Scuba Define

[captain]

No worries. What I was trying to say was that I used to think that Cousteau was responsible for coining the term 'SCUBA' to describe his open-circuit design, but this thread prompted some research and I found out that this was not the case.

Cousteau first used the term aqua lung in referring to the regulator that he and Emile Gagnan invented or at least perfected. It later came into use as a generic term for any brand of self contained diving equipment.
The Navy used SCBA to describe it breathing equipment used by sailors fighting fires in closed ship compartments. The U was added to describe underwater rebreathers even before open circuit scuba was in use.