stevedore

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo, or in supervising such work.

   Stowadores.

2. 2
   verb

   To load or unload a ship's cargo.

   During the year 334,242 tons of cargo were stevedored and 933,092 tons were handled and transferred.

Simplified etymology

Stevedore entered English in the late 18th century through Spanish and ultimately derives from Latin stipare, “to press” or “pack.” It denotes a worker who packs away cargo.

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 (“to cram, fill, stuff”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *steypos, which is from the root Proto-Indo-European *steyp-. It is cognate with stiff through Proto-Indo-European. 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 Dictionar...

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