Category:Cormorant

Cor`mo*rant (kr"m-rant), n. Etym: [F. cormoran, fr. Armor. m a sea raven; m sea + bran raven, with cor, equiv. to L. corvus raven, pleonastically prefixed; or perh. fr. L. corvus marinus sea raven.]

1. (Zoöl.)

Defn: Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese. [Written also corvorant.]

2. A voracious eater; a glutton, or gluttonous servant. B. Jonson.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Cormorant - (Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:17), Heb. shalak, "plunging," or "darting down (the Phalacrocorax carbo), ranked among the "unclean" birds; of the same family group as the pelican. It is a "plunging" bird, and is common on the coasts and the island seas of Palestine. Some think the Hebrew word should be rendered "gannet" (Sula bassana, "the solan goose"); others that it is the "tern" or "sea swallow," which also frequents the coasts of Palestine as well as the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan valley during several months of the year. But there is no reason to depart from the ordinary rendering. In Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14 (but in R.V., "pelican") the Hebrew word rendered by this name is ka'ath. It is translated "pelican" (q.v.) in Psalms 102:6. The word literally means the "vomiter," and the pelican is so called from its vomiting the shells and other things which it has voraciously swallowed. (See .)