Navigation

Posted by Henry on August 22, 2003

In Reply to: "Navvy" posted by R. Berg on August 19, 2003

: : I've heard that the word "Navvy" meaning manual worker, comes from Navigator - the men who worked on the North American Railroad. I have a feeling that the word is older than that. Can any of you knowledgeable ones enlighten me please?

: : Doris

: The Oxford English Dictionary says it comes from one sense of "navigator," defined as "a labourer employed in the work of excavating and constructing a canal, or, in later use, in any similar kind of earthwork." Earliest citation for this sense of "navigator" is dated 1775; for "navvy," 1832.

: And "navigator" with that meaning comes from "navigation," which once meant "a canal or other artificial waterway. Now dial[ectal]" (OED).

I think that a canal is a newly constructed channel, while a navigation is a stream or river opened to use by boats.

"The UK's first new navigation for a century - the Millennium Ribble Link - was officially opened on Friday 20 September 2002 by the Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. As this project is a navigation, and not a canal, boats will only be permitted to stop at specific mooring sites and these will not be located close to dwellings."