How do they say "fighter", here?

[trans]

As someone with good Russian and elementary Italian, I would say that you can translate the Russian "Istrebitel'" as "exterminator" or also "destroyer", and that the Italian "Aereo da caccia" is equivalent to jaeger/cazadore/chasseur/hunter aircraft, etc.

Edit: Some people may have heard of the Italian "chicken cacciatore", i.e. "hunter style", which also has equivalents in German and French, at least.

[sgtcallistan]

As an extension to 'Jaeger', some research finds other allied words in Luftwaffe usage during WWII: 'Jagdwaffe' ('fighter arm'?), 'Jagdfleiger' ('fighter pilots'?).
Does the contracted 'jagd-' indicate anything different?

On the light infantry simile: also the French used to call them 'voltiguers' (leapers-forward?), in a role that might be called skirmishing/skirmishers in English (the '-schirm' part in Geman?).

[trans]

"Jagd-" is pretty much the same as "Jaeger".

The "voltigeurs" were, as I understand it, one company out of every battalion of infantry that were originally supposed to "leap" onto the back of a cavalryman's horse, and thus be carried along. In effect they were light infantry much like any other of the time.

As far as I can tell, "skirmishers" do not have anything to do with "Schirm" in German. More likely Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

[Pomphis]

Jagd is the hunt, jäger the hunter.

Skirmisher is Plänkler.

[flyingwombat]

Originally Posted by Michele

snip

- combat (in English – fighter)
- hunt (in German, French, Italian, Romanian, Polish etc.)
- pursuit (in English – yes, as in "pursuit aircraft" – and in Polish too)
- destruction (in German – but reserved to heavy fighters – and in Finnish)
- extermination (in Russian).

So it seems English-speakers, Poles and Germans used two different ideas: combat and pursuit for the English, hunt and pursuit for the Poles, and hunt and destruction for the Germans. Curious.

I wonder what idea did the Japanese resort to?

The USAAC/AAF designated all fighters as "Pursuit", e.g. P-6, P40, P-51. Even the official terms was "pursuit." I'm not sure if there was an "official" change by the AAF bureaucracy. I do know that after the USAF was formed "P" for Pursuit became "F" for Fighter.

[rust]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

(the '-schirm' part in Geman?).

The "Schirm" in the German "Fallschirmjäger" (paratrooper) refers to the
"Fallschirm" (parachute), so a Fallschirmjäger is a Jäger (hunter) who
uses a Fallschirm (parachute) during his missions.

[sgtcallistan]

Originally Posted by rust

The "Schirm" in the German "Fallschirmjäger" (paratrooper) refers to the
"Fallschirm" (parachute), so a Fallschirmjäger is a Jäger (hunter) who
uses a Fallschirm (parachute) during his missions.

Thanks for that. Had heard of 'fallschirm' but not how the word came about.

'Fall' can mean 'case' or 'event' (in English we say 'that's how things fell out' or 'things fall into place' or 'things fall apart' to mean an unexpected event or unwanted result), so does 'fallschirm' imply an emergency device?

I admit, I had assumed it meant 'arrival-skirmishers'.
Rather like 'desantniki' being something like 'descenders' for parachute/helicopter troops in Russian.

On fighter for aircraft; does any country use guerra/guerrero, or is that for people only?

[rust]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

'Fall' can mean 'case' or 'event' (in English we say 'that's how things fell out' or 'things fall into place' or 'things fall apart' to mean an unexpected event or unwanted result), so does 'fallschirm' imply an emergency device?

"Fall" in German also means "fall" as in the noun of "to fall", so a "Fallschirm"
is a "Schirm" (umbrella) used to slow down something that is falling, for exam-
ple a pilot after leaving his aircraft or a reentry capsule returning to earth.

On fighter for aircraft; does any country use guerra/guerrero, or is that for people only?

Guerre / guerra and similar words in different languages mean "war", so it
could be a part of a description of a general military aircraft, to distinguish
it from a civilian one (like in the English "warplane"), but I do not think that
it could be used to describe a specific subtype of warplane, like a fighter.

[Pomphis]

That reminds me: in WW2 germany had Kampfflugzeuge (combat planes), which were bombers.

[rust]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

That reminds me: in WW2 germany had Kampfflugzeuge (combat planes), which were bombers.

"Kampfflugzeug" is still used today, now for all military planes except unarmed
transport planes:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfflugzeug

In this terminology fighters, ground support planes and bombers are different
subtypes of "Kampfflugzeug".