-ship

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English -schipe, also -ship,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English -scipe, also -scype and Anglian -scip,^{[6][3][4][2][7]} from Proto-Germanic *-skapiz,^[1][6] from the base *skap- (“to create, ordain”), as in shape.^[6][3][2][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian -skip, Old Saxon -scepi, and, through related forms, Dutch -schap, German -schaft, Old Norse -skapr and Swedish -skap.^[6][3][2][5] The i of the Old English form seems to be a secondary effect of umlaut, helped by the lack of stress.^[6] Klein compares -scape in landscape.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old English suffix meant the state or condition of being something and was very common on adjectives and past participles.^[6][7][2] Of these only hardship and worship survive.^[7] On nouns it gave frēondscipe, friendship, and hlāfordscipe, lordship.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

From that state of being, it came to mean the qualities associated with a kind of person, as in fellowship and authorship, and then the power, rank or office of an official, as in lordship itself and stewardship.^[6][7] Terms of address such as your ladyship developed from the possessive.^[6][10] From there it could denote a skill, as in horsemanship and workmanship.^[7][4][8] A state of life relating to something is seen in courtship in the 16th century.^[7] township is the only survivor of a group of Old English nouns with a collective sense, as in folcscipe (“nation”).^[7][6] Barnhart lists a number of people as a further sense, as in readership.^[2] Etymonline remarks that it often forms abstract words to match concrete ones, as in friend and friendship.^[3]

Timeline

• Old English – on adjectives, participles and nouns, in frēondscipe and hlāfordscipe.^[6][7]
• c. 1225 – hardship.^[6]
• 1535 – scholarship.^[6]
• 16th century – courtship, a state of life.^[7]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forming nouns for a state, condition or quality: partnership, sonship.^[8][4][2]
2. Forming nouns for a rank, office or profession: chancellorship, professorship.^[8][4][10]
3. Forming nouns for a craft or skill: marksmanship, seamanship.^[8][4][2]
4. Forming nouns for a relation between people, or something that embodies a state: fellowship, township.^[4][2]
5. Forming titles or forms of address with a possessive: her ladyship.^[4][10][6]
6. Forming nouns for all those who do something: readership.^[2]

Word family

• citizenship
• friendship
• hardship
• leadership
• relationship
• scholarship

Related words

• shape
• -scape
• -hood
• -ness

Usage notes

It is normally unstressed, as in kinship.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press