Etymologically
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propeller

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /pɹəˈpɛl.ə/[1]
  • US: /pɹəˈpɛl.ɚ/[1]

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

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