Other forms: autopilots
An autopilot is the system that flies the aircraft without hands. Engage the autopilot, on autopilot, the autopilot disconnected.
It holds a heading and altitude and flies a route, and it does not think — pilots are trained above all for what to do the moment it hands control back. On autopilot has escaped into ordinary speech meaning doing something without attention.
1nounautopilotThe system that flies the aircraft without hands.
“Once the plane reached cruising height, the captain switched on the autopilot.”
autopilot is a system.
Ancient Greek
πηδόν — blade of an oar, oar
Medieval Greek
*πηδώτης — helmsman
Italian
pilota
Middle French
pilot
English
pilot
English, today
autopilot
Built from
From auto- + pilot. pilot comes from Middle French pilot, pillot, from Italian pilota, piloto, older also pedotta, pedot(t)o (the form in pil- is probably influenced by pileggiare (“to sail, navigate”)); ultimately from unattested Medieval Greek πηδώτης (“helmsman”), from Ancient Greek πηδόν (“blade of an oar, oar”), hence also Ancient and Modern Greek πηδάλιον (“rudder”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA