Maybe you were just deliberately baiting for this, but no!
Helicopter’s etymology actually breaks down into helico and pter. Helico being cognate with helix, and pter being “flying”, from the same root as pterodactyl (flying finger).
nah there’s no “wrong” for a common native pronunciation. but for silent p- words specifically, the /pt/ and /ps/ consonant clusters just don’t occur at the start of words in English. so the p goes silent in those words. pterodactyl, psychology. but in languages like Greek and German they do occur!
A screw (thread) is a subset, as is a circle, but the inference is the blades are fixed in all but one rotational axis and so spin
The actual explanation of “a curve on the surface of a cylinder or cone such that its angle to a plane perpendicular to the axis is constant” doesn’t really work here
Not that person but I always enjoyed helicopter, because it’s broken down into helico and pter
Helico means spinning and pter means pter
Maybe you were just deliberately baiting for this, but no!
Helicopter’s etymology actually breaks down into helico and pter. Helico being cognate with helix, and pter being “flying”, from the same root as pterodactyl (flying finger).
Great, and now I want a heliodactyl.
etymology jokes on Lemmy… ive Waited for this day for so long
Super interesting.
Does that mean that we’re pronouncing either helicopter or pterodactyl wrong? We don’t say the ‘pter’ parts the same way I think?
nah there’s no “wrong” for a common native pronunciation. but for silent p- words specifically, the /pt/ and /ps/ consonant clusters just don’t occur at the start of words in English. so the p goes silent in those words. pterodactyl, psychology. but in languages like Greek and German they do occur!
Depends on whether the o is before the p or after the r.
I thought heli is more like a screw. (Not claiming that it is, but that was my understanding)
The word is not “heli” though. It’s “helico”.
Like in the helicoprion (a shark with a spiral think on it’s mouth) or a helicograph (a tool to draw spirals).
A screw (thread) is a subset, as is a circle, but the inference is the blades are fixed in all but one rotational axis and so spin
The actual explanation of “a curve on the surface of a cylinder or cone such that its angle to a plane perpendicular to the axis is constant” doesn’t really work here
Pterodactyl - Pter Finger!
Then there’s choleodoptera and lepidoptera.