Dictionary

corm en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

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

Meanings

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:

Forms

Deriveds

cormogen · cormlet · cormel · cormous · cormlike · protocorm · cormogenesis · cormogenic · cormosphere · microcorm

Relateds

cormus · cormoid

Synonyms

bulbotuber

Translations (16)

cmn 球莖 /球茎 (underground stem of a plant) · de Wurzelknolle (underground stem of a plant) · es cormo (underground stem of a plant) · sv stamknöl (underground stem of a plant) · pl bulwocebula (underground stem of a plant) · sv jordknöl (underground stem of a plant) · uk бульбоцибули́на (underground stem of a plant) · pt cormo (underground stem of a plant) · tl kalislindigsuloy (underground stem of a plant) · bcl tanghoy (underground stem of a plant) · ota صوغان (underground stem of a plant) · bcl linsa (underground stem of a plant) · it cormo (underground stem of a plant) · fr corme (underground stem of a plant) · cs hlíza (underground stem of a plant) · fi tyvimukula (underground stem of a plant)

corm en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Clipping of cormorant.

Meanings

1. (informal) A cormorant.
   • 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:
   • "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:

Forms