helicopters

[William Ryan]

That must be a possibility - so either etymology could be true, or 
popular, or even both. And of course there are other words in English, 
French and Spanish, and possibly other European languages, which were 
used for various types rotary-wing aircraft and could conceivably have 
influenced the Russian terminology. An exhaustive search through early 
Soviet technical literature would no doubt throw more light on this, but 
somehow my interest is flagging! Autogyros incidentally are not yet dead 
- there are enthusiasts round the world who make and fly them, and as 
long as Mad Max films continue to be repeated on late-night TV oblivion 
is kept at bay.

Will Ryan

John Dunn wrote:
> 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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