Word for Wednesday: Pterodactyl

blog home

In this week’s Word for Wednesday we’ll be heading back in time to the Jurassic period…

Let’s look at the name of the prehistoric reptile and ancestor of the bird: Pterodactyl (pronounced ‘terro-dac-til’).

The word ‘pterodactyl’ is built from two components: ‘Pteron’ is Greek for wing and ‘Daktulos’ is Greek for finger. Wing-finger isn’t quite as catchy is it?

But did you know that the ‘pter’ part of the word is the same as in the word 'helicopter'? Helicopter is also a compound word from the Greek ‘Helix’ (spiral) and ‘Pteron’ (wing). Fascinating!

We challenge you to invent your own avian (flying thing!) using ‘ptero’ and another Greek word – tweet us your ideas @Spellzone

Hugh MacDermott

 

 


29 Jul 2015
blog home

"This is a fantastic opportunity for our students!  I'm sure Spellzone will be invaluable in helping them to improve their spellings and therefore improve the quality of their writing in all subject areas!"

Teacher, High School, UK