Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Aeronaut
/ˈɛərənɔːt/noun
Someone who flies a balloon or airship.
The Greek roots
ἀήρ
aḗr
air, mist
ναύτης
naútēs
sailor
Literally: “air sailor”
The story of the word
French coined aéronaute in 1784, months after the Montgolfier brothers had put men into the sky over Paris and nobody had a word for them. The model was ἀργοναύτης, the crew of the Argo, so the first balloonists were framed as sailors on a new sea. Astronaut, cosmonaut and taikonaut all descend from that single balloon-season improvisation.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1780s
Same family
astronautcosmonautaerialnauticalaerodynamic
In a sentence
The aeronauts spent the war drifting over enemy lines in wicker baskets, counting gun emplacements.