nacelle
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nacelle
- /nəˈsɛl/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ɛl
Where it comes from
PIE word
*néh₂us
Borrowed from French nacelle (“rowing boat, skiff; gondola (of a hot-air balloon, etc.); structure on an aircraft to house an engine”), Middle French nacelle (“rowing boat, skiff”), from Old French nacele, from Late Latin naucella, nāvicella (“small boat or ship”), from Latin nāvis (“a ship”) (from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us (“a boat”)) + -ella (diminutive suffix).
Cognates
* Anglo-Norman naucele, naucle (“small boat”)
* Late Latin nacella (“small boat”)
noun nacelles
- The compartment that holds passengers on a dirigible, hot-air balloon, or other aerostat; a gondola.
- A separate streamlined enclosure mounted on an aircraft to house, originally, an engine, and now also cargo or crew.
- The cockpit of an aircraft.
- A hollow boat-shaped structure.
- An enclosure housing machinery or a motor.
- The part between the rotor and tower of a wind turbine.
- The submersed providers of buoyancy of a SWATH-hulled boat.
- A streamlined enclosure on the body or dashboard of a motor vehicle.
Translations
Talk about this word "nacelle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nacelle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. nacelle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nacelle "nacelle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nacelle.Cite this
@misc{nacelle_2026,
title = {nacelle},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nacelle},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
