fuselage

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fuselage.^[2][3][4][5] The OED, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Collins derive the French word from fuseler (“to shape like a spindle”),^[2][6][7][8] while Etymonline, Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster derive it from fuselé (“spindle-shaped”),^[4][3][9][5] with the suffix -age.^[5][10] Either way it goes back to fuseau (“spindle”),^[2][7][10] from Old French fusel (“spindle”),^[9][8][11] from Vulgar Latin *fūsellus, a diminutive of Latin fūsus (“spindle”).^[9][3][4] The body of the aircraft was so called from its spindle-like shape.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The long body of an aeroplane, to which the wings and tail are attached: 1909, in the magazine Flight.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word was taken over from French in the early years of aviation, and its meaning has stayed close to the first one;^[2][12] the OED's definition adds that in modern aircraft the fuselage holds the crew and the passengers or cargo.^[2]

Timeline

• 1909 – the elongated body of an aeroplane.^[2][3][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The main body of an aircraft, apart from the wings and the tail, which holds the crew and the passengers or cargo: The engineers inspected a crack in the fuselage.^[8][5][2]

Related words

• fusee
• fusil

Usage notes

Besides the French-style ending /-lɑːʒ/, British English also has a pronunciation ending in /-lɪdʒ/.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press