1957; < Russian spútnik satellite, traveling companion, equivalent to s- together, with + put’ way, route + -nik agent suffix ( cf. -nik)
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Last year's so-called "DeepSeek shock" sparked a sell-off of AI-related shares and a reckoning on business strategy in what was also described as a "Sputnik moment" for the industry.
From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026
In Brussels, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the U.S. had dueling pavilions—one touting Sputnik, the other the “American dream”—but the fair’s theme was peaceful uses of atomic energy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026
A big lesson since Sputnik launched the Space Age is that we are Earthlings to the core.
From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025
Or in the sky — Price has also watched satellites and has memories of seeing Sputnik overhead.
From Salon • Apr. 15, 2025
It made me feel like Laika inside her Sputnik 2.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
