Where does “SELCAL” come from?

SELCAL (English) comes from English calling, from English -ing, from Old English -ing, from Old English -tūn, from Old English tūn, from Proto-West Germanic tūn, from Proto-Germanic tūną, from Gaulish dunum — smoke; mist, haze.

SELCAL (English): A system for alerting a specific aircraft that a radio station on the ground wishes to communicate with them, via transmitting an aircraft-specific sequence of audio tones over the aircraft's company radio frequency to an automatic decoder on board the aircraft

Definitions

  1. A system for alerting a specific aircraft that a radio station on the ground wishes to communicate with them, via transmitting an aircraft-specific sequence of audio tones over the aircraft's company radio frequency to an automatic decoder on board the aircraft

Ancestry of “SELCAL”, step by step

SELCAL traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English calling

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishcallingpresent participle of call; A strong urge to...
2English-ingUsed to form gerunds, a type of verbal nouns,...
3Old English-ingForming nouns from verbs, indicating action,...
4Old English-tūnhomestead, village, town
5Old Englishtūnenclosure, yard; place; dwelling
6Proto-West Germanictūnfence
7Proto-Germanictūnąfence; enclosure
8Gaulishdunumfort; hill, hillfort
9Proto-Celticdūnomstronghold, rampart
10Proto-Indo-Europeandʰewh₂-smoke; mist, haze

via English selective

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishselectiveOf or relating to the process of selection; Of or...
2Frenchsélectifselective
Every word from Proto-Indo-European dʰewh₂-Every word from Proto-Celtic dūnomEvery word from English -ing