I am researching some tudor era words associated with the crew of the Mary Rose warship and found one "Yonker" which I think may refer to a boy sailor who has a specific job e.g. a Gromet who is a boy tasked with turning the ships time keeping sand glass. Is there a definition of what a Yonker is? Many Thanks
2 comments:
I looked it up in the OED where it is actually in a listing for 'younker' but 'yonker' was listed as a form (of course spelling was flexible back then!). The #1 entry says "A young nobleman or gentleman, a youth of high rank" (from Dutch) but the 2.b. entry is "A boy or junior seaman on board ship" which sounds more relevant to what you found.
In the examples for 2.b. is:
"1626 - J. Smith Accidence Young Sea-men 6 - The Younkers are the yong men called Fore-mast men, to take in the Topsayles, or Top and yeard, Furle, and Sling the maine Saile, Bousing or Trysing, and take their turne at Helme."
That one was the most descriptive of what they were actually doing, the others just referred to them as "sailors".
Hope this helps!
Hi I volunteer at the Mary Rose museum as a costumed guide,in the person of George Carew,and find getting a true meaning of 16 century words,is determined by using the correct language and the precise spelling ,it is sometimes impossible to be correct,we have many arguements as to correctness.If you would like a challenge read Toxophilly in old English by Roger Ashcome,then try to gain correct meanings to the text.
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