Eudromia elegans
yoo-DROH-mee-uh EL-eh-ganz
Species
the elegant good runner
Literally: good runner, elegant
Eudromia · genus name (feminine)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu- | good, well | Greek (eu) | common Greek intensifying prefix |
| -drom- | running, a race | Greek (drom, -o) | from dromos; combining form before vowel-initial suffix |
| -ia | standard suffix forming feminine Latin genus names | New Latin | used here to make a feminine Latinized genus name |
elegans · specific epithet (third-declension adjective, nominative singular)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| elegan(t)- | elegant, fine | Latin (elegan, -t) | stem is elegant-; nominative singular drops the final -t and adds -s, giving elegans |
| -s | nominative singular ending | Latin | standard Latin nominative -s on a third-declension adjective |
Eudromia is a feminine genus name (New Latin, from Greek eu- 'good' + dromos 'running' + -ia). The epithet elegans is a Latin third-declension adjective (elegans, elegantis) that does not inflect for gender in the nominative singular — the same form serves masculine, feminine, and neuter — so no ending change is needed to agree with the feminine genus.
Pronunciation
- yoo-DROH-mee-uh Antepenult stress: penult vowel (-mi-) is short and followed by only one consonant before a following vowel, so stress falls on the antepenult (-dro-); that vowel is long (followed by a single consonant then two vowels -ia).
- EL-eh-ganz Three syllables (el-e-gans). Penult vowel 'e' is short and followed by only one consonant before the final syllable, so stress falls on the antepenult: EL-.
Other readings
One could read eleg- as the Greek root for 'mourning/choice' + -ans (Latin 'a handle'), but the unitary Latin adjective elegans ('elegant, fine, choice') is overwhelmingly the correct reading in biological nomenclature.
Eudromia elegans is the elegant crested tinamou of South America; both name parts are apt — it is a swift-running bird with ornate plumage. The saved Eudromia analysis is reused unchanged; its feminine -ia ending requires no modification because elegans has a single invariant nominative form for all genders.