Alectura
a-lek-TOO-ruh
Genus
the rooster-tailed bird
Literally: cock-tail; having a rooster's tail
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| alect- | a cock, a rooster | Greek (=alector) | the final -or is elided before the vowel-initial suffix -ura, a standard Greek compounding contraction |
| -ura | the tail | Greek (ur, =a, -o) | from Greek oura; the form -ura is the Latinized combining suffix; feminine noun ending |
Alectura is a genus name coined as a single compound Greek noun given Latin feminine treatment (as required for genus names). It fuses alector (ἀλέκτωρ, 'cock, rooster') with -oura (οὐρά, 'tail'), with the -or ending of alector contracted away before the vowel-initial suffix. The result functions as a descriptive noun: 'the rooster-tailed [bird]'. Named by John Edward Gray, 1840, for the Australian Brushturkey, whose strikingly erect, laterally flattened, fan-like tail was thought to resemble a cock's tail.
Pronunciation
- a-lek-TOO-ruh Rule 4 — the ending -ura is explicitly listed as a penult-stress trigger; the penult syllable 'tu' (vowel u) is therefore stressed.
Other readings
A minority reading splits the word as alectr- (Greek alektros, 'unmarried') + -ura ('tail'), yielding 'tail of the unmarried one', but this is biologically unmotivated and almost certainly incorrect. The alector ('cock') reading is the standard and zoologically apt interpretation.
The dictionary records both alector (=alector, 'a cock') and alectr- (alectr, -o, 'unmarried') as separate Greek entries. Context — a bird genus — makes alector the correct reading with high confidence. The Greek word oura (tail) appears in the dictionary in two equivalent forms: 'ur, =a, -o' and 'our, =a'; both confirm the meaning 'tail'. The Latinized suffix -ura is the standard zoological combining form seen in Brachyura, Anura, Macrura, etc. Alectura lathami (Gray, 1831) — the Australian Brushturkey — is the type and only living species of this genus (family Megapodiidae). The name alludes to the bird's conspicuous, upright, fan-shaped tail, likened to a rooster's.