cosmonaut

What it means

1. An astronaut, especially a Russian or Soviet one.

   Khrushchev’s answer came 60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard a spacecraft called Vostok 1.

   2021 April 12, Gregory McNamee, “This Soviet cosmonaut was the first human in orbit — fueling the space race”, in CNN

   1 more example

   Longtime NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who has ventured to space four times, returned to Earth on Saturday night from the International Space Station. Pettit, who turned 70 on Sunday, landed at 9:20 p.m. ET in a Soyuz spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after a seven-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

   2025 April 19, Ashley Strickland, “An astronaut’s awe-inspiring views from life in space”, in CNN

In a sentence

Khrushchev’s answer came 60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard a spacecraft called Vostok 1.

2021 April 12, Gregory McNamee, “This Soviet cosmonaut was the first human in orbit — fueling the space race”, in CNN

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekκόσμος“universe”
2. Russianкосмона́вт
3. Englishcosmonaut

Borrowed from Russian космона́вт (kosmonávt), from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “universe”) + ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”). By surface analysis, cosmo- + -naut.