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Captain Cook
or Cooker n. NewZealand colonists' slang. First applied to the wild pigs ofNew Zealand, supposed t...
Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
I.
This title is said to be derived from the eastern military magistrate katapan, meaning "over everything;" but the term capitano was in use among the Italians nearly 200 years before Basilius II. appointed his katapan of Apulia and Calabria, A.D. 984. Hence, the corruption of the Apulian province into capitanata. Among the Anglo-Saxons the captain was schipp-hláford, or ship's lord. The captain, strictly speaking, is the officer commanding a line-of-battle ship, or a frigate carrying twenty or more cannon. A captain in the royal navy is answerable for any bad conduct in the military government, navigation, and equipment of his ship; also for any neglect of duty in his inferior officers, whose several charges he is appointed to regulate. It is also a title, though incorrectly, given to the masters of all vessels whatever, they having no commissions. It is also applied in the navy itself to the chief sailor of particular gangs of men; in rank, captain of the forecastle, admiral's coxswain, captain's coxswain, captain of the hold, captain of main-top, captain of fore-top, &c.
II.
A name given to the crooner, crowner, or gray gurnard (Trigla gurnardus).
or Cooker n. NewZealand colonists' slang. First applied to the wild pigs ofNew Zealand, supposed t...
Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris