Montecincla
mon-teh-SINK-luh
Genus
mountain cinclus; a cinclus-like bird of the mountains
Literally: mountain wagtail (cinclus)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mont- | a mountain | Latin (mont) | Latin nominal stem; provides the first element |
| -e- | connecting vowel | Latin -e- linking vowel between the two elements | |
| -cincla | the wagtail (also applied to dippers, genus Cinclus) | Greek (cincl, -o, =us) | Greek stem cincl- with feminine Latin nominative ending -a, giving the genus a feminine grammatical gender |
The genus name is a compound of the Latin root mont- (mountain) joined by the connecting vowel -e- to the Greek ornithological root cincl- (wagtail / dipper), with a feminine Latin nominative singular ending -a. The whole word functions as a single feminine Latin noun. The construction follows the common practice in ornithological nomenclature of prefixing a habitat or locality element to an existing or analogous bird-name stem.
Pronunciation
- mon-teh-SINK-luh Penult rule 5: the penult vowel (i in -cink-) is short but is followed by two consonants (n+k), so the penult is stressed.
Other readings
A purely Latin reading of monte- (ablative of mons) + cincla is equally valid and gives the same sense: 'cinclus of the mountain'.
Montecincla is a genus of laughingthrushes (family Leiothrichidae) erected by Alström et al. (2020) for four South Asian montane species previously placed in Trochalopteron. The dictionary glosses cincl as 'the wagtail', but in post-Linnaean ornithology the stem was applied to dippers (Cinclus); both usages derive from the same Greek root κίγκλος (kinklos), a tail-wagging waterside bird. The hybrid Latin–Greek coinage is standard in 19th–20th century biological nomenclature and carries no nomenclatural penalty under the ICZN.