Androdon
AN-droh-don
Genus
man's tooth / the human-toothed one
Literally: man-tooth
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| andr- | man, male, human | Greek (andr, -o) | combining form andr- (stem of aner, andros) before the connecting vowel -o- |
| -o- | connecting vowel | standard Greek connecting vowel joining andr- to -don | |
| -don | tooth | Greek (dont, -o; odon, odont, -o) | from Greek odous/odontos; the form -don is the apocopic (shortened) combining form used at word-end |
Androdon is a Greek compound functioning as a Latin masculine noun (genus name). The first element andr(o)- is the genitive/combining stem of aner (man, male), and -don is the clipped combining form of odont- (tooth). Together they form a noun in apposition: 'the (one with the) man-tooth' or 'human tooth.' No species epithet is present; this is a uninomial genus name.
Pronunciation
- AN-droh-don Antepenult stress: the penult vowel (-o-) is short and followed by only one consonant (d) before the final -on, so the stress falls on the antepenult AN-.
Other readings
A minority reading could treat andro- as purely 'male' (as opposed to 'human'), yielding 'male-toothed one,' but 'man/human tooth' is the standard interpretation in zoological/palaeontological contexts.
The dictionary and a dictionary lookup confirmed both andr/andro and dont/odon are present in the dictionary. The terminal -don is the apocopic (word-final clipped) allomorph of odont-/-odon; the full form odon- also appears in compounds such as Iguanodon. Androdon has been applied to more than one taxon (e.g. a genus of hummingbirds, Androdon aequatorialis, and fossil shark teeth); the analysis applies equally to all.