Gallus
GAL-us
Genus
The domestic cock (rooster)
Literally: A cock; a chicken
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallus | A chicken, cock | Latin (gall, -in, -o, =us) | =us is the Latin nominative singular masculine ending; used here as the standalone form of the root. The word is a complete Latin noun, second declension, masculine. |
Gallus is a single-word genus name taken directly from the Latin noun gallus (cock, rooster), second declension, masculine gender. It stands alone as a noun; no epithet is being analyzed here. When combined with a species epithet (e.g. Gallus gallus, the red junglefowl), the epithet must agree in gender (masculine) or be in the genitive, or stand as a noun in apposition.
Pronunciation
- GAL-us Two-syllable word: stress falls on the penult (Rule 1).
Other readings
The root gall- also appears in the Latin galla (a gall nut, i.e. an oak gall), but that homonym is feminine and clearly inapplicable to a bird genus. The intended reading is unambiguously 'cock / chicken'.
Gallus is the Classical Latin word for the domestic cock (rooster). Linnaeus used it in 1758 (Systema Naturae) to name the genus that includes the red junglefowl Gallus gallus, the ancestor of all domestic chickens. The root also yields the combining forms gallin- (as in Gallinae, the order of fowl) and gallo- seen in related taxonomic names. Note that Gallus is also a Latin proper noun meaning 'a Gaul' (an inhabitant of Gaul); Linnaeus almost certainly intended the common noun 'cock', but the homonymy with the ethnic name is historically noted.