Dasyornis
das-ee-OR-nis
Genus
the shaggy (or hairy) bird
Literally: shaggy bird
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| dasy- | hairy, shaggy, rough | Greek (dasy) | combining form of Greek δασύς (dasys); final -y- of dasy- serves as the root vowel, so no extra connecting vowel is needed before the following vowel |
| -ornis | bird | Greek (ornis) | Greek ὄρνις (ornis); used here as the terminal element in the nominative singular; word-final position, so takes the full form -ornis rather than -ornitho- |
Dasyornis is a compound noun formed from two Greek elements: the adjective root dasy- ('hairy, shaggy') and the noun ornis ('bird'). The whole compound is treated as a Latin feminine noun (following the grammatical gender conventionally assigned to genus names ending in -ornis). The first element functions as a modifier of the second; the construction is a determinative compound in which dasy- qualifies ornis.
Pronunciation
- das-ee-OR-nis Antepenult stress: the penult vowel (-or-) is short and followed by only one consonant before a single following vowel, so stress falls on the antepenult syllable (-or- is the penult, -nis the ultima; the antepenult is 'das-'). More precisely the word has four syllables: das-ee-or-nis; the penult is -or-, a short vowel followed by a single consonant, so stress falls on the antepenult: DAS-ee-or-nis. However standard ornithological usage places stress on the penult -OR-; see common_usage.
Commonly: Standard ornithological and zoological usage stresses the penult: das-ee-OR-nis
Other readings
No alternative segmentations are plausible; the split dasy- + -ornis is unambiguous.
The dictionary confirmed both 'dasy' (Greek, hairy/shaggy/rough) and 'ornis' (Greek, bird) in the dictionary. Dasyornis is an Australian genus of bristlebirds (family Dasyornithidae). The name alludes to the dense, hair-like or bristly plumage that gives these birds their common name. The penult syllable -or- contains a short vowel followed by a single consonant (n); by strict classical rules this would normally push stress to the antepenult (DAS-ee-or-nis). However, because -or- precedes the word-final -nis and the sequence or functions like a heavy syllable in zoological convention, the penult stress das-ee-OR-nis is overwhelmingly the form used in practice and is given as the primary respelling.