Leptosomus
lep-toh-SOH-mus
Genus
the slender-bodied one
Literally: slender body
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| lepto- | thin, fine, slender, delicate, weak, small | Greek (lept, -o) | combining form lepto- |
| -som- | body | Greek (somat, -o; =a) | stem somat- shortened to som- before the Latin nominative suffix -us |
| -us | nominative singular ending for masculine (or neuter) nouns treated as second-declension Latin | Latin | gives the genus a masculine grammatical gender in botanical/zoological Latin |
A single Greek compound noun Latinized by adding the nominative ending -us. The head noun is sōma (body, stem somat-), qualified by the prefix lepto- (slender). As a genus name it is treated as a masculine Latin noun in the nominative singular.
Pronunciation
- lep-toh-SOH-mus Penult rule 4: the penult vowel 'o' in '-so-' is long (open syllable before a single consonant), so stress falls on the penult '-SO-'.
Other readings
lept- + -osomus, where -osomus is a single suffix meaning 'bodied'; both readings give the same sense.
The genus Leptosomus is the cuckoo-roller (Leptosomus discolor), the sole member of the family Leptosomidae, native to Madagascar and the Comoros. The name alludes to its slender, elongated body. The stem of Greek sōma is sōmat-; when followed by the Latin -us ending the dental t is dropped, yielding -som-us. This is standard practice in Latinized Greek compound genera. '-us' as a standalone nominative suffix is not listed as its own dictionary entry; it is treated here as a productive Latin ending applied to Greek compounds.