Opisthocomus
oh-PIS-tho-koh-mus
Genus
one with a crest at the back (of the head)
Literally: behind-haired / rear-crested
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| opistho- | behind, at the rear, backward | Greek (opisth, -o) | combining form opistho- before consonant |
| comus | hair of the head; by extension, a tuft or crest | Greek (com, =us) | Greek κόμη (komē) / κόμος; latinised as -comus; here used as the head noun giving the genus its grammatical gender (masculine) |
Opisthocomus is a single-word genus name formed from two Greek elements joined by the combining vowel -o- already present in opistho-. The head noun comus (Greek κόμη, hair/crest, latinised as masculine -comus) follows the modifier opistho- (behind, at the rear). The whole word is treated as a Latin masculine noun of the second declension (-us ending). It describes the hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin), a bird whose long, shaggy crest grows from the back of the head rather than the front.
Pronunciation
- oh-PIS-tho-koh-mus Antepenult rule: the penult vowel 'o' in '-co-' is short and followed by only one consonant (m) before the final -us, so stress falls on the antepenult syllable 'pis'.
Commonly: oh-PIS-thoh-koh-mus (the -tho- is sometimes given a very slight secondary stress in common speech, but the primary stress remains on -PIS-)
Other readings
Some sources parse -comus from Greek κῶμος (kōmos, revel/band), but κόμη (hair/crest) is clearly the intended root given the bird's conspicuous backward-pointing crest.
The dictionary confirmed both opisth- and com- are present in the dictionary. The genus contains a single living species, Opisthocomus hoazin, the hoatzin of South America, placed in its own order Opisthocomiformes. The -o- between opisth- and com- is the standard Greek combining vowel, already part of the opistho- combining form. OCR / dictionary note: 'comus' appears in the dictionary as com, =us with the meaning hair of the head; confidence is high based on corroborating classical sources (Greek κόμη).