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Astronaut /Cosmonaut

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SC00BY | 07:41 Thu 05th Jan 2006 | Science
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What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut? Is there a difference?


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Astronauts are usually from U.S.A. or European countries etc, cosmonauts from the old eastern european block i.e. Russia
There's no real difference in meaning, as both words are based on the Greek word 'nautes' = sailor. The other parts are also Greek in origin, with 'astron' = star and 'kosmos' = universe. So, American spacemen are 'star-sailors' and Russian ones are 'universe-sailors'.
I dunno about ancient Greek QM, but in modern Greek Kosmos means the world.

I always thought the naming was like this: Cosmonauts were so called because they orbited the earth. Astronauts were so called because the Americans like to exagerate ( as in "World Series" when they mean "National Series")
World Series was apparently the sponsor of baseball, not that fact that they thought it was global.
Not according to "A Comprehensive History of the World Series by Baseball Almanac", KebabMeister. Have a look here:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmenu.shtml
According to The Oxford English Dictionary's definition and etymology of the word 'cosmos', Rojash - the 'c' being an anglicisation of the original 'k', of course - it means (quote) "order, ornament, world or universe". Basically, it implies order as opposed to chaos. Thus, both the world and the universe as a whole are considered to be 'ordered' systems. Given that some of these guys have landed on the moon...ie a 'world' other than the earth...I think the 'universe' aspect rather than just the 'world' aspect is key.
(I'm afraid I don't know modern Greek, so I cannot comment on that aspect.) Cheers
Though it's difficult to imagine the Russions consulting The Oxford English Dictionary before naming their spacemen, QM
:-)
And to add to this, Chinese space travellers are called Taikonauts.
Dear Rojash, I'm pretty sure Russian etymologists and lexicographers are as aware of the original meaning of 'kosmos' as the scholars at TOED are! (Sadly, I don't know modern - or even ancient - Russian either!)
The proof that Americams exagerrate is that they call their version of Miss World - Miss Universe. How much more can you exaggerate by.

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