Etymology

U-boat

Today it means: Any German submarine of the First or Second World War, or any Austro-Hungarian submarine of the First World War. Full definition →

German U-Boot
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. German · calque ofU-Boot
  2. English todayU-boat

Calque of German U-Boot; retail sense separately coined and reinforced by the well-known historical U-boat.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.