English 'navigate' comes from Latin 'nāvigāre' (to sail), a compound of 'nāvis' (ship) and 'agere' (to drive). It literally means 'to drive a ship.'
To plan and direct the route of a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle; to find one's way through a complex environment.
From Latin 'nāvigātus,' past participle of 'nāvigāre' (to sail, to travel by sea, to steer a ship), a compound of 'nāvis' (ship) + 'agere' (to drive, to lead, to set in motion). The PIE root for 'nāvis' is *neh₂u- (boat, vessel), one of the oldest reconstructed words in the proto-language, suggesting seafaring predates the dispersal of the Indo-Europeans: it produced Greek 'naus' (ναῦς, ship), Sanskrit 'nau' (boat), Old Irish 'nau' (boat), and Latin 'nāvis' itself. The second component 'agere' derives from PIE *h₂eǵ- (to drive, to