viper

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who is considered dangerous

   The jail cell was full of vipers.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Viper derives from Latin elements related to vivus ‘alive’ and parere ‘to bring forth’. The name refers to the fact that some vipers are viviparous, producing live young after their eggs hatch inside the parent’s body.

From Middle French vipere, from Old French vipre, from Latin vīpera, contracted from vīvipara f (“viviparous”, adj.), from vīvus (“alive”, adj.) + parere (“to bear”, verb). Doublet of weever and wyvern.

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