The plane didn't "land" in the Hudson River
The heroic action of Capt. Sullenberger got world-wide press and in the Spanish renditions, I was reminded that in Spanish that aircraft and space vehicles don't always "land" in Spanish - it sometimes depends on what they land on. The plane "amerizó" in the Hudson river. There are at least three commonly used verbs for "landing", and theoretically more are possible:
aterrizar - The most commonly used. You can see a variation of the word "tierra" (which means "earth") which forms the verb. This is the verb which is most used for airplanes, and when spacecraft return to the earth, given that they land on solid ground and not in the ocean.
amerizar - You can see a variation of the word "mar" (which means "sea") in this verb, which is used when aircraft land in water either intentionally (like water planes) or unexpectedly (like the Hudson River adventure).
alunizar - You can see a variation of the word "luna" (which means "moon") in this verb. The first men "alunizaron" on the moon in Spanish.
Following this tendency, the verb "amartizar" (from "Marte" which means "Mars") does exist and means "to land on Mars". But a quick Google search shows mostly linguistic debates about whether the word should be used or not. Most media I heard and read have settled on "aterrizar en Marte", and another Google search shows 647 results for "aterrizar en Marte" and 7 for "amartizar en Marte". I guess there's a limit on the number of verbs people want to use to describe a landing.
Brad
