ALOOF, has frequently been mentioned as a feather; but whether justly or not, we shall not presume to determine. It is known in common discourse to imply at a distance; and the resemblance of the phrases keep a loof, and keep a luff, or keep the luff, in all probability gave rise to this conjecture. If it was really a sea-phrase originally, it seems to have referred to the dangers of a lee-shore, in which situation the pilot might naturally apply it in the sense commonly understood, viz. keep all off, or quite off: it is, however, never expressed in that manner by seamen now*. It may not be improper to observe, that besides using this phrase in the same sense with us, the French also call the weather-side of a ship, and the weather-clue of a course, le lof.