Bombers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Aircraft built specifically to carry and release explosive bombs from the air ; individuals who deliberately set and detonate explosive devices to cause damage or harm
2. Planes designed to deliver bombs to targets from the sky ; persons responsible for carrying out bombings by placing explosive devices
3. Flying machines created to drop explosive charges on enemy targets ; people who execute or engage in bomb attacks using explosive materials

Etymology: The word is an inflected form, the plural of "bomber," so the history belongs to that base word. "Bomber" is formed from "bomb" plus the agent suffix "-er," the same ending found in words like "baker" or "miner." The noun "bomb" passed into English from French "bombe," which came from Italian "bomba," and that goes back to Latin "bombus," a loud booming sound. The Latin word in turn traces to Ancient Greek "bómbos," meaning a deep humming or buzzing noise, a sound-imitating root that the word's history carries from the start. Most of the word's meaning has come from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when explosive munitions and aircraft became central to warfare, and the agent noun naturally extended to whoever or whatever delivered them. The "bomber" that drops explosives from the air and the person who plants them both take their names from the same suffix attached to the same explosive. One related sense, from the word "bombproof," is also recorded in the sources, though that shortened form is a separate branch of the same family.

Synonyms: attackers, assailants, aircraft, fighters, invaders

Antonyms: defenders, protectors, guardians, saviors, rescuers