The term
starboard derives from the
Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is steered. Before ships had
rudders on their centrelines, they were steered with a
steering oar at the
stern of the ship on the right hand side of the ship, because more people are
right-handed.
[2] The "steer-board" etymology is shared by the
German Steuerbord, Dutch stuurboord and
Swedish styrbord, which gave rise to the
French tribord,
Italian tribordo,[a] Catalan estribord,
Portuguese estibordo, Spanish
estribor and
Estonian tüürpoord.
Formerly,
larboard was often used instead of
port. This is from
Middle English ladebord and the term
lade is related to the modern
load.
[3] Larboard sounds similar to
starboard and in 1844 the
Royal Navy ordered that
port be used instead.
[8][9] The United States Navy followed suit in 1846.
[10] Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by
whalers.
[11]