balloonist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who pilots or travels in a balloon, especially a hot-air or gas balloon

   The balloonist adjusted the burner to slow the craft's descent.

Formed from balloon + the practitioner suffix -ist. Balloon came through French ballon from Italian pallone ("large ball"), an augmentative of palla ("ball"). After human balloon flight began in the eighteenth century, balloonist named a pilot or passenger in the new craft.

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