shuttle
pronunciation
How to pronounce shuttle in British English:
UK [ˈʃʌtl]
How to pronounce shuttle in American English:
US [ˈʃʌtl]
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- Noun:
- badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers
- public transport that consists of a bus or train or airplane that plies back and forth between two points
- bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads
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- Verb:
- travel back and forth between two points
Word Origin
- shuttle
- shuttle: [OE] A shuttle is etymologically something that is ‘shot’. Indeed, the word’s Old English precursor scytel meant ‘arrow’ or ‘dart’. It comes ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic base *skaut-, *skeut-, *skut- ‘project’, which also produced English shoot and shut. There is a gap between the disappearance of Old English scytel and the emergence of shuttle in the 14th century, but they are presumably the same word (a shuttle being something that is thrown or ‘shot’ across a loom).=> shut
- shuttle (n.)
- Old English scytel "a dart, arrow," from Proto-Germanic *skutilaz (cognates: Old Norse skutill "harpoon"), from PIE *skeud- "to shoot, to chase, to throw, to project" (see shoot (v.)). The original sense in English is obsolete; the weaving instrument so called (mid-14c.) from being "shot" across the threads. Sense of "train that runs back and forth" is first recorded 1895, from image of the weaver's instrument's back-and-forth movement over the warp; extended to aircraft 1942, to spacecraft 1969. In some other languages, the weaving instrument takes its name from its resemblance to a boat (Latin navicula, French navette, German weberschiff).
- shuttle (v.)
- 1550s, "move rapidly to and fro," from shuttle (n.); sense of "transport via a shuttle service" is recorded from 1930. Related: Shuttled; shuttling.
Example
- 1. It is the world 's biggest lego space shuttle .
- 2. The shuttle has been proven immune to this risk .
- 3. This shuttle replica is another giant step for mankind .
- 4. Few scientists believe that the space shuttle has helped their profession .
- 5. But the shuttle was not sold to the public as an experimental craft .