| 释义 |
‖ porphyrio Ornith.|pɔːˈfɪrɪəʊ|
Also 7–8 porphir-, -phyrion.
[L. porphyrio (Plin.), ad. Gr. πορϕυρίων the purple coot. In F. porphyrion.]
A name given by the ancients to the purple coot, sultana, or water-hen (see quot. 1894); taken by Brisson, 1760, as name of the genus of Rallidæ including this, distinguished by their deep-blue plumage and scarlet bill and legs, widely distributed in warm and tropical regions.
1609Bible (Douay) Lev. xi. 18 The storke, and the swanne, and the onocratal, and the porphirion [Vulg. porphyrionem, 1611 gier eagle, 1885 vulture]. 1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 318 There is such a Porphyrio as they picture, akin to the Coots or Water-hens. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Porphyrio, in zoology, the name of a bird figured and described by all natural historians from one another... It appears to be of the gallinula or moor-hen kind. 1872A. Domett Ranolf. xiii. iv. 213 The crimson-billed porphyrio, that jerking struts among the cool thick rushes. 1890Victorian Stat., Game Act Sched. iii, [Close Season] Land-rail, all other members of the Rail family, Porphyrio, Coots, &c... From the First day of August to the Twentieth day of December. 1894Newton Dict. Birds 591 Of the larger species [of the genus Porphyrio], P. cæruleus seems to be the ‘Porphyrio’ of the ancients, and inhabits certain localities on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Hence porˈphyrionine a. Ornith., belonging to the subfamily Porphyrionīnæ of the Rallidæ, of which the genus Porphyrio is the type; n., a bird of this subfamily.
1890in Cent. Dict. 1895in Funk's Stand. Dict. |