Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Helicopter
/ˈhɛlɪkɑːptər/noun
An aircraft lifted and driven by rotating blades mounted above it.
The Greek roots
ἕλιξ
hélix
spiral, coil
πτερόν
pterón
wing, feather
Literally: “spiral wing”
The story of the word
Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt flew a small steam-powered model in 1861 and named it hélicoptère, splicing helix onto pteron. English borrowed the word decades before any such machine could carry a person. Then speakers broke it at the wrong joint, reading it as heli- plus -copter, and that false split gave us heliport, helipad and chopper. No Greek would recognise the division.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1861
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
helixhelicoidpterodactylarchaeopteryx
In a sentence
A helicopter circled the ridge twice before it found the path.