Etymology

astronaut

A1S1T1R1O1N1A1U1T1

Today it means: A member of the crew of a spaceship or other spacecraft that travels beyond Earth's atmosphere, or someone trained to serve that purpose. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ἄστρον
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromἄστρον“star”
  2. English todayastronaut

From astro- + -naut. Coined from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”) and ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekἄστρον all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.