Of legal knowledge I acquired such a grip That they took me into the partnership. And that junior partnership, I ween, Was the only ship that I ever had seen. But that kind of ship so suited me, That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee! [But that kind of ship so suited he, That now he is the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!]
But seriously, folks, in words like partership, partisanship, apprenticeship, censorship etc., what does the suffix -ship mean, and what is its etymology? Does it have anything at all to do with ships that sail the sea?
Dictionary.com says that the noun is from OE scip and the suffix is from OE scipe. Not knowing Old English I don't know for sure, but they seem to have come from different words.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
The suffix -ship is related to the German -schaft and Dutch -schap, all of which are ultimately related to Original Germanic *skap- 'shape' (cf. English shipshape, older ship-shapen, where shapen is an adjective). The etymology of ship is not known. I doubt if they're related. The OED has a bunch of great words ending in -ship that have fallen into disuse: drunkship, gladship, wildship.This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,
I am just guessing here, but my hunch would be that the suffix comes from the Old English word for shape. Thus, friendship means having the shape of a friend. The use of shape to denote a state of being is not uncommon usage. We often ask of someone, What kind of shape is s/he in?, meaning what is the individual's state of mind or body.
Oh, and yes, we are back. If you want details, send me a PM and I will be happy to talk about it.
but you did think of that. Your post went up while I was writing mine, and I delayed posting it and didn't read yours first. Otherwise I would never have posted it.
