Phoenicurus
fee-NIH-kyoo-rus
Genus
Red-tailed one; the crimson tail — referring to the vivid rufous-orange tail of the redstart birds
Literally: Purple/crimson tail
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| phoenic- | Purple, reddish-purple; crimson (from phoinix, the Phoenician dye colour, also the name of the phoenix and the date palm) | Greek (phoeni, -c, -co, =x) | Stem of Greek phoinix, phoinikos; the genitive stem phoinik- becomes phoenic- in Latinized spelling |
| -ur- | The tail | Greek (our, =a / ur, =a, -o) | Greek oura; the initial 'o' is dropped after the preceding consonant in compound formation, yielding -ur- |
| -us | Latin nominative singular masculine ending | Latin | Gives the compound a standard Latinized genus-name form |
A compound noun coined in New Latin from two Greek elements: the stem phoinik- (purple, crimson) + oura (tail), with the Latin nominative ending -us. The name functions as a noun in apposition, describing the characteristic feature of the bird — its bright rufous-red tail. The genus was established by Thomas Forster (1817) for the redstarts (family Muscicapidae).
Pronunciation
- fee-NIH-kyoo-rus Antepenult stress: the penult vowel (-u-) is short and followed by only one consonant before the final syllable vowel, so stress falls on the antepenult syllable (-nic-). The 'ph' = 'f'; 'oe' = long 'ee'; 'c' before 'u' = 'k'.
Commonly: fee-NIH-kyuh-rus (the -kyu- is often reduced in casual speech)
Other readings
A minority reading could connect phoenic- to the mythological phoenix (Greek phoinix, 'the firebird'), giving 'phoenix-tailed' — but the colour meaning is primary and better fits the bird's appearance.
The connecting vowel 'o' of oura is elided after the consonant stem, a standard Greek compounding rule, yielding phoenic+ur rather than phoenic+our. phoenic- can also evoke the mythological phoenix or the date palm (Phoenix), but in this ornithological context the colour meaning ('crimson, reddish-purple') is the intended one, matching the bird's conspicuous orange-red tail. The genus Phoenicurus contains the Old World redstarts; the type species is Phoenicurus phoenicurus, the Common Redstart.