Etymology

-ship

Today it means: Appended to a noun to form a new noun denoting a property or state of being, time spent in a role, or a specialised union. In particular, the way a set of social duties associated with a particular role shapes or develops one's character. Full definition →

Middle English -schipe ← Old English -sċiepe ← Proto-West Germanic *-skapi
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-skapiz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*-skapi
  3. Old English · inherited from-sċiepe
  4. Middle English · inherited from-schipe
  5. English today-ship

From Middle English -schipe, -shippe, from Old English -sċiepe, from Proto-West Germanic *-skapi, from Proto-Germanic *-skapiz. Compare Scots -schip, West Frisian -skip, Dutch -schap, German -schaft, Swedish -skap, Icelandic -skapur. Related to shape.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.