Keel

Keel, the bottom timber or combination of plates of a ship or boat, extending longitudinally from bow to stern, and supporting the framework (see Ship-building). The origin of the word has been obscured by confusion of two words, the Old Norwegian kjole (cf. Swedish köl) and a Dutch and German kiel. The first had the meaning of the English “keel,” the other of ship, boat. The modern usage in Dutch and German has approximated to the English. The word kiel is represented in old English by céol, a word applied to the long war galleys of the Vikings, in which sense “keel” or “keele” is still used by archaeologists. On the Tyne “keel” is the name given to a flat-bottomed vessel used to carry coals to the colliers. There is another word “keel,” meaning to cool, familiar in Shakespeare (Love’s Labour Lost, v. ii. 930), “while greasy Joan doth keel the pot,” i.e. prevents a pot from boiling over by pouring in cold water, &c., stirring or skimming. This is from the Old English célan, to cool, a common Teutonic word, cf. German kühlen.