Psittacines

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of birds known for their colorful feathers and ability to mimic sounds, commonly including parrots and their relatives
2. The family of vibrant, often highly intelligent avian species, recognized for their strong beaks and social behavior
3. Biologically classified members of the order Psittaciformes, characterized by their zygodactyl feet and often loud vocalizations

Etymology: "Psittacines" is the plural of "psittacine", an adjective-turned-noun for the parrot family. Its root is the Ancient Greek "psittakós", meaning parrot, which the Greeks borrowed from a non-Greek source; the bird itself was known to them from the East, so the word carries a sense of the exotic from its start. The ending "-ine" is a suffix meaning "of or relating to", so a psittacine is literally something parrot-like or belonging to the parrots. English took the form from the scientific Latin of naturalists, who needed a precise name for the whole group of birds rather than a single species. The plural form here simply counts the members of that family, and the root is the same word the Greeks used for the parrot in everyday speech.

Synonyms: parrots, parakeets