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What does Cepphus mean?

Cepphus means “The guillemots — named after an ancient Greek word for a small, petrel-like seabird; the word also carried the colloquial sense of 'simpleton' or 'fool', alluding to the bird's seemingly witless behaviour around ships.”. Here are its roots and how to say it. Look up another name below.

Cepphus

SEP-fus

Genus

The guillemots — named after an ancient Greek word for a small, petrel-like seabird; the word also carried the colloquial sense of 'simpleton' or 'fool', alluding to the bird's seemingly witless behaviour around ships.

Literally: The petrel-like seabird (or: the simpleton)

PartMeaningLanguageNote
cepph- a petrel-like sea bird; a simpleton Greek (cepph, =us) Direct adoption of ancient Greek κέπφος (képphos); used standalone as cepphus
-us nominative singular masculine ending Latin Standard Latinization of the Greek word; second-declension masculine noun

Cepphus is a single-word genus name formed by directly adopting the Greek word κέπφος and Latinizing it with the nominative masculine ending -us. It stands as a second-declension masculine noun in apposition. No species epithet is present.

Pronunciation

  • SEP-fus Penult rule 1: a two-syllable word is always stressed on the penult. The c before e is pronounced 's'; the double ph renders as 'f'.

The genus was established by Pallas (1769) for the black and pigeon guillemots (family Alcidae). The Greek κέπφος is attested in classical authors (e.g. Aristotle) for a light, petrel-like seabird; its secondary meaning 'simpleton' referred to the bird's reputedly witless behaviour near vessels. ph in cepphus is the Greek letter phi, rendered as the English 'f' sound.