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aeroplane

 - 5 dictionary results

aer⋅o⋅plane

  [air-uh-pleyn]
Use aeroplane in a Sentence
–noun Chiefly British.
airplane.
Origin:
1870–75; < F aéroplane, equiv. to aéro- aero- + -plane, appar. fem. of plan flat, level (< L plānus; cf. plain 1 ), perh. by assoc. with forme plane; appar. coined and first used by French sculptor and inventor Joseph Pline in 1855

air⋅plane

  [air-pleyn]
–noun
1. a heavier-than-air aircraft kept aloft by the upward thrust exerted by the passing air on its fixed wings and driven by propellers, jet propulsion, etc.
2. any similar heavier-than-air aircraft, as a glider or helicopter.
Also, especially British, aeroplane.

Origin:
1870–75, for an earlier sense; alter. of aeroplane, with air 1 r. aero-
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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aer·o·plane   (âr'ə-plān')   
n.   Chiefly British
Variant of airplane.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

aeroplane 
1866, from Fr. aéroplane (1855), from Gk. aero- "air" + stem of planer "to soar" (see plane (1)). Originally in ref. to surfaces (such as the protective shell casings of beetles' wings); meaning "heavier than air flying machine" first attested 1873, probably an independent Eng. coinage (see airplane).

airplane 
1907, from air + plane; though the original references are British, the word caught on in Amer.Eng., where it largely superseding earlier aeroplane (1873, and still common in British Eng.; q.v.). Aircraft is also from 1907; airship is 1888, from Ger. Luftschiff "motor-driver dirigible." Air-raid first attested 1914, in ref. to British attacks on Cologne and Dusseldorf in WWI.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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