nacelle
/nəˈsɛl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.21 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The compartment that holds passengers on a dirigible, hot-air balloon, or other aerostat; a gondola.
noun
A separate streamlined enclosure mounted on an aircraft to house, originally, an engine, and now also cargo or crew.
noun
noun
The part between the rotor and tower of a wind turbine.
noun
A streamlined enclosure on the body or dashboard of a motor vehicle.
Etymology
PIE word *néh₂us 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). Cognates * Anglo-Norman naucele, naucle (“small boat”) * Late Latin nacella (“small boat”)
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: nacelle, nacele, naucella, nāvis, *néh₂us
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /nəˈsɛl/
- British English: /nəˈsɛl/