Cotingidae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of tropical New World songbirds, including the cotingas, many of them brightly colored and found in forest canopies
2. The bird family Cotingidae, a group of Neotropical perching birds often showing vivid plumage and specialized display behaviors
3. Tropical American passerine birds forming the family Cotingidae, known for their colorful feathers and fruit-eating habits in forests

Etymology: Cotingidae is the scientific family name for the cotingas, a group of mostly tropical American forest birds, and the name is built from a native word rather than classical Latin or Greek. The family takes its name from "cotinga," the name used for these birds in Tupi-Guarani languages of South America, which Europeans borrowed as they recorded the birds' local names. Because the family was named in the scientific naming system of the 19th century, the Latin "-idae" ending marks it as a family, the same ending found in names like Corvidae for crows. The Tupi word was recorded in European natural history writing from the early modern period, and it was taken up as a scientific name when naturalists began classifying the birds systematically. Cotingas are famous for striking plumage and for the males of some species, such as the cock-of-the-rock relatives, which display in elaborate performances. The family name thus preserves a South American word inside a Latinized scientific framework.