Caprimulgus
cap-ree-MUL-gus
Genus
The goatsucker — a bird fabled to steal milk from goats under cover of darkness
Literally: Goat-milker
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| capri- | a goat | Latin (capr, -e, -i) | combining form capri- |
| mulg- | to milk | Latin (mulg) | from verb mulgēre; agent compound with capri- |
| -us | masculine nominative singular ending | Latin | standard genus-name termination; masculine gender |
A pure Latin agent-noun compound: capri- (goat) + mulg- (to milk) + -us (masc. nom. sg.), meaning 'one who milks goats'. No connecting vowel is needed as the stem joins directly. As a masculine noun, species epithets must agree in masculine gender (e.g. Caprimulgus europaeus).
Pronunciation
- cap-ree-MUL-gus Rule 5: the penult vowel u is short but closed by two consonants (l+g), so the penult is stressed.
Commonly: cap-ree-MUL-gus is standard in British and American ornithological usage; no divergence from the classical rule.
Other readings
No credible alternative segmentation. The split capr-i-mulg-us is unambiguous; the -i- is the Latin combining-vowel of capr-, not an independent root.
The name encodes the ancient folk belief, recorded by Aristotle and Pliny, that nightjars sucked milk from goats' udders at night — giving rise to the English common name 'goatsucker'. Linnaeus formalized this legend in the genus name in 1758. The suffix -us is listed in the dictionary as a cross-reference entry (no language code) for the Latin masculine nominative singular ending; treated here as Latin.