cormorant

From Middle English cormeraunt (“great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo); other types of aquatic bird”) , from Old French cormaran, cor-maraunt  (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’).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːməɹənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹməɹənt/, (sometimes) /-ˌænt/, (rare) /ˈkɔɹmɹənt/
• (Southern US, dated) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑm(ə)ɹənt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cor‧mor‧ant

cormorant (plural cormorants)

1. 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).

   Synonyms: (obsolete) corvorant, (UK dialectal) norie, sea crow, sea raven

   • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; , London: Tho Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, , →OCLC, 1st part, page 27:

     Th' Eele-murthering Hearne, and greedy Cormorant, / That neare the Creekes in moriſh Marſhes haunt.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 194-196:

     Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, / The middle Tree and higheſt there that grew, / Sat like a Cormorant;

   • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC, page 170, lines 144–145:

     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, 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 , chapter XIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC, 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, chapter IX, 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 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.

2. (figuratively, also attributively, archaic) 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 M Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E P Dutton & Co, published , →OCLC, 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), , The Tragedie of King Richard the Second.  (First Quarto), London: Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, , published 1597, →OCLC, :

     VVith eagre feeding foode doth choke the feeder, / Light vanitie inſatiate cormorant, / Conſuming meanes ſoone praies vpon it ſelfe:

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere , A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost.  (First Quarto), London: W W for Cutbert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W Griggs, , , →OCLC, :

     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, / Thendeavour 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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 H for Daniel Frere, , →OCLC, page 145:

     Surfetters, and Cormorants he compared to beasts voyd of reason.

     Although Raleigh is named as the author on the title page of the work, it is doubted that he is the author.

   • 1693, Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. , 2nd edition, London: Peter Buck, , →OCLC, Act 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 , “Of the Various Success of the Law-Suit”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. , London: John Morphew, , →OCLC, page 11:

     Law is a Bottomleſs-Pit, it is a Cormorant, a Harpy, that devours every thing;

   • 1725, Homer, “Book I”, in , transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume I, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 26, lines 207–210:

     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.

   • 1842, , chapter LIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 126:

     She had discovered, within a short time, that doctors were not the cormorants (often ignorant, but always insatiable) she had supposed them to be, and that certain causes produced certain effects;...

cormorant (comparative more cormorant, superlative most cormorant)

1. (archaic) Voracious; aggressively greedy.
   • 1830, Boston Masonic Mirror, page 398:

     Anti-masonry is as cormorant as death, and will not be satisfied though one half the human race be immolated to appease its infernal appetite.

   • 1842, Weekly Globe, page 261:

     ... the victims of fanaticism who frequent Exeter Hall, to be plucked by tax gatherers more cormorant than your own excise-men at home?

• phalacrocoracid
• shag

• cormorant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Category:Phalacrocoracidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
  • Phalacrocoracidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies