Etymologically
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crew

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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

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