A shanty is a small, roughly built shelter or dwelling, usually made from whatever materials are available: scrap wood, metal sheets, cardboard, or plastic tarps. Shanties often appear in areas where people lack permanent housing, thrown together quickly without formal construction. The word suggests something temporary and makeshift, not solid or well-planned like a regular house.

You might read about shanty towns springing up during hard economic times, where families build these simple structures because they have nowhere else to go. During the California Gold Rush of the 1840s, miners lived in shanties near their claims, hammering together basic shelters from rough lumber. The word carries a sense of poverty and hardship, though also sometimes of resourcefulness: people making do with very little.

Shanty can also refer to a type of work song sailors sang in the age of sailing ships. Sea shanties had strong rhythms that helped crews coordinate their work when hauling ropes or raising anchors. These rhythmic songs made tough physical labor more bearable and kept everyone pulling together. Today, people still enjoy singing old sea shanties like “Blow the Man Down” or “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor,” preserving these pieces of maritime history.