Winsome Anchors (but not Siouan)

[Bruce Ingham]

On 21/8/04 12:05 am, "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu> wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Aug 2004, Alan H. Hartley wrote:
>> 'Win' is not a suppletive to 'weigh' (as far as I know). The anchor
>> sense fits pretty well into the constellation of senses attested in the
>> OED for 'win' (verb, homonym 1):
>
> I may be confused.  Doesn't winning the anchor mean using the capstan to
> draw the ship to a position above the anchor?  As opposed to using it to
> haul the anchor up to the cathead, which is the next step?
>
>
>
You may be right.  I have just seen the phrase "the anchor is (or was) won"
and presumed it had something to do with 'weighing' it.  I have never seen
"win the anchor" only "weigh anchor".
Bruce