wyvern : Merriam-Websters Word of the Day for August 11, 2014 is: wyvern • \WYE-vern\ • noun : a mythical animal usually represented as a 2-legged winged creature resembling a dragon Examples: Symbols commonly used in heraldry include a number of mythical creatures, among them the winged wyvern. Wyverns keep a silent watch over the people of Leicester from rooftops and steeples across the city. Their coiled, winged bodies, part serpent part dragon, have been entwined in our ancient history for hundreds of years. — Leicester Mercury (United Kingdom), June 13, 2014 Did you know? Wyverns are often depicted as having the tail of a viper—a venomous snake—and that fact is reflected in the etymology of wyvern: it comes ultimately from the Latin word vipera, which means viper. (Vipera is also, of course, the source of our word viper.) The creature the wyvern most closely resembles, however, is the also-mythical dragon. Dragon is a much older word—it has been in use since the 13th century, while wyvern dates to the early 17th—but it too has snakes in its history. The word originally referred not to the lizard-like creature we imagine today but to a huge serpent. (j.mp/1B7SLIX) - August 11, 2014 at 01:00AM
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 05:23:49 +0000
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