Windward and leeward

Windward is the direction upwind (toward where the wind is coming from) from the point of reference. Leeward is the direction downwind (or downward) from the point of reference. The side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its lee side. If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of the wind, this will be the "lower side". During the age of sail, the term weather was used as a synonym for windward in some contexts, as in the weather gage.

Pronunciation

The traditional nautical pronunciations are the elided forms /ˈljuːərd/ and /ˈwɪnərd/, but this is regarded as old-fashioned. The literal pronunciations, /ˈliːwərd/ and /ˈwɪndwərd/, are more common. The pronunciation for the Leeward and Windward Islands and the Leeward Antilles is normally the latter form.

Origin

The term lee derives from Old English hleo, shelter, and was in use at least as early as 900 AD.

The word aloof is a related term derived from loof, old English for "weather gage" or "windward direction", probably from the Dutch word loef, “the weather side of a ship." Aloof was originally a nautical order to keep the ship's head to the wind, for example to avoid a lee-shore, but it has since taken a figurative meaning of "at a distance, or reserve suggesting consciousness of superiority." It is still in use in German sailors' language as "LUV." Note also the wind-related words loft in English and luft in modern German.

Vasco

The name Vasco, currently used as a Portuguese male name, derives from the medieval Iberian name Velasco, which probably has its origins in the Basque country (in Spanish: País Vasco).

Vasco may refer to:

People

Geography

Engineering

Spirit

The English word spirit, from Latin spiritus "breath", has many different meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. It can also refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as in the famous last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica.

The word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. The notions of a person's spirit and soul often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are believed to survive bodily death in some religions, and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.

The term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities. In the Bible, "the Spirit" (with a capital "S"), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit.

Etymology

The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning "breath", but also "spirit, soul, courage, vigor", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *(s)peis. It is distinguished from Latin anima, "soul" (which nonetheless also derives from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe", earliest form *h₂enh₁- ). In Greek, this distinction exists between pneuma (πνεῦμα), "breath, motile air, spirit," and psykhē (ψυχή), "soul" (even though the latter term, ψῡχή = psykhē/psūkhē, is also from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe": *bhes-, zero grade *bhs- devoicing in proto-Greek to *phs-, resulting in historical-period Greek ps- in psūkhein, "to breathe", whence psūkhē, "spirit", "soul").