Station, airport, border

The list for a journey with paperwork. In it is la navette, the airport bus — and both languages named it after the weaver’s shuttle, each looking at a different property of the same object. French la navette is a little *ship*, the diminutive of la nef: the tool is boat-shaped, pointed at both ends. English « shuttle » is from Old English scytel, a dart or missile, the same root as « to shoot »: the tool is *thrown*. One sees the hull, the other the throw. Both then went to space — la navette spatiale, « the space shuttle » — and French sends its word somewhere English does not: la navette parlementaire is a bill passing back and forth between the two chambers, weaving. The verb follows: faire la navette is to commute.