ptarmigan: [16] Ptarmigan was borrowed from Scottish Gaelic tarmachan, a diminutive form of tarmach ‘ptarmigan’. There is no etymological justification for the spelling pt-. It was foisted on the word in the late 17th century in the erroneous belief that it had some connection with Greek pterón ‘wing’ (source of English pterodactyl). [ptarmigan etymology, ptarmigan origin, 英语词源]