Sport & ContestGreek → English
Aerobics
/ɛˈroʊbɪks/noun
Sustained rhythmic exercise done to raise the heart rate, often in a class set to music.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air
βίος
bíos
life
Literally: “air life”
The story of the word
Kenneth Cooper, an Air Force physician, published Aerobics in 1968 with a points system for how much exercise a body actually needs. He took the adjective from bacteriology, where aerobic had meant air-requiring since Pasteur. The leotards and the studio mirrors of the 1980s attached themselves to his title, which is how a term from microbiology ended up meaning Jane Fonda.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1968
Same family
aerobicanaerobicaerialbiology
In a sentence
Her mother did aerobics in the church hall every Wednesday for fifteen years.