Corvine

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Resembling or relating to birds in the crow family ; having traits or appearance characteristic of crows, ravens, and their relatives ; pertaining to the group of passerine birds that includes crows and similar species
2. Connected to characteristics or features of members of the crow group ; referring to the qualities typical of corvid birds such as intelligence or black plumage ; belonging to or reminiscent of the crow or raven family
3. Describing things that have attributes of the crow lineage ; associated with the appearance, behavior, or qualities of crows and related birds ; indicating origin from or affinity to crows, ravens, or allied species

Etymology: "Corvine" comes straight from Latin "corvīnus", meaning "of a crow" or "of a raven", built on "corvus", the crow itself. The Latin adjective is the same kind of formation as "canine" from "canis" or "bovine" from "bos", so the English word simply takes the Latin pattern of a relational adjective attached to an animal name. That makes it a more direct borrowing than many scientific words, which tend to be assembled from older Greek and Latin pieces. The Latin root "corvus" is also the source of "corbie", the old Scots word for a crow or raven, which shows how the same Latin stem passed into the vernacular of northern Britain through a separate route. Within English, "corvine" stays firmly in the register of natural history and literary description, applied to birds and to anything that resembles them in colour or sound, such as a glossy black sheen or a harsh, croaking voice.

Synonyms: crowlike, corvid, ravine, corvineous

Antonyms: non-corvine, non-corvid