Helicopter – Pteron
- PostEagle
- January 5, 2017
- Word Etymology
- 0 Comments
The word for today is – HELICOPTER – which comes from two Greek words – HELICO – meaning – SPIRAL and PTERON – meaning – WING. This word – HELICO – comes from the first form – HELIX – SPIRAL. Do not confuse it with the word – HELIO – which means – SUN, as in the words HELIOCENTRIC – having the sun as the center and HELIOTROPIC – plants that turn toward the sun. Some have mistakenly analyzed the word – HELICOPTER – into the elements HELI and COPTER as shown by the clipped word – COPTER. The word – PTERON – is used in many words as we shall soon see.
Other words for today use the Greek root – PTERON – which means – WING. We have seen the word HELICOPTER meaning SPIRAL WING. Insects have two pairs of wings called -HEMIPTERA. The Greek word – Hemi- means -HALF and the word – PTERA – means – WING. These insects are HEMIPTEROUS. They have piercing or sucking mouthparts and two pairs of wings. PTERODACTYL – is the name for the extinct flying reptile which existed in the Jurassic period. The word – PTERON – means – WING and the word – DACTYL – means – FINGER or DIGIT. We shall soon see more words having the root DACTYL.