taikonaut

taikonaut

See also: Taikonaut

English

Etymology

From Mandarin 太空 (tàikōng, “space”) +‎ -naut, modelled after astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut, etc. The term was coined on 19 May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (趙里昱／赵里昱 (Zhào Lǐyù)) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: tai‧ko‧naut
• IPA^(key): /ˈtaɪkəˌnɔːt/

Noun

taikonaut (plural taikonauts)

1. A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program; a Chinese astronaut. [from 1998.]
   • 2003, Peter Schwartz, Inevitable Surprises, page x:

     The past decade has seen remarkable events and changes: […] The Columbia disaster and a Chinese taikonaut in orbit

   Coordinate terms: astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut

Translations

Chinese astronaut

Arabic: تَايْكُونَات‎ (tāykonāt) Basque: taikonauta (eu) Catalan: taikonauta m or f Chinese: Mandarin: 太空人 (zh) (tàikōng rén), 宇航員 (zh) (yǔháng yuán), 航天員 (zh) (hángtiān yuán), 宇宙航行員 (yǔzhòu hángxíng yuán), 太空飛行員 (tàikōng fēixíngyuán) Min Nan: 太空人 (thài-khong-jîn) Cantonese: 太空人 (taai3 hung1 jan4) Esperanto: tajkonaŭto Finnish: taikonautti (fi) French: taïkonaute (fr) m or f German: Taikonaut (de) m, Taikonautin (de) f Greek: ταϊκοναύτης m (taïkonáftis) Hungarian: tajkonauta Japanese: タイコノート (taikonōto) Korean: 타이코놋 (taikonot) Navajo: wótááhgóó ałnááʼáłtʼahí Polish: tajkonauta (pl) m or f Portuguese: taikonauta (pt) m or f Romanian: taikonaut (ro) m Russian: тайкона́вт (ru) m (tajkonávt) Spanish: taikonauta (es) m or f Turkish: taykonot (tr)

Further reading

• “Taikonaut? Yuhangyuan?”, in Mail & Guardian‎, Johannesburg, South Africa, 12 October 2005, archived from the original on 2011-10-29.
• Paul McFedries (15 October 2003), “taikonaut”, in Word Spy, Logophilia Limited, retrieved 4 June 2017.