Touit
TOO-it
Genus
Touit — a genus of small Neotropical parrots, named from the Tupi word for a small parrot
Literally: Touit (a small parrot; from a Tupi indigenous word)
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touit | small parrot; a Tupi-Guaraní vernacular name for small parrots of the Americas, Latinized as a genus name | Tupi (South American indigenous) (touit / toui) | Established by G. R. Gray, 1855. The Tupi root toui (also spelled tui) referred to small, short-tailed parrots. The final -t is a Latinizing touch common in New Latin genus names coined from vernacular words. |
A single uninflected New Latin noun used as a genus name, treated as feminine (following the convention for bird genera). It is a direct Latinization of an indigenous South American vernacular word and has no internal Greek or Latin root structure.
Pronunciation
- TOO-it Two-syllable word: stress falls on the penult (first syllable). 'ou' = long oo; final 'it' has a short vowel.
Other readings
Some sources spell the vernacular source as toui (French ornithological literature of the 18th–19th centuries also used this form, borrowed from Tupi via Portuguese and French).
No dictionary roots were found because Touit is not a Greek or Latin compound; it is an indigenous Tupi word Latinized as a genus name. The Latin word tuit ('guarded, considered') returned by the dictionary is unrelated — it is a coincidental spelling match. The genus contains the small, short-tailed 'parrotlets' of South and Central America (family Psittacidae).