Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Navy in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels navy as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Navy

[ OF. navie, fr. L. navis ship. See Nave of a church.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordnavy
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[ OF. navie, fr. L. navis ship. See Nave of a church.]
Selected historical definitionA fleet of ships; an assemblage of merchantmen, or so many as sail in company.
Signed record IDwebster1913-navy-noun-0feb23655c33
Source locatorCIDE.N, paragraph 731; Gutenberg eBook 665
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 665Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "navy" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[ OF. navie, fr. L. navis ship. See Nave of a church.]" The selected historical definition says: "A fleet of ships; an assemblage of merchantmen, or so many as sail in company."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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