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navy

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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
  • 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