Gallicrex
GAL-ih-kreks
Genus
king of the domestic fowls
Literally: cock/hen king
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galli- | cock, domestic fowl, hen | Latin (gallus) | stem gall-, genitive galli-; here used as a combining stem |
| -crex | a rail (the bird) | Greek (crex) | from Greek κρέξ, a noisy bird, crake or rail; used as the head noun giving the genus its grammatical gender (masculine) |
Gallicrex is a compound genus name formed from the Latin stem galli- (from gallus, cock/fowl) joined directly to the Greek noun crex (rail, crake). The head noun is crex, making the whole name masculine. The construction means 'rail (that is like a) cock' or 'king-rail of the fowls'. No connecting vowel is used because crex begins with a consonant and the two elements are simply juxtaposed, a standard practice in 19th-century ornithological nomenclature.
Pronunciation
- GAL-ih-kreks Antepenult rule: the penult vowel (i) is short and followed by only one consonant (cr-), so stress falls on the antepenult syllable GAL-.
Other readings
Some scholars read galli- as deriving from the Latin place name Gallia (Gaul/France), giving 'Gallic rail', but the standard ornithological interpretation is 'cock-rail', referring to the prominent casque of the breeding male.
Gallicrex cinerea is the watercock, a rail (family Rallidae) found across South and Southeast Asia; the breeding male develops a bright red frontal casque, which likely inspired the 'cock' element of the name. The root crex was confirmed in the dictionary. The root gallus was confirmed in the dictionary. crex is also used as its own genus name (Crex crex, the corncrake), underlining that it was a recognised ornithological root.