What does barque mean?
A barque is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts in which all masts are rigged with square sails except the rearmost, which carries fore-and-aft sails. This rig made the barque one of the most practical merchant ships of the nineteenth century: it combined the power and speed of square rig on the forward masts with the smaller crew requirements of fore-and-aft rig at the stern. The word also survives in an older, broader sense meaning simply a boat or small ship, a sense preserved in literary phrases such as 'the barque of life.' Today 'barque' appears mainly in maritime history, museum contexts, and literature, where it lends a distinctly nautical, old-world flavour. It is closely related to the spelling 'bark,' which has long served as an alternative form for the vessel sense, though 'bark' alone carries the unrelated meanings of tree covering and a dog's cry.
nounA barque is a sailing ship with three or more masts, in which all masts except the rearmost are square-rigged and the aftermost mast is fore-and-aft rigged. The word is also used more generally and archaically to mean any small boat or ship.
- A sailing vessel of three or more masts, square-rigged on all but the aftermost mast, which carries fore-and-aft sails.
- (Archaic or literary) A boat or small ship of any kind.
"The three-masted barque slipped quietly out of the harbour under a full press of canvas."
"The restored nineteenth-century barque now serves as a training ship for young sailors."
"Dante begins his journey across the dark waters in a frail barque, guided by Virgil."
Standard plural; occasionally seen as 'barks' when using the alternative historical spelling.
"Dozens of barques once crowded the port awaiting cargoes of wool and wheat."
The same word that names a majestic square-rigged tall ship also once meant simply 'any little boat' — and it's why dog owners say their pet 'barks' without ever thinking of sailing ships.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of barque
The word 'barque' comes from French barque, borrowed from Italian barca, which ultimately derives from Latin barca, a small boat or barge. It entered English in the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century, first meaning a small ship, before narrowing to denote the specific three-or-more-masted rig by the eighteenth century. The spelling 'bark' arose as an anglicized variant of the same word, so the two forms share a single origin. Related words include 'embark' and 'disembark,' from the same Latin root via French, and 'barcarole,' the song of Venetian gondoliers, from Italian barca.
How barque is actually used
In modern usage, 'barque' is largely confined to maritime history, tall-ship circles, and literary contexts; the spelling 'bark' was historically common for the vessel sense and still appears in American English. The word carries an evocative, old-fashioned connotation of the age of sail.
Easily confused with barque
Bark is both a synonym for barque (a sailing vessel) and the outer covering of a tree or the sound a dog makes; in nautical contexts the two spellings are interchangeable, but only 'bark' refers to tree covering or a dog's cry.