pterodactyl: [19] Pterodactyl means literally ‘wing-finger’. It was coined in the early 19th century, as Latin pterodactylus, from Greek pterón ‘wing’ (source of English helicopter, and descendant of the Indo-European base *pet- ‘fly’, which also produced English feather) and dáktulos ‘finger’ (source of English date the fruit). => date, feather
pterodactyl (n.)
extinct flying reptile, 1830, from French ptérodactyle (1821), from Modern Latin genus name Pterodactylus, from Greek pteron "wing" (see ptero-) + daktylos "finger" (see dactyl).
