Myth & LegendGreek → English
Argonaut
/ˈɑːrɡənɔːt/noun
One of the crew who sailed with Jason for the golden fleece, or by extension any member of a bold expedition.
The Greek roots
Ἀργώ
Argṓ
the ship Argo
ναύτης
naútēs
sailor
Literally: “sailor of the Argo”
The story of the word
The ship's name plus ναύτης, sailor. Ancient writers already disagreed about the ship itself: either ἀργός, swift and gleaming, or a shipwright called Argos who built her. English lent the word out twice more, to the paper nautilus mollusc Argonauta, which sails on the surface in a paper-thin shell, and to the men who shipped for California gold in 1849.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
nauticalnautilusastronautcosmonautaeronaut
In a sentence
The crew list of the Argonauts changes with every ancient author who tells it.
Newspapers of 1849 called them Argonauts, which flattered the mud considerably.