Skydove

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Jumped from an aircraft using a parachute during freefall ; moved through the air rapidly from great height
2. Leapt out of a flying vehicle and descended using a parachute ; fell swiftly through the sky from an elevated position
3. Exited an aircraft in midair and parachuted down ; plunged downward from a significant altitude through the atmosphere

Etymology: "Skydove" is the past tense of "skydive," so it describes an action already completed: someone who jumped from an aircraft. The verb "skydive" is a simple compound of "sky" and "dive," the first a word with Old English roots meaning the heavens and the second a verb that came into English from Old French, with a much older tracing back to Germanic roots. Combined, the pair describes exactly what the sport is: a dive through the sky rather than into water. The past form follows the usual pattern for a regular verb in which the vowel changes from "dive" to "dove," the older past tense of "dive" that remained in use in American English. Speakers therefore have two options for the past tense, "dived" and "dove," and "skydove" is the form built on the American variant.