The definition of a pilot is a person licensed or qualified to fly a plane or spacecraft or operate a ship.
(noun)An example of a pilot is the person flying an airplane.
See pilot in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
Origin: MFr pilote < It pilota, pedoto < MGr *pēdōtēs < Gr pēdon, oar blade (in pl., rudder), akin to pous, foot
transitive verb
adjective
Related Forms:
See pilot in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
Origin:
Origin: Obsolete French, helmsman
Origin: , from Old French
Origin: , from Old Italian pilota
Origin: , alteration of pedota
Origin: , from Medieval Greek *pēdōtēs
Origin: , from Greek pēda, steering oar
Origin: , pl. of pēdon, blade of an oar; see ped- in Indo-European roots
. Word History: The pilot of an aircraft speeding through the air and the pilot of a watercraft plowing through the water both drag an etymological foot on the ground. Surprisingly enough, considering its modern contexts, the English word pilot can be traced back to the Indo-European root *ped-, meaning “foot.” From the lengthened-grade suffixed form *pēdo- came the Greek word pēdon, “blade of an oar,” and in the plural, “steering oar.” In Medieval Greek there is assumed to have existed the derivative *pēdōtēs, “steersman,” which passed into Old Italian and acquired several forms, including pedota, and pilota, the form that was borrowed into Old French as pilot. English borrowed the word from French, and as pilot it has moved from the water to the air, first being recorded in 1848 with reference to an airborne pilot—a balloonist.Learn more about pilot