Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Pterodactyl
/ˌtɛrəˈdæktɪl/noun
A small flying reptile of the Jurassic, popularly any pterosaur.
The Greek roots
πτερόν
pterón
wing, feather
δάκτυλος
dáktylos
finger
Literally: “wing finger”
The story of the word
Cuvier studied a fossil from the Bavarian limestone in 1809 and called it ptéro-dactyle for its hugely elongated fourth finger, which carried the wing membrane. The animal was never a dinosaur. Helicopter, apterous and pterosaur all carry the same πτερόν, and δάκτυλος also names the dactyl of Greek metre, a long syllable followed by two short ones, like the bones of a finger.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
pterosaurhelicopterdactyldate
In a sentence
Every child in the class drew a pterodactyl instead of the assigned bird.