system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how did shuttlecocks come to be and why are they only used in badminton?

I can't imagine a context where anyone would think to invent them and why has no other use been found for them?
gpt
So the best explanation I've heard is that the name comes from the motion of the game reminding an onlooker of the shuttle on a loom, and it is feathered like a rooster aka cock. 

As for the design, high-drag projectiles (aka balls/corks with feathers on them) trace back to 5th century Vietnam with a game called Jianzi and even earlier then that to an ancient greek game ~0 AD called "Battledore and Shuttlecock".