‖ 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.
| 1609 Bible (Douay) Lev. xi. 18 The storke, and the swanne, and the onocratal, and the porphirion [Vulg. porphyrionem, 1611 gier eagle, 1885 vulture]. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 318 There is such a Porphyrio as they picture, akin to the Coots or Water-hens. 1753 Chambers 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. 1872 A. Domett Ranolf. xiii. iv. 213 The crimson-billed porphyrio, that jerking struts among the cool thick rushes. 1890 Victorian 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. 1894 Newton 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.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 in Funk's Stand. Dict. |