corkindrill

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Corruption of "crocodile"?”)

Noun

corkindrill (plural corkindrills)

1. A mythological reptilian monster of legend, identified with the crocodile.
   • 1958, Terence White, The Once and Future King‎^[1], page 26:

     At this the bird became so nervous that it made a mess on Merlyn's head — the whole room was quite white with droppings — and flew off to perch on the farthest tip of the corkindrill's tail, out of reach.

   • 2000, Nancy Kilpatrick, Thomas Roche, Graven images‎^[2], page 119:

     Still, he did give her a good price for the creature, selling it to her under the mistaken impression that it was a corkindrill. Well, of course it was not a corkindrill, although a genuine corkindrill (another of Irene's finds) had shared its crate for approximately fifteen years.

   • 2009, Roberta A. MacAvoy, Raphael‎^[3], page 1:

     Other beasts, too, roamed at their graceful will across the landscape: the ox and the wide-horned aurochs, the slouching camelopard, the corkindrill — each animal as fat as a burgher and similarly complacent.