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[ohn] 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?
- 1990 December 16, Gianni Comes, “Not Just Homophobia”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 4:
- Then there's the heterosexual, open-mined [sic] entourage who loves us dearly and are our best friends. They laugh at our humor and understand our sorrow. For they are rare and unique in prison. But the vipers always ruin things. They refer to our straight friends as "Closet-Cases," "Undercovers," and "Flip-Floppers."
- (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]- “viper n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
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