The Space Shuttle Was Named After a Weaving Tool
A shuttle travels back and forth. The word began as the weaver's tool that carries thread across the loom.
A shuttle is anything that travels back and forth on a fixed route. The original is a weaver's shuttle, the small carrier that shoots the weft thread from one side of the loom to the other and back. Buses, trains and spacecraft took the name for exactly that motion — and *shuttlecock* keeps it too.
- A vehicle running back and forth. *An airport shuttle.*
- A weaving tool. *The shuttle crosses the warp.*
- To move back and forth. *Shuttling between offices.*
- Shuttlecock — the object hit in badminton. *A feathered shuttlecock.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | shuttle | A shuttle bus. |
| Plural | shuttles | Hourly shuttles. |
| Verb | shuttle | Shuttle between sites. |
| Compound | shuttlecock | A plastic shuttlecock. |
| Compound | shuttle diplomacy | Shuttle diplomacy. |
How it is used in a sentence
- A free shuttle runs to the terminal.Transport.
- The flying shuttle transformed weaving.John Kay's invention of 1733.
- He shuttles between London and Leeds.The verb.
Where the word travels
- Weaving — the tool carrying the weft
- Transport — a bus, train or aircraft on a short fixed route
- Space — a reusable vehicle going up and returning
- Badminton — the shuttlecock, from its back-and-forth flight
- Diplomacy — a negotiator moving between two sides
From Old English *scytel*, a dart or missile, related to *shoot*. The weaver's shuttle is thrown across the loom, which is why the words share a root.
Why is it called a shuttlecock?
From the shuttle's back-and-forth flight, plus *cock* for the feathers, which were traditionally taken from birds.
What was the flying shuttle?
A mechanism patented by John Kay in 1733 that let one weaver send the shuttle across a wide loom, greatly increasing output.