We all are aware that our language, English, is full of words from other languages. A major source is Latin, thanks to the activities of the Romans. Strange as it may seem, however, Latin is not a major source of seafaring words. This probably is because the seafaring English were far more closely identified with the Nordic peoples than they were with those from around the Mediterranean, and, indeed, ships and practices largely developed on parallel lines in the two areas.
A very important innovation to come from the northern Europeans was the invention of the rudder, a steering device hinged to a vertical post at the stem of the ship, and much more efficient than the steering oars used earlier in both areas. Because the mechanism was invented up north, it received a name from the Old English, rother, and comes to us modified to “rudder.”
The Latin Vulgate Bible tells us that its word for rudder is gubernaculum, from the verb gubemo, which originally meant “to steer.” It was, of course, the Romans who brought bureaucratic rule to parts of northern Europe, and so it is only fitting that from their nautical verb “to steer” we derive our word “government.”
