Thread:MrParaduo/@comment-4641958-20180911204644/@comment-1962271-20180911211653

That's a good question. I honestly don't know.

Wait.

...Okay, the O' is shorthand for "of". So Man-of-War. It was a British Royal Navy term for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. The term often refers to a ship armed with cannon and propelled primarily by sails, as opposed to a galley which is propelled primarily by oars.

"It probably arose in the following manner: 'Men of war' were heavily armed soldiers. A ship full of them would be called a 'man-of-war ship.' In process of time the word 'ship' was discarded as unnecessary and there remained the phrase 'a man-of-war'."