taikonaut

Etymology

From Mandarin 太空 (tàikōng, “space”) + -naut, modelled after astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut, etc. The term was coined on 19 May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (趙里昱／赵里昱／赵里昱／赵里昱 (Zhào Lǐyù)) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media.

noun

  1. A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program; a Chinese astronaut.
    The past decade has seen remarkable events and changes: […] The Columbia disaster and a Chinese taikonaut in orbit 2003, Peter Schwartz, Inevitable Surprises, page x

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/taikonaut), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.