Megapodius
meg-uh-POH-dee-us
Genus
big-footed one
Literally: big foot
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mega- | large, great | Greek (megal, mega) | combining form mega- (variant of megal- before consonants) |
| -pod- | foot | Greek (pod, -o) | from Greek pous, podos; stem pod- |
| -ius | adjectival/nominal suffix forming a masculine noun | Latin | Latin masculine nominative singular; gives the genus name its grammatical gender (masculine) |
A single-word genus name. The Greek combining form mega- (large) joins the Greek stem pod- (foot) with a connecting vowel absorbed into the suffix; the Latin masculine ending -ius turns the whole compound into a Latinized noun meaning 'the big-footed one'. Because it is a genus name it stands alone with no epithet here.
Pronunciation
- meg-uh-POH-dee-us Penult rule 4: the penult 'di' is followed by the diphthong-like ending -us but the antepenult 'po' contains a long vowel (ō) followed by a single consonant, making the penult 'di' short and followed by only one consonant — stress therefore falls on the antepenult 'po'. Wait: four syllables Me-ga-PO-di-us = five syllables; antepenult of five syllables is 'po'; its vowel is long (ō, single consonant follows), so stress the antepenult: me-ga-POH-dee-us.
Other readings
mega- + podi- + -us: same reading, treating -i- as a connecting vowel and -us as the Latin ending, giving identical meaning.
The genus Megapodius (Gould, 1838) comprises the scrubfowl (family Megapodiidae); the name alludes to their notably large feet, used to build enormous incubation mounds. The suffix -ius is treated as a Latin nominal ending and is not separately listed in the roots dictionary; it is extremely common in Latinized scientific genus names. The dictionary and a dictionary lookup confirmed 'mega' (Greek, large) and 'pod' (Greek, foot) are both in the dictionary.