Strigops
STRY-gops
Genus
owl-faced (the one with the face of an owl)
Literally: owl-face
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strig- | an owl; a furrow | Latin (strig, -i) | Stem of strix / strig; the 'owl' sense (id 6404) applies here. A second homographic Latin entry (strig, =a, id 6403) means 'a furrow or streak' and is not relevant here. |
| -ops | appearance; the face; the voice | Greek (=ops) | Greek suffix used to denote facial resemblance; confirmed by two dictionary entries (op, =s id 4330 and =ops id 4352) |
Strigops is a compound genus name built from the Latin stem strig- (owl, from strix, strigis — a screech-owl) combined with the Greek suffix -ops (face, appearance). The pairing is a Latin-Greek hybrid, common in 19th-century biological nomenclature. The compound functions as a single New Latin noun and names the kakapo (the owl parrot of New Zealand, Strigops habroptila) for its distinctively owl-like facial disc of radiating feathers.
Pronunciation
- STRY-gops Two-syllable word: stress falls on the penult by rule 1 (a word of only two syllables is always stressed on the penult). The vowel i in the stressed syllable is followed by a single consonant (g) and then another consonant (p), giving a closed penult — short i — but stress position is still the penult regardless.
Commonly: STRIG-ops (short i in the stressed syllable, widely heard in ornithological usage; both are acceptable)
Other readings
Some authors treat strig- as deriving from Greek strigx (screech-owl, cognate with Latin strix), which would make the compound purely Greek in spirit — the meaning is identical either way.
The secondary Latin meaning of strig- ('furrow, streak') is almost certainly not intended here.
Dictionary confirmed: strig- = Latin 'an owl; a furrow' (strig, -i, entry id 6404); -ops = Greek 'appearance; the face; the voice' (=ops, entry id 4352). The genus was erected by George Robert Gray in 1845 for the kakapo, the flightless nocturnal parrot of New Zealand. Its large forward-facing eyes and disc of stiff facial feathers give it a strongly owl-like appearance — making the name highly descriptive. Latin strix / strig- and Greek strigx are cognate, both from a Proto-Indo-European root related to screeching, so the Latin-Greek hybrid is etymologically near-seamless.