embark

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French embarquer,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from en- (“in”) and barque (“small ship”), the source of bark and barque.^{[3][4][5][7][8]} The OED calls the verb a common Romance word, compare Italian imbarcare, Spanish embarcar and Portuguese embarcar, from Late Latin imbarcō, from in- and barca (“small boat”).^[2][9][10] Merriam-Webster and Collins take the French verb from Old Occitan embarcar,^[6][11] and Dictionary.com from Spanish.^[12] Ayto notes that barca is probably related to barge.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put on board a ship: 1550, in Thomas Nicolls's translation of Thucydides, where it is also used reflexively, to go on board.^[2] Etymonline dates the transitive verb to the 1540s and the intransitive to the 1570s,^[4] and Merriam-Webster gives 1533 for the intransitive sense.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, to go on board a ship, took over from the reflexive one, which the OED records until 1616.^[2] Weekley notes that the figurative use, to embark on an enterprise, appeared early, like to launch a scheme;^[13] the OED has the verb for investing money or involving a person in an undertaking from 1584,^[2] and for engaging in a business, war or the like from 1647.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave "to put on shipboard" as the first sense.^[14] The same ships could later be said to embark their passengers, receiving them on board (1885),^[2] and the verb came to be used of aircraft as well as boats.^[7][6] The opposite, disembark, is also from the 16th century,^[8] and the noun embarkation from about 1645.^[3]

Timeline

• 1533 – to go on board a boat.^[6]
• 1550 – to put on board ship.^[2]
• 1584 – to invest money or involve a person in an enterprise.^[2]
• before 1586 – to go on board ship, in Sidney's Arcadia.^[2]
• c. 1645 – the noun embarkation.^[3]
• 1647 – to engage in an undertaking.^[2]
• 1885 – of a ship, to take on board.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go on board a ship or aircraft: The passengers embarked at dawn.^[11][6][7]
2. To put or take people or goods on board a ship or aircraft.^[6][7][2]
3. To begin or engage in a new venture or course of action, usually with on or upon: She embarked on a career in medicine.^[11][6][7]
4. To invest money in an undertaking, or to involve a person in one.^[6][7][2]

Word family

• embarkation
• embarkment
• reembark

Related words

• disembark
• barque
• barge
• embarcadero

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.