This fact about the origin of the word ‘helicopter’ will blow your mind
This guy’s not the only one who’s mind was blown when he discovered this.
Was slightly mindblown when I discovered this.
The two parts to the word “helicopter” are not “heli” and “copter”, but “helico” meaning spiral, and “pter” meaning one with wings, like pterodactyl.
— Karthik Balakrishnan (@karthikb351) March 5, 2018
Everything you thought you knew is wrong.
Me too. The stress pattern makes "copter" feel like a root. And like "-oholic", cut from "alcoholic", the original root (Arabic "al-kohol") was cut into bits to make new words ("shopaholic", "quadcopter".) Language change is awesome.
— Lane Greene (@lanegreene) March 6, 2018
And that’s not all.
"paratrooper" and "telethon" are other neat examples
— zem (@zem42) March 6, 2018
don't tell me a paratrooper is actually a sort of parrot?
— Mr(s) Beanbag ️❆ (@AmigaBeanbag) March 6, 2018
No, the “para-“ is stemmed off of “parachute”, rather than using the otherwise often used root “para-“ with words such as “paralegal”.
— James Fuller (jmne) (@Jimminy) March 6, 2018
Someone had a very valid question.
Does that mean the 'p' in helicopter should be silent?
— Conan776 (@Conan776) March 6, 2018
No, the p in the Greek pteron is not silent. It is silent in the English pterodactyl because English speakers have a hard time saying /pt/ at the beginning of a word.
— Vuk Brajuskovic (@ShadowedWolf252) March 6, 2018
If you ptptptptptptpt from pterodactyl fast enough you become a helicopter
— Julian Raine (@Julianraiine) March 7, 2018
In case you’re wondering, this is where he found out.
This is from the excellent weekly podcast @nosuchthing.
— Karthik Balakrishnan (@karthikb351) March 6, 2018