Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
before the mast en · ADJ
Meanings
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(literally, not-comparable) Having living quarters in the forecastle of a vessel
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(not-comparable) Describing seamen rather than officers
Before making lieutenant, he sailed before the mast for five years
[...] but under certain circumstances (night watches on a whaling ground) the command of the ship’s deck is also his; therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior; [...]
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 33”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC: