gunnel

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

From Middle English gonnewalle, itself from gonne (“gun”) + wale, as it used to support the ship's guns; equivalent to gun + wale.

Let us go on shore.--Here, coxswain, get the ladder over the gunnel; man the sides; man the pinnace, and get her by the ship’s side. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
Loaded to the "gunnels," the half-dozen machines finally got under way, and off they went into the night, chortling with an excitement all their own. — Anderson Crow, Detective, George Barr McCutcheon
But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, and said he reckoned he’d look around for a bigger one. — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

gunwale, gun rest

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