Other forms: ferries, ferried, ferrying
A ferry is a boat that carries people and vehicles back and forth across the same stretch of water. Take the ferry, the car ferry, the ferry from Dover.
What makes it a ferry is the fixed route repeated, not the size — a ferry can be a rowing boat across a river or a ship carrying two thousand people. Ferry is also a verb meaning to carry people back and forth, and it is used well beyond boats: ferrying the children to school. Note ferry terminal, the roll-on roll-off ferry, and that in many countries the ferry is simply part of the road.
Old English ferian meant to carry or convey, from the same Germanic root as fare and far — the family of going. A ferry is named for the carrying, which is why the verb still works for a car full of children.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Proto-Germanic
*farjaną
Proto-West Germanic
*farjan
Old English
ferian
Middle English
ferien — to carry, convey
English, today
ferry
Built from
The verb is from Middle English ferien (“to carry, convey”), from Old English ferian, from Proto-West Germanic farjan, from Proto-Germanic farjaną, which see for cognates. This verb is the causative of faraną (“to go, travel”), whence fare; ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European - root per-. The noun is from Middle English ferie (“place of crossing, ferry”), which was derived from the above verb under influence of Old Norse ferja, from farjǭ, itself also from the verb. ferō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA