Sailor, Seaman, Mariner: Who Is Who?
A sailor works on a ship. The word replaced the older seaman only in the 1500s, and English keeps several near-synonyms with different flavours.
A sailor is someone who works aboard a ship, or who sails for pleasure. The word is younger than the job: English called such a person a *seaman* or *shipman* for centuries, and *sailor* only settled in during the 1500s, once sail had become the defining technology. Ships have been engine-driven for well over a century, and the sail is still in the name.
- A crew member. *A merchant sailor.*
- A naval rating. *Sailors lined the deck.*
- Someone who sails for sport. *A weekend sailor.*
- A good or bad sailor — resistant or prone to seasickness. *I'm a bad sailor.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | sailor | An old sailor. |
| Plural | sailors | Two sailors. |
| Verb | sail | We sail at dawn. |
| Noun | sail | A torn sail. |
| Related | seafarer | A lone seafarer. |
- He spent nine years as a merchant sailor.Occupation.
- I'm a terrible sailor in anything above a swell.Seasickness, not skill.
- The sailors were given shore leave.Naval.
Near-synonyms compared
- Sailor — the everyday word, any vessel
- Seaman — formal and naval; also a specific rank
- Mariner — literary or legal, as in the Ancient Mariner
- Seafarer — poetic, someone whose life is at sea
- Deckhand — a junior crew member doing manual work
From *sail* plus the agent ending -or, replacing Middle English *sailer* around 1400. The spelling with -or was probably influenced by *tailor*.
What does a bad sailor mean?
Someone who gets seasick easily. It says nothing about their skill at handling a boat.
Why is it spelled sailor and not sailer?
Both existed. The -or spelling won out from the 1500s, probably by analogy with words like tailor and juror.