/ · 1894 Brewer’s · L · Larboard
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
now called port (q.v.). (Starboard is from Anglo-Saxon steorabord, the steer-board, or right side of a ship.) Larboard is the French bâbord, the left-hand side of a ship looking towards the prow; Anglo-Saxon bœc-bord.
“She gave a heel, and then a lurch to port,
And going down head foremost—sunk in short.”
Byron: Don Juan (The Shipicreck).
⁂ “To give a heel” is to sway over on one side. Here it means a heel to the starboard side.
· ·
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 