Loboparadisea
lo-bo-par-a-DIS-ee-uh
Genus
A lobed bird-of-paradise
Literally: Lobed Paradisea (bird-of-paradise with lobes)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| lobo- | A lobe | Greek (lob, -i, -o, =us) | Combining form lobo-, referring to the fleshy facial wattles or lobes characteristic of this bird |
| paradis- | A park, pleasure ground; hence 'paradise' | Greek (paradis) | The classical Greek word παράδεισος (paradeisos), ultimately of Persian origin, meaning a walled pleasure garden; in ornithology it became the standard root for birds-of-paradise (genus Paradisaea) |
| -ea | Latinized feminine noun ending | Matches the gender and form of the established bird-of-paradise genus Paradisaea; -ea is the Latinized New Latin suffix making the whole a feminine genus name |
Loboparadisea is a compound genus name formed from the Greek combining form lobo- (lobe) joined directly to Paradisea, the well-known bird-of-paradise genus name. The whole word is treated as a Latin feminine noun (nominative singular) following the convention for genus names. The construction means 'Paradisea with lobes', i.e. a bird-of-paradise distinguished by fleshy facial lobes. Loboparadisea sericea (the Yellow-breasted Bird-of-paradise) is the sole species; it was named for the prominent yellow wattle-lobes on the face of the male.
Pronunciation
- lo-bo-par-a-DIS-ee-uh Seven syllables: lo-bo-par-a-dis-e-a. Penult is 'e', a short vowel in an open syllable with no following consonant cluster — penult stress conditions are not met — so stress falls on the antepenult 'dis'. The final -ea is read as two syllables: 'ee-uh' (the -e- is long before the final -a, which is pronounced 'uh').
Other readings
One could over-segment para-disea reading para- as 'beside' and dis- as 'apart/two', but this is a false split; paradis is a single established root and Paradisea is an already-coined ornithological genus name that the author was explicitly invoking.
The root paradis (Greek παράδεισος) is in the dictionary as 'a park, pleasure ground'; its use here specifically invokes the ornithological genus Paradisaea (birds-of-paradise), coined by Brisson 1760, itself derived from that same classical root via the notion of an earthly paradise. The final segment -ea is a New Latin feminine ending, not a separate root; it is not listed in the dictionary as such but is standard practice in zoological nomenclature. Loboparadisea was erected by Ogilvie-Grant in 1895 for the Yellow-breasted Bird-of-paradise, named for the conspicuous yellow lobes flanking the face of the male.