antenna

Where it comes from

Latin antenna or antemna meant the yard that supported a ship's sail. Renaissance scholarly Latin used antenna to translate Greek keraia, horn or yardarm, in Aristotle's description of insect feelers, giving the old nautical word a zoological life.

How the meaning developed

English adopted the insect sense. At the birth of wireless, Italian antenna also meant a pole, and Marconi applied it to the elevated apparatus connected to his radio equipment. The radio sense therefore grew from the same image of a projecting spar, while later metaphorical antennae detect moods or trends.