Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Aerodrome
/ˈɛərədroʊm/noun
An airfield with its buildings, especially a small or older one.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air
δρόμος
drómos
running, course
Literally: “air-course”
The story of the word
Samuel Langley called his flying machines Aerodromes in the 1890s, meaning air-runners, on the model of a racehorse rather than a racetrack. British usage flipped it onto the ground the machines ran along, and Langley's sense died with his machines, which failed twice into the Potomac nine days before the Wright brothers flew. Aerodrome remains the formal term in international aviation law while ordinary speech went to airport after 1945.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- early 20th century
Same family
hippodromevelodromesyndromepalindromeaerial
In a sentence
The grass aerodrome takes light aircraft only, and closes when the field is wet.