STOP! Don’t read any further until you take a quick guess at what coracine means. Got your guess ready? I never would have guessed that this Middle English adjective meant “Black as a raven.” See the Middle English Dictionary. The closest modern English word that I can think of, which resembles coracine is carotiene, as in Beta Carotiene. Carotiene is a vivid red/orange color, just about as far from black as white. Corroded also comes to mind, but that’s a verb, and while it may have roots in Latin which tie it to coracine I wouldn’t have guessed that either.
To give you a sense of how coracine was used in Middle English here’s a quote from a medieval translation of Palladius. “Picche corotyne uphanged in the tre ffor auntys.” I tried to search for auntys in the Middle English Dictionary and did not come up with an entry. I suspect auntys may beequivalent with modern, aunties. If so, I really want to know why the pitch-black thing (it is not named in the quote) is hanging in the tree for the aunties? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. The wilder the better. 
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