Cephalopterus
sef-al-OP-ter-us
Genus
the one with a winged head (referring to the remarkable umbrella-like crest on the head)
Literally: head-wing
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cephal- | head | Greek (cephal, -o) | from Greek κεφαλή (kephalē); combining form cephalo- before consonant |
| -o- | connecting vowel | ||
| -pter- | wing, feather | Greek (pter, -o) | from Greek πτερόν (pteron) |
| -us | masculine nominative singular ending | Latin (=us) | standard Latin termination giving the genus a masculine grammatical gender |
The name is a compound Greek adjective/noun used as a Latin masculine noun (second declension, -us). The head element cephalo- (head) is the qualifier; the base element -pter- (wing) is the head noun; together they form a bahuvrihi (possessive) compound meaning 'one having a head-wing' or 'winged-head'. There is no specific epithet here; this is a monomial genus name. The Latin -us ending is the standard Latinisation applied to Greek compound genus names.
Pronunciation
- sef-al-OP-ter-us Antepenult stress: the penult vowel 'e' in '-ter-' is short and followed by only one consonant before the final -us, so stress falls on the antepenult syllable '-op-'. Initial 'C' before 'e' = 's'; 'ph' = 'f'.
Other readings
Segmentation is unambiguous. One minor alternative reading would treat -pterus as the adjective pteros (winged) applied to cephal- (head), yielding 'winged-headed', which amounts to the same meaning.
Cephalopterus is a Neotropical bird genus (umbrellabirds, family Cotingidae) erected by George Robert Gray in 1840. The name alludes to the spectacular umbrella-like crest of filamentous feathers radiating from the crown. The tool confirmed both cephal/cephalo (Greek, head) and pter/ptero (Greek, wing/feather) are present in the dictionary. The initial 'C' is soft ('s') because it precedes 'e', per the consonant rules; 'ph' is rendered 'f' as standard for Greek-derived words.