astronaut

Etymology

From astro- + -naut. Coined from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”) and ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”).

noun

  1. A member of the crew of a spaceship or other spacecraft that travels beyond Earth's atmosphere, or someone trained to serve that purpose.
    1. An American space traveler, when contrasted against equivalent terms from other countries such as cosmonaut, taikonaut, spationaut, and vyomanaut.
      Though from different social, economic, and political worlds, the astronauts and cosmonauts had much in common, both as professionals and human beings. 2013, Edward Clinton Ezell, Linda Neuman Ezell, The Partnership: A NASA History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Courier Corporation
  2. (Hong Kong) A person (typically man) working abroad away from their family.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/astronaut), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.