Argosy (word)


An argosy is a merchant ship, or a fleet of such ships. As used by Shakespeare, the word means a flotilla of merchant ships operating together under the same ownership.
It is derived from the 16th century city Ragusa, a major shipping power of the day and entered the language through the Italian ragusea, meaning a Ragusan ship. The word bears no relation to the ship Argo from Greek mythology.
Since "argosy" and "odyssey" sound alike and both refer to ships or voyage by ship, occasionally "argosy" is misused as a synonym for "odyssey", namely as an adventure.

See also