Also, know “thermodynamics” from “thermal dynamics”.
I mean, there were students I knew.... it wasn’t just me....
“thermodynamics” does not derive from “thermal dynamics”, which would imply “the dynamics of heat”.
It expresses the idea of the interplay between heat energy and mechanical energy, and the laws governing this interplay. For example, we can calculate the mechanical work which can be obtained from a give thermal transformation.
In a similar spirit, he word “dynamo” is a contraction of “dynamo-electric”, expressing the conversion of mechanical to electrical energy, and of course there’s “magnetohydrodynamics”. I would even have to suppose that “aerodynamics” was conceived in the same way. That is, “dynamics as affected by, or in the presence of, air” as opposed to “the dynamics of air”.