Word of the Day

Tuesday, December 19, 2000

cormorant

\KOR-mur-unt; -muh-rant\ , noun;

Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese.

A gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.

Read the full entry|See synonyms|Comment on today's word|Suggest tomorrow's word

Quotes:

Coleridge was precocious and from the first displayed a voracious appetite for books. He later characterised himself as "a library cormorant."

-- Kathleen Jones, A Passionate Sisterhood

Anthony regarded Northwick as a 'cormorant who was eating us up'.

-- Richard Mullen, "Trollope and the Pious Slippers of Cheltenham", Contemporary Review, February 2001

Origin:

Cormorant comes from Old French cormareng, "raven of the sea," from corb, "raven" (from Latin corvus) + marenc, "of the sea" (from Latin marinus, from mare, "sea").