Neotis
NEE-oh-tiss
Genus
The new (or distinct) bustard
Literally: New bustard
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| neo- | New, recent | Greek (ne, -o) | Combining form of neos; final -o dropped before following vowel |
| -otis | A bustard | Greek (=otis) | Used as the terminal element in bustard-genus names; grammatically feminine |
A compound Greek noun formed by prefixing neo- (new, recent) directly to otis (bustard) without a connecting vowel, since otis begins with a vowel. The resulting genus name is treated as a feminine noun in apposition, following the grammatical gender of the parent genus Otis. Neotis was coined as a segregate of Otis to house certain large African bustards, marking them as a newly distinguished bustard group.
Pronunciation
- NEE-oh-tiss Antepenult rule: the penult vowel (o) is short and followed by only one consonant (t), so stress retreats to the antepenult. The antepenult vowel (e) is followed by a single consonant and then two vowels (o, i), making it long ("nee").
Other readings
No plausible alternative segmentation: neo- + otis is unambiguous given the dictionary entries for both roots.
Otididae, the family containing Neotis, takes its name from the stem otid- (dictionary form otid, -o: 'an ear; a bustard'), a related but distinct dictionary entry from the standalone =otis used here. The dictionary lists a second Greek neo- meaning 'a bird's nest; a young bird' (neo, -ss, -ssi, -tt, -tti, -tto), but the standard meaning 'new, recent' is the intended reading here, consistent with the genus being coined as a new segregate of Otis.