מָטוֹס (matos) — airplane
Etymology
Orville Wright flew for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. The English language quickly adopted the French word "aéroplane," coined by sculptor and inventor Joseph Pline in 1855 for flat flying machines, to distinguish them from balloons. The first Hebrew attempt to name the aéroplane came in 1907, when Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's newspaper "HaHashkafa" reported on France's plans for a fleet of "ספינות אויר מתישרות" — "level airships" — using Nahum Sokolov's earlier term for zeppelins with Ben-Yehuda's addition of "מְתַיֶּשֶׁרֶת" to indicate the flat (plane) quality.
A year later, in 1908, Ben-Yehuda coined the word "אַוִּירוֹן" in a brief news item: "Experiments with the aviron — news from Vilbur Reet [Wilbur Wright] that his first journey began at three o'clock and despite strong winds the passenger remained aloft one hour, seven minutes and twenty-seven seconds, landing only due to lack of fuel." Shortly afterward Ben-Yehuda published a defense of this coinage, noting that the French word aéroplane was itself newly minted and not yet in Langenscheidt's 1908 dictionary. He also incorrectly claimed it was brand-new in French — in fact, Clément Ader's competing term "avion" (from Latin avis, bird) had already begun to displace "aéroplane" in 1909.
The first airplane reached the Land of Israel on December 27, 1913, landing on a prepared strip near Mikveh Israel agricultural school. Pilot Jules Védrines was diverted by strong winds and a fuel shortage and landed instead on the beach where Charles Clore Park stands today. The disappointed crowd witnessed instead a scene from the "Language Wars": students from the "Ezra" school in Jaffa attacked a teacher for daring to teach in a non-Hebrew language.
By 1928, "אַוִּירוֹן" was in common use. But poet Chaim Nachman Bialik objected, on curious grounds: "Surely a floating plant, an air machine, even air-baked bread could be called that." In its place Bialik proposed "מָטוֹס" to the Language Committee (Va'ad HaLashon), based on the rare root ט-י-ס. In the Bible this root appears with a shin sinistra: "כְּנֶשֶׁר יָטוּשׂ עֲלֵי-אֹכֶל" (like an eagle swooping on food, Job 9:26). Only in the Talmud does it appear with a samekh. After 1948, the IDF Air Force and El Al preferred "מָטוֹס," and "אַוִּירוֹן" faded — surviving today mainly in the children's song "רֵד אֵילָנוּ אַוִּירוֹן" by Chinga Smiler.
Key Quotes
"כְּנֶשֶׁר יָטוּשׂ עֲלֵי-אֹכֶל" — איוב ט׳, כ״ו (מקור השורש ט.י.ס/שׂ)
"שהרי גם צמח אווירי, גם מכונת אוויר, גם לחם אפוי אוויר יכולים להיקרא כך" — ח.נ. ביאליק, נגד אַוִּירוֹן, 1928
Timeline
- December 17, 1903: Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk
- 1907: Ben-Yehuda's "HaHashkafa" uses "ספינות אויר מתישרות" for aeroplanes
- 1908: Ben-Yehuda coins "אַוִּירוֹן" in "HaTzvi"
- December 27, 1913: First airplane arrives in Ottoman Palestine
- 1928: Bialik proposes "מָטוֹס" to Va'ad HaLashon; both terms used as synonyms
- 1948+: IDF Air Force and El Al adopt "מָטוֹס"; "אַוִּירוֹן" recedes
- Present: "אַוִּירוֹן" survives only in children's song
Related Words
- אַוִּירוֹן — Ben-Yehuda's 1908 coinage; now archaic/children's language
- אֲוִיר — air (root of אַוִּירוֹן)
- חֵיל הַאֲוִיר — Air Force (uses אֲוִיר, not מָטוֹס)
- מָטַס — flew (verb derived from מָטוֹס)
- טַיָּס — pilot (from same root ט-י-ס)