Crossword clues for corvus
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wikipedia
Corvus is a genus of birds including species commonly known as crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws.
Corvus may also refer to:
- Corvus (boarding device), used by ancient Roman warships
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Corvus (constellation)
- Corvus (Chinese astronomy), the same constellation as considered in traditional Chinese uranography
- Corvus (heraldry), the use of crows and ravens in heraldry
- Corvus: A Life With Birds, a 2008 non-fiction book by Esther Woolfson
- Corvus Hungary, an aircraft manufacturer
- Corvus Systems, a computer hardware manufacturer
- ASM-N-8 Corvus, United States Navy missile
- Gibson Corvus, a guitar product line
- Marcus Valerius Corvus (4th-century BC), Roman military commander and politician
- SS Corvus, a Norwegian steamship sunk by German U-boats in February 1945
- Corvus, a character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- Corvus, a character in the video game Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
- Corvus, a character in the video games Heretic and Heretic II
Corvus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means " raven" in Latin. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it depicts a raven that has been associated with the god Apollo and is perched on the back of Hydra the water snake. The four brightest stars, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Beta Corvi form a distinctive quadrilateral in the night sky.
Known as Gienah, the ageing blue giant Gamma Corvi is the brightest star in the constellation. The young star Eta Corvi has been found to have two debris disks. Two star systems have exoplanets, and a third planetary system is unconfirmed.
The corvus (meaning "crow" or "raven" in Latin) or harpago (probably the correct ancient name) was a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage.
In Chapters 1.22-4-11 of his History, Polybius describes this device as a bridge 1.2 m (4 ft) wide and 10.9 m (36 ft) long, with a small parapet on both sides. The engine was probably used in the prow of the ship, where a pole and a system of pulleys allowed the bridge to be raised and lowered. There was a heavy spike shaped as a bird's beak on the underside of the device. The spike was designed to pierce the enemy ship's deck when the boarding-bridge was lowered. This allowed a firm grip between the vessels and a route for the legionaries to cross to the other ship.
In the 3rd century BC, Rome was not a naval power, and had little or no experience in war at sea. Before the First Punic War, the Roman Republic had not campaigned outside the Italian Peninsula. The Republic's military strength was on land, and her greatest assets were the discipline and courage of her soldiers. The boarding-bridge allowed her to use her marines against the superior Carthaginian naval skills. The Romans' application of boarding tactics worked; they won several battles, most notably those of Mylae, Sulci, Tyndaris, and Ecnomus.
Despite its advantages, the boarding bridge had a serious drawback: it could not be used in rough seas since the stable connection of two working ships endangered each other's structure. Operating in rough seas, the device became useless and was abandoned. According to Bonebaker, Professor of Naval Architecture at Delft, with the estimated weight of one ton for the boarding bridge, it is "most probable that the stability of a quinquereme with a displacement of about would not be seriously upset".
Some other historians believe that its weight on the prow compromised the ship's navigability and the Romans lost almost two entire fleets to storms in 255 and in 249 BC, largely due to the instability caused by the device. These losses were probably the main reason for the abandonment of the boarding-bridge in ship design by the end of the war. As Roman naval tactics improved and the Roman crews became more experienced, the boarding-bridge was no longer used in battle. It is not mentioned in period sources after the battle of Ecnomus and apparently the Battle of the Aegates Islands that decided the first Punic war was won without it.
A variant of the boarding bridge, called arpax or harpax, was used in the Battle of Naulochus.
According to traditional Chinese uranography, the modern constellation Corvus is located within the southern quadrant of the sky, which is symbolized as the Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què).
The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 烏鴉座 (wū yā zuò), meaning "the crow constellation".
Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. The genus includes species commonly known as crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws; there is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", and these appellations have been assigned to different species chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller than ravens. In Europe, the word "crow" is used to refer to the carrion crow or the hooded crow, while in North America, it is used for the American crow, fish crow, or the northwestern crow.
Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-sized jackdaws ( Eurasian and Daurian) to the common raven of the Holarctic region and thick-billed raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 45 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents except South America, and several islands. The crow genus makes up a third of the species in the family Corvidae. The members appear to have evolved in Asia from the corvid stock, which had evolved in Australia. The collective name for a group of crows is a 'flock' or a 'murder'. The genus name is Latin for "raven".
Recent research has found some crow species capable of not only tool use, but also tool construction. Crows are now considered to be among the world's most intelligent animals with an encephalization quotient equal to that of many non-human primates.
In medieval times, crows were thought to live abnormally long lives. They were also thought to be monogamous throughout their long lives. They were thought to predict the future, to predict rain and reveal ambushes. Crows were also thought to lead flocks of storks while they crossed the sea to Asia.
The genus Corvus the true crows, and ravens are indistinguishable in use and appearance in heraldry, and are depicted with hairy feathers and close by default.
A crow speaking will have its mouth agape or open as if it were speaking. Crows may also be called corbies, as in the canting arms of Corbet, c. 1312.
The Cornish chough is also depicted in heraldry, but is only distinguishable if proper, meaning depicted as black with red beak and feet. For canting purposes, the Cornish chough is sometimes called a beckit. County Dublin in Ireland, Lisbon, the capital of Portugal as well as the city of Moss in Norway have crows in their coats-of-arms.
The Hungarian family Hunyadi also used the raven in their coats of arms. Matthias Corvinus of Hungary named his famous library ( Bibliotheca Corviniana) after the bird. It might have inspired the uniform and name of his mercenary army ( Black Army of Hungary), and his illegitimate son, János Corvinus also wore the bird's name.
The Corbet (Corbel, Corby, Corbe) family from the Channel Islands are also names having been corrupted over time from the Latin word corvus.
Usage examples of "corvus".
A moment later Corvus arrested him with a firm hand on his shoulder, a squeeze that was just a little too sharp to be affectionate.
It was a show, Corvus knew: underneath the genteel exterior was a man with all the refinement and sensitivity of a ferret.
As she examined some of the images she had taken earlier for Corvus, she noticed something significant: many of the cells in which the particles appeared were elongated.
Iain Corvus, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
If Corvus heard yearning in the question, he had the decency not to show it.
Quintus Valerius Corvus, prefect of the Ala Quinta Gallorum - or I will be when it is fully formed.
Wine was a habit he had come to late and only in small quantities but it warmed him now and he would not have done Corvus the dishonour of turning him down.
By the last days of autumn, when Corvus led his men and their long strings of new mounts into the cavalry stockade at Moguntiacum, the legions were buzzing.
Half a heartbeat behind, Galba, Corvus and the attending clerks laughed with him.
Only Corvus had colour - in his eyes and the flush on his cheeks and the scarlet plumes on his parade helmet.
Peripherally, he became aware of movement at the bridges, of Corvus crossing the upper bridge behind Galba, riding in a knot of prefects and tribunes, of the Praetorian Guard preparing to cross the central bridge on foot surrounding the mounted dazzle of gold and white that was the emperor.
He thought maybe Corvus, but his ears had slurred the language until all Romans sounded the same.
Men of the II nd Augusta had found the body and one of their junior tribunes read the charge: that during the first watch of the night, the accused, Julius Valerius Corvus, did loose his horse, a pied colt known for its unstable temperament, and did set it to kill one Amminios, son of Cunobelinos, against whom he was known to hold a grudge, this man being under the protection and care of his most noble majesty the Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus.
They had slipped into it from the Latin as Corvus opened the shutters and Ban had not noticed.
Through the noise, he heard Corvus, speaking carefully in the measured, thoughtful tones he used before manoeuvres.