helicoptera and the Pope

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:57 PM -0500 2/14/03, Sam Clements wrote:
>There was a reference to the Pope(John Paul?) over at the Straight Dope.  It
>suggested that he, the Pope, was gonna travel by helicopter and offered a
>prayer in Latin.  Halfway through, he realized that there might not be a
>word in Latin for helicopter.  So he faked it.  "Helicoptera."
>
>Is this true?  I searched ProQuest to 1970, and nothing.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that Latin borrowed from Greek,
although I suppose he could have calqued "spiral bird".

L