antenna

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   one of a pair of mobile appendages on the head of e.g. insects and crustaceans

   The word antenna appears in scientific writing with a precise technical sense.

2. 2
   noun

   an electrical device that sends or receives radio or television signals

   The word antenna appears in scientific writing with a precise technical sense.

3. 3
   noun

   sensitivity similar to that of a receptor organ

   The communications team had a special antenna for public relations.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Antenna comes from Latin antenna, an altered form of antemna, “sailyard.” Ancient writers applied it to insects’ feelers when translating Greek keraioi, “horns of insects,” apparently because the feelers resembled the angled poles supporting certain sails. In the 1890s, the word was extended to rods or wires used to receive radio signals.

From Latin antenna, antemna (“yard, sailyard; pole”). First used in this sense as a Latin word in the 15th century and as an English word by the end of the 17th century.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary