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Merriam-Webster@MerriamWebster · Sep 16, 2026

Sailors used to throw logs overboard, attached to lines with knots tied at regular intervals. The # of knots that…

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Summary

The word 'knot' for nautical speed comes from sailors measuring ship velocity with knotted logs, leading to 'log books' for recording voyage data. Similarly, 'blog' derives from 'weblog,' the original term for personal websites on the interconnected web.

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  1. #1

    Sailors used to throw logs overboard, attached to lines with knots tied at regular intervals. The # of knots that passed through a sailor’s hands within a given amt. of time helped determine the ship’s speed. Now, 1 knot = 1 nautical mph. 🧵⬇️

  2. #2

    Since logs were used to help measure the speed, sailors would record their ship’s speed in a ‘log book.’ Eventually, ‘log book’ referred to a record of any information recorded on a voyage and was shortened to ‘log.’

  3. #3

    The internet is sometimes called ‘the web,’ because conceptually, it’s like a huge spider web with several interconnected hubs. Personal websites were called 'weblogs.' The ‘we-’ was eventually dropped, and we now call such websites ‘blogs.’