snake

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A long, legless reptile with a thin body and a forked tongue.

   A green snake slid quietly through the grass.

2. 2
   noun

   A person who behaves in a dishonest, disloyal way for their own gain.

   Don't trust him; he's a real snake.

3. 3
   verb

   To move or follow a long, winding path.

   The narrow road snaked through the mountains.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Snake descends from an ancient Germanic word meaning “to crawl or creep,” referring to the animal’s legless movement along the ground. Serpent has a similar origin, coming from Latin serpere, which also meant “to crawl or creep.”

From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic *snakō (“slider, snake”), from *snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”). Cognate with German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Danish snog (“grass snake”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk snåk (“viper, adder”), Faroese snákur (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary