# Kite (flying object)



## rusita preciosa

How do you say *kite* in your language (please provide literal translation when applicable)

Russian: *воздушный змей* [vozdushnyi zmey] - air snake/serpent
French: *cerf-volant* - flying elk/deer


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## Outsider

In Portugal the most general way to say kite is _papagaio de papel_, "paper parrot". There are also some regional terms.


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## Awwal12

rusita preciosa said:


> Russian: *воздушный змей* [vozdushnyi zmey] - air snake


Well, I believe, "air serpent" would be a better translation.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Χαρταετός
xartaet*o*s, _m._
lit. _paper-eagle_
[x] is a voiceless velar fricative, a hard ch


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## HUMBERT0

In Spanish from Mexico it's “*papalote*”. I believe it comes from the Nahuatl word for butterfly. 

I think elsewhere in the Spanish speaking world it’s “*cometa*”, not sure though.


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## SDLX Master

HUMBERT0 said:


> In Spanish from Mexico it's “*papalote*”. I believe it comes from the Nahuatl word for butterfly.
> 
> I think elsewhere in the Spanish speaking world it’s “*cometa*”, not sure though.


 
Yes, it is "*cometa*" which comes from the English word "comet" because it resembles its tail.


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## Awwal12

SDLX Master said:


> Yes, it is "*cometa*" which comes from the English word "comet" because it resembles its tail.


Hm... That's offtopic, but I always thought that this word comes from Ancient Greek "κομήτης" ("kometes" -> hairy, shaggy). And I seriously doubt that this word came into Spanish through the English language.


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## jazyk

> In Portugal the most general way to say kite is _papagaio de papel_, "paper parrot". There are also some regional terms.


Yes, hundreds of them in Portuguese. The ones I'm more used to are _pipa _and _papagaio_.


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## Outsider

A-ha! I knew we'd talked about this in the Portuguese forum. 

P.S. And there's more:

thread 2
thread 3
thread 4


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## la_machy

HUMBERT0 said:


> In Spanish from Mexico it's “*papalote*”. I believe it comes from the Nahuatl word for butterfly.
> 
> I think elsewhere in the Spanish speaking world it’s “*cometa*”, not sure though.


 
In Sonora we do say *'papalote'.*

*Saludos*


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## Encolpius

In *Hungarian*: papírsárkány (papír = paper, sárkány = *dragon*)


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## ungatomalo

Also spanish: cachirulo
And catalan/valencian: catxirulo; to fly a kite: empinar el catxirulo


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## amikama

Hebrew:

*עפיפון *(_afifon_) - derived from the root ע-ו-פ related with flying.


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## ThomasK

Dutch: simply _*vlieger*_ (flyer). 

In my Flemish dialect: _*draak*_ (dragon), as in Hungarian...
In some others: _*waaier*_ (it does what the winds does and what things do as a result of the wind [not really _blow_])


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## Hakro

Finnish: *leija*


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## Favara

ungatomalo said:


> And catalan/valencian: catxirulo; to fly a kite: empinar el catxirulo


A more standard word would be _estel_, and in some areas in País Valencià we say _milotxa_.


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## ThomasK

Fine, but what do the words mean literally (in Catalan, Finnish, ...) ?


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## rusita preciosa

Awwal12 said:


> Well, I believe, "air serpent" would be a better translation.


 
Added!


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## Favara

ThomasK said:


> Fine, but what do the words mean literally (in Catalan, Finnish, ...) ?


I'm not sure about the etimology for the other Catalan words, but _estel_ also means "star" (shooting star = _estel fugaç_).
I think _catxirulo_ comes from Aragonese, meaning a square piece of cloth worn in the head by men.
I'm not sure about _milotxa_ but I read it might be related to _miloca_, meaning a small owl or eagle-like bird.


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## JVTorres

la_machy said:


> In Sonora we do say *'papalote'.*
> 
> *Saludos*


 
I may have posted my previous question in the wrong forum.

My apologies....


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic during the late Middle Ages (prior to the acutal invention of airplanes): طيّارة = Tayyaara = flyer.  However, in most collequal dialects this term is used nowadays for airplane (in standard Arabic it is Taa'ira) so in modern days it's called Tayyaara waraqiyya = paper flyer, to avoid ambiguity.


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## rusita preciosa

How do you write *tayyaara waraqiyya* in the beautiful Arabic script?


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## Awwal12

*rusita preciosa*, it's طيّارة ورقية


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## rusita preciosa

Thank you!! !


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## Agró

In Iberian Spanish we say "cometa", a word which comes from Greek through Latin, not English:
*cometa**.*
 (Del lat. _comēta,_ y este del gr. κομήτης, de κόμη, cabellera).


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## ThomasK

But what is a cabellera ???


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## Agró

ThomasK said:


> But what is a cabellera ???


*cabellera**.*
 (De _cabello_).
* 1.     * f. *El pelo de la cabeza, especialmente el largo y tendido sobre la espalda.*
* 2.     * f. Pelo postizo, peluca.
* 3.     * f. Ráfaga luminosa de que aparece rodeado el *cometa* crinito.


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## Ushuaia

HUMBERT0 said:


> In Spanish from Mexico it's “*papalote*”. I believe it comes from the Nahuatl word for butterfly.
> 
> I think elsewhere in the Spanish speaking world it’s “*cometa*”, not sure though.



Well doubted! 

The word we use here is *barrilete*.


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## la_machy

Ushuaia said:


> Well doubted!
> 
> The word we use here is *barrilete*.


 
¡Qué linda palabra es *barrilete*, Ushuaia!

Gracias por compartirla. 


Saludos


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## Ushuaia

¡Gracias, m.! 

Por acá me pasan otra, de nuestro litoral (Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Misiones): *pandorga*. Hablando de palabras musicales...


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## ThomasK

My Spanish is not that good: _pandorga_ (speaking of musical terms referring to musical terms ?) - and the _cabello_ (hair of the head lying on the back ????), the _barrilete_ (little barrel ???). Help !


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## ungatomalo

- Cabellok

- Barrilete has lots of meanings:
[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=barrilete]
It also could mean 'little barrel'; and you could use it jockingly to refer to someone short and a bit overweight.

- Pandorga has also many meanings
[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=pandorga], some of them music related. But I think that usuahia meant 'a word with a nice, musical, sound'.


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## Nizo

There are two words for this object in *Esperanto*:

_kajto_ (from the English "kite")
_flugdrako_ ("flying dragon")


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## ilocas2

Czech:

*drak* (dragon)


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## ancalimon

Turkish:
uçurtma : the thing that is for getting flown (by someone)


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## mataripis

Tagalog:_ SARANG-GOLA    but i heard the other term is "Guryon"._


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## rusita preciosa

mataripis said:


> Tagalog:_ SARANG-GOLA    but i heard the other term is "Guryon"._


Thank you mataripis, but as you have been asked repeatedly, could you please provide literal translation (if it exists). Since the majority on this forum does not speak Tagalog, your posts do not contribute anything without translation.


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## tFighterPilot

Hebrew: עפיפון 'afifon. Comes from the word עף 'af which means "[he] flies"


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## AutumnOwl

Hakro said:


> Finnish: *leija*


I'm not sure of the meaning of the word _leija_, but it could come from _leijailla_ which means _to soar_ or _to float_.

_*Swedish:*
Drake _- dragon


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## ancalimon

"kite" in Turkish (written as kaydı) means "it slid (on water or ice or wet place)", "it glided (in the air)" .

Maybe a relationship with "kayak" ?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayak.   (it's kayık in Turkish)


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## Konanen

In German, we say: Drachen [dragon]


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## anipo

There are about 20 different names for kite in Spanish, according to countries and regions. Here is a link:  http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cometa_(juego)


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## mataripis

Sarang gola  sounds " Sa ilang gala" meaning  "the one that move around the atmosphere".


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## Montesacro

*Italian:*

_aquilone_ ("big eagle")


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## kusurija

Lithuanian: 
Aitvaras. *Aitvaras* is a household spirit in Lithuanian mythology. Other names are Kaukas, Pūkis, Damavykas, Sparyžius, Koklikas, Gausinėlis, Žaltvikšas, and Spirukas.See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitvaras


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## OneStroke

Chinese:
風箏/风筝 (fēngzhēng) is by far the most common word. Fēng means 'wind'. I'm not sure what zhēng originally meant, but nowadays, the character is only used in 風箏 and 古箏/古筝 (a Chinese plucked-string instrument).
紙鷂 (zhǐyào) is a much rarer word for 'kite' and it means 'paper sparrowhawk'.


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## Gavril

Japanese 凧 (_tako_)

I don't know the etymology of this word, or if it has anything to do with _tako _(蛸) meaning "octopus".


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## ThomasK

The variety of names makes we wonder whether a kite could have had some specific meaning of use in cultures...


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## ancalimon

Gavril said:


> Japanese 凧 (_tako_)
> 
> I don't know the etymology of this word, or if it has anything to do with _tako _(蛸) meaning "octopus".



Just a guess. But could it be related with Turkic "takı" from "tak" meaning "something made up of smaller pieces fixed~assembled together" ?  We fix smaller clothes and woods together to make a bigger cloth~kite.


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## Gavril

ancalimon said:


> Just a guess. But could it be related with Turkic "takı" from "tak" meaning "something made up of smaller pieces fixed~assembled together" ?  We fix smaller clothes and woods together to make a bigger cloth~kite.



I haven't read the literature on the possible relationship of Japanese and Turkic. However, I just learned that Japanese has many other regionally-specific terms for "kite", such as

_ika _("squid")
_furyu _("windstream")
_hata _("flag" / "pennant")
_taka _("hawk")
_tombi _("kite (bird species)")
_yozu _("high-flying object")

The presence of the word for "squid" in this list, along with other animal species, suggests that the "octopus" meaning of _tako _predates the "kite" meaning.


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## ancalimon

I don't know.. An octopus as well looks like it's made up of smaller pieces (arms) assembled together connecting at the body.


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## nwon

In castellano guatemalteco, the word is "barrilete." I have yet to find an etymology for it, though.


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## Grefsen

ilocas2 said:


> Czech:
> 
> *drak* (dragon)





Konanen said:


> In German, we say: Drachen [dragon]



In Norwegian the word for kite is also the same word that is used for dragon...



AutumnOwl said:


> _*Swedish:*
> Drake _- dragon


...and it's spelled the same as it is in Swedish.

*fly med drake* - _fly a kite_


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## AutumnOwl

Grefsen said:


> *fly med drake* - _fly a kite_


In Swedish it's _flyga (med) drake_, _fly med drake_ would mean flee with/by dragon.


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## Encolpius

rusita preciosa said:


> French: *cerf-volant* - flying elk/deer



interesting etymology here


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## ilocas2

Slovak:

*šarkan*


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