cormorant
/ˈkɔɹməɹənt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.34 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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).
Example Sentences
- "Th' Eele-murthering Hearne, and greedy Cormorant, / That neare the Creekes in moriſh Marſhes haunt."
- "Thence up he [Satan] flew, and on the Tree of Life, / The middle Tree and higheſt there that grew, / Sat like a Cormorant; […]"
- "The cormorant on high / VVheels from the deep, and ſcreams along the land."
- "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."
- "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; […]"
- "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."
Etymology
PIE word *ḱorh₂wós From Middle English cormeraunt (“great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo); other types of aquatic bird”) [and other forms], 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. 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 * Catalan corbmari * Occitan corpmari * Portuguese corvomarinho
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɔɹməɹənt/
- British English: /ˈkɔːməɹənt/