Everyday LifeGreek → English
Aerial
/ˈɛriəl/adjective
Existing, happening or performed in the air; also a radio or television antenna.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air, mist, lower atmosphere
Literally: “of the air”
Follow a root:ἀήρ15 words
The story of the word
Homer's ἀήρ is not clear air but haze, the murky stuff near the ground, set against αἰθήρ, the bright upper air where the gods lived. Latin took it as aerius and English had aerial by the 1590s, mostly for spirits and vapours. The antenna sense came with early wireless, when the wire was strung high in the open air, and the gymnastic and skiing senses came later still, when someone had to name a trick performed off the ground.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1590s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
aerobicaerosolaerodynamicsaeronaut
In a sentence
She landed the aerial cleanly and the crowd noise arrived a half-second late.
The old aerial is still bolted to the chimney, wired to nothing.