viper
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle French vipere, from Old French vipre, from Latin vīpera, contracted from vīvipara f (“viviparous”, adj.), from vivus (“alive”, adj.) + parere (“to bear”, verb). Doublet of weever and wyvern.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]viper (plural vipers)
- A venomous snake in the family Viperidae.
- Synonym: adder
- (informal) Any venomous snake.
- (figurative) A dangerous, treacherous, or malignant person.
- 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 62:
- And aggravate my folly who committed / To ſuch a viper his moſt ſacred truſt / Of ſecreſie, my ſafety, and my life.
- 1879, Francis Beaumont, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher: The Text Formed from a New Collation of the Early Editions, Volume 1, D. Appleton, page 350:
- Consider, for the love of Heaven, to what you run madly: will you take this viper into your bed?
- (slang) A person who smokes marijuana.
- a. 1936, Stuff Smith (lyrics and music), “If You're a Viper”:
- Dreamed about a reefer five feet long / Mighty Mezz, but not too strong / You'll be high but not for long / If you're a viper
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:viper.
Derived terms
[edit]- blunt-nosed viper
- carpet viper
- chain viper
- dilute Russell's viper venom time
- Gabon viper
- Gaboon viper
- gaboon viper
- green pit viper
- horned viper
- lowlands hump-nosed pit viper
- Nikolsky's viper
- nourish a viper in one's bosom
- pitless viper
- pit viper
- red viper (Agkistrodon contortrix)
- Russell's viper
- Russell's viper venom clotting time
- Russell's viper venom time
- sand viper
- shore pit viper
- temple viper
- viperfish (Chauliodus spp.)
- viperish
- viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare)
- viper's grass
Translations
[edit]a poisonous snake in the family Viperidae
|
adder — see adder
Further reading
[edit]- Jonathon Green (2024) “viper n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeyh₃-
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aɪpə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/aɪpə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English informal terms
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- en:Vipers