Other forms: helicopters
A helicopter is an aircraft lifted by spinning blades above it, which is why it needs no runway and can hover. Air ambulance, police helicopter, a helicopter landed in the field.
The informal short forms are chopper and, in aviation and military use, helo. The blades are rotors, not propellers, and the whole class of aircraft is a rotorcraft. Note two figurative uses that have become common: a helicopter view means a broad overview of a situation, and a helicopter parent is one who hovers over a child. Both are recent and both are used far more often than the literal word.
1nounhelicopterAn aircraft lifted by rotating blades, able to hover.
“A helicopter circled the area for an hour.”
synonyms: chopper
2verbtravelTo travel or carry by helicopter.
“The casualties were helicoptered to hospital.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
helicopter is an aircraft.
French hélicoptère was coined from Greek helix, a spiral, and pteron, a wing — spiral wing. The word was invented in 1861, decades before a working helicopter existed, and English later cut it in the wrong place: heli-copter rather than helico-pter, which is why heliport and chopper both exist.
French
hélicoptère
English, today
helicopter
Borrowed from French hélicoptère. French hélicoptère, from Ancient Greek - ἕλιξ + πτερόν. a doublet of helicopteron. by surface analysis, helico- + -pter. The dragonfly sense is from a dragonfly's ability to hover and fly in any direction, like the flying machine.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA