different between marlinspike vs marline

English

Alternative forms

• marlin spike
• marlinespike
• marline spike
• marlingspike
• marling spike

Etymology

From marline +? spike.

Noun

marlinspike (plural marlinspikes)

1. A tool, consisting of a pointed metal spike, used to manipulate the strands of rope or cable when knotting and splicing.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 12, [1]

     […] the afterguard, of whom they have but a sorry opinion, chiefly landsmen, never going aloft except to reef or furl the mainsail and in no wise competent to handle a marlinspike or turn in a dead-eye, say.

   • 1962, Robert Hayden, "Middle Passage" in The Oxford Book of American Poetry edited by David Lehman, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 585,

     There was / that interval of moonless calm filled only / with the water's and the rigging's usual sounds, / then sudden movement, blows and snarling cries / and they had fallen on us with machete / and marlinspike.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English merlin, from Middle Low German marling, from Middle Dutch marlijn (“cord”), from marlen (“secure, fasten”), frequentative of maren (“to moor”), from Proto-Germanic *mair?n? (“to moor, fasten to”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-.

Noun

marline (plural marlines)

1. A light cord or rope used to bind the end of a larger rope, to prevent fraying.
   • 1749 (Sunday 26th May), John Newton's journal

     A young man, who has been the whole voyage out of irons, first on account of a large ulcer, and since for his seeming good behaviour, gave them a large marline spike down the gratings, but was happily seen by one of the people.

2. Twine used similarly.

Derived terms

• marlinspike

Translations

Verb

marline (third-person singular simple present marlines, present participle marlining, simple past and past participle marlined)

1. (nautical) To wind marline around.

   Synonym: marl

   to marline a rope

Anagrams

• Lierman, Mineral, manlier, mineral, railmen, ramline