air | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

13 entries found.

formed May 16, 1928, as Transcontinental Air Transport, merged 1930 with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental and Western Air Inc. (TWA). Name changed to Trans World Airlines 1950, but the moniker remained the same. Its last remnants were bought out by rival American Airlines in April 2001.

Stonehenge (n.)

early 12c., Stanenges, literally "stone gallows," perhaps so called from fancied resemblance to old-style gallows with two posts, with the second element related to the verb hang. Some antiquarians suggest the notion may be of "supported in the air, that which hangs in the air" (compare henge-clif for Latin præruptum), in reference to the lintel stones, but the order of the elements and the inflection is against this. An ancient name for it was the Giant's Dance.

Bessemer (adj.)

by 1856 in reference to the process for decarbonizing and desiliconizing pig iron by passing air through the molten metal, named for engineer and inventor Sir Harry Bessemer (1813-1898) who invented it.

Danny

familiar form of proper name Daniel. The words to the popular song "Danny Boy" were written by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly in 1910 and altered in 1913 to fit the old Irish tune of "Londonderry Air."

Hells Angels (n.)

motorcycle club, the name first attested 1957. They were called Black Rebels in the 1954 film "The Wild One." Earlier Hell's Angels had been used as the title of a film about World War I air combat (1930).

Quonset hut

1942, from Quonset Point Naval Air Station, Rhode Island, where this type of structure was first built, in 1941. The place name is from a southern New England Algonquian language and perhaps means "small, long place."

Airedale

type of terrier, 1880, named for Airedale, a district in West Riding, Yorkshire. The place name is from the river Aire, which bears a name of uncertain origin.

Name registered by Kennel Club (1886), for earlier Bingley (where first bred), or broken-haired terrier. [Weekley]

Bircher (n.)

1961, member of the U.S. anti-communist John Birch Society, which was founded 1958 and named for John Birch, U.S. Baptist missionary and Army Air Forces captain killed by Chinese Communists shortly after the end of World War II, who is considered the first American casualty of the Cold War.

Kilroy

U.S. military graffito character, 1945, said to be either Sgt. Francis J. Kilroy Jr., U.S. Army Air Transport, whose friend or friends began writing his name everywhere as a prank; or war materiéls inspector James J. Kilroy of Quincy, Mass., who wrote "Kilroy was here" on everything he checked.

Bow bells (n.)

"born within the sound of Bow Bells" is the traditional (since early 17c.) definition of a Cockney; the reference is to the bells of the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in London's Cheapside district. A church or chapel probably stood there in Anglo-Saxon times, and has been rebuilt many times (it was last destroyed in a 1941 air raid); the bells were noted for their sound from 16c., and a great bell hung there from 1762 to 1941. The church was noted from medieval times for its arches, hence the name, from bow (n.1).

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