Dirigibles, Directors, and Addresses

Hello,

This week’s word is dirigible, mostly because it’s fun to say. We don’t use it often now, except within steam punk books and films. What is a dirigible? It’s both a noun and an adjective. The noun form is a large aircraft without wings consisting of a large balloon filled with gas lighter than air and driven by engines. You might also know it by the name zeppelin.

Zeppelin is one of the eponyms covered in my book “How to Get Your Name in the Dictionary”. Zeppelin airships were named for the German general and aeronautical pioneer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), who served in the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War before retiring and building airships. The zeppelins were widely used for passenger flight as shown in “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade”, and during World War I for bombing runs.

Could balloon flight make a comeback with dirigibles?

By the 1930s, zeppelin services flew from Germany to North America and Brazil. Originally the Art Deco spire of the Empire State building was to be a tethering point for such airships but high winds made it impractical. Early versions had no heating for passengers but later ones incredibly, had a smoking room. British rock group Led Zeppelin took the name in defiance of critics when they were told they would go down like a lead balloon.

The Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built, was designed to use non-flammable helium but after an American refusal to export it, hydrogen was used instead, contributing to the terrible fire which largely removed dirigibles from our skies.

The revival of airship travel may be on its way. Ships using helium produce much lower climate damaging emissions than jet aircraft. They’ve been used for passenger services 2008-2012, sightseeing trips in Austria, and ten have been ordered for commercial flights across European skies from 2026. There are issues still to resolve (sustainable helium supplies for a start) but dirigibles may be making a comeback.

Dirigible entered the English dictionary in 1885 as a shortening of dirigible balloon which is where we get to the adjective use of the word. Dirigible the adjective is defined as something which may be controlled, directed, or steered. The adjective version entered the language in the late 1500s from French, and ultimately from Latin dirigere (to set straight).

The Latin verb dirigere provides some other words to English. From the late 1300s, it gave us the word direct which was associated with the idea of addressing a note to somebody, to point out a course, to guide, or to send in a straight line. These are all still in use today. You may also come across the idea of directing a letter, i.e. addressing an envelope.

By the early 1400s, directing had gained the idea of governing actions and telling people what to do, a sense we retain in the film and TV industry today and which arose in the early 1900s with the rise of those technologies. By the 1600s, you might direct something to happen. It was like issuing an order. It’s no surprise that the director of a company or organisation is the one giving the orders and setting the course for the company.

It is yet to be seen if dirigibles will fill our skies once more, but the word is still entwined in our everyday lives every time we ask for directions from a Sat Nav system, watch a movie, and steer ourselves or our vehicles.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)