Crewed

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /kɹuːd/

Definitions

1. Provided with a team of people who operate or manage a vehicle or vessel
2. Equipped by having personnel on board to control or run a machine or craft
3. Manned by a group assigned to operate a ship, aircraft, or other transport

Etymology: "Crewed" is the past tense and past participle of "crew" used as an adjective, so the story belongs to the noun. The noun's most surprising ancestor is a word for growing: it comes from Old French "creue," meaning an increase or a reinforcement, the feminine past participle of "creistre" ("to grow"), itself from Latin "crescere." A crew was originally a body of extra people added to a force, so the sense of reinforcement came before any sense of a working team. The noun reached Middle English as "crue" and was used of military reinforcements. Its path to the sea and the ship was a different one: its precise earlier origin is uncertain, and it may come from a Brythonic (Celtic) source related to a Welsh word for a pigsty or stockade. That connection is only probable, so it remains a tentative suggestion rather than settled fact.

Synonyms: manned, staffed, operated, furnished, provided

Antonyms: unmanned, devoid, empty, vacant, deserted