 |
| Crew of the ship Carmanian, at San Francisco, 1900. David Kelly, a 17 year old New Zealander, is on the far left, second row. |
At first in English "crew" denoted a squad of military reinforcements. Soon its meaning spread to any band of soldiers, and by the end of the 16th century the word was being used for any group of people gathered together with or without a particular purpose. The most familiar modern application, to the people manning a ship, emerged in the latter part of the 17th century.
Nowadays, in transport it means the people who sail or operate a ship or boat, operate a train or fly an aircraft, but of course it is a general synonym for team in a non-sporting sense.
The word appeared in the late Middle English period, between 1425 and 1475 as crewe "augmentation", hence reinforcements, body of soldiers, from Middle French creue, literally "increase", noun use of feminine of Old French creu, past participle of creistre "to grow", in turn from Latin crēscere.
Pics of the Carmanian are from this webpage where her history will also be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment