What does oakum mean?
Oakum is a fibrous packing material made by picking apart old, usually tarred ropes. In traditional shipbuilding, sailors and shipwrights forced the separated fibers into the seams of wooden vessels and then sealed them with tar, helping keep seawater out. The word now has a mainly historical or specialist maritime sense and survives in phrases associated with caulking and rope work. Oakum should not be confused with ordinary rope: it refers to the loose fibers obtained from rope, not the intact cord. Because it readily fills irregular gaps and absorbs tar, oakum was a practical shipbuilding material long before modern manufactured packing materials. Its unusual name preserves an equally literal image: it derives from Old English for “off-comb,” referring to fibers combed away from old rope. Today the term is encountered chiefly in maritime history, writing about sailing ships, and descriptions of traditional ship repair, where it evokes labor-intensive craftsmanship and materials once worked by hand.
nounA fibrous packing material made by untwisting and beating old ropes, traditionally used to fill the seams of ships and boats. It is now largely confined to historical and specialist nautical contexts.
- Loose fibrous material obtained from old ropes and traditionally used for caulking ships and boats.
"The shipwright packed the leaking seams with oakum before applying pine tar."
"The crew spent the morning picking oakum from discarded rope."
"A photograph of the restoration shows the workers repacking the hull seams with oakum and tar."
Oakum is normally a mass noun, so the plural is uncommon and is chiefly used when separate quantities or bundles are meant.
"The dockworkers kept several oakums ready for repairing the old vessels."
Before synthetic packing materials, sailors beat old ropes into fibers and forced them into leaking ship seams.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does oakum come from?
Oakum comes from Old English ācumba, literally “off-comb,” from ācumban, “to comb off or untwist.” The name referred to fibers combed out or picked from old rope, especially rope suitable for caulking. Its second element is related to the word “comb,” while the modern form reflects the development of Middle English spelling and pronunciation.
How oakum is actually used
Today the word is chiefly historical, technical, or evocative of traditional maritime work. It normally denotes the separated fibers rather than an intact rope and is not commonly used in general modern prose.