stevedore
Etymology

From Spanish estibador (cognate with Portuguese estivador, and compare Medieval Latin stivator), from estivar, estibar ("to load"), from Medieval Latin stivare, stīpāre (compare Italian stivare, stipare), the present active infinitive of stīpō, derived from Proto-Indo-European *steypos, which is from the root Proto-Indo-European *steyp-.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was attested in 1788 in the early form stowadore (see the quotations). It was included in the 1st edition of Webster's Dictionary (1828) as stevedore.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈstiːvəˌdɔː(ɹ)/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈstivəˌdɔɹ/
Noun

stevedore (plural stevedores)

  1. A dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo, or in supervising such work. [from 18th c.]
Synonyms Translations Verb

stevedore (stevedores, present participle stevedoring; simple past and past participle stevedored)

  1. (transitive) To load or unload a ship's cargo.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary