Spaceship

/ˈspeɪsʃɪp/ noun

Definition

A vehicle designed to travel through outer space beyond Earth's atmosphere, carrying people or equipment to explore planets and stars.

Etymology

Modern English compound: 'space' (outer space, from Latin 'spatium') + 'ship.' The term became common in science fiction in the early 1900s and was popularized by real space exploration starting in the 1950s.

Kelly Says

We've only had real spaceships for 70 years, yet the term was coined centuries earlier in imaginative fiction—science fiction writers literally invented the concept before engineers could build it, which is why sci-fi is sometimes called a prediction engine.

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