avio/n

[Ross Clark]

Dauzat and Robert credit the invention of Fr avion "airplane" to someone named
Ader, in 1875. It is said to be based on Latin avis, with, I guess, the same
suffix. In the absence of mention of any other language I would have to assume
that this Ader person was French.

Ross Clark

>>> Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu> 03/20 12:18 PM >>>
[snip]

>Most interesting.  Without ever really thinking about it, I'd always
>vaguely assumed that the word was <ave> `big bird' plus the augmentative
>suffix <-o'n> -- hence `really big bird', or some such.

>OK; it's dumb, but it's cute.

[snip]

It definitely makes sense at a superficial level
but if avión originally applied to swifts
then it couldn't fit, given that these are <pa/jaros>
rather than <aves>