The meaning of "Tapiranga" in (various Foreign) Common Names of Ramphocelus sp. … (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Thanks "dacol"

That added that little extra information, the last "icing on the cake" that I felt was missing!

Great!

 

[James Jobling]

From my MS;

PIPRA (Pipridae; type- Crimson-hooded Manakin P. aureola) Specific name Parus Pipra Linnaeus, 1758; ex Petiver 1709, and "Avicula mexicana de chichiltototh altera" of Seba 1734. “Manakin …Pipra of Linnaeus …a πιπρα, a certain bird, mentioned by Aristotle” (Pennant 1773); Gr. πιπρα pipra (also πιπρω piprō, πιπρως piprōs and πιπων pipōn) small bird mentioned by Aristotle and other authors, never properly identified, and formerly falsely linked with πιπω pipō woodpecker. Its association with the colourful Neotropical manakins seems to be arbitrary; "Pipira:- N[ome]. commum a diversas aves da Fam. Tanagridae" (Garcia 1929) (the absence of an etymology indicates that this is a Brazilian Portuguese name, perhaps from an unknown indigenous source); “the name pipira is used indiscriminately for manakins and thraupines in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru” (Sick 1993).

 

[thomasdonegan]

How could Aristotle have known a Pipridae? He died several thousand years before the Americas were discovered...

 

[James Jobling]

Of course, Aristotle knew nothing of the Neotropical manakins. His πιπρα remains unidentified, although some authorities (e.g. Thompson 1895, A Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 148) considered it to be the same as πιπω (a name for the Dendrocopos pied woodpeckers). The name was plucked from the classics and used in a purely arbitrary fashion for a small tit-like bird by Linnaeus 1758.