Other forms: trajectories
A trajectory is the curved path something follows through the air. The trajectory of a shell, calculate the trajectory, a steep trajectory.
In physics it is determined by the launch speed, angle and gravity, and without air resistance it is a parabola. In spaceflight, trajectory correction is the small burn that fixes a course. Figuratively, a trajectory is the direction a career or a situation is heading: an upward trajectory, the trajectory of the illness. Note that trajectory is used far more often in the figurative sense now than the physical one.
1nountrajectoryThe curved path something follows through the air.
“The ball's trajectory curved sharply before it dropped into the top corner of the net.”
2noundirectionThe direction something is heading over time.
“The company's trajectory has been upward ever since it started selling online.”
trajectory is a path through space or time.
Latin traiectus means thrown across — trans plus iacere, to throw. Project, eject and inject are the same verb, so a trajectory is the line of a throw.
Proto-Indo-European
*(H)yeh₁- — to throw, impel
Latin
trāiectus — thrown over or across
New Latin
trāiectōria — trajectory
English, today
trajectory
Built from
From New Latin trāiectōria (“trajectory”) (used by Newton), the feminine of trāiectōrius (“of or pertaining to throwing across”), from Latin trāiectus (“thrown over or across”), past participle of trāiciō, from trans- (“across, beyond”) (see trans-) + iaciō (“to throw”) (from Proto-Indo-European (H)yeh₁- (“to throw, impel”)). Middle French - and Middle English - had trajectorie (“end of a funnel”), from Latin trāiectōrium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA