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!
Take the Russian word for “water,” essential for survival and comfort, and convert it to the diminutive case, indicating something even more precious to you than life itself.
Not a specific word, but it’s fascinating to me how, because of the Norman invasion in 1066, fancier words are of French origin and lower-class words are Germanic. So the animal is a cow, but we eat beef (boeuf) and the animal is a pig, but we eat pork (porc). Chicken was something even the poor ate, so it didn’t change.
There are other funny things going on in animal names.
A “chicken” is a young “cock”, just as a “kitten” is a young “cat”.
And a “rabbit” was a young “coney” — which rhymes with “honey”.
But folks got prudish and they didn’t want to talk about cocks and coneys in front of the kids, so words like “chicken” and “rabbit” took over.
Meanwhile over at the pig farm, how does a farmer call a hog?
They holler “Soo-ee!”, right?
They’re speaking Latin. That’s “Sui!” — the vocative form of “sus”, Latin for pig. Folks have been talking to their pigs in Latin for a long, long time.
Gotta love cacaphony. I never thought about it until I learned the word euphony, which means “good sounding” from the Greek eu (good) and phone (sound).
You can see where this is going, right?
So the Greek kakos means bad, but is cognate with the Latin cacere (to defecate), the word from which we get the informal –if slightly outdated– euphemism “caca” for shit, crap, doodoo.
So cacaphony, sure, means “bad sounding” but also in a very real sense means “sounds like shit”.
As a bonus, when I was learning Latin, I was delighted to discover the names Miranda and Amanda mean respectively, literally, good lookin’ and good lovin’.
Not a single word but equestrian and horse being closely related and both decended from krsos (if you say it out loud you can hear the similar to both horse and latin equs)
One which you won’t be able to unlearn:
“Kid” as a word for a child derives from a word “kid” which meant young goat. We’re literally calling human children “goat children” and it’s not even mocking.
The same thing happened in Swedish, the common word meaning “boy” or “guy” - “kille” is a shortened “killing” - young goat.
Give us your best word origin.
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).
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?
Depends on whether the o is before the p or after the r.
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!
Great, and now I want a heliodactyl.
etymology jokes on Lemmy… ive Waited for this day for so long
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).
Or, y’know, a helix.
Yes, that is where it comes from.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/helico
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/helico-
Doesn’t change the fact that the word helicopter splits into “helico” and “pter” with the later meaning wing or feather in greek.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pter-
It’s a helico-pter “spiraling wing”, not a heli-copter.
TIL
The dictionary definition is “Anything twisted, winding, or spiral.” but an inference can be made
What about “ligma”?
Vodka.
Take the Russian word for “water,” essential for survival and comfort, and convert it to the diminutive case, indicating something even more precious to you than life itself.
Words always mean things.
Whiskey is similar. It comes from the Gaelic uisge beatha which means water of life.
Water is the main ingredient of vodka.
That’s why you can drink as much as you want and stay hydrated.
More over, the other ingredient provides calories. Sugar and fat free!
Not a specific word, but it’s fascinating to me how, because of the Norman invasion in 1066, fancier words are of French origin and lower-class words are Germanic. So the animal is a cow, but we eat beef (boeuf) and the animal is a pig, but we eat pork (porc). Chicken was something even the poor ate, so it didn’t change.
“Poultry” though
Good point, I forgot about that.
There are other funny things going on in animal names.
A “chicken” is a young “cock”, just as a “kitten” is a young “cat”.
And a “rabbit” was a young “coney” — which rhymes with “honey”.
But folks got prudish and they didn’t want to talk about cocks and coneys in front of the kids, so words like “chicken” and “rabbit” took over.
Meanwhile over at the pig farm, how does a farmer call a hog?
They holler “Soo-ee!”, right?
They’re speaking Latin. That’s “Sui!” — the vocative form of “sus”, Latin for pig. Folks have been talking to their pigs in Latin for a long, long time.
Everywhere I go, I see his face…
ඞ
holy shit would you look at that
So a bunny rabbit is a bunny coney?
Gotta love cacaphony. I never thought about it until I learned the word euphony, which means “good sounding” from the Greek eu (good) and phone (sound).
You can see where this is going, right?
So the Greek kakos means bad, but is cognate with the Latin cacere (to defecate), the word from which we get the informal –if slightly outdated– euphemism “caca” for shit, crap, doodoo.
So cacaphony, sure, means “bad sounding” but also in a very real sense means “sounds like shit”.
As a bonus, when I was learning Latin, I was delighted to discover the names Miranda and Amanda mean respectively, literally, good lookin’ and good lovin’.
Not a single word but equestrian and horse being closely related and both decended from krsos (if you say it out loud you can hear the similar to both horse and latin equs)
One which you won’t be able to unlearn: “Kid” as a word for a child derives from a word “kid” which meant young goat. We’re literally calling human children “goat children” and it’s not even mocking.
The same thing happened in Swedish, the common word meaning “boy” or “guy” - “kille” is a shortened “killing” - young goat.