Aviation borrowed the language of the sea — a nacelle is literally a "little ship" attached to an aircraft, from the Latin word for boat.
The housing for an aircraft engine, or the enclosed compartment of an airship or balloon for crew and passengers.
From French nacelle meaning small boat, from Late Latin navicella, diminutive of Latin navis meaning ship Key roots: *neh₂u- (Proto-Indo-European: "boat").
The word for an aircraft engine housing comes from the Latin for ship — because early aviation borrowed heavily from naval terminology. The fuselage was a hull, the rudder kept its name, and the engine's housing was a little boat. Aviation's vocabulary is saturated with the language of the sea