jettison
pronunciation
How to pronounce jettison in British English:
UK [ˈdʒetɪsn]
How to pronounce jettison in American English:
US [ˈdʒetɪsn]
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- Verb:
- throw away, of something encumbering
- throw as from an airplane
Word Origin
- jettison
- jettison: [15] Etymologically, to jettison something is to ‘throw’ it overboard. Like jet, as in ‘jet engine’, the word comes from Latin jactāre ‘throw’. The abstract noun derived from this was jactātiō, which entered English via Anglo-Norman getteson. It was used for the ‘action of throwing cargo overboard, especially in order to lighten a ship’, but it was not converted to its familiar modern role, as a verb, until as recently as the 19th century. The contracted form jetson, later jetsam, emerged in the 16th century, and later came to be used for such jettisoned material washed ashore.=> jet, jctsam
- jettison (v.)
- 1848, from jettison (n.) "act of throwing overboard" to lighten a ship. This noun was an 18c. Marine Insurance writers' restoration of the earlier form and original sense of the 15c. word that had become jetsam, probably because jetsam had taken on a sense of "things cast overboard" and an unambiguous word was needed for "act of throwing overboard." Middle English jetteson (n.) "act of throwing overboard" is from Anglo-French getteson, from Old French getaison "act of throwing (goods overboard)," especially to lighten a ship in distress, from Late Latin iactionem (nominative iactatio) "act of throwing," noun of action from past participle stem of iectare "toss about" (see jet (v.)). Related: Jettisoned.
Example
- 1. 1 Jettison quarterly guidance .
- 2. Americans are the champions of trash : on average they jettison over 700kg each a year .
- 3. Gm is desperate to jettison the " government motors " stigma , which it believes is costing it sales .
- 4. This willingness to jettison ideological baggage while clinging to leninist first principles also helps answer the first question , about the party 's surprising durability .
- 5. However , with america beset by worries about high unemployment and a spiraling national debt , old nostrums about free trade are easier to jettison .