Astronaut, nautical and the sailor root
Astronaut means star sailor. The naut- root runs through nautical, nausea and Nautilus.
Star sailor
Astronaut is Greek astron (star) + nautēs (sailor). So an astronaut is a "star sailor." The Soviet word cosmonaut is kosmos (the ordered universe) + nautēs, a "universe sailor."
The sailor family
Greek naus means ship, and nautēs is the person who sails it. Latin borrowed the same idea as navis (ship). Relatives:
- Nautical: to do with sailors and ships
- Nautical mile: the sailor's mile, one minute of latitude (about 1.15 ordinary miles)
- Navy, naval, navigate: from Latin navis
- Nausea: literally seasickness, from naus
- Argonauts: the sailors of the ship Argo in the Jason myth
- Nautilus: see below
Naut- yes, but what is -tilus?
Nautilus is the Greek nautilos, "sailor," built on the same naut- root. The -ilos ending just makes it a noun, so there is no separate "tilus" word. The Greeks gave the name to the sea creature with the coiled shell (the chambered nautilus, and the paper nautilus), because they imagined it sailing on the surface.
Robert Fulton borrowed the name for his 1800 submarine, and Jules Verne borrowed it again for Captain Nemo's submarine. See Fulton's Nautilus.
Key facts
- Astronaut: Greek astron (star) + nautēs (sailor) = star sailor
- Nausea literally means seasickness (Greek naus, ship)
- Nautilus: Greek nautilos, sailor; no separate "tilus" root