Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Aerodynamics
/ˌɛroʊdaɪˈnæmɪks/noun
The study of how air moves around solid bodies and what forces it exerts on them.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air, mist
δύναμις
dýnamis
power, force
Literally: “air force”
The story of the word
The word arrived before the aeroplane. Nineteenth-century writers used aerodynamics for air in motion generally, which in practice meant gunnery, windmills and the drag on railway carriages, and the aviation sense was grafted on after 1900. ἀήρ to a Greek was the lower, hazy air near the ground, as against αἰθήρ, the bright upper air, so aether and air were once altitudes rather than substances.
- 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
aeroplaneaerosolaerobicdynamic
In a sentence
Formula One rewrote its aerodynamics rules to let cars follow each other closely.
Bee flight puzzled aerodynamics until someone modelled the wing stroke properly.