Ichthyaetus
ik-thee-EE-tus
Genus
the fish-eating eagle
Literally: fish-eagle
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ichthy- | a fish | Greek (ichthy, -o, =s) | Combining form; connecting vowel -o- dropped before following vowel |
| aetus | an eagle | Greek (aet, -o, =us) | Standalone nominative form =us; supplies the masculine gender of the genus |
A Greek noun-noun compound: ichthy- (fish) + aetus (eagle). The connecting vowel -o- is elided because aet- begins with a vowel, following standard Greek compounding practice. The whole word is treated as a second-declension Latin masculine noun (nominative singular -us). The name is descriptive of the birds' fish-eating habits, formed analogously to Haliaeetus (sea-eagle).
Pronunciation
- ik-thee-EE-tus Penult Rule 2: the penult syllable contains the diphthong ae (= long 'ee'), so stress falls on the penult.
Commonly: ik-THEE-ee-tus (some speakers treat ae as two syllables and shift stress to the antepenult, but the classical rule gives ik-thee-EE-tus)
Other readings
No plausible alternative segmentation; both roots are unambiguous dictionary entries.
The suffix -us on aetus is the regular Latin nominative singular masculine ending, not an independent suffix; it is part of the dictionary standalone form =us of aet-. The -tus and -us suffix matches returned by the dictionary are artefacts of suffix-scanning and do not apply here; the correct parse is ichthy- + aetus as confirmed by the dictionary entries.