Kites are a familiar sight in many countries of the world and most Languages have their own word for KITE, each has an interesting story or origin of where the word has come from, for example the English 'Kite' is the name of a bird of prey which will hang in the sky soaring for long periods. The German 'Drachen' means Dragon, the flying mythical beast, The French 'Cerf Volant' means flying Stag, and is also the name of the Stag Beetle.
Last year I asked the Question on Rec.Kites
"What do you call a kite in your language",
the answers I received are listed below, but if you know of others or better still of the origin of the word too then please e-mail me. and I will add it to the list
NAME LANGUAGE MEANING/ORIGIN
Afifon Hebrew flying fowl/flying bird or " flying snake "
Aquilone Italian Eagle
Cerf volant French Stag Beetle
Cometas Spanish
Drachen German Dragon
Drage Norwegian & Danish
Drake Swedish
Flugdreki Icelandic Flying dragon
Kaathadi Tamil
Kite English Bird of Prey
Layang-layang Indonesian
Leijani Finnish
Lohe Estonian
Papalote Mexican/Spanish
Pathang Hindi
Pianzi Chinese
Pipas Portugese
Plakwaaier Belgian
Sarkan Slovak
Tako Japanese
Tayara Arabic From 'Tar' meaning Bird
Vlieers Afrikaans
Vlieger Dutch
Wow / Wau Thai
Xoptaetou Greek
Youn Korean
Zmaj Serbo-Croat
*******************************************************************
Thanks to, Oscar M. Torres - otorres@mpsnet.com.mx
from Mexico for the following contributions.
Name Region Meaning
---- ------ -------
Papalote Central Butterfly in Nahuatl, ancient language.
Huila North Bird of prey.
Papagayo SouthEast Bird of the jungle, colorful.
Cometa Undetermined Comet (because of the tail)
this is a word from Spain.
I also suggest that the Italian word Aquilone for kite comes from
Aquila (Eagle) The bird of prey.
*********************************************************************