The word 'ship' descends from Old English 'scip' (ship, boat), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (ship, vessel), from a PIE base *skei-b-, an extension of *skei- (to cut, to split). The semantic development from 'cutting' to 'ship' reflects the technology of early boatbuilding: the first watercraft were dugout canoes, made by splitting and hollowing a single tree trunk. A ship was, at its etymological core, a thing that has been cut.
The Proto-Germanic form *skipą is reflected with great consistency across the family: Old Norse 'skip,' Old Frisian 'skip,' Old Saxon 'skip,' Old High German 'scif' (modern German 'Schiff'), Dutch 'schip,' Swedish 'skepp,' Danish 'skib,' Norwegian 'skip.' Gothic, the earliest attested Germanic language, records 'skip.' The uniformity suggests the word was already firmly established before the Germanic languages began to diverge — unsurprising for a seafaring people whose identity was bound to their ships.
The phonological development from Old English 'scip' to Modern English 'ship' involved the palatalization of the initial consonant cluster 'sc-' to /ʃ/. In Old English, 'sc' was pronounced /sk/, as it still is in Scandinavian cognates. This palatalization is one of the signature sound changes that distinguishes English from its Norse and Continental Germanic relatives: Old English 'scip' /skip/ became 'ship' /ʃɪp/, 'scyrte' became 'shirt,' 'fisc' became 'fish.'
The English suffix '-ship' in abstract nouns like 'friendship,' 'hardship,' 'worship,' and 'kinship' is the very same word. In Old English, '-scipe' meant 'the state or condition of being shaped, created, or constituted.' The underlying idea is that a friendship, like a ship, is something fashioned or built. This suffix has been productive for over a thousand years
One of the most surprising descendants of *skipą is the word 'equip.' Old Norse 'skipa' (to arrange, to man a ship, to put in order) was borrowed into Old French as 'esquiper' (to fit out a ship, to furnish). From Old French it entered English as 'equip' — to supply with what is needed. The nautical origin has been entirely forgotten, but every time
The related word 'skipper' (the captain of a ship) comes from Middle Dutch 'schipper' or Middle Low German 'schipper,' an agent noun from 'schip.' It entered English as a somewhat informal term for a ship's master, retaining to this day a less formal register than 'captain' (which comes from Latin 'caput,' head).
In Old English, 'scip' referred to vessels of all sizes. The distinction between 'ship' (large) and 'boat' (small) hardened only gradually during the Middle English period. Today the distinction is partly one of size and partly one of function: a ship carries boats, but a boat does not carry ships. The Royal Navy's traditional rule — 'a ship can carry a boat, but a boat cannot carry a ship' —