yaw

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The Word of the Day for January 28 is:

yaw   \YAW\   verb 
     1 *a of a ship : to deviate erratically from a course (as when struck by a 
heavy sea); especially : to move from side to side   b : of an airplane, 
spacecraft, or projectile : to turn by angular motion about the vertical axis
     2 : alternate

Example sentence:
     The gigantic wave caused our boat to yaw sharply to port, but thanks to 
some clever steering by Dad, we were able to get safely back on course.

Did you know?
     In the heyday of large sailing ships, numerous nautical words appeared on 
the horizon, many of which have origins that have never been traced. "Yaw" is 
one such word. It began showing up in print in the 16th century, first as a 
noun (meaning "movement off course" or "side to side movement") and then as a 
verb. For more than 350 years it remained a sailing word, with occasional side 
trips to the figurative sense "to alternate." Then dawned the era of airplane 
flight in the early 20th century, and "yawing" was no longer confined to the 
sea. Nowadays, people who love boats still use "yaw" much as did the 
sailing-men of old, but pilots and rocket scientists also refer to the "yawing" 
of their crafts.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.






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