Not to complicate matters, but can someone clarify the correct pronounciation of "quay" - being the waterfront bulkhead mentioned below? Is it "kway" or "keee"? My understanding is that it is the latter, as in "key". And what is the linguistic connection, if any, between this "key" and the word now associated with small islands, as in "Key Largo". Do they both have the same root?

Phil Lord
Historical Survey
New York State Museum
[log in to unmask]

>>> <[log in to unmask]> 06/29/98 08:31pm >>>
     The words "pier," "slip," "dock," "wharf," etc., have or had very
specific meanings.  A true "dock" is the same as a slip.  A dock, or slip, is
an inlet of water large enough to contain one or more ships.  A dock is
basically an enclosed area of water large enough to hold a ship; a dock is not
a wharf or pier, although it has now, incorrectly, come to mean that.
Manhattan had many slips in the 18th century.  These were replaced beginning
about 1790 with a system of projecting piers, or wharfs that projected into
the harbor to which ships could tie.  A quay is a wharf that is built parallel
with the water's edge, to which a ship can tie.   A wharf is basically any
built structure to which a ship can tie.

     I am curious to know why the word "slip," in the meaning of dock, is not
included in the Oxford English Dictionary.   It is, I think, clearly an
English language word.

Paul Huey