navy

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈneɪ.vi/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English navie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French navie (“fleet; ship”),^[2][4][5] from Latin nāvigia, plural of nāvigium “vessel, boat”,^[2][4][3] or from a popular Latin collective navia “ship”,^[5][6] from nāvis “ship”,^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *nau- (“boat”).^[2] Latin nāvis is cognate with Greek naus “ship” and Sanskrit nau-.^[4] It is related to naval and navigate.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ships or shipping, and a fleet, especially one gathered for war: about 1330 in the OED,^[7] before 1338 in Barnhart, in Mannyng's Chronicle,^[4] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “a nation's organized sea power”, the whole of its warships, is from the 1530s (1540 in the OED).^[2][7] The officers and men serving in it are from 1648.^[7] The older senses, a single ship and ships in general, are obsolete.^[7] Old English had other words for a war fleet: sciphere, usually of Viking invaders, and scipfierd, of the home defences.^[2] Navy blue (1840) was the colour of the British naval uniform,^[4][2] and navy bean (1856, American English) was so called because the beans were grown for the Navy.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a fleet, ships.^[7]
• 1540 – a nation's warships.^[7]
• 1648 – the officers and men of a navy.^[7]
• 1840 – navy blue.^[4]
• 1856 – navy bean.^[4][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. All the warships of a nation.
2. A nation's whole military organization for war at sea, with its ships, people and shore bases.
3. (archaic) A fleet of ships.
4. navy blue, a dark blue.

Word family

• naval
• navy bean
• Navy Cross
• navy yard

Related words

• fleet
• nave
• navicular
• nef
• navigate
• nautical

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 g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press