Spilopelia
spy-loh-PEE-lee-uh
Genus
the spotted dove
Literally: spotted dove
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spilo- | spot, stain, mark | Greek (spilos) | combining form spilo- from Greek σπίλος |
| -pel- | dove, pigeon | Greek (peleia) | shortened stem of Greek πελεία (peleia), dove |
| -ia | nominal feminine ending; creates a genus name treated as feminine | Greek | standard Greek/New Latin genus suffix, feminine |
Spilopelia is a New Latin genus name formed from two Greek roots joined by elision (the final -a of peleia contracts with the suffix -ia). It is a feminine noun in the nominative singular, coined in the style of other columbid genus names (e.g. Columba, Streptopelia). As a genus name it stands alone; there is no specific epithet here.
Pronunciation
- spy-loh-PEE-lee-uh Antepenult rule: the penult vowel (-li-) is short and followed by only one consonant before another vowel, so stress falls on the antepenult (-pe-), which itself contains the long diphthong-like sequence from peleia; in practice the four-syllable parse places the main stress on the third syllable from the end: PEE.
Other readings
Some authors parse -pelia as a direct borrowing of the full Greek πελεία, making the join spilo- + pelia + -a, where the final -a is the feminine nominative ending rather than a separate suffix; the meaning is identical.
Spilopelia was erected by Bonaparte (1855) for a group of spotted doves previously placed in Streptopelia. The type species is Spilopelia chinensis, the Spotted Dove. spilo- (σπίλος) was confirmed in the dictionary (spot/stain). peleia (πελεία) was confirmed in the dictionary (dove/pigeon). The suffix -ia is a standard New Latin genus-forming ending and was treated as general knowledge (in_dictionary: false) but confidence is high.