Kitesailor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone who sails or rides on a board or harness while being pulled by a large kite over water
2. A person skilled at controlling a power kite to glide across the surface of the sea or a lake
3. An athlete who steers a kite to propel themselves over water or land using wind power

Etymology: "Kitesailor" is a plain compound of "kite" and "sailor," and its history is recent. It was coined in the late twentieth century, when kitesurfing emerged as a sport, and it follows the older pattern in which a sailor is someone who rides a craft powered by wind. The word joins the ordinary sense of "sailor," a person who sails a vessel, with "kite," the wind-lifted device that here provides the propulsion. The meaning has been carried over from the older nautical sense of "sailor" without much change. A kitesailor is still a person working the wind on water, but the sail is a large kite held on lines, and the rider often stands on a small board. The compound shows how sports terminology borrowed established words for familiar roles rather than inventing new ones from scratch.