Definition of galley-west
:into destruction or confusion
- was knocked galley-west
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galley-west was our Word of the Day on 03/17/2011. Hear the podcast!
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Origin and Etymology of galley-west
variant of English dialect (Cheshire, Lancashire) colley-west, collywesson "contrary, in the opposite direction, askew," of uncertain origin
Note:
The dialect word colley-west, etc., is not attested before the 19th century, but a single instance of Collie weston ward occurs in William Harrisonʼs Description of England, printed in 1587 as part of Holinshedʼs Chronicles: " … the mandilion worne to Collie weston ward." (The mandilion was a sort of pullover jacket, open on the sides, worn by men; a portrait of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, survives in which a mandilion is worn "Collie weston ward," rotated a quarter turn so that the sleeves hang down the front and back.) "Collie weston" is presumably the village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire, though the allusion is obscure.
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