different between serpent vs ouroboros

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French serpent (“snake, serpent”), from Latin serp?ns (“snake”), from the verb serp? (“I creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp-.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s??p?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?p?nt/
• Hyphenation: ser?pent

Noun

serpent (plural serpents)

1. A snake.
2. (music) An obsolete wind instrument in the brass family, whose shape is suggestive of a snake (Wikipedia article).
3. (figuratively) A subtle, treacherous, malicious person.
4. A kind of firework with a serpentine motion.

Derived terms

• serpentarium
• serpenticide

Related terms

• serpentine
• Old Serpent
• serpentist

Translations

Verb

serpent (third-person singular simple present serpents, present participle serpenting, simple past and past participle serpented)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To wind or meander
2. (obsolete, transitive) To encircle.

See also

• herpetology
• lizard
• reptile
• snake

Anagrams

• penster, present, repents, respent

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin serp?ns, serpentem, from serp? (“crawl, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp-.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /s???pent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /s?r?pen/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /se??pent/

Noun

serpent m or f (plural serpents)

1. snake

Synonyms

• serp

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch serpent, from Old French serpent (“snake, serpent”), from Latin serp?ns (“snake”), from the verb serp? (“I creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?r?p?nt/
• Hyphenation: ser?pent
• Rhymes: -?nt

Noun

serpent n or f or m (plural serpenten, diminutive serpentje n)

1. (formal, dated) snake

   Synonym: slang

2. (formal) serpent, serpentine dragon, large snake

   Synonym: slang

3. an unpleasant, spiteful or foulmouthed person, especially used of women

   Synonym: slang

Noun

serpent f (plural serpenten, diminutive serpentje n)

1. (music) serpent (wind instrument)

Descendants

• ? West Frisian: serpint

Anagrams

• persten, strepen

French

Etymology

From Middle French serpent, from Old French serpent, from Latin serpentem, accusative form of serp?ns, from serp? (“crawl, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??.p??/

Noun

serpent m (plural serpents)

1. snake

Derived terms

Further reading

• “serpent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• présent

Latin

Verb

serpent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of serp?

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French serpent, from Latin serpentem, accusative singular form of serp?ns.

Noun

serpent m (plural serpenz)

1. snake

Descendants

• French: serpent

Old French

Etymology

From Latin serp?ns, serpentem.

Noun

serpent m (oblique plural serpenz or serpentz, nominative singular serpenz or serpentz, nominative plural serpent)

1. snake

Descendants

• Middle French: serpent
  • French: serpent
• Walloon: sierpint
• ? English: serpent
• ? Dutch: serpent

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Vallader) serpaint

Etymology

From Latin serp?ns, serpentem.

Noun

serpent m (plural serpents)

1. (Surmiran) snake

Synonyms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) serp
• (Sursilvan) siarp
• (Sutsilvan) zearp
• (Surmiran) zerp

English

Alternative forms

• uroboros

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????????? (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”), a compound of ???? (ourá, “tail”) + -????? (-bóros, “-devouring”), which is derived from the verb ???????? (bibr?sk?, “to eat up”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /u??r?b??r?s/, /?u?r??b?r?s/
• enPR: o?o-r?b??-r?s, o?o-r?-b?r?-?s

Noun

ouroboros (plural ouroboroi or ouroboroses)

1. (mythology) A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death.
   • 2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 121:

     One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient.

2. A picture or symbol thereof.
   • 2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge (?ISBN)

     First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […]

Translations

See also

• autocannibalism

Further reading

• ouroboros on Wikipedia.Wikipedia