English
sloop
Sloop comes from Dutch sloep ‘a sloop’, and goes back to Old French eschalope ‘pod, shell, nutshell’.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400eschalope‘pod, shell, nutshell’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600chaloupe
- Dutchc. 1500–presentsloep‘a sloop’
- Englishearliest quotation 1851sloop
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400eschalope‘pod, shell, nutshell’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600chaloupe
- Dutchc. 1500–presentsloep‘a sloop’
- Englishearliest quotation 1851sloop
Earliest quotation: 1851, Herman Melville, The Whale: “And where but from Nantucket, too, did that first…”
Every English word from Old French eschalope
Today it means
noun A single-masted sailboat with only one headsail.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French eschalope / sloop