Cinclosoma
sink-LO-so-muh
Genus
wagtail-like body (a bird whose body recalls the wagtail)
Literally: wagtail body
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| cinclo- | the wagtail | Greek (cincl, -o, =us) | combining form cinclo-; the root cincl- takes -o- as the connecting vowel before the next element |
| -soma | a body | Greek (=soma, -t, -to) | used here as the head noun, giving the whole compound its meaning; the -oma (tumor) and -os (full of) matches at those positions are artifacts of overlap and do not apply |
Cinclosoma is a Greek neuter compound noun (soma is neuter) used as a genus name. The first element cinclo- (wagtail) functions as an attributive modifier of soma (body): 'body of a wagtail' or 'wagtail-bodied'. The genus was established for Australian quail-thrushes and jewel-babblers whose general form was compared to wagtails. As a genus name it stands alone without a species epithet here.
Pronunciation
- sink-LO-so-muh Four syllables: cinc-lo-so-ma. Penult 'so' has a short vowel followed by only one consonant (m), so penult stress rules 1–5 do not apply; stress falls on the antepenult 'lo'.
Other readings
One could read the final four letters as the suffix -oma (tumor, morbid growth), giving 'wagtail-tumor', but this is anatomically absurd for a bird genus and is rejected in favor of soma (body).
The match for -oma (tumor) at position 7 is a substring artifact; the correct parse takes soma as a single root starting at position 6. The match for Latin -os (full of) at position 5 is likewise a spurious overlap and is discarded. c before i is soft (= 's'), and the following hard c before l gives the 'nk' cluster: 'sink-'. Final -a is pronounced as a short unstressed 'uh' per the vowel rules.