re: Astronaut !!! LOL !
Yes, absolutely, Tom; I agree!
Astronaut(e) is actually a french word.
Invented by the SF writer Rosny Ainé in 1925.
(Astre comes from latin Astrum which means heavenly body and has no equivalent in english).
That's why I didn't like the word "spationaut"! Why invent another word?
(the european spacemen belong to the astronaut corps, not the spationaut corps).
And "cosmonaut" remind us too much of the secretive spacemen from the other side of the iron curtain.
Yes, I'd love to only keep the word "astronaut".
But there's a slight problem......
They don't visit heavenly bodies:-(
Raoul