Rhea

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹiːə/

Definitions

1. A large flightless bird native to South America resembling an ostrich but smaller, with three toes on each foot and grayish-brown plumage
2. A type of large, flightless bird found in South America that closely resembles an emu, notable for its long legs and brownish feathers
3. This bird, characterized by its size and inability to fly, inhabits open landscapes in South America and has distinctively long neck and legs

Etymology: The rhea is named after a goddess, though not because of anything it does. In Greek myth, Rhea was the Titan mother of Zeus, and in the early 1800s naturalists gave her name to the genus of these South American birds. The scientific label was a learned borrowing from the Greek, so the English word for the bird is simply the Latinised taxonomic name carried over into everyday speech. Its older name is far more colourful. The Assamese word "riha" referred to this bird in the Indian region of Assam, and that is the second source of the English form. Two very different traditions, one a Mediterranean goddess and the other a regional name from northeast India, ended up attached to a flightless runner from the Pampas of South America.