Cabotage is not a word you will encounter unless you hang around docks or join the crew of a merchant ship. You might have a slight chance of hearing it around an airport. It is a noun, as we will see in some example sentences.
Cabotage refers to the right of a carrier to transport people or goods between two points (ports) within the same country. It originally referred to ships and the right to carry goods between ports in the same nation. But with better roads, air travel, and ports, the meaning has expanded over time beyond just maritime shipping. When viewed restrictively, it might mean only the right to ship or carry people or goods within a country by a vessel registered to a different country.
“Because of the strict cabotage laws, Air France could not operate domestic flights within the United States without a local partner.”
“The local shipping companies lobbied against easing our cabotage restrictions, fearing low-priced competition from international carriers.”
“Relaxing our cabotage regulations could dramatically reshape national transportation markets.”
If you know the word gardyloo then you are well-read and spend time in historical Scottish novels or history books. Many believe it originated in Medieval Edinburgh, and was a warning shouted when someone was emptying a bucket out of a window into the street. Nice, proper books might identify this as dirty water emptied by a cleaning person. But it probably is more related to emptying chamber pots into the street, a common practice at the time.
“As the chambermaid leaned out the window, she cried ‘Gardyloo!’ to warn passersby of falling waste.”
“The old Edinburgh alley still echoed tales of ‘gardyloo’ days, when sanitation was a toss-and-yell event.”
“As soon as the cleaning lady shouted ‘gardyloo,’ he jumped into the doorway to avoid the falling debris.”
These two words seem impossible to combine in a sentence without a lot of effort, so here are a few, even if improbable.
”As the waste splashed onto the dock with a shout of ‘Gardyloo!’, the foreign ship’s crew debated the legality of local cabotage laws.”
“Edinburgh merchants cursed both ‘gardyloo’ from the tenements above and the cabotage restrictions strangling their coastal trade.”
“As the captain realized his vessel was restricted from cabotage under the kingdom’s new maritime act, ’Gardyloo!’ rang through the port as an expression of anger.”
