Psittacara
sit-TA-ca-ra
Genus
A parrot of the macaw kind; a parrot allied to the macaws
Literally: parrot-macaw
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psittac- | a parrot | Greek (psitt, -ac, =acus) | Initial P of 'Ps-' is silent; combining form psittac- |
| -ara | macaw (a large parrot); also the established genus name Ara for macaws | New Latin (from Tupi, via Portuguese) (ara) | No connecting vowel; ara is itself an established parrot-genus name; the root has no assigned language code in the dictionary |
A compound noun used as a genus name (treated as feminine in Latin, following the convention for animal genera). The two elements are simply juxtaposed without a connecting vowel: psittac- (parrot) + ara (macaw), meaning roughly 'parrot [that is like an] Ara'. The name was coined for a group of New World parakeets related to—but distinct from—the macaws of genus Ara.
Pronunciation
- sit-TA-ca-ra Four syllables (P silent); penult 'ca' has a short vowel followed by a single consonant, so stress falls on the antepenult 'ta'.
Commonly: sit-uh-KAR-a is heard in common birdwatching usage, with stress shifted to the penult; the rules-based form is sit-TA-ca-ra.
Other readings
One could read the final segment as car- (Greek/Latin 'head' or 'dear') + -a, but the ornithological context makes psittac- + ara (macaw) overwhelmingly the intended split.
The initial P is silent per the rule for initial Ps-. 'ara' carries no language code in the dictionary; it derives ultimately from Tupi (a Brazilian indigenous language) via Portuguese and is the established genus name for macaws (Ara Lacépède, 1799). Psittacara was resurrected as a valid genus for a clade of New World parakeets previously lumped into Aratinga.