cormoran

Forms

cormoran m (plural cormorans)^[1] Old French cormareng and cormareg (12th century), later cormorant (1379) and cormoran (1550).^[2][3] Littré notes that fishermen also said cormarin or cormaran.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cormareng, probably a compound from Old French corp (“raven”) + *marenc (“marine”).^[5][2][6][3] corp is from Latin corvus (“raven”), and the adjective is formed on Latin mare (“sea”) with the suffix -enc, which adapts a Germanic suffix in -ing.^[5][2][6] It is otherwise found only in the western dialect word pie marange “sea magpie”.^[6][2] Already in the 7th century the Reichenau Glosses have Late Latin corvum marinum “sea raven”, in which the FEW takes the second word for a Latinization of a Germanic form in -ing.^[5][2][7]

The change of the second vowel from /a/ to /o/ is explained either by assimilation to the /o/ of the first syllable, as Antoine Thomas held, or, less probably, by the influence of Breton mor (“sea”) and of the Breton name of the bird, morvran “sea raven”.^[5][2] Littré gave this Breton word a larger part, as the second half of a hybrid compound.^[4]

Compare Occitan corpmari, Catalan corbmari and Portuguese corvo marinho, which go back to the same Latin phrase.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is cormare[n]g in a 12th-century gloss, dated by Antoine Thomas, naming the cormorant.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The bird's name took its modern shape in Middle French: cormorant in 1379 and cormoran in 1550, with the final ⟨t⟩ kept in some texts until Richelet's dictionary of 1680.^[5][2] An isolated form kormoront appears in a 13th-century Hebrew–French glossary.^[5]

By analogy the word is sometimes applied to people, after the bird's hunched neck and head sunk into the shoulders, or after its use as a trained fishing bird in China and Japan, often with a pejorative value.^[5][2] Huysmans called Bossuet le cormoran de Meaux, twisting his usual title l'aigle de Meaux.^[5][2]

English cormorant is recorded from the early 14th century, taken from the Old French form; it was used of greedy people from the 1530s.^[8]

Timeline

• 1100s – Cormare[n]g appears in a gloss.^[5][2]
• 1200s – The isolated form kormoront appears in a Hebrew–French glossary.^[5]
• early 14th century – English cormorant is recorded.^[8]
• 1379 – Cormorant appears in the Modus et Ratio.^[5][2]
• 1550 – Ambroise Paré writes cormoran.^[5][2]
• 1680 – Richelet still records cormorant.^[5]
• 1837 – Balzac uses it of people.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cormorant, a dark-feathered coastal water bird with a long neck and bill that dives for fish.^[9][5][10]
2. (figurative, often pejorative) A person likened to the bird, for a hunched posture or for working as another's tool.^[5][2]

Related words

• corbeau
• mer
• Latin corvus
• English cormorant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1239b
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)