4 ms·

I would guess (but don't know) that it's forecastle.

• taejo 13y ago
  It is indeed. Since it rhymes with "voxel", the "fo'c'sle" spelling is a much better one than "forecastle".
• jonnathanson 13y ago
  Sure is. :) I'm a read-aloud-in-my-head kind of reader, and I remember really struggling with that one in Moby Dick. (It's "fo'c'sle," by the way, sometimes even encountered as "fo'c's'le." In the latter case, I wonder why simply writing "forecastle" wasn't the easier choice back in the day).
  • ams6110 13y ago
    It's closer to the actual pronunciation of "folk•sel"