loblolly boy

English

Etymology

From loblolly in the sense of gruel made with seaworthy ingredients.

Noun

loblolly boy (plural loblolly boys)

  1. (historical) In 18th- and 19th-century warships, a non-professional (male) assistant to the ship's surgeon.
    • 2023, David Grann, chapter 2, in The Wager, Doubleday:
      [T]he carpenter repairing masts and plugging dangerous leaks in the hull, the surgeon attending to the sick. (His helpers were known as loblolly boys, for the porridge they served.)
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