A propeller, especially on an airplane or aircraft; a screw-like device that pushes air to propel a flying machine.
Compound from 'air' and 'screw,' British/technical terminology from aviation's early days when propellers were literally described as screws rotating through air.
The term 'airscrew' reveals how aviation borrowed mechanical concepts—engineers thought of propellers as screws boring through air, and this 19th-century perspective shaped how we discuss flight.
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