Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Aerodynamic
/ˌɛroʊdaɪˈnæmɪk/adjective
Shaped to move through air with little resistance.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air, mist
δύναμις
dýnamis
power, force
Literally: “of air's force”
The story of the word
The adjective went commercial in the 1930s, when car makers discovered they could sell a curved bonnet as a scientific fact. Chrysler's Airflow of 1934 was genuinely tested in a wind tunnel and sold badly anyway, but the vocabulary outlived the car. Strictly the word means only 'having to do with air in motion', so a brick is aerodynamic too, just not in the way the advertising intends.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
aerodynamicsaerosolaerobicdynamic
In a sentence
The new helmet is more aerodynamic and, riders complain, considerably hotter.
Tucking low is worth more aerodynamic advantage than any component you can buy.