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This one has a lot of meanings, but the sense I'm interested in is nautical -- and even just restricted to that domain there's still a lot to get through:
gripe (GRAIP) - (naut.) v., (of a sailing vessel) to tend to come into the wind; to secure (a lifeboat) to a deck or to davits. n., the how much tendency a vessel has to keep a course against the wind; a lashing used to secure a boat to the deck or to davits, the whole assemblage used to secure a boat on deck.
All of these senses come from the main root sense of grip, which is to grip or grasp -- which sense extends back to Old English grīpan and beyond, making it cognate with grip itself as well as grope. If you're sailing vessel that gripes close-hauled, that is upwind at an angle, you have to pay a lot more attention at the helm, to keep it from turn so far into the wind that you lose steerage. TIL that gripe is at least partly determined by the shape of the ship's stern in the water, and that shape also might be another sense -- haven't nailed that down, so didn't include it as another sense.
---L.
gripe (GRAIP) - (naut.) v., (of a sailing vessel) to tend to come into the wind; to secure (a lifeboat) to a deck or to davits. n., the how much tendency a vessel has to keep a course against the wind; a lashing used to secure a boat to the deck or to davits, the whole assemblage used to secure a boat on deck.
All of these senses come from the main root sense of grip, which is to grip or grasp -- which sense extends back to Old English grīpan and beyond, making it cognate with grip itself as well as grope. If you're sailing vessel that gripes close-hauled, that is upwind at an angle, you have to pay a lot more attention at the helm, to keep it from turn so far into the wind that you lose steerage. TIL that gripe is at least partly determined by the shape of the ship's stern in the water, and that shape also might be another sense -- haven't nailed that down, so didn't include it as another sense.
---L.
