cockatrice
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calcātrīx (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calcō (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cockatrice (plural cockatrices)
- (mythology) A legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics.
- c. 1910, Joseph Walker McSpadden, The Spell of Egypt:
- “Peace reigns in happy Luxor. The lion lies down with the lamb, and the child, if it will, may harmlessly put its hand into the cockatrice’s den.”
- (obsolete) Mistress, harlot.
- (fantasy, folklore) A snake or serpent that appears to be hatched from a rooster, or cock's, egg.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 8:17:
- For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
- (speculated) The cobra. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (obsolete, figurative) Any venomous or deadly thing.
- 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
- this little cockatrice of a king
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]legendary creature
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- For meaning "mistress": 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes
- For meaning "a snake of a chicken's egg:" 1828, Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English language.
- For "cobra:" an article, “Cockatrice” or “Adder” in Isaiah 11:8 et al.?
Further reading
[edit]cockatrice on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
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- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Mythology
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Fantasy
- en:Folklore
- en:Heraldic charges
- en:Mythological creatures
- en:Snakes