'friend, ally.'

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