Freefaller

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone or something descending through the air without a powered or controlled means of support ; a skydiver who jumps and falls before deploying a parachute ; a person who has dropped from favor or standing
2. One who plummets through the sky unsupported ; a parachutist who drops freely for a time before opening the canopy ; an individual who has tumbled from a previous position of influence
3. A body in unchecked descent through the atmosphere ; a jumper who performs a free fall before the chute is released ; someone who has slipped out of a former place of favor or prominence

Etymology: "Freefaller" is a plain compound, built from "freefall" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, or alternatively from "free" plus "faller," which is the sense it takes. Either route leads to the same meaning: a person or thing that falls without support or without a parachute opening, as a skydiver does before deploying a canopy, or a body moving under gravity alone. The "free" in "freefall" carries its older sense of "unrestrained" or "without constraint," the same sense found in "free fall" as a term for motion when only gravity acts on a body. The word "fall" is the ordinary English verb of descent, so the compound is transparent: something that falls freely.

Synonyms: skydiver, parachutist