Blimps

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /blɪmps/

Definitions

1. A type of airship characterized by a gas-filled envelope that maintains its shape and remains buoyant in the air while being steered or propelled
2. Referring to the lighter-than-air vehicles that travel slowly and are often used for advertising and aerial observation
3. Describing the non-rigid air vehicles that are powered by engines and can ascend and descend by adjusting the amount of gas in their envelopes

Etymology: The word is a verb form in the source (third-person singular of "blimp"), but the noun sense meaning these airships is the one at issue, and it traces back to a single coinage. Lieutenant A. D. Cunningham of the British Royal Navy is usually credited with introducing the term in 1915, though the origin is not fully settled. The most common explanation is that it imitates a sound: the soft, springy noise a blimp's envelope makes when thumped. This is most historians' view, and it is the explanation that fits the word's shape best. A popular story says it stands for "Type B-limp," a supposed American classification of non-rigid airships, but this is false. The Oxford English Dictionary records the word in print in England in 1916, a year before the United States had any B-class airship, so the acronym cannot be the source.

Synonyms: airships, dirigibles