Navigate#
17 February 2023
navigate
(verb, with object) To move on, over, or through (water, air, or land) in a ship or aircraft.
(verb, without object) To direct or manage a ship, aircraft, or guided missile on its course. [1]
Origin#
Late 16th century, from the Latin word nāvigātus
Example#
Notes#
Navigate is from the Latin nāvigātus, which is the past participle of nāvigāre (‘to sail’), derived from nāvis (‘ship’).
The word navis is related to the Greek naus (‘ship’), which is an ancestor of the English word noise.
Originally, noise in English meant ‘sickness’. It’s derived from the Latin nausea.
Noise was used colloquially for the hullabaloo or donnybrook that happens when someone is sick (more specifically, seasick, which was what nausea originally implied). The word passed into Old French as noise, which then developed to mean ‘noisy dispute’. The modern French noise has retained the sense of ‘dispute’, while the modern English noise means ‘noise’ (‘unpleasant sound’).
When a user complains about an app or a site being difficult to navigate, one may well wonder whether the UI is a tad too noisy or nauseous.