Tityra
TIT-ih-ruh
Genus
The pheasant (a bird-name from Greek, applied to a Neotropical genus of masked tityras)
Literally: A pheasant
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| tityr- | a pheasant | Greek (tityr, =us) | Greek stem tityr-, attested as tityrus in the masculine; the genus name adopts the feminine Latin nominative ending -a |
| -a | Latin feminine nominative singular ending | Replaces the Greek masculine -us to give the genus a feminine grammatical gender, following standard New Latin practice |
Tityra is a single-word genus name in the family Tityridae. It is a Latinized feminine noun formed directly from the Greek word tityrus (φeasant / a type of bird) by substituting the feminine ending -a for the masculine -us. No specific epithet is being analyzed here; as a genus it stands alone. The name was coined by Vieillot (1816) for a group of Neotropical passerine birds (masked tityras).
Pronunciation
- TIT-ih-ruh Antepenult stress: the word has three syllables; the penult vowel (y = short i) is followed by only one consonant (r) and is not long, so the stress retreats to the antepenult (TIT-). Final -a is pronounced 'uh'.
Other readings
The Greek word tityrus also appears in Virgil's Eclogues as a proper name (a shepherd's name), so some authorities have read the genus as commemorating that pastoral figure rather than citing the bird-word directly; however, the dictionary root tityr = 'a pheasant' is the most parsimonious reading for an ornithological genus.
The root tityr, =us is confirmed in the dictionary (Greek, 'a pheasant'), making this a straightforward monomorphemic genus name with only a gender-ending substitution. Tityra is the type genus of the family Tityridae; the family name Tityridae follows the standard ICZN -idae suffix on the same stem (tityr + idae). The Greek word tityrus is also the name of a shepherd in Virgil's Eclogues (1st c. BCE), but for a bird genus the zoological reading 'pheasant' is standard.