[a. mod. Fr. aéronaute; f. Gr. ἀήρ atmosphere + ναύτ-ης sailor; f. ναῦς a ship. (The first balloon ascent was made in 1783.)]
1. One who sails through the air, or who makes balloon ascents; a balloonist.
1784. Edinburgh Advertiser, 27 April, 4/2. Those [balloons] with which the Parisian Aeronauts performed their voyages were swelled by heat, and filled with rarefied air.
1784. Europ. Mag., VI. Oct., 331/2. He descended by means of a rope fastened to the boat, was carried round the market-place in a triumphal manner, the balloon still floating in the atmosphere, and the intrepid Aeronaut sitting in his car.
1790. Burke, Fr. Revol., 355. Let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights the aëronauts of France.
1831. Lardner, Pneumatics, vii. 340. Such a valve is also necessary in order to enable the aeronaut to descend at pleasure.
2. fig. A gossamer spider that floats on films.
1845. Darwin, Voy. of Nat., viii. (1879), 160. The little aëronaut as soon as it arrived on board was very active … sometimes letting itself fall and then reascending the same thread.
