Gadit

full speed astern

Definitions
1phraseA command on a ship to make the engines push the vessel backward at maximum power.
When the smaller boat crossed in front of them, the captain shouted, "Full speed astern!"
The officer ordered full speed astern to avoid hitting the dock.
Hearing "full speed astern," the engine room immediately reversed the propellers.
Word Origin
Language
English
Word parts
full (complete, maximum) + speed (rate of movement) + astern (toward the back of a ship, backward)
Originally meant
An English nautical command built from full (Old English full, 'filled, complete'), speed (Old English sped, originally 'success, thriving' and then 'rapid motion'), and astern (from a- 'in/on' + stern 'the rear of a ship', from a Germanic/Old Norse steering word), literally the order to apply the ship's whole propulsive force toward the rear.
Background
The adverb astern is recorded in English nautical language by the late 16th century, while the fixed engine-room order full speed astern belongs to the age of steamships in the 19th century. Stern is related to Germanic steering words such as Dutch stuur and German steuern.
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