2321: cormorants & corvids Apr 26, 2021

Cormorants are not corvids, and yet the name for this bird comes from the Latin 'corvus marinus' meaning 'sea raven'. 'Corvus' led to the word 'corvid' denoting the family of crows, ravens, jays, and so on, but this is not the only linguistic similarity to taxonomically distant birds. For one thing, 'cormorant' as an adjective is a synonym of 'ravenous' which of course comes from 'raven' as both birds are known for eating a lot, voraciously.

'Corvus' (Latin for 'raven') led to the word 'corvid' denoting the family of crows, ravens, jays, and so on, but is not related to 'crow' directly, despite any semantic and phonetic similarities. That said, it is believed that the names for both crows and ravens are both ultimately from onomatopoeias based off the calls they make.