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corm

noun — 2 senses

corm

noun

Etymology From scientific Latin cormus, from Ancient Greek κορμός (kormós, “trunk stripped of its boughs”).

1

A short, vertical, swollen, underground stem of a plant (usually one of the monocots) that serves as a storage organ to enable the plant to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as drought.

  • The saffron crocus has to be planted by hand from corms.2002, Victoria Finlay, Colour, Sceptre, published 2003, page 268:
Derived terms
cormel, cormlet, cormlike, cormogen, cormogenesis, cormogenic, cormosphere, cormous, microcorm, protocorm
Related terms
cormoid, cormus

corm

noun

Etymology Clipping of cormorant.

1

Informal A cormorant.

  • "Great Corm on the barge—fifth bird from the left," shouted a fourth.1992, Pete Dunne, chapter 9, in The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year, Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 135:
  • These “islands” would provide refuge for corms and other seabirds from sea level rise as habitat is destroyed, as well as protection from land-based predators—people, dogs, cats, rats, and cars.2017 March 28, Mark Rauzon, “The Old Bay Bridge Is Coming Down, Leaving a 40-Year-Old Cormorant Colony Adrift”, in Bay Nature, Spring 2017, archived from the original on 19 May 2024:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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