English
cormorant
Cormorant comes from Middle English cormeraunt ‘great cormorant’, and goes back to Old French cormaran.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400cormaran
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cormeraunt‘great cormorant’
- Englishearliest quotation 1531cormorant
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400cormaran
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cormeraunt‘great cormorant’
- Englishearliest quotation 1531cormorant
Earliest quotation: 1531, Thomas Elyot, Of Sobrietie in Diete: “In lyke maner who will nat haue in extreme…”
The story
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’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *mer- ‘to die’
remember, march, murder, marine, nightmare, mere, maritime, marsh, mare, mortality, mortal, mortar, muller, mara, moor, morbid, mortuary, ambrosia, marinate, mort, morn, maar, marinara, moribund, 61 more
Today it means
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).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French cormaran / cormorant