propeller

Etymology

It is formed from English propel + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb propel is from Latin propellō (“to push forward, drive forth”), from prō (“forward”) and pellō (“to push, drive”), which Watkins, as Etymonline reports, derives from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[5] Some early forms end in -or,^[2] and Merriam-Webster still lists the spelling propellor as less common.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mechanical device for propelling something: 1780, in a British patent, where it is a turbine waterwheel.^[2][6] Etymonline gives the same year for "one who or that which propels",^[5] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1770–80.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Robert Fulton's American patent of 1809 it is any device fixed to a ship to propel it; later it came to mean specifically a screw propeller, a hub with two or more angled blades that turns under water.^[2][5] In 1843 a propeller was also a steamboat driven by a screw instead of a paddle wheel, a sense now historical.^[2][6] For flying machines the word appears in W. S. Henson's British patent of 1842, at first for any device giving thrust to an aircraft;^[2] Etymonline calls the 1842 use broad and theoretical and dates the modern aircraft sense to 1853.^[5] Figurative uses are recorded from 1815,^[2] and in 19th-century British slang propellers were legs (1865).^[7] Later specialized senses are a spinning fishing bait (before 1884) and, rarely, a self-propelled fire engine (1901).^[2]

Timeline

• 1780 – a mechanical device for propelling something.^[2][6][5]
• 1809 – a device for propelling a ship.^[2][5]
• 1815 – figurative uses.^[2]
• 1842 – a device giving thrust to an aircraft.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the specific modern sense to 1853.^[5]
• 1843 – a steamboat driven by a screw propeller.^[2]
• 1865 – in slang, a leg.^[7]
• before 1884 – in angling, a propeller bait.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device of two or more blades set around a rotating hub, which produces thrust to drive a ship or an aircraft.^[8][6][2]
2. A person or thing that propels.^[8][6][3]
3. (angling) A fishing lure with blades that make it spin as it is drawn through the water.^[2]
4. (historical) A steamboat driven by a screw propeller rather than a paddle wheel.^[2][6][3]

Word family

• propeller head
• propeller shaft

Related words

• prop
• propulsion
• propel
• propellant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins