Etymology

suborbital

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Today it means: Not reaching orbit; having a trajectory that does not reach orbital velocity and so must return to ground eventually. Full definition →

English orbital ← Latin sub- ← Proto-Italic *supo
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*upó
  2. Proto-Italic*supo
  3. Latinsub
  4. Latinsub-
  5. Englishsub-
  6. Englishorbital
  7. English todaysuborbital

From sub- + orbital.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.