Etymology

sailor

sail·or
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Today it means: A person who sails; one whose occupation is sailing or navigating ships or other waterborne craft. Full definition →

Middle English sailer
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromsailer
  2. English todaysailor

Alteration of earlier sailer, from Middle English sailer, sayler, saylere, equivalent to sail + -or. Cognate with German Segler (“sailor”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English marinel, marynell (“sailor”) borrowed from Old French marinel (“sailor”). See mariner.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishsailer all →

sailer

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.