aquaplane

English

WOTD – 28 May 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*h₂ékʷeh₂

A woman riding an aquaplane (noun sense) in 1919.

Two vehicles aquaplaning (verb sense 2) on a wet road.

The noun is derived from aqua- (prefix meaning ‘water’) +‎ plane (“flat or level surface”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”)).

The verb is derived from the noun, and is analysable as aqua- +‎ plane (“to glide; to soar; to skim a water surface”).

Pronunciation

• Noun:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈækwəpleɪn/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈækwəˌpleɪn/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• Verb:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈækwəpleɪn/, /ˌækwəˈpleɪn/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈækwəˌpleɪn/, /ˌækwəˈpleɪn/
  • Rhymes: (one pronunciation) -eɪn
• Hyphenation: aqua‧plane

Noun

aquaplane (plural aquaplanes)

1. (originally US, water sports) A board on which a person stands to ride for leisure which is pulled on a water surface by a motorboat.
   • 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter III, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 47:

     At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.

Derived terms

• aquaplaner
• aquaplaning (noun)

Translations

board on which a person stands to ride for leisure which is pulled on a water surface by a motorboat

• Finnish: vesilauta
• French: aquaplane (fr) f
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: acquaplano (it) m
• Macedonian: во́дни ски́и f pl (vódni skíi)
• Polish: akwaplan (pl) m
• Portuguese: aquaplano m (Brazil)
• Romanian: acvaplan (ro) n

See also

• hydrofoil (planar surface that generates lift in water)
• seaplane (airplane that alights on the sea)

Verb

aquaplane (third-person singular simple present aquaplanes, present participle aquaplaning, simple past and past participle aquaplaned) (intransitive)

1. (sports, intransitive) To ride for leisure standing up on a board pulled on a water surface by a motorboat.

   Coordinate term: water ski

   • 1933, E[dward] Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 1, in Crooks in the Sunshine, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland & Stewart, →OCLC:

     She waved her arm—a significant and imperative signal—but she realised, almost as she did it, that there was scant chance of any one aquaplaning at thirty or forty kilometres an hour looking to the right or to the left.

3. (by extension, chiefly British, automotive) Of a car or other road vehicle: to lose traction with the road due to the vehicle's tyres sliding on a film of water on the road.

   Synonym: (Canada, US) hydroplane

   • 2015, Anne Enright, “Shannon Airport”, in The Green Road, New York, N.Y., London: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, →ISBN, part 2, page 203:

     So much water. They were held up by it, the tyres skating over a film of rain. Aquaplaning. Flying his sister’s fancy car through the wet air. Touching nothing.

Translations

to ride for leisure standing up on a board pulled on a water surface by a motorboat

• Finnish: vesilautailla
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: скија на вода (skija na voda)

of a car, etc.: to lose traction with the road due to the vehicle’s tyres sliding on a film of water on the road

• Finnish: olla vesiliirrossa
• French: aquaplaner (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Greek: υδρολίσθηση (el) f (ydrolísthisi)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: aquaplanar
• Romanian: acvaplana
• Spanish: hacer aquaplaning
• Swedish: få vattenplaning, vattenplana (sv)

Further reading

• aquaplaning on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• aquaplaning (sport) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Noun

aquaplane f (plural aquaplanes)

1. aquaplane

Further reading

• “aquaplane”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Verb

aquaplane

1. inflection of aquaplanar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative