What does Corydon mean?

Crested lark — used as a genus name for a bird (the dusky broadbill, Corydon sumatranus)

Literally: The crested lark

Corydon is a single Greek noun, κορυδών, meaning 'the crested lark,' taken whole into New Latin as a genus name. It is treated as a masculine noun of the third declension (nominative -on, genitive -onis in Latin usage). No epithet is present; this is a uninomial genus name. The root cory- (Greek 'helmet, crest') is visible inside the word and is indeed the etymological source of the bird's name — a lark named for its crest — but the dictionary treats the whole form coryd-/-o-/=us as a single entry meaning 'crested lark,' so no further decomposition is needed.

Pronunciation

• COR-ih-don Antepenult stress: the penult vowel (y = short i) is followed by only one consonant (d), so it is short and not position-lengthened; stress therefore falls on the antepenult (COR-)

Other readings

cory- (Greek, 'helmet/crest') + -d- (stem extension) + -on (suffix): 'crested one' — plausible folk etymology that matches the bird's crest, but the dictionary records the full word as a unit meaning 'crested lark'

Corydon is also a famous pastoral shepherd's name from Theocritus and Virgil's Eclogues; some genus names borrow it as an allusion to rustic or melodious birds, though the Greek crested-lark sense is the primary zoological motivation

The Greek noun κορυδών (korydōn) is confirmed in the dictionary under 'coryd, -o, =us' (Greek, 'the crested lark') The -on ending is the ordinary Greek nominative noun ending and is not analyzed separately as a suffix here Corydon sumatranus (dusky broadbill, family Eurylaimidae) is the type species of this genus; the name alludes to the lark-like crest or simply invokes the classical bird name