Versatility?

[dharv at mail.optusnet.com.au]

I can attest that even in the aircraft industry plenty of people 
don't realize that helicopter means helical or twisting wing.

At 3:45 PM -0600 20/3/11, Sherman Wilcox wrote:
>On 20 Mar 2011, at 15:26, Pamela Munro wrote:
>
>>The first time the observation about the analyzability of /rooster/ 
>>was made here, I thought, sure, I know the ending -/ster/, but what 
>>is /roo/?
>
>I routinely ask my students to analyze helicopter. No one can. 
>Everyone thinks the word has an -/er/ suffix. Some of them come up 
>with /heli-/ having to do with the sun, but then they can't figure 
>out what the sun has to do with helicopters, or what -/copt/- might 
>mean. Something that chops the sun's rays?
>
>--
>Sherman Wilcox, Professor
>Department of Linguistics
>University of New Mexico
>Albuquerque, NM 871131


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David Harvey
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