stevedore

Meanings

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

1. To load or unload a ship's cargo.

Etymology

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 Dictionary (1828) as stevedore.