Loriculus
lo-RIK-yoo-lus
Genus
Little armoured one; a tiny coat-of-mail
Literally: Little lorica (little coat of armour / little breastplate)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| lorica | Clothed in metal; armour, breastplate | Latin (=lorica) | Stem lorica- → loric- before diminutive suffix; refers to the vivid, tightly-packed plumage suggesting a scaly coat of mail |
| -ulus | Little (diminutive suffix) | Latin (-ul, =a, =e, =um, =us) | Masculine nominative singular -ulus; standard Latin diminutive applied to a feminine noun stem to produce a new masculine genus name |
Loriculus is a pure Latin diminutive noun formed by attaching the suffix -ulus to the stem of lorica (armour, breastplate). The -a of lorica is dropped before the suffix, yielding lorica- → loric- + -ulus = Loriculus. Because it is a genus name treated as a Latin masculine noun, it takes the 2nd-declension masculine ending -us. As a monomial genus name there is no epithet to relate grammatically; species placed in the genus carry epithets that agree with the masculine gender of Loriculus (e.g. Loriculus galgulus). The name was coined by Edward Blyth (1850) for the hanging parrots of South and South-East Asia, whose brilliantly coloured, scale-like breast feathers evoke a small coat of armour.
Pronunciation
- lo-RIK-yoo-lus Antepenult stress: the penult syllable 'cu' contains a short vowel (u) followed by only one consonant (l), so it does not hold stress; stress therefore falls on the antepenult 'ri', whose vowel is short (i followed by a single consonant then a non-qualifying vowel sequence).
Other readings
A minority reading might parse lor- (Latin lorum, a thong/lash) + -iculus (diminutive), yielding 'little thong'; this is grammatically possible but ornithologically unmotivated and contradicted by Blyth's own usage, so lorica + -ulus is strongly preferred.
lorica is confirmed in the dictionary as Latin 'clothed in metal; armour, breastplate' (entry =lorica). The diminutive suffix -ulus is confirmed in the dictionary (entry -ul, =a, =e, =um, =us, Latin 'Little'). Loriculus Blyth, 1850 is the accepted genus for the hanging parrots (Psittaculidae); approximately 14 species are currently recognised. Availability should be verified in ZooBank or GBIF for any nomenclatural purposes.