Copilot

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A person who assists the pilot of an aircraft by sharing flying duties, navigation, and communication tasks
2. A secondary pilot in an airplane responsible for supporting the primary pilot and helping manage flight operations
3. An aviator who works alongside the main pilot to operate and control an aircraft during flight

Etymology: Copilot is a plain compound: the prefix "co-", meaning "together" or "with", attached to "pilot". The prefix comes from Latin "con-" (in its shortened form "co-"), and "pilot" traces back through Latin "pilotus" and Italian "pilota" to Greek "pēdōtēs", meaning steersman, and ultimately to "pēdon", meaning oar or blade. A pilot was originally the person who steered a ship, so the word's oldest sense is nautical. Put together, a copilot is literally someone who shares the steering. The idea of a second person at the controls of an aircraft followed the arrival of powered flight in the early twentieth century, when multi-engine planes made it practical to have two people sharing the work of navigating and operating the machine. The compound simply applied the existing vocabulary of seafaring to the new cockpit.

Synonyms: assistant pilot, second pilot, first officer, flight officer, co-aviator

Antonyms: pilot, captain