Other forms: displacements
Displacement is the weight of water a floating hull pushes aside. A displacement of nine tonnes, displacement hull, measure the displacement.
A floating ship displaces exactly its own weight in water, which is Archimedes' principle and the reason a warship's size is given as its displacement. In psychology, displacement is directing a feeling at a safer target than the one that caused it.
1noundisplacementThe weight of water a floating hull pushes aside.
“The engineers calculated the hull's displacement to make sure the ferry would float safely.”
displacement is a measure.
French deplacement comes from deplacer, to move out of place. The physics sense is the oldest in English.
French
déplacement
English, today
displacement
From French déplacement. Morphologically displace + ment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA