nacelle

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word nacelle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word nacelle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say nacelle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word nacelle you have here. The definition of the word nacelle will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofnacelle, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

WOTD – 24 May 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*néh₂us
The nacelle (sense 1.1) or gondola of the Hindenburg airship.
The nacelle (sense 1.2) of a Boeing 737-400 aircraft housing one of its engines.
The box-shaped nacelle (sense 2.3) of a wind turbine.
The headlamp of a Douglas Dragonfly motorcycle is housed in a nacelle (sense 2.5).

Borrowed from French nacelle (“rowing boat, skiff; gondola (of a hot-air balloon, etc.); structure on an aircraft to house an engine”), Middle French nacelle (“rowing boat, skiff”), from Old French nacele, from Late Latin naucella, nāvicella (“small boat or ship”), from Latin nāvis (“a ship”) (from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us (“a boat”)) + -ella (diminutive suffix).[1]

cognates

Pronunciation

Noun

nacelle (plural nacelles)

  1. (aviation)
    2. The compartment that holds passengers on a dirigible, hot-air balloon, or other aerostat; a gondola.
    4. A separate streamlined enclosure mounted on an aircraft to house, originally, an engine, and now also cargo or crew.
    5. (archaic) The cockpit of an aircraft.
  2. (by extension)
    1. A hollow boat-shaped structure.
    2. An enclosure housing machinery or a motor.
    4. (electrical engineering) The part between the rotor and tower of a wind turbine.
    5. (nautical) The submersed providers of buoyancy of a SWATH-hulled boat.
    7. (road transport) A streamlined enclosure on the body or dashboard of a motor vehicle.

Translations

streamlined enclosure on the body or dashboard of a motor vehicle

References

  1. ^ “nacelle, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “nacelle, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French nacele (“small boat”), from Late Latin navicella, diminutive of Latin navis (“boat”). Doublet of navicelle.

Pronunciation

Noun

nacelle f (plural nacelles)

  1. (literary) skiff
  2. gondola (of hot-air balloon etc.)
  3. pod (of spacecraft)
  4. cradle

Derived terms

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia