corviform

English

Etymology

From Latin corvus (“raven”) + -iform.

Adjective

corviform (comparative more corviform, superlative most corviform)

1. (rare) Resembling a crow or raven; corvine.
   • 1890, “Oriolidæ”, in William Dwight Whitney, editor, The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 4156, column 1:

     A family of corviform oscine passerine birds, typified by the genus Oriolus; the Old World orioles or golden thrushes: so called from the characteristic yellow color of the plumage.

   • 1994, Michael Swanwick, “In the Tradition...”, in Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, editors, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighth Annual Collection, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 277:

     Miss Flees and her toady Peebles, the choleric MacWilt, the occasionally corviform Dr. Brown, and the rest, are hideous and malignant creatures all, and prey to their own craven, violent, and envious natures.

   • 2012 December, Michael Strevens, “The Explanatory Role of Irreducible Properties”, in Noûs, volume XLVI, number 4, Boston, M.A., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 759:

     It is not sufficient because it is possible (indeed, quite likely) that the machinery determining raven blackness is identical in all important respects to the machinery determining the blackness of other species in the genus Corvus, for example, the carrion crow—thus that carrion crows as well as ravens have P. (Or more securely if less ornithologically: there might be some corviform life forms on another planet that have P; they would not thereby qualify as ravens.)

See also

• curviform

 

References

• “corviform”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.