Sorry Scotty and Hempy, I come from a generation a long time before '94. I know language is something that evolves with time and meaning change (gay for example, I remember when all pilots would proudly proclaim to be gay, and if they were not, wished they were). Some one should tell Websters what the meaning of 'plane' is in the modern lexicon. When I asked my gunner "Can you see any planes?" I dont for one minute think he assumed I was talking about trees or things that shave wood.
WORD HISTORY The plane in which we fly is properly named for a very important element of its structure—the wing that keeps it in the air. But the story behind this name is slightly complicated. To begin with, plane in the sense of “winged vehicle,” first recorded in April 1908, is a shortened form of aeroplane. In June of that year plane appeared in a quotation from the London Times that mentioned one of the Wright brothers. Aeroplane, first recorded in 1866, is made up of the prefix aero–, “air, aviation,” and the word plane, referring to the structure designed to keep an air vehicle aloft. Originally the plane in such contexts was imagined as flat, hence the choice of the word plane; in practice this surface must curve slightly in order to work. The word aeroplane for the vehicle is first found in 1873. The first recorded appearance of the form airplane in our current sense, which uses air– instead of aero–, is found in 1907. An American flies in an airplane while a Briton still travels in an aeroplane, but both can catch a plane.
Last edited by Brian Abraham; 19th Mar 2007 at 08:31.