cobra

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of several venomous Asian or African elapid snakes that can spread the ribs of the neck to form a hood, especially a snake of the genus Naja

   The cobra raised the front of its body and spread its hood when the handler approached.

Shortened from Portuguese cobra de capelo, 'snake with a hood.' Portuguese cobra, 'snake,' descends from Latin colubra, also 'snake.' English first used the longer phrase for the hood-spreading snakes encountered in South Asia before cobra became the independent common name.

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