helicopters

[John Dunn]

The first volume of Ushakov was published in 1934, when helicopter manufacture was, to judge by the Wikipedia article, still in its infancy.  If one adds this to Kamov's apparent coinage of the term in c. 1929, it would seem reasonable to conclude that when it first appeared, the word вертолёт [vertolet] did indeed mean the same as автожир [avtozhir] and that its meaning shifted as the mass production of helicopters took off (sorry!) and autogiros were cast into (near) oblivion.  This would then reinstate the plausibility of the link with вертеть [vertet'] and the possibility of a calque from ...giro.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: William Ryan <wfr at SAS.AC.UK>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:13:51 +0100
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] helicopters

I thought so too - but see Russian Wikipedia:

    Когда изобрели летательный аппарат, которому не нужен разбег перед
    взлётом, поскольку он способен вертикально подняться и полететь с
    любой площадки, то для его наименования создали слово /вертолёт/
    (/верт/икально + /лет/еть), отражающее специфику этой летательной
    машины (Л. А. Введенский, Н. П. Колесников. Этимология: Учебное
    пособие // СПб., Питер. 2004, стр. 107). Впервые термин /вертолёт/
    был применён Н. И. Камовым
    <http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9_%D0%98%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B8%D1%87>
    к автожиру
    <http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%80>
    КАСКР-1 <http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%80-1>.

Ushakov says a vertolet is the same as an avtozhir - which it isn't 
because an autogyro needs forward movement to fly and its rotor is not 
powered - therefore, unlike a helicopter, it cannot fly vertically. This 
makes the final statement in the passage quoted above puzzling.

Will Ryan


John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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