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78-655: Research into the development of torpedoes first occurred during the end of the 19th century. Initially this took place at the Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich. Further research work was then undertaken at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Greenock, Scotland with additional torpedo experimentation being undertaken by a private contractor, the Whitehead Torpedo Company based in Weymouth, Dorset . In 1937,

156-622: A cause celebre , seven young Greenock males stowed away on a cargo ship bound for Quebec . Treated with what was, even for the times, exceptional brutality, they were forcibly disembarked in Newfoundland ; by the time they were returned to Scotland, three of them had died. The Captain and mate of the cargo ship were tried in a blaze of publicity at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh and served short prison terms. In 1714 Greenock became

234-538: A Scottish Parliament constituency. Greenock is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council , the local authority responsible for the wider Inverclyde area in which Greenock is located. The council is based in the Greenock Municipal Buildings . Greenock's climate is temperate maritime having mainly cool summers and mild winters. The coastal location means that the heat capacity of seawater helps keep winter temperatures higher than locations just

312-475: A chestnut horse ' . This was an allusion to a fourteenth-century French morality poem, Roman de Fauvel , about a chestnut-coloured horse who corrupts men through duplicity. The phrase was reanalyzed in early Modern English by comparison to favour as early as 1510. Words need not completely disappear before their compounds are reanalyzed. The word shamefaced was originally shamefast . The original meaning of fast 'fixed in place' still exists, as in

390-473: A corn on the foot. The word comes from Old English ang- + nægel ' anguished nail, compressed spike ' , but the spelling and pronunciation were affected by folk etymology in the seventeenth century or earlier. Thereafter, the word came to be used for a tag of skin or torn cuticle near a fingernail or toenail. Several words in Medieval Latin were subject to folk etymology. For example,

468-644: A custom house port as a branch of Port Glasgow , and for a period this operated from rooms leased in Greenock. Receipts rose rapidly with the expansion of colonial trade, and in 1778 the custom house moved to newly-built premises at the West Quay of the harbour. By 1791 a new pier was constructed at the East Quay. In 1812 Europe's first steamboat service was introduced by PS  Comet with frequent sailings between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh , and as trade built up

546-527: A Charter raising Greenock to a Burgh of Barony with rights to a weekly market. Further east, Saint Laurence Bay curved round past the Crawfurd Barony of Easter Greenock to Garvel (or Gravel) Point. When a pier (or dyke) was built making the bay an important harbour, the fishing village of Cartsdyke gained the alternative name of Craufurdsdyke. In 1642 it was made into the Burgh of Barony of Crawfurdsdyke, and part of

624-553: A broad bay with three smaller indentations: the Bay of Quick was known as a safe anchorage as far back as 1164. To its east, a sandy bay ran eastwards from the Old Kirk and the West Burn as far as Wester Greenock castle. The fishing village of Greenock developed along this bay, and around 1635 Sir John Schaw had a jetty built into the bay which became known as Sir John's Bay. In that year he obtained

702-620: A common spelling until it was changed to Greenock around 1700. Grenock was also used in the 19th century, e.g. in Lloyd's List publications. The spelling Greenoak was found in two factory accounts dating back to 1717, and a legend developed of a green oak tree at the edge of the Clyde at William Street being used by fishermen to tie up their boats. No reliable source has been found referencing green oaks, however, and so this has been generally dismissed as imaginative Anglophone folk etymology . Nonetheless

780-678: A customs and excise museum which was open to the public. In June 2008 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced that the building would close in 2011 as part of a rationalisation project with any jobs being transferred to offices in Glasgow , and despite a campaign to oppose these plans, the building closed in August 2010. Riverside Inverclyde arranged further refurbishment works, and in 2013 announced that space had already been let to companies including PG Paper Company Ltd and Toshiba which had planning permission to form meeting rooms and an executive office in

858-981: A decrease from the 46,861 recorded in the 2001 UK Census . It lies on the south bank of the Clyde at the " Tail of the Bank " where the River Clyde deepens into the Firth of Clyde . Place-name scholar William J. Watson wrote that "Greenock is well known in Gaelic as Grianáig , dative of grianág , 'a sunny knoll ' ". The Scottish Gaelic place-name Grianaig is relatively common, with another Greenock near Callander in Menteith (formerly in Perthshire) and yet another at Muirkirk in Kyle , now in East Ayrshire . R. M. Smith in (1921) described

