871: yacht Apr 27, 2017

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Words are only as meaningful as what people associate with them. With 'yacht', for example, it is largely thought of as a purely recreational ship, and likely also associated with the rich. That is, unless you spoke Dutch in the 16th century in which case the word might have a strong association with European pirates. The term, originally in Dutch as 'jaghte' or 'jaghtschip' was a fast boat which the Dutch navy used to chase, or indeed hunt pirates in the Low Countries. The word originates from a word meaning to hunt, spelt 'jagt', 'jaght' or 'jacht'. The German word 'Jäger' meaning 'hunter' is related to this and may be more familiar to English speakers from various aspects of pop-culture. If you're curious about the shift between '-gh-' and '-ch-' you can see more here, though as a loan-word, 'yacht' is something of an exception in English. 

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