Dictionary of Aviation



Dictionary of Aviation

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

By

Robert Morris Pierce

Author of Dictionary of Hard Words; Problems

of Number and Mesure; editor of International

French* English and EnglishfFrench Dictionary;

Ideojonic Texts for Acquiring Languages; etc.

New York

The Baker & Taylor Company

33 East Seventeenth Street

1911

Copyright, 1911

by Robert Morris Pierce

Publisht May, 1911

PREFACE

Scope. In the making of this dictionary the attempt has

been to produce a word-book for the use of persons interested

in aviation from any of the various points of view from

tuhich it may be contemplated, er from any of the several

starting-points frem which it may be pursued. The subject

itself is indeed somewhat new, and net yet highly differen-

tiated. Aviation as a whole invelvs in some degree net only

various other arts, such as the arts of mechanical construction

and manipulation ; but various sciences, such as fysics, mathe-

matics, mechanics, meteorology, climatology, astronomy, geeg-

rafy, and ornithology; as well as various professions and oc-

cupations, such as transportation, navigation, sport, politics,

law, warfare, literature, etc. Airships have not only to be con-

structed and operated, but they have also to be considerd as

factors in a world^tjansforming process. Their gauzy wings

cast strange shadows upon the pathway of humanity. No

man can tell just how and tuhen and where these airy mecha-

nisms may net metamerfose the face of the globe, modify the

structure and distribution of the human race, and unravel or

weave anew the social fabric. The scope of this book is

therefore wider than might at first thought seem advisable.

Aeronautics has often been considerd as distinct frem, or

larger than, and embracing, aviation. When, about three

years ago, this dictionary was first (in great part) compiled,

and announced as being in preparation, I cald it a Dictionary

of Aeronautics. Since that time, however, the word aviation

has come into very wide use ; and as the book is primarily in-

PREFACE

termed for the use of persons interested in the more promi-

nent of these two subjects, and as the more prominent of

them seems to be dynamic flight or aviation in the narrower

or more 'proper' sense, rather than aeronautics or aerostation

and airmailing generally, in the regular old^fashiond sense,

I do not now hesitate to call the book a Dictionary of Avia-

tion. To put the thing in other words, aeronautics seems to

me to be getting to be considerd merely as a side-show or old*

fashioned aspect of aviation, and I therefore make this book

primarily for the aviators and their kindred, rather than for

the aeronauts and balloonists. A further reason for the adop-

tion of this title is the fact that the word aviation has itself

come to be used sometimes as the more mclusiv term, embra-

cing aeronautics and ballooning, as well as dynamic flight;

and it seems to me likely that this mclusiv sense of the word

aviation will become quite common, especially as, historically,

the attempts at dynamic flight seem to antedate, or at least

predominate over, the idea of aerostation.

As there apparently exists no dictionary of meteorology,

and as the subject is of great importance in aviation, the

number of meteorologic terms in this dictionary is larger

than might otherwise be necessary.

Aviation will most likely give rise to a group of arts and

industries of titanic proportions and become a factor of pro-

digious power in the evolution of mankind. For this reason

it is interesting to show its terminology somewhat folly.

Hence the vocabulary of this dictionary includes words useful

to writers and translators of. books and articles on aviation as

well as to aviators themselvs. It is the undifferentiated vo-

cabulary net alone of a great manufacturing industry, a great

sport, a great military factor; but also of a new mode of life

of mankind : of romance, and tjavel, and fancy.

Aviation lends itself with peculiar ease not only to imagi-

nativ and poetic literature, but to sociologic speculation, and

I merely record the words and frases which I have found in

actual use in the literature of aviation and of certain fases of

all these other closely allied subjects.

PREFACE 3

Most technical glossaries and dictionaries are blunderingly

made. They are eften characterized by-*(i) meagerness of

vocabulary; *(2) paucity, and absence of classification, of

f rases; *(3) lack of alternate spellings; *(4) lack or inaccu-

racy of pronunciations; (5) lack of etymologies; *(6) inaccu-

racy of definitions; *(/) inadequate cross-references; *(8) de-

fectiv classification of the parts of speech, and differentia-

tion of the senses, of the title-words; *(Q) badness of typeg-

rafy; *(io) highness of price; (11) lack of quotations from, or

references to, the literature of the subject, in support of the

usage recorded.

In the present volume I have tjied to overcome the defi-

ciencies markt above with a star (*). Further improvements,

at least from some points of view, would be the introduction

of etymologies and references. But altho I have one or more

good references or quotations from reputable books or peri-

odicals for practically every word, and every sense of every

word, in the book, I have withheld them all, as well as all ety-

mologies, encyclopedic features, and pictorial illustrations,

from the present edition.

I have been fortunate in securing certain specific criti-

cisms, especially among the meteorolegic terms, from the be-

ginning of the book to about the word g overningf plane, from

A. Lawrence Rotch, founder of the meteorolegic observing*

station at Blue Hill, near Boston, Massachusetts, and pro-

fessor in Harvard University.

Vocabulary. The vocabulary of this dictionary is thus

necessarily, from the scope of the subject treated, quite an ex-

tensiv one. Besides the multitude of words used in the no-

menclatures of the above subjects, in so far as they relate to

aviation, many words and frases are included which may, en

the one hand, seem bizarre or fanciful (rocketerising, adj.;

scareship, n., etc.), and, on the other hand, self-explanatory

(airtballoon, aviationfmeet, etc.). In such a new subject,

however, what seems bizarre today may net seem bizarre to-

morrow, even to the same individual; and vuhat seems, tuhen

recorded, self-explanatory or matter-of-course, is eften, in

4 PREFACE

reality, neither. Besides, the fact that a word exists, is, in

itself, interesting. A glance thru a welkarranged vocabulary

often suggests a useful term or expression whose existence

would net otherwise be suspected.

Sometimes simple and compound words which one would

suppose to be in common use, do net exist in actual usage.

What seems to be the obvious meaning or spelling or pro-

nunciation of a word is often net really the tjue one. It is

often, en the contrary, quite difficult to get at the facts of the

occurrence, meanings, spellings, and pronunciations of words,

even by dint of much study. Then, too, various readers have

various degrees of intelligence, and various habits. Some use

a dictionary often, others seldom. Some are nativs, others

are fereners. Some are aviators, others are writers. More-

over, it is apt to be just those persons who consider these

things so very ebvious after they are explaind, who are apt

to make the worst blunders in using words.

Nevertheless, many nonce-words, temporary combinations,

etc., such as aeroplanitis, corkscrew (verb), aerotneck, avia-

tionf committee, aviationtgoer, barometertreading, raviator, are

excluded.

Spellings. The spellings or word-ferms given in title?

place are in the main those which are most likely to be lookt

fer by the general reader. Under each title#word are given

in brackets the other current spellings of the word. In some

cases mention is also made of spellings no longer in current

use. These are confined mainly to obsolescent ferms and

forms valuable because more nearly fonetic than those in

current use. No attempt has been made to record all the cases

in tuhich separate words er solid words are often or generally

used insted of hyfenated ferms (wing warping for wingzwarp-

ing; thunderstorm for thunder-storm, etc.); or all cases in

which nouns have also assumptiv or adjectival uses.

Cognate ferms having the same meaning as the title^word

but differing from it in pronunciation, are classified as

'synonymous cognates.'

PREFACE 5

When a title^word is of two or more parts of speech, er

luhen two or more title^words are spelt just alike but are of

different parts of speech, er of different origin, er are for

any other reason treated separately, the oldest part of speech,

or the oldest title^word, is placed first, the others following

somewhat in the order of their first known appearance in the

literature of the subjects treated in this book.

Definitions. When several definitions are given, their

order is in the main historical, the oldest sense being placed

first, with the more recent senses following in the sequence

of their temporal development. Fortunately this sequence is

often closely identical with the sequence of their logical de-

velopment.

Pronunciation. The pronunciation of the titlezwords is

in every case indicated by a foil respelling. Under each

title-word are given, in somewhat normalized or universalized

form, its most acceptable or proper natural pronunciation or

pronunciations current today in the English-speaking world

at large.

Where several pronunciations are given without classifi-

cation, the forms following the first form are usually to be

considerd as individual, local, or functional variants in good

usage.

Fonetzc Notation. The sounds of speech are noted in

this dictionary by means of a system of letters which, for con-

venience, are arranged in the order g, k, etc. This system

of letters, so arranged, I have named gammakap (from gam-

ma and kappa), by analogy to the word aljdbel, which

denotes a system of letters arranged in the order a, b (or

alfa, beta), etc. The system is a modified, amplified, and

improved form of the international alfabet which sprang into

special prominence about the year 1885 thru the efforts of

Paul Passy, of Paris, and others, and which has since that

time been festerd and developt by the International Fonetio

Association (20 rue de la Madeleine, Bour?la?Reine, Seine,

France).

6 PREFACE

This amplified form of the -roman alfabet used in the re-

spellings of the title^words thruout this dictionary has been

undergoing a most remarkable advancement during the last

quarter of a century. It is by far the most diversely used

and highly perfected means as yet devised for indicating

simply and accurately, the pronunciation of all languages in

any popular world^wide system. It will doutless undergo

further modification of detail as time goes on, but the prin-

ciples which have guided the selection of its letters from the

alfabets of the world, its flexibility, and the extent and man-

ner of its present use, bespeak its capacity for development

and foretell its universality. It has alredy been applied to

several hundred languages and dialects and is now in activ

competition with local and old^fashiond systems of fonetic

spelling, net only in dictionaries and grammars, and text-

books en fonetics, but also in general literature.

This system of fonetic notation is in general accord with

the systems used in Murray's New English Dictionary (Ox-

ford), Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (Oxford), Funk's

Standard Dictionary (New York), and a large number of bi-

lingual dictionaries. It is similar to the alfabets advocated by

the American Filological Association, the International Fo-

netic Association, by committees of the Modern Language As-

sociation and the National Educational Association, and used

by filologists the world over. It is based upon the ordinary

spelling of all the languages of the world which are written in

roman letters : as, for example, English, German, French,

Italian, Spanish, Latin. More different new books are using

this system than all other systems of fonetic notation com-

bined. This feature tends to render the pronunciations in the

present volume equally servisable to aviators and other per-

sons of all nationalities in all parts of the world.

Below are two tables. The first table shows the more im-

portant letters of the universal gammakap, arranged so as to

give some idea of the place and manner of articulation of the

sound or group of sounds which each symbol represents. Be-

PREFACE

sides the symbols (letters) for indicating the basic sound*

qualities, which constitute the gammakap proper, this uni-

versal system includes, of course, other symbols (modifiers),

for indicating voicelessness, nasality, and whisper, and the

various degrees of length, stress, and pitch. The second table

shows the letters of the English gammakap, with examples of

words containing the sounds which the letters represent. In

a few cases, examples from foreign languages have been

added, to show the occurrence of practically the same sounds

in those tongues.

UNIVERSAL GAMMAKAP

Letters inclosed in curvs ( > indic

are so inclosed, but mainly in the

sounds made portly in the position where their letters

tion where the same Irtters appear without curvs

OKGAN

s

Throat

Soft and Herd. Palate

Teeth

Li

Back Central Front

or Gums

Lip

Whollv clos

>d.

>

cq gk gK ;c

d t DT

bp

then open

ed

Rounded

0.

M

n i i

I

|

Rounded

So close as

to

h A H

K S ?x j 5

i r 60 jS ' s M

V f

v F w if qn

produce i"

iction

jx(wu-) ................
................

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