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936-553: A few miles inland. Although there has been recent debate the moderating influence of the North Atlantic Drift , a warm oceanic current that is the eastern extension of the Gulf Stream , means that Greenock's average temperature is approximately one degree Celsius greater than eastern Scottish coastal towns on the same latitude (55.94 degrees north); whilst in winter, Greenock is considerably warmer than continental locations at

1014-437: A similar manner include belfry (from berfrey ) by association with bell , female (from femelle ) by male , and penthouse (from apentis ) by house . The variant spelling of licorice as liquorice comes from the supposition that it has something to do with liquid. Anglo-Norman licoris (influenced by licor ' liquor ' ) and Late Latin liquirītia were respelled for similar reasons, though

1092-530: A tunnel under Greenock's west end. To regain custom, the Caledonian Railway extended (what is now known as the Inverclyde Line ) the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway west to Gourock; this line was built to run inland through deep cuttings and tunnels, with a tunnel under the whole length of Newton Street crossing under the other railway tunnel to emerge near Fort Matilda railway station . Spoil from

1170-471: A word or other form becomes obsolete, words or phrases containing the obsolete portion may be reanalyzed and changed. Some compound words from Old English were reanalyzed in Middle or Modern English when one of the constituent words fell out of use. Examples include bridegroom from Old English brydguma ' bride-man ' . The word gome ' man ' from Old English guma fell out of use during

1248-491: Is hangmat . It was borrowed from Spanish hamaca (ultimately from Arawak amàca ) and altered by comparison with hangen and mat ' hanging mat ' . German Hängematte shares this folk etymology. Islambol , a folk etymology meaning 'Islam abounding', is one of the names of Istanbul used after the Ottoman conquest of 1453. An example from Persian is the word شطرنج shatranj 'chess', which

1326-453: Is a town in Inverclyde , Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland . The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council . It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire , and forms part of a contiguous urban area with Gourock to the west and Port Glasgow to the east. The 2011 UK Census showed that Greenock had a population of 44,248,

1404-678: Is derived from the Sanskrit चतुरङ्ग chatur-anga ("four-army [game]"; 2nd century BCE), and after losing the u to syncope , became چترنگ chatrang in Middle Persian (6th century CE). Today it is sometimes factorized as sad ' hundred ' + ranj ' worry, mood ' , or ' a hundred worries ' . Some Indonesian feminists discourage usage of the term wanita ('woman') and replacing it with perempuan , since wanita itself has misogynistic roots. First, in Javanese , wanita

1482-432: Is frequently seen in relation to loanwords or words that have become archaic or obsolete. Folk/popular etymology may also refer to a popular false belief about the etymology of a word or phrase that does not lead to a change in the form or meaning. To disambiguate the usage of the term "folk/popular etymology", Ghil'ad Zuckermann proposes a clear-cut distinction between the derivational-only popular etymology (DOPE) and

1560-453: Is uncertain. By the late Middle Ages its meaning was extended to the holder of a university degree inferior to master or doctor. This was later re-spelled baccalaureus , probably reflecting a false derivation from bacca laurea ' laurel berry ' , alluding to the possible laurel crown of a poet or conqueror. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century, French scholars began to spell the verb savoir ' to know ' as sçavoir on

1638-455: Is unknown, but presumably humorous, since the dish contains no rabbit. In 1785 Francis Grose suggested in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue that the dish is "a Welch rare bit", though the word rarebit was not common prior to Grose's dictionary. Both versions of the name are in current use; individuals sometimes express strong opinions concerning which version is correct. When

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1716-684: The Harland & Wolff shipyard (the present-day location of Container Way), the Old West Kirk was relocated to a new site on the Esplanade where it still stands. The shipbuilders provided the Pirrie Hall to the south of the site: this was opened in February 1925, just after the old church closed for work to commence, and was used during the works to accommodate services, enabling the congregation to see progress on

1794-629: The Isle of Bute and the Cowal Peninsula. The hospital was commissioned to replace the Greenock Royal Infirmary , the Eye Infirmary, Gateside Hospital, Duncan Macpherson Hospital and Broadstone Jubilee Hospital. Construction work started at the end of August 1970 and the hospital was completed in 1979. In 2004 Inverclyde Royal Hospital faced proposals for a major downsizing with the loss of

1872-404: The 1970s and 1980s due to competition from South Korea and Japan. Folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology , analogical reformation , (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage. The form or

1950-640: The 1970s and 1980s meant that none of these companies are still trading. Greenock Shipbuilders included: Scotts, Browns, William Lithgows, Fergusons, Head the Boat Builder (lifeboats). Other marine engineering related companies included engine-makers – Kincaids, Scotts, Rankin and Blackmore (which included the Eagle Foundry) – ship repair (Lamonts) and Hasties for steering gear. Yacht builders included Adams and McLean (at Cardwell Bay). Other yards included Cartsburn, Cartsdyke, and Klondyke – all of which closed during

2028-626: The Admiralty acquired another factory at Alexandria, Scotland , to boost production. With the advent of World War Two the Whitehead Company barely maintained the production outputs required of them. In 1943 the Admiralty decided to set up an additional department at their factory. Collectively these centers of research and development became known as the Torpedo Experimental Establishment. It continued to operate until 1959 when it

2106-560: The Custom House was praised as "a grand National Structure" in "the highest style of elegance". By then there were scheduled steamboat sailings to Belfast , Derry , Liverpool, Inverness , Campbeltown , the Hebrides and "all the principal places in the Highlands". The Custom House underwent extensive refurbishment which was completed in 1989 and, until closure of the building in 2010, housed

2184-735: The French Vauquelin class destroyer Maillé Brézé blew up off Greenock with heavy loss of life following an accident involving two of her own torpedoes. Although this disaster occurred before the Free French Naval Forces were established, many people tend to regard the Cross of Lorraine on Lyle Hill as a memorial to the loss of the Maillé Brézé as well as to the later losses of the Free French Naval Forces which sailed from

2262-661: The Garvel estate for a harbour when Easter Greenock lands were put up for sale to meet debts, but were outbid by Sir John Schaw who then got a Crown Charter of 1670 uniting Easter and Wester Greenock into the Burgh Barony of Greenock. A separate Barony of Cartsburn was created, the first baron being Thomas Craufurd. In 1668 the City of Glasgow got the lease of 13 acres (5 hectares) of land upriver close to Newark Castle , and construction promptly started on Newport Glasgow harbour which by 1710 had

2340-534: The Scottish average of 3.9% (figure is for the Scottish Parliament constituency and includes Gourock , Inverkip , Port Glasgow and Wemyss Bay ). In the early 17th century, the first pier was built in Greenock. Shipbuilding was already an important employer by this time. The first proper harbour was constructed in 1710 and the first well-known shipbuilders, Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company ,

2418-547: The West Burn estuary and is reputed to have been the first Protestant church built in Scotland after the Reformation. The Schaw, later Shaw and Shaw-Stewart , family retained a leading role in Greenock over the following centuries. In 1670, Sir John Shaw obtained a charter from King Charles II , combining the lands of Finnart and the barony of Wester Greenock, to create the barony of Greenock. The coast of Greenock formed

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2496-473: The accident and emergency department and the acute surgical ward in an effort to save costs. Many people criticised the plans complaining that the Inverclyde Royal Hospital was being seen as nothing more than a large health centre. In February 2007, after undertaking a review, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde proposed retaining the accident and emergency department and core inpatient services, including

2574-417: The alteration of an unfamiliar word is limited to a single person, it is known as an eggcorn . The technical term "folk etymology" refers to a change in the form of a word caused by erroneous popular suppositions about its etymology . Until the academic development of comparative linguistics and description of laws underlying sound changes , the derivation of a word was mostly guess-work. Speculation about

2652-541: The alternative derivation from Common Brittonic * Graenag , 'gravelly or sandy place', as more appropriate, accurately describing the original foreshore. Johnston (1934) notes that "some Gaels call the seaport Ghónait , and that a possible derivation may be greannach , meaning 'rough, gravelly'. The name of the town has had various spellings over time. It was printed in early Acts of Parliament as Grinok , Greenhok , Grinock , Greenhoke , Greinnock , and later as Greinok . Old Presbyterial records used Grenok ,

2730-513: The building. Greenock Telegraph estimated that £4.1 million has been spent over five-year period for the renovation works. Greenock became a centre of industry, with water power being used to process imported goods. In 1827 Loch Thom was constructed as a reservoir with The Cut aqueduct , bringing water to two lines of falls for water mills to power a paper mill, cotton and woollen mills, sugar refineries and shipbuilding Greenock Central railway station at Cathcart Street opened in 1841, for

2808-549: The century. The land to the west of this was common ground for inhabitants of the town, but in 1907 the Admiralty compulsorily purchased part of this land for a torpedo factory. The remaining space was handed over to Greenock Corporation in 1914 as a public park. The Clyde Torpedo Factory opened in 1910, with 700 workers transferred from the Royal Arsenal , Woolwich . The site was tasked with designing and testing of torpedoes ,

2886-462: The compound becomes obsolete. There are many examples of words borrowed from foreign languages, and subsequently changed by folk etymology. The spelling of many borrowed words reflects folk etymology. For example, andiron borrowed from Old French was variously spelled aundyre or aundiren in Middle English, but was altered by association with iron . Other Old French loans altered in

2964-625: The compounded words steadfast and colorfast , but by itself mainly in frozen expressions such as stuck fast , hold fast , and play fast and loose . The songbird wheatear or white-ear is a back-formation from Middle English whit-ers ' white arse ' , referring to the prominent white rump found in most species. Although both white and arse are common in Modern English, the folk etymology may be euphemism . Reanalysis of archaic or obsolete forms can lead to changes in meaning as well. The original meaning of hangnail referred to

3042-505: The cuttings and tunnels was used to build an embankment out from the shore to a long timber wharf at Gourock railway station , providing space for railway sidings. The railway bought Wester Greenock castle and its extension, the Mansion House, and demolished them before constructing the tunnel immediately west of Greenock Central station, running under the castle grounds which now form Well Park. Greenock's increasing importance and wealth

3120-538: The development of the Clydeport container port as Ocean Terminal, a passenger terminal for cruise ships touring the Atlantic. Students who do not travel further afield for study often attend the Greenock campus of West College (formerly known as James Watt College of Further and Higher Education). Greenock reached its population peak in 1921 (81,123) and was once the sixth largest town in Scotland. Until 1974, Greenock

3198-451: The eldest inherited Easter Greenock and married a Crawfurd, while Wester Greenock went to the younger daughter who married Schaw of Sauchie. Around 1540 the adjoining barony of Finnart was passed to the Schaw family, extending their holdings westward to the boundary of Gourock , and in 1542 Sir John Schaw founded Wester Greenock castle. The Scottish Reformation of 1560 closed the chapels in

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3276-467: The false belief it was derived from Latin scire ' to know ' . In fact it comes from sapere ' to be wise ' . The Italian word liocorno , meaning 'unicorn' derives from 13th-century lunicorno ( lo 'the' + unicorno 'unicorn'). Folk etymology based on lione 'lion' altered the spelling and pronunciation. Dialectal liofante 'elephant' was likewise altered from elefante by association with lione . The Dutch word for ' hammock '

3354-481: The first time providing a fast route from Glasgow to the coast linking up with Clyde steamer services. The provision of this new line meant there was no need to take the steamer all the way down river from Glasgow. In 1869 the Caledonian Railway was bypassed by the rival Greenock and Ayrshire Railway which opened a station on the waterfront at its Albert Harbour station (later renamed Princes Pier), served by

3432-548: The following high schools as of 2023: Greenock has the following other educational establishments: The Greenock Infirmary , later the Royal Infirmary, was established in 1809, when a building was erected at an expense of £1815, on a site of land given by Sir John Shaw Stewart. Today, the town is served by the Inverclyde Royal Hospital which is located in Greenock serving the population of Inverclyde , Largs ,

3510-574: The generative popular etymology (GPE): the DOPE refers to a popular false etymology involving no neologization , and the GPE refers to neologization generated by a popular false etymology. Examples of words created or changed through folk etymology include the English dialectal form sparrowgrass , originally from Greek ἀσπάραγος (" asparagus ") remade by analogy to the more familiar words sparrow and grass . When

3588-613: The gun battery of Fort Beauclerc near the West Burn was extended to guard against the threat of privateers , but the emphasis shifted to wider markets including imports of rum and sugar from the Caribbean , wines from Spain, and fish from North America. A whaling business operated for about 40 years. Greenock "was mainly a trading port for goods such as sugar and cotton, but also dispatched ships to West Africa to take people to be enslaved " in Britain's American colonies. In 1868, in what became

3666-489: The ill-fated Darien Scheme set out from this pier in 1697. Its town was named Cartsburn. The fishing trade grew prosperous, with barrels of salted herring exported widely, and shipping trade developed. As seagoing ships could not go further up the River Clyde , the Glasgow merchants including the Tobacco Lords wanted harbour access but were in disputes with Greenock over harbour dues and warehouses. They tried to buy

3744-493: The image has frequently been used as an emblem or logo, carved on public buildings, used on banners and badges, and was once emblazoned on the local Co-operative Society emblem. It reappeared in 1992 as the new shopping centre's name, the Oak Mall, which uses a green tree as its logo. The name is also recalled in a local song ("The Green Oak Tree"). Significantly, no green oak appears on the former burgh coat of arms , which features

3822-471: The letter s is the result of comparison with the synonym isle from Old French and ultimately as a Latinist borrowing of insula , though the Old French and Old English words are not historically related. In a similar way, the spelling of wormwood was likely affected by comparison with wood . The phrase curry favour , meaning to flatter, comes from Middle English curry favel ' groom

3900-477: The meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes . The term folk etymology is a loan translation from German Volksetymologie , coined by Ernst Förstemann in 1852. Folk etymology is a productive process in historical linguistics , language change , and social interaction . Reanalysis of a word's history or original form can affect its spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. This

3978-444: The name comes from the fact that the trees bloom in spring, a time when circuit-riding preachers resume church services or when funeral services are carried out for people who died during the winter. A seemingly plausible but no less speculative etymology accounts for the form of Welsh rarebit , a dish made of cheese and toasted bread. The earliest known reference to the dish in 1725 called it Welsh rabbit . The origin of that name

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4056-557: The nave of the church. Opposite it, above the front entrance, is the Crawfurdsburn or Choir Gallery. At the south end of the nave, the Sailor's Loft gallery was built in 1698 and features a 19th-century model frigate, which replaced earlier models. At the north end, the Farmer's Gallery is above the main seating area. A tower was added in the mid 19th century. In 1926, to make way for expansion of

4134-608: The newly formed Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE), Portland. A church which became known as the Old West Kirk had been established in Greenock in 1591 under the patronage of John Schaw, the first built in Scotland since the Reformation . It was extended over the years, at an early stage the Schaw aisle provided pews for the Laird of the Barony, built as a gallery to the east of

4212-453: The opposite true in midwinter . On the summer solstice, usually observed on the 21 June, the sun rises at 04:31 and sets at 22:07. On the winter solstice, usually 21 December, the sun rises at 08:46 and sets at 15:44. The Highlanders academy was built in 1837, partly by subscription, and partly by grant from government, on a site given by the late Sir Michael Shaw Stewart. Greenock has the following primary schools as of 2023: Greenock has

4290-411: The orange tree ' , with the initial ⟨n⟩ of naranj understood as part of the article . Rebracketing in the opposite direction saw the Middle English a napron become an apron . In back-formation, a new word is created by removing elements from an existing word that are interpreted as affixes . For example, Italian pronuncia ' pronunciation, accent ' is derived from

4368-534: The original French chaise longue ("long chair"), has come to be associated with the word lounge . Other types of language change caused by reanalysis of the structure of a word include rebracketing and back-formation . In rebracketing, users of the language change, misinterpret, or reinterpret the location of a boundary between words or morphemes . For example, the Old French word orenge ' orange tree ' comes from Arabic النَّرَنْج an-naranj '

4446-574: The original form of words in turn feeds back into the development of the word and thus becomes a part of a new etymology. Believing a word to have a certain origin, people begin to pronounce, spell, or otherwise use the word in a manner appropriate to that perceived origin. This popular etymologizing has had a powerful influence on the forms which words take. Examples in English include crayfish or crawfish , which are not historically related to fish but come from Middle English crevis , cognate with French écrevisse . Likewise chaise lounge , from

4524-399: The parish, and as the parish church was some 6 miles (10 kilometres) distant at Inverkip over a difficult route which was impassable in winter, in 1589 John Schaw obtained a charter from King James VI to build a kirk for the "poor people upon his lands who were all fishers and of a reasonable number". Later known as the Old Kirk or the Old West Kirk , it was constructed on the west bank of

4602-446: The pier became known as Steamboat Quay. The custom house needed larger premises and in May 1817 the foundation stone was laid at Steamboat Quay for a Custom House building designed by William Burn , which was completed in 1818. Its gracious neoclassical architecture features a Grecian Doric portico looking out over the quay, which would eventually be renamed Custom House Quay. In 1828

4680-520: The principal Clyde custom house . In 1696 and 1700 Schaw and residents of the town made unsuccessful bids to the Scottish Parliament for grants for a Greenock harbour, then when the Act of Union 1707 opened up involvement in colonial trade, they raised their own funds. The work was completed in 1710, with quays extended out into Sir John's Bay to enclose the harbour. In 1711 the shipbuilding industry

4758-417: The rebuilt kirk. It then came into use as the church hall. The church is notable for stained glass by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Sir Edward Burne-Jones . The Church has a website. Greenock suffered badly during the Second World War and its anchorage at the Tail of the Bank became the base for the Home Fleet as well as the main assembly point for Atlantic convoys. On 30 April 1940

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4836-473: The same latitude, such as Moscow. Anecdotally Greenock has a reputation for receiving higher than average rainfall (the song The Green Oak Tree comments on this). Whilst the rainfall is indeed higher than the average recorded at Scottish weather stations, the greatest rainfall in Scotland occurs on the west (ocean) facing mountain slopes of Lochaber , near Fort William in the Highlands . Greenock's latitude means long hours of daylight in midsummer with

4914-402: The sixteenth century and the compound was eventually reanalyzed with the Modern English word groom ' male servant ' . A similar reanalysis caused sandblind , from Old English sāmblind ' half-blind ' with a once-common prefix sām- ' semi- ' , to be respelled as though it is related to sand . The word island derives from Old English igland . The modern spelling with

4992-422: The term an additional meaning of "hopeless venture". Sometimes imaginative stories are created to account for the link between a borrowed word and its popularly assumed sources. The names of the serviceberry , service tree , and related plants, for instance, come from the Latin name sorbus . The plants were called syrfe in Old English, which eventually became service . Fanciful stories suggest that

5070-476: The testing taking place in Loch Long . During the Second World War the site switched entirely to manufacturing torpedoes. The original gun battery site was occupied by the Navy Buildings , the main offices, just to the east of the torpedo factory buildings. Following WW2, in 1947, the site became fully committed to R&D as the Torpedo Experimental Establishment (TEE). TEE was closed in 1959, when all torpedo research, development and design were concentrated at

5148-425: The three chalices of the Shaw Stewarts, a sailing ship in full sail, and two herring above the motto "God Speed Greenock". Hugh de Grenock was created a Scottish Baron in 1296, and the seat of the feudal barony of Greenock was apparently what became Easter Greenock Castle . Around 1400 his successor Malcolm Galbraith died with no sons, and his estate was divided between his two daughters to become two baronies:

5226-419: The town relied heavily on electronics manufacture. However, this has given way mostly to: call centre business, insurance, banking and shipping export. The Fleming and Reid merino wool mill employed 500 people – mostly women and produced wool garments spun and woven at the mill. This mill was at the corner of Drumfrochar Road and Mill Road. As of October 2012 Greenock has an unemployment rate of 5.3%, above

5304-415: The town. On the nights of 6 May and 7 May 1941 around 300 Luftwaffe aircraft attacked the town in the Greenock Blitz . On 10 October 1940, RAF Greenock was created as a maintenance base for RAF flying boats. The base was hit on 7 May 1941 during the Greenock Blitz. A large building housing a drapery business constructed on Cowan's property at the corner of the Municipal Buildings was badly damaged and

5382-502: The trauma and emergency medical departments at Inverclyde Royal Hospital and submitted this proposal to the Scottish Government for approval. Langhill Clinic situated behind Inverclyde Royal Hospital is now the main psychiatric hospital with an IPCU unit and Day hospital alongside the main psychiatric ward. Historically, the town relied on shipbuilding , sugar refining and wool manufacturing for employment, but none of these industries are today part of Greenock's economy. More recently

5460-503: The ultimate origin of all three is Ancient Greek γλυκύρριζα glucúrrhiza ' sweet root ' . Reanalysis of loan words can affect their spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. The word cockroach , for example, was borrowed from Spanish cucaracha but was assimilated to the existing English words cock and roach . The phrase forlorn hope originally meant "storming party, body of skirmishers" from Dutch verloren hoop "lost troop". But confusion with English hope has given

5538-403: The verb pronunciare ' to pronounce, to utter ' and English edit derives from editor . Some cases of back-formation are based on folk etymology. In linguistic change caused by folk etymology, the form of a word changes so that it better matches its popular rationalisation. Typically this happens either to unanalysable foreign words or to compounds where the word underlying one part of

5616-405: The word widerdonum meaning 'reward' was borrowed from Old High German widarlōn ' repayment of a loan ' . The l   →   d alteration is due to confusion with Latin donum ' gift ' . Similarly, the word baceler or bacheler (related to modern English bachelor ) referred to a junior knight. It is attested from the eleventh century, though its ultimate origin

5694-408: Was a parliamentary burgh in its own right. It was merged with Port Glasgow to form Greenock and Port Glasgow constituency. In 1997, it became Greenock and Inverclyde . After the redistribution of Scottish seats, it was merged into an enlarged Inverclyde constituency – the first time in political history that Greenock has not been named in a parliamentary seat. Greenock and Inverclyde remains

5772-489: Was closed. Its work was continued by the newly created Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE) based at Portland, Dorset , England. The establishment was administered the Superintendent, Torpedo Experiment and Design. Included: Greenock, Scotland Greenock ( / ˈ ɡ r iː n ə k / ; Scots : Greenock ; Scottish Gaelic : Grianaig , pronounced [ˈkɾʲiənɛkʲ] )

5850-479: Was demolished, leaving the blank brick corner area still known as "Cowan's Corner". This was later landscaped and used as a garden. Greenock thrived in the post-war years but as the heavy industries declined in the 1970s and 1980s unemployment became a major problem, and it has only been in the last ten years with reinvestment and the redevelopment of large sections of the town that the local economy has started to revive. Tourism has appeared as an unexpected bonus with

5928-528: Was established the following year. It gained numerous contracts with the Royal Navy from 1806, building ships such as Glasgow . In 1967 Scott's was merged with Lithgows (founded 1874, later the largest privately owned yard in the world) the same year becoming Scott Lithgow , which was later nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders in 1977. From 1800 to 1980 many thousands of people worked to design, build and repair ships. The reduction in shipbuilding in

6006-584: Was founded when Scotts leased ground between the harbour and the West Burn to build fishing boats. Greenock rapidly became a major port and shipbuilding centre, and though tobacco imported from the colonies was taken to Glasgow by pack horse, the more bulky imports of sugar were processed locally. From 1774 the dredging of the River Clyde increasingly allowed ships to take merchandise directly to Glasgow, but merchants continued to use Greenock harbour. The American Revolutionary War temporarily interrupted trade, and

6084-409: Was manifested in the construction of the Greenock Municipal Buildings , whose Victoria Tower, completed in 1886, stands 245 feet (75 metres) tall. The War of 1812 reawakened fears of American raids against Britain's ports. Earlier gun batteries had been dismantled and in 1813 ground was granted for a battery at Whitefarland Point. Fort Matilda was completed in 1818 and was sporadically modified over

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