Around the Cleveland area, in the older pre-WWII inner ring suburbs, there’s a good deal of garden and smaller walkup apartment buildings named “The Argosy”. Looking at advertising from the 1920s, I’ve also noticed a large number of products named “Argosy”. The use of the word “Argosy” to name something seems to dramatically fall after WWII.
Question: what the hell is an argosy, anyhow? Google hasn’t helped much.
Try the dictionary:
Nautical
a. A large merchant ship.
b. A fleet of ships.
A rich source or supply: an argosy of adventure lore.
ar⋅go⋅sy /ˈɑrgəsi/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ahr-guh-see] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun, plural -sies. 1. a large merchant ship, esp. one with a rich cargo.
2. a fleet of such ships.
3. an opulent supply.
I guess it’s like Armada.
ETA: Almost simulpost with yabob: Seems to imply a kind of adventure and exoticism, maybe because Cleveland is a port.
According to Wikipedia (an endless fount of trivia like this) it’s derived from the former name of Dubrovnik in Croatia, and not from Jason’s ship the Argo (as I thought it was).