Word of the Day:

: of or relating to the crows : resembling a crow

"Many residents of cities along the Pomona and San Bernardino freeways say, yes, indeed, they've noticed an increase in their corvine neighbors." (Edmund Newton, Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1989)

Few people crow about "corvine" -- it's not often you'll come across the word -- but it has been part of the English language since the mid-17th century. Like most taxonomic terms, "corvine" has a purely Latin pedigree. "Corvine" is from Latin "corvinus," which in turn is from Latin "corvus," meaning "raven." (The word "raven" itself is from the Old English term "hræfn," which is akin to "hraban," the Old High German word for "raven," and also to "corvus.") Another word from "corvus" is "cormorant," which refers to a dark-colored seabird and comes from Old French words meaning "raven" and "of the sea."