The contemporary usage in the UK is tumblehome, as a noun, in my experience (living on a boat for 20 years and devouring countless UK yachtie magazines.

All those OED citations seem to look to much older usages.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the up-to-date information.

I've just found my Yachtsman's Eight Language Dictionary, but so annoying, in 160 A5 pages, it doesn't list tumblehome.

It does, for example, have clinker(built) (Ger. klinker, Dut.overnaadse bouw and interestingly, klinker, Port. contraplacado moldado - Fr. contreplaquet for plywood, a similar construction in theory).

And if you want to know the Danish for garboard strake, apply here ...

"Kølvandsrange" according to my not at all maritime dictionary. Which, now that I check, even has "tumble-home (mar.) indfaldende (om skibsside)." -- "indfaldende" pretty much means "inward sloping" to me.

In googling around a bit more, I've found that in North American sources 'tumblehome' is *very* frequently used in describing small boat hulls (esp. transoms), flare vs. tumblehome birchbark canoes, and so on. The Wikipedia entry restricts itself largely to warships. It needs expansion.

It's also used in UK car industry (and maybe US car industry as well FAIK) to describe the back end of a car (motor vehicle) after its widest point.

*tumblehome, that is.

Sili, my dictionary gives kolplanke (sorry I can't find the correct o symbol on my old ASCII chart) - but then yachties speak a different language to the rest of us, in any language, in my experience ...

You're probably right, Paul. I just looked up "garboard" and "strake" since neither word meant anything to me. And then I glued them together as we Danes are wont -- and bothering to check now, I discover that my made-up word is unknow to great master google, while "kølplanke" (here, have an "ø" to copy-paste) gets a healthy 63 hits.

So much for being a know-it-all. My apologies.

Until earlier this year I lived in a house called Tumblehome, in Swanage (Dorset). It was built by my Uncle, who was in the Royal Navy before and throughout WW2, and who doubtless wanted an unusual name from his naval days to put on his personal map.

Speaking with him before he died some years ago, I learned that - as well as "tumblehome" referring to a ship's curves as mentioned in earlier blogs - it was also used disparagingly when a sailor's quarters were in less than perfect tidiness!

The house Tumblehome has now been felled by developers and the name didn't carry over to the flats built in its place (sad!) But it remains a name attached to various aliases I have online and elsewhere.

Happy days...

My Politechnical En-Ru (Большой англо-русский политехнический словарь. «РУССО», 1997, computerized) gives two entries:

1) tumble-home bow — нос с завалом бортов,
2) falling-home — завал (борта судна)

while LingviScience En-Ru (Англо-русский научно-технический словарь. © ABBYY Software, 2005.) gives one:

tumblehome — завал

Looks like the equivalent you've asked for.

Thanks! An odd word to use, though; the normal meaning of завал is 'obstruction, blockage.' But then, tumblehome is even odder.

You're very welcome.

Well, not really. 'Завал' with the meaning you mention corresponds to the verb 'заваливать', while the word with the meaning LingvoScience gives (I never knew it, too) seems to be a substantive counterpart of 'заваливаться', which has a related, but somewhat different cluster of meanings than 'заваливать', including tumble down, collapse, careen (esp. in the phrase "заваливаться на бок"). For instance, 'завал' can be used as a non-technical, colloquial synonym of 'крен'.

Aha! I learn something every day.