Bonasa
BON-uh-suh
Genus
The bison-bird — a New Latin feminine genus name evoking the booming drumming of the ruffed grouse, compared to the roar of a bison
Literally: bison-like (feminine form); from bonas- 'bison / a kind of bird'
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| bonas- | Bison; (New Latin) a kind of bird — itself the stem of classical Latin bonasus (from Greek βόνασος), a wild bovine of Scythia | Latin (bonas) | Nominative stem; the classical noun bonasus (masc.) is feminized to Bonasa as the New Latin genus name |
| -a | Feminine nominative singular ending | Latin | Converts the masculine bonasus into a feminine New Latin genus name, as required by ICZN convention for genus names treated as feminine Latin nouns |
Bonasa is a single-word genus name. It is the Latin stem bonas- (the classical word for a bison-like animal, and in New Latin 'a kind of bird') given a feminine nominative singular Latin ending -a. The name was coined by Stephens (1819) for the ruffed grouse and its allies. It functions as a feminine Latin noun in apposition; any specific epithet in the genus must agree in gender with it (e.g. Bonasa umbellus uses umbellus as a noun in apposition, not an adjective). The allusion is to the loud, resonant wing-drumming of the male ruffed grouse, likened to the bellowing of a bison.
Pronunciation
- BON-uh-suh Antepenult rule: the penult vowel ('a' in '-na-') is short and followed by only one consonant 's', so stress retreats to the antepenult ('bo'). The antepenult vowel 'o' is itself short (followed by a single consonant 'n' and then 'a', which is not e, i, or y), giving a clipped 'BON'.
Other readings
A secondary parse of bonas- as bon- (Latin 'good') + -as (a suffix) is superficially possible — the dictionary does list bon = 'good' — but the dictionary's own entry bonas = 'Bison; (NL) a kind of bird' makes the bison derivation the primary and authoritative reading.
The classical Latin bonasus (also spelled bonassus) is borrowed from Greek βόνασος (bonásos), an ancient name for a large wild bovine (possibly the European bison or aurochs) described by Aristotle and Pliny. The dictionary entry 'bonas' is effectively the stem of that word, and explicitly extends its New Latin meaning to 'a kind of bird', confirming the application to this grouse genus. The genus Bonasa currently contains the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) of North America and is sometimes broadened to include Eurasian hazel grouse. Some modern classifications split it further. No roots were missing from the dictionary for this name; all segments confirmed with high confidence.