A protective framework of heavy timber secured to the bow of a ship to prevent damage from collisions with docks or other vessels.
Compound word: 'bow' (the front of a ship) plus 'grace' (protection or favor). The term originated in nautical English, likely from Dutch or Scandinavian seafaring vocabulary.
Before modern ships, harbors were violent places—wooden boats smashing into each other constantly—so sailors developed special protective bumpers called bowgraces, basically the medieval ship's version of a car's bumper!
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