SLOOP  , a type of small sailing-vessels which have one

mast rigged " fore and aft," carrying a mainsail, gaff-topsail, jib and fore staysail . There is little in rig to distinguish a sloop from a " cutter," and the terms are used indiscriminately; sometimes a distinction is drawn by a sloop having a fixed and a cutter a running bowsprit . In the sailing and early steam days of naval warfare, a " sloop " was a small corvette, ship-rigged, with all the guns mounted on the upper deck . Like so many nautical terms the word was borrowed from the Dutch, viz. sloep, boat . This is generally taken to be an adaptation of the Fr. chaloupe, Span. and Port. chalupa, cf . Ital. scialuppa, Eng . "shallop," a light boat . These probably represent some native word borrowed by Spanish or Portuguese sailors in the East or American Indies . Other etymologists distinguish the Dutch and French words and refer sloep to the common Teutonic root, meaning to glide, to creep, seen in " slip," Ger. schleifen, schleefen, &c .