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abaft

[uh-baft, uh-bahft]

Origin

preposition

to the rear of; aft of: the fife rail abaft the mainmast.

adverb

in the direction of the stern; astern; aft.

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Abaft is an SAT word you need to know.

So is evanescent. Does it mean:

fleeting

foul and repulsive, as from lack of care or cleanliness; neglected and filthy; wretched or miserable

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Origin:
1225–75; Middle English on baft, abaft, equivalent to a-¹ and on on + baft, Old English bæftan contraction of be + æftan. See by, aft

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins

World English Dictionary

abaft (əˈbɑːft)

—*adv, —adj*
1.	closer to the stern than to another place on a vessel: with the wind abaft

—*prep*
2.	behind; aft of: abaft the mast

[C13: on baft; baft from Old English beæftan, from be by + æftan behind]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

abaft

O.E. on bæftan "backwards," the second component itself a compound of be "by" + æftan "aft" (see aft). Since M.E. used exclusively of ships, the stern being the "after" part of a vessel.

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"As we looked off, and saw the water growing darker and darker and deeper and deeper the farther we looked, till it was awful to consider,... I felt that I was a land animal.... I could then appreciate the heroism of the old navigator, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of whom it is related, that being overtaken by a storm when on his return from America, in the year 1583, far northeastward from where we were, sitting abaft with a book in his hand, just before he was swallowed up in the deep, he cried out to his comrades in the Hind, as they came within hearing, "We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land." I saw that it would not be easy to realize."

-Henry David Thoreau

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abaft

a·baft