Corbies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Black birds of the crow family, especially the carrion crow, often associated with scavenging on battlefields and in old Scottish ballads
2. Scottish and archaic name for crows or ravens, particularly the carrion crow that feeds on dead animals
3. Large black scavenging birds of the crow family, traditionally seen as harbingers of death in Scottish poetry and folklore

Etymology: "Corbies" is the plural of "corbie", a Scots word for the carrion crow or raven. It came into Scots and English from Middle French "corbeau", which descends from Old French forms such as "corb" and "corbel", themselves traced back to the Late Latin "corbellus" and the Latin "corvus", meaning raven. The word therefore carries the same ancient bird name that also gave us "corvid" and the French "corbeau" for crow. The form "corbie" reflects a French-influenced pathway that is distinct from the native English word for the bird, "crow", which is inherited from Old English. This is why Scots writers used "corbie" for a black carrion bird long after standard English had settled on "crow" and "raven." The word appears most famously in Scottish ballads and poetry, where the birds gather on battlefields and at gallows, and the plural "corbies" is the form that readers most often meet.

Synonyms: crow, raven