Astronaut vs Cosmonaut?

[Pawelk198604]

I wonder why Western world use word Astronaut and Eastern world (Russia) use Cosmonaut, both terms are synonymous

But in Poland older people tend to use word (Kosmoanuta) Cosmonaut and younger generation more likely use word Astronauta (Astronaut)

the one and only Polish Cosmonaut/Astronaut Mirosław Hermaszewski http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miros%C5%82aw_Hermaszewski used call himself Kosmonauta/Cosmonaut.

[Streetwind]

It probably started as a way for the two squabbling factions during the Cold War to make themselves different from the opposing faction. It would have been preposterous to actually agree on something, even if it made perfect sense.

But it seems like more and more countries nowadays are looking for new things to tack in front of "-naut". For example China calls its space travelers "taikonauts".

[Albert VDS]

All the different names for a person in space depends on what the people and their language decide it to be.

Most countries use Astronaut. Russians (and countries who were once part of the Sovjet Union) have Cosmonaut.

China uses Astronaut in their English communications and Cosmonauts in their Russian communications, their official Chinese name is 航天员 "space navigating personnel" according to wikipedia.

Taikonout is used by the English media to describe Chinese Astronauts

Spationaut is used for a French Astronaut.

Angkasawan is a Malaysian Astronaut.

Vyomanauts is an Indian Astronaut.

[Pawelk198604]

All the different names for a person in space depends on what the people and their language decide it to be.

Most countries use Astronaut. Russians (and countries who were once part of the Sovjet Union) have Cosmonaut.

China uses Astronaut in their English communications and Cosmonauts in their Russian communications, their official Chinese name is 航天员 "space navigating personnel" according to wikipedia.

Taikonout is used by the English media to describe Chinese Astronauts

Spationaut is used for a French Astronaut.

Angkasawan is a Malaysian Astronaut.

Vyomanauts is an Indian Astronaut.

What a stupidity, why create new words when you can just call someone using the two most common names which is. astronaut or cosmonaut?

What are the names before the pre-war poland called awiatorami (aviators) or areonautami (Aeronautami) but the second name was more often for balloon pilots, aircraft was called Areoplan (but in 30 s our nationalistic government begin clearing Polish language of foreign sounding words)

Edited September 29, 2014 by Pawelk198604

[Elthy]

In Germany we normaly (in the news and personal) use Astronaut, there is no special word for people like Alexander Gerst. Im not sure about the former DDR, i assume people did grow up with Cosmonaut but i doubt its still used as a general word for people that go to space.

[Nibb31]

In France, we use astronaut, cosmonaut, taikonaut for Chinese astronauts and spationaut for French ones. It's utterly stupid.

[Superfluous J]

What a stupidity, why create new words when you can just call someone using the two most common names which is. astronaut or cosmonaut?

I know, it's like we're all speaking different languages or something.

[KOCOUR]

For me it allways been and allways will be kosmonaut. But seriously, who cares? Call it what you want, as long as i understand who you are talking about.

[Dkmdlb]

What a stupidity, why create new words when you can just call someone using the two most common names which is. astronaut or cosmonaut?

Diversity of language is a good thing. It allows for efficiency and clarity. As an example, the fact that all these variations exist mean that you can give the information about the nationality of the astronaut without adding any words. Instead of Russian astronaut, you can just say cosmonaut. Instead of saying Chinese astronaut you can just say taikonaut. See? And isn't that the whole point of language? To effectively delineate between concepts?

[Moar Boosters]

None of them are great terms. "Naut" specifies voyager or traveler so that's okay, but "astro" indicates something to do with the stars. We've not reached that stage yet! Cosmo specifies the universe, so I guess that's either more or less ambitious depending on your perspective.

The chinese "space navigating personnel" sounds the most accurate to me.

[Brotoro]

The science of flight and navigation beyond Earth's atmosphere became known as "astronautics" (in parallel to aeronautics, the science of flight within the atmosphere) in the 1920s. Apparently the origin of the term is French. 'Astronaut' comes from that.

[Kryten]

China uses Astronaut in their English communications and Cosmonauts in their Russian communications, their official Chinese name is 航天员 "space navigating personnel" according to wikipedia.

航天员 are Chinese nationals only. Foreigners are 宇航员, which means exactly the same thing but is pronounced differently. To confuse matters a bit further, the official press agency (Xinhua) does use 'Taikonaut' in English-language articles.

[TythosEternal]

I am reading a most fascinating book right now ( The Red Rocket's Glare, by Asif Siddiqi), that addresses (among many other things) this exact phenomenon. The history of manned spaceflight in Soviet Russia was strongly influenced (he argues) by an industrial-age ideology known as Cosmism (the famous rocket scientist Tsiolkovski being one of several major advocates), whose adherents believed in scientifically-driven progress of a collective universe seeking to immortalize every human being (including those already dead, by way of resurrection through applied scienctific development).

The term "cosmonaut," in this context, addresses a discrepancy between those who seek to travel the stars ("astronauts") and those who imagine space travel as a key step to expanding humanity into racial perfection and immortality (as preached by Cosmist philosophers). While the Soviet Union was never big on such broad, borderline-religious ideologies, the populist (and quasi-athiest) appeal of this message synergized nicely with propaganda themes of the time. By extension, ICBM development (which then led directly into the Soviet space program) was performed by many individuals who were inspired by such beliefs and narratives fostered within that community (combined, of course, with the infamous Russian inferiority complex that perceived the "west" was headed in the direction of similar accomplishments).

I suspect that Siddiqi is incorrect in crediting this term solely to the influence of Cosmism on the Soviet space program. However, it seems possible that this was one major factor, and one I'll admit I hadn't considered before. Most likely, I think, the term originated as a Russian equivalent for minor reasons such as these l, which contemporary narratives and political expediencies then forced into sharp juxtaposition with the "western" term, "astronaut." Nonetheless, the text is a good read that I'd strongly recommend.

[Idobox]

French man talking here. We can't put people in space by ourselves, so having a name for French people in space is very stupid. That being said, I really like the word spationaut, because humanity sends people to space, not to the stars.

Another thing to point out, space is translated into kosmos in russian. Cosmonaut makes more sense than astronaut on a linguistic basis, the Russians are the only ones able to put people in space right now, they were the first to be able to do so, so I tend to favor this word.

[Kryten]

Cosmonaut makes more sense than astronaut on a linguistic basis, the Russians are the only ones able to put people in space right now, they were the first to be able to do so, so I tend to favor this word.

Chinese can too, don't forget. The recent surfeit of missions is a result of having nowhere to go rather than the american issue of no way to get there.

[Idobox]

Chinese can too, don't forget. The recent surfeit of missions is a result of having nowhere to go rather than the american issue of no way to get there.

I hadn't heard about Chinese human flight since the 2008 season, and assumed they had put it on ice. Apparently, they've flown people in 2012 and 2013, so they still have the capacity, not just the potential. My bad.

Still, human space flight today is massively dominated by Russians, they were the first, and their terminology makes more sense.

[dbmorpher]

-naut stems from the latin word Nauta which means sailor.

[lajoswinkler]

-naut stems from the latin word Nauta which means sailor.

Actually, it's Greek ναῦ (ship) and ναÃÂÄη (seaman, sailor).

[szputnyik]

We use "űrhajós" in Hungarian, it means "space sailor". Bertalan Farkas, the Hungarian cosmonaut who was on an Interkosmos mission in 1980 still prefers to be called a "kozmonauta".

Astronaut or "asztronauta" exists, but is not really used. Terms from other countries like "taikonaut" are mostly unkown.

[lajoswinkler]

In Croatia it's "astronaut" and "kozmonaut" only when Soviet/Russian astronauts are discussed, but even then, "astronaut" is fairly dominant term.

[Kulebron]

The Russian word for Cosmonaut comes from "cosmos" (úþÑÂüþÑÂ) which is borrowed in Russian and, as all borrowed terms, has more specific meaning: interplanetary or interstellar space. So the one who flies in cosmos is, naturally, cosmonaut.

I'm curious about the way the English term formed. I guess space is too broad to have been a root of the neologism, and cosmos means something like universe, which is too broad again. So the choice fell on astro-.

By the way, Russian sci-fi since Tsiolkovsky's times or a bit later has always had a word zvezdolyot (star flier), but in real life it's always called "space ship".

I am reading a most fascinating book right now ( The Red Rocket's Glare, by Asif Siddiqi), that addresses (among many other things) this exact phenomenon. The history of manned spaceflight in Soviet Russia was strongly influenced (he argues) by an industrial-age ideology known as Cosmism (the famous rocket scientist Tsiolkovski being one of several major advocates), whose adherents believed in scientifically-driven progress of a collective universe seeking to immortalize every human being (including those already dead, by way of resurrection through applied scienctific development).

That's interesting. I'm sure, maintaining our own word wasn't a matter of any rivalry. There just wasn't any other suitable word. Few technical specialists knew English those days, let alone read any foreign mass media. The ICBM industry was super secret (and was part of it untill the collapse of USSR), and communications with the outer world were scarce.

Language is usually a matter of understanding each other, and common ideas. It's hard to tell people how to name things. Xerox couldn't have stop people from buying a Canon xerox, or have "xerokopirovaniye" (xerox copying) in legal documents. The exception is when you have strong influence like propaganda, or having PR department in such a narrow (in the scale of the humanity) sector as space exploration.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Kulebron

[Kosmonaut]

The chinese word for astronaut is Taikonaut. It means sky sailor. Cosmonaut means space sailor, and Astronaut means star sailor.