or shanty, subs. (nautical).—A song sung by sailors at their work.—See CHANTEY-MAN. [Obviously a diminutive of CHANT, a song.]
1869. Chambers’s Journal, 11 Dec., pp. 794–6. [Article on ‘Sailors’ SHANTIES and Sea-Songs.’]
1883. W. C. RUSSELL, Sailors’ Language, preface, xi. But the lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor’s poetical inspiration when he wants the ‘old man’ to know his private opinions without expressing them to his face, and so the same CHANTEY, as the windlass or halliard chorus is called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.
1884. W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. ‘Then give us one of the old CHANTEYS,’ exclaimed my uncle. ‘Haul the Bowline,’ or ‘Whiskey, Johnny.’
