crew

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kruː/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crue (“reinforcement, body of soldiers”),^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French crue (“increase”),^[2][3] from Old French creüe “an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”,^[4][3] the feminine past participle of creistre (“to grow”),^[4][2] from Latin crēscere (“to arise, grow”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”).^[4] It is related to crescent, accrue, recruit and increase.^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A group of soldiers sent as reinforcements, a sense now obsolete: 1455 in the OED,^[6] mid-15th century in Etymonline^[4] and about 1437 in Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By the 16th century it was applied to any organized armed band and, more generally, to a company of people,^[7] from 1570 in the OED and Barnhart,^[6][3] often with a dismissive tone.^[6] A gang of workmen on a particular job is from the 1690s,^[4][6] and the sailors who man a ship from 1692.^[6][4] A film or recording team is from 1954.^[6] The verb, to act as a member of a crew, is from 1935.^[2][6] The crew cut, first attested in 1938, is named after the boat crews at Harvard and Yale who adopted it,^[4][7] and the crew neck after the close-necked sweaters the rowers wore.^[7]

Timeline

• 1455 – a military reinforcement.^[6]
• 1570 – any company of people.^[3][6]
• 1692 – a ship's company.^[6]
• 1690s – a gang of workmen.^[4]
• 1935 – verb.^[2]
• 1938 – crew cut.^[4]
• 1954 – a film crew.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A group of people working together; a gang.
2. A group of people gathered together; a crowd or set.
3. All the people who work on a ship or aircraft, sometimes excluding the officers.
4. A rowing team.
5. (archaic) A band of armed men.

Verb

1. To serve as a member of a crew, or on a ship or aircraft.

Word family

• crewless
• aircrew
• crewmate
• crewman
• uncrewed
• crew cut
• crew chief
• crew neck

Related words

• crescent
• accrue
• recruit
• increase
• crescendo
• create

Usage notes

Crew is also a chiefly British past tense of the verb crow.^[8][6] A different crew, a pen for animals or a hut, from Scottish Gaelic crò and Welsh crau, is recorded from 1669.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster