Moho
MOH-hoh
Genus
The moho — a group of extinct Hawaiian honeyeaters named from the Hawaiian word for the bird
Literally: Moho
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moho | The native Hawaiian name for these birds, likely onomatopoeic of their call | Hawaiian | A proper Indigenous word adopted directly as the genus name; not derived from Greek or Latin roots |
A single uninflected noun in apposition, treated as a Latin neuter or masculine noun of indeterminate declension under ICZN rules. The genus name stands alone (no species epithet was given).
Pronunciation
- MOH-hoh Two-syllable word: stress falls on the penult (rule 1). Both vowels are word-final or in open syllables and pronounced as long 'oh'.
Commonly: MOH-hoh (the same in common usage)
Other readings
Some sources connect the name to the Mohorovičić discontinuity (the geological 'Moho'), but that is a separate and unrelated use of the word; the bird genus Moho (Lesson, 1831) is purely Hawaiian in origin.
Moho is not in the roots dictionary; it is a Hawaiian vernacular name for the bird, adopted intact by Lesson (1831) as the genus name for the extinct Hawaiian honeyeaters (family Mohoidae). Because it is a Hawaiian proper name and not a Greco-Latin compound, there are no classical roots to segment. The word may be onomatopoeic, echoing the bird's call, but this is not confirmed in the etymological literature.