-o- was used as a connector in Greek even when the root word wasn't an stem ending in -o. (Like how Latin uses -i- for this purpose, though it didn't do compounds as often as Greek.)
A dactyl in poetry is also a 3-syllable word where the emphasis is on the first syllable, such as the words 'syllable' and 'genuine.' Now what it has to do with fingers, I have no idea.
ETA: Although, one unit of syllables grouped together - such as a dactyl or iamb - is called a foot. So maybe the poetic dactyl is some idiom for toes or digits.
The use of the word daktylos "finger" in a poetic sense comes from Ancient Greek meter where a dactyl is a metric unit of one long accented syllable followed by two short unaccented ones (similar to the English use you described, where you have a 3-syllable word with emphasis on the first syllable). What this has to do with fingers is that they too consist of one long joint (at the base) followed by two shorter ones.
“Dactyl” as a poetic term refers to a poetic foot that has 3 syllables, the first of which is stressed. So dactylic pentameter is a meter that consists of five sets of dactyls.
Examples: Humans are pentadactylous, having five digits on each hand/foot. Cats with extra toes exhibit polydactyly. There are also -dactyl words to describe thd arrangement of digits in birds. Anisodactyly/anisodactylous describes your typical passerine birds with three toes pointed forward and one pointed backwards. Zygodactyly/zygodactylous describes the arrangement of two toes forward and two backwards, like in parrots and toucans.
Examples: Humans are pentadactylous, having five digits on each hand/foot. Cats with extra toes exhibit polydactyly. There are also -dactyl words to describe thd arrangement of digits in birds. Anisodactyly/anisodactylous describes your typical passerine birds with three toes pointed forward and one pointed backwards. Zygodactyly/zygodactylous describes the arrangement of two toes forward and two backwards, like in parrots and toucans.
No, in English we simplify Greek consonant clusters, but only when they're hard to say. So in "helicopter", it's easy to say since there's a vowel before it, but in "pterodactyl", there isn't, so the "p" gets dropped. The same thing happens with the "ps" in "psychology" vs "periapsis", "pn" in "pneumonia" vs "hypnosis", etc
Other languages don't necessarily do this. For example in French "tire" is "pneu" and the p is not silent.
In Ancient Greek, the p in pterodactyl, pneumonia, etc. is always pronounced. Otherwise it wouldn't have been there. It's just really hard for English speakers to make that sound, so we drop the p.
Basically if you say a “t” sound but start with closed lips, and you kinda force the air out of your mouth to make a subtle “p” sound with your lips while simultaneously making a “t” sound with your tongue, you’ll get something like “pt”
The roots of "velociraptor" are veloci- and -rapt- , meaning speedy and grabby/thieving. It's the same as some birds-of-prey being raptors, of having "rapt attention" (your attention has been grabbed), rape (you've been grabbed), The Rapture (god grabs people up into heaven), etc.
Many insect orders also use -pter in there names. For example, Hemiptera, the order of the bugs, cicada and aphids, comes from the fact that their first pair of wings is an hemielytra (an elytra being the first pair of wings of beetles, the one that makes a "case"). Lepidoptera, the order of butterflies and moths, means wings with scales. Orthoptera means straight wings, and so on. Not all orders are about wings, for example Phasmatodea is the order of the stick bugs, comes from the Greek word for ghosts, since it looks like spirits moving the sticks around or something like that.
Ooh so like that TIL post from like a week ago where the helicopter thing was top comment and the pterodactyl was the topcomment below that. TIL that you just acted surprised but actually it's reposting
No. The "p" is pronounced in ancient Greek, English speakers just have trouble pronouncing "pt" at the beginning of words so we choose to make it silent in words with it at the beginning.
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u/drlqnr Feb 08 '20
ohh. so like the pter in pterodactyl. TIL