Muscicapid
/ˌmʌsɪˈkæpɪd/noun
A bird belonging to the family Muscicapidae, which includes Old World flycatchers and related birds.
Did you know?The name comes from the Latin phrase for catching flies and was formalized in scientific taxonomy through the genus Muscicapa, meaning “flycatcher.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*meus-
“A small animal, especially a mouse; an ancestral root associated with the word for fly in some later branches”
Classical Latin
Latin
musca
“Fly or gnat”
Classical Latin
Latin
capere
“To take, seize, or catch”
1760
New Latin
Muscicapa
“Flycatcher; the genus name created from musca and capere”
1825
New Latin
Muscicapidae
“The taxonomic family of flycatchers and related birds”
19th Century
English
muscicapid
“A member of the family Muscicapidae”