The contemporary meaning of the term crew first appeared in English in 1578 as crewe (an earlier variation was crue). Prior to this, it referred to a “group of soldiers” or armed men, and even earlier, it denoted a group of soldiers sent as reinforcements. Its origin can be traced back to the Old French word creue, meaning “recruit” or “increase” (as recruits augment the size of an army), which in turn derives from the Latin word crescere, signifying “to grow” (also the source of crescendo, increase, create, concrete, and interestingly, recruit). Ultimately, it can be linked back to the Proto-Indo-European root ker, meaning “to grow.” The term crew cut for a hairstyle gained popularity in the 1930s, being adopted by rowers from Harvard and Yale Universities, with a similar occurrence for the crew neck shirt.
