The main body of a ship or boat; also the outer covering of a seed or fruit like a pea or grain.
Ship sense: from Middle Dutch “hul,” meaning “ship.” Seed covering sense: from Old English “hulu,” meaning “husk” or “pod”; the two may have influenced each other over time.
It’s striking that “hull” can mean both a ship’s shell and a seed’s shell—two very different things with the same basic idea: a protective outer body. In both cases, the hull is what keeps the precious inside from being destroyed.
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