Crotophaga
kro-TOF-uh-guh
Genus
the tick-eater
Literally: tick-eater
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croto- | a tick (the parasite); also the castor-oil plant | Greek (croton, -o) | combining form croto-; stem from Greek króton |
| -phaga | eater; one that eats | Greek (-phaga, phag, -o) | from Greek phagein, 'to eat'; used as a terminal element meaning 'feeder on' |
A compound Greek noun used as a Latin feminine singular genus name. The head is -phaga ('eater'), modified by croto- ('tick'). The name functions as a noun in apposition describing the animal's feeding habit: it eats ticks off livestock.
Pronunciation
- kro-TOF-uh-guh Antepenult rule: the penult vowel 'a' in '-pha-' is short and followed by only one consonant before a single following vowel, so stress falls on the antepenult 'toph'; the penult does not meet any penult-stress condition.
Other readings
Some sources connect 'croton' to the castor-oil plant genus Croton, but the 'tick' reading is strongly preferred given the bird's well-known habit of gleaning ticks from cattle and other large animals.
Both roots confirmed in the dictionary. 'Croton' (Greek króton) means a tick (the ectoparasite) and is also the name of the castor-oil plant, whose seeds resemble swollen ticks — the tick meaning is almost certainly intended here, as the ani birds (genus Crotophaga) are famous for following cattle and feeding on their ticks. The ending -phaga is a New Latin/Greek combining form widely used in taxonomy for animals defined by what they eat (cf. Bacteriophaga, Ichthyophaga, etc.). Common name of the type species: Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani), a cuckoo-family bird of the American tropics.