loomery means A breeding colony of guillemots (seabirds of the genus Uria) or other auks, typically densely packed on a sea cliff; the cliff or ledges on which such seabirds breed.
loomery is pronounced /ˈluːməɹi/.
Why “loomery” is a great word
A densely packed breeding colony of guillemots or other auks massed upon a sea cliff, or the ledges themselves that host them. From the dialectal English word 'loom' (meaning 'guillemot' or 'diver') plus the suffix '-ery' (denoting a place or collection), on the model of words like 'rookery'; first attested in 1859 in the Arctic narrative of Francis Leopold McClintock. Unlike a 'rookery,' which denotes colonies of rooks, crows, or penguins, or the generic 'colony,' which lacks its precise ornithological and topographic force, a loomery is a specific, vertical clamor. It is the ammoniac reek of thousands of birds on a guano-whitened precipice, a tapestry of black and white bodies etched against grey rock, and the ceaseless, rasping cries in air thick with salt tang—a stubborn assertion of life on the very edge of the abyss, where survival depends on not having space to fall.
Etymology
From loom (“guillemot, diver”) + -ery, with -ery in the sense of a place or a collection, on the model of rookery. First attested in the 1859 Arctic narrative of Francis Leopold McClintock.
noun
- A breeding colony of guillemots (seabirds of the genus Uria) or other auks, typically densely packed on a sea cliff; the cliff or ledges on which such seabirds breed.e.g.“There is a very extensive loomery at Cape Hay; we regret the circumstances which prevent our levying a tax upon it.” — 1859, Francis Leopold McClintock, The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas, London: John Murray, page 147:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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