The story
- Old English · inherited frombātsweġen
- Middle English · inherited frombotswain
- English todayboatswain
From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.