careen [L16th] Latin carina originally meant ‘a nutshell’, and from this came to be used for the hull of a ship and then its keel. Passing through French, it came into English in the sense ‘the position of a ship on its side to make repairs to the hull or keel’, often for scraping of barnacles and weed, or for the action of doing this. In the USA in the early 20th century careen came to be used to mean ‘to rush headlong, hurtle’, probably influenced by *career, and this is now widely used.