cormorant means voracious; aggressively greedy. It carries an Arena rating of 1684, earned across 79 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cormorant ranks #487 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #641 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,703 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,723 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
cormorant is pronounced /ˈkɔːməɹənt/.
Why “cormorant” is a great word
CORMORANT — [Noun, Adjective] A diving seabird with dark plumage, or, figuratively, a being defined by an insatiable, rapacious appetite. From Middle English *cormeraunt*, from Old French *cormaran*, likely a variant from Medieval Latin *corvus marīnus* ("sea-raven"), from Latin *corvus* ("raven") and *marīnus* ("of the sea"). Unlike "glutton," which suggests sluggish overindulgence, or "raptor," which denotes an airborne hunter, the cormorant embodies a submerged, relentless pursuit. It is the wet, black shape on a sun-bleached piling, wings half-spread like a tattered cloak; the sudden, oil-slick dive that leaves only a ring of ripples; the unblinking eye of the monopolist fixed on a glittering school of profit—a silhouette against the light, casting a long shadow of want.
Etymology
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 pert
adj
- Voracious; aggressively greedy.e.g.“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.” — 1830, Boston Masonic Mirror, page 398:
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).
- A voracious eater; also, a person who, or thing which, is aggressively greedy for wealth, etc.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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