A variant or related form of bosun's mate; an officer on a ship who assists the bosun (boatswain) in managing the crew and rigging.
Possibly a dialectal or archaic variant of 'boatswain' or related to 'bosun,' though the exact etymological path is unclear. It may involve the prefix 'be-' applied to 'tocsin' or a folk etymology of 'topsail'.
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