crowbill

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See also: crow-bill

English

WOTD – 17 February 2024

Etymology

An 18th-century illustration of surgical instruments, with a crowbill (sense 1) shown in the bottom right corner as figure 5.
A bec de corbin or crowbill (sense 2), a type of poleaxe.

From crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”) +‎ bill (“beak of a bird”). Sense 1 (“kind of forceps”) is probably from its appearance, while sense 2 (“type of poleaxe”) is a calque of French bec de corbin (literally “crow or raven's beak”).

Pronunciation

Noun

crowbill (plural crowbills)

  2. (surgery) A kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds.
    Synonym: crow's bill
  4. (weaponry, historical) Synonym of bec de corbin (“poleaxe with a modified hammerhead and a spike mounted on the top of the pole”)

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