CORMORANT

The Cormorant (aka Great Cormorant) ultimately derives its common English name from the medieval Latin corvus marinus or sea raven, as it is a big black bird which lives at sea. This term became, in Old French, cormarenc and then cormaran, which apparently gained an ending ‘t’ in the same way that paysan became peasant. Its genus Phalacrocorax means bald raven, presumably referring to the extensive bare skin on its face.