Other forms: seafarers
A seafarer is somebody who travels the sea for a living. An old seafarer, seafarers' charity, the seafarer's life.
It is the formal word in maritime law and welfare, where seafarers' rights cover contracts, repatriation and pay. The Seafarer is also one of the oldest poems in English, and it is about exile as much as the sea.
1nounseafarerSomebody who travels the sea for a living.
“The old seafarer had spent his life on cargo ships and knew every port in Asia.”
seafarer is a traveller.
Middle English sefarere is sea plus farer, from faran, to travel.
Middle English
*se-farere
English, today
seafarer
Built from
From Middle English se-farere (suggested by se-farende, sa farinde (“sea-faring”)) equivalent to sea + farer and to seafare + -er. Cognate with Middle Dutch seevarer, whence Modern Dutch zeevaarder (“seafarer”), West Frisian seefarder (“seafarer”), German Seefahrer (“seafarer”), Swedish sjöfarare (“seafarer”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire