Etymograph

English

corvus

Corvus comes from Latin corvus ‘crow’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂wós.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱorh₂wós1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korwos1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorvus2‘crow’
  4. Englishtodaycorvus2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin corvus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English corvus

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱorh₂wósWiktionary, Latin corvusreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korwosWiktionary, Latin corvusreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorvusWiktionary, English corvus‘crow’
  4. EnglishtodaycorvusWiktionary, English corvus

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *korwos

curve, curb, 19 more

Today it means

noun A hooked ram for destroying walls.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “corvus”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin corvus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂wós / corvus

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