Greek word · G1020
βραδυπλοέω
bradyploeō
to sail slowly
'To sail slowly', 'to make slow headway'. It is a compound of bradys ('slow') and pleō ('sail'). It is a sailor's word for a voyage held back by contrary or weak winds.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
'To sail slowly', 'to make slow headway'. It is a compound of bradys ('slow') and pleō ('sail'). It is a sailor's word for a voyage held back by contrary or weak winds.
- Against the English
English versions agree closely ('sailed slowly', 'made slow headway'). None of them misleads. The participle's sense of a long, grinding process comes through best in phrases like 'for many days we made slow headway'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
It occurs only here in the New Testament. Elsewhere it is rare. BDAG cites it from Artemidorus' dream-interpretation handbook (2nd century AD), which suggests ordinary practical vocabulary rather than literary coinage. It belongs to the dense sailing vocabulary of Acts 27, which writers such as James Smith (1848) praised as unusually exact.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 27:7 βραδυπλοοῦντες sailing slowly
After sailing slowly for many days, we arrived off Cnidus. When the wind impeded us, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.
Here: A compound of 'slow' and 'sail'. The present participle pictures a drawn-out, plodding stretch of progress against the wind, day after day.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.