ferry

英文词源

ferry

ferry: [12] A ferry is etymologically a boat on which you ‘travel’ from one place to another. The word comes ultimately from the Indo- European base *por- ‘going, passage’, which has produced a wide range of other English words, including emporium, ford, and port. Its Germanic descendant was *fer- ‘go’, source of English fare as well as ferry. Ferry itself was probably borrowed from the Old Norse element ferju-, denoting ‘passage across water’, and that was what it at first meant in English.

The word’s main modern use, which is essentially an abbreviation of ferry-boat, is not recorded before the 16th century, and does not seem to have really become established until the 20th century.
=> emporium, fare, ford, port

ferry (v.)

Old English ferian "to carry, convey, bring, transport" (in late Old English, especially over water), from Proto-Germanic *farjan "to ferry" (cognates: Old Frisian feria "carry, transport," Old Norse ferja "to pass over, to ferry," Gothic farjan "travel by boat"), from PIE root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over" (see port (n.1)). Related to fare (v.). Related: Ferried; ferries; ferrying.

ferry (n.)

early 15c., "a passage over a river," from the verb or from Old Norse ferju-, in compounds, "passage across water," ultimately from the same Germanic root as ferry (v.). Meaning "place where boats pass over a body of water" is from mid-15c. The sense "boat or raft to convey passengers and goods short distances across a body of water" (1580s) is a shortening of ferry boat (mid-15c.).