Wheredoes the term airplane come from?

Question

Wheredoes the term airplane come from?

Answer 1

It is a thing that planes through air. It is riding on a plane of air.

When a boat starts to ride up in the water when it is going faster, it is said to be planing up.

Answer 2

In my opinion airplane derives from french aéroplane. aero (because it moves in the air) and plane(flat surface, clear reference to the wing) in fact if the wing is one it's called mono-plane, if two bi-plane. if three tri-plane ecc...

"plane" may also mean that airplanes were "flat" compared to the "spherical" big volumes of aerostati(baloons, airships)

But "plane" can also be linked to "planer", french word for glide.

Answer 3

Airplane comes from the USA Webster's dictionary.

The word should be aeroplane. Even in the USA it was aeroplane until they created the mis-spelling "airplane" early last century for their own strange reasons.

It's origin is Greek.

Aero = of the atmosphere, the air.

Planos = wanderer or traveller. (not "planet" as Cherokee said, in fact the celestial planets are called planets because they "wander" or "travel" through the sky; or flat as the other person said - that's  different).

Therefore the word means (controlled) traveller through the atmosphere.

It is used to refer to fixed wing powered flying machines. The more general term "aircraft" includes All artificial flying machines: balloons, gliders, kites, blimps, parachutes, aeroplanes, helicopters, etc..

Answer 4

Cherokee didn't say "plane" means "planet."  

He said "plane" is cognate with the word "planet."

Answer 5

The term "plane" in airplane refers to the fact that an aircraft is flying on a plane through the air, thus the layman term "airplane." It's based off of geometry.

Answer 6

The "plane" of "airplane" is actually cognate with the word "planet," which derives from a Greek word that means "wandering." A planet is a heavenly body that wanders through space, and an airplane is a machine that wanders through the air. As Gertrude Stein might have said, "An airplane is an airplane is an airplane." Neither "air" nor "plane" means "airplane"; only "airplane" means "airplane" - except when "plane" is being used as an abbreviation for "airplane"!