Talk:beam

Alternate Etymology

The general consensus is that there is only one word in Old English that served the two main meanings. However, we do not talk about a "tree" of light! Due to there being no parallel semantics in Dutch or German relating to a "beam of light" - although it is possible that the adapted derived sense only existed in English - it is well to present an alternative etymology, since Professor Skeat separates the two lexemes. Accordingly, he states that "beam" as in Old English sunne-bēam (“sunbeam”) being a column of light may be a separate word from the main form; from Proto-Germanic *bau-moz, akin to Ancient Greek φαυσις, from φάος, initially from the Proto-Indo-European root *bha. Andrew H. Gray 09:19, 12 December 2017 (UTC)Andrew (talk)

Nautical derived terms from Chambers 1908

Some may be sum of parts, etc.

• before the beam: the bearing of any object when seen more in advance than on the beam; abaft the beam: the reverse.
• lee beam or weather beam: the side away from or towards the wind.
• on her beam ends: a phrase applied to the position of a ship when so much inclined to one side that the beams become nearly vertical.
• on the starboard beam: applied to any distant point out at sea, at right angles to the keel, and on the starboard or right-hand (as viewed from the stern) side of the ship; on the port beam similarly applies to the left hand.

Equinox ◑ 03:10, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

Horizontal members

There is a large majority of the senses which depend on the horizontal or lateral position of a physical element. I wonder whether it would be best for the first definition to mention this. The other senses seem to be derived from one of these. Note that the position relative to a ship seems to be missing as mentioned by Equinox. Latrissium (talk) 10:18, 24 May 2019 (UTC)