Navvy - meaning and definition. What is Navvy
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What (who) is Navvy - definition

NAVIGATIONAL ENGINEERS
Navvies; Navigational engineer; Navvy Jack
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navvy         
(navvies)
A navvy is a person who is employed to do hard physical work, for example building roads or canals. (BRIT OLD-FASHIONED)
N-COUNT
Navvy         
·noun Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation; hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building railroads, embankments, ·etc.
navvy         
¦ noun (plural navvies) Brit. dated a labourer employed in the excavation and construction of a road, railway, or canal.
Word History
Navvy is a shortening of navigator, which in the 18th century came to denote, as well as a sailor skilled in navigation, a labourer employed in canal construction (in some regions a canal was known as a navigation). The word navigate derives from navis, the Latin word for 'ship', which gave rise to navy and also to the nave or long central part of a church or cathedral, whose shape was likened to that of a ship.

Wikipedia

Navvy

Navvy, a clipping of navigator (UK) or navigational engineer (US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and earth moving machinery. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Great Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations", or "eternal navigations", intended to last forever.

Examples of use of Navvy
1. But he has certainly not wasted many minutes on his appearance – he is wearing a terrible old navy jacket with scruffy trainers and T–shirt, and looks like a navvy.