The bird is the word

I subscribe to a daily email known as "a.word.a.day" from Wordsmith.org.  To the end of my days, I will remain devoted to a lifelong habit of jamming more information into my cranium, for purposes yet to be determined.

The other day there came a new term, one I had never heard before. Are you familiar with the term "corbie-messenger"?

Here's what the email says about "corbie-messenger":

MEANING:
noun: A messenger who does not arrive or return in time.

ETYMOLOGY:
noun: From allusion to the crow that Noah had sent out from his ark. From corbin (raven), from Old French corbin, from Latin corvus (raven, crow). Earliest documented use: 1525.

NOTES:

In the Bible, after months of floating around, Noah has his ark parked on Mt. Ararat. He picks a raven from his menagerie to go scout the scene. The bird never returns. Then Noah picks a dove and the dove does dutifully return.

Sorry, neither of us get credit for thinking that a Corbie-messenger is the person who delivers your Joe Corbi pizza order. (For those not in the Central Maryland area, Joe Corbi sells a line of pizza and cookie dough kits that are sold for fundraising purposes by schools, scout troops, and what-have-you. For the record, their food is not bad at all, but please don't send little Abercrombie or Heloise to my door peddling it, because our freezer is full from last year.)

So, back to the Bible. Noah sends a raven to carry the message for him and the raven fails to carry out his mission. Those of you who are football fans are aware that the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL are currently flying quite high, having a great season, led by second-year quarterback and Most Valuable Player candidate Lamar Jackson.

Jackson came out of college football with the Heisman trophy, awarded to the best college player every year, and yet there were people who doubted that he was qualified to be a professional quarterback. "He's a running back at best," said the People Who Know These Things.

Jackson has been carrying the message that he is, in fact, "good enough" for the last nine weeks. And I think the word is getting across nicely.

I'm going to try to find a way to work the term "corbie-messenger" into some conversation all day!