Formicarius
for-mih-KAY-ree-us
Genus
The ant-bird; the one associated with ants
Literally: Of ants; pertaining to ants
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| formica- | An ant | Latin (formic, =a) | Base noun formica (ant); stem formic-, -a dropped before suffix |
| -arius | Pertaining to, connected with, belonging to | Latin | Standard Latin adjectival/substantive suffix, here making a masculine adjective/noun meaning 'of or relating to ants'; treated as a noun in apposition as a genus name |
The word is formed from the Latin noun formica (ant) with the highly productive Latin suffix -arius, which derives adjectives and nouns meaning 'pertaining to' or 'one who deals with' the base noun. Used as a genus name it is treated as a masculine Latin noun in the nominative singular. No epithet is given — the user supplied only the genus name. The genus Formicarius (Vieillot, 1816) names the antthrushes, ground-dwelling birds of the Neotropics famously associated with army-ant swarms, whose flushed insect prey the birds intercept.
Pronunciation
- for-mih-KAY-ree-us Stress on the antepenult (3rd-from-last syllable 'ca') because the penult 'ri' has a short vowel (i) followed by only one consonant — no penult-stress trigger applies. The antepenult vowel 'a' is long by rule: a short-class vowel (a) followed by a single consonant (r) and then two vowels the first of which is 'i' (-ius) — long-antepenult rule.
Commonly: for-mih-KAIR-ee-us (common anglicized usage collapses the long 'a' + 'r' into a single 'air' sound)
Other readings
A segmentation formic- (formic acid, L formica) + -arius is identical in result; the base word is simply formica, ant.
The suffix -arius is not listed as a standalone entry in the dictionary but is one of the most productive suffixes in Latin and New Latin nomenclature; confidence is high. Formicarius is the type genus of the family Formicariidae (antthrushes). The family suffix -idae is a standard ICZN taxonomic ending built on the same stem. The dictionary confirms formic, =a (Latin) = 'an ant' (entry 2413), which is the unambiguous base of this name.