Cercibis
SUR-sih-bis
Genus
the ibis with a (long) tail; the tailed ibis
Literally: tail ibis
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cerc- | the tail | Greek (cerc, -o, =us) | Greek kerkos (κέρκος); the combining vowel -o- is elided before the initial vowel of the following element. Distinguished in the dictionary from the homographic cerc, -i, =is (a rod; a kind of poplar), which is irrelevant here. |
| -ibis | an ibis (a long-billed wading bird) | Latin (ibi, -d, =s) | Head noun of the compound; the stem is ibid- but the nominative singular ibis is used directly as the terminal element. Borrowed into Latin from Greek ἶβις. Grammatical gender: feminine in Latin. |
Cercibis is a Greco-Latin compound genus name (a hybrid of Greek cerc- and Latin ibis). The Greek tail-root cerc- serves as modifier; ibis is the head noun. The connecting vowel -o- normally expected in a Greek compound is elided before the initial vowel of ibis (cerc + ibis → Cercibis). The whole compound is treated as a Latin feminine noun following the gender of ibis. The sole living species, Cercibis oxycerca (the sharp-tailed ibis of South America), reinforces the tail reference: oxycerca itself means 'sharp-tailed' (Greek oxys + kerkos).
Pronunciation
- SUR-sih-bis Three syllables: Cerc-i-bis. Penult vowel (-i-) is short and followed by only one consonant (b), so the penult is light — stress shifts to the ANTEPENULT (Cerc-). Initial C before e = 's' by the c-before-e rule. Antepenult vowel e is short (followed by two consonants r+c within the coda). Final -is has a short vowel.
Other readings
A minority reading could parse cerci- as the Greek root cerc, -i, =is ('a rod; a kind of poplar') + bis, but this yields no meaningful ornithological sense and is rejected. The tail reading (cerc, -o, =us) is strongly supported by the species epithet oxycerca.
Both roots confirmed in the dictionary: cerc, -o, =us (Greek, 'the tail') and ibi, -d, =s (Latin, 'an ibis'). The name is a Greek–Latin hybrid; such hybrids are common in ornithological nomenclature and are nomenclaturally valid under the ICZN. Cercibis oxycerca (Spix, 1825), the sharp-tailed ibis, is the only extant species in this genus (family Threskiornithidae), endemic to South American wetlands. ibis is feminine in Latin, so any adjectival specific epithet must be feminine (e.g. oxycerca, not oxycercus).