Tigrisoma
tih-grih-SO-muh
Genus
the tiger-bodied one; the one with a tiger-striped body
Literally: tiger body
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| tigri- | a tiger; striped like a tiger | Latin (tigri, -n) | Stem of tigris; final -s dropped to give the combining form tigri- |
| -soma | a body | Greek (=soma, -t, -to) | Terminal element; neuter gender; drives the neuter treatment of the genus name |
Tigrisoma is a single-word genus name formed by joining the Latin combining stem tigri- (from tigris, tiger) directly to the Greek terminal noun -soma (body). No connecting vowel is used; the -i of tigri- serves as the juncture. The result is treated as a grammatically neuter noun in the nominative singular, following the gender of the Greek -soma element. The name is a Greco-Latin hybrid, common in 19th-century taxonomy. It alludes to the boldly streaked and barred plumage of tiger-herons, which resembles a tiger's markings.
Pronunciation
- tih-grih-SO-muh Penult stressed: the penult syllable -so- contains the vowel o followed by a single consonant m, and -soma is explicitly listed among the penult-stressing endings in the pronunciation rules.
Other readings
tigri- could in principle be read as the combining form of the Greek tigris (τίγρις), which is also attested; the meaning is identical and the segmentation unchanged.
Tigrisoma is a Greco-Latin hybrid (Latin tigri- + Greek -soma); such hybrids are common in 19th-century zoological nomenclature and are nomenclaturally valid. The genus was established by Swainson in 1837 for the tiger-herons (family Ardeidae). Both tigri- and -soma were confirmed in the dictionary with high confidence.