pneumatique

From French pneumatique.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /njuːmaˈtiːk/

pneumatique (plural pneumatiques)

1. (historical) The pneumatic postal system in Paris (abolished 1984), or a letter sent by this system.
   • 1928, Jean Rhys, Quartet, Penguin, published 2000, page 71:

     Then, full of imaginative and slightly sentimental resolution, he went out and posted the pneumatique.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 412:

     Thus were great love-letters born – they would be sent by pneumatique and a helmeted motor cyclist would deliver them, like Mercury himself, within the hour.

French Wikipedia has an article on:

pneumatique

Wikipedia ^fr

Learned borrowing from Latin pneumaticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πνευματικός (pneumatikós, “relating to wind or air”), from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “wind, air, breath, spirit”).

• IPA^(key): /pnø.ma.tik/

pneumatique (plural pneumatiques)

1. pneumatic

• matelas pneumatique

pneumatique m (plural pneumatiques)

1. (archaic) tyre (wheel covering)

   Synonym: (much more common) pneu

• → English: pneumatique
• → Portuguese: pneumático

• “pneumatique”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.