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zeppelin

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Etymology and origin of the French word zeppelin

Confidence
Established
Formation
Eponym
First attested
1907 More words from the 20th century
From
German Zeppelin

Pronunciation

Forms

zeppelin m (plural zeppelins)[1]

Etymology

It is the name of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), the German inventor and builder of rigid airships (from German Zeppelin), used as a common noun.[2][3][4][5] The English word zeppelin (1900) comes from German, where the name is short for Zeppelinschiff (“Zeppelin ship”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Petit Robert dates it from 1907;[2][4][3] the TLFi's first record is L. Marchis's Le Navire aérien (1909), which writes les Zeppelin.[2] The GLLF also cites the Larousse mensuel of November 1910, and the FEW dates it from about 1910.[7][5] It named a large rigid airship with a metal frame.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in French during the German air raids on Paris in the First World War, and was much used again for the disaster that destroyed the largest of these airships, which carried passengers across the Atlantic.[3] In soldiers' slang of 1917 zeppelins were the bombs fired by German trench mortars.[2] It is now a historical term.[3]

Timeline

  • 1907 – First record according to the Petit Robert.[2][4]
  • 1909 – L. Marchis writes of les Zeppelin.[2]
  • 1910 – The Larousse mensuel has the word.[7]
  • 1917 – Army slang uses it for German trench-mortar bombs.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (aeronautics, history) A very large rigid airship with a metal frame, built in Germany from 1900 to the 1930s.[8][2][9]
  2. (military slang, dated) A bomb fired by a German trench mortar.[2]
  • dirigeable

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 628b
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Zeppelin.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/zeppelin. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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