different between wyrm vs wyvern

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English wyrm. Doublet of worm, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??m/
• (US) enPR: wûrm, IPA^(key): /w?m/

Noun

wyrm (plural wyrms)

1. (mythology, fantasy) A huge limbless and wingless dragon or dragon-like creature.
2. A sea serpent.

See also

• Jörmungandr
• sea serpent
• worm

Middle English

Noun

wyrm

1. Alternative form of worm

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr?mis. Cognate with Old Frisian wirm, Old Saxon wurm (Dutch worm), Old High German wurm (German Wurm), Old Norse ormr (Swedish orm (“serpent”)), Gothic ???????????????????????? (waurms, “worm, serpent”). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian varmas (“midge”), Old East Slavic ?????? (vermie, “locusts, worms”), Ancient Greek ????? (rhómos, “earthworm”) (originally *?????? (wrámos)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wyrm/, [wyr?m]

Noun

wyrm m (plural wyrmas)

1. creeping insect; maggot, grub, worm
2. snake, dragon

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Middle English: worm, werm, wirm, wurm, wyrm, wyrme, wrim, worme
  • English: worm
  • Scots: worm, wirm
• ? English: wyrm

References

• On-line Anglo-Saxon dictionary
• The Western Dragon

English

Alternative forms

• wivern
• wiver

Etymology

Alteration of Middle English wyver (“viper”), borrowed from Old Northern French wivre, from Latin v?pera (“viper; snake, serpent”). Doublet of weever and viper.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?'v?(r)n, w?'v?(r)n, IPA^(key): /?wa?v?(?)n/, /?w?v?(?)n/
• Rhymes: -a?v?(?)n, -?v?(?)n

Noun

wyvern (plural wyverns)

1. (heraldry, mythology, fantasy) A draconian creature possessing wings, only two legs and usually a barbed tail.
   • 1940-54 The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry, "WE SIT UNHACKLED DRUNK AND MAD TO EDIT", UBC Press,1992, p.222:

     Notions of freedom are tied up in drink / Our ideal life contains a tavern / Where man may sit and talk of or just think / All without fear of the nighted wyvern, / Or yet another tavern where it appears.

Translations

See also

• dragon
• drake
• wyrm