4 ms·

Valid confusion. Correct headline would be "Taikonauts enter China's space station" Cosmonauts = Russian Taikonauts = Chinese Astronauts = Western

lmm 10y ago
Can we stop this? It's the modern-day version of the victorian collective noun parlour game, and just as stupid.
- kobeya 10y ago
  Then we should stop using the inaccurate "astronaut" and call them all cosmonauts.
  - informatimago 10y ago
    Well, then don't navigate the astres, the cosmos or the stars. They only circumnavigate Earth and a few went just so far as Earth's Moon. Let's call them Earth orbitonauts. :-)
  - Hondor 10y ago
    Astronaut is the original English word. Cosmonaut is a transliteration from the Russian word for astronaut. So if we're speaking English, we should use astronaut regardless of the country they're from. Otherwise we're forced to invent silly new words that nobody understands like taikonaut and what will we call Indian astronauts or whoever's next? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology
    - kuschku 10y ago
      The argument is that Astronaut means "sailor of the stars", but "Cosmonaut" means "sailor of the cosmos". As they’re obviously not sailing between stars, but in the cosmos, Cosmonaut is obviously the correct term.
      - Hondor 10y ago
        Not according to dictionary.com: "Astro- a combining form with the meaning “pertaining to stars or celestial bodies, or to activities, as spaceflight, taking place outside the earth's atmosphere,” used in the formation of compound words:" It sounds like the Greek(?) meaning has been lost now in English, which is fine since it's a different language. Astronomers still sometimes look at other planets afterall.
        kuschku 10y ago
        According to that, literally means figuratively, too. Sometimes linguistic prescriptivism is necessary to keep a language actually understandable, and to ensure it makes sense, and doesn’t just become thousands of independent statements that you have to learn by heart.
        areyousure 10y ago
        That ship sailed long ago.
      - palunon 10y ago
        What about Spationaut ? They are sailing through space...
        blkhawk 10y ago
        Everybody is a bloody Spationaut.
      - logfromblammo 10y ago
        Not obviously. If we're going to quibble over details, we might as well do it properly. The astro- root can also translate as a non-stellar celestial body, since at the time the word meaning was established, the planets were considered "wanderer" stars. Also, asteroids are not stars, but bear a related etymological root. Cosmos, on the other hand, derives from the entire universe. Obviously, the universe surrounds us completely, but if you're willing to call someone in LEO a cosmonaut, I'm not certain you couldn't say the same about someone driving a car on the planet's surface to the grocery store to buy milk. Both are traveling through the cosmos. Where's the cutoff? Earth escape velocity? Solar escape velocity? Galactic escape velocity? People in LEO just aren't going fast enough. I have no qualms about calling the flight personnel of the Apollo program "astronauts", as their goal was to reach another celestial body, even if it was not literally a star, and several of them actually made it there. "Selenauts" would also have been appropriate. But since 1972, we have only been sending humans as far as LEO. Maybe "lacunauts" would be better for those in space, but not traveling to other celestial bodies?
    - FlyingSnake 10y ago
      > what will we call Indian astronauts They will be called 'Vyomnauts' apparently.
satbyy 10y ago
And Vyomanaut = Indian
finid 10y ago
Any idea what the Indian version of is? Hindunauts?
zhte415 10y ago
Astronaut translated to Chinese is 太空人 which is spelled by the romanisation system in mainland China as tai-kong-ren or taikongren. Not the extra 'g'. A quick search of matches in actual translated texts returns 'astronauts' as the term in the vast majority, and a few cases of 'spaceman' and 'man in space'. 人 'ren' in Chinese is genderless. Taikonaut is however used by the Global Times and China Daily, tabloid and broadsheet papers published in the mainland. Am pretty sure the term wasn't termed in China, however. Otherwise the pinyin would be correct.

lmm 10y ago

Can we stop this? It's the modern-day version of the victorian collective noun parlour game, and just as stupid.

kobeya 10y ago
Then we should stop using the inaccurate "astronaut" and call them all cosmonauts.
- informatimago 10y ago
  Well, then don't navigate the astres, the cosmos or the stars. They only circumnavigate Earth and a few went just so far as Earth's Moon. Let's call them Earth orbitonauts. :-)
- Hondor 10y ago
  Astronaut is the original English word. Cosmonaut is a transliteration from the Russian word for astronaut. So if we're speaking English, we should use astronaut regardless of the country they're from. Otherwise we're forced to invent silly new words that nobody understands like taikonaut and what will we call Indian astronauts or whoever's next? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology
  - kuschku 10y ago
    The argument is that Astronaut means "sailor of the stars", but "Cosmonaut" means "sailor of the cosmos". As they’re obviously not sailing between stars, but in the cosmos, Cosmonaut is obviously the correct term.
    - Hondor 10y ago
      Not according to dictionary.com: "Astro- a combining form with the meaning “pertaining to stars or celestial bodies, or to activities, as spaceflight, taking place outside the earth's atmosphere,” used in the formation of compound words:" It sounds like the Greek(?) meaning has been lost now in English, which is fine since it's a different language. Astronomers still sometimes look at other planets afterall.
      - kuschku 10y ago
        According to that, literally means figuratively, too. Sometimes linguistic prescriptivism is necessary to keep a language actually understandable, and to ensure it makes sense, and doesn’t just become thousands of independent statements that you have to learn by heart.
        areyousure 10y ago
        That ship sailed long ago.
    - palunon 10y ago
      What about Spationaut ? They are sailing through space...
      - blkhawk 10y ago
        Everybody is a bloody Spationaut.
    - logfromblammo 10y ago
      Not obviously. If we're going to quibble over details, we might as well do it properly. The astro- root can also translate as a non-stellar celestial body, since at the time the word meaning was established, the planets were considered "wanderer" stars. Also, asteroids are not stars, but bear a related etymological root. Cosmos, on the other hand, derives from the entire universe. Obviously, the universe surrounds us completely, but if you're willing to call someone in LEO a cosmonaut, I'm not certain you couldn't say the same about someone driving a car on the planet's surface to the grocery store to buy milk. Both are traveling through the cosmos. Where's the cutoff? Earth escape velocity? Solar escape velocity? Galactic escape velocity? People in LEO just aren't going fast enough. I have no qualms about calling the flight personnel of the Apollo program "astronauts", as their goal was to reach another celestial body, even if it was not literally a star, and several of them actually made it there. "Selenauts" would also have been appropriate. But since 1972, we have only been sending humans as far as LEO. Maybe "lacunauts" would be better for those in space, but not traveling to other celestial bodies?
  - FlyingSnake 10y ago
    > what will we call Indian astronauts They will be called 'Vyomnauts' apparently.

satbyy 10y ago

And Vyomanaut = Indian

finid 10y ago

Any idea what the Indian version of is? Hindunauts?

zhte415 10y ago

Astronaut translated to Chinese is 太空人 which is spelled by the romanisation system in mainland China as tai-kong-ren or taikongren. Not the extra 'g'. A quick search of matches in actual translated texts returns 'astronauts' as the term in the vast majority, and a few cases of 'spaceman' and 'man in space'. 人 'ren' in Chinese is genderless. Taikonaut is however used by the Global Times and China Daily, tabloid and broadsheet papers published in the mainland. Am pretty sure the term wasn't termed in China, however. Otherwise the pinyin would be correct.