From Scots 'scoon' (to skip over water), supposedly coined at a 1713 ship launch in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
A sailing vessel with two or more masts, rigged fore-and-aft on all masts.
Said to derive from Scottish dialect 'scon, scun' (to skip a stone over water). According to tradition, when the first such vessel was launched in Gloucester, Massachusetts around 1713, a bystander exclaimed 'Oh, how she scoons!' and builder Andrew Robinson replied 'A schooner let her be.' Key roots: scoon (Scots: "to skim, to skip over water").
The word was supposedly coined on the spot at a 1713 ship launch in Gloucester, MA—one of the few English words with a precise, witnessed moment of creation, though the story may be apocryphal.