ferry

I visited New Orleans over spring break and saw and an incredible number of boats on the Mississippi River. While walking along one day, I started thinking about the word ferry, which can be both noun and verb. We had just finished our Latin section in class, so my mind jumped to the Latin stems fer-, lat-, “to carry.” I guessed that the name ferry had to do with that type of boat’s characterist ability to transport a large number of passengers and goods within a small radius. As it turns out, our AHD points me to the Middle English ferien derived from the Old English ferian. The OED gives us further information, demonstrating that the OE ferian is from the Old High German feren, which is from the Old Norse ferja, which comes from the Gothic farjan. I find it particularly interesting that ferry stems in the Gothic language because it is one that I rarely get the chance to hear or learn about. Also, the number of languages familiar with this term suggests the importance of water trade/interaction in landlocked but river-rich central Europe.