shanty
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GC: n

S: WWWords – https://www.worldwidewords.org/tw-sha1.html (last access: 3 November 2024); OpenDemoc – https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/elysium-plastic-people/ (last access: 3 November 2024).

N: 1. Used as a metonymy or synecdoche for “shanty house” in shanty towns.

– shanty (n): “rough cabin,” 1820, from Canadian French chantier “lumberjack’s headquarters,” in French, “timberyard, dock,” from Old French chantier “gantry,” from Latin cantherius “rafter, frame” (see gantry). Shanty Irish in reference to the Irish underclass in the U.S., is from 1928 (title of a book by Jim Tully).

– Variant of chantey. Origin of shanty: probably from Canadian French chantier lumber camp, hut, from French, builder’s yard, ways, support for barrels, from Old French chantier, gantier support. First Known Use: 1820.

– shantytown (n): also shanty town, “community or settlement of mean or rough dwellings,” 1836, American English, from shanty (n.1) + town.

A few miles from Williamsburg [Pennsylvania], there was a canal opening, and a little village of huts called Shantytown inhabited by the Irishmen who work on the canal. [William O’Bryan, “A Narrative of Travels in the United States of America,” London, 1836. A footnote to the sentence reads, “A Shanty is a temporary dwelling, made of coarse boards just so as to shelter them from wind and rain.”]

Often, as here, the name of a specific place. Several early references are to a Menominee village in Wisconsin.

– shanty (n): “sea song with a boisterous chorus,” sung by sailors during heavy work to enable them to hoist or heave together in time with the song, 1867, an alternative spelling of “chanty” (n.).

2. A small crudely built dwelling or shelter usually of wood.

3. Shack is a synonym of shanty.

  • As nouns the difference between shack and shanty is that shack is a crude, roughly built hut or cabin or shack can be (obsolete) grain fallen to the ground and left after harvest while shanty is a roughly-built hut or cabin or shanty can be a sailor′s work song.
  • As verbs the difference between shack and shanty is that shack is to live in or with; to shack up or shack can be (obsolete) to shed or fall, as corn or grain at harvest while shanty is to inhabit a shanty.
  • As a adjective shanty is (us|pejorative) living in shanties ; poor, ill-mannered and violent or shanty can be jaunty; showy.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=shanty (last access: 3 November 2024); MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shanty (last access: 3 November 2024); OpenDemoc – https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/elysium-plastic-people/ (last access: 3 November 2024). 2. MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chantey (last access: 3 November 2024). 3. DB – http://bit.do/ezL7f (last access: 16 May 2016); Vocab – https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/shanty (last access: 3 November 2024).

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CR: human settlement, refugee camp, shanty town.