empennage

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Italic *en

Proto-Italic *en-

Latin in-

Old French en-

French en-

French penne

Proto-Italic *-āzi

▲

Latin -ereinflu.

Latin -āre

Old French -ier

Middle French -er

French -er

French empenner

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Indo-European *-ikos

Proto-Italic *-ikos

Latin -icus

Latin -āticus

Latin -āticum

Old French -age

Middle French -age

French -age

French empennagebor.

English empennage

Borrowed from French empennage (“feathers of an arrow”).

Noun

empennage (plural empennages)

1. The tail assembly of an aircraft.
2. The feathers of an arrow or the tail fins of a bomb or rocket used to stabilize the longitudinal axis of the projectile parallel to the flight path.

French

Etymology

From empenner +‎ -age.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.pɛ.naʒ/ ~ /ɑ̃.pe.naʒ/

  • Audio (France (Lyon)):

    (file)

Noun

empennage f (plural empennages)

1. fletching
2. empennage

Further reading

• “empennage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012