aeronaut
1
9.6
- noun
- /ˈɛəroʊnɔt/
:
aeronauta
- You're an aeronaut!
- inventor and aeronaut
- hiring aeronauts
Examples
-
Look, Antonia, I am a really good aeronaut, and I want to use what I’m good at.
-
There is the promise of witnessing a balloon ascension, for the French aeronaut Blanchard has come to town.
Academic text (2004) -
"Two aeronauts "have been nearer to the Moon and stars than all the race of man before them."
-
Several men shouted and pointed, but no archer shot at the aeronaut mouse.
Fiction book (2001) -
Do you thank the first "aeronauts" every time you purchase a low-cost Southwest or EasyJet airline ticket?
Blog text (6) -
The ode also engages in a mode of description popular with aeronauts: the communication of scale by analogy.
Academic text (2017) -
In her ode, the nameless bard summons "fancy" to praise the aeronaut.
Academic text (2017) -
Many balloon writings feature Greek gods and mythical characters that populate the atmosphere alongside aeronauts and their descriptions of English landscapes.
Academic text (2017) -
Aeronaut Windham Sadler lamented in 1817 that the balloon's movements are "confined to the impulse which it receives from the current of the air in which it moves, and the object of the Aeronaut in seeking to reach any given point is to find a corresponding stream of wind, which is now only affected by ascending or descending."
Academic text (2017) -
The aeronaut skillfully maneuvered the balloon through the clouds.
Synonyms
∞
2.9
A person who flies a plane or guides a ship safely
109
3.3
A person who travels by plane or pilots one
37
4.6
A person who flies a plane or other aircraft
28
3.5
A person who flies or helps fly planes in the air force
19
4.2
A person who flies an aircraft as its pilot
3
6.2
A person who flies a hot air or gas balloon
1
6.1
A person who flies a hot air balloon
Surface Forms
Morphology
aeronaut = aero + naut
The word is compositionally 'aero-' (air) + '-naut' (sailor/traveller), so the meaning is predictable in an etymological sense, but both components are combining forms rather than standalone common English words, making it only partially transparent for average learners.
Etymology
The word aeronaut comes from the parts aero- meaning 'air' and -naut meaning 'sailor', the same '-naut' you see in astronaut, so it means an 'air sailor'. That's why an aeronaut is a person who sails through the sky, often by flying a balloon or airship.