phugoid

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰewg-“to flee”
2. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromφῠγή“fleeing, flight; escape; retreat”
3. English todayphugoid

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek φῠγή (phŭgḗ, “fleeing, flight; escape; retreat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg- (“to flee”)) + English -oid (“suffix meaning ‘having the likeness of, resembling’, forming adjectives and nouns”). The word was coined by the British aerodynamicist and engineer Frederick W. Lanchester (1868–1946) in his book Aerodonetics (1908), the author mistaking the meaning of φῠγή (phŭgḗ) to be “flight” in the sense of “the act of flying”: see the quotations. The noun is derived from the adjective.

Words from the same roots