English▸ noun a streamlined casing on the outside of an aircraft or motor vehicle, especially one housing an aircraft engine:
a grey aircraft with NAVY painted on the engine nacelles.
▪ the passenger compartment of an airship.
– ORIGIN mid 19th century (originally denoting the basket of a balloon or car of an airship): from French, from late Latin navicella, diminutive of Latin navis ‘ship’.