The word ptarmigan came from the Scottish Gaelic word tarmachan, used to refer to the bird. When it first entered into the English language, it was spelled as simply 'tarmigan', until a group of Latin and Greek supremacists came along. They thought that English should be more like Latin and Greek, so they did things like creating the 'do not split infinitives' rule, because you can't do it in Latin. These people saw the word 'tarmigan', they thought it derived from the Greek word for wing, 'pteros', and they added a random p to the beginning of the word to make 'ptarmigan'.
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This reminds me of the English word 'ptarmigan'.
The word ptarmigan came from the Scottish Gaelic word tarmachan, used to refer to the bird. When it first entered into the English language, it was spelled as simply 'tarmigan', until a group of Latin and Greek supremacists came along. They thought that English should be more like Latin and Greek, so they did things like creating the 'do not split infinitives' rule, because you can't do it in Latin. These people saw the word 'tarmigan', they thought it derived from the Greek word for wing, 'pteros', and they added a random p to the beginning of the word to make 'ptarmigan'.