The Art of Kite Flying (1430–1929) – The Public Domain Review

Their ability to fly is magical, almost alive, which is reflected in the names they are known by around the world. In Greek they are χαρταετοί, paper eagles, and the Germans call them Drachendragons. French children drive stag beetles (cerf valance) above the Earth – although ‘cerf’ here is probably a corruption of Occitan serpsnake – and also in Russian they are snakes of the air, воздушные змеи. Other languages ​​extend beyond the animal world. Spanish speakers describe them as comets, comets; Mandarin recalls that the flying forms were provided with bamboo flutes, like Aeolian airborne harps – fēngzhēng, ‘wind zithers’, known elsewhere as ‘wind psalteries’ – while the Japanese kanji 凧 combines a radical related to wind with an element meaning towel or cloth. In English they are simply kites, named after the bird of prey, from Old English cyta – presumably an onomatopoetic imitation of its sharp call.