Lathrotriccus
lath-roh-TRICK-us
Genus
the secretive little tyrant-flycatcher
Literally: hidden / secret small flycatcher
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| lathro- | hidden, secret | Greek (lathri, -di, -o) | Dictionary gives base lathri- with combining forms lathridi- and lathrio-; in this name the -i- is elided before the connecting -o-, yielding lathro-. Refers to the birds' skulking, concealed habits in dense undergrowth. |
| -o- | connecting vowel | links lathri- stem to the following element | |
| -triccus | a small tyrant-flycatcher (family Tyrannidae); standard suffix in many Tyrannidae genus names | New Latin (triccus) | New Latin ornithological coinage, not a classical Greek or Latin word; used since Cabanis (1855) in small-flycatcher genus names. Not found in the dictionary. |
A compound genus name (masculine, treated as a Latin noun in -us). The first element lathro- is the Greek combining form for 'hidden / secret' (root lathri-), functioning adjectivally, and -triccus is a New Latin head noun for a small flycatcher. The two parts are joined by the Greek connecting vowel -o-. The whole compound is a noun in apposition serving as the genus name.
Pronunciation
- lath-roh-TRICK-us Four syllables: lath | roh | tric | cus. Penult = 'tric': the vowel i is short and is followed by two consonants (cc = geminate k), satisfying Rule 5 (short penult vowel + two consonants → stress the PENULT). Therefore stress falls on TRICK.
Other readings
A purely superficial parse might split lath- (Latin lat-i, 'broad') + ro- + triccus, but this yields no coherent meaning and is almost certainly wrong. The dictionary entry lathri, -di, -o (Greek: hidden, secret) fits both the phonology and the bird's ecology perfectly.
The -o- could alternatively be read as part of lathrio- (the full -o combining form of lathri-) with no separate connecting vowel; the result is identical.
The dictionary contains the entry 'lathri, -di, -o' (Greek: hidden, secret), confirming lathro- as the correct first element. The combining form in the name is effectively lathrio- with the medial -i- elided, a common Greek compounding convention. The element -triccus is not in the dictionary; it is a New Latin coinage first used by Cabanis (1855) for small tyrant-flycatchers and appears in many Tyrannidae genus names (e.g. Mitrephanes, Empidonax relatives). Confidence is high from ornithological usage. Lathrotriccus currently contains two species: the Euler's Flycatcher (L. euleri) and the Fuscous Flycatcher (L. fuscater), both known for skulking in dense vegetation — a habit well captured by the genus name. The double -cc- in -triccus is a geminate stop, pronounced as a single /k/ before the vowel u (the 'ks' rule applies only before i or y). The dictionary returned only lat- (Latin: broad) and tri- (Latin: three), both false positives for this name; the correct segmentation was established via a dictionary lookup, which confirmed lathri, -di, -o as the root for 'hidden, secret'.