Ahoy, Mates! Word of the Day: burgee

n. (noun) Nautical, a swallow-tailed flag or pendant: in the merchant service it generally has the ship's name upon it. n. (noun) A kind of small coal used for burning in engine-furnaces. 'Burgee' may come from the French dialectal 'bourgeais,' shipowner. Examples “Yes, my dear Squaretoes; but we don't call a burgee a flag aboard ships.” Crown and Anchor Under the Pen'ant, by John Conroy Hutcheson “Hurrah; hoist the Pennant of the Silver Fox Patrol that your Sister Polly made us, Giraffe, and every fellow dip his hat to the colors of the gay Chippeway Belle!' and in answer to this request on the part of Davy Jones they did salute the raising of the neat little burgee that had a silver fox fashioned in silken hand-work upon it.” The Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers “That makes us pirates, and that old Maggie burgee floatin' at the fore ain't nothin' more nor less than the Jolly Roger.” Captain Scraggs or, The Green-Pea Pirates