different between cormorant vs albatross

English

Etymology

Middle English, from Old French cormaran (modern cormoran), from Medieval Latin corvus mar?nus (literally “sea-raven”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??m???nt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??m???nt/

Noun

cormorant (plural cormorants)

1. Any of various medium-large black seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, especially the great cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 4, lines 194-196,^[1]

     Thence up he [Satan] flew, and on the Tree of Life,

     The middle Tree and highest there that grew,

     Sat like a Cormorant;

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 1, Chapter 13, p. 242,^[2]

     One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam;

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, Chapter 9, pp. 100-101,^[3]

     The strong air […] has quite restored me. I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well.

   • 1987, Nadine Gordimer, A Sport of Nature, New York: Knopf, “Intelligence,” p. 139,^[4]

     A man was swimming out towards them, his flailing arms black and defined in the heat-hazy radiance as the wings of a cormorant that skimmed the water.

2. (obsolete) A voracious eater.

   Synonym: glutton; see also Thesaurus:glutton

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II, Scene 1,^[5]

     With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:

     Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,

     Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

   • 1725, Alexander Pope (translator), The Odyssey or Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Volume 1, Book 1, pp. 13-14, lines 207-210,^[6]

     His treasur’d stores these Cormorants consume,

     Whose bones, defrauded of a regal tomb

     And common turf, lie naked on the plain,

     Or doom’d to welter in the whelming main.

Translations

Adjective

cormorant (comparative more cormorant, superlative most cormorant)

1. Ravenous, greedy.

   • Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

     Live regist'red upon our brazen tombs,

     And then grace us in the disgrace of death;

     When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,

     The endeavour of this present breath may buy

     That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,

     And make us heirs of all eternity.

See also

• shag

English

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Probably from Spanish or Portuguese alcatraz (“pelican, gannet, albatross”), probably derived from Arabic ??????????? (al-?a???s, “the diver”) (compare Alcatraz); or from Portuguese alcatruz (“water wheel bucket”), from Arabic ??????????? (al-q?d?s), from Ancient Greek ????? (kádos, “pail, jar”), in reference to the pouch of a pelican. In either case, altered under the influence of Latin albus (“white”). Not derived from modern Arabic ???????? (qa?ras, “albatross”), which is perhaps borrowed from Spanish.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/

Noun

albatross (plural albatross or albatrosses)

1. Any of various large seabirds of the family Diomedeidae ranging widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings.
2. Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as puffins.
3. (golf) A double eagle, or three under par on any one hole, except a par 3 hole.

Synonyms

• gooney bird
• gooney
• goonie

Coordinate terms

(golf):

• buzzard
• bogey
• par
• birdie
• eagle
• condor
• ostrich

Translations

Etymology 2

See albatross around one’s neck.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?æl.b??t??s/

Noun

albatross (plural albatrosses)

1. (figuratively) A long-term impediment, burden, or curse.
   • 2006 March 13, Richard Lugar, speech to the Brookings Institution,

     […] energy is the albatross of U.S. national security.

Synonyms

• albatross around one's neck

Translations

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

albatross m (definite singular albatrossen, indefinite plural albatrosser, definite plural albatrossene)

1. albatross

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

albatross m (definite singular albatrossen, indefinite plural albatrossar, definite plural albatrossane)

1. albatross

Swedish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?albatr?s/, /?albat?r?s/, /?albat?r?s/

Noun

albatross c (definite plural albatrossen, indefinite plural albatrosser, definite plural albatrosserna)

1. albatross
2. (golf) an albatross or double eagle (a score of three strokes under par for a hole)