Cinnyricinclus
sin-ny-ri-SIN-klus
Genus
the wagtail-like small bird; a bird combining the characters of a sunbird (Cinnyris) and a wagtail (Cinclus)
Literally: small bird + wagtail
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| cinnyr- | a small bird (the root used for sunbirds, genus Cinnyris) | Greek (cinnyr, =is) | stem cinnyr-, genitive/combining form used as first element |
| -i- | connecting vowel | Latin/New Latin convention joining two Greek stems | |
| -cinclus | the wagtail | Greek (cincl, -o, =us) | used here as the head element; -us is the masculine Latin nominative singular ending applied to a Greek stem, standard in New Latin genus names |
A compound genus name in New Latin. The first element cinnyr- (Greek, 'small bird', the stem underlying the sunbird genus Cinnyris) is joined by a connecting vowel -i- to the head element -cinclus (Greek cinclus, 'wagtail'). The whole word is treated as a masculine Latin second-declension noun. The name alludes to the Violet-backed Starling (and allies) sharing features of both sunbirds and wagtails in earlier classification schemes.
Pronunciation
- sin-ny-ri-SIN-klus Penult rule 5: the penult vowel ('i' in '-cin-') is short but is followed by two consonants (n + cl), so the penult is stressed.
Other readings
A minority reading might try to split off ricin- (Latin, 'castor-oil tick') at positions 5–10, but this produces no coherent ornithological sense and is almost certainly a coincidental overlap. The cinnyr- + -i- + cinclus split is the only etymologically sound reading.
The genus name was coined by Cabanis (1851) for the Violet-backed Starling and relatives, explicitly blending Cinnyris (sunbird genus) and Cinclus (wagtail genus). The connecting vowel -i- between two Greek stems is slightly irregular (Greek convention would prefer -o-), but -i- connectors are common in 19th-century New Latin coinages when the first stem already ends in a vowel-like sound or for euphony. ricin (Latin, 'castor-oil plant / tick') and clu/clus (Latin, 'close') appear as incidental overlapping substrings but have no role in this name's formation. The final -us is the standard Latin masculine nominative singular termination applied to the Greek stem cinclus, giving the word its grammatical gender as a New Latin genus name.