Astronautic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the science or technology involved in traveling through outer space
2. Connected with the methods and equipment used to navigate or explore space beyond Earth's atmosphere
3. Describing aspects related to the operation or study of spacecraft and their flights

Etymology: Astronautic is formed from "astronaut" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ic". The first half comes from the Greek "astron," meaning "star," combined with "nautes," meaning "sailor," so an astronaut is literally a "star-sailor." The French writer Jules Verne was using "astronaute" in the 1860s, when his novel "Hector Servadac" (1877) and related works were sending people through space, but the term did not appear in English until the early 1900s, and English writers initially used "astronaut" and "astronautics" more often than "astronautic." The adjective "astronautic" itself is a later derivation. "Astronautics," the noun for the science and practice of space travel, took hold in English around the 1930s and 1940s, and "astronautic" follows the same pattern as "aeronautic" and "nautic," the nautical root that also gave us "nautical." Its meaning has stayed close to its origin: a ship's pilot on Earth's seas gave way to a pilot beyond the sky.

Synonyms: space, cosmic, extraterrestrial