jettison

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to drop or throw something, as from a ship or airplane

   We decided to jettison the fish we caught yesterday, since we forgot to refrigerate them.

2. 2
   verb

   to throw away something causing an unnecessary encumbrance

   It's time to jettison those outdated ideas.

3. 3
   verb

   To eject from a boat, submarine, aircraft, spaceship or hot-air balloon, so as to lighten the load.

   The ballooners had to jettison all of their sand bags to make it over the final hill.

Simplified etymology

Jettison entered English in the late Middle Ages as a term for deliberately throwing goods overboard to lighten a ship in distress. It comes ultimately from Latin jactare, “to throw.”

From Anglo-Norman getteson, from Old French getaison, from geter, jeter (modern French: would be *jetaison like pendaison); possibly from a Vulgar Latin *iectātiō, from *iectātus < iectāre, from Latin iactō. Doublet of jetsam.

Topics

External links

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