different between navy vs navvy

English

Etymology

From Middle English nave, navye, from Anglo-Norman, Old French navie, from Latin n?vigia < n?vigium, from Latin n?vig?, n?vis (“boat”), from Proto-Indo-European *néh?us. Compare Ancient Greek ???? (naûs, “ship”), Persian ???? (nâv, “boat, warship”), Sanskrit ??? (n?va, “ship”), Old English n?wend (“mariner, sailor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ne?vi/
• Rhymes: -e?vi

Noun

navy (countable and uncountable, plural navies)

1. (countable) A country's entire sea force, including ships and personnel.

2. (countable) A governmental department in charge of a country's sea force.
3. (countable and uncountable) A dark blue colour, usually called navy blue.

Translations

Adjective

navy (comparative more navy, superlative most navy)

2. Having the dark blue colour of navy blue.
3. Belonging to the navy; typical of the navy.
   • 2003, Edwin Palmer Hoyt, Thomas H Moorer, The Men of the Gambier Bay: The Amazing True Story, page 21:

     Goodwin was navy through and through.

Quotations

• 2001, Lynda Barry, Cruddy, page 21:

  Possibly she was more Navy than I was.

• 2004, James L. Nelson, Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy, page 100:

  One glance told him Fairfax was old navy, through and through.

• 2008, Don Pendleton, The Killing Rule, page 201:

  The skipper was Russian navy through and through. He considered this his duty, and he was prepared to die doing it.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (blues) blue; Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric-blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue, zaffre ^{(Category: en:Blues)}

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English navy. See also the related navío.

Noun

navy m (uncountable)

1. navy (marine forces)

English

Etymology

Clipping of navigator, in reference to the navigation canals upon which these workers first toiled, + -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?nævi/
• Hyphenation: nav?vy

Noun

navvy (plural navvies)

1. (chiefly Britain) A laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad.
   • 1909, B. Lindsay, Stories of the Universe: Animal Life

     Suppose two lads, fresh from school, go out into the world to earn their living; one becomes a navvy and one a clerk. In five years' time these two young men will probably be very different in appearance from one another. The navvy will have developed his muscles; he will be broad-built, broad-chested, and strong.

Derived terms

• French navvy
• steam navvy

Related terms

• navigation
• navigator

Translations

Verb

navvy (third-person singular simple present navvies, present participle navvying, simple past and past participle navvied)

1. (Britain, intransitive) To carry out physical labor on a civil engineering project.
   • 1974, Malcolm MacDonald, World From Rough Stones, 2013, unnumbered page,

     But by pretending to believe he's navvied before, I've given him double reason to drive himself hard.

   • 1978, John Shaw Neilson, The Autobiography of John Shaw Neilson, page 104,

     Before my time of navvying I believe the times were still worse.

   • 1995, F. R. Leavis, Ian Duncan MacKillop, Richard Storer (editors), F.R. Leavis: Essays and Documents, 2005, page 89,

     Three terms to use for George Eliot: the feminine imagination and sensibility; Intellect, the capacity for higher navvying; Intelligence.