HEE-licopter

[Mark A Mandel]

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, Dale Coye wrote:

#I don't have time to look it up further than my handy MW10, but the
#root word there is not Gk helix, but heliko (maybe they're related? my
#Gk is non-existent) but Latin and Gk words of two syllables with a
#single consonant between the syllables have long vowels, hence HEE
#liks, but three syllable words with stress on the first syllable are
#short, regardless of the original length of the Latin or Gk word.  So
#on historical grounds (for what it's worth) HELL ih copter is the
#better choice.  Maybe this lawyer, who looked about 50 was an old navy
#man.

That's the combining form. Same root.

Helico  spiral
pter    wing

-- Mark A. Mandel