cormorant
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
| PIE word |
|---|
| *ḱorh₂wós |
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From Middle English cormeraunt (“great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo); other types of aquatic bird”) [and other forms],[1] from Old French cormaran, cor-maraunt [and other forms] (modern French cormoran), possibly variants of *corp-marin, from Medieval Latin corvus marīnus (literally “sea-raven”), with the ending -morant possibly derived from French moran (“marine, maritime”), from Breton mor (“sea”), with -an corrupted in English to -ant.[2] Latin corvus is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂wós (“raven”), which is imitative of the harsh cry of the bird; while marīnus (“of or pertaining to the sea, marine”) is from Latin mare (“sea”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *móri (“sea; standing water”), possibly from *mer- (“sea; lake; wetland”)) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
cognates
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɔːməɹənt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɔɹməɹənt/
Audio (GA) (file) - Hyphenation: cor‧mor‧ant
NounEdit
cormorant (plural cormorants)
- Any of various medium-large black seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae which dive into water for fish and other aquatic animals, found throughout the world except for islands in the centre of the Pacific Ocean; specifically, the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 194-196:
- Thence up he [Satan] flew, and on the Tree of Life, / The middle Tree and higheſt there that grew, / Sat like a Cormorant; […]
- 1726, James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, OCLC 642619686, lines 144–145, page 170:
- The cormorant on high / VVheels from the deep, and ſcreams along the land.
- 1839, Charles Darwin, chapter XII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 228675426, footnote †, page 256:
- I may mention, that I one day observed a cormorant playing with a fish which it had caught. Eight times successively the bird let its prey go, then dived after it, and although in deep water, brought it each time to the surface. […] I do not know of any other instance where dame Nature appears so wilfully cruel.
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], OCLC 3163777, page 242:
- These pictures were in water colours. […] One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam; […]
- 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter IX, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, OCLC 688657546, page 117:
- The strong air would soon restore Jonathan; it has quite restored me. I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well.
- 1987, Nadine Gordimer, “Intelligence”, in A Sport of Nature […] (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 139:
- A man was swimming out towards them, his flailing arms black and defined in the heat-hazy radiance as the wings of a cormorant that skimmed the water.
- (figuratively, also attributively, archaic or obsolete) A voracious eater; also, a person who, or thing which, is aggressively greedy for wealth, etc.
- (voracious eater): Synonyms: glutton; see also Thesaurus:glutton
- 1531, Thomas Elyot, “Of Sobrietie in Diete”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], OCLC 1026313858, 3rd book, page 265:
- In lyke maner who will nat haue in extreme detestation the insatiable gloteny of Vitellius, Fabius Gurges, Apicius, and dyuers other, to whiche carmorantes, neither lande, water, ne ayre, mought be sufficient.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, OCLC 213833262, [Act II, scene i]:
- VVith eagre feeding foode doth choke the feeder, / Light vanitie inſatiate cormorant, / Conſuming meanes ſoone praies vpon it ſelfe: […]
- c. 1595–1596, W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, OCLC 61366361; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], OCLC 1154977408, [Act I, scene i]:
- Let Fame, that all hunt after in their lyues, / Liue regiſtred vpon our brazen Tombes, / And then grace vs, in the diſgrace of death: / VVhen ſpight of cormorant deuouring Time, / Th[']endeavour of this preſent breath may buy: / That honour vvhich ſhall bate his ſythes keene edge, / And make vs heires of all eternitie.
- c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 2, column 1:
- Should by the Cormorant belly be reſtrain'd, / VVho is the ſinke a th'body.
- 1637, attributed to Walter Raleigh, The Life and Death of Mahomet, the Conquest of Spaine, together with the Rysing and Ruine of the Sarazen Empire, London: […] R[alph] H[odgkinson] for Daniel Frere, […], OCLC 504366114, page 145:
- Surfetters, and Cormorants he compared to beasts voyd of reason.
- 1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Peter Buck, […], OCLC 316362426, Act IV, scene i, page 4:
- VVhy, vvhat a Cormorant in Love am I! vvho not contented vvith the ſlavery of honourable Love in one place, and the pleaſure of enjoying ſome half a ſcore Miſtreſſes of my ovvn acquiring; muſt yet take Vainlove’s Buſineſs upon my hands, becauſe it lay too heavy upon his: […]
- 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “Of the Various Success of the Law-Suit”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], OCLC 1083345579, page 11:
- Law is a Bottomleſs-Pit, it is a Cormorant, a Harpy, that devours every thing; […]
- 1725, Homer; [Elijah Fenton], transl., “Book I”, in The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, OCLC 8736646, lines 207–210, page 26:
- His treaſur’d ſtores theſe Cormorants conſume, / VVhoſe bones, defrauded of a regal tomb / And common turf, lie naked on the plain, / Or doom’d to vvelter in the vvhelming main.
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
seabird of the family Phalacrocoracidae
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voracious eater — see glutton
person who, or thing which, is aggressively greedy for wealth, etc.
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “cormeraunt, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “cormorant, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “cormorant, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
Further readingEdit
cormorant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Phalacrocoracidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons 
Phalacrocoracidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
