A hovercraft is a craft that rides on a cushion of blown air. Board the hovercraft, a cross-channel hovercraft, the hovercraft lifted.
Because it touches nothing it can cross water, mud, sand and ice without caring which, which is why it was used on beaches and rescue work. The cross-channel service ended in 2000, beaten on cost by the tunnel and by fast catamarans.
1nounhovercraftA craft that rides on a cushion of blown air.
“The hovercraft roared across the water and up onto the beach.”
hovercraft is a vehicle.
Hover plus craft, coined in Britain in the 1950s and originally a trademark of Saunders-Roe.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Proto-Indo-European
*kap- — to hold, seize
Proto-Germanic
*habjaną — to lift; to heave
Proto-West Germanic
*habbjan
Old English
*hōfian
Middle English
hoveren — to float in the air, hover; to stay
English
hover
English, today
hovercraft
Built from
From hover + -craft. Originally a trademark by Saunders-Roe Limited, a British aero- and marine-engineering company. hover The verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (“to float in the air, hover; to stay”), probably from hoven (“hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar”) (which it displaced) + -er-. Hoven is probably derived from Old English hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-West Germanic habbjan, from Proto-Germanic habjaną (“to lift; to heave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kap- (“to hold, seize”). The English word is analysable as hove + er. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